Get to Ghent!
Hello loves, I have finally returned!
Well, not without a fight, that's for sure. A small and gross aside before we get into the meat and potatoes, wouldn't you know it but both myself and Sophie contracted this horrible stomach bug! And mine hit me on April Fools Day! And I had just started my period! How unfair life can be. But, I type this to you 100% bug-free!! YAY!!! Soaps is still in the weeds, but by the time anybody comes to read this she'll be right as rain, and this post might be the one collecting dust! :)
But anyway, I promised you updates and updates you shall receive! Although perhaps despite this digital age you are receiving my updates via carrier pigeon... alas! I'm trying! And as any of you should know of me, consistency is my weakest point possible.
OK. No more preamble. Let's Ghent!
Saturday, we left from the Chateau at ~8:30, or so the itinerary said we should. In reality, the bus got there an hour later, but it didn't disrupt the day at all! Win!! This was one of the few overnight trips, and honestly I think we scored so hard I couldn't imagine a better (FREE) trip. The drive to Belgium was pretty tame, landing in Ghent's city center in roughly 3 1/2 hours. One guy did have a shocking realization that he was susceptible to motion sickness about 20 minutes after we took off, so we had to pull over for him to vom and then he got the front seat. When we arrived, the bus took us as far as we could go, we got off in an unknown part of an unknown country (that apparently everyone else had already visited? I mean, it's a border country, okay, but dang. Making me feel insecure.) and given about an hour and a half to go off and find food! We were tasked to meet up by the riverboating service for the afternoon and otherwise given free reign.
Sophie had heard tales of Belgian fries, so we set off to stake our claim and seek our golden, crispy, treasure. We landed at this small shop, "Fries Atelier", a name so good it has stuck in my mind for over a month. That should give you an idea of the magnitude of these fries. One word: Resplendent.
This here is a video of the scrumptious cheese croquette 🤤And this, taken moments before demolition
I hope you'll be able to tell by the proceeding "after" image that these fries were GOOD. And they really were! Fries Atelier was nothing short of a gourmet french fry experience. We ran into a couple of our fellow travelers when we landed out by the line for the shop, but they weren't sure it was going to be filling enough so they left. To be honest, we weren't sure about it 100% either, but we couldn't even manage to eat all of the fries! Ahh!
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| CARNAGE !!!! 🤤🤤🤤 |
Thus, our drinks were handed to us and we were left to wait. What you may see in the above image is a LOT of sauce. If Fries Atelier was a druid, their subclass would without a doubt be circle of sauce. The green one was a kind of creamy pesto sauce --hand crushed basil, you know the drill-- a similarly creamy paprika to the right, a delectable rich truffle sauce to the left, and behind that by Soaps is the special Andalouse sauce, a Belgium specialty! We are seated on the second floor, right above the space where we ordered our lunch and a little to the right of the line cooks who served us that heavenly meal.
That's a lot to gush over some french fries, but it was so well-deserved. Still, we couldn't rest on our laurels, because we had to drag our satiated selves back outside for a boat tour of some of the city!
As a transition, here are some pics of the city. It's gorgeous! The cobbled streets and generations upon generations of architecture, and the beautiful design of the bridges! Ah, I'd love to go back there. And perhaps I will over the summer!
Even with the clouds, it was such a gorgeous place!
The boat tour was awesome! We got to hear a lot about the history of the city, and our tour guide spoke in French, English, German, and Dutch! It was «ein kleiner Paradis pour moi„ haha :)
Afterwards, we walked to the bus which took us to our hotel. Erin, the woman who organizes all the tours, was all apologetic that we were staying at a "budget hotel". But, Imma level with you, if this was a BUDGET hotel I don't even want to know what a 5 star hotel looks like.
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