Hotel Chalet De Maalte Ghent

... 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....

... riding the bus with my huge backpack. Things always seem tougher and the rides longer when I have to haul it around with me. I won't miss it that much, I'm afraid. Anyways, it was acutally only about a 10 minute bus ride to the area where Johanna lives,and I found her apartment right away.

I greeted her and we had some really nice conversation, and she made some delicious ...

... 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 ...

... We talked for a while about politics, spanish elections were ten days ago, about our families, friends... Then, we had something quick for lunch and continued with our route. Our next stop is in Brugges. P.D: I like everything we are visiting but we are rather relaxed about cultural visits. We see the monuments from outside and we don´t care about finding out about their story. This journey is being different from others in this sense.

... Je vous jure que je vais retourner à Bruxelles et jour et visiter le musée de fond en comble! Et visiter aussi les autres musées que je voulais voir - celui des beaux arts et celui de la bande dessinée entre autres. Le tour de bus a vraiment valu la peine! Grâce à une paire d'écouteurs, on apprend plein de choses sur les bâtiments qu'on passe et sur l'histoire de la ville, ce qui est plutôt chouette! Ahhh! Ce que j'aurais aimé passer une journée de ...

... day was for waffles! We went to to the city center area "Grand Place". And we definately found some chocolate shops, so we stopped to get ssome Godiva Truffles and some other things. Then we found a good place for waffles. i had mine with whipped cream and strawberries, and erin had chocolate ice cream. I cannot even express to you how good they are. Its like dying and going to heaven.... times one thousand. Needless to say i enjoyed ...

I can't believe the weather here. It has actually warmed up and it appears that rather than rain we're going to experience a heat wave. According to the forecast for Paris, it's supposed to be 86 degrees there on Friday. I definitely wasn't expecting this when I packed my bag. Looks like the sweater and even the long sleeve shirts are going to be just excess baggage for awhile (might still need them in Switzerland when I go up in elevation). I haven't run into ...

... Said goodbye until we see again in a later time, maybe by summer. So I walked back home to cook something talking with Achim before watching Harry Potter. My computer finally started crashing quite badly again. So I will have to look at it again later :(. It seems my wireless Internet always makes it crash... if its not that, it simply get off suddenly like if electricity would cut. -------------- February 24 Nothing really special during the day, so it's only later during ...

... and two more beers. Now three beers doesn't sound like too much, but when they are 7%, 9.2% and 11% in alcohol, you start to get a little bit tipsy. It is like drinking three quarters of a wine bottle. We yarned about beers and he was in complete disbelief about the existence of light and midstrength beers. "Why do they do such things? Beer is alcohol" he said. The lightest Belgian beer I have found was 4.5%, which seems pissweak compared to the other ones, however that is a ...

... downtown. The meal was expensive so we shared one me and Marie and it was lekker! After that we finally got to meet with Mike and Maida and kept touring in Brussels with Jurgen joining us. We went 'till the european district and the Royale square area. Finally time flew by and it was time to be at Beurs for the HC first meeting point... we arrived just a little late and I saw with lots of great old friend! James was there, Katelijne, Patrick too... and I also met some other members ...