Monday, February 25, 2008

Life in Leuven (Belgium)

Some of the things i noticed or are highlights are noted below
1. Leuven is student town, with 135K population, of which 40k are students. Students come from all over Europe to study here.
2. Entire city can be considered as a circle with radius of 2KM. Entire city has look and feel of Paris. You find parallel streets with all great shops, designer wears etc and eateries in others. City center is the City Hall or as they say the STADHUIS

Just opposite to City hall is Saint Peters church. There are lots of great paintings and sculptures inside it.
3. Near the city hall there is Oude Markt. Lots of Restaurants, Pubs, clubs are here with great cafes with outside seating. I had couple of Stella's and Leffe's here.I got to chat with the waiter who hated US for its President and people electing him twice ;-)
4. I found 3 Indian restaurants in my walking tour, ate at one (Basecamp) and was not particularly thrilled eating there. I ate Tibetan Momo which was nothing as compared to what we ate in Delhi.
5. If you are student or want to eat cheap you can have a meal for 4E. Ther are lots of kabob places which serve Veg/Non Veg kabob for 3E and Coke for 1E. I ate a doner kabob at one place and it was awesome. I made some afghani friends there talking about Rabab and Sarod.Sunday is normally dead as students go to meet their family or friends and most shops are closed. There are some great pastry shops which i plan to taste and visit next few days.
6. Everyone here drives bicycle and some of the parking lots look really amazing.

7. My hotel (Novotel) is located in the city and is walking distance from City Hall and all other locations. Stella Artois has brewery next to my hotel, but needs appointment :-(. There is also Leuven station next to my hotel, which was totally destroyed in WW1 and WW2, but was restored later. There is a world war monument here which i visited late.