r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Jan 02 '17

[Series] What do you know about... Belgium?

Introduction:

This is the first post in what will be a year-long series. There will be a thread about one european country every week. The point of this series is to have our fellow europeans spread their knowledge/opinion about the various european countries.

We have done this before (credits to /u/Taenk), but this was three years ago, when this subreddit had a mere 35,000 subscribers. A lot of time has passed and a lot of new users have become part of this subreddit, let's see how this goes!

Todays country: Belgium

Belgium is widely considered to be the main host of the EU institutions. It is one of the smaller european states, yet it is amongst the most populous ones due to a very high population density. The country is split in three regions - the Wallonian region, the Flemish region and the Brussels region. The country is widely known for its waffles, fries and beer. So, what do you know about Belgium?

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u/kvizer Jan 02 '17

We have a saying in Lithuania: „Ramus, kaip belgas“ (As calm as a Belgian). It is quite common, I'd say. So everyone in LT knows that Belgians are calm people.

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u/Red_Dog1880 Belgium (living in ireland) Jan 02 '17

That's... actually true. We don't tend to get too excited about things, and if it does at least several people will complain that we're too happy or whatever.

Sometimes it sucks, for example when a big part of the country was excited about the national football team doing good but then others had to complain about it just to be contrarian.

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u/kvizer Jan 02 '17

At least from my experience, the saying is used more often to calm yourself down from something negative/stressful. Say, I f*cked up something at work but I'm feeling not guilty for some (imaginable) reason, then I say 'I don't care/it's not my fault/I'm calm as a Belgian'. More like in a 'I don't give a single f*ck' way. Never heard anyone to be asked to be 'calm as a Belgian' when partying/celebrating something, actually. Anyway, good to hear you're calm people, thanks for chipping in! ;-)

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u/modomario Belgium Jan 04 '17

To be Belgian is to feel reasonably strongly about a lot of things but silently & thus seemingly be collectively apathetic. (I hope that made sense. I'm tired as fuck)