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Look at this: Belgiums try to make up the lack of normal milk with some nice chocolate and egg liqueur!! Indeed, it is still draining me that I cannot get a Latte Macchiato anywhere in Gent, but I can get used to it to have some chocolate instead:) The liqueur I just drink to numb my sorrows....
I just want to demonstrate one of the world's best improvisational candleholders. Of course, it was not my idea! Pat, you are a genius..
I thought German weather can be horrible, but what we experience in Gent currently is even worse! The weather just doesn't even give you a slight chance of predicting it for a few hours. You can google it and try to be clever - nevertheless, it will fool you. It says rain in the news, but the day starts nicely with sunshine and you think: "Great, lets go for a walk!" Wrong decision!! Cirsumstances in Gent can turn around in minutes and you'll end up coming home completely wet, and for good reasons you did not consider to take an umbrella with you.
They are old (would you expect something different in Gent?), they are grey - mixed with some brownish- and confusing through too may doors. But they are multinational! Of course, everyone was speaking English when we entered the hopsital plus the nurse was serving Pat in Spanish a bit later - not to forget the German words every Belgian knows!
Anyhoo, I actually wanted to start explaing why we spend our time answering stupid questions, reading French and Dutch magazine in the "Wachtkammer" instead of doing some nice sight seeing in Gent, having a coffee and visiting the market as originally planned. (For all Germans: "Wachtkammer" sounds frightening but is just the "Wartezimmer":)
Pat had some pain in her big toe whist putting pressure on her foot during walking. On Sunday she rarely made it through her tiny room and therefore decided to see a doctor. I mentioned before the stupid questions we had to answer in the hospital. I am refering to the nurse who truely ask Pat whether the pain might come from the shoes she was wearing. I did not doupt the competence of Belgian nurses before, but at this moment my attitude just turned around. Especially when they discovered through an x-ray photograph that Pat's foot was indeed broken!
We could not believe it, nor could Pat!
After visiting Laura from Spain the one evening I decided to have a look at the apartment of Latvian Laura together with Spanish Laura and Pat. This time the Spanish girls were more creative in cooking and introduced us to Tortilla de Patatas (what other European people like me would just call an Omelette). Anyway, it was really good and if I get the chance to use a real kitchen (maybe at Volker's new place in Munich, which is supposed to be awesome) I'll try the new style of egg-and-potato-mix.
Coming back to what I actually wanted to do, namely making some comments on my favorite Belgium drink so far. I have never really been a fan of beer and therefore been one of a few that could not follow the beer-drinking-tradition of Bavaria. I kind of changed my mind since I got to know the cherry beer in Gent. I know that this statement will attract the anger of the many old-fashioned beer drinkers which may consider the red cans on the picture not a true beer, but I don't care! I make myself a beer drinker! Laura from Latvia (the blond girl) and Pat gonna join me.
This is it!! My tiny but cosy room.
There not a lot of space for moving around, but for that I can use the streets of Gent. And I actually save money by not buying a blue tooth head set. Mine has a 2.5 meter cable and absolutely does its work! If you are good in calculating you'll have the size of my Belgium home;)
Friday night I cought up with Pat and Laura from Spain to have dinner together. It does not need a lot to discover that Spaghetti is not what you would call a real Spanish food. We just wanted to start off with the simpliest dish to prepare in order to give us the opportunity to improve in cooking.
Still, I had to explore that cooking attitudes are a lot different. As I remember I can get stressed whilst preparing a dish. In contrast, the Spanish girls took their time for chatting and did not care at all that the Spaghetti have been al dente already. Being a German girl, I am concerned about the time management in the kitchen. It is actually hard work to figure how much time each part of the dish will need to be ready for serving. Everything has to be finished simultaneously, am I right? ...
I thought so until yesterday! I was quite sceptical, though, since the Spaghetti had to wait a while to merge with the sauce. Surprisingly, there was no difference in taste. Maybe, I just did not realize since I was reallyyyy hungry....:)
That's a Belgium waffle! Or you better call it a whole-day-meal! It does not leave any space for other food at all for the rest of the day once you ate it. You know, i like sweet stuff, but biting the pure sugar and being reminded with every single bite to gain weight is not what I enjoy. So, I still try to find the perfect Belgium sweets for me. I'll let you know!
This morning I could not believe that is was snowing like crazy!! When I picked up Pat from Spain on the way to university I told her that it was snowing because she hadn'd had a look outside at this time. When she opened the door, she was stunning: "It is snowing?!". "Yes Pat, I told you!":)
It was definately to early! I arrived in Brussels at 8:35 am in the morning. Hopping on the train to Gent gave me a first impression of Belgium. It seemed that everything I passed was old; either houses, streets or simply the train stations. How charming!, I thought:)
Gent was presenting itself in the best manner. It was sunny all day long which made me enjoy walking around in the city. From the first moment I liked Gent very much. I say "very much" consciously because I still want to give it the chance to upgrade to "absolutely wonderful".
But have a look yourself!!
I know that I should not mentioned Volker and me in the last part of my small report, but I was so excited about the animals like a little kid. Nuremburg was like holiday: sleeping in, waking up and having Volker at my side, cooking together, laughing together - just enjoying every minute with him. I could talk about many highlights of my weekend but one of the best was the professional massage I went to with Volker shortly before I had to leave Nuremburg. Finally I got what my parents and my sister had lots of
