What do I love about Brussels?
I love that everywhere smells of chocolate!
It's not the most exciting or glamorous city in the world, but I guess it's the associations with people who mean a lot to me. Whenever we get together, it's always good.
I feel a real sense of otherness when I'm there, of escape from the humdrum me. It just seems friendly and tolerant, you do what you want to do, it seems to say, we'll take you as you are, if you want to work, work, if you want to play, play, that's fine with us.
It's relaxed and welcoming but with just enough reserve so that it's not in your face all the time. You expect it to be cold (metaphorically) and grey and a bit dour, but I'm always startled by how cosmopolitan it is, how laid back and faintly surreal.
Its politics are ridiculous, its weather is horrible, but it just gets on with things, it knows how to have a good time when it feels like it, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it doesn't pressure you into being one thing or another, it doesn't make you feel small because you're from out of town and you're not used to its ways.
It accepts you for who you are, and it would ask you to do the same, except that, it doesn't really mind how you take it, not in an arrogant way, just that it's your choice and it will respect that.
