Apologies for the very long delay in posts. We’re actually back in the States now and have been busy visiting with friends and family and organizing a memorial benefit festival.

Our last couple of weeks in Ghent will be really memorable as they were filled with fun, friends and lots of festivities. We returned from our 10-day roadtrip in the midst of the Genste Feesten, an incredible, city-wide festival with all sorts of free entertainment, including music, puppet buskers and street theater. It’s estimated that about 2 million people visit the city each year during the festival. And thousands of people party like rockstars. It’s expected that you’ll stay out all night drinking and dancing and then have Irish coffee once the sun comes up so that you can keep on going!

Walking around the center of the city during the Genste Feesten is really a experience. Every block or two you come across interesting performances and antics. Here’s a taste of what we saw one day.

The Graslei and Korenlei were transformed into a big “beach” party, with a stage bridging the canal. There were several bars selling mojitos and sangria and lots of raucous music and people.

We were thankful we got to take part in the festival because it was like nothing we had ever experienced. And everyone living in Gent talks about the Gentse Feesten with a smile, whether young or old. It was a really appropriate way to end our time there.

You can see more picures from the feesten here.

One of the key destinations on our road trip was the Czech Republic. Troy studied there 12 years ago in Olomouc and was anxious to get back and to show me around. We stayed in three different cities, České Budějovice, Olomouc and Prague. We were able to meet up with an old friend and Troy’s first composition professor too. It was a bit of an emotional trip, as we also spread the ashes of our close friend Brad (who studied in Olomouc with Troy) around the Czech countryside near the dorm where they both had lived.

The countryside by Olomouc

Troy took me to a number of places he remembered, like a very old placed called “Blues Bar” that serves cheese and meat fondue in Olomouc. I really enjoyed the Czech countryside, food and beer. And the people were quite friendly too!

Here’s a very typical and delicious meal we enjoyed in Olomouc. It consisted of garlic soup, roasted duck with pickled cabbage and polenta and also some potato pancakes filled with Olomouc’s famously stinky cheese (it’s so potent that they serve it with a mint).

Garlic soup (with ham, cheese, croutons and a poached egg)!

Roasted duck and potato pancakes

After Olomouc, we headed to Prague. It just so happened that our friends Felicia and Yvan (from Ghent) were also on a road trip and we managed to meet up with them there. It was really fun to explore the city with them. And what a gorgeous and interesting city it is!

Yvan, Felicia and Troy in Prague

We all camped at a ridiculous campsite (basically a small plot of grass). One thing I’ll look forward to when I return to the states is a real camping experience. All of the campgrounds we’ve stayed at in Europe have been pretty pitiful in terms of privacy and space. The big plus is that it was only about a 20-minute tram ride from the city (some of the hotels I looked at were farther away).

In any case, we got by cheap with the lodging and were able to enjoy the city’s amazing architecture, food and beer with our friends.

Na zdraví!

Prague

Troy & me in Prague

Saint Vitus' Cathedral

On our last day together we went to Plzeň and toured the Pilsner Urquell brewery. We even got to taste beer directly from the cask. Yum!

Pilsner Urquell brewery

At Pilsner Urquell

You can see more Czech Republic pics here.

It was really a whirlwind trip with lots of driving and not nearly enough time in each place. Despite that, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and are really happy to have taken the time for these travels.

After Munich, we planned to meet up with some of Troy’s relatives in Innsbruck. Unfortunately these plans fell through, but we’re very glad we still made the trip to Austria. What an incredibly scenic country! We stayed in a pretty little village called Maurach. The town is located on Achensee, the largest mountain lake in the country.

Achensee with Maurach in the distance

One of the most unforgettable experiences we had on our road trip was hiking in the Alps. We took a cable car up and chose a hike to one of the peaks.

Mountain trail

Troy & trough

There were cows all over the place, right off the trail. It was interesting to see them scrambling around on the mountain terrain. Cows in the U.S. look so lazy in comparison!

The cows also have bells that make wonderful tinkling sounds. Troy forgot his recorder but I managed to get a (poor quality) video that gives you an idea.

Unfortunately, it really clouded up on our way up the mountain and we weren’t able to have much of a view by the end of the hike even though we eventually reached the peak. Also, we thought it was a 2 hour hike but it was actually 4 hours round trip. And once we got to the top, we waited for the fog to dissipate longer than we should have. This resulted in us missing the last cable car down the mountain! The only other way to get down was to walk, and so our 2-hour hike ended up being about a 7 hour hike. Oof. I was sore for the next several days!

Here are some more pics from Bavaria and Tyrol.

