The first thing which struck me about Brussels was the lack of people there. The roads are mostly empty, and the escalators have sensors to stop them when they are not being used. At one metro station I went to, I was the only person in the entire complex.
 The roads have really poor pedestrian crossings - A red man might be displayed, though it is perfectly save to cross. Consequently, one starts to ignore them after a bit.

 At the time I went, there was a Belgian food scare in progress - all cows, pigs, chickens and their products - milk eggs cheese, were contaminated. Apparently, Engine oil was fed to chickens and stuff. So I spent most of my time starving, though I couldn't resist trying a Belgian waffle (superb chocolate). Consequently, I was expecting to drop dead at any time. It didn't happen, sigh!

 Most of the large architecture is French in style, the old shops and the buildings around the Grand Place are inspired by somewhere I haven't been. (I don't think for a second that those pesky Belgian architects have thought them up by themselves)

 Actually, the real reason I went to Brussels was to get a CD of Cyberpunx by The Cassandra Complex from the record company Play It Again Sam. (Talk about devotion) Sadly, they were unable to oblige, though they did give me a nice card with their phone number on, in case I wanted to phone them up (like, when I next get bored!). In addition, I was able to observe a large pile of cat5 ethernet cable, so I think they are networking a load of machines. I hope they are going for 100mbs hubs and switches, because it will just be a lot of extra cost and hassle having to upgrade later. Also, If they want to stream audio around the place, a 10mbs system might have bottle necks (esp if using big hubs). Of course, gigabit ethernet, whilst being total overkill, would certainly impress prospective clients. They have a totally shockwaved web site, which, whilst cool, doesn't function with maximal efficiency, though they were kind enough to tell me the meaning of the word "artist" which is always a great way to make friends.

Email me at:cip1000@sobi.org