European cities are charming. There is a mixture of old architecture from the last 3 to 9 centuries, alongside new structures. Tokyo is drab... mostly temples and same type of structures, same colour of facade, same designs. Don't get me wrong. I like Tokyo a lot. Asian cities are mostly known for their social discipline. Those in the north east of Asia especially. Very little pick pockets, low crime. There are of course, organised crime, like the Yakuza, and triads in Taiwan. But they mostly leave you alone unless you cross their paths.
Below is an example of an old cathedral near Grand Place. Like any other city in Europe, cathedrals and churches pepper the streets.
Brussels is famous of its mussels cooked in wine sauce. After downing the mussles, if you stomach still has capacity, you can dip pieces of french loafs on to the wine sauce in the pot. Quite delicious. I wonder why Singapore does not have such cuisine.
Below is the only advertisement on a shoebox unit in Brussels. Only 450 sq ft, it is asking for EUR650k, or around SGD2,456 psf. This is much more expensive than Singapore's units. As you can see, our luxury and mid sector homes are still cheaper than Europe's main cities. Even in a small city like Brussels, residential properties are more expensive than Singapore's. But shoebox units are not popular in Brussles. This is the only advertisement amongs the hundreds that I see out side of property agency offices.
This is at "Soho", a clothing store with acres of space for avant garde statues outside.
Like most European cities, grafitti deface the walls. You don't see that in Asian cities like Tokyo and Singapore.
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