Revert back to the origin of TinTin, he and his dog, Snowy, was born in Belgium. A country with population of eleven million and is famous by its waffle, tapestry, lace and the ever-so-delicate, her highness Lady Godiva the Truffle Chocolate.
We had a city tour to Antwerp and Brussels on my second day in Western Europe. It was a two hours driving and as the giant orange windmill came to the view; we officially left Netherlands and were in Belgium.
Antwerp has its name from hand werpen, Dutch words of 'hand throwing'. According to the folktale, there’s used to be this evil giant named Antigoon. He took money from those who crossed the river near his palace. A brave boy called Brabo then came to the rescue, defeated the giant and threw his hand into the river. A little bit resembled to the legend of David and Goliath.
It was an hour stop in the Antwerp Square near the City Hall, so there’s not much to see. And we spent 30 minutes alone waiting for our take-away-noodles. But we did see the famous Cathedral of Our Lady.
The second stop was Brussels or Bruxelles. These countries in Europe are unique. Just like in Canada, you can have more than one official language. In the case of Belgium, there are the Dutch speaking Flanders and the French speaking Wallonia. And while Brussels itself is not a part of either state because it was an independent city-state, the people prefer to speak French.
Which left me wondering, do they speak in both of the language? And why didn’t I think about this sooner? I mean if someone from Flanders region in the North Belgium visiting someplace in Wallonia region in South Belgium, will they be able to understand each other? Here in Indonesia, even though we have tons of languages, all of us can speak Bahasa. Well, all of us who’s wearing shirts and pants or skirts, at least.
Anyway, Brussels has higher density than Antwerp, even higher than Amsterdam. It is the home of NATO and European Union. The reason of why Brussels was appointed as the city of EU’s head quarter is because it is located literally in the heart of Europe, precisely 300 km from Paris and 300 km from London.
Brussels has this landmark called Manneken Pis or ‘the peeing boy’. Who’s on the right mind would make a three feet tall naked boy urinating into a basin as their landmarks? Well, the Brussels people. A cute thing, though, in several occasion, the local government would have the boy dressed. Sometimes with the national football costume or even Judo attire. But you can’t tell exactly when you would see him wearing clothes, as it’s always a surprise.
When us coming, he’s in his naked form.
