my experience in brussels
For the CPDP 2026, I was in Brussels this week.
the city
The inner city with all its cute little shops, fancy buildings and barely any cars was very charming. Have some pics.
We spotted Super Dragon Toys on the way and had to stop there, of course. Surprisingly, they had a lot of Sanrio, and even a blind box I was trying to get months ago that was sold out everywhere on and offline before, so I grabbed one. Got Pochacco; I liked all designs you could get in the box, so that was fine with me.
I wish we had a bonsai shop:
Also came across a colorful shop full of stuff around penises, vaginas, and breasts?
We also went to see Mandalorian and Grogu in the cinema there; very epic layout of the room. I also enjoyed the movie; I don't get the reviews at all. Typical Star Wars fan cynicism and everything-has-to-be-dark-and-gritty-like-Andor.
What was surprising is how little English is written anywhere or even reliably spoken. In German tourist-y and big cities, you have an English version of almost anything printed underneath, and often even more languages, especially when close to borders. Brussels doesn't really give the same courtesy as much as I thought it would, which caught me off guard because of all the EU buildings and employees there. Many people seem as if they don't learn English in school at all and struggle with it?
the 'hotel'
I booked something a few minutes from the venue that was affordable, looked good on pictures and had a good rating. I read the top description and bottom checklist and it sounded nice. What I didn't read were the actual reviews (my bad, I know). If I had done that, I wouldn't have booked. I read them 10 minutes before arrival and it turned out that this is an AirBnB type thing posing as a hotel. The reviews called out this lie, but still rated it high (enough). A guy waited for us to get us the keys and explain everything, and we shared an apartment with a stranger that had his separate bedroom. Yup. Stressed me the fuck out.
It was clean enough in the bedroom and bathroom (had one to our selves directly attached to it thankfully, because we had the double). The rest was meh. Kitchen utensils were severely lacking and often dirty. It was good enough to sleep and be gone the entire day. The stranger stayed in his room all the time, but smoked in there and it stunk through the entire apartment. We couldn't even get hot water reliably, and the sink spilled everywhere.
So if you are ever in the same position... Brussels City Chambers is not a hotel, or even an aparthotel like they say. The info is hidden way below, nested between lots of other info, now saying "Comfortable apartment with shared living room. Choice between private room with private bathroom and rooms with shared bathroom." You don't even get shown that during the booking process when you choose an accommodation, otherwise I would have noticed it then. Most of the pictures supplied are not of the property at all. So while technically you can find out if you are paying a lot of attention, you are meant to be misled if you just wanna be quick about it (and I hate booking hotels, so unfortunately I rushed through it, my bad).
a note on the traffic
Big city, tourists, of course it's full! To be expected. I've been in big tourist-y cities before. But my god, now I understand why Belgians in Germany drive as if they are trying to kill you. They are also trying to kill each other in their own country. Lines on the ground get completely ignored, and so are any traffic signs or lights. The speed limit doesn't matter. Everything is a mere suggestion and they are driving like it's an off-road jungle adventure. They get mad at you for taking the rules seriously. We Germans are a rule-loving folk and get mad if people cross the street during a red light, so this was a culture clash. We were frequently honked at for following the traffic rules (staying in our lane, driving the speed limit, etc.). People just endanger others by speeding through everything, cutting you, overtaking you and almost crashing into someone else, and they don't blink long enough or at all to even let you know they are gonna swerve into your lane... they all drive like reckless, annoyed Taxi drivers in an indestructible tank. It wasn't an asshole here and there, it was everywhere, all the time, every vehicle. We soon found that we are just the odd ones.
You felt it even outside the car, as a pedestrian. It felt like you weren't safe anywhere because everyone is going where ever they want, so bicycle lanes and bus lanes still had speeding cars, people almost ran over pedestrians who had the green light to cross, motorcycles drove on the sidewalk... I thought I would get ran over on this trip for sure. I also do not like how the motorcyclists can just speed past you in the middle in the tunnels without any care in the world. And how Apple Maps handles the tunnels!! They don't make it clear whether you are supposed to descend into one or keep right to avoid it.
And finally, the way crossings and roundabouts are designed in Brussels is completely not intuitive and insane. I can't even explain it, but you really have to guess how you're supposed to drive, which adds to the whole messy driving culture. Multiple times, I thought we were going the wrong way for sure, but it ended up being correct.
The almost complete app reliance to park is also nuts. We tried the parking machines that are spread around the streets, but they are very slow, and if you set the language to German, the process is broken and doesn't let you book anything. It's also very focused on the Belgian license plate layout despite Brussels being so tourist-y and full of people from outside the country, so entering anything with a different layout is risky and seems to overwhelm the process. It was much easier to handle in an app (Indigo Neo), but they only accept credit card; I am lucky to even have one. I expected more care around the different types of people coming into the city from a city that is the capital of Europe, essentially. If there is a next time, we'll definitely take the train, even if it is more expensive and more annoying with luggage.
the food
We went to Pure Veg India, Kitsune Burgers, Verdo, and grabbed some things to go from BS40 and a bakery I forgot the name of. Big fan of all of them, except for the dry pastries from unnamed bakery.
Verdo was so amazing and my highlight of it all.
final verdict
I don't know if I will be back next year, also has to do with some conference disappointments... I really wanted to like this city, also because I do sometimes toy with the idea of getting more involved in EU stuff, but I think I would be really unhappy living there :<
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