Originally posted by FantasticMrFox Same here! My grandfather used to own a house at the Belgian coast, in a rather nice part of the country, so I've been to Belgium most summers of my childhood and teenage years. It's difficult to put in words, but there is something weird about Belgium. It feels like the place doesn't have a proper identity, or history, or culture. At least in some places. Others, like Bruges, are pretty nice.
This is amusing, there's no place in the world where you find more culture and history n such a small area than Belgium. Ghent, Mechelen, Antwerp, Brussels, Bruges... there all just a stone's throw away from each other and have all been historically important cities. Buy a history book. This said, the political structure in Belgium is very complex, this is historically grown because of the difference in culture between the north and south. The views on how to organise a society are totally different. This is causing poor decision making and is one of the reasons Wallonia struggles the modernise its economy. The current discussion about CETA deal with Canada is a typical example of this.
But Charleroi will live up in time and for now, it's a great place to take pictures, there's also a film (Izgnanie (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0488905/) which has its impressive opening sequence shot in Charleroi, check it out