This morning, I checked out of the hostel in Antwerp so I can spend a night in Ghent. But before moving on to Ghent, I went back to a museum I first checked out yesterday, called the MAS, a museum about Antwerp. The MAS is in a very modern building-but when I arrived last yesterday afternoon, the musuem exhibition areas we're closed. The only open area was a external promenade on each floor, with exhibits focusing on World War 1, when Germany conqured Antwerp, and sent many refugees to the neighboring Netherlands. I thought this was very interesting, so I returned today to check out the musuem. I lucked out, as well-the last Wednesday of every month, the museum is free-so I didn't have to pay the $10.00 fee. It turns out, that the most interesting part of the museum was the one I checkout yesterday. The other exhibits focused on mapmaking, and life after death. Mapmaking is ok, but after the 15th map I decided to move on. There was another exhibit on life-after-death in different cultures-again, it can be interesting, but my focus is on exhibits that focus on the city I am in, not general exhibits.
Antwerp was ok-as mentioned, the weather was cold and rainy. And the hostel I was in was literally a study hostel-which seemed to be more conducive to providing places for college students then walking tours, city services, etc. In short, the public areas looked like a college library at the beginning of the semester, when only the nerds are in the library. The city itself seemed more industrial, with old buildings/warehouses, and combined with cold, rainy weather, (and my broken camera the first day), was somewhat depessing.
So I then took the train to Ghent. Ghent is a rival city to Brugge, as both are relatively small, but have medievel sections with old castles, cathedrals, etc, and up until 2 days ago, I wasn't planning on coming here. I figured three cities in Belgium (Brussels, Brugge and Antwerp) we're enough, and I had no need for any others. My next destination is Switzerland, however, and I have a credit on Easyjet-and the next flight from Brussels to Basel, Switzerland wasn't until today (Thurs)-so I decided to check out Ghent. And I am glad I did.
First of all, what a difference the weather can make. It was beautiful, warm, and sunny yesterday, somewhat in Antwerp, but definitely in Brugge.
Ghent is similar to Brugge. While Brugge looks like a city taylor-made for tourists (with all touristy businesses), Ghent is a college town. As a matter of fact, a college student named Lyn, who is studying the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, assisted me in getting from the rail station to my hostel. It turns out she lived near the hostel, so she allowed me to follow her. And college students there are-drinking beer along the canal banks, eating at Mcdonalds (they have a very good Italian Salad, by the way). So after checking into the hostel-I took the 15 min. walk to the downtown area, and walked around. It was around 5:00 by the time I got there, so many of the museums/cathedrals we're closed, but I did take a boat ride through the canals, and walked around some more.
After the boatride, I had a last serving of Belgium fries, at a much-recommended place, and then the Italian salad at the Golden Arches.
