Update: Brussels

brussels-oldnew.jpg


May 20, 2010

Lots of cold and rainy weather as I travel. It’s been hard to coordinate time to write here with the appearance of trustworthy wifi. But here I am—in Brussels, Belgium. This is a city balanced somewhere between old and new, striving to define itself as the “capital” of Europe and yet mired in old animosities between French and Flemish.

I ride the Metro and walk the streets seeking the heart of the place. I take what pictures I can in the swirling wind and rain.

I am here visiting a former journalism student who works as a foreign TV correspondent covering European Union (EU) politics. She and her husband live in a big house not far from the nondescript buildings that make up the EU.

My parents were in Brussels long ago but the city was a much more gentle version of itself in those days—a lower sky line, more harmonious architecture. Now it is a jumble of old Europe careening into new.