Thursday, August 6, 2009

a good day in gent!

the rest of antwerp was a good time. outside the huge mall area there are beautiful plazas (including the plaza of brabo and the town hall), an impressive church (directly across from our hostel), a port and riverwalk, and some good antique shops. and we happened to be there on the last wednesday of the month, which meant that rubenshaus (where Rubens used to live, now an art museum) was free. the house itself was really cool, and the museum was great as well. i recommend it you are ever in antwerp (especially if its the last wednesday of the month). we also stopped in a few times at a bar called veurleste, where the bartender, Ivan Stuzts, was in the middle of "The Longest Bartending Marathon". He already held the guinness world record for longest bartending (84 straight hours in 2008) and now he was attempting to set a new record of 90 hours. we stopped in numerous times to show our support (http://www.veurleste.be/fotoboek.php?id=8655&winscroll=0), but the marathon didnt end until we had left antwerp.

we had been undecided about going to gent, but after numerous recommendations from antwerp locals, we decided to stop there for the day on our way to brugge. it was a really cute little city, without the crowds of people that were in antwerp (and we knew would be in brugge and brussels). we visited some churches, and scammed our way into the gravensteen castle for free (22 years old is close enough to 17 and 18, right?). it was really interesting and had different rooms explaining prison life, torture, weapons, and the middle ages in general...
we also had lunch at a place called Tasty, the best "quick-bite" restaurant ever! it was a little "resto"that sold veggie burgers and freshly blended smoothies!! we were in heaven (hannah is also a vegetarian)! i had never had so many different options of veggie burgers (spicy, texas, soy, schnitzel, garden, etc...) and they were delicious!
then we had some REALLY delicious belgian beers at Chat Noir, a bar in one of the plazas. we talked to the bartender for a while, who gave us free t-shirts for each of our respective beers, and we tried not to laugh as the old man a few tables down from us had a conversation with someone who was not there (seriously, the chair was empty and he was alone. but his "friend" did have a glass of beer and the man made sure to toast him each time he took a sip).

all in all, gent was small but pleasant - stopping for the day ended up being a really good decision.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Kerr - I'm tired just READING about your adventures - so glad you're having such a great time - loved seeing your picture at the bar - you look MAHVELOUS! love, aunt g

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