Never been to Mechelen or Hasselt. I used to help a guy in Antwerp buy old Ford Mustangs from Los Angeles area and ship them to Belgium. He had a shop that fixed them up and sold them. I have a friend in Maastricht, Netherlands, and I've been to Brussels, but only for a couple days. I hear Bruges is a good place to travel. Long Beach is close to Los Angeles, so we get lots of traffic, but people are fairly nice. When I was in Belgium, the people weren't mean, they just weren't friendly, i.e. they didn't talk to you much. I find that the more crowded a city, and the worse the weather, the less friendly the people (at least, until they've had a couple beers). I'd go back in a heartbeat though, for the food, the culture, and being so much closer to so many other cool places. One nice thing about European women, they usually have a sexy accent when they speak English
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Italian cars are nice and sporty, and German cars are good too, but I like good old American cars (actually, I like old cars from anywhere -- they're have much more interesting designs). I have one of these:
http://local.aaca.org/antelope/image...c Firebird.jpg that I'm fixing up, though mine will be either black or a dark orange color, like rust. I'm not sure which yet. It's no Ferrari or Lamborghini, but still pretty fast with a 5.7 liter engine, and handles well for how heavy it is. It uses a lot of gas though. Not practical over there given European gas prices.
If you do ever make it over here, to live or just visit, don't hesitate to get in touch, it would be interesting to meet another cprogramming person in person.