If I spoke Dutch, I would move to Ghent tomorrow (first day recap)
My first full day in Ghent! I’m so glad already I’ve given myself 3 nights here, any less and I would’ve had to extend. This place is definitely favourite destination so far, and I almost feel bad for anywhere I go after. I would be surprised if I love another city more than I love Ghent. Seriously. I know it’s a weird thing when you find somewhere your soul just feels so right being. I think for me, it’s Ghent. This place is beautiful, of course, and the people here are lovely, but there’s something more intangible about it that makes it feel like a little haven, a bubble from the real world.
Anyway, I’ll explain what I did today, maybe I’ll find the words eventually.
Even though I went to sleep the night before actually that morning, I knew I didn’t want to waste the day sleeping, especially since there is so much to see and experience. So I decided coffee would be my best friend. I was so proud of myself waking up at 9am and actually staying awake the whole day. I had a good breakfast, even though eating was the last thing I wanted to do I knew food would help. And honestly I felt pretty rested waking up, just nauseous from the hangover, but honestly nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. After eating and getting ready for the day, I set off.
In the hostel lounge I found Adi, who had just checked out but didn’t have his train until later in the day. I stopped to chat with him for a bit, then decided to go for a wander around together to kill some time. This was also the perfect opportunity to see what I actually wanted to do in the city, and try to start to orientate myself amongst all the little streets. We happened to come across a book market right on the canal, so we followed it down as far as we could, and ended up walking the length of the city. I found the main Cathedral, the Belfort, and Gravensteen Castle, which are probably the top 3 attractions of the city. We spent a couple hours just walking around, seeing how lost in the alleyways we could get. We even found a tiny shopfront selling homemade soaps on a little stand, they were so cute.
We walked around pretty much until Adi needed to make it to the tram to take his train to his next destination, so I headed back to my room for a bit to chill for a minute. I was just proud I didn’t immediately fall asleep, but I knew if I stayed put for much longer, I would be. Luckily right at that time 2 new people checked into my room, one of them being Sara. Originally from Switzerland, she’s travelling around during summer before uni starts again in September. Initially we just chatted in the dorm, before she went to explore the city by herself in the later afternoon.
My afternoon activities on the cards included visiting Saint Bravo’s Cathedral, which is the city’s prominent church, and I was not disappointed. Although it seems all I do is go to churches in the cities I visit, they really are always cool. I find that although they’re all very grand and detailed, they have something about them that makes them unique, and represents that specific city. For Saint Bravo’s, it’s the gold dragon that sits atop of the cathedral, said to guard the city. The Belge people definitely have a good sense of humour, which seems to include the church, a nice surprise. The Cathedral was beautiful inside, of course. I got a bit nervous about there being so many real candles lit inside, especially with all the timber accents, but I guess they’ve been fine for this long. I wandered around and make sure to visit all the little corners of the main room available to the public. There’s often some really cool stuff in churches tucked around places, I’ve found it pays to spend more time in there than you think you initially need, then you notice the actually cool stuff.
Walking from there the Belfort was right next door, so I ducked to the side of the street to buy a ticket online for the next timeslot, then walked right on in. All I knew was that you got some really good views from the top, and that’s reason enough for me. Turns out it was also originally helpful in the defence of the city, and was guarded 24/7. It was also Ghent’s official clock for centuries, it’s bells so loud the entire city could hear them. Each level you got to there was some more info about the bells on that level (yes, multiple levels of bells) which broke up the stairs as well, so that was nice. Especially being hungover, walking up hundreds of stairs wasn’t on the top of my to do list, but I knew the views would be worth it.
And they definitely were! Unlike Cologne Cathedral, which made it exceedingly difficult to get clear photos because of the wire completely covering the sides of the balconies. Which I understand for safety, but personally I think it’s a bit overkill. The Belfort obviously agrees with me, the walls only went up to about hip height, then there were these beautiful arches separating the scenery into little tableau-like windows. It was so beautiful! I spent a while up there, walking around the top and seeing if I could figure out the places I’d already been to (ended having no idea). I even got some photos from a nice Spanish lady at the top, which she seemed way too exciting about being ask to do.
