We arrived back in Brussels yesterday, and it felt like coming home. Unfortunately neither of us are completely well, so will have a couple of rest days before getting back into the swing of being tourists.
In the meantime I've written down a few observations about things that are different here in Europe ...
You wouldn't think a cup of coffee could cause confusion, but it does. If you ask for a cappuchino in Belgium, you have to specify 'Cappuchino Italien' to get the one we are used to in Australia. If you just ask for cappuchino, you normally get a coffee with a mountain of whipped cream (out of a can - yuk!) on top. A flat white is of course unheard of. Is cafe au lait the same as caffelatte? No of course not, but it depends which country you are in. And if you are used to enjoying your coffee without the intrusion of cigarette smoke, don't go to the Belgrade railway station! At 7 in the morning they are having coffee, beer, and one cigarette after another. Most coffee in Serbia is of course "Turkish" so there is the thick sludge at the bottom. But I enjoy the differences. Slivovitz is around $6 a litre! And a little shot of slivo to keep you warm never hurt anyone, as shown by this chap below ...
Daniel and Laura are in Latvia, after having a couple of days in Finland, and have been lucky enough to encounter snow. It may be cold here, but no snow yet - still, we have some time.
In the meantime I've written down a few observations about things that are different here in Europe ...
You wouldn't think a cup of coffee could cause confusion, but it does. If you ask for a cappuchino in Belgium, you have to specify 'Cappuchino Italien' to get the one we are used to in Australia. If you just ask for cappuchino, you normally get a coffee with a mountain of whipped cream (out of a can - yuk!) on top. A flat white is of course unheard of. Is cafe au lait the same as caffelatte? No of course not, but it depends which country you are in. And if you are used to enjoying your coffee without the intrusion of cigarette smoke, don't go to the Belgrade railway station! At 7 in the morning they are having coffee, beer, and one cigarette after another. Most coffee in Serbia is of course "Turkish" so there is the thick sludge at the bottom. But I enjoy the differences. Slivovitz is around $6 a litre! And a little shot of slivo to keep you warm never hurt anyone, as shown by this chap below ...
 |
| some old bugger who walked into my picture .... |
No comments:
Post a Comment