Ghent : One of the beautiful cities I have ever visited!!!!

So we continued our journey from Brussels to Ghent.. this was the city of my interest.. I heard many times about this city.. So we will see in good weather..

Starts from the Main station.. (inside)

This is exactly infront of the station.. I was bit afraid .. Where is the beautiest part ?????We were looking for the tourism office.. We couldn't find.. And happy to say that Isabelle also was in my track that she doesn't understand Flemish..Ha ha ha... She is any way much better than me since she speaks good french.. Okay.. We talk about the trip...Then we found the direction for the historic part.. It said 2.2km .. We decided to walk ... That was a good idea for going..

Here it starts the Historic region..

(In medieval times, Ghent (Gent) was actually Europe's second-biggest city after Paris and although today it is somewhat overshadowed by Belgium's nearby capital of Brussels,
it is still a huge tourist magnet and stands at the confluence of the Scheldt and Leie rivers)

I was very happy to see the 13 and 14th century buildings are still in use...

Old post office...

Saint Nicholas Church..
It is a shopping complex now..

13th century building... Running a restaurant now..

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A small house with blue door (in below photo) at right side was before the "Custom Office "... Its too small right?????

Must be handled with precious metals and Diamonds..

This was the fish market in early days.. They planned to have the tourism office here.. This is just an information for you.. ... because we couldn't find a tourism office until we finish our trip.. Ha ha ha...
but finally we found .. And I use it now for the writing you some informations..

So please don't expect to get some informations from the main station of Ghent.. This is the information for the people who goes by train.. Not the one who travels by car...

Lucky youuuuuuuuuuu..

12th-century Gravensteen Castle...
I captured these pictures from Canal tour...



Belfry of Ghent... You can find Isabelle ..







Town Hall...

One information for you...

In 2009 the city launched ‘Donderdag Veggiedag’ (Thursday Veggie Day), encouraging its residents to forego meat or fish on Thursdays. The city set the example by offering a vegetarian meal to city workers and in city schools on that day. Cities such as Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bremen, Germany soon followed suit.

So what do you think about this city???? Do you want to visit??? Please do visit me too ...

"Religious traditional Village Feast" : Parade !!!

Isabelle invited me to gothere during this time.. She said to me that there will be traditional feast in her village.. When I asked about this she always says it is difficult to explain you will see .. So I waited again for this day..

before starting to her home, I was informed that we will have breakfast in her aunty's home and lunch at her home.. I was bit afraid about the food.. Since you know they wouldn't mind to feed us if you don't eat good.. With this fear we went there... So here we are in her aunt's home..

I like this photo very much... Isabelle and Jerome were trying to give some pose.. .. That made me laugh a lot..
Here comes her cousins.. One trying to say "Vanakam".. (Tamil welcome).. She knew to say Namaste.. But I taught her to say Vanakam.. Of course I would prefer in Tamil..
Look at the breakfast.. Other table was full of different varieties of cheese..
I tasted some ..

Look my drink.. It looks like an orange juice or mango juice.. But actually it wasn't .. they mixed really a strong alcohol with juices.. I knew it before.. But I wanted to taste... ha ha ha... I found taht was too strong.. When I said that to Isabelle she shared with me.. So I was saved by her for my safe trip back to Dortmund.. Ha ha ha..Here goes my small guy friend.. Ha ha ha.. yahel with his grand mother, Aunt of Isabelle.. Still you have to see many people.. Do not confuse with the relation...

My small friend wants to show his dog to us.. So sweet guy..
After having a small chat with her aunty's friend and family we went to Isabelle's home..


In this photo you can see the back wall of the Isabelle's home.. She has really a huge house.. ..
I came to know from Jerome that her house is named as " Castle of Farm" .. Sounds good ...
Also my intention of this trip was to meet Isabelle and her great family.. So Isablle wanted to make this trip double worth it by combining village party with the family visit.. She is smart girl..

After greetings Isabelle's family we went to see the "Parade"..

