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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   2230 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for October 20, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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On a trip to Europe right now. So far in virtually every dimension Paris > London >>> Brussels. Quality/price ratio of food, hotels, public transit, attractions are all way better in Paris. London had some good stuff too but a lot of it was really unpleasant.

We toured Kensington Palace at my wife's insistence, and the Crown to Couture exhibit was both objectively bad and also utterly amazed that a man could be brave enough to wear a dress to the Met in a time when that's the fashion anyways. I think there were literally three exhibits, out of maybe 5-6, just about that one guy and his outfit. Found out later we had to pay separately for that one (we didn't) so it was a bit of a relief to know we weren't quite so directly supporting it.

Most of all I'm inpressed how similar the culture is everywhere. More to say about that later--I'm happy to say the French seem to treat their children pretty well--but generally there's a bigger difference between my hometown and Salt Lake City than between SLC and Brussels, and my hometown isn't even that rural.

Brussels is pretty bad indeed. Even in Belgium itself there are nicer towns to visit in my opinion. If you ever find yourself in Brussels as a tourist again, take a short train or car ride to Leuven. Not as crowded, comparable amount of pretty historic things to look at and for me at least it has a much nicer vibe. Sometimes major capitals can be too flooded with tourists and not actually be the nicest places to visit. I am Dutch myself and I can tell you, if your European trip includes a visit to the Netherlands, that for instance Utrecht, Leiden and Delft are all cities with pretty historic canals like Amsterdam, but without being overcrowded with tourists and are hence much nicer places to visit as far as I'm concerned.

Can you elaborate a bit on how culturally there is a bigger difference between your hometown and Salt Lake City than between Brussels and Salt Lake City? I'm quite surprised to hear that.

Can you elaborate a bit on how culturally there is a bigger difference between your hometown and Salt Lake City than between Brussels and Salt Lake City? I'm quite surprised to hear that.

In retrospect a lot of it has less to do with culture per se and more to do with the reality of life in big cities. But I'd say the following traits of the big cities I visited were all more similar to SLC than SLC's traits are to my own town:

  • Personal space (or lack thereof)
  • Distribution of stores--lots of little cafes, countless restaurants and bakeries, very few supermarkets or other stores where you buy anything other than prepared food
  • Racial composition
  • Culture war--I'd be shocked to see anyone open carrying, wearing a cross, or otherwise signaling red tribe membership
  • Racial attitudes--it's totally fine to be prejudiced against white people, but not anyone else, no matter your own race
  • Religious attitudes--it's totally inappropriate to criticize an exotic religion such as Hinduism at all; closer-to-home religions like Christianity are fair game though
  • Sexual attitudes

I could go on.

How is the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (I assume it’s open again)? Its the primary reason I would want to visit Amsterdam again

That's a good point, the Rijksmuseum is probably worth a visit. I haven't been there in a long time and I am personally not super into art and musea, so take my words with a grain of salt, but obviously they have a lot of famous paintings there and that's something the other towns I mentioned don't have to offer.

The Netherlands is a small country, so a visit to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam does not exclude a visit to Leiden or Utrecht, to get a taste of a historic city centre with canals, with less crowds and less tourist traps.

What about Bruges? How accurate was the film?

Bruges? It's a shithole.

I don't know what film you're referencing, so I can't attest to that, but personally I had more fun visiting Bruges than visiting Brussels. I think Bruges still has a reputation in Belgium itself of being a bit touristy, but it does have a large beautiful historic centre. I might be a little harsh on Brussels, it does have some nice historic areas, but given that it's the most famous and biggest city in Belgium it just felt a little underwhelming and at least anecdotally when I visited there myself it also felt overcrowded. Bruges also gets plenty of tourists, but it has a large historic city centre and at least when I visited there, the tourist crowds weren't quite as bad as Brussels.

The film is In Bruges

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