Brussels to Leuven

Thursday October 21, 2010
I was sitting at an almost exclusive Australian table at breakfast at the hostel (the table right up the back in this photo below).

In the dining area for breakfast at the Van Gogh Hostel.

There was Goo and Haddie who I met last night, Goo's cousin, and another bloke called Nathan, who was from Wagga Wagga. Nathan did his chefs apprenticeship at the Whitsundays, where he saved up some money and also met lots of travelers. He kept in touch with a lot of these people and has stayed with many of them as he's been traveling around Europe. So he's got a good network of friends in around the world, I wish I had that too.
Breakfast here left something to be desired. There was toast and spreads, which was good, but they gave you a pre-served bowl of cornflakes that was so small you could have counted each individual cornflake.
I packed up my stuff and headed into Brussels. I wanted to do some self-guided walking tours, which were described on the map that I got from the other hostel last night. I was doing the tour on my loaded touring bike though, which was difficult because cycling in Brussels isn't that great. Cars rule in Brussels.
Some other interesting facts about Brussels: people say it's ugly, you might see a terrible apartment block next to an Art Nouveau jewel, or a pseudo-classical monster in front of the Central Station. Most people speak French in Brussels, but Dutch is also an official language. Brussleirs will use English, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Swahili or whatever language they know to make themselves understood. 46% of people living in the city have foreign roots.
I did three different self-guided tours. The first was the "European Walk", which took in: a European skyscraper; the poorest area of the city; the art nouvea area; the heart of Europe; the Schuman Square where all the important decisions affecting Europe are made; the Museum Park, Leopold Park, and the European Parliament.
The second tour was the "South Walk", which took in little Africa, the snobby upper-class shopping area, the Palace of Justice, Old fashioned Brussels where I came across a flea market, then one of the main streets where there are lots of shops with foods from all around the world.

Squiare Marie-Louise, Brussels.

Parc du Cinquantenaire (French) or Jubelpark (Dutch), Brussels, Belgium.

A water-feature in Parc du Cinquantenaire (French) or Jubelpark (Dutch), Brussels

The European Parliament.

A large roundabout in Brussels near Schuman Station.

The Brussels Palace of Justice, the most important court building in Belgium and a notable landmark of Brussels.

A flea market at a city square in the old-fashioned area of Brussels.

I ate chips with mayo for lunch, followed by a waffle.

Chips and mayo for lunch, typical Belgian food.

A belgian waffle, drizzled in melted white chocolate.

Apparently these are the typical foods that Belgians eat. It was quite delicious too.
Near the end of my tour, another cyclist approached me for a chat. He was on a fixie, and lived 20 km north of Belgium, but rode his bike in to work every day. He reckoned Brussels wasn't a cycling city, but Leuven was. I mentioned I was planning on going to Leuven that evening, so he gave some directions on how to get there. It was pretty simple, there is a road that goes straight there, follow it all the way.
I then embarked on the third tour, "North Walk". This took in the bridge over the canal, a changing street (from a poor street to an expensive one as you walk along), an original "fritkoten" (fries shop), the business area, the Crossroads Station and the green labyrinth of the Botanique.

Standing on a bridge over a canal, on the Steenweg op Gent road, Brussels.

The Brussels-North railway station.

Botanique Kruidtuin

So after I finished my self-guided tours, I was on my way to Leuven. By this stage it was peak hour, there was heaps of traffic. But when you're on a bike, peak hour is often a good time to ride, because the traffic moves so slowly, and you can just cruise past them, weave around them, whatever, and your risk of being killed or injured is minimal since the traffic is moving so slowly. I rode past so many cars on that road, they were moving at a snail's pace.

On the Leuvensesteenweg riding from Brussels to Leuven during peak hour.

I don't know how they can all persist with driving when they're just stuck in traffic. Don't they see cyclists like me just cruising past, and think "hey, he's going much faster than I am, maybe I should cycle instead of drive." I'd be too frustrated if I was just sitting in traffic, knowing that there was a quicker way.
So I got to the University city of Leuven no worries, and found Stijns house. Stijn lives with his sister Eva, and their cousin (although these Belgians seem to get confused between nephew and cousin). His name sounds like "Tom", but later corrected me, it's "Toon". Rosie's boyfriend Sam also lives there, except for this semester since he's at the University of Siena to study for the semester on Erasmus.
I really liked it in Leuven, it was such a peaceful city because everyone was cycling.
I couldn't believe how many people were out on bikes actually, bikes must have outnumbered cars ten to one. I'd never seen a city like it, it was unreal. Just about everyone was young too, since just about all the people living there are students. And the place had a great vibe about it.
I really liked Stijn's house too, a cool little students shared house. Stijn and Tom cooked a delicious onion, potato and bacon soup for tea, which we ate and we drank red goon.

Toon with the pot of potato, onion and bacon soup for tea.

Toon on the guitar.

Onion, potato and bacon soup for tea.

Stijn Conix looking pensive.