The only other thing on the to-do list was to visit the Tywin Lannister statue, which ended up being a bit of a cool out of the way thing to go see. It was only 250m away from the city centre, but seemed a world away. The square it was located on was completely empty, and it was so peaceful to wander these streets for a bit, in pretty much complete silence. The dense streets meant I couldn’t even hear the people on the other side of the next street outside chatting, it was wild. And usually in cities I’m not familiar with I don’t really like to be completely by myself somewhere, mostly because I don’t usually feel the safest, but here I really did. You have to get a decent distance away from the city centre to feel any sort of uncertain.
On the way down there were also a couple extra displays, but I wasn’t too locked in, I was getting a bit weary by then and just wanted to chill for a bit. I had initially intended on just rotting in the hostel for a little while, but walking back along the canal I ran into Sara, who had just come back from a flea market a little bit out of the city. We decided some joint sightseeing was needed, and decided to continue walking around, mostly because Sara had found a recommendation on Tiktok for a shop selling a version of fries that are a Belgium specialty. Fun fact, fries actually originated in Belgium, so there are little shops selling them everywhere. Sara got Flemish stew fries, and I got parmesan and basil ones. You got so many, they weren’t a side, that was a main meal of fries. We walked with our fries down to the canal and found a cute spot to eat and yap. We chatted for probably 2 hours or so, people watching the kayaking, boat tours, walking tours, just people hanging out and being people like us. We stayed hanging out until Sara finished her chips and mine got cold and I was full, before we started walking back towards our hostel.
On the way we were stopped by 3 Spanish travellers, we found their names were Laura, Bea and Alegarar. Initially they just wanted us to take a photo of them in front of the canal, but we got chatting and got along really well. They didn’t speak the best English, but good vibes don’t take notice of a language barrier, we ended up inviting them to come on a free night walking tour of Ghent with us that started just around the corner in 10 mins or so. They didn’t have anywhere to be until their train later that night, so they thought it would be a good way to kill some time.
We ended up having a great time, our guide Kenny was hilarious, and really good at making a historical more entertaining than I thought possible. It was very Horrible Histories-coded, and we soon learned a ‘night tour’ also meant it was actually a tour of the ‘dark side’ of the city, whilst also being at night. Love a double entendre. We learnt about all the different torture methods that were used in the ‘torture square’ of the city. The punishment depended on the crime, so even though there were no trials you could still figure out what the person did wrong. Treason resulted in cutting off a hand, making counterfeit money resulted in being boiled alive, and gossiping resulted in the tongue being cut out. I would’ve lost my tongue as soon as I could’ve learned to talk in those times. I was glad overall I did the tour, and I was glad it explored areas of the city I hadn’t seen before. Honestly I deemed that unlikely, considering the sheer volume of steps I had completed during the day, but just a couple hundred metres outside the centre was a whole other world. The only downside was that it went for quite a while, until 10pm, and honestly I couldn’t believe I stayed awake for all of it. As entertaining and interesting as it was, I was fading rapidly, and needed a decent night’s sleep asap.
As soon as the tour ended Sara and I walked back to the hostel, looking forward to getting lots of sleep. I managed to be productive enough to wash my hair, and then quickly fell asleep back in my dorm.
If anything when I think about today in Ghent, I think of safety, comfort and an innate familiarity. I feel I could simply walk and walk and feel like I know it inside out, whilst still being fascinated. The buildings and canals and food are the most unique I’ve ever seen, it truly feels like I’ve stepped foot into another dimension, yet weirdly like I’ve lived here my entire life. I’m not joking at all if I magically could learn another language and be fluent in it, I would 100% pick Dutch just so I could move to Ghent. And I’m 0% joking.
What an incredible day, ready for day 2 tomorrow!
Currently MIA,
Lauren x
