Parliament, Street Art, Chocolate, Beers and Francophones

I'm going to start this blog off by taking a minute to talk about my program here in Brussels. I am fortunate to be studying here with the CIEE Study Abroad. That acronym may not seem like much but it can provide a pretty big difference in the type of experience you can have abroad. Studying through CIEE has provided me with numerous advantages that other abroad students at my school in other programs or direct enrollment do not have.

First off, CIEE takes care of your housing, which is huge. Other students at Veco came to Brussels without having a clue where they would live, and so need to go looking for an apartment immediately without any real knowledge of the city. I didn't have to deal with that.  I was assigned an apartment and I live there. Point set match.

Another advantage is that CIEE organizes several trips and activities for us. In addition to day trips to Binche and Bastogne which I have already talked about, we have several more day trips planned around the Benelux countries (that's Belgium, Netherlands & Luxembourg for those who ain't with it), a weekend trip to Alsace, France, and a variety of activities during the week that we can take part in. I have already mentioned how with the program, we have toured the Cantillon Brewery the Belgian Comic Strip Museum as well as seeing both Him and Her versions of the Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. In the past few weeks, we have been fortunate enough to tour Belgium's federal parliament, various street art of Brussels, a traditional belgian chocolatier and another brewery.



I have no pictures from the Parliament as they weren't allowed. So bear with me. Belgium's entire government system is extremely complicated from the federal down to the community level. In what may seem strange to Americans, the federal government doesn't hold much power when compared to the regional governments, of which there are 6, or 8, or well no one even in Belgium really knows. Basically, there's a lot of governments and even more political parties. Parties here win elections with like 20ish percent of the vote. But I digress, despite being the lesser of the governments, The federal parliament building is still an elaborately decorated arena with both a representative side and senator side much like the US. Each has their own elaborately designed room which we got to explore and sit in the seats of members of parliament. We found out that one of these rooms we sat in was actually used as a Nazi judicial court during the German occupation in WWII, so that was chilling. To sum up a complicated and monotonous story, Belgian government is really elaborate but federal parliament building is still cool.

We had the option to take a guided tour of some local Brussels street art with our housing director Yamina. It was only a small group of us, but I would consider us lucky to have taken part. We met outside the Palais de Justice, a notable landmark of Brussels that I had yet to visit. The Palais sits on a hill overlooking a  good portion of the city, which provided a cool but not exactly beautiful or interesting view.

Sadly, the Palais is having its main facade renovated, so there was no real chance get a picture of that. We started the tour here, as Yamina told us the story of how a few years ago, a local street artist whom she is friends with, scaled the palace and tagged its large golden dome.

Which is pretty impressive

We quickly learned that Yamina lives a double life in the street art community (hence, why she was leading the tour), and that in addition to knowing many local and European street artists, she is involved in the community herself (although she did not give us any details, I am now convinced she is Banksy). She also told us how we won't even realize how common street art is and that we don't always recognize it when we wee it, like with this Hollywood sign that was in the first picture I posted:

Brussels has its own Hollywood sign

From there we traveled through the city, getting glimpses at different forms and style of street art that has been made by both local and more renowned international artists. There was a this sticker art from a local guy:

waka waka

Murals made by local children to represent their community:

Hey Yamina

Murals with a political message:

Sorry for the pano

Art with a language only the artist can decode:

Seriously no has debunked this

Reverse Graffiti:

Do you see it?

Stencil art creeping by storefronts:

I forgot the artist's name, but the red arrows are his tag

A giant spider made by Bonom, arguably the most well known street artist in Brussels:

Roll Spides (god I hate that phrase)!

Work from other well known artists whose names escape me:

Art made from ordinary objects:

And commissioned work celebrating Brussels culture:

Manneken Peace

Yamina also pointed out a Space Invader above Manneken Pis which I had failed to notice before in my previous visits to the statue of the pissing boy. For those who haven't heard of Space Invader, watch Exit Through the Gift Shop, like now.

I should point out that the tour did not include seeing the various commissioned murals of famous Belgian comic strips which are located around the city. I hope to one day, go about looking for all of them. We did however pass a few on the tour. Here they are to help you get a feel:

Following the end of the tour, we parted with Yamina as she had to go to her warehouse/art gallery for a street artists party she was throwing that evening (I may have misheard her or combined several of the stories she told us). The rest of us, decided to stop in at one of my favorite cafes in Brussels, le Poechenellekelder. Despite its location in tourist-trap central across the street from Manneken Pis, this place is a real gem with a huge beer selection, puppets hanging from the ceiling and of some Manneken Pis memorabilia along the walls:

We also had the opportunity to visit Concept Chocolate, a small company with just a handful of employees that makes personalized traditional Belgian style pralines for companies and organizations. You can't find their stuff in retail, so you know it's exclusive.

Chocolate? I always hated it

We visited after our CIEE class on a Tuesday night. When we got to the chocolatier, we had to knock on a Medieval style castle door, before being ushered through a dark alley and into the actual facility.

It wasn't quite as trippy as this:

But still kind of freaky. Apparently chocolatier's have a penchant for dark segues (literally and figuratively). We received about a 45 minute presentation by two employees whose names escape me as it has been 2 weeks since our visit. They gave a demonstration on how their chocolate was made, showing how they took cocoa, liquified it, poured it into molds, made fillings, put the fillings into molds, and closed off the molds to make a finished Praline.

