I decided it was time for another recap in English, even though I’m also behind on the Danish version.
The end of September brought fantastic weather and the weekends continue to be perfect for outdoor activities and sightseeing. At work, the highlight as of late was the Council meeting on September 29th. There was a small delegation from Denmark, but unfortunately the Danish government hadn’t yet been formed after the election, so there was no minister to attend the Council meeting. Instead, it was covered by the deputy permanent Representative from where I work. It was a very interesting meeting and since I had to write the draft minutes from the meeting, I was kept busy the whole time and got a good feel for high-rank diplomacy.
The same Thursday as the Council meeting my parents came to visit me. I didn’t see them until the next day, where they met me at the Representation and got a little tour of my office. This picture shows myself, my parents and three of the four attachés I work for (from left) Signe, Katrine and Anders.
Afterwards, we had lunch and went for a tour of the European quarter. We went inside the Council building (named Justus Lipsius) where most of my working group meetings, COREPER and Council meetings are held. We also saw the famous Berlaymont building which houses the Commission, and on the way back to my apartment we went past the European Parliament. Later that night I went to an Oktoberfest at the Representation, which included lots of fun and beer. It was really nice to see the diplomats let loose a little.
On Saturday (October 1st) I went with my mom and dad to Atomium which lies a little north of Brussels. It depicts an extremely enlarged iron molecule and was built for the EXPO world exhibition in Brussels in 1958.
You can walk between the ”spheres” of the molecule and there is a great view from the top. A neat thing about Atomium is that my grandparents (on my mom’s side) went to the EXPO in 1958 with my mom’s three older siblings and saw the Atomium back then. Plus I remember playing with a miniature souvenir Atomium whenever we visited my grandparents. That was a very nice side story to our visit there.
The rest of the weekend we just went sightseeing in the city center and around my neighborhood. It was great to see them and show them my new life here in Brussels.
The following week I had a bunch of meetings all over town. Wednesday night we had some of the Danish interns for dinner, Thursday night we went out to Place Luxembourg for beer after work and Friday we had dinner and went to a few bars close to the Stock Exchange, which is a great area for going out in Brussels.
On Saturday (October 8th) I went with some of the interns to Antwerp which is 40 minutes north of Brussels. It is the diamond capital of the world since 80 % of the world’s uncut diamonds are traded here. Besides diamonds, Antwerp is a beautiful city with nice architecture, cozy streets and great shopping - see pictures below! After lunch, Charlotte and I went sightseeing by ourselves and had a great afternoon. Coincidentally, we found out that Britney Spears was playing a concert in Antwerp that night, so we got hold of tickets and went to see it. It was totally awesome with great music and loads of high-spirited party people! We took the train back to Brussels at 11 PM and decided to go out to a bar because we were still pretty hyper from the concert.
I didn’t do a whole lot Sunday, but I did go to this amazing restaurant named Chalet Robinson which is picturesquely located on a little island in a lake in the middle of the woods in Southern Brussels.
Ingen kommentarer:
Send en kommentar