Share cool facts about your country

[J. van Deijck]

5 minutes ago, Calliers said:

when it comes to military might this is true

Meanwhile in Belgium...

 

@Piotrek you made me want bigos, too!

[uniQChick]

Toronto (Ontario, Canada) is also home to the longest street in the world – Yonge Street, which originated in Toronto, goes almost all the way to Lake Simcoe, clocking in at 1,896 km (1,178 mi) in length.

[uniQChick]

We love our shit!
 

Spoiler

Canadians generate 640 kilograms per person per year of waste. From what I understand, this makes us the worst (or #1 in other words) in the world.

 

[daveb]

My country does not have an official language. (in spite of what some people seem to think)

[J. van Deijck]

2 minutes ago, daveb said:

My country does not have an official language. (in spite of what some people seem to think)

Honestly, I thought the most common one was official :ph34r: now I've learnt something new

[ElloryJaye]

3 hours ago, uniQChick said:

Toronto (Ontario, Canada) is also home to the longest street in the world – Yonge Street, which originated in Toronto, goes almost all the way to Lake Simcoe, clocking in at 1,896 km (1,178 mi) in length.

No one calls it "Yonge Street" outside of Toronto, though.  For most of its length, it's Ontario Highway 11, and there are several places between Toronto and where it ends at the Canada-US border in Rainy River where it has other street designations.  The section of it I lived along as a kid is two lanes of asphalt with gravel shoulders and added moose.

 

Another useless fact:  Canada has, in effect, two different national anthems, because the French and English words to O Canada are not only not translations of one another, but have very few similarities except a general patriotic sentiment.

 

[Calliers]

Canada day celebrates semi-independence from Britain in 1867 and Canada only became officially independent in 1982.

[J. van Deijck]

There's a piece of street poetry in my city which is now protected by law (or more, the building is, it's called Bargehuis). It's been made by an academic teacher (?) from Amsterdam in 1999 or so. During the renovation works in 2013 it's been painted over by accident, but people started protesting and it has been restored. Here is what it looks like:

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

It says: "Als je weggaat, kom je dan weer terug? Als ik terugkom, ben je er dan?", which more or less translates as "If you leave, will you come back then? If I come back, will you be there?".

 

This has been my favourite piece of art ever, for ages.

[uniQChick]

Canada has the world’s smallest jail. Located in Rodney, Ontario, it’s only 24.3 square metres (270 square feet).

 

Quote

 

[Muledeer]

On 5/17/2022 at 2:07 PM, alsjeblieft said:

Polish cuisine is awesome.

 

On 5/17/2022 at 2:05 PM, Piotrek said:

You're the second AVENite that I know of that wants to visit Poland for culinary reasons (assuming @Muledeer still craves bigos  )

Oh yes, I still crave Bigos!  I looked for a Polish restaurant or street vendor while I was in NYC last week.  No luck. 

If I ever come to Poland, I want to see your mountains!

[Calliers]

Oh yeah, Toronto has the world's biggest underground shopping complex.

[J. van Deijck]

3 minutes ago, Muledeer said:

If I ever come to Poland, I want to see your mountains!

They're really pretty, but the Polish coast is my favourite

 

And yay to bigos of course maybe you'd have better luck in Chicago? As far as I know, there's a pretty big Polish community there

[Calliers]

1 minute ago, alsjeblieft said:

They're really pretty, but the Polush coast is my favourite

@Muledeer You guys should come see the Rockies here in Canada, they're beautiful!

[Muledeer]

1 minute ago, Calliers said:

uledeer You guys should come see the Rockies here in Canada, they're beautiful!

I toured Banf and Jasper with my parents in the late 70's.  We rode in a helicopter out onto a glacier.  I would like to go back there.

[Calliers]

7 minutes ago, Muledeer said:

I toured Banf and Jasper with my parents in the late 70's.  We rode in a helicopter out onto a glacier.  I would like to go back there.

Ooooh, nice! Yeah, it is quite a treat. Although I don't think @alsjeblieft would board a helicopter or any other kind of aircraft!

 

I've seen the Alps in Europe (when I was in Switzerland) - they are beautiful too!

[J. van Deijck]

2 minutes ago, Calliers said:

Although I don't think @alsjeblieft would board a helicopter or any other kind of aircraft!

Nope, I wouldn't. I've had a pass to the military airport at some point in my life and I've seen too much to be comfortable with it

[Calliers]

2 minutes ago, alsjeblieft said:

Nope, I wouldn't. I've had a pass to the military airport at some point in my life and I've seen too much to be comfortable with it

It's ok, we all have our fears. Myself, I have a fear of heights. For example I would never go base jumping or tight rope walking.

 

I would go sky diving and I have gone bungee jumping before too, so it is strange, I don't know why I would do some but not others concerning heights.

[uniQChick]

The Bank of Canada began as a privately-owned institution, with shares sold to the public at a par value of $50. In 1938, all shares were purchased by the Government of Canada and the Bank became a Crown corporation.

