What is it like to live in Brussels?

Jérémie Lorrain

 · 

Follow

Lived in Brussels, BelgiumUpvoted by 

Bryan Gauthier

, lives in Brussels, Belgium (1996-present) Updated 8y

Related

What is it like to live in Brussels?

I lived in Brussels for 1 year only - back to 2011 - and I unlikely loved it very much.

Brussels is the “European Capital”. Lots of people from all around the world, mainly Europe, come there to work or study. It’s multicultural. Plus, it’s a great departure city for any European country to visit cheaply.

I found Brussels a very active and lively city with plenty of things to explore. It offers a beautiful architecture, delicious food (in addition to the famous waffles, chocolate or local beers), walking distance attractions, parks, large transportation network, regular cultural events, etc.

I also remember Brussels as an “economical” capital city to live in, offering affordable accommodation and other services to its population.

Plus, the city doesn’t have to envy any other capital for its shopping streets.

The locals are also pretty friendly and sociable.

The downsides of Brussels could be that it is mainly a “working city” before all, which means a lot of people just come to do their job before going back home at the end of the day (to other parts of Belgium or other close countries). This is due to the massive European Union workforce concentrated in Brussels. And unfortunately, these EU employees who are often expatriates tend to shut themselves away into a private bubble.

It also gets quite crowded and blocked during the day with important car traffic. And of course the weather is s***, almost all year long !

To put it in a nutshell, Brussels offers the kind of lifestyle you’d find in a small city, with the benefits of a big one. Life is pretty good in Brussels.

"The Pianist"

The Forgotten Ledger ·

Follow

otpoedrsnS8l:i 31raAh1y i9l6M89cn f568c110af614at 9u41gtmJiu4 ·

A German officer found a starving Jewish man hiding in the ruins of Warsaw. Instead of killing him, he asked one question that changed everything.

November 1944. Warsaw was a graveyard.

The Nazis had crushed the Polish uprising. Buildings lay shattered. Streets were empty except for patrols hunting survivors.

Władysław Szpilman had been hiding for months. Before the war, he'd been Poland's most celebrated pianist—playing Chopin on Warsaw Radio while the city danced. Now he was a ghost, surviving on scraps in abandoned buildings.

Then the footsteps came.

Captain Wilm Hosenfeld of the Wehrmacht discovered Szpilman in an attic. The starving man froze. This was the end.

But Hosenfeld didn't raise his weapon. He asked: "What are you doing here?"

Szpilman told him he'd been a pianist.

Hosenfeld's eyes changed. He pointed to a dusty piano in the corner.

"Play something."

So there, in the frozen ruins of a destroyed city, a Jewish man who hadn't touched a piano in years played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor. His fingers moved from memory. The melody filled the bombed-out room.

When the last note faded, Hosenfeld stood in silence.

Then he asked where Szpilman was hiding.

Not to arrest him. To help him.

For weeks, Hosenfeld returned secretly—bringing bread, jam, a warm coat. Helping a Jewish man meant execution if discovered. He came anyway.

In December, as German forces prepared to retreat, Hosenfeld visited one last time. He left extra food and his own military blanket.

"Hold on," he told Szpilman. "The Soviets are coming. The war will end soon."

Szpilman gave him his name. "Remember it. If you ever need help—Szpilman, Polish Radio."

He never saw Hosenfeld again.

Szpilman survived. He returned to Warsaw Radio. His first broadcast after liberation? Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor—the same piece he'd played for the officer who saved his life.

Hosenfeld didn't survive.

Captured by Soviet forces, he was convicted as a war criminal simply for being a German officer. The Soviets ignored testimonies about his humanitarian acts.

Szpilman spent years trying to save him. He contacted officials, wrote letters, begged anyone who would listen. It wasn't enough.

In 1952, Wilm Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison camp. He was 57.

He never learned that the pianist he'd rescued had tried everything to rescue him in return.

Decades later, Szpilman's memoir became the film "The Pianist," winning three Academy Awards. In 2009—57 years after his death—Hosenfeld was finally recognized by Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations."

His family accepted the honor he never lived to receive.

One question. One piece of music. Two men on opposite sides of history's greatest horror—connected by a moment when humanity won.

Szpilman lived to 88. He spent his final years making sure the world remembered the German officer who chose mercy when he could have chosen murder.

Because sometimes the most powerful resistance isn't a weapon.

It's a piano.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "Belgium" BESIDES beer, chocolates or Brussels?

Assistant

Bot

Sep 6

A medieval tapestry of linguistic crossroads and surprising cultural layering.

• Languages and borders: Belgium’s identity is shaped by a sharp internal border between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. That linguistic map determines politics, media markets, education and even commuting patterns — a compact country with the complexity of three states.
• Comic-strip culture: Belgium is the birthplace of Tintin, the Smurfs and a rich bande dessinée tradition. Comic art is a mainstream cultural institution (museums, festivals, street murals) rather than niche fandom.
• Art and architecture contrasts: From Bruges’s intact Gothic and Hanseatic fabric to Brussels’s Art Nouveau (Horta) and postwar modernism, Belgium compresses centuries of European styles into short distances. Flemish primitives (Van Eyck, Bosch’s contemporaries) anchor its art history importance.
• Culinary precision beyond beer/chocolate: A culture of refined, regionally specific cuisine — moules-frites, stoofvlees, waffles, and an artisanal charcuterie and cheese scene — with a strong tradition of local breweries and small producers.
• European governance hub: Seat of major EU institutions and NATO bodies, giving Belgium outsized geopolitical importance relative to size, and a daily influx of diplomats and civil servants who shape policy across Europe.
• Logistics and transport node: Dense railways, major ports (Antwerp being one of Europe’s largest) and a central location make Belgium a critical freight and distribution hub for continental trade.
• Complex coalition politics: Frequent coalition governments, regional autonomy debates and meticulous power-sharing arrangements. Belgian politics is an expert exercise in compromise and institutional design.
• Cozy cities with tourist restraint: Cities like Ghent and Leuven are lively university towns with high-quality public life, bicycle culture, and unexpected design/tech scenes.