Stijn's girlfriend Kitty came round too, and we chatted about various things, such as the differences between universities in Belgium and Australia. In Belgium, pretty much anyone who wants to go to university can, year 12 results are much less relevant than they are in Australia. So this means that less intelligent people can go to uni. So they don't have to work hard in high school, but then once they're in uni they do. Eva reckoned only 10 % of law students passed first year, which seems unrealistic to me, but I guess she knows what she's talking about. In Australia it's the other way around: only the intelligent or studious people with a high equivalent national tertiary entrance rank (ENTER) can get in to uni, then once they're in uni, everyone just slacks off big time. Well, not everyone, but plenty of people in my experience anyway, especially in first year, and especially at the residential colleges, everyone just socialises, drinks, parties, undertakes extra-curricular activities, plays sport, etc, and uni seems to take a back seat.
The other major difference is that their university is free, it's all publicly funded so they don't have to pay back their tuition fees under a scheme like HECS as we do in Australia. They seemed surprised when I told them about HECS, where we have to pay back our uni fees when we're earning more than the threshold salary which I think is AU$35,000?
And supposedly the most respected course to study in Belgium is civil engineering, and anyone who studies engineering is seen as a nerd or really smart. When I said I studied civil engineering, Kitty was like "oh, so you're a nerd then?" In Australia though, I'd say the most respected courses are Law and Medicine. And as it turns out, I studied civil engineering at Melbourne Uni, Eva was studying Law in Leuven and Kitty was studying Medicine, so that meant we all had a lot of respect for what each other were studying based on what we were studying.
Stijn is four years into his philosophy and history degree, and was thinking about doing a masters in philosophy. And Toon was doing some kind of business engineering degree.
They could all speak English very well, although their native language is Dutch. Sometimes they would switch back to Dutch because I guess that would have been easier for them to speak in. It didn't worry me, just meant that I couldn't understand them for some of the time. It sounds like a pretty cool language, difficult to pronounce a lot of the words though.
I also talked about what it's like living in Australia, and especially about kangaroos. Foreigners always seem interested in kangaroos for some reason. Some Americans will believe that we ride into town on kangaroos.
It's interesting that kangaroos aren't eaten more widely as meat in Australia. I think they should be because we have such an abundance of them. Kangaroos are killed by farmers or for kangaroo population regulation and most of them just go to waste when they could be eaten, if not by humans than by dogs, for example - they could be used as dog food.
I also asked a bit about cycling in Leuven. Everyone rides a bike, but apparently the police are really harsh on cyclists who break the law. If you're caught without lights at night, they'll whack a fine on you, no questions asked, and they won't let you off either. If you're caught riding drunk - same story. And the police also crack down on J-walking, they dress in civilian clothing and hang around at the major intersections, and nab anyone who J-walks they issue with a fine. I guess it's because there isn't much crime in the city so the police don't have much to do except fine poor cyclists and pedestrians for petty crimes.
Anyway, Eva and Kitty headed off, and one of Stijn and Toon's friends, named Ortwin, came over for a jam session.

One of Stijn and Toon's guitarist friends, Ortwin, dropped in for a jam session.

He was a really good guitarist, has been playing since he was a little tacker. Sam saw this photo and was like "ohh, this guy is amazing on the guitar!". His name is Ortwin Toon, and I thought he studied music at uni, but Sam told me it's actually history that he studies.
It was good watching them jam, made me miss jamming in our band at home, with Jim and the rest of the band, which varies depending on who's there at home at the time and can play an instrument.

Jamming in the living area: Toon, Ortwin, Stijn and Anouk.

Toon and Ortwin were on guitar, Stijn was on base, Anouk, Toon's girlfriend, had a cameo role on the tambourine, and they were all singing and harmonising together. I left them to jam while I went upstairs to Stijn's room to use his computer to sign up to couch surfing. I'd been meaning to get onto couch surfing before I left Australia, but I ran out of time. It took a long time to sign up on Stijn's laptop though because it had a Belgian keyboard, which I found very difficult to use! By the time I'd finished, the guys had finished jamming and headed off/headed to bed. Stijn offered me his bed and was going to sleep at Kitty's place, so that was very kind of him, thanks Stijn!
I loved how relaxed and easy-going they all were. I'd never met any of them before but it felt like we'd been friends for longer, they were very welcoming. I also liked how everyone in the city seemed to live so close together, and you could just go for a quick walk or bike ride and you'd be at your mates place.
In Melbourne, on the other hand, it would take fifteen or twenty minutes to get to my mate Al's place in Brunswick West from Thornbury, and we're both in inner northern suburbs of Melbourne.
And because everyone in Leuven is young, there would be so many potential friends you could make, pretty much anyone you run into on the street. I would happily live there in Leuven.

My route for the day, Brussels to Leuven.

An overview of my route so far from Cherbourg, France to Leuven, Belgium.

Ride stats:
Distance: 48.41 km
Average: 13.8 km/h
Maximum: 36.5 km/h
Time: 3:29:10
Total ascent: 453 m
Total descent: 437 m