We are off to take a look at Belgium in more detail. Adrian will see the universities and meet potential colleagues, and I have interviews with a spouse placement company and will look at houses and schools. We will also have the chance to see some of the surrounding countries. Our flight leaves in four hours, so off we go…

As a child, I spent many a long afternoon triumphantly building hotels on Trafalgar Square or sadly mortgaging Old Kent Road. When I visited to London last month, seeing the familiar names come to life was a magical experience. Now, I will soon be able explore the whole world in much the same manner. Would I be able to live happily in Brussels, knowing that it didn’t make the grade?

In February Hasbro announced that they would create a new Worldwide Monopoly, and the choice of cities will be determined by popular vote. The game pieces, Chance, and Community Chest cards will feature events and icons from around the world. I wonder what the unit of currency will be? Perhaps the Euro? Or will we have to exchange our Dollars for Lats to put a house on Riga? Will a tax treaty apply equally to all players? Will Rich Uncle Pennybags still be the icon?

Learning from their embarrassing incident for the French version, where all cities were available for vote and the winner was Montcuq (which sounds like mon cul – “my bottom”), Hasbro pre-selected 68 cities, on which over 5.6 million people voted. Only the two brown spots were open to write-in Wildcard cities.

For some reason, the Montreal Board of Trade coveted the top spot, and invested a huge marketing drive in pushing all residents to have their say. The voters were also mobilised in Latvia, as Riga had an official campaign supported by the government tourism body. These strategies seem to have paid off, as these two cities occupy the most prestigious spots on the new board. The winners are:

Ghent

We began our Belgium experience with two days in Ghent – a single 40 minute train ride straight from Brussels airport. This city is also spelled Gent – each city has a French and a Dutch spelling, sometime similar, and sometimes not. Even spellings that look similar can be pronounced quite differently, as Brugge is pronounced Broozh in French, and the same city is spelt Bruges in Flemish and pronounced Broo-gah. So if we lived in the Flemish area of Belgium, like Ghent, would we learn Dutch or French? Or both? I would have to live in Brussels or Wallonia to be immersed in French.

While Adrian was off at his interview at Vlaanderen Instituut Biotechnologie (Flanders Institute of Biotechnology – VIB), I spent the day exploring Ghent, grabbing a delicious Belgian waffle from a street vendor to sustain me. In the 12th century it was the biggest city in Europe after Paris, and this is reflected by its wide streets and impressive buildings. The castle and the belfry, the bridges over the canals, and the cobblestone streets give with city a very historical feel. Yet the H&M stores and street art merge together to bring this city into the modern age. Most people seem to get around by tram or bike, and don’t even bother locking up their bicycles when they pop into a store

July 15 was our one year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by wandering though the streets of Ghent in the evening, and sharing an indulgent chocolate mousse and ice-cream dessert. We discussed the many directions that our lives could take together, and pondered the pros and cons of living in Belgium.

Blankenberge
Belgium is a tiny country with a fast and dense train system, which meant that we could see three cities in one day. We began with Blankengerge, a seaside town that hosted the Zandsculptuurfestival, including the world’s largest sand castle.

Brugge
We then back-tracked to Brugge, and we were very impressed with the beauty of the city.

In addition to admiring the main square, we visited three museums – the Chocolate Museum, the Lamp Museum, and the Fries Museum. The Chocolate Museum was disappointed and did not result in 5 Euros worth of chocolate, even though I took more than my share of free samples and was scolded by the attendant. Lumina Domestica consisted of the world’s largest collection of lamps, and was disturbing in its scope and the personality that must lie behind such compulsive hording.

The Fries Museum was our favourite, and we learned a vast amount about the history of the potato and the emergence of the ‘French’ Fry, first invented in Belgium. They seem very circumspect about this mis-attribution, stating that proper recognition this would only have added to the problems of Wallonia. I was also able to see a fry-making robot, and the world’s smallest fries, set amongst a miniature fry cart.

Brussels
One day in Brussels to see if I could live and work here. We spent the morning exploring the city centre, including the Grand Place and Manneken Pis. Then it was time for Adrian to head off to his job interview at Université Libre de Bruxelles (University of Brussels – ULB), while I got a better feel for the city.

