Alice in Rotterdam

Architects and fans of crazy buildings: Rotterdam is your wonderland. Not one building is looking like your average station, market hall or house in this city. After one day in dollhouse Delft, it felt unreal to walk around Rotterdam. Everything is huge here! Shopping malls, markets and bars, every place was packed. I was lucky to have two Lithuanian architects/guides with me to show me all the hotspots in the Rotterdam labyrinth. 

It took me years and thousands of kilometers to realise you don't have to fly 24 hours to see new, spectacular things. I met many Australians who were crazy about Germany, the Netherlands or even Belgium. "Have you been there? Have you seen this place?" I was a bit ashamed to admit I didn't know much about my neighbouring countries, let alone my own tiny Belgium. 

Now I'm settled down for a while, I'm planning to do more of the soulsearching and getting lost close to home. So many places to explore! Belgium and especially our capital with all its hidden poetry and magic. I feel grateful to be living in Brussels. In a neighbourhood where people don't speak Flemish, where bakeries sell Moroccan biscuits and every person I meet has a different nationality. I travel daily from France to Greece and Italy without leaving the square. I guess you can be a traveler anytime, it just depends on how you look at the world around you.