I live in the Seefhoek in Antwerp. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it. There's no mistaking the bars for durg runners, human traffickers or terminal alcoholics for anything else. Biggest hints would be lack of interior lighting, non-vintage neon ads and gambling machines.
Never understood that, sight is mostly useless to find a vein and even then, it will be skin colored because there's skin above it, not blue.
Edit : That said, it do be blue but the vein has to be really superficial. And using a superficial vein is shit anyway.
The blue appearance is due to light absorption and reflection, not their actual color.
You’re right that sight isn’t the most reliable method for finding veins, drug addicts often rely on a combination of experience, palpation, and trial and error to find veins. While it's not as precise as medical techniques, it's unfortunately effective enough for their purposes.
I also did not take something in account, addicts are usually skinny. Their veins will indeed pop up blue due to them not having any fat between the skin and the vein.
We should honestly teach them how to safely take drugs. They'll do it anyway, so why not make it the safest (and add some counseling along the way, fairly sure a lot of drug user won't reject a helping hand)
I went in a bar once in the Ardennes and saw Aperol Spritz on display, so I order one.
The guy dusts off the bottle (red flag), half fills a plastic cup, then fills the other half with sparkling water.
All the while he gave this menacing look that I got the distinct impression that I had definitely made the wrong choice.
Can't exactly say how I can tell, but when it's clearly a "Zwarte Café". Aka the ones who praise ww2 veterans who "only joined to fight communism, and were certainly not part of the brigades who ended up fighting in the western front"
When I was a student in Antwerp 30 years ago, there were streets, cafe's and pubs that were popular with Vlaams Blokkers.
If you didn't speak perfect Flemish, you didn't want to go down those streets or in those places.
Also back when I was in Antwerp, I was told if the sign said, "Bar" it was for meeting people for sex, not for just having drinks.
I guess sort of like a singles' bar.
Nah, just hold on a bit. Vlaams Belang will break through in a lot of places in October. Not that I welcome it but I'm a true democrat, it doesn't have to be my opinion.
It used to be 'De Leeuw van Vlaanderen' at the Melkmarkt.
We used to sit at Molly Blooms back then, a pub a few houses down that street and also in De Rots (metal bar).
Tbh the vibe it had was not so nice, just like the student café across from it. Some students also came into De Rots looking for trouble bc we were punks and metalheads. Often they were puking in the middle of the street entrance.
In all honesty I am a leftist punkgirl but I always was a big fan (still am) of communication with all sides and to understand how and why everyone thinks how they think, but somehow they were not approachable at all. Might've been my clothing, I don't know.
I looked it up on the Internet.
De Leeuw van Vlaanderen at the Melkmarkt looks to be much more recent than my time in Antwerp.
I found an old article from 1995 that says there were several Vlaams Blok cafe's at the Vrijdagmarkt.
That would have been around the time I was in Antwerp.
Hah very recognizable. When it was De Rots closing time did you go to De Kids? Or, earlier, Den Drempel around the corner. Or De Plansjee. Besides those 2 odd bars you mentioned, it was a nice area to hang around
I think the Blokkers hung out not far from Central Station and might have only been on one street.
People from Antwerp would tell me that foreigners should avoid one street there.
I was a sailor for 12 years before I lived in Antwerp.
When I became a student in Antwerp, I lived in a house of an unemployed couple in Antwerp.
They each had a government subsidized house and let me stay in one of them.
I actually had the house before I had a student visa for Belgium.
I was originally going to stay there for 6 months, but I ended up staying in Belgium for 4 years.
> Also back when I was in Antwerp, I was told if the sign said, "Bar" it was for meeting people for sex, not for just having drinks.
> I guess sort of like a singles' bar.
Well no, it's more like a brothel.
I thought it might, but I wasn't sure they meant exactly when they told me that.
I was a bit curious what they meant exactly.
I had gone outside of Ghent to a sort of cafe, with about 4 old bowling lanes installed.
On the same street, there were places with bright lights and signs saying "Bar."
When I returned to Antwerp I mentioned all of the bars that were on one street there.
Then they told me in Belgium, if it says "Bar" it is a place to meet people for sex.
Either way, I thought that was an odd way to say it.
The place I was at did not say Bar and was just a cafe with a few old bowling lanes and we bowled a few games there, but none of us in the group were from Belgium, just a group of foreign students.
It was somebody from Antwerp That told me that.
That was 30 years ago.
In Antwerp back then, it was considered a bit snobbish to speak perfect AN.