It is a big city, full of Dutch and French, with dense townhouses and plenty of foot traffic. I popped into an employment agency to have a chat, and it seems like I would have excellent job prospects here, especially as Adrian’s job would once again provide assistance. As the capital of the EU, there are many public health organisations based here, and if I learned French I could obtain a (low-paid) internship and then move into one of many policy based jobs. Out of all the candidate cities, I think Brussels would be the best at helping me move into working in an international organisation with the aim to further worldwide health.

As Belgium is so central, we could explore different areas of Europe over the weekend, and be only a few ours by train from many of our favourite cities. The quality of life is very high and there is are excellent state-funded health-care and education system. However, the weather is grey and it rains on two-thirds of the year. Adrian would get a lower wage here, our house deposit would be crushed when converting it to Euros, and if I was on a low-paid internship, we may be struggling to buy a house and live comfortably.

We had always dreamed of living in Europe, however Montréal called to us for many of the same reasons. The people there have an excellent work/life balance, it is a bilingual city with stunning architecture, and a socially responsible government.

We began our first day with a tour of the Institut de recherche en immunologie et en cancérologie (Institute for Research into Immunology and Cancer – IRIC), the component of the Université de Montréal that has offered Adrian a job for next year. It is a brand new building, with state-of-the-art facilities, full of light and well designed for the art of science. We had lunch with the students, and they seemed bright, happy, and enthusiastic. They all spoke fluent English for our benefit, but in side conversations alway spoke French.

As I would like to learn French, the other working language of the UN, Montreal would mean my immersion would be quite deep. There are excellent French schools that are cheap, and Adrian’s job may help to cover this. Also, as English is the other official language (not Dutch like Belgium), I would only have to learn one new language, not two. It actually appears that it will be quite easy for me to find a job in Montreal. IRIC will pay for a head-hunter to find me an interview, taking most of the stress out of that worry.

In the afternoon, we were given a tour of the city by Robert Turgeon, the President of Heritage Montreal and Dinu Bumbaru, key advisor to UNESCO’s World Heritage. Adrian and I spoke of some of our favourite World Heritage moments – getting engaged in Dubrovnik, married in Banff, and recently visiting Kiev and Lviv in the Ukraine. The parks were beautiful – in summer serving as a venue for picnics and puppies, and in winter the pond becoming a huge ice-skating rink for the whole city. Although out of all the candidate cities it has the lowest number of days above freezing (58%), it also has the highest number of days without rain (61%). I am told that the winters are still bright, despite the cold. In our other cities the winters would be grey and rainy. The attitude of the locals seems to be that they survive the winter every year (all four metres of snow), and that’s enough.

We had dinner in Little Italy, savoring the food and admiring the huge farmers market bursting with fresh produce.

Adrian’s friend Sylvie, a fellow immunologist, very kindly hosted our visit. We were able to stay with her for the weekend and experience what it is like to be a scientist in Montréal with a family. We spent the day in Old Montreal with Sylvie and her two children, Valerie and Loïc. The weather was stunning, and I was able to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the bustle of the “Just for Laughs” festival.  During summer, there are non-stop festivals. During winter, there is ice-skating and cross-country skiing, and numerous winter festivals. The family seems very happy here, the children already speaking French and quickly learning English.

In the afternoon we wandered through Plateau, and marvelled at the beautiful stone Victorian townhouses that are somehow in our price-range, due to the very low cost of living in Montréal. We could live in a vine-covered mini-castle, with wrought-iron frills, parapets and turrets, opposite an open park and metres from a metro station. Even many of the old churches are being converted into condominiums, and we could even live in a home with a spire. The low cost of stunning housing in Montreal is a definite plus.

On Sunday we watched Wall-E at a local Cinemaplex. The movies are shown in both English and French, one just chooses the appropriate session. Valerie and Loïc obliged me by joining us in the English session. It was a relaxing and enjoyable end to three days in Montreal, and we both realised that we could be very happy living in this town, and eventually becoming Canadian citizens.

However, despite appearances, Montréal is on the opposite side of the Atlantic to the rest of Europe. No quick trains to Paris or London, no long weekends in Spain or Amsterdam. There are direct flights to over 120 destinations (New York in 90 minutes), but on rails we could only reach Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City, and Halifax. Do we want to share a border with the USA?