We just got back from a 10-day trip out east. The main point was to make it to the Czech Republic, where Troy studied for a term 12 years ago. Since train tickets and airfare weren’t reasonable to get to Prague, we decided to rent a car. This was a bit of a long haul, but it allowed us many more experiences and sights along the way.

Our first stop was Munich (about an 8-hour drive). We stayed at an interesting camping/hostel called The Tent. We felt a little bit old with all the young, trustafarian travelers but it was cheap, the facilities were nice and it was only a 15 minute tram ride from the city.

The weather was incredibly hot. We were excited to discover a unique “beach” in the middle of the city on the Isar river. We went for a swim to cool off and the water was incredibly clean and cool.

Next we visited the famous Paulaner brewery and beer garden. We had a delicious meal of venison with a creamy mushroom sauce, red cabbage and spätzel. And the beer (served in 1 liter glasses) was outstanding.

Now THAT'S a beer!

We even got to experience real beer garden culture. It was quite busy and an older couple came and asked if they could join our table. We ended up chatting with them for quite some time. They shared a couple of bottles of wine with us and invited us to their home the next day!

When we arrived at Cornelia and Eckhart’s home, they had caviar and champagne waiting for us. And then they proceeded to serve us a four course meal!

Colorful caviar!

Troy with Eckhart and Cornelia

It was really interesting to talk to this knowledgable older couple about all sorts of world issues. Eckhart was 6 years old at the time of World War II and living in Cologne. He talked about memories and showed us pictures of the city and how devastated it was by the war. In many of the images, Cologne is reduced to rubble and the only thing left standing is the Dom.

While we didn’t end up seeing many sights in Munich, we really enjoyed the food and beer. And we feel extremely luck to have encountered such wonderful German hospitality.

I can’t tell you how many times Troy or I have stepped in dog poop on the sidewalks of Belgium. Blech. I’m really not sure why this is such a big problem!

For the longest time we’ve been cracking up at the signs around the country that encourage dog owners to pick up after their animals.

Here’s a series of photos I’ve taken of misc. signs on this topic.

We had friends Robyn and Tom over for dinner this past weekend and Robyn brought her two large dogs. The dogs were content outside on the patio most of the evening but by the end of the night they were whining. Robyn thought they were just tired and so let them in as she was getting ready to leave. The dogs only had a few minutes downstairs in the bedroom by themselves but that was enough to cause some damage. Robyn was mortified but we were all able to laugh hysterically by the end of it. And the jokes just keep coming.

I’m thinking of getting one of these signs for our house after this unfortunate experience!

This year I had the good fortune to be able to celebrate my birthday in Paris. We’ve been meaning to make it there for quite some time. While we think nothing of driving a few hours to get to destinations in the States, it’s interesting how your perception of distance changes when you live in a small country for a while.

In order to save money (Paris is expensive!) we traveled by bus and I booked a studio apartment through Airbnb. I’m not sure I’d do either of those things again but we did save some money and gladly used it for other treats like delicious food and wine, a river cruise on the Seine and a few hours at the Centre Pompidou (modern art museum).

At the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens

It was ridiculously hot in Paris but we still really enjoyed ourselves. It’s a pretty amazing city. A little big for me but still very interesting to see.

Troy was able to work into two work-related visits with robotic musicians too. I went with Troy to check out Jacques Rémus’ workshop, which was pretty fantastic. He’s also a lovely person. He spent three hours showing us a number of really interesting projects in three different locations.

The highlights of the trip for me included the food, cruise and visit to Père Lachaise cemetary. We went mainly to see Jim Morrison’s grave but it was a pretty spectacular cemetery (and I don’t really like cemeteries at all). His grave is very simple compared to the other old, ornate graves around. I’m sure some of the French are cursing this celebrated American musician, always has to be a guard stationed at Jim’s grave to keep people from damaging or vandalizing it. Two very somber French women all dressed in black brought a big bouquet of flowers while we were there. I have heard that there are women who regularly keep a vigil at his grave. I’m really curious about whether they really knew him or are just fanatics.

Gotta love the whiskey bottle

Our last night in Paris we had a fabulous meal at Cafe Constant. Christian Constant is a chef who has made a point of trying to bring gastronomic food experiences to everyone. He has several restaurants and tries to keep the prices more reasonable. We were thrilled to be able to get in on a Friday night since they don’t take reservations.

After that we hung out on the grass with a bottle of champagne (purchased from some random dude) and a view of the lit up Eiffel Tower. It was really lovely!

You can see more pictures here.

In the past week the weather has really warmed up and it’s starting to feel like summer. We’ve noticed a huge change in the overall mood of the city. People are outside as often as possible and they seem much more gregarious. As I’ve mentioned before, Belgians really enjoy being outside. It probably stems from the dark, depressing winters. The houses are even built to take full advantage of light, with loads of windows and skylights.

The summer months in Belgium bring festivals of all sorts. Each little town and neighborhood has its own events and parties. Our friend Jeff was visiting two weekends ago and we stumbled upon an international street musician festival in Torhout (after our visit to the Wijnendale castle). It was really fascinating to see real live organ grinders. Unfortunately, there were no live monkeys!

Endearing organ grinder in his eighties

I especially liked this guy.

Jeff got to see a ton that Belgium has to offer during his short visit. On Sunday we had a fun-filled day of biking, walking, castle-gawking and then sat with some good Belgian beers and listened to street musicians.

Troy and Jeff in Torhout

See more pictures from our castle visit and Ghent wanderings with Jeff here.

Last weekend our neighborhood had a buurtfeest (neighborhood or block party). These are organized all over the city, each in a slightly different way. Ours was very cool. There were clowns and activities for the kids all day. There was a BBQ where you bring your own meat. They grill it for you and provide you with vegetable side dishes. They even had beer and wine for sale for really reasonable prices.

Our next door neighbor invited us to eat with her, which was nice. We met some of the other people living on our street as well. It was an interesting turn of events because we really haven’t met any of the other neighbors. In fact, many of you have heard the story about when we first got here. Troy tried to introduce himself to the neighbor and the guy ran inside and slammed the door!

Later in the evening there was a fun marching band with sassy dancing women dressed up sort of like flappers but also carrying pom-pons. And finally there was a DJ and dancing. Nothing like a block party to jump start the summer!

Here’s a little video clip of some of the action. The quality isn’t so good (I need to play around more with video to understand why) but you get the jist of it.

This post is for Peter. 

Belgian fry guy

Belgians claim the rites to the original “French” fry. Supposedly, American soldiers mistakenly coined the term “French fries” after tasting the sliced, fried potatoes in Belgium during World War I (the confusion came about since officers of the Belgian army spoke French). In any case, frieten/frietjes are a national treasure. You can find frituurs (fry stands and shops) everywhere across this tiny country. Some are better than others. There is a stand in Gent where the fries are still hand cut, and so that’s where we typically go.

Since eating out here is terribly expensive, fries have become our go-to fast, cheap dinner. One grote pak is typically around 2-3 euros and is enough for both of us. Sometimes Troy orders kip vingers too. It’s funny because we hardly ever eat fast food back in the U.S., but we just can’t resist frietjes!

The most common sauce served alongside this deep fried delicacy is mayonnaise (if you are lucky, it is homemade). Most frituurs have a wide variety of sauces to choose from (some have upwards of 15 different kinds)! Most sauces are mayo based and cost 30-50 cents extra. I’ve been told that for Gentenaars (locals to Gent) stoofvlees (beef stew cooked with beer) and mayo is the topping of choice. Troy and I like the combination of mayo and ketchup and we also really enjoy the samurai sauce–a spicy mayo.

Frietjes smothered in samurai sauce

Sauces aren’t typically served on the side (don’t bother asking for them that way) so you’d better make sure you like the sauce before you order! Luckily, they give you tiny plastic forks to eat the sauce-smothered fries.

We ventured to Limburg yet again for a new series I’m writing on castle walks/bike rides last weekend. Unfortunately and somewhat ironically (since the name, beer label and website all prominently picture the castle), the castle and its gardens are private, cordoned off from the brewery and surrounded by leafy trees. If you want a good view of it, you have to book a stay in the bed and breakfast or arrange a private tour of the brewery. Even so, we had a really pretty bike ride and enjoyed the Ter Dolen beer and kaas.

Entrance to the Ter Dolen brewery

Castle beer!

Tomorrow our friend Jeff arrives (who we know from Charlottesville). Jeff’s been at a conference in France and will swing over for a visit now that it’s done. He’s our last visitor and I’ll be dragging him and Troy to a castle in West Flanders on Sunday. I’m realizing that there’s no rest for travel writers. It should be a blast though!

You can see more pictures of Ter Dolen here.

I can’t help but noticing that our blog has witnessed a steady decline in visits each month since it’s inception. We went from a high of around 1,100 hits in October to only over 300 hits last month. We’ve only got a couple months of this Belgian life left and I’d hate to end on a low and boring note. I’d like to create one last spike in the stats. So tell me, dear readers, what part of Belgian life are you interested in knowing about?