Brugge Parkhotel

... drizzling quite a bit here in Gent, but that's ok...

Tomorrow I'll try and brave the weather (here's hoping for some more sunshine) around Gent. My last full day in Belgium, since on Monday I take a train out to Dusseldorf, to spend my last night in Germany and Europe with my first hosts. Then, I leave around noon from the Dusseldorf airport to Fort Myers, back in the states. Last 3 days....

Today I said goodbye to rainy, rainy Bruxelles, and took the half hour train (8 euros) to Gent/Ghent, where I met up with my first host ever, Johanna. She was the first couchsurfer to welcome me into her home back in 2007, after I had finished my year in South Korea, in Beijing.

- Before going to Ghent, I actually made a stop in the Musical Instruments Museum in Bruxelles ...

... huge damage during the war and required significant reconstruction. Some parts of the original buildings still stand, and show shrapnel damage, and some of the statues in the church walls are badly damaged.

Next stop after Ypres was at the Hooge Crater Cemetary. This cemetary contains the graves of nearly 6000 soldiers, many of whom were younger than I am, and a lot were only engraved with 'A British/Australian/New ...

... cuisine before (nor was I really aware that they had a particular style of cooking) but I have to say it was one of the tastiest meals I've ever eaten - I was impressed! I had a glass of Sangria to go with it too, and it was sooo good!

We spent the rest of the last evening of the rally in the bar with the others, having a few drinks and a good time. It was a late night too - not getting back til gone 3am! Overall it was a great time, we met some great people and had lots of fun.

... went for a wander around the Beguinage and the little streets of the city before stopping for lunch in a restaurant on the main square, which was really nice and served local traditional food which was really great.

We wanted to go up the clock-tower but the queue was far too long and we decided that we could go back another day during the week when there weren't so many tourists!

The Christmas market had just started in Bruges so we spent quite a while wandering ...

... actually have a "Fries" museum. Every restaurant sells fries as a separate menu item. And they prefer to serve them with mayonnaise, not ketchup. Very delicious.

Shelby and Mike climbed the clock tower in the main plaza and we all did lots and lots of walking, shopping, and eating.

Of course Belgium is famous for their chocolates and there were plenty of beautiful chocoloate shops.

We also saw the ...

... the festival and gently reminded some of the volunteers that I was in the market for a t-shirt. As I was sitting under a tree eating a sandwich with my Toronto friends, a girl walked up to me looking mischievous, and discretely pulled a balled up shirt out of her apron and shoved it into my backpack. Mission accomplished, I didn’t even have to work for it. So now I have my first functional souvenir, and what has become my only clean t-shirt ...

... of the tour was the trenches (remade of course) but was very interesting. I could not imagine the conditions that these individuals were in! The experience was particularly powerful because I was with Damien, who is a soldier that has been to Malaysia and Afghanistan fighting and has personally experience war so I had many questions and I learned about the many realities of war. I still cannot believe how regular individuals can ...

... sweets of all kinds and more... think we were in heaven with the food on offer - Andy had a massive serve of mussels and chips for lunch plus an equally large local brewed beer. I drooled past all of the chocolate shops - we were very good and only bought a small selection to try which I'm afraid has since been devoured!!! yummo!! also had some waffles to finish off the day before heading back for our connecting train.

Hello everyone!! I hope this finds you all unthawing from your latest sub-zero temperatures!! I've been thinking about you all back in South Dakota! My weekend has started out wonderfully over here--a group of us decided to take a quick trip to Brugge, Belgium on Thursday and Friday. There was eight of us that went and had a blast including myself, Mackenzie, Jessica, Katie, Wes, Pablo, Ryan, & Matt. We hopped on the train on Thursday afternoon after class and ...