Sure, Leonidas pralines are easily bought during this fair and the Neuhaus – making-of – demo of the iconic Caprice draws visitors’ attention, but this Salon du Chocolat is particularly fun for those cocoa-inamoratos that want to dig deeper into the world of chocolate.

Take your chance to taste and buy fruity and salty bonbons, sandwich spread without palm oil or Indian spiced chocolate. Learn from chocolatier Callebaut how chocolate is made from the very beginning. Taste the Nutty Thins from Belgian hipster Baru, which mostly sells their chocolate flakes through niche delis.

In the Young Talent Space you can meet among others a family from Tervuren that a year ago decided to start a chocolate company under the name Mi Joya. Get acquainted with pure Colombian chocolate and proceed your adventure at the booth of Peru Organic, a company founded in the heart of the land of the Incas. Encounter the Chocolat Beussent Lachelle, a company that started as a family business thirty years ago and now owns its own cocoa plantation in Equador. This French chocolatier controls the entire chocolate production process: from the growth and harvest of cocoa to the finishing touch of the praline. Like this, an honest product with a fine taste is guaranteed.

A message to those people that are not into chocolate but end up at shed 3 and 4 of Tour&Taxis this weekend anyway: don’t worry. Leave the chocolate stands where they are and enjoy your Duvel beer, accompanied by an Arabic pastry, some marshmallows or a carrot cupcake while you check the catwalk for models presenting couture outfits. Beware though, that a complete escape is not possible: the fashion is made from chocolate!

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People in general have a choice in transport, and opinions vary about which choice would be better. For me, even though I am Dutch and I grew up riding a bike, choosing the bike as an alternative way of transport in Brussels does not seem a comfortable option. My experience in riding a bike here is quite extraordinary: during my first try I almost got hit by a car. I call this an extraordinary experience because this almost-accident happened on a car-free Sunday… Since then my enthusiasm for biking in this city dissapeared.

Setting aside the risk of accidents, it turns out that healthwise the bike is not the worst choice of transport after all. This week interesting study results were published by Leefmilieu Brussel, regarding the choice of transport and consequences for exposure to air pollution. This is a topic that should interest every Brusselaar, as living in Brussels shortens your life in average with 9 months because of the poor quality of air that you breathe.

For this study, 276 volunteers measured their exposure to polluted air while living their normal lives. Air pollution was measured while travelling and it was compared to exposure while being inside a building. The results show that walking or travelling by train in general guarantees the least exposure to air pollution. If you choose to travel by bus, tram, metro or bike, your exposure to black carbon is 3 to 4 times higher than while being inside a building.

The most interesting conclusion is that those people who massively travel by car, and are together blocking the Brussels roads, turn out to be the biggest victim of their own choice of travelling. Exposure to black carbon while travelling by car in Brussels, is not less than 5 times higher than while being in a building.

In my personal competition the finish line is in sight. I turn my head and look down the street: no sign of my competitor. Probably it progressed 300 meters on the 2,5 kilometer training track. The victory is mine, but it does not bring much happiness. For my own sake and the sake of all other people participating in the Brussels traffic, I hope that in the near future I will start losing this game more often.

The post How healthy is your Brussels transport choice? appeared first on Brussels Express.

Firstly there is the type of graffiti which, as I imagine, hooded youngsters secretly scribble on the wall during dark nights. It’s those sprayed initials, coincidently stuck on your neighbours house, which seem to tell you who owns the hood. Great pieces of information, at least if you are interested. Such shambles captured my undivided attention once. The pink/red initials were accompanied by the encouragement « Fight like a girl!! » and I wondered: has feminism become a serious issue in this dark Brussels underground world? An online search led me to a girls team of a local fight club. The message was meant quite literally after all.

Setting aside the use of graffiti to express territorial instincts, we are happily left with the more creative type of wall paintings that you can come across. Brussels is indeed a perfect city for lovers of ‘out in the open’ street art. Spending an afternoon in the Marollen neighbourhood, you will surely come across some sharp colourful images, large as a house can be, of well-known comic book heroes. The city even has an official comic book route! Or, quite less polished, look for the drawings of pencils. They are tucked away all over town and their stories are a mystery. If you wish to discover a rawer style, I would recommend for example to walk away from Hallepoort on the Henri Jasparlaan and look up. Or go and discover the works of street artist Bonom. His fans made a helpful map.

Now, street art comes and goes, but Zizi might be another story. Have you met Zizi, from Saint Gilles? He is a big popular wiener and personality with his own Facebook page. Zizi survived a political debate in the municipality about his possible removal. You can meet him in real life at the tram stop Bareel – at the side of cafe Las Vegas. He will be happy to see you.

If you are in favor of getting a portion of street art, but you can’t find your walking shoes, then the Brussels MIMA museum for contemporary art, opened last year, is an interesting alternative. This culture 2.0 museum is housed in the buildings of an old brewery in Molenbeek and is a great example of how approachable art can be.

Some more tips:

• VisitBrussels – Street Art in Brussel
• Comic book route in Brussels 
• Overview of Bonom works
• Streetartbe 
• The Art of Banksy exposition, currently in Antwerp

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