Originally Posted by
avole
Will, do you have the same IP? I don't think you correctly understand gezellig. How are you on rezegezellig?
He's pretty close. Just like 'lekker' it's one of those few words that get's it's meaning extended over time, and there is 'lekker gezellig' too, but he wasn't taught wrong.
Originally Posted by
jefnvk
Can't say, I was only on the Dutch coast, not the Belgian coast. The most interesting statue I saw on my trip was the Buttplug Gnome in Rotterdam.
Officially it's Santa with a christmas tree. It was quickly nicknamed 'Kabouter Buttplug' by the Rotterdammers, who have a reputation for nicknaming.
Originally Posted by
ExPatTyke
Absolute tosh - people in Flanders / Wallonia / Northern France / insert your area of Northern Europe are average.....normal....run of the mill in height and build. Tall, short, fat, thin, they're all there in normal proportions. Seem to remember the OP making some remark about hairstyles being unusual too.....that was utter balderdash as well.
I believe they're quite tall, about 2nd or 3rd in the world or something. There's quite a variety in average body size in Europe, not just per country, but also per region. It can be a quite different impression within a 100 or 200 km travel. I never noticed anything about their hairstyles either, maybe it suits their turn up noses better.
Originally Posted by
Machka
That this is his first trip anywhere. That he was born and raised in the same small town in Somewhere, USA and this is his first time outside that town.
After all, I can't imagine being in Bruges and not cycling over to Ypres and taking in the cycling routes and history there. It would be a flat-as-a-pancake day ride of about 110 km, or you could stay a few days there.
I can. I've never visited any of it either, not in Belgium and not in the Alsace. It's one of the most stupid uninteresting wars in history with only a lot of depressing stuff to show for.
I believe he just got carried away with his discoveries whick clouded some of his observations and made him jump to a few conclusions too many.
Btw. In another Flanders topic I pulled an ode to Flanders by Jacques Brel called 'Mijn vlakke land' (better than the French version imo) through Google translate and changed a few words. I believe it came out rather well.
Here.