Belgium and it's oddities (compared to Canada)

First, sorry to any Belgians who read this who do not find this stuff a little off, but there are some really odd things that I've notice and have to vent a little.

When we left our apartment on Saturday, there were no lights in the hallways, so we found the stairs and felt our way down all 5 flights. No power on the staircases, no emergency lighting, nothing at all. We live on the fifth floor of the building. In all buildings here, when you walk in, you are on floor 0, then when you walk up a flight, you are on 1...was confusing at first, but we're used to it now. There is no sprinkler system in the building at all. I have no idea if the smoke detector works or not, but even if it did, and we had to leave the building, we would have to find our way to the stairs and feel our way down - with hundreds of others in the dark - I smell chaos! The regulations here for building permits is much more lenient than at home.

Dylan and I were supposed to go to Brugge on Saturday morning but when we arrived at the train station at 11am and found out that the trains were on strike, so we couldn't go. We decided to walk around the city centre and take in the sights instead. Strikes are quite popular here - Dylan has run into 3 train strikes since coming in September. This was a 24hr strike - to get their point across, then it's done. When we were walking downtown, there was a huge parade with people in uniforms carrying balloons and signs and we asked someone what it was about. It was the union strike parade. The workers of the unions want to make peace with the distinction between the Dutch and French. It wasn't a government strike - was members of the unions who represented the different cultures who wanted uniformity. Interesting for us....unions aren't allowed to pick and choose their members at home - everyone is able to join the union no matter what their language, beliefs or religion.

If there is construcion or deliveries happening in the city, there is nothing blocking off traffic or the sidewalks. Last week I was walking to the store and there was a truck delivering bricks to one of the homes along the road with a small crane. I kept on walking along the sidewalk and suddenly had to duck to get out of the way of the swinging arm with the crate of bricks on the end of it. I'm serious, I was walking straight into a wall of bricks and noone was telling me not to. In Canada, there would be orange cones blocking off the sidewalk, or at least someone standing there telling people to cross the road...not here...we walked right into the middle of the chaos. The guy just smiled at me, stopped the swinging arm and let me pass - Thanks Buddy!

Windows are being replaced in one of the buildings on the main street where we live. This is a very large building, so there have been deliveries of glass panes for a week now. When you walk up to it, the truck is blocking the sidewalk, so you have to walk around, but there is nothing telling you to walk on the other side or caution or anything. You just have to be aware and watch out for the flying windows. Also, the delivery men usually don't stop when they see you approaching....it is just assumed that you 'watch out'!

There are no stop signs in Brussels. Well, this may not be true, but I haven't seen any yet. Instead of a stop sign, the right has the right away. So, if you are approaching a side street to your right, you have to caution because they will zip right through without looking. When we cross the street, pedestrians are supposed to have the right away (I think), but that doesn't happen here....you take your life in your hands crossing...always. Roundabouts also replace stop signs here. They are chaotic roundabouts!!! It is pretty scary seeing the tiny cars speed into the roundabout without looking and pull out in front of others to get to their destination. So, no stop signs or stops at all for that matter - just drive and yield to the right when you feel like it.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but there is no tax added on purchases in Belgium. Taxes are already added into the price on all goods (some products aren't taxed, like children's clothing). When you go to a store and buy something for $4.50 - it is $4.50...I love this! No guessing and trying to add the tax in your head - the price is the price - bottom line! Products also don't sell for .99....I mean instead of something being $9.99 here - it would be $10......alot of the prices are just rounded to the dollar.

Bathrooms: Ok, this totally deserves it's own post, but I'll try to cover all the oddities about them. First of all, Dylan and I went to Subway last week. It was the first one we saw here in Brussels and it just opened a few weeks ago. It was delicious - the same taste as at home, but when I asked where the toilet was (if you say washroom or bathroom here, they look at you weird and think you want to get a shower...I think toilet is a little vulgar, but I'm trying to remember to say it), there wasn't one. No toilet....it was Subway sandwiches and there was no toilet - I couldn't believe it. This was the only place where this happened, but I am still a little shocked about it.
I know that I've mentioned that you have to pay to use the bathroom in most places - fast food, metro, train station, shopping centres...mostly everywhere....price ranges from 30 to 50 cents - I'm ok with this now! There is usually an attendant there who keeps the bathroom clean (or bearable), so not too bad. In some places, they pass you some paper towel and have gum, hairspray and other stuff for you to use (for a tip of course)! FYI, the picture above is a toilet in Milan, Italy. I haven't seen any like this in Belgium yet, but I'm sure they exist - I just added it here because it goes along with the theme of this post.

