Leuven Local Customs

Although the winters in Leuven are cold, damp and dark, it generally does not snow. In my year living in this city, there was only one snowfall. It was great. about four inches of nice, damp, packing snow. The whole town, which consists almost completely of students, fell to throwing snowballs at each other all afternoon. If you visit Leuven, it will very most likely not snow on you. If it does, however, you'd better take care and watch your back!
What fun!

Like on so many airports also in Leuven it is a good custom to bring your friends or relatives some chocolat for their good health! In Belgium you can find these shops in the pedestrian area in the larger cities, they are almost on the street, you can eat from the paper or pack in a large variety of boxes and such.

Please give it a try and taste the wonderful Belgium chocolat, it is a good way to keep fit :)

Address:

Tjokolateke
Brusselsestraat 18
3000 Leuven

Price level Oktober 2005 = 16 Euro per kilo chocolat

2 more images

The annual carnival in Leuven is held the first three weeks of September. It is mainly held on the Ladeuze square and adjacent H. Hoover square, but also on the Oude Markt (old market square).
Aside from the obvious rides and attractions, it's also a great opportunity to sample some Belgian snacks like waffles etc... For atmosphere, I would recommend going there at night - it's safe since the carnival is located in the heart of town.

The monday after the first saturday of September, most of the city center is closed for traffic and Leuven becomes one big street fair. It's a day off for schools, banks and people who work in the city (except of course stores/restaurants etc, which put their stands out on the sidewalk).

On quite a few street corners in Leuven, you'll see a secondary plaque underneath the street name sign with a totally different name on it. This is the name of the street like it is known in "Leives", the Leuven dialect. It more often than not refers to activities which would take place in the street in question, or any other particularities.

In the case of the street pictured here, Vital Decosterstraat (mayor of Leuven during 1901-1904) , the name is Petatemèt - which literally means "Potato Market".

There are plenty of others throughout the city, such as a square called "De Zeve Ukke" ("the Seven Corners"), or a tree lined street called "De Klaan Bummekes" (the Little Trees") - all of which have little or nothing to do with their actual, official street names.

Belgians are fairly old fashioned when it comes to their "guaranteed off-day" : Sunday.
It's a typical day for family visits/activities, dining out, or just kicking back at home. Practically all shops are closed. Services like banks and the post office are closed all weekend, a few exceptions (on Saturday morning only) set aside.

One thing you'll often see on Sunday mornings is people eagerly waiting at the bakery to place their order. A lot of people buy fresh bread at the bakery every day, but on Sundays it's customary to get your breakfeast rolls (either sandwiches or "pistolets", which are small round buns), maybe a pie and/or or a few "patisserie" items, which are pastries chock full of whipped cream or butter cream (cream au beurre) and/or pudding, chocolate, powder sugar and other extremely fattening ingredients. Needles to say those are delicious if you have a sweet tooth. Moreover, Belgians have this thing with chocolate, you know ...

You will basically find a good bakery in every main street of the city center. Don't hesitate to go into a place that looks busy - most of them are on a Sunday morning - that way you'll at least have time to look at the goods in the display before they take your order.
Meanwhile, see what those beefy, elderly women standing in line before you order and stuff down the huge tote bags they always seem to be carrying around. Observe and learn.

Well you have them everywhere of course, but during weekends and when the weather permits, you'll see plenty of buskers throughout the city center. Some of these guys (and gals) are actually very, very good and I often enjoy sitting on a bench watching and hearing them play. So if you like what they're doing, throw 'em a few coins you can spare.

Somewhere where to sit when you have a very urgent need. Very often, public toilets are not that clean. I tried the ones at some train stations and they were not that neat, for instance. In pubs and restaurants, they don't have dame-pipi either.

Instead, for 30 eurocents, Quick restaurants have clean toilets (with an active dame-pipi and not the ones who just sit on her chair knitting).

Plus, Quick restaurants are spread all over the country. :)

In Leuven, you may head to QUICK restaurants centrally located :
*Fochplein 1 - 3000 LEUVEN

Pic of St-Peter's church was taken from Fochplein so I guess you can locate the restaurant.

OK... For those who don't know, Quick is a Belgian chain of fast food, quite developed in Europe. No mussels and fries there but rather hamburgers and fries. OK.. you name it, like McDo. A bit cheaper, I think.
I am not advertising about Quick. But I noticed that their toilets are clean... It's up to you to have hamburgers or taste local food. Read my restaurant & shopping tips and you'll know there are better things to try than hamburgers. :)

And they are OK too in the central Library of KUL... but access is limited to the visitors, students and personnel, I think. You will have to pass the gate, in fact. And very often, you have to show a membership card or be an awaited visitor of the Library.

I noticed that many streets had two signs with different names on them, one with the official one, the other in local dialect. Sometimes this is a translation of the official name, but often it is something totally different. I'm not sure what pottekesmèt means, but surely not Father Damiaan Square.