Grounded
Ah, Liège. All the directions I got were polite and precise, but upon closer inspection I noticed that even on a bright sunny day, the grey colour was just the general mood of the city. The architecture wasn’t the problem; people’s gloomy disposition was. I admire the people there trying to be as civil as possible amidst a quiet yet underlying chaos fuelled in part by recent union talks going sour and the obvious lack of joie de vivre other Walloon cities boast. Every mobile phone conversation was depressing: a student being evicted, a dog being mistreated, someone gravely ill and anything else that could fill the back pages of a tabloid. Even the fun fair with all its music and colours was dingy. To top off my day, my mobile phone was stolen. Luckily I have another one, which is more than I can say for the poor bastard reduced to stealing mine.
(Photo: the city’s idea of public art)