BlueXTC t1_j54njw7 wrote
I loved living in Bruxelles. Good food, better food, great food. My high school hangouts were the bars around the Grand Place. I left for my senior year goodbye tour from Zeebrugge on a ferry to Dover on my hopped up 50cc Suzuki motorcycle. I found the Flemish people much more friendly than the Wallons in the area south of Bruxelles. That could have something to do with all the Americans living in the area around the city.
nilsrva OP t1_j54o5o9 wrote
Bruxelles is the french spelling, it is a massive sore point amongst the flemish. My mother hates it but I have always been more partial to the dutch than the flemish, despite myself being flemish. It is telling that as a belgian I have been coming here my entire life, but beyond a single trip to the battle of the bulge I have never set foot in wallonia.
Really its two countries that despise each other taped together
Maar spreek je vlaams?
BlueXTC t1_j54p3nk wrote
Neen and Dank je is the extent of my vlaams. I am from Montreal originally with Scottish parents so French was the option for me to learn. Cue Parisians telling me my accent was off. Having an EEC ID did make our life much easier than my American school mates. The gendarmes at the White Horse Inn at the Grand Place asking for ID cards on a Friday night . Blue (US) you stayed behind Yellow you were allowed to leave with no issues. I wonder what people in the US would think of officers with uzis standing in the pub checking IDs. This was in the mid to late '70s
nilsrva OP t1_j54pour wrote
That’s interesting, after the Zaventem bombings it was surreal to see Belgian military with rifles in the train stations as Belgians are so unused to seeing guns, most police dont even carry them for nigh on 30 years now. What was the point then?
BlueXTC t1_j54rofb wrote
I think it was more for the US audience though they did have them at traffic stops. We had a couple of bomb threats at ISB in Boitsfort. I think the non EEC community had a little more over site than the locals. We had an area referred to as the American Ghetto in Rhodes St Genes with the houses larger and all painted white.
Danger-Moose t1_j551ass wrote
> Really its two countries that despise each other taped together
Huh, wonder what that's like...
nilsrva OP t1_j551p32 wrote
Well. They each have their own governments and languages so your joke doesnt really work here. We’re tearing ourselves apart within the same government and language. This is more like you made the US and Mexico the same country.
BlueXTC t1_j5nzxr7 wrote
Belgium was created out of an agreement between Catholic France and Protestant Netherlands. The area that is Belgium now was in dispute for decades. Strangely a German Prince of Coburg was made King, Leopold I. The court/royal palace and legal system was conducted in French. A Vlaams individual could go trial and never really understand anything going on in court. Vlaams citizens were treated as less than.
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