About the past days in #BrusselsLockdow

Friday the 13th we were having friends over, laughing and playing games, until someone said that there's a terrorist attack going on in Paris. Everyone grabbed their phones to check with people they know, to check the news and to update each other about the news from sources in different countries. We were also worried about the security situation in Brussels, but it was only during the following days that we started to understand how serious it all was. Some of the terrorists shooting at innocent people in Paris were Belgian and lived in Brussels, there were house raids and suspects were arrested.

Monday afternoon from the 20th floor of our office
building - Brussels seems to be sleeping.

The week following the attacks in Paris I still considered life normal, even though every morning two soldiers greeted me while passing the entrance to the garage of the Berlaymont building and two or three more were patrolling inside the Schuman metro station. Friday, when my colleague left, he said to me "hope to see you on Monday" instead of wishing me a good weekend - everyone was tense because of how things were developing. After work I took the metro as usual and was mentally preparing myself for the gym. At the metro station I heard announcements that there has been a disruption in the metro service and that the metro was running late. My line of thought went from "oh no, I hope it is not a terrorist attack" to "hmm, I guess these kind of things happen" to "oh the metro is here already" and by the time I was running on the treadmill I had already forgotten about the metro. Knowing what we know now, it probably wasn't something that just happens.

Then Saturday morning I read an email from my mum - the terror alert level of Brussels has been raised to the highest possible level and that the metros are closed. I had decided to go to the library and decided that no terrorist will stop me from doing my plans. I took the bus, which was surprisingly empty, walked to the library, which was closed and it didn't take me long to realize that the only people on the street were soldiers and tourists. On my way home I stopped by at our local supermarket and bought canned food to prepare myself for the worst. Saturday evening I went with my Irish friends to our pub around the corner, and the streets were completely empty which is abnormal for a Saturday night. Sunday I stayed at home and in the evening I hoped to hear good news - that we could start the week like this had never happened. Unfortunately the opposite was true and through Twitter we found out about the actions the police was taking in different parts of Brussels - until the cats took over Twitter. I went to bed not knowing how the next morning would look like, if I could go to work and how I would get to office if it was possible to  go.

On Monday morning I was hesitating. The police had arrested many people the previous night but life was far from normal. The threat level remained at 4 and therefore the exceptional measures remained. Thus, the metro wasn't running, the schools, creches and universities were closed, the shops, malls and cafes in different shopping streets were closed, my gym was closed. I thought again to myself that I need some normality in this extreme situation and decided to walk 2,5 km into town to get to work instead of taking the bus. I was among the few who dared to take the step as there was very little traffic and my office building was half empty but my colleagues was very happy to see me. On Tuesday the situation remained the same and I walked to work. There was definitely more traffic on the street and more people in the office. But still everything closed: shopping mall, library, museums, gym, metro, schools, universities. After four days of everything being closed, on Wednesday the shopping malls opened again, my gym was open and the metro was running again. On the street it looked like normal but soldiers were patrolling in front of government buildings and hotels. I went quickly into town today - to enter a shopping mall I had to show my backpack and there were not many people comparing to a normal Wednesday evening.

It is hard to say if I am scared or not. I want things to be normal, I want to go to work, joke about stupid things and move around freely, but under these circumstances it is not really possible. It gives me confidence that also other people are going out, taking their kids to school and go shopping. We are just citizens with very limited information on what is really going on. The only thing we can do is life our lives, follow the instructions given by the authorities and not to take too big risks. Worst thing is that other people are worried about me walking into town. Second worst thing is that, even when all the terrorists have been caught, we will not be close to the end, I'm afraid.