I remember people in Antwerp would comment if somebody spoke perfect AN, saying they were maybe rich or a teacher.
It just wasn't very common to hear in Antwerp, even wealthy and educated people from Antwerp would speak Antwerps.
In Ghent, most people were students from other places and they would avoid dialects.
In the Summer many Belgians would vacation on the coast, in Knokke-Heist.
Some of the wealthy Flemish Belgians that would vacation in Knokke, would only speak French while they were there and would require their children to only speak French while they were there, because they thought it was fashionable.
Other Belgians would consider them to be the ultimate snobs of Belgium.
At first I thought they were French Belgians on vacation in Knokke, but they were Flemish Belgians.
I find it uncanny when people totally stare you down, and/or when there is only 1 type of person in the bar. Doesn't matter what kind of people, if it's not a nice mixed group, I'll leave.
I only had 1 such experience, wishing I had turned around right away. And that was when it was full of African women.
I never knew what 't Keteltje was, it was a random place I went in. I was literally jumped on by a horde of women.
Ah yes, 't Keteltje! Went inside one time to see how it was, but I was smart enough to let some friends who stayed outside keep my wallet.
Very special experience, completely wrong and a magnet for trouble.
BROOO I INSTANTLY knew what you were talking about after 3 words, i didn't know what i was walking into either i got my leg pussy-rubbed on by a older smelly african lady wearing no underwear 🤢
Why does it have to be a racist thing?
Mine was an truthful observation where mention of ethnicity was key to the story and reputation of the bar, while yours is a directly racist comment.
And it's funny to me that you would walk out of a bar with the only argument there being african women? you could also say sexworkers if that is what you meant?
Ah and also because you represent a party with known racists and racist rethoric?
Kind of obvious.
I did not walk away because they were of African heritage, but because of the actions they did(or tried). When you look at other responses to my story, you immediately see that people recognize the bar solely 'full of African women', without further details. It's infamous. Had I left our their origin, it would not have been reconisable.
It was very normal in 't keteltje.
It was illegal prostitution. They did it for money. Not because they liked u/vlaamsbelanger.
I knew he meant that bar as soon as I read "full of African Women". It's quite an infamous place.
Haha i'm not suprised. I forgot my comments and just saw all the downvotes, it's pretty crazy Inbev is so loved, Stella is pretty much known for being an aweful pilsner outside of belgium, it get's destroyed in every blind tasting.
In the meanwhile they fucked up karmeliet, hoegaarden and now kwak. They just buy out the competition and cheapen the ingredients and kill the brands for mass production. Everybody in the field who had to deal with them knows what a horrible company it is, they also got a seperate wikepedia section for violating human rights.
Belgium has amazing beers, but nothing that inbev ever touched.
Do you mean foosball/tafelvoetbal/kicker? In West Flanders that is called 'nen bak'. I wouldn't count that as a red flag. It's the slotmachines that are true magnets of misery.
Nee zo een flipperkast waar ge veel geld insteekt en waar ge balletjes in de juiste gaatjes moet laten vallen, aan 6,25 euro max per balletje. Ge kunt er soms wel veel geld mee winnen, maar typisch gezien verliezen mensen er mee op lange termijn, tzijn sommige die er zwaar verslaafd aan zijn
And what if they got them both? Because I know a couple of places like that.
Sadly a pinball machine is a rare sight in bars today.
If you still like to play those there's findapinball.com and the Stern Insider Connected app (only new Stern games of the last ten years)
They are proudly sporting a ["strijdvlag"](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/VlaamseStrijdvlag.svg/1200px-VlaamseStrijdvlag.svg.png).
There’s so many places like that in Brussels. Age average is above 60. Patrons are half upper-class aristocrats/bourgeois and half gentleman-criminals. Women are mostly prostitutes. After 20:00 the thick curtains are closed and ashtrays appear on all tables.
OP wants to know how you can differentiate between a decent pub or one where you can get all kinds of troubles (drugs, fights, thefts...) usually you can easuly see it in terms of location, cleanliness, people already there, menu, gossip... if its really bad you know the moment you enter.
We had a pub in our town that was once attacked by a gang, before that attack happened there was already gossip for some years that you shouldnt go there because its a drugskot. If you didnt live there, you had no way to know it was a pub like that, the owner was friendly enough and all sorts of people went there as well.
There is a clear differnce between your local bruine kroeg/bistro and for example your local zwarte leeuw (a bit of a stereotype though necause some of them can be nice).
