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Blogs from Gent, East Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 4
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July 18th 2008
FANTASTIC festivals & parties :D! Seriously though, I do believe it's the oldest city in Belgium. Medieval through & through. ... read more
July 6th 2008
After a busy first day of the holiday, we were up at 7am fully rested and ready to do our first bit of Interrailing! Our hotel was only about a five minute walk to Lille Flandres Station, and in our ever-lasting panic of things going wrong, we were there about half an hour early to make sure our train was on the board and we knew exactly where we needed to go. Admittedly, we had gotten there early in the hope of finding breakfast too...but soon realised that would be a rather fruitless search given it was so early on a Sunday morning (even at this point, we were in that holiday mood where the days just merge into one another and we stop paying real attention to days and dates). We found the train fairly ... read more
July 1st 2008
Hi folks! This entry is merely an attempt to see how this site works. Within less than 24 hours I'll depart from Brussels to New York and from there out I'll fly to Lima, Peru. I'll be staying in Lima from Tuesday the second until Saturday 5th of July and will fly from Lima to Pucallpa. I'll join a group of fellow adventurers to go deep into the jungle to stay in a Shipibo village. During our stay we'll learn about shamanism, we'll have a look into medicinal and psychoactive plants and we'll have the oportunity to join in an ayahuasca ritual. My friend Julio who'm I've been in contact with trough e-mail and msn for several years will lead the trip. If you want to have an idea about what the trip is going to ... read more
Ferry to Calais and Ghent (Belgium) 06 & 07 & 08/06/08
Published: June 19th 2008Europe » Belgium » East Flanders » Gent
June 19th 2008
We made our way from Torquay to Dover which was quite a drive. I think it took about 5 hours. Our ferry wasnt until 4am the next morning so we stopped at a reststop and had a few hours sleep. Boarded the ferry which only took 90 mins to cross the English channel. Arrived in Calais, France then started driving towards Belgium. We stopped at a rest stop on the way for a bit of a sleep cos we were quite tired. When we woke up I realised that I had left the headlights on so the battery was dead flat. We managed to get a jump start from a tow truck which turned out quite costly. Once we were back on the road we headed to Ghent for the night. Stayed a quite a nice ... read more
June 13th 2008
I was there in 2006, in Gent. The Cathedral is impressing, the streets are very neat and narrow, a bit too tidy and boring for my taste. Everything is rather comformist, and the rest looks like Holland.... read more
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And then the Sun came out....in Ghent
Published: June 5th 2008Europe » Belgium » East Flanders » Gent
June 2nd 2008
When we first arrived in Ghent from Bruges our spirits were low! There was overcast and it was just Dull in general....I guess we had low expectations of the place right from the start and the tram ride from the station to the centre didn’t help shape our opinions in the slightest. The place just looked stingy and not most attractive town I’ve come across. From the walk to our hostel it didn’t appear to be all that exciting. It just seemed dead or something. However it wasn’t long before that changed. Last minute that evening we decided to take a boat ride as the driver was ever so friendly and convincing you could say. Once we saw the city from the water EVERYTHING changed…. The sun came out and the town was almost glorious to ... read more
May 19th 2008
I spent 5 nights in Gent this trip thanks to the unwaivering hospitality of my friend Kat (shes probably reading this so I have to be nice!) and her housemate Annalies. The first night I surprised Kat by producing a haggis brought all the way from Dundee (and hopefully surviving the sweltering temperatures of my cycle to Gent in the lower reaches of ma rear pannier unscathed). In the end the haggis was partially consumed but we have to wait till Saturday for that story. Thursday and Friday were both fairly lazy recovery days. Kat was working in the Bio-Shop (pronounced Beo not Bio) so I got a lovely staff discount lunch there both days of soup and a roll with unknown but tasty organic filling. On thursday afternoon I also met up with Daithi, a ... read more
Dundee to Rosyth and then on to Flanders
Published: May 16th 2008Europe » Belgium » East Flanders » Gent
May 15th 2008
This blog entry sees me having successfully completed the first stage of my cycling trip, with nothing worse to tell than a mild case of sunburn. Everything got off to a typically smooth start as I was forced to backtrack a mile along the front at Dundee having encountered improvement works on the esplanade. Dad was there to re-wave me off in the opposite direction 10 minutes into my tour with precisely no miles under my belt! Crossing the Tay bridge I stopped for a brief panorama shot and a goodbye to the city for, if all goes well, at least the next 2 months. It was a cold start to the trip, and even though the sun finally broke through the cloud the fleece never came off the whole day. Well I raced on through ... read more
April 2nd 2008
Gent, so who has heard of it? It's not really on the radar of most Kiwis that I know. I mean over the last couple of months while Lindo and I have been preparing for our trip not once has anyone come up to us and gone "hey, you guys have GOT to go to Gent", unlike Venice, Rome, Paris, London, Berlin, Prague etcetera... All we knew was that Ross, who is Lindos brother, lives there, and we were going to stay at his house for a few nights. Anyway, we left Cologne and headed towards Belgium on Tuesday the 1st of April, catching the ICE high speed train. After a short bit of confusion where we thought the carriage we were in was comfortable and suiting our needs, I realised that we weren't in our ... read more
March 27th 2008
Dag allemaal! A long time ago I wrote something to all of you! But I think you know we came to Belgium in December, and we will be here untill May. Kalu found a job real fast, in the green house of a big flower company, and after a month I started working in a psychiatric hospital. And Kalu got his residence card for Belgium!! But the best news ... my sister got her first baby ... another little niece for us! So after Hilke, Mara, Noor and Erin (Kalu his brother's daughter), Maud became our fifth niece! And proud as we are we put a picture of her on the blog! And in Belgium we are ofcourse enjoying the time with our family! And ofcourse we love to hang out with our friends! For the ... read more