Some kind of religious parade .. People from, in and around her villages dressed as Napolean soldiers.. (This parade happening for a long period.. During Napoleon period this was escorted by his soldiers... So even now people were dressed like his soldiers as in previous days)..


This parade Composed of four companies, the Hussars, the Young Guard, the Zouaves and the company of the First Empire.. They really dressed like that..


You can see the woman is serving the glass of alcoholic drink to the people in the parade..

Here you don't need any explanation.. Ha ha ha.. Me and Isabelle's cousin sister..

After we came back home ,since these people will assemble in Isabelle's home for the gun shot.. I was very curious to see this..

Isabelle's father was waiting to invite people infront of his house.. He is the boss of this family.. He has his own boss ..(I mean his father)...

You can see people assembled in her house .. I felt so proud to watch all these from her home..

Enjoyed a lot being a guest of a primary family in this viallge....

I am amazed that I never saw Isabelle so proud about this.. Very humble girl.. She is a good person right???

After that everyone made a gun shot (real shot) after receiving a signal from the person sitting in the horse..

Then, people bringing the gold box from one church to the other small chapel located inside her house.. So that is all about the party..

I found this parade very interesting that people were really so involved.. One good example is.. you can see the small baby wearing the uniform.. What can I Say???

Since I am a old fashioned person I really love to watch all these kind of traditional events..

At the same time enjoyed watching the good looking guys.. really I found so many guys.. Ha ha ha... one example is this photo.. Just for the woman.. Okay???? Why not for a man too.. If you are interested..


Here I should introduce Isabelle's mother (left) and grand mother (right)...

Three generations..

And comes her uncle .. Who was in parade too.. I just liked the dress very much... Specially the gun..
I was glad that my dress was very matching to the parade.. It happened.. I had a good instinct..Ha ha ha....

Obviously I have to take a photo with him.. When we were taking a picture he asked about my status to Isabelle.. She was laughing and explained me..

Ha ha ha..

I am proud to say I am ever eligible single.. Sounds good for me..

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And I tried his hat.. I didn't find time for gun shot.. other wise I should have tried it.. Okay next time..
His uncle wanted to drop me in the station.. I wouldn't say no..In fact I could feel proud going to the main staion with the person dressed like soldiers.. But his wife declined it.. Ha ha ha..

I respect his wife a lot.. Well controlled.. Ha ha ha...

we both were upset for this.. Ha ha ha.. It's life.. Ha ha ha.. For a good reason its fine..

Last but not least I would like to introduce the fourth generation kids from Isabelle's family.. Of course not the one with red dress.. Ha ha ha...

Its time to end this journey saying thanks to Isabelle , Jerome and everyone in her family.. They always make my stay very comfortable and happy.. I respect Isabelle and her family a lot since they try hard to have this family together.. As a family loving person I respect this feeling.. Hats off to everyone..

So
Merci Beaucoup Isabelle..

and special thanks to Jerome for his great company in drinking vodka (I cant forget the taste of sweet, cinnamon flavoured, gold flakes floating vodka from Poland. ) , cooking, eating, chating and helping in teaching me four French words to manage with Isabelle's family)..

And I should mention here that he drove very very fast from Isabelle village to Namur to catch my train.. Isabelle was so much worried that whether we go home alive.. Ha ha ha..

But, I was very confident .. I strongly believe in that "if a person really cares about me, then I don't care what he does"...

So I was so confident and really enjoyed his driving (of course I should ...as a daughter of Driver)..

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Thanks for making that possible Jerome.. I can't forget that..

Merci Beaucoup Jerome..

On my way home to Dortmund.. Liege a city I supposed to reach on the way to Namur....But I could make it on the way back home from Namur.. Ha ha ha..

This is the newly constructed station.. Looks good .. I arrived home after 7 and half hours travel by train..

I hope you too had lot of fun friends.. Not frustrated with so many informations and photos.. If so I am sorry ..
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You have a good time ..