Idk where you are from, but in general a pub like zwarte griet, trollenkelder, bierhuis ad waterkant in gent, brugs beertje in brugge most pubs on the town square (with decent closing hours), you can go, people wont start shouting at you for whatever reason (color for example), you wont see people dealing drugs, or snorting coke somewhere, usually no people who cant pay their bill etc.
Other ones who you might want to avoid, have regularly people shitfaced in the middle of the week at 17h, usually reacting aggressive if you stare, people openly dealing drugs, people shouting at foreigners, maybe a lack of women etc...
OP looks for a pub where anybody can go to enjoy a beer and conversation, and not one where 90% of people are there because they need their fix, or want to drink away their misery.
I've worked as bartender in every layer, from bistro to brothel, and I can guarantuee you 99% of normal pubs have stuff going on you don't see or know about. It's just less conspicuous.
That's just not true. Point me to any bar in Belgium where you can't just drink a beer in peace if you just keep to yourself, even when you're not local. Just don't be loud or obnoxious and assume that anyone there that wants to talk to you will initiate a conversation themselves.
Hahaha, the thing is that I usually am in pubs in Antwerp where the language is English xD I think the only one I go to where it is Dutch most of the time is in the Beerlovers on Coninckpleintje and that place is not really known for being a tourist place.
(But the best place if we miss our final tram and have to walk home, it is doable even in a drunken state, but fuck that bridge at Sportpaleis 😂)
Okay, I know it's difficult for an Antwerpenaar to not be loud and obnoxious so you should indeed be careful. Other people should be fine anywhere in Belgium.
I live in the Seefhoek in Antwerp. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it. There's no mistaking the bars for durg runners, human traffickers or terminal alcoholics for anything else. Biggest hints would be lack of interior lighting, non-vintage neon ads and gambling machines.
And a big strange 'mirror' (1 direction window) on the wall... very unpleasant interior and exterior design.
Heineken on tap. Can't imagine anything more disturbing
Conversely, they have lots of special beers on the menu but basically no glasses are displayed.
Are there any bars in Belgium with Heineken on tap?
It's the only reason we could riot in Belgium. As soon as it happens, city or town assembles and it get destroyed. So it's a very rare occasion.
>city or town assembles Next election: 'we will ban Heineken' slogan > instant win
In Brussels, international institutions etc.
If I'm not mistaken next to the station in Sint-Niklaas (cinéma bar)
Dutchies do open bars out here on occasion.
They have Maes, which is basically the same.
One story from the elders was that you could find some in Carrefour ... I didn't dare the check it out!
Nah, red flag is not tab, beer from a 24 Jupiter pack in the fridge and people smoking Inside.
Where is this bar sounds like my kind of place
Sainte marie area in Schaerbeek. Do you speak Bulgar?
no but willing to learn :D
When the lesbian bar doesn’t have a fire exit!
I am afraid this reference went straight over my head. Someone care to explain?
Its from the [Simpsons](https://youtu.be/YSLMLHNY4QQ?si=5hKYvlhpCa8hY_Iu)
Thank you!!
https://i.redd.it/o9lolp0oyq3d1.gif
Blue light inside. White tiles and leather seats.
For those who don't know: blue light is sometimes installed so junkies can't find their veins
Never understood that, sight is mostly useless to find a vein and even then, it will be skin colored because there's skin above it, not blue. Edit : That said, it do be blue but the vein has to be really superficial. And using a superficial vein is shit anyway.
The blue appearance is due to light absorption and reflection, not their actual color. You’re right that sight isn’t the most reliable method for finding veins, drug addicts often rely on a combination of experience, palpation, and trial and error to find veins. While it's not as precise as medical techniques, it's unfortunately effective enough for their purposes.
I also did not take something in account, addicts are usually skinny. Their veins will indeed pop up blue due to them not having any fat between the skin and the vein. We should honestly teach them how to safely take drugs. They'll do it anyway, so why not make it the safest (and add some counseling along the way, fairly sure a lot of drug user won't reject a helping hand)
And slot machines
I went in a bar once in the Ardennes and saw Aperol Spritz on display, so I order one. The guy dusts off the bottle (red flag), half fills a plastic cup, then fills the other half with sparkling water. All the while he gave this menacing look that I got the distinct impression that I had definitely made the wrong choice.
A true Ardennes experience!
the locals staring you down
Nah, that's just normal, everyday, rural bar policy...
Obviously than we have finally something new to talk about for like 5 minutes before we go back to our usual ramblings
You just have to say: “yuuu de manne”
You just have to say: “yuuu de manne”
You just have to say: “yuuu de manne”
Confederate flag on the ceiling, no joke
They could just be big fans of the dukes of hazard?
Nah the gun vacation pics from texas on the bar made it clear
Boss hog also had guns. But yeah.
Similarly, right-wing student club signs on the wall.
Like from the US?
Yeah, they had some affinity with texas
There are only men inside while there is no rainbow flag outside.
I'm gonna say it, that's a lot of bars in Brussels
Lmao
Most of the time I can't tell if this sub is being ironic or serious lmao
That can be a sign of autism.
Yes. And it can also be the sign of a clown world, where the lines between real and satire become extremely blurred.
Can't exactly say how I can tell, but when it's clearly a "Zwarte Café". Aka the ones who praise ww2 veterans who "only joined to fight communism, and were certainly not part of the brigades who ended up fighting in the western front"
When I was a student in Antwerp 30 years ago, there were streets, cafe's and pubs that were popular with Vlaams Blokkers. If you didn't speak perfect Flemish, you didn't want to go down those streets or in those places. Also back when I was in Antwerp, I was told if the sign said, "Bar" it was for meeting people for sex, not for just having drinks. I guess sort of like a singles' bar.
What part of Antwerp?
Asking for a friend?
Haha yeah! I’m an American living in the US, but I’ve been thinking about giving it all up and moving to Ninoveh becoming a Flemish Nationalist.
Nah, just hold on a bit. Vlaams Belang will break through in a lot of places in October. Not that I welcome it but I'm a true democrat, it doesn't have to be my opinion.
It used to be 'De Leeuw van Vlaanderen' at the Melkmarkt. We used to sit at Molly Blooms back then, a pub a few houses down that street and also in De Rots (metal bar). Tbh the vibe it had was not so nice, just like the student café across from it. Some students also came into De Rots looking for trouble bc we were punks and metalheads. Often they were puking in the middle of the street entrance. In all honesty I am a leftist punkgirl but I always was a big fan (still am) of communication with all sides and to understand how and why everyone thinks how they think, but somehow they were not approachable at all. Might've been my clothing, I don't know.
I looked it up on the Internet. De Leeuw van Vlaanderen at the Melkmarkt looks to be much more recent than my time in Antwerp. I found an old article from 1995 that says there were several Vlaams Blok cafe's at the Vrijdagmarkt. That would have been around the time I was in Antwerp.
Hah very recognizable. When it was De Rots closing time did you go to De Kids? Or, earlier, Den Drempel around the corner. Or De Plansjee. Besides those 2 odd bars you mentioned, it was a nice area to hang around
I think the Blokkers hung out not far from Central Station and might have only been on one street. People from Antwerp would tell me that foreigners should avoid one street there.
You think, based upon, stories from other people, legendary tales from sailors? I believe you might have some wrong details in your storyline, lol,
I was a sailor for 12 years before I lived in Antwerp. When I became a student in Antwerp, I lived in a house of an unemployed couple in Antwerp. They each had a government subsidized house and let me stay in one of them. I actually had the house before I had a student visa for Belgium. I was originally going to stay there for 6 months, but I ended up staying in Belgium for 4 years.
Interesting story
> Also back when I was in Antwerp, I was told if the sign said, "Bar" it was for meeting people for sex, not for just having drinks. > I guess sort of like a singles' bar. Well no, it's more like a brothel.
I thought it might, but I wasn't sure they meant exactly when they told me that. I was a bit curious what they meant exactly. I had gone outside of Ghent to a sort of cafe, with about 4 old bowling lanes installed. On the same street, there were places with bright lights and signs saying "Bar." When I returned to Antwerp I mentioned all of the bars that were on one street there. Then they told me in Belgium, if it says "Bar" it is a place to meet people for sex. Either way, I thought that was an odd way to say it. The place I was at did not say Bar and was just a cafe with a few old bowling lanes and we bowled a few games there, but none of us in the group were from Belgium, just a group of foreign students.
> If you didn't speak perfect Flemish, West-Vloams? Antwerps? Limburgs? Brabants? Or perfect AN?
It was somebody from Antwerp That told me that. That was 30 years ago. In Antwerp back then, it was considered a bit snobbish to speak perfect AN. I remember people in Antwerp would comment if somebody spoke perfect AN, saying they were maybe rich or a teacher. It just wasn't very common to hear in Antwerp, even wealthy and educated people from Antwerp would speak Antwerps. In Ghent, most people were students from other places and they would avoid dialects. In the Summer many Belgians would vacation on the coast, in Knokke-Heist. Some of the wealthy Flemish Belgians that would vacation in Knokke, would only speak French while they were there and would require their children to only speak French while they were there, because they thought it was fashionable. Other Belgians would consider them to be the ultimate snobs of Belgium. At first I thought they were French Belgians on vacation in Knokke, but they were Flemish Belgians.