[Calliers]

12 minutes ago, uniQChick said:

The Bank of Canada began as a privately-owned institution, with shares sold to the public at a par value of $50. In 1938, all shares were purchased by the Government of Canada and the Bank became a Crown corporation.

The federal reserve in the U.S. is still a privately owned institution and almost all countries get their dollars from them since dollars are what are used on the international market so in effect the federal reserve (which is as we've covered about as federal as federal express) prints money out of thin air which it then loans to the central banks of all other countries and the government of the U.S. at interest lol..... and btw, the reason inflation is a constant in the economy is because there is no money created in the current financial system to cover the interest at which the federal reserve loans money out. It nothing short of the -best- ponzi-scheme ever devised.

[daveb]

Sounds like it's a bit more complicated than that.

see, for example, https://www.frbsf.org/education/publications/doctor-econ/2003/september/private-public-corporation/#:~:text=The Federal Reserve (the Fed,in fulfilling its varying roles.

[J. van Deijck]

North Belgium speaks Dutch, but there's a slight difference in pronunciation between us and Dutch people, and it depends on a dialect, sometimes to the point that Belgians have somewhat a difficulty understanding Dutch people when they speak. for example, there's no big or significant difference between our G and H sounds, but with a Dutch person, you will hear the difference between them because their G is more throaty.

[Calliers]

4 hours ago, daveb said:

Sounds like it's a bit more complicated than that.

see, for example, https://www.frbsf.org/education/publications/doctor-econ/2003/september/private-public-corporation/#:~:text=The Federal Reserve (the Fed,in fulfilling its varying roles.

Here's one for you, how come the federal reserve is the only bank that in all of it's existence has never been audited?

[J. van Deijck]

There are some more waffleland facts.

 

1. Our pharmacies are open until 5pm only, if you need medicines later on, you have to call the police. I'm not kidding. Unless something has changed. The reason is there were many cases of medication abuse in Flanders, apparently.

2. Torrent websites are illegal here and blocked by the government. If you try to open the (in)famous Swedish one, you get something like this:

 

Spoiler

 

3. The Law Courts of Brussels is the biggest courthouse in the world.

4. Belgium is the most urbanized nation in Europe.

5. The majority of Belgium is Roman Catholic, but around 1/3 of Belgians claim themselves as non-religious. Muslims are about 4% of the country, Protestants about 2%.

6. Coast Tram is the world’s longest tram line. It's 68 kilometres long and has 68 stops, approximately one for each kilometer.

[daveb]

1 hour ago, alsjeblieft said:

Coast Tram is the world’s longest tram line. It's 68 kilometres long and has 68 stops, approximately one for each kilometer.

Sounds like it could be fun to ride from one end to the other (then again, it might get tiresome after a while, with that many stops).

[J. van Deijck]

8 minutes ago, daveb said:

Sounds like it could be fun to ride from one end to the other (then again, it might get tiresome after a while, with that many stops).

I've done it quite a few times but the truth is, if you want to visit every town there, one day is not enough

[ElloryJaye]

18 hours ago, alsjeblieft said:

I've done it quite a few times but the truth is, if you want to visit every town there, one day is not enough

If you do the calculations, if the tram takes ten minutes from the beginning of one stop to the beginning of the next stop, then the entire route lasts more than 11 hours.  (If you wanted to get off and spend an hour poking around each town, and did nothing but for 12 hours a day, it would take you most of a week. )

[J. van Deijck]

2 minutes ago, ElloryJaye said:

If you do the calculations, if the tram takes ten minutes from the beginning of one stop to the beginning of the next stop, then the entire route lasts more than 11 hours.  (If you wanted to get off and spend an hour poking around each town, and did nothing but for 12 hours a day, it would take you most of a week. )

That's the thing, but the whole route takes about two hours, with people at each stop. I don't know how they do it, but I've been there and done that, so we can say I was a witness maybe the reason is that each town has approximately three to four stops

But if you want to visit properly, the weekend is definitely not enough. Especially Oostende since it's the biggest city on the coast, the rest is small towns and villages, but within a few districts.

[ElloryJaye]

11 minutes ago, alsjeblieft said:

That's the thing, but the whole route takes about two hours, with people at each stop.

That's pretty impressive efficiency.  I'd expect there to be someone every few stops who's infirm enough to take forever to climb aboard, or is toting an awkward object, or wants to pay the fare on the spot in the smallest available currency unit and insists on counting them out one by one as though each one they have to part with pains them.  Although now that I think about it, you can deal with all of those with appropriate equipment or regulations—it's just that, in North America, it's so rare to see public transit done right.

[Calliers]

I've taken the bus here in Stoon, and our buses run on time 90% of the time. They truly have the unction to function.

[J. van Deijck]

I've been working at renovating these trams, as well as other trams in the country, and I've been surprised about their efficiency as well