Legal and Loving It

Now that I'm a legalised resident, Antwerpen is opening her doors to me ... and hidden behind those doors were marvellous things.

The first thing I discovered was that as soon as I held a residency permit, I no longer had to pay each time I took guests to any of the city-owned museums. Rubens House is now free for me every time and as the visit count is up around 5, I'm happy.

Actually it's an interesting place to visit and then revisit again and again, and is almost next door to my favourite secondhand bookshop - De Slegte.

Now that I'm married to a Belgian, my life has changed yet again. After a long period of barely existing, paperwork approvals suddenly sped up, stunning me. When signing into 'the system' it was discovered I already existed ... I had a number and they knew where I lived.

Now in the past this would have horrified me but a year in the no-mans land of expat/immigrant/trailing spouse was enough to break my romantic idea of being without a country ... just quietly, it's a very complicated way to live.

Antwerpen city takes care of those it lets in, or more specifically The Business Information Desk of the City of Antwerp takes care of those who need to start their own business here in the city and today I emailed them to make an appointment.

And so it begins ... the next stage of my odd unplanned life here in Europe.