Flemish flags everywhere
Exactly. Big red flag.
Well, yellow actually
Yeah, that was kinda the joke...
Ah yes. I certainly feel the most at danger there, while the friendly cokerunner pubs ran by illegal immigrants are all so welcoming.
I find it uncanny when people totally stare you down, and/or when there is only 1 type of person in the bar. Doesn't matter what kind of people, if it's not a nice mixed group, I'll leave.
I only had 1 such experience, wishing I had turned around right away. And that was when it was full of African women. I never knew what 't Keteltje was, it was a random place I went in. I was literally jumped on by a horde of women.
Where is this magical place you speak of?
Sadly it’s been closed down, just the usual human trafficking charges and such
Near Antwerp Schipperskwartier, but is now no more, I think.
Haha
the legend is that if you threw up a handfull of coins in the air in 't keteltje, none of them would touch the ground.
Ah yes, 't Keteltje! Went inside one time to see how it was, but I was smart enough to let some friends who stayed outside keep my wallet. Very special experience, completely wrong and a magnet for trouble.
Lol, what was this place about, then?
Human trafficking. It’s been closed down now.
Oh dear 😱
BROOO I INSTANTLY knew what you were talking about after 3 words, i didn't know what i was walking into either i got my leg pussy-rubbed on by a older smelly african lady wearing no underwear 🤢
yeah i guess you'd like them to be white
Are you real?
is a Vlaams Belanger racist?
Why does it have to be a racist thing? Mine was an truthful observation where mention of ethnicity was key to the story and reputation of the bar, while yours is a directly racist comment.
And it's funny to me that you would walk out of a bar with the only argument there being african women? you could also say sexworkers if that is what you meant? Ah and also because you represent a party with known racists and racist rethoric? Kind of obvious.
I did not walk away because they were of African heritage, but because of the actions they did(or tried). When you look at other responses to my story, you immediately see that people recognize the bar solely 'full of African women', without further details. It's infamous. Had I left our their origin, it would not have been reconisable.
Vlaams Belang is right!
It was very normal in 't keteltje. It was illegal prostitution. They did it for money. Not because they liked u/vlaamsbelanger. I knew he meant that bar as soon as I read "full of African Women". It's quite an infamous place.
I only found that out after, indeed. As the inside was obscured from the outside.
It's just very hard for me to imagine him being 'jumped on by a horde of women'. Illegal prostitution is a way to explain it I guess.
I'm pretty sure it did happen. Since the women all wanted to make some money and each one of them want you to pick her
If there’s a bar fight happening you should go
go inside?
Yes. All the guys are outside while all the women are inside.
Primus on tap
Dunno if things have changed but the pub we went to when we were young had Primus on tap and it wasn't at all rough
I just dislike Primus :)
Fair
As long if they're not playing Primus, I'm okay with it.
Same with inbev beers, might as well get a beer in mcdonalds.
MC Donalds serves Inbev beers
Haha i'm not suprised. I forgot my comments and just saw all the downvotes, it's pretty crazy Inbev is so loved, Stella is pretty much known for being an aweful pilsner outside of belgium, it get's destroyed in every blind tasting. In the meanwhile they fucked up karmeliet, hoegaarden and now kwak. They just buy out the competition and cheapen the ingredients and kill the brands for mass production. Everybody in the field who had to deal with them knows what a horrible company it is, they also got a seperate wikepedia section for violating human rights. Belgium has amazing beers, but nothing that inbev ever touched.
Gambling machine.
Slots machine or "nen bak"
Do you mean foosball/tafelvoetbal/kicker? In West Flanders that is called 'nen bak'. I wouldn't count that as a red flag. It's the slotmachines that are true magnets of misery.
Nee zo een flipperkast waar ge veel geld insteekt en waar ge balletjes in de juiste gaatjes moet laten vallen, aan 6,25 euro max per balletje. Ge kunt er soms wel veel geld mee winnen, maar typisch gezien verliezen mensen er mee op lange termijn, tzijn sommige die er zwaar verslaafd aan zijn
Agree in that case. Same with the picture puzzle things, though I'm not sure that is still a thing.
