pee...

After talking about peace is time to talk about piss. Brussels, pour les connaisseurs. I've been asking myself since i came back from Belgium why would you want to associate the city with a peeing statue (i think is one of the greatest touristic attraction in Brussels, after the Grote Markt). I'm talking about Manneken Piss.

Don't let him fool you, there are a lot of tourists going there. No doubt about that.
And you wouldn't say they obsess over it:


And they have a french fries (!!?!?!) chain of restaurants with this brand (this is in Amsterdam, but they have it in Brussels too):
Maybe the best part about this is that they dress it according to the international celebrations:


The question remains.. Why?
And that's not all. Recently they made a feminine replica: Jeanneke Pis
They also have a statue of peeing dog:


And if that wouldn't be enough, it's a national sport and i can prove it.
This is one of the famous touristic points - Saint Catherine Cathedral in the center of Brussels.

Guess what are these?

They are urinals, but the unusual part is that they are on the left side of the church i shown you before. Basically on the walls of a 19th century monument.

This is how souvenirs look like:
Hey... you wouldn't say the little bastard is peeing in my coke?


And then it hit me... How else would you brand a city as THE city of beer? Simple: by having 2000 types of beer and making urinating so easy. I don't know if anyone thought of this, or it's just a natural consequence of the process. Smart, ei?
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The initial title of the blog post was "peer (which is a combination between beer and pee) and sounds like pear", but then i changed it to what you see. Hope you don't find it offensive.
*photos taken in Brussels, august 2010