The Tudor Hotel Knokke-Zoute

... 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 ...

Today was a many miles day - around 500 in fact, or about 800km! We all met up in a carpark on the outskirts of Macon, then travelled in convoy north. As we were travelling such a long way today, we all decided to use the motorways, as despite being toll roads and meaning we'd see a bit less scenery, it was well worth it as we'd get to stop for longer on the way and get there earlier. The tolls were quite expensive compared to what I'm used to (it cost us about 21 Euros/NZ$42 for the ...

... two. We decided to try them both. They sure do like their mayonaise in Belgium, and they have a ton of different sauces that go with the fries... the one on the right is the better one.
The next day we went to possibly the worst museum ever... the French Fry museum. Yes, an entire museum dedicated to the harvesting and frying of the potato. So bad but pretty hilarious, and of course you get french ...

... 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 ...

... has been preserved. After our nice walk through there we walked to the more modern area of the town and discovered a separate square with the most unusual statues in a fountain. It seemed to greatly contrast the medieval feel of the city and was almost shocking. We enjoyed them greatly though and took some pictures with the ducky of course!

After spending some time sitting at the steps in the market square we made our way up ...

... English detective show or something. We had a great night out and ran back to the hostel in the rain.
We walked all around the town and saw little parks and local areas to the north of the town where people actually live. Around town there are heaps of chocolate shops and even a TinTin shop! The clothing stores are all fancy and there are mouth-watering pink-decorated candy stores.
Our visit to Ghent was nice too. It is ...

... is another cute little bar. So after we ate we went across the street and had a couple beers. We also saw our tour guide from earlier that day there.

The next day it was rainy but we walked around the city anyway. It was just too cute to not explore. We walked to the edge of town and saw the dutch windmills then walked back into town for some chocolate and went on a shopping ...

... today though. We did have an ice cream cone and then took a boat ride. It was a half an hour long and a great way to see the city. We have been having to make some alterations to our travel style over the past few weeks. Normally, Jonathan and I would not use so much public transportation but would rather walk our feet off first. However, we have found that the best way to make the most of a city visit sometimes entails taking a bus or metro to one destination or another. We have ...

... your life and why the hell not? I have booked my tickets out of here and I will be going to Brussels, Cologne (again) and the fly to Croatia from there. I have been wanting to go to Croatia since the day I decided I would come to Europe and now it is finally going to happen. So I have until the 27th at the Bauhaus (work) and then I'm off. I have lined up an interview for a youth hostel in Berlin that is in the same chain as us and hopefully getting the job will just be ...