Interesting facts about Belgium:
Roughly, the population is about 11 million.There are the Flemings in the North, speaking Flemish and the Waloons in the South speaking French.
The official languages are Dutch, French and German.
National Geographic says, I quote:
" There are three regions in the federal state: Flanders in the north (with 5.8 million people) where the official language is Dutch; Wallonia in the south (with 3.3 million people) where French is the official language; and Brussels-Capital region (950,000 people) where both languages are used. The smaller German-speaking community (about 70,000) is in Wallonia. The regions and language communities enjoy autonomy in cultural and economic matters."
( http://www3.nationalgeographic.co.uk/places/countries/country_belgium.html)
Brussels- the capital, is also one of the European Union capitals, with a population of slightly over 1 million.
I could hear people mainly speaking French there, but the post signs and any indication are given in both Dutch and French.
Food wise, Belgium is famous for waffles, which can be eaten in a wide variety- with chocolate, fruit etc, mussels served with chips and of course, bear! Not to forget the luxury chocolate either!! ( 2.50 euros/ 100g).
The second day we visited Mini-Europe, at
Heysel Station, a large park with the most important cultural land-marks in the Europen Union states. They are said to have taken a great deal of time to be built up and detail the actual real-life and real-size buildings.
Examples of what you can see: the castle of Olavinlinna in Finland,Tallin from Estonia, the Riga monument of freedom in Latvia,the University of Vilnius in Lithuania, the Houses of Parliamnet in the UK,etc...
Apparently they did not bother to do a lot of research on Romania- maybe only because we have just joined the EU 8 months ago, but they chose for no apparent or justifiable reason a memorial house from Mogosoaia which to me it doesn't really say a whole lot. They could have chosen one of the monasteries, cathedrals, famous castles, Mogosoaia does not represent Romania too much. And funnily enough, in front of the house they displayed a miniature Dracula ...that makes me think they didn't really bother too much or gave to much interest in really what represents Romania. Oh well...maybe next time! We should be grateful, Bulgaria doesn't even have a landmark representing it yet!!
Next we hopped on the metro and wanted to see
mini-EuropeHeysel station, 10-15 minutes from Brussels center
the Natural Science Museum where the dinosaurs are, but sadly we discovered they're closed until October. But accidentally came across the European Union cartel with all the official buildings. I have never seen so much police in my life, honesty! We could not go in as we had a train, then a bus and then a plane to catch back home, so maybe we can do the tour of European Parliament next time!
That's all from Brussels, over and out! Enjoy the pictures!
Belgium's Flag
Map of Belgium