Ghent

I woke up on Saturday morning hoping that it wasn't raining. The forecast was calling for rain all weekend, but I turned on CNN International just to check. Just then, they gave breaking news about a huge earthquake in Chile. It happened about 300 miles from Santiago, where I had been working for two months. I logged onto Facebook and messaged some friends and then made my way to the train station with more on my mind than weekend traveling.

A little info on Ghent... it was the second largest city in Europe (after Paris) until the 13th century. It has a rich history of trading and lots of wars throughout the years. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you are in Belgium - just not in the winter time.

I got to Ghent after a relatively short train ride and hopped on the tram to get to the city center. I had no idea where the race was going to begin, but I thought that was a good place to start my search. I quickly realized that I took the tram in the wrong direction as we passed through the suburbs. Luckily it looped back around within 15 minutes and I asked someone for directions. Someone located the square where the race would start on my map, and it turned out that it would be quicker for me to walk.

The closer I got to the race staging area, the less I needed the map. Streets started to become roped off and there was a general pedestrian flow in one direction. The tightly packed buildings opened up around a corner to an open plaza, jammed packed full of cycling team buses, sponsor tents, fencing to route foot traffic and a stage. I wandered between team buses with all of the other people, trying to catch a glimpse of cyclists I knew. It was kind of hard since they were all wearing their helmets and shaded glasses, but I managed to capture a few pictures.

Thor Hushovd, last year's Omloop winner


I watched the start of the race and then made my way to my Couch Surfing host's apartment, less than 10 minutes from the plaza. I took a deep breath and rang the bell... I didn't quite know what to expect. Wouter answered the door and invited me inside. He had a one room apartment half a flight down the main stairway that put his window at street level. He had a single bed in the corner, futon couch (which I assumed would be my surfing spot), computer desk in a corner and a sink in the remaining corner. It was definitely smaller than what I'm used to. The kitchen was shared by the other seven apartments, as was the bathroom and shower. I definitely wouldn't want to live there, but it would do for a night. I wasn't going to complain!

We talked for a bit and got to know each other and then walked to the city center. The rain had held off so far, and I hoped that would continue. Wouter wasn't a cycling fan, but I convinced him to plan to be back at the plaza for the race's finish in about 4 hours. He took me through the city, which he actually didn't know that well since he had only been living there as a student for 6 months (he was from Holland and studying photography at the university).







We paid 2 Euros to go into the Belfy of Ghent for 'the best views of the city' according to Lonely Planet. It was finished in 1381 and only took about 70 years to build - no big deal. You'll notice in the picture directly above that it looks a lot like one of the churches I have visited, but it isn't. It has a bell tower and was used to summon townspeople, but never served religious purposes. There are churches on either side of the tower.

I already climbed the Dom Tower in Utrecht last weekend, so I wasn't as excited to climb another - plus, we were on a time crunch. This one had an elevator, so you only had to walk up two flights of stairs to get to it. It looked pretty typical from the inside, but I definitely recommend the view, as you can see from the pictures below. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go all of the way to the top. The observation area is just underneath the clock in the picture. There were stairs going further up with a simple chain barring entry further up - no sign saying do not enter, just this red and white chain. Wouter and I considered just stepping over it and going further up the tower. His exact quote was "You're American, you make your own rules." Low blow, my friend. We ultimately decided not to do it and headed back down to the cathedral. Here are three of the best pictures from the belfry:







St. Bavo Cathedral, (pictured directly above, last of the three pics from the belfry), now ranks as the most impressive cathedral I've visited. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The church was founded in the 11th century and is MASSIVE inside. The most famous piece of artwork held by St. Bavo is Jan Van Eyck's masterpiece "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb". You had to pay to see the real copy but they had a duplicate on display which was impressive enough for me. There was a medieval castle that I would've liked to go inside, but we didn't have a whole lot of time. For the most part, the allure of the city is just walking along the cobblestone streets and looking at the architecture. I was disappointed in all of the construction that was going on though. Many of the streets, especially around the churches, was torn up and filled with fencing to route traffic. All of the rain created a lot of mud and obstacles as we toured the town.

Wouter and I made it back in time for the end of the cycling race, which was not surprisingly won by someone I had never heard of. He won by 18 seconds, so the race ending left me unsatisfied. We walked around the team buses again, hoping to get pictures of Tom Boonen for Dana (yes, I was that dedicated to your cause, Dana). Tom is Belgian so there were a lot of other people waiting on him, but he didn't show. Maybe he was upset with his poor performance in the race.

We went back to Wouter's apartment for a while and got into a long discussion about girls and relationships. I think he was more messed up than I am/was, and though he is only a year younger than me, he had the relationship mentality of someone much younger (girls are stupid). We debated for a while but I just kind of gave up.

I treated Wouter for dinner as a thank you for letting me stay with him. We went to a Turkish restaurant called Ankara which I highly recommend. We got a two person sampler plate that was stacked full of all kinds of meat - yum. After that we went to the bar area, which wasn't as impressive as I would have thought. Wouter told me that a lot of students go home on the weekends, so the bars are most lively in town on Thursday nights. Oh well, nothing I could do about it.

Wouter was super shy, coming up with all kinds of excuses not to talk to girls. I was trying to be a good wingman, because I could tell that he wasn't bold enough to start a conversation. I surprised even myself because I'm usually more in his role while other people seek out new friends, but I was getting tired of just walking around with only him, not making any interactions with the scene.

"What about that group of three girls?" -me
(pointing to three brunettes)
"No, I like darker brown hair." -Wouter
....
"Look at that girl." -me
"I like cute, next door girls. She's too done up." -Wouter

This was a typical exchange, each time with an excuse. Finally I gave him an ultimatum that he had to talk to a girl within 5 minutes or we were leaving (it was 1:30 am at this point). He found a woman ~35 and asked her for a cigarette, then walked away proud of himself. I shook my head in frustration. I had never seen so many girls in a bar, just sitting by themselves and talking without guys coming up to them. I was trying to do Wouter a favor. Finally I spotted two girls and said, "Look, I'm going to go talk to them. I don't care if you like them or not. In a minute I'm going to wave you over and we're going to hang out. Ok?"

I went over and met the girls and started to have a conversation. I kiiiiiiind of forgot to work Wouter into the conversation, and 15 minutes later when I finally did, he was gone from the bar. I had his phone number and a map to get home (about a 25 minute walk), but I was still kind of worried. The girls were cool about it and waited while I looked around the bar, before finally texting him to come meet us. He didn't seem too upset, but I felt like I broke the Bro-Code. The girls seemed to want us to hang around and stay out later, but I could tell that Wouter wanted to go home, so I thanked them for their time and we left. It was probably best since I was planning to go to Bruges in the morning. We had a conversation about girls (again) on the long walk home. I really wish him luck because his whole relationship outlook is pretty twisted and counter-productive.

Sunday - on to Bruges!