Already during the first week of my internship at guide organization Vizit I got a task that, for me, is one of the biggest tasks in the guiding sector. I was asked to help making a new route in Brussels, more specifically in the European Quarter. This route was going to be a virtual route, during Covid nobody was allowed to follow guided tours. Thus, Vizit created tours that people could follow from their homes. I was overjoyed with this task, because I could discover a new neighbourhood in Brussels and all my creative ideas could be released by making this route. This journey started with a lot of computer work, I first needed to gain a great deal of information about the history of the neighbourhood. I really liked digging up the old and crazy stories and sometimes it even felt like I went back in time. I discovered stories of the first train ride in Belgium and how former King Leopold I incognito was during this train ride. Or a story of a rich man who lived in the European Quarter and died because during a flight he thought he went to the bathroom, but he actually took the door leading him out of the plane.
Grâce à ces histoires comiques j’ai été intriguée par ce quartier et quand j’ai eu toutes les informations je suis allée au quartier dans le but de voir ces bâtiments et de sentir l’environnement moi-même. Arrivée au Quartier Européen j’ai commencé à faire des vidéos pour la visite virtuelle. Mon premier arrêt était la statue de l’industriel John Cockerill. Cette statue a également beaucoup souffert de l’iconoclasme décolonisateur actuel. Après ce petit revers j’ai continué mon chemin au parlement imposant. Grâce au soleil radieux les vidéos de cet arrêt sont très jolis. Aussi les autres arrêts étaient beaux, c’était très agréable de voir avec mes propres yeux toutes les choses que j’avais recherchées. Le tournage était aussi un vrai défi, je n’ai aucune expérience en IT donc selon moi toutes les vidéos sont bien réussies.
The filming in Brussels was nearly done, only one stop was left, the embassy of Spain. This embassy is located in one of the oldest buildings in the Quarter, thus it was a great stop because the story here was a good way to end the whole tour. But the guard of the embassy though otherwise. I started filming the façade of the building and then I started walking closer towards the door with the sign of the embassy. I thought the filming was done, but suddenly the door of the embassy went open. A woman stepped outside and asked me what I was doing, I explained that I was making a tour in de neighbourhood and that I needed to film some buildings. She asked me if she could see the footage and after she saw it she promptly asked me to deleted the video.
Après toutes les recherches et le tournage, les mesures de Covid étaient détendues. Par conséquent le tour dans le Quartier Européen n’a jamais été utilisé. Mais tout mon travail n’est pas pour rien parce que l’année prochain je peux commencer à travailler chez Vizit et donc je peux finir mon travail et créer mon propre tour à Bruxelles.