After starting my weekly column about Belgium last week, I'm going to tell you more about the country where I live and what we do all year round.

East-Belgium, the German-speaking part of Belgium, is also the highest part of Belgium. The Ardennes, also called the Belgian Mountains are right here where I live. The highest point in Belgium is 694 meters. If you count in the tower which was built on that hill, Belgium is about 30 meters heigher. There is no way to compare the Ardennes to the Snowy Mountains in height, although we still have a couple of inches of snow right now. During World War II, there were some very heavy and important fights in the Ardennes.

I live very close to Germany, it's only 5 KM to go cross the border. I reckon this must be one of the strangest things for any Aussie coming to Europe. You can drive 4 hours through Europe and have visited 4 different countries. I've got family in the Netherlands, we go shopping in Germany and my brother drives to Luxembourg each weekend to get petrol and cigarettes. Yes, Europe is a strange place and Belgium is the center of Europe. You may draw your own conclusions on this.

Each part of Belgium has its own traditions and its particular holidays. Right now I'm having a week off from college: we've got our Carnival Holidays. Carnival is one of these important East-Belgian traditions. Like I told you last week, Belgium is the country of beer and beer and alcohol go hand in hand with traditions and socializing.

So what is that carnival, anyway? This is an influence which comes to our region from the Rhineland in Germany. It dates back to when religion was more strict than today. Before Lent commences, people were allowed to have a last period of celebration and to give in to one's passions, whatever they might be.

The Carnival Season, also called the 5th season, starts each year on November 11th, at 11:11 AM and last until Shrove Tuesday. "On Ash Wednesday everything is over and gone..." as the song goes. The peak of the festivities is reached during the week before Ash Wednesday. On the last Thursday before Lent, women take over in city halls, the local government, the streets - in short, everywhere. They are all dressed up and disguised. Everybody has two more days to get rid off the last alcohol induced headaches before various pageants start. These parades are similar to what I've seen at the Adelaide Christmas pageant or the Disneyland Parade on TV. After the pageant everybody gets together in community centers and halls to have a good time with drinking, dancing and laughing.

To get the right image on the East-Belgian Carnival, you should combine the American Mardi Gras, Halloween, a Disney Parade and the Grand Prix Hindley Street Party as it used to be in Adelaide. It's happy people everywhere. Although everything ends on Ash Wednesday - except for the headaches.

Another nice tradition is just a couple of months away. During the night from 30th April to 1st May, all the boys in East-Belgium get together in small groups and chop down small trees and bracnches and decorate these with colored paper strips. Then they go to the homes of the girls that they like. Once they have arrived, they put up the tree somewhere visible and start singing a very romantic folk song: "Secretly, on a starry night, when nobody but us is still awake, we go out into bush and wood to decorate our sweetheart's house,..." After a couple of verses, the girl usually invites the boys in and they get food and - guess what - beer. The older the boys get, the fewer girls they visit.

The first time I went on tour, we visited about 24 girls, now were are down to 14. Some other groups have been known to visit 30 girls or more. Usually a tour ends on the evening of May 1st. The trees in front of the girl's house are an indication of how popular a girl is. Some girls have more than 30 trees. Some people say they are very popular, other ones have more unpolite expressions for this.

And a last tradition which is very important in our region are parish fairs. Each village or town has its own parish fair. These festivities also have a religious origin. It's a feast where the parish's Saint is celebrated. After the relgious part, the festivities turn more profane. It's all dancing, drinking, eating again. It's one of the best and longest meals of the year - usually only second to Christmas and Easter.

Now you might wonder what kind of food we Belgians eat. Belgium is the country of French Fries which are served with mayonnaise. Belgium is also the country of chocolate. But we do have more fast food as well like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger Kind and our own fast food chain called "Quick". A regular home cooked meal starts with soup. The main course is potatoes with beef or porc and vegetables. Sometimes there is also dessert.

BBQ's are not as popular in Belgium as they are in Australia. This is probably linked to the weather conditions. Almost each village or town has its own bakery where people get fresh bread and rolls each day. I missed soup and fresh bread the most while I was in Australia, now I'm missing lamp chops, sausages, meat pies and Vegemite. I've still got a small jar of Vegemite left which I keep for those occasions when I get really homesick to Australia.

If you have an Internet connection, you can write to me at <joe@buff.euregio.net>. You can also find these columns on the World Wide Web at <http://www.euregio.net/joe/column1.html>. They include interesting links to websites which cover the various topics indepth.

I also have to make one correction to last weeks column: Belgium produces more than 400 different beers instead of the 200 mentionned last week.

That's all folks! Cheers!

Joe Buff.