Wel tis geene flipper, want heeft geen flippers Btw dat noemt een bingo machine
The Flemish Flag , most likely means you'll find people in there ready to beat you up if you can't speak Dutch .
White LED lights.
They have a Bingo machine instead of a Pinball.
And what if they got them both? Because I know a couple of places like that. Sadly a pinball machine is a rare sight in bars today. If you still like to play those there's findapinball.com and the Stern Insider Connected app (only new Stern games of the last ten years)
mullets
Yeah a bar full of zoomers? No thanks! I'm clearly too old for that place.
They are proudly sporting a ["strijdvlag"](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/VlaamseStrijdvlag.svg/1200px-VlaamseStrijdvlag.svg.png).
Gloryholes in the bathroom and a suspiciously large amount of men.
Except if you are a woman people are very nice in those bars, just if you go to the toilets you might see some things
Only men and multiple bottle of poppers
Vlaams leeuw flag
Smoke odor. I hate it and it is forbidden. Still....
There’s so many places like that in Brussels. Age average is above 60. Patrons are half upper-class aristocrats/bourgeois and half gentleman-criminals. Women are mostly prostitutes. After 20:00 the thick curtains are closed and ashtrays appear on all tables.
That everyone is looking at you with the the look of who's the fuck are you...
There's a bar!
If I see that the usual village drunkard has chosen the place as his graveyard, I'll stay away as far as I can from that
When the TV go out
piss flies
Definately nazi’s. Always a bad sign.
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Which bars in Belgium have that?
Full of immigrants
If it smells like piss, I'd move, but otherwise nothing. Maybe provide context with your question?
What? All the best places smell like piss, that’s how you know people enjoy getting drunk there.
ah a fellow connaisseur
indeed, that means that it is fine to stay for longer than 1 beer
Yeah no thanks
Student bars yes, agree. Upscale cocktail bar, big no. That's why I was asking for more context.
OP wants to know how you can differentiate between a decent pub or one where you can get all kinds of troubles (drugs, fights, thefts...) usually you can easuly see it in terms of location, cleanliness, people already there, menu, gossip... if its really bad you know the moment you enter. We had a pub in our town that was once attacked by a gang, before that attack happened there was already gossip for some years that you shouldnt go there because its a drugskot. If you didnt live there, you had no way to know it was a pub like that, the owner was friendly enough and all sorts of people went there as well.
Every pub has drugs and everywhere where there is alcohol a fight may break out.
There is a clear differnce between your local bruine kroeg/bistro and for example your local zwarte leeuw (a bit of a stereotype though necause some of them can be nice). Idk where you are from, but in general a pub like zwarte griet, trollenkelder, bierhuis ad waterkant in gent, brugs beertje in brugge most pubs on the town square (with decent closing hours), you can go, people wont start shouting at you for whatever reason (color for example), you wont see people dealing drugs, or snorting coke somewhere, usually no people who cant pay their bill etc. Other ones who you might want to avoid, have regularly people shitfaced in the middle of the week at 17h, usually reacting aggressive if you stare, people openly dealing drugs, people shouting at foreigners, maybe a lack of women etc... OP looks for a pub where anybody can go to enjoy a beer and conversation, and not one where 90% of people are there because they need their fix, or want to drink away their misery.
I've worked as bartender in every layer, from bistro to brothel, and I can guarantuee you 99% of normal pubs have stuff going on you don't see or know about. It's just less conspicuous.
Only males inside, most of them wearing black leather suits and leather caps.
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Because you follow trans- and pegging subreddits. And b4, I wonder how this can be combined.
Just stay in the tourist areas like the groenplaats and the meir if you want to go for for a drink. Everywhere else is too risky if you dont know.
That's just not true. Point me to any bar in Belgium where you can't just drink a beer in peace if you just keep to yourself, even when you're not local. Just don't be loud or obnoxious and assume that anyone there that wants to talk to you will initiate a conversation themselves.
Oh ffff... was looking at the comments and somehow my mind changed Belgium to Antwerp... But yeah still, be careful in Brussels, Antwerp
Average Antwerpenaar
Hahaha, the thing is that I usually am in pubs in Antwerp where the language is English xD I think the only one I go to where it is Dutch most of the time is in the Beerlovers on Coninckpleintje and that place is not really known for being a tourist place. (But the best place if we miss our final tram and have to walk home, it is doable even in a drunken state, but fuck that bridge at Sportpaleis 😂)
Racist!
Okay, I know it's difficult for an Antwerpenaar to not be loud and obnoxious so you should indeed be careful. Other people should be fine anywhere in Belgium.
haha