NH Gent Ghent

... city. Awesome architecture and canals winding around the city, as I took tons of pictures as always and just enjoyed the city.

Apparently Brugges had a movie made recently with it as a location; I'll have to check it out sometime. The main "art" piece I saw was a Madonna with Child from -the- Michaelangelo from Italy. It was quit nice, as were the countless other paintings and sculptures I saw in that ...

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 ...

... the market and the shops and then went on a boat ride which was fantastic, after which we went to a tea-room which claimed to have the best hot chocolate in town, and it was really good! It was incredibly sickly though and gave both Erin and I a headache for the ride home!

Altogether a really fun day out in Bruges, truffles bought, Belgian food eaten and Belgian alcohol drunk, and Belgian chocolate drunk! This is another place where we will definitely be returning!!

This was a trip waited for the end of conference. 45 minutes drive away and no hassle of immigrations. You dont worry about passport travelling within EU. Ghent ( Gent ) is one hell of a beautiful historical city with ancient architecture . The word "hell" for the fact that few hundreds years back beheading and hanging people for talking against government or religion is normal and acceptable! One of the Ghents hero, with a status in the middle of city was beheaded too ...

... surtout la fille - et faisaient beaucoup de bruits. La fille a même fait tomber l'échelle en essayant de monter dans son lit! En tout cas, heureusement ils ne sont restés que cette nuit-là! J'ai pris un "hop on - hop off" bus avec Alex et on a fait le tour de la ville. On a eu le temps de visiter le musée de royal l'armée et une partie du musée des instruments de musique. J'aurais aimé rester plus longtemps en Belgique! Si seulement j'avais su que les ...

so! sorry about the wait for these ones... the internet at our last hostel sucked so much. it didnt work, and you could only go on for about 15 minutes at a time. so there was really no point in trying to update. but yes. BELGUIM! so, we got to Belguim, and it was absolutley POURING rain. I have never experienced rain that wet before, except that time we got to Hawaii (For those of you who were there... you´ll know). the drops were the ...

... Cities". Eventually I'll finish it! Bruges - a little confusion as to which way the hostel was. I finally found it - pretty charming and rustic. It's funny as there's a fine line - Antwerp's hostel was a little more run down but was dirty and therefore a complete dump. I could only book a single room here so it kind of sucks - it's always easier to meet people when you're in the dorms. But it appears the hostel is overrun with a ...

... a forum post in HC to meet with people and planning some gathering. Would be great. ------------ February 23 I've a reply from Daniella, so we can meet by midday in Brussels. I take my time as her train is suppose to arrive by noon. But I forgot to adjust my clock and I'm still in UK time... silly me, I'm one hour behind :S Then I grab the sandwich I was preparing and hurry to the metro station to get to Centraal Station to meet her in the lobby hall. It was a grey day but ...

... this made it all the much cooler because in Brugge, one of the old dungeons was underneath a hotel and they had converted it into a function room. I went down there and it was full of stacks of chairs and folded tables. Some of the stories from this castle were really interesting: placards explained the torture methods used by the Flemish, which are not very nice at all. The worst one was a manacle that went round the neck. Within the circle were hundreds of razor sharp ...

... late and we had to catch our bus to Grimbergen to go to Frank which we did trying to make the bus driver stop at the good stop for us, which they never know where it is! Jurgen was already there, I talked a bit with Frank and we placed our things in our bedroom... finally I took out the monthy Pythons and started watching, in the meantime a group of French arrived... it was getting late and we went to sleep finally ...