I have NEVER seen a hot water tap in a bathroom here! When you wash your hands, you have to use cold water - there is no other choice. At home, there has to be hot water or you wouldn't be allowed to serve customers. The hand washing at home is an important part of going to the bathroom (I mean Toilet)....and yet, they do not need to provide customers with hot water here or even warm water for that matter.

In most places there is one bathroom for men and women. It is not unusual for me to be in the bathroom with a man's urinal next to me or a man using it for that matter. There is a stall with a door and a urinal next to it for both sexes. In some places, there are 2 rooms - a women's and men's toilet, then a sink shared between the two bathrooms. This is very common here, even in nice restaurants!

The communal urinal is interesting to see in the middle of the street. Men - the world is their toilet, yet they have these in many places in the city. The picture here shows the urinal which has no doors or covers at all - just a big toilet in the city. If you can make out the picture, there are 4 urinals here, so men just hover to the middle and do their thing in public. When Dylan and I were at the Christmas Market last weekend, the huge urinal was right in the middle of it all. I was shocked to see this so close to all the vendors....it was right in the walking pathway of everyone who was going to the market - wasn't even located to the side of the road or anything - right in the middle of it all!

Finding the flusher is always an adventure! I have not seen on flusher like we have on EVERY toilet at home in Europe. There are buttons to push, levers to pull, chains to tug or foot pedals to step on....it is always interesting searching for the flusher!

Many bathrooms are located either upstairs or downstairs in the restaurant - I actually can't think of one that is located on the main floor that I've used. All staircases that lead to the throne are tiny - about a foot and a half wide - straight up (or down) - it's like climbing a ladder. With my big feet, I have to edge slowly up or down these narrow stairs to reach the toilet. There is no such thing as a handicapped bathroom here - if someone was in a wheelchair, they would have to hold it because there aren't elevators or ramps anywhere. It wouldn't be possible for someone to lead a normal life if they were in a wheelchair or even if they weren't nimble for that matter.....it's like crawling through a tunnel getting to the bathroom. They don't have regulations for places to be wheelchair accessible. Most buildings are tall and narrow and don't need to be accessible by law for all individuals.

Ok, that's my rant and info about the oddities. I'm sure there are plenty more, but I think I've said enough! On a high note, Brussels is one of the most interesting and diverse cities that I've visited and I love learning about the differences between here and Canada!

Christmas in Brussels

Last weekend we went downtown to see the sights of the Christmas market, light show and all the decorations in Grand Place. The Christmas Market is about 200 vendors who have little cabins set up along the streets in the city selling goods. There are clothes, jewellery, chocolate (of course) and food. When we arrived downtown, we looked at the nativity scene (which has real sheep and goats) and headed towards Manneken Pis. Mr. Pis was dressed up for the occasion as Sinterklaas - in his usual peeing stance!
While we were observing Mr. Pis, we heard music and looked up the street to see the Christmas Parade and stayed to watch it. It was interesting - Manneken Pis was honoured and the "Friends of Manneken Pis" lead the parade to Grand Place. At the beginning of the parade was a cart with Manneken Pis standing tall leading the parade. When the guy pushing the cart would get close to a group of kids, he would pull a lever and Manneken Pis would pee on the crowd. I said to Dylan that if I was a kid and saw Santa peeing, I might be scarred for life - not these Belgians - they love a peeing boy!

The parade had Sinterklaas at the end along with his Petes. They escorted him to Mannekin Pis where he got off his sleigh and had a photo op by Mr. Pis, then guess what Sinterklaas did - he went to the bar! He walked across the street, through all the children who were there to see him and walked straight into the nearest pub! It was quite amusing - I love Belgium!