Something about where Cocoa comes from

Prepping the Praline filling

Filling the praline

Voila

All the molds they have made

 And of course there were free samples:

Which obviously went rather quickly

Well, the plain cocoa did that is. After that, we got to sample some actual pralines with a hazelnut filling. Now, those of you who truly do love me might point out, "Bo, Aren't you allergic to hazelnut?" And I would respond, "Yes". Luckily our host was prepared for someone with a tree nut allergy like myself and had a special caramel filled praline prepared, as well as a sample of some pieces they made for Coca Cola, so I got extra chocolate which was dope.

After the demonstration, we were able to buy some more of own to take home.

(Heavy Breathing)

Being in Brussels, I couldn't help but get the Dark chocolate Manneken Pis.

Sadly I have since eaten all said chocolate, and am now suffering from what severe Belgian chocolate withdrawal. Poor me.

As I mentioned, we also recently took a tour of the Brasserie de la Senne, the only other active brewery in Brussels city limits in addition to Cantillon. Which is amazing considering that Belgium is considered the Beer capital of the world, and Brussels is the capital city of said beer capital. You would expect there would be more than just two, but nope you'd be wrong. However, it does make sense that most other breweries would be in more subtle locations around the country, where they can hone their craft in tranquility. Don't get me started on those Trappists.

Brasserie de la Senne offered a completely different brewery experience from Cantillon. Where Cantillon has made its name off its historical practice and execution of sour brewing, Brasserie de la Senne is a much more modern approach in creating bitter brews that the men responsible for brewing the beer prefer (or atleast thats what they say). The Brewery was started by a pair of Brewers in 2006 in a warehouse on the outskirts of the city and within two years, the company had grown out of its facility. After a few years, they found their current residence in the Molenbeek Saint Jean commune of Brussels (or in more directions terms, across the river on the exact opposite side of town). The brewery is located in an office park:

Belgians love Office parks

Having just tried their Zinnebir for the first time the week prior, I was quite excited to see this more modern Belgian brewery in action. I'd say it was more like this:

We were given a tour of some of the brewery space by one of the brewery's founders (whose name escapes me). We sampled some of the grain used in the brewery's products and got up and close with the various equipment.

Check out this grain, yo

We got Hops in dis itch

we did not get to see the bottling mechanism in action 

I see where they hide the beer

After a quick rundown of how they make their beer, our host got on with it and started with the fun part, the sampling part. Somehow, and I am not sure how, we were able to try 4 different selections, 2 regular brews and 2 seasonal.

The Brewery's collection

We started with Taras Boulba, a light blonde beer clocking in at 6% (and yes the fact that considered light here is just wild). The beer received its name from a long and detailed story that I can't for the life of me remember right now, but trust me it was a dope story. Wasn't my favorite, but enjoyed every taste of the sample.

Every beer at Brasserie de la Senne has a uniqe label with a picture designed by an artist in one of the brewer's family. I believe there is usually a story that accompanies the name of each beer and the picture on its label.

Next, we tried their X-Mas Zinnebir, the winter seasonal brew offered that is named after one their regular brews Zinnebir. It is a nice dark Christmas style brew that of course has its own uniquely Belgian spin on it.

For what I assumed was our last sample, we sampled Jambe de Bois, the brewery's arguably most well known brew, which one EDM loving member in my program described as the best beer he has tried. A nicely balanced bitter brew, this was easily my favorite of the day. I decided to remark my taste and splurge on the beer's full size poster that the brewery sells.

I was surprised to learn that at this point we were not quite finished, as we were able to sample the brewery's Brussels Calling. Every year, Brasserie de la Senne releases a new speciality brew in December to mark the anniversary of the brewery's opening in 2010. Every year, they change up the recipe, using the occasion to experiment with new recipes. 2014's batch was the most unique of the beers I sampled that day. I would describe it with much more colorful imagery but to be honest, I have tried a lot of new beer in the week since our visit to the brewery (Which I will touch on in a later post), and cannot recall it very well.

The brewery does a lot of collaborations with breweries around the world including in the United States. They had bottles of their concoctions on display at the entrance:

The only one I recognized was Allagash

Here's a close-up 

After our programs visit to the brewery, we able to go and take part in a "talking cafe" that CIEE organizes. Essentially, they entice local francophones with 2 free beers to come to talk to us in French, so that we can practice our French and they can "practice their English". Don't worry, we also get the 2 free beers as well. The event is usually held at Le Tavernier, one of my favorite spots in the neighborhood of Cimitiere D'Ixelles, which is near the two major universities. This is also where i tried Brasserie de la Senne's Zinnebir the week before (the post has come full circle).

But yes, the free beer is nice, but the rewarding part of the evening is actually getting to speak the local language which I spent 7 years studying. Other than in restaurants or stores, I do not have too many opportunities to speak French here, mostly because I'm attending an American style liberal arts school where everything is in English, and that I spend almost all my time with fellow Americans. While there's is nothing wrong with that, it's not the most ideal immersion scenario. I appreciate the chance to converse with locals, even if my skills have deteriorated in the 2 years since I have taken a French class. I'm grateful that CIEE organizes such events to assist in the process, and am trying to take advantage of them as best I can.

With the exception of my trip to Ghent, this should bring everything up to speed up until the Thursday before my 21st birthday (which I will probably get to in a week or two. I could promise you next week, but with midterms happening I just see myself pulling a Bill Simmons and taking a month to post the story I mentioned). And so with that, till next time. Cheers!