My picky xmas tree

you can also create your own greeting card here: http://www.ing.ro/ing/felicitare.html

Roses turn me on

it's not even my title, it has been suggested by google when starting writing. only managed to write an innocent r :))
but how this title fits what I wanted to say!
our small apartment is now full of vases with roses of all colors and it's amazing. they are about 150 and beautiful. or should I say sexy?

Fucking freezing

At least it doesn't rain anymore. Though I haven't decided yet what I prefer: rain or cold. That's why they put Christmas in winter, to distract the attention from bad weather. What if it's freezing, look at all the lights blinking, isn't it beautiful?

The other monkeys

did I forget to brag about seeing them in concert on 3rd nov?

mongolian zdutz zdutz

Seen in Place Sainte-Catherine, where a Mongolian fair was taking place. Good mongolian food and incredible music :) I also have the traditional version, will post it later.
Who said mongols aren't cool? I know, I know, an ex-client of mine.


http://www.fleurslivraison.be/brussels.php

METRO doesn't want us

We were dreaming all day to get in there. To lose ourselves in the heaven of cash&carry shopping, between all the shelves and products that are just waiting to be taken home. But no! We are not good enough to get in there, so we'll never know how it is. Actually we know from Romania, but what if here it's different? Well, we'll never know.

Why? Cause in Belgium it's not enough to have a company statute to get a METRO card, you have to prove that you're selling food - that you're a restaurant, a shop, whatever. And we are not. But maybe it's worth opening a doner kebab fast food just for this.

bad photo of nice photo

taken in Place Sablon.

going out

to drink your brains out.
Brussels is full of small and big bars and even those which are not so posh can be a good place to enjoy your drunk chit chat. I like their understatement, the 'just came for a drink' feeling and the mix of all kinds of people. We've already been in some nice places like Bizon, Zebra or Mappa Mundo (nice names also) and we have other 3 on the list to experiment, so we don't get bored.
The large variety of beers is also of great help, though our Romanian liver has some problems in handling them. I hope it's just a matter of time to get used to them. It's a pity cause a lot of them are very good. I usually drink Blanche, as it's lighter. Chimay and Chouffe are also a good choice due their deliciously creamy texture, but a headache is guaranteed.
For my disappointed, I haven't discovered yet a nice place to dance. I'm sure there are a lot of 'house trance whatever shit everybody's on pills' clubs. But I'm interested in that kind of place where after you drink and start thinking you can dance, to actually have the possibility to prove it. And the music to be nice and the people also and you know. Like Control in Bucharest.

You should go to District 9

It's not a commune or neighborhood in Bruxelles, in fact it doesn't have to do with Bruxelles, but it's been a long time since I didn't watch a good movie so I had to write about it. And after all, I write whatever I want because I can.
So. What if the immigrants in a country, let's choose randomly...Belgium, wouldn't be Turkish, Arabs, Polish or Romanians, but ALIENS. Buhuhu! Ok, the action takes place in South Africa. And they're not quite immigrants, they're kind of refugees and after reading this post you'll think that I'm stupid and that I don't understand anything from the movies I see.
Well, go and see the movie, I'm not a film critic and it rains a lot in Belgium (there you go).

Garbage day

Every Tuesday and Friday.
It would be better if people took the garbage out after six o'clock, the sideways are narrow enough.

The small nothings

Or in its original name, Les Petits Riens.
Nice name, nice second hand shop and nice concept behind - people give away everything they don't need anymore, the shop sells it at very good prices and the money goes to people in need. So you shop cheap while also knowing that you're doing a good deed.
Apart from the social implications, the shop itself is a great experience. It's like a compressed visit in a lot of people's houses, long live the voyeurism. And you can find really anything you'd be dreaming of: furniture, crockery, pictures, clothes, picnic objects, old cassettes, toys just to mention a few.
A large warehouse of people's lives and history.

And our new home is...

We had ups and downs in our house quest. And we were in a big down of disappointment when we ran into this little one. It was of great help that the owner is Romanian. The contract was signed in a few days by e-mail (as she was in Romania) and in a week we were arranging clothes in wardrobes. Fortunately we had wardrobes and everything else, compared to most apartments we saw which were unfurnished.
So here we are in a 50 square meters one bedroom apartment in Ixelles, near Place Flagey, fully furnished, with lease contract for only 1 year (which is great, cause you never know), at a very good price.
We made ourselves at home and we are having a very good time here.

The house quest

It's only a month since we've arrived here and it seems like 6 have passed. Maybe because of all the changes. We had 2 very busy weeks at the beginning looking for a place to rent. And the "nice cozy apartment just sitting there and waiting for you" market in Brussels is not as we expected.

The first place to look is, of course, the Internet, and the most popular site is immoweb.be. At first you get very excited seeing all the results, but then you realize that you don't know what neighborhood to choose, what price range is realistic or what to expect from the pictures you see.

The second way to embrace the problem is just to walk on the streets and look for A LOUER signs, as they are everywhere and they all look orange-ish, so they're easy to notice. The advantage in finding yourself something in the street is that theoretically the price can be cheaper, compared to those run by agencies (we've been there too). Theoretically.

Finding an apartment is a job itself. We used to wake up, dress up nicely (to make a good impression), make some phone calls to establish visits and hit the road. Not without the GPS, a very useful tool here. Except the short lunch break, the whole day meant sitting in the car talking on the phone or visiting all kinds of apartments. Few learnings and highlights:

- if in the review it's written 6 rooms, that means they also counted the 4 square meters storage rooms, the bathroom and the small balcony.
- terrace mostly means very very small balcony
- if you're working at the European Commission or Parliament you're the perfect applicant. But also if you have a job as a housekeeper. Any job will do, as long as you have a contract. Young nice couple with consistent bank account and big dreams are just...fishy. And if they are Romanians it's even worse.
- this overprotective attitude is because the contracts are usually signed on 3 and even 9 years, and once signed it's very hard to kick somebody out, even if they didn't pay. It can take up to 2 years :))
- if you have signed a 3/9 years contract and want to leave earlier you have to 1. find someone to replace you (which means putting an ad, getting visits) 2. pay 3, 2, 1 months rent as a leaving early fee, depends what year you're leaving. We met some desperate students who almost harassed us to take their apartment, as they had to leave earlier
- usually the rent prices don't include the monthly charges (gas, electricity etc) and strangely, the sum each landlord asks for the charges is different. from 25 euros to 250 euros.
- I can't make a landlord profile in Brussels, but we met Chinese, Serbian, very rich very old lady, French extremist married to a 30 years younger Kyrgyzstanese, broker, very fit and scary sailor or very bourgeois and annoying french speaking ladies (these are the worst :)
- sometimes it can happen to be asked for money to get on the waiting list (200 euros!). we think it was a scam, made by a fake agent, otherwise I can't explain.
- the best time to find an apartment in Brussels is August or September, before the "season" starts, or June, when students leave. Late October is already late, as all the good ones are taken and what's left can be expensive.
- budget? If working at the Commission you don't care so skip this bullet. If you don't, then count around 500 for a studio (that means only one room) and between 550-750 for a decent 1 bedroom (living room is usually together with kitchen) - usually unfurnished. If you want more space, get an agency, you can afford it :)

All in all it wasn't easy, but still ok compared to other capitals so I heard. Paris is a nightmare - small dirty expensive spaces - and Luxembourg is very picky - you apply among many others and hope that your resume fits the landlord's dream profile.

To start is the hardest

To start a blog about your new life is harder then to actually start the new life. But you just do it. And it's not bad at all.