When we headed for the market, there were lots of things to see and we spent most of the afternoon walking around and observing. One of Belgium's favorite holiday drinks (which was for sale everywhere) was "Vin Chaud"....yep, that's what it is, Hot Red Wine. I tried a glass, wasn't a huge fan, it tasted exactly like it sounds, hot red wine....not too good (although I've heard that you can get good stuff and bad stuff - I must have had the bad stuff).

There is also a huge skating rink and ferris wheel at the end of the market. There were lots of kids skating the day we were there - lots of 'ankle burners' as Dylan called them as there are no rinks here for skating, the market is the only place in Brussels where people can skate - so I think the locals are out of practice. I've been back to the market three times since, it is a nice place to walk around and get in the holiday spirit!

In the evening we went to Grand Place and saw the light show. It was the lights blinking and flashing to opera music. Was ok to see for about 5 minutes, then we went for a beer - typical Belgian style - Sinterklaas even does it!

Mmm....Lamburger

Last week when Dylan and I went to the market on Sunday (in the pouring rain), we picked up the usual fresh fruit, vegetables, olives, eggs and cheese and decided to buy some meat from one of the butchers too. If you can picture this market, there are probably 100 produce vendors, 30 cheese vendors and at 20 butchers plus about 200 of just 'other stuff' which may dub as 'junk'. This market is huge!

So of course, I look for the tables or carts with the 'deals'....just like we can't buy all the veggies in one place (which drives Dylan nuts btw), we had to browse and find a deal with the meat. We found a large vendor with a variety and a good price on ground beef and another with a great price on chicken. We purchased the meat and were on our way.

So if some of you haven't heard, I'm having a hard time thinking of different stove top recipes every night since we've been here. With no oven, it cuts out quite a few options.
When we got home, the meat was divided up and thrown in the freezer (of our bar fridge) and life went on.

Last Tuesday I cooked the 'beef' and made an extremely hot chilli. It was good, but when I was cooking it, I thought the meat smelled funny, but decided it was just 'Belgian' and went on with it (it was fresh, I knew it wasn't bad). The chilli was good, but had a very distinct taste which I couldn't pinpoint....
Sunday past, Dylan made spaghetti sauce with the rest of the 'ground beef'....as soon as he started cooking it, we figured out the 'different taste/smell'....it was LAMBURGER!

The lamburger spaghetti was good, but once we knew what it was made of, it was obvious. We ate lamb in Dubin when we had Irish stew and neither of us were huge fans, but in Ireland, you have to try the most famous dish. From now on, we will only buy chicken (or Kip in Dutch) at the market - or ask specifically if it is ground beef before we buy it.

As a sidenote, when I go to the grocery store, there are two types of ground meat there to buy - ground pork or ground beef. They are labelled in french, so easy to distinguish and you can also tell by the color - beef is red, pork is pink (with green things in it - not sure what they are). I always buy it at the meat counter, since there is a limited variety in the fridge there. Also, when I buy eggs, it is not uncommon for them to be spotty or even still have feathers attached to them when I open the package - which I've been able to get past in the last few months.

That is our LAMBURGER experience - a mistake we will not make again!!!

Santa Claus vs. Sinterklaas

Although Santa Claus and Sinterklaas resemble each other with the long white beard, red suit and jolly 'assistants', I've just found out that Sinterklaas is NOT Santa Claus.

These lucky Belgians get two days of presents! Sinterklaas is a Turkish Bishop that comes on December 6th, so shoes are put at the chimney on the evening of December 5th in hopes that Sinterklaas fills them with presents. Belgians also get presents from Santa Claus, however, some families do not do the whole filling of stockings, it is just presents from family and friends like we have in Canada.

Lately, I have seen christmas trees for sale in some places, but they are not like the lots we see at home. The trees that I've seen are about 4-5 feet tall and very sparse, so appreciate your big, full spruce or pine trees at home, becuase in other parts of the world, it is a luxury!!!