Belgium is not that big

This is a map of Belgium.

That yellow area (where we live) speaks Flemish (a dialect of Dutch).

That pink area and that little area of Brussels speaks French.

And just to add to the mix, that little blue-green area speaks German.

Keep in mind these are official languages of these areas.

Here's the crazy part. Belgium looks like a pretty big country, but it's actually about a quarter of the size of Louisiana.

Now, for some perspective. Without doing some serious math, that might be akin to everything north of Ruston speaking Southernese with the exception of Shreveport which speaks Hicklish along with everyone south of Ruston down to Winnfield speaking Hicklish. Then everyone over around Tallulah, they speak Drawlean.

There, that's the whole country.

You can kinda get the picture that driving a few kilos can put you at a serious disadvantage when it comes to communication, deciphering a menu, and reading road signs.

Keep in mind though that everyone north of "Ruston" (where we live) speaks everything but Chinese so go ahead and ask for a beer in English, or a bräu in German, or a bier in Dutch, or ala bière in French. You're not going to stump anyone around here.

But you get south of "Ruston" (in that pink spot up there) and you'd better have your French dictionary with you. 'Cause, in general, they speak French. Period.

And if you take a look at that map and see Germany over there to the east . . . They. Speak. German. Period.

And France down there south of Belgium . . . They. Speak. French. Period.

Seriously, this is not too much of an exaggeration. This little wonderland we live in in Northern Belgium is unique to say the least. Thank God.

So, this past weekend we ventured as we often do for a drive.

First, we went to Liege (that's down in the pink part of this little country). Did I mention they only speak French? As many times as we've talked to people about recommendations for weekend trips, Liege has never been mentioned. It was really nice - more on Liege in another post.

So, we stopped at a restaurant for a beer/bier/something to drink and when the waiter babbled something I assumed was meant to be "may I take your order", I said "I'll have the 25cl Palm". He immediately said "I don't speak Dutch, but my colleague does". To which I wanted to say "well, that makes two of us who don't speak Dutch", but he'd run off to find the Dutch-speaking colleague. Interesting that my English sounded like Dutch.

The colleague appeared and said "I speak a little Dutch" to which I wanted to say "well, that makes two of us" , but instead said "I actually speak English". And surprisingly he also spoke a little of that.

After all that I just pointed to the item on the menu. Problem solved. When we left, we could have said "merci beaucoup". I do know a few French words. Well, those two, but instead we said "dank u wel" or "thank you". I don't even know any more.