Oudenaarde

Flanders is full of tiny, quaint towns. This one is in East Flanders, a bit south-west of Gent. Thriving  population of 30,000. The town hall, built in the early 1520s, is very impressive if not excessive in detail and gothic-ness. The town's last golden age was in the 1500s, when apparently it was 'world' renowned for tapestry production.

They have cool mailboxes like Gent! Woo hoo! With Monika & Koen

Town Hall

Check out that detail

If I was an architect, I'd bring back this window style with a vengeance.

The Ominous Church

It's really funny going into churches in Europe with Europeans. I'm fascinated, they think I'm nuts and a silly American for being so interested in a church. Guess that's the tradeoff for not having anything monstrous gothic buildings hanging around from 500+ years ago in the US.

Koen is from a tiny Belgian town (well, from the looks of it, a farm...) and decided to show us around one of the town's he went school in while growing up. Oudenaarde is located about 20 or 30 minutes outside of Gent. We went into one of the towns massive (from my un-refined perspective) churches. Koen and Monika were, however, quite excited that I was actually interested in looking around and taking pictures, cause frankly, they were more or less bored at seeing just another church (in truth, they all begin to seem the same after you've seen 50 or more gothic churches).

This one stood out though, as it had all these ridiculous statues lining the main aisle. Each statue was an individual (probably each a particular saint) with a different weapon. I thought that seemed a bit violent for a church, but hey, it actually dates all the way back to the 12 century when the crusades were still going on, so who knows. 

This one is particularly mean. How would you like to pray with an axe pointed at your face?

Ceilings are always awesome, artistically and architecturally.

Church of Our Lady Pamele

Laundry + Beer? Belgium, Yes.

Just in case you get thirsty while you wait for your spin cycle to finish. You have the choice of  carbonated water, sprite, coke, or beer. Because why should you have to wait until you've finished laundering to enjoy one?

Beer vending machine at a laundromat on Overpoortstraat in Gent.

Belgians Sit

Can't say I've seen this phenomenon anywhere else, but when the weather is nice Belgian students really seem to just enjoy sitting together on the concrete in circles before, after, and in between classes. I think it's great.

Kortrijk

This is a small city (75k) 30 minutes by train from Gent near the border with France. Very close to where Brecht grew up. Still, it manages to have 3 impressive cathedrals, a canal with ancient bridges and towers, a pedestrianized center, and enough medieval and historic things to see for a few hours walk. Known for being the site of a battle in 1302 when the Flemish rose up successfully against annexation by the French.

Fall is here, Mark plays with leaves:


Just your average furnishing for the interior of a church:

Awesome City!

I've been taking some time to try to put my opinion of Gent into words. When I first arrived, it didn't take more than a few days though to really begin to understand some of the truth to all the amazing things I had heard about it before I arrived.

Although fairly small at 250,000, the city has a much bigger feel to it. Around each corner in the city seems to open up a new plaza, a new canal, or a new impressive row of buildings or houses with fascades hundreds of years old and each unique in their own way.

And although the city has unique history, impressive architecture, and an incredibly beautiful setting with many canals, boats, alleys, and cobbled streets (making me wonder why movies are not shot here), it is the addition of the life of the city to the already amazing setting that makes it a really great place to live.

Recently I met a couple of Belgians from Brugge. Brugge is a famous tourist city in Belgium that is known for it's impeccably amazing historical center. Tourists flock here. But this couple said it pretty well in that Gent has most all that Brugge does, but it is more of a living city. Around every corner in different neighborhoods are bakeries, frituurs, coffee shops, flea markets, restaurants, pubs, and shops. There are 50,000 or so students, but the rest of the population is working. It feels young, and students live in all parts of the city, but it does not feel like necessarily a student city. There is much more too it which is why many Belgians choose to live here.

The city is proud for being the first city in Europe to declare Thursdays as 'vegetarian' day. So no meat served in schools that day. They prohibited cars in the city center, so walking or bicycling is easy(the best forms of transport since it is a fairly small city). On top of that they have a fantastic tram and bus system. They have free wi-fi outdoors in 20 places in the city, so you can sit on a dock by a canal or in a park and surf the web. They regularly have unique festivals taking place in the city center. The best of course, so far, was a big symphonic orchestra playing on a floating stage in the central canal, accompanied by a light show! There is a big music scene, and you can find lots of venues to watch live music, which is one reason that they say Gent has the best rock scene in Belgium.

And although the weather is often drizzly or overcast, I'll sure take that over the snow and long winters of Sweden and the crazy weather in Edinburgh.

Oh, and the beer is unbelievably great...the reputation has certainly stood its ground. Plus, from Gent, you can get to about 4 countries each within 2 hours or less :)



Take your pick, they're all going to be delicious (just watch out for the high alcohol content!):



Not a bad place for free wi-fi:

My favorite bakery:






Just one of the many regular flea markets:

Going through antiques at another flea market:

Gent By Night

Gent is absolutely beautiful at night. I have heard that they hired special engineers and designers to illuminate the city in a unique way. The combination of old buildings, fascades, and canals with the lighting make it fun to just wander around town at night.

Belgian Hazing

The Belgians like to haze new students in their social clubs (which are similar to fraternities as I understand but not really) and from my outside perspective society seems to accept it as perfectly normal. It is a common occurrence these days to bicycle down the main student street in the city(which is also a fairly decent auto artery through the city) and see random acts of hazing. People painting each other, people offering strangers to pay 50 cents or a euro to smash an egg onto their head, and even the following gem. Let's just say these knuckleheads are lined up in diapers and white t-shirts, on their knees on the edge of the sidewalk, with a beer in front of them. Then someone tells them to chug the beer and when they finish they have to place the empty can on their head. I guess being subjected to public humiliation makes you cooler? Like I said, knuckleheads. The entertainment value, however, is an added bonus on the way to class.

Belgium has Beaches?

As the weather is unusually nice in Belgium these days, yesterday I took a quick 35 minute train trip to the West Flanders coastal city of Oostende. Known for it's crowded beaches, we decided to then opt for a quieter beach and took the tram 20 minutes or so outside the city to a small town called De Haan. 'Cute' or 'fairytale' might appropriately describe this tiny town. The beach itself was quite nice. The Belgians, being comical in their beachgoing nuances, erect large partitions to shield themselves from the wind, making the beach look like a maze. The October water was borderline swimmable...you just have to jump in at this point or it is a bit of a cold and painful process.

De Haan:


The social hilarity of this beach for me is seen in the the sellers. In contrast to Barcelona, with it's thai massages and guys making mojitos out of backpacks (immigrants in both cases just trying to make some money), here you get a definitively Belgian baker in a full on white bakers suit with whistle selling rolls! In the summer, reportedly they are even selling Belgian style fries. I'm not sure if it says something about the amount of immigrants or available jobs in Belgium, or maybe just the high expectations the Belgians have to seem for what is socially acceptable in their society, but a funny sight nonetheless.




In contrast to De Haan, Oostende is a city of some size. The waterfront is full of seafood sellers. Not to mention escargot stews! Yum. And good waffles. A nice water promenade, and even a sizable center area with a big cathedral. You know you've been in Europe too long when you see this cathedral and you say 'Meh...just another cathedral...'




Lovely wind blocking partitions:


Laura and Monika, enjoying a mix of lobster, shrimp, and crab:

Fish row:


Stewed snails! My first time trying snails...chewy...


Oostende sunset: