Postcards from Bruges and Ghent

Keeping in line with the previous Luxembourg post, I thought I would share a few more photos from my travels in Europe during Summer 2018 while I spend a few weeks enjoying being home in NYC. As mentioned in my previous post, I spent two weeks in June working and living in Brussels. By the first weekend in Belgium, I was dying to get out of Brussels. I felt like I had done everything and I needed a break from the city where my work was located (just being honest!). A lot of my coworkers had raved about Bruges beauty so I was excited to see it for myself if it was actually that beautiful. Spoiler alert- it was! I chose to take a day trip by myself to Bruges early on a Saturday morning. The train system in Brussels isn’t hard to figure out at all- there are trains heading to Bruges basically every hour. A bonus is that if you are under 26 you qualify for a “Youth” ticket, thus being able to save a few dollars. I described Luxembourg as Yellow, but I would use the word Water to describe Bruges. The city is definitely defined by its many canals snaking around and the canals contribute to the city’s beauty in a big way. I bought a $8 canal cruise ticket and spent a part of the day drifting along the canals and seeing Bruges in a different way.

Ghent is only 30 min away from Bruges (the midpoint between Bruges and Brussels actually) so I figured it wouldn't hurt to stop by and walk around the town. As I was sitting on the train I overheard another tourist discussing kayaking in Ghent. I love kayaking so that immediately piqued my interest and I googled how I could see the city by kayaking through one of their canals. Turns out people make reservations at the ______ Hostel for kayaking weeks in advance, but since I was just one person and was willing to kayak for less than the normal two hours, I was able to rent a kayak for $16. While it was a little scary sharing the sometimes narrow canal with larger ships and motorized boats, I enjoyed the chance to see Ghent in a different way.