Reggae Hit Bulgaria

Last Sunday, after work matters wrapped in Brussels, two other attendees and myself made our way to Leuven, Belgium - a town with a special place in my heart. For those of you that don’t know, when I studied abroad in Belgium I lived in Leuven and more or less found it to be some kind of paradise for me. I was really hopeful that this trip to Belgium would allow time to hit up Leuven. Luckily, it did.

This post is dedicated to and mostly directed at the totally awesome dude I made friends with while in Leuven: Adam Zarazinski. He is so cool that I’m pretty sure he is in Egypt right now doing human rights research. However, it will also provide some insight to my life in Leuven for you others out there.

So, to begin. The above post is me chowing down on a glorious Duner Falafel at the best restaurant of these sorts I have ever encountered. At the place I studied we got fed most meals of the week, but on the weekends we had to fend for ourselves. Usually Friday or Saturday night Adam and I would hit up this joint - The Pyramide - for cheap and delicious food. 3 Euro for all the falafel and sauce you can handle.

Many photos to follow so

Here is the falafel man hard at work. I’m pretty sure he is one of the same guys from over two years ago. The stability of Leuven astounded me. There were so few differences that I could probably count them on one hand. Anyway, the Pyramide guys were nice as ever. I think the pink painting was new.

Here is the street on which the Pyramide is found. The shop with the little white sign hanging above is the place where falafel heaven is found. Also of importance is the shop in front of with a yellow sign which says in black letters “Nacht-winkel”. As all study abroaders in Leuven find out, this means night shop, and after dark it’s your only bet for food. After many-a-spicy meal from the Pyramide or when needing breaks from studying, my buddy and I would hit up this shop for some Belgian chocolate. Somehow we managed to charm the lady working there enough that she didn’t hate us when we paid the 2 euros all in small coins.

Sticking with the trend of old haunts, here is the doors of the bar we went to about 10,000 times. It was right around the corner from where we lived, so, despite that our jerk cook was a part-owner, we went here  on basically every night out. One of those things where the goal is to not end up there but we always did.

Well, as you can maybe tell in the picture, this will be a fate suffered by no more study abroaders, as it is closed! Whereas most things remained open or got nicer in Leuven, this dive closed down. I wasn’t surprised in the least.

We lived, ate and studied at the Louvain Institute for Ireland in Europe, but the education was affiliated with the main university in town. Anyway, the place kind of served more as a hotel/conference center than a school. When we lived there, they were renovating this side of the building and we lived on the other side in older (and fully sweet) quarters. Now they are remodeling the part we lived in and use the new section and this new (but actually original) entrance. While nice, this entrance lacks the totally awesome stoop that our side-entrance had. Please take a moment to mourn the loss of a stoop (if you don’t want to mourn, take a moment to try and spot in the picture the Leuven native who was at the training in Brussels and showed us around). Unfortunately, it was a Sunday, which meant no one was around and I couldn’t get a peak at the inside.

One thing I noticed everywhere I went in Belgium was the presence of cranes. In the beginning it really aggravated me because all nice views were filled with cranes. After meditating on this topic, I actually began to think they look quite nice and began taking pictures just of cranes. So, that explains this one. The only unexplainable thing is how there are always cranes, but practically nothing seems to change.

If you wonder why I found Leuven to be like paradise, this picture more or less sums it up. Bikes. The hierarchy of Leuven transportation goes something like: Bicyclists, pedestrians, public trans, THEN and only then, cars. It was glorious. I rocked a beater-cruiser bike like one of these all around town and all the way to Germany.

Some more nice things:

Close to the center, nice flowers, sky, street, existence.

Statue of a guy, as I was told by my native host, pouring knowledge into his head. This is here because Leuven has long been the University in Belgium and it is therefore full of young people and tons of stuff to do at student prices. Or, just another reason why it’s such a great place for this fella.

This is from the botanical garden, which I explored for the first time on this day. Somehow I never made it before. Very beautiful and well maintained, almost too perfect though. Didn’t seem natural at all really.

Also from the garden - so bright!

So, if I like it so much, why don’t I live there? Well, although I’ve kicked around that idea, I came to a new conclusion while there. A place like Leuven, though very agreeable and in some ways perfect for me is missing one crucial element: something to do. Most public affairs, social and environmental matters seem pretty well taken care of there. When I asked my host if she thought there were any problems in Leuven, she said, “No, not really.” How often do you hear that?

Well, though a very nice place, especially to study, it’s no place for someone trying to save the world. It would just be too boring if I was doing anything but studying, I think.

So, I came back! And therefore I leave you with two photos from the 20th floor of a blok in one of the neighborhoods of Sofia, Bulgaria - a far more interesting and engaging place for me now.

Going back to Leuven, a place I reflect on with rather rosy glasses, was a really excellent thing for me to do. It made me realize that, while I like the place, it’s not where I want to be right now. I want to be in Bulgaria continuing the work I’ve started here. While in some ways it’s a struggle here, I really think it’s the struggle that brought and keeps me here. Everyday is interesting and an adventure and I have not known any sort of complacency here. Indeed, I’ve been here 9 months now and I’m still figuring things out in a big way. Leaving Bulgaria really made me appreciate this.

Sometimes stepping out is the best thing you can do.