To begin, restauranteurs like to stand outside their restaurants. They don't really hound you or anything to come into their establishments, but when it starts to get past lunch and lurch into dinner/supper time, there seems to be someone standing outside, ready to answer your questions or seat you.
The toilets are not exactly low-flow. Maybe I lived in California while there was a drought for too long, but the amount of water expelled by a flush of a Belgian toilet is huge!
The French do not speak English. Not once did I come across someone who spoke Dutch who didn't speak English. But that cannot be said of the French speakers. The thing that really astounded me was that I ran into people who spoke French in the tourist part of town but not English! You would think someone in the tourism industry would speak English since it is one of the more common languages of the world.
The metro is great! I really miss living in a town where there is a centrally located subway system to get around by. Vancouver's SkyTrain doesn't count as it doesn't service a huge portion of the population of Vancouver.
The Belgians like to redo (or just simple raze) buildings. Going through the Brussels museum it was surprising how many times I read something saying a building was re-interpreted in the 19th century or it had been torn down for some reason or another.
Having direction-related things listed in two languages is stupid. To fit both names on a map you end up abbreviating, making it hard to find the name you were given or are staring at on a street sign. Or, worse still, some maps don't have enough space for both languages, so they choose one. Map use Dutch but you were given the French name? Tough shit. And having both languages means there are twice as many names to scan on a map to try to figure out where the hell you are. Just choose one spelling based on history or something and keep things simple. Or go with names that are not controversial, like numbers or something.
I like being in a country that is not uptight. I found several examples of things that would never fly in a country like America that was founded by Puritans. Amazingly, having these things in the public did not make people swear more, or dress in a scandalous way.
I don't know when Brussels banned smoking indoors, but they sure want to make sure that you know that is is illegal. Pretty much every visible wall in a public place had some sticker that told you smoking was not permitted. And the sign varied; there was not a universal sign that everyone used.
The Belgians drink like Canadians. They have strong beer and they like to drink it. A lot.
Museums are not that great if you don't read French or Dutch. Since everything is already bilingual, the museums seem to typically prefer to not translate things a third or fourth time. That means that you should consider yourself lucky if there is a translation. And typically, if there is, it is not complete. The Brussels museum, for instance, has several rooms not translated. The Musical Instruments Museum has no informational placards translated, just what music is played on the headsets.
And the Belgians love to say "please". But not when you would typically expect it, but when you would expect someone to say "you are welcome". It is really off-putting to be handed a waffle by a vender, you say "thank you", and they say "please" as you turn to leave. I had to do a double-take a couple of times to make sure that they didn't actually want something from me.
That's everything I wrote down to mention. Overall the trip was good (ignoring the personal stress I was going through while there), but I don't really feel a need to go back as a tourist.
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