Markets vs shops

While living in Western Europe, I have noticed how cool it is to shop in open-air markets. Although both here and back in Latvia they look similar, the feeling you get while visiting them is kind of different - although I can't tell you why.

Back home I didn't really go to the market so often. Sure, we have quite a few markets in Riga and tourists especially love the Central market (which is situated in hangers for zeppelins). However, in my neighborhood there wasn't any market. As it was not on the way, I didn't go to any, just shopping in the usual supermarkets.

But both in Brussels and Amsterdam you find loads of markets in different places of the cities. Next to the CD House in Brussels where I was living for a year there was a small market every Monday morning. If I managed to wake up on time, sometimes I used to go there and buy some fresh fruits and vegetables.

Today here in Amsterdam we also did shopping in one of the street markets, this one was on Ten Katestraat. We initially wanted to go to Albert Cuyp market, which is the biggest and most known one, but saw the first one while passing by and decided to give it a try.

And it was great, of course! Not only you can really smell vegetables and fruits and buy them much cheaper than in the supermarkets, but the choice is also bigger. In the end we bought more than we wanted and needed, but still the total amount of money spent was less than we would spend in the supermarket.

Of course, for other stuff you still need to go to the supermarket, but now I will try to manage to buy vegetables and fruits in the markets much more as well as go to the special meat shops (mostly run by Turkish and Arabic people) for meat.

How to fall in love with Brussels

It would not be fair to compare Brussels with Riga, because that would mean putting both cities in a closed box and looking to them from only one perspective. I hope you agree that they deserve much more, they deserve to be treated as unique in their own way and loved for the reasons you can love one, but not the second one (and the other way around).

Elizabeth Gilibert in her book “Eat pray love” wrote that each city can be described by one word. If she is right, then Brussels is definitely Career.

Before I moved to Brussels, several times I heard that you do not move to Brussels because you are in love with the city. No, you move there to work. To earn money. To climb up in your career. To lobby – for yourself. I feel that it is also the way Brussels is organised. You are there on your own, you need to follow your own path and nobody else will help you unless it’s in their interests or they really like you.

Or maybe I should say that Brussels is a Market? One big and huge market, where you can buy everything you want – starting with girls next to Gare du Nord and finishing with a warm chair in the European Parliament. The same as all other markets, it is also messy, sometimes dirty and always loud and full of people. Some of them come there knowing what to look for, some of them pass by curious to see what so famous Market has to offer and some of them wander around aimlessly.

For sure Brussels is the most multicultural city I have seen so far. Even the metropolitan London can not compete with the feeling you get when walking on the streets of Brussels. Not only “Mini-Europe” next to Atomium, but also Brussels itself takes a bit of different cultures and puts it together in one place. Turkey, Middle East, Brazil, North Africa, China, Flanders – they are just a couple of streets away from each other and all you need to do is to take another turn to find yourself in another continent.

Something like that would never happen, and probably never will, in Riga. Wherever you go, it is still Riga, the same culture, the same language and the same signs. Yes, sometimes you hear English or Russian more than Latvian, sometimes you see that those wooden houses are not comparable with art noveau found just five minutes away by tram and sometimes you think that parks so green make you feel like being in a countryside. However, never ever you have a feeling that you are in a different country or yet – a different world.

Also those who say that it is not possible to get to know Brussels in a short time are right. Brussels likes to keep its best places secret so only those who seek can find. You need to know where to go and what to look for in order to fall in love with it. And once you get the opportunity to have a glance to the way locals live, you understand – this is different. This is not Brussels which expats or tourists know, this is another city!

As I said before, people told me that one does not move to Brussels because of being in love with
the city. Despite that, there are some who stay in the city because they have fallen in love with it during their stay. And let me say that it makes Brussels meant for those who are patient enough – you need to take your time to discover the best parts of it, but once you have found them, your love becomes bigger and stronger.

This article was written as an assignment in one of the recruitment procedures when I was looking for a job. The editor wanted me to write an article, comparing Brussels with Riga. It has never been published.