Thanks again Isabelle for your invitation..I never forget this in my life..

Muito Obrigada Menina!!

and

I guess i travelled enough.. I mean this month.. Ha ha ha..

Couch Surfing experience !!!!!!!!!

Recently, I started using a couch surfing community to meet and stay with interesting people... In this way we can easily learn many things from other people if you are willing to.. I used this opportunity first time to my Berlin trip.. There I could understand the meaning of this community... It is really unbelievable... Most of the People in this group showing their incredible involvement to work this out...

Amazing part of this community is that they believe in someone whom they never met before .... Once you get acceptance you must be ready to receive surprises... These people are so concern... They give us place to stay and give us good guidance to go around the city.. They some time go with us to show around .. Cook good food for us .. And make our stay more comfortable way, etc., etc., like one in a family.. Isn't interesting to hear? I am proud to be in this community.. I would like to show my involvement to work this out too..

Being a member of this community, I tried to find a host to my Amsterdam trip.. When I was searching for the people to host me I found lot of interesting people.. In the first attempt I got negative response, that means they already had committed to someone.. So I looked for the second round .. So no wonder that I was lucky I got the acceptance from one guy.. Sweet smiling face guy (William), that made me feel good.. I was happy about this.. Mean while I got some response from the other people that even they have committed with other people they wished to meet me for some time during my stay.. that made me feel so good..
So as soon as I arrived Amsterdam I went to meet Turan..

Here he is ..

He travelled to lot of places.. he received me in one of the train stations and we both arrived his home.. there I had a good tea and some typical sweet from Netherland.. Also he gave me many tips to see the Amsterdam.. that was so helpful...

Thanks Turan for you great kindness...

Then I left to meet William (my host) .... before reaching his home I sent him message saying abt my arrival time.. So it was a surprise awaiting for me.. When I entered his home it was smelling great with some food.. William and his friend (Kim, Californian) was waiting for me in a dinner table to have food with me .. That was so sweet..

Here I am very happy to introduce William and Kim...

I was so hungry and i just joined with them... The food tasted very delicious... We had started talking a lot, almost about everything.. I was so comfortable just like that.. that was difficult to explain... With some people you don't see difficult to go along.. I experienced with two of them..
After our dinner we went out to have some drinks in the city centre..

Here we are...

I wanted to show my gratefulness to them.. So I invited them for the Indian dinner .. (I believed that wouldn't be other way around.. Hopefully went okay... Ha ha ha) I cooked in his home.. It was very simple food.. Rice and fish.. I wasn't happy with fish, since I came to know lately that I bought the smoked one.. I didn't like the smell at all.. But they were happy with that and I was glad that they really liked my food..

Here goes the Indian dishes..

I like the way he smiles.. the sound is totally different and cute... Other interesting thing is he speaks "Portuguese"....

During our dinner time, we started talking about the cultural difference.. I told him that its not that easy /almost impossible to stay with one guy like this in India.. May be my parents wouldn't mind to kill me.. I cant forget the expression that he made for my statement... He has got big shock.. and immediately he asked me if my parents knew it and will not create any issue about this.. I started laughing.. ha ha ha.. I said it would happen in India not in here and atleast not for me any more.. My family knew about me and they believe me.. he took a deep breathe then..I convinced him again saying that I discuss almost everything to my family .. Not all of course.. I have my own secrets ...

So after all these exciting things I left to Dortmund..

Here I am taking my chance to thank William a lot for accepting my request to host me.. that too for four days.. that was really too much.. He made my stay so comfortable and simply superbbbbbbbbbbbbbb (he use this word hundred times a day)..

And I would like to thank Kim for her great company and all kind of talk we had.. I would like to specially thank her for holding me tight all the way when we were walking in the city at night.. Cute action... Thanks a lot Kim for taking care of me well...

Thanks again you both for being very sweet.. I hope to see you both in Porto or else in India.. Or I will visit you again.. Ha ha ha... I believe you wouldn't say no to host me again ..

Will you William????