A couple of weeks ago I attended the TARK conference in Brussels. I didn’t have heaps of time wandering the city, but I did snap a few things I found noteworthy. The rest of the post is heavy on pics and light on commentary.

Amsterdam gets bad press for drug tourism, but check this out:

“Drug Opera” in Brussels

One thing they’re serious about, that’s bilingualism. Sometimes it takes some effort: Bilingual Belgian street sign

… and sometimes it’s a bit more voor-de-hand-liggend:1

A less bilingual Belgian sign

At the station we were disturbed to see the headquarters of the International Liquidation Trade, although closer investigation showed that they had gone out of business.

International Liquidation Trade sign (?!)

Some pretty outstanding graffiti, in a tiny alleyway I found myself in twice on consecutive days after getting lost between my hostel and the conference venue:

Alien graffiti

And there does seem to be a latent Belgian genius in the graphic arts (although judging by the smell the natural audience didn’t appreciate the work):Sign forbidding urination

I spent a couple of hours at the Musical Instrument Museum, but unfortunately almost none of the photos worked out — no flash, combined with glass cases in darkened rooms, combined with my nervous assumption that if the attendants caught me they wouldn’t be impressed… Anyway, two of the more extravagant pieces that were well-lit are the following:

Serpent hatstand

Extrahornidary

Notes:

  1. Lit. “lying-in-front-of-the-hand”, another of those nice phrases that we can only approximate in English. [↪]