7 Weirdest Things That Only Belgians Could Understand

Contents
1. Travel inside a giant metallic atom 2. The Cat On A Bike Sculpture 3. Feel like a giant walking around tiny versions of European cities 4. The Peeing Boy Obsession 5. Explore huge cartoon walls around the city 6. A Chandelier and a Ceiling Made from Beetles 7. Fierce Looking Statues

Now imagine that you've made your home in Belgium and that you've begun to build a social circle there. You're hoping to dazzle them with some knowledge of their own country at a trivia night. However, you're keen to learn about additional phenomena that are peculiar to the United States.

Knowinsider has compiled a list of the 7 oddest facts about Belgium that you should know.

Photo: backpackingbella.com

1. Travel inside a giant metallic atom

The Atomium, one of the wackiest buildings in the world, is located in Brussels. It is intended to resemble nine iron atoms magnified by 165 billion times in a unit cell, according to backpackingbella.com. It was dubbed the strangest building in Europe by CNN in 2013, and for good reason.

The entire structure has lovely nighttime lighting, and it occasionally hosts sizable dance parties and fireworks displays. One of the most visited sights in Brussels is this distinctive piece of construction.

2. The Cat On A Bike Sculpture

This hot pink crop top and spandex shorts-clad cat is outside Galeries Royales St. Hubert, and she just so happens to be riding a bike! The city of Brussels spent about 100,000 euros on this Alain Séchas piece of art. Tourists who pause for tacky photo ops are also quite fond of the cat.

3. Feel like a giant walking around tiny versions of European cities

Brussels is regarded as the capital of Europe and is the location of the institutions that make decisions for the European Union. So where would be a better location for a theme park where visitors could wander through miniature versions of every European nation?

Many of the most well-known sites on the continent are represented in miniature at Mini Europe, scaled down to a quarter of their actual size. Being Brussels, it should come as no surprise that this attraction is situated close to the enormously oversized atom at The Atomium, demonstrating the best of surreal city planning.

4. The Peeing Boy Obsession

Photo: backpackingbella.com

The Manneken Pis, a statue of a peeing boy, is famous throughout Brussels. Strangely enough, this tourist destination draws visitors from all over the world. Even funnier is the fact that he wears various costumes throughout the year and that occasionally he is hooked up to a keg so that he pees beer. How far can the "peeing boy" joke be taken? You might be tempted to nibble on the life-sized chocolate replica of the Manneken Pis at the Zaabär chocolate factory.

5. Explore huge cartoon walls around the city

The Smurfs and The Adventures of Tintin are two well-known cartoons that originated in Belgium. Hergé, the pen name of Brussels cartoonist Georges Prosper Remi who wrote The Adventures of Tintin, passed away more than 30 years ago, but his comic books continue to sell a million copies a year and are translated into 77 different languages.

The Belgian Comic Strip Center and the local government of Brussels collaborated on a project in 1991 to establish Brussels as the world's capital of comic strips.

Brussels' comic strip walk is the outcome. Over 50 enormous comic-strip murals on building walls can be found all over the city. They feature popular Belgian comic book characters like Tintin and Lucky Luke. Following the comic book is a helpful guide for learning about Brussels. A map can be purchased from the location for about €1.

6. A Chandelier and a Ceiling Made from Beetles

So while the round benches and dead plants are simply ugly and not particularly strange, the chandelier and ceiling in the Royal Palace made of beetles are completely bizarre.

This extraordinary piece of art, known as Heaven of Delight, was created by Jan Fabre, a man who enjoys smoking (see his website) as well as experimenting with materials like blood, sperm, and insects. In this particular case, Thai jewel beetles were used, and it took 30 people four months to glue all the insect shells to the ceiling.

7. Fierce Looking Statues

The Grand Place in Brussels, known for its eclectic architecture, is surrounded by buildings that include this statue of a butcher with a knife and pig carcasses from the 17th century.

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