Examples typical of visitors or residents:

• A Flemish friend switching languages mid-conversation depending on the topic or institution.
• Finding a centuries-old guildhall next to a cutting-edge incubator in Antwerp.
• Street-level comic murals in Brussels that lead to a weekend itinerary built around graphic novels.

Concise takeaway: Belgium evokes a dense, layered microstate where language, art, governance and trade intersect — a small country whose social complexity and cultural richness reward slower, inquisitive attention.

Is reaching 80 really considered "young"?

Antonio Muñoz

 · 

Follow

Former Retired Engineer (1964–2005) Jan 24

Is reaching 80 really considered "young" in terms of today’s life expectancy, or does it depend more on individual family history?

Dear friend, this is coming from someone who is 85 years old heading 86. As a rule, by age 80, practically everyone has physical (and sometimes mental) problems that will worsen exponentially with age. Someone expressed it very well on Quora: After 80, "we peer into the abyss." I don't think (for the moment) anyone who is 80 can be considered "young."

Let's look at the numbers, which refer to Spain, one of the countries with the highest life expectancy in the world. Using data from the National Institute of Statistics from 2023, I created a table of deaths by age in Spain, without distinguishing between sexes.

The image reflects the results obtained. According to my basic table of 100,000 births, 62,830 people reach 80 years of age, 46,662 reach 85 years of age, and 26,879 reach 90 years of age. This means that the probability of an 80-year-old reaching 85 is 46,662/62,830 ≈ 74.3%, and the probability of reaching 90 is 26,879/62,830 ≈ 42.8%. Can an 80-year-old with less than a 50% chance of living another 10 years be considered 'young'? (Even internally one feels that way).

Obviously this only is a statistitical approach. At 80 y/o additional life expectancy will depend on genetics, past and current lifestyle, health history…and luck.

Humility Leads to Glory

Monday, February 2, 2026 Presentation of the Lord—Feast Readings for Today

Images via Adobe Stock:  Main - Featured Video When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,” and to offer the sacrifice of “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,” in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord. Luke 2:22–24 The Presentation of the Lord reveals two beautiful paradoxes: the purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the ritual redemption of Jesus, her firstborn Son. Both actions follow the Law of Moses, yet each unveils a deeper mystery about Christ and His Mother, offering us a mystery to enter and an example to follow. First, we ponder the Blessed Virgin Mary’s purification. The Law stated that a woman who gave birth to a son needed ritual purification (cf. Leviticus 12). Yet Mary, being immaculately conceived and preserved entirely from all stain of sin, had no need for purification. Nevertheless, she fulfilled the Law, setting before us a model of perfect humility and obedience. Knowing her own interior purity, she could have objected, but she did not, because she valued obedience to God’s law above her own justification. She teaches us that true holiness embraces humble submission over self-assertion. Humility, in its beauty and holiness, always conquers pride’s selfishness and self-elevation. Our Blessed Mother knew and lived that. The second paradox is found in Jesus’ presentation. The Law required every firstborn son to be presented to the Lord and redeemed in remembrance of the Passover (cf. Exodus 13; Numbers 3 and 18). Yet Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the true High Priest and Spotless Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He needed no redemption, for He is God Himself. Still, Christ was presented in the Temple so that we might be presented with Him to the Father. In His humility, He united Himself to our human nature—without sin—so that we might be truly consecrated to God through Him. Again, virtue wins out, as Christ invites us to share in His humility. The Presentation also foreshadows the other ways Jesus would redeem us through His human life. In His Baptism, though sinless, He submits to a rite of repentance so we might be sanctified through baptism ourselves. In His Passion, though innocent, He suffers for us, paying our debt—a debt we must humbly admit that we cannot repay on our own. In His Resurrection, His humility is crowned with eternal glory, opening the way for us to share in His divine life—if we humble ourselves with Him. Like our Blessed Mother, we are called to submit obediently to God’s will, rejecting the pride that tempts us to think we are above certain duties or sacrifices. True holiness embraces sacrifice freely out of love, rather than seeking exemption from it. Even undeserved hardships bear fruit when endured with Christ. True holiness also perceives the beauty of joyful obedience to God’s will, rather than asserting our own. Like Jesus, we are called to offer ourselves completely to the Father. As Jesus was ritually offered in the Temple, we must see ourselves in that offering. He was offered for us. By uniting ourselves with Him in His humility, we are redeemed through His offering to the Father. We become children in the Son, received by the Father who accepted Christ’s perfect offering. In Him, our offering becomes perfect, and we find our eternal home with the Father. Reflect today on the hidden ways God invites you to imitate these paradoxes. Are there areas where you resist humble obedience, preferring your own will over God’s? Are there sacrifices you are tempted to avoid, forgetting that true love embraces the Cross? Offer yourself to the Father with Mary’s obedience and Christ’s perfect humility so that your life, like theirs, may become a pure offering of love. Most humble Lord, You were obedient to the Father’s will in all things. From the mystery of Your Incarnation, to Your humble birth in a cave, Your ritual presentation and redemption in the Temple, and Your sacrificial Death and Resurrection, You acted with perfect holiness, humility, and obedience. Please draw me into Your life—into Your Presentation to the Father, Your Death, and Your Resurrection. Live within me, dear Lord, so that I may live in You, sharing in the glory You desire to bestow. Jesus, I trust in You.