My dad is in the military and he accepted a 3-year posting to Belgium. It was a year after I finished high school and I was working full time but happily agreed to move to Belgium with my family. My initial thoughts were I would only be able to stay for max 6 months before having to go back to Canada to work and go to school. However, being in Europe and falling in love with travel and experience living here offers I decided to go to college somewhere in Europe rather than back in Canada. This allowed me to spend a year in Belgium before I headed to Florence Italy for college. 

 

During my year in Belgium, there were some facts I found out very quickly. The weather usually sucks, do not rely on the trains and Belgium is a great location for travelling!

 

The winters are gloomy, rainy and long. You can get all four seasons in 30mins or just a week straight of rain. One positive side of crazy weather is there are usually a few really good thunderstorms in the summer which made it all (almost) worth it as I adore thunderstorms.

 

The trains can either be right on time or simply never show up. Personally, I have terrible luck with trains but I did get the same reaction from a few others here so I know it's not just my bad luck.

 

With those down sides comes the reason I loved living here, the travel! Belgium is quite small and located perfectly in the middle of SO MANY must-see countries including Germany, France, Netherlands. From my house, we could drive 2 hours one way and get to Paris and 2 hours the other way and get to Amsterdam. There are so many great Ryanair flights from Charleroi or Brussels and the price is usually great! 

​

​