The European Go Congress 2019 in Bruxelles / Belgium was a bit
different than the previous congresses:

1) On the second Wednesday, the congress venue was closed!

The major reason was congress budget and avoiding paying for the venue buildings at that day. So the participants had to pay for their
accommodation on that day but could not play go at the congress venue.
Every participant payed a congress fee, from which in particular the
venue must be payed. If nevertheless money was short, the Belgium Go
Federation or the European Go Federation ought to have paid for the
venue on the second Wednesday! At the very least for the smaller of
the two buildings of the venue. It is totally unacceptable that a
congress venue is completely closed during a European go congress.
This is the fault of the congress organisers, the Belgium Go
Federation and the European Go Federation.

2) There were too few side tournaments.

The Belgium congress organisers could not organise every common side tournament. Therefore, at least three of them had German tournament
directors: I ran the 13x13, Klaus Petri the children tournament and,
IIRC, Marc-Oliver Rieger the YinYang tournament. However, the very
popular lightning tournament was missing this year - for the first
time since at least 1993 (my first congress)! What a shame! This is
the mistake of those Belgium congress organisers stopping organisation
before the congress and every participant, who might have organised
the lightning. I provided some technical help for any would be
tournament director of the lightning but could not also organise it
myself because organising the 13x13 and giving two lectures during the
congress was just about as much as I could do with 2.5 weeks of
preparation time since confirmation by the congress organisers. There
would have been enough rooms. At least, the congress organisers were
very helpful towards the extra volunteers and lecturers.

3) Compared to 2018, the numbers of participants dropped much.

The major reason is, of course: Bruxelles is expensive.

4) There was the strongest participant ever.

Presumably, Sun Tengyu 7p CN was the strongest congress player ever.
Needless to say, he played 10:0 in the European Open Championship, 9:0
in the rapid but did not participate in the weekend tournament. In the
13x13 (played with 10' SD), he (like every pro in side tournaments)
played as 8d and made it to the quarter finals, losing to its
tournament winner Yoon Namgi 7d KR. (The congress webpage states the
2nd place Tang Hao Liu 6d KR but misses the 3rd place Kim Doh Yup 7d
KR of the 13x13.)

5) French ranks are more unpredictable than ever.

Yann Flambard 1d FR played 9 1/2 : 1/2 (default tie in round 2, why?)
in the main tournament, ending at place 9 of the European Open
Championship amidst the 6d and 7d players but with a SOS of 2d - 4d
players. He beat three 4d, two 5d (each 4:1 from CN, of which one beat
me by 1.5 points in round 10) and one 6d (Lukas Krämer) players and
tied against a 4d. So his appropriate rank is at least 5d, IMO.

6) Local transport?

It is a tourist trap! Does one need a special extra card?! The day
ticket (no special card needed despite contrary information) is not
valid in city trains despite contrary map information (I was lucky
with the conductor not issuing a fine) but must be validated again on
each access of a vehicle, even if validating machines are hidden at
innocent places!

7) The supermarket was open on Sundays!

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