Loved ones and weird music – 42 hours in Brussels

Well now, when luck was being handed out, I wasn’t granted more than a few days in Belgium’s capital, Brussels. Not that I’m complaining – big city, loud, full of people, cars, concrete, serious European capital and all that. That being said, sometimes — and for very good reasons — I end up spending unique moments in this European Babel.

The weekend that just wrapped up was quite something, even by my standards. Concert, drinks, new people, dear people, friends, the sea, walks, places, and new passions — all packed into just 42 hours. The essential ingredients, as always: quality people and the crazy drive to try new things.

The two combined — along with an all-traveling Uber — guide my steps on a rainy (still) February Friday evening to the doors of the La Madeleine concert hall, where a concert awaits me… you guessed it, Subcarpații. Now, you may know — or maybe you don’t — what kind of music these guys make: a bit of rap, a bit of rock, a bit of folklore, and a bit of whatever else runs through their heads when they’re composing.

Otherwise, they look like perfectly normal people when you see them having a cigarette outside before the show. I, for one, knew exactly what I was getting into. I’ve been listening to this band for years, and Spotify proudly informs me that at least five or six of their songs made it into my top favorites last year.

The crazy insane rhythm and the blend with folk music lady singers speak to me in a way that makes me want to be up there with them, on stage. On the other hand, the calls for hora dances and other group frenzy leave me completely frozen. I’m an elitist music consumer, after all — I don’t just throw my hands in the air whenever someone tells me to.

But guess who managed to se the sea, made it back in time, managed to make herself pretty, and still get to the next stop in the agenda — fratello’s birthday? The jury is still out on whether I actually succeeded with the “pretty” part, but one thing is certain: Saturday night we drank and eat — heartily — at Adi’s place. If you don;t know my brother, you can find out here about who he is. Good guy. (And I’m not just saying that because he might actually read this far…) If you don’t know how a social gathering works in Brussels, well — you invite about fifteen interesting people, put good food on the table, drinks in the fridge, a bit of music playing in the background, and then everyone talks to everyone. Yeap, just like in Romania... Now, I’m not going to give you details about my family — I haven’t received permission, and I’m not sure they would like to become blog celebrities — but they’re nice folks. Same goes for the guests. The hours fly by quickly.

And then Sunday arrives… besides the mandatory cat-petting session at our wonderful and more-than-welcoming host’s place, I also receive… my very first piano lesson. Yes, you read that correctly. If you want to know what it’s like the first time you touch the keys, just listen here! The conclusions are as follows: the brain does not function properly at first… meaning that although you know you’re supposed to press keys 1, 3, 5, 4, in order, twice with the left hand and twice with the right, when it comes to actually doing it, your hands start making such uncontrolled movements you’d think a seizure is about to kick in! The frustration is at peak levels — but when it finally comes together, it’s absolutely fantastic.

So clearly I need to take up piano — I’ve discovered an underdeveloped area of my brain. As if that were the only one… 😀 (In case you had any doubts, I was the hands on the left… and yes, the patient teacher drew on the keys with lipstick so I’d know what to press…)

To end this chronicle on an apotheotic note: the key to happiness, if it isn’t clear by now, is (indeed) the awesome people around us. I’m saying it now, I’ll say it tomorrow, and I’ll keep saying it until the end because, as the ghostly philosopher keeps saying, “It's like that to the very bottom…” (or so we hope). And to top it all off, spring finally arrived — it just couldn’t resist answering the call… Until we meet again, for other adventures…