Gent/Ghent, Belgium

For the past 6 days I have been staying with my most wonderful couchsurfing host Didier. I was planning on staying a few days in a city called Gent in Belgium, but after his amazing generosity and awesomeness, I ended up staying for 6 days!  I visited other towns in Belgium as well while staying here, such as Antwerp, Bruge, and Leuven (which I've already written about I believe).

Gent is smaller than Brussels.. and I Love it!  It has a lot of younger people, because of the Uni (university) in town. It also has A LOT of bikes!  Everyone bikes!  People don't look both directions crossing the street too look out for cars, they look out for bikers! It's awesome.. they make it seem utterly ridiculous that some people back home don't have bikes..

On the first day I arrived Didier and I went to a cafe called Mokabon, it was an awesome local cafe that had an insanely vintage feel, the barrista (well it was a guy, so barrister?) even made the drinks on a stage/platform higher than the tables. I loved it :)

The buildings here are awesome. They kind of look like a boxed Christmas tree at the top of them (say if you were to stack sugar cubes into a triangle,that's what the tops look like), and the architecture throughout the city is absolutely gorgeous! There are also many Gothic churches. At one point, I was just walking around the city, when all of a sudden a castle was in front of me!  It was such a sweet surprise!!  The beer is great as well. I've, been able to try many different kinds.. not binge drinking though mum don't worry, just enjoying some beer. I really wanted to taste them, and they are great! Also.. the glasses for them always match the beer you're drinking! I swear, they must have billions of glasses behind the bar because they serve a lot of different beer!

I have been soo utterly touched by my time spent with Didier, I don't think I could have ever asked for a more wonderful experience.  He is such an amazing person, with so much trust, strength, and plain awesomeness, that our relationship grew into such a wonderful friendship while I was here.

I will gain soo many memories while travelling, but this one will remain very close to my heart..