Country by Country 01: Belgium

This series will go country by country through my two-year trip. I plan on sharing some photos, thoughts, and experiences in those countries.

Belgium was the first country that I visited on my big trip. I hadn't planned on going to Belgium, but I saw that someone online was offering a cheap ride to Madrid from Ghent, so I figured I'd start my trip in Belgium.

My first stop was Brussels. The train ride from Germany (where I was living) wasn't remarkable.

I disliked Brussels pretty soon after arriving. My hostel was located in a run-down neighborhood, it was raining, and I still hadn't gotten my travel-legs yet. Every time I start a trip, there's always a period of time where everything seems overwhelming and odd.

The part of Brussels that I saw was a place that made me happy to leave. It smelled like urine and didn't seem interesting at all. I was in an immigrant neighborhood which should have been kind of cool, but the only businesses they seem to have are Donor Kebab places and used phone places. No food from the countries that the people actually come from, just imitations of a German food which is an imitation of a Turkish food.

I left Brussels as soon as I could and took a train to Ghent. Ghent was awesome.

Ghent

Why was Ghent awesome? For starters, Ghent didn't smell like urine, so I was happy with that. Ghent also has an awesome old town area that's packed with things to look at and take photos of. Ghent is also a college town, so the people and businesses seemed younger and more hip than Brussels.

I booked a room in an old monastery and loved it. I did have to share the bathroom, but I got my own room to sleep in.

A dining room at the monastery that I stayed in.

Here are some of my photos of Ghent.

I was only in Brussels for 2 or 3 nights. Ghent is definitely worth visiting. Brussels probably is too, but I can't vouch for it.

One thing I learned in Ghent was how much I hated carrying my backpack. I had to check out of my room early and I wasn't meeting my ride until 4 or 5 pm. I had to kill many hours and my heavy backpack made those hours suck. In the future, I would get better at finding places to stash my backpack or work out arrangements for late checkout.

Eventually, I met up with my ride and we headed south. We did go through France, but I'm not counting it in this part of my series. I returned to France for a night and I've got photos of that. The first time through was at night and I didn't take any photos.

Stay tuned for the next country in this series, Spain.