Gent: Part 1 - The Crazy Night Before NYE

It's finally 2012!!!!

It's the Big Year that we've all been waiting for - Or maybe that's just me. 2012 has been marked in my mental calender for years as what should be an amazing and unpredictable year. With the prospect of living in a country I know nothing about, studying at Uni, living on campus, making new friends, travelling with new and old friends and My Love coming to meet me in Sweden at the end of my studies - the first half of this year should prove to be a dooozy! Who knows what the second half will hold?! So how was everyone's celebrations into the New Year? Mine were celebrated in a Medieval city called Gent in Belgium.

We left on Friday afternoon the day before New Years Eve and were planning to be back on New Year's Day afternoon. The cat, of course, was not so happy about the prospect of us leaving for so long.

Goodbye Poffy!

So, we casually just drove to Belgium, picking up Michiel's brother along the way, and 2 and a half hours later, we were in Gent! Finding the Bed and Breakfast (Myriam's Place) we were staying at was an absolute bitch to tell the truth. By the time we got there, it was night time and the gps was just, well, being a gps. Telling you to go down roads that ended up being dead ends because of construction sites or telling us to go down one way streets the wrong way. It was all very confusing and a little stressful for all but a GREAT TOUR OF THE CITY!!!! We drove through what I think ... was a shopping street...for pedestrians because there sure as heck were no other cars there. The pedestrians were looking at us like we were the crazy tourists that we were as we drove through...slowly parting the shoppers but there was no other way to go!!! Honest. And we drove down tram lines that were "strictly not for cars" and began to familiarise ourselves with multiple landmarks as we saw them time after time again. When we finally found the street our BnB was on, it was a thin one way street with no parking so the lady (who's name is actually Myriam) told us to "park wrongly" so we parked smack in the middle of the street and fetched her as she was going to lead us to private parking. It was a quiet street, but of course, just when we need it to stay quiet, all the cars magically decide they want to drive down this tiny little hidden side street causing quite a bit of problems, some honking, and unsuccessful parking attempts, awkward reversing and just a lot of fuss in general. The whole ride through Gent was also really bumpy cause their roads are all cobblestone - very cool - but kinda bumpy and uncomfortable when you have a tendency to get carsick...I much prefer walking around on cobblestones!

Anyway, Myriam's place was as charming and ancient as I had been promised. I scored a bed up in the loft!

Now, what were we planning to do in Belgium? