Goodbye Ghent!

Hi there! I know I've teased the last week in Ghent a of couple times but today is officially the last day I may ever spend in Ghent! How sad!! I've made lots of memories here so I wanted to compile some of my favourite things about Ghent into one blog post!

The best things in Ghent

First for the "tops". I dedicated a lot of time to finding (in my opinion) the best parts of Ghent and I want to share them here in case I ever come back, I have my itinerary done!

Belgium is known for 4 main things: fries, waffles, chocolate and beer (how healthy!) So here are my favourites:

Chocolate

There are lots of really fancy and tasty chocolatiers, little chocolate shops and massive producers, but I narrowed my favourite down to Sophie's Chocolate. They have so many cute little chocolates in seasonal shapes and their specialty is a dragon filled with caramel pralines, very tasty!

I do have a second favourite and it is Marijn Coertjens. This place has the most beautiful chocolates ever. They have more non-traditional flavours like creme-brulee and they make very impressive chocolate sculptures!

Fries

This one is an easy one and I am confident that I found the best fries in Belgium and perhaps even in the whole world. They are at Frites Atelier. You know they are good fries from the massive black and white artistic photo of the founder of the restaurant holding a potato in front of his face on the wall of the restaurant. The fries themselves are deep fried twice to make sure they are nice and crispy then there are different toppings like Flemish beef stew or parmesan and basil mayonnaise that make them even better. If I miss one thing about Ghent, it would be these fries.

Waffles

A Belgian waffle is a big deal here and the contest to have the best Belgian waffle is an even bigger deal. A joke somehow started in my program and with the seniors in the cohorts above me that the best Belgian waffles are sold at the little tiny shop at the Ghent train station and I haven't found a waffle that proves this wrong so it stands!

Beer

Going into this semester, I really did not like beer. But coming out of this semester, I have a newfound appreciation for it!! I have been on 5 (I think?) brewery tours, tried beers of all kinds from an advent calendar and I think I can now officially say I like beer. So in terms of the best Belgian beer, I know don't if I'm qualified to say that but I do have a favourite and it is the blonde by Artevelde Brewery. This is a tiny brewery that makes all go their beer right here in Ghent and has a really cool philosophy about including all of the fun and flavours of Ghent. Even their label includes little pieces of Ghent's history.

Non-edible Items

Ghent of course has some "top" items that cannot be consumed so I guess I'll talk about those too! Ghent was actually one of the largest cities in Europe during the 12th and 13 centuries and was widely famous for their textiles. A lot of things happened between then and now including a massive economic drop due to bad rulers. But the history still in Ghent and the beautiful architecture are most definitely "top" items in Ghent.

Ghent right now is famous for its "three main towers":

St. Bavo's Cathedral

This church was built in 942. It's massive and beautiful and houses the famous Ghent Altarpiece. I've talked about that painting before but since then I've also learned a lot more about it and it is an absolute must-see. Speaking of must-sees, "The Monuments Men" is a really good movie about American soldiers who rescued a lot of art in WWII and one of the main focuses of the movie is The Ghent Altarpiece. I'd recommend watching it!!

The Belfry Tower

This tower was used as a watch tower to look over all of the people of Ghent back in 1377. There is a big dragon on top to protect people, a very narrow staircase that you ARE NOT supposed to use to climb to the top, and beautiful views of the city!

St. Nicholas' Church

The last of the three towers of Ghent I must say is my least favourite. It is a cool church but compared to St. Bavo's, I'd say that this church is a "see-if-you-have-time-becuase-it's-right-next-to-the-other-stuff" but not a "must-see".

The towers all together are a very pretty site and part of what makes Ghent feel so magical :)

Gravensteen Castle

This is probably my favourite historical site in Ghent. It is gorgeous and the sunsets from the top are super gorgeous!

Ghent honourable mentions & locations of frequent visitation

Some things just don't fit into a category but deserve to be mentioned too.

Tartines

The little bakery & coffee shop right around the corner from me that would always accept the pocketfuls of change that I would accumulate. They also had really good iced coffee and Christmas bread :) They even had my favourite: refrigerated chocolate milk

The canal close to campus

This was my established route for me to walk along when I needed to destress. The perfectly timed 23-minute walk will be missed.

Carrefour Market (My chosen grocery store)

They were open on Sundays (a very valuable rarity) and they never got mad when I would come in when I remembered I needed something at 6:45 PM (they close at 7 PM).

Café Labath

They had really good lattes and a very nice cozy study environment.

The Nespresso store

On the note of coffee, the Nespresso store would always let me try their new flavours (for free!) when I would go in to buy pods.

The Sunday Flower Market in Kouter

The fresh flowers provided more dopamine than calculable.

On to the next semester and chapter! Tomorrow I move to Norway with two massive suitcases and 8 of my fellow classmates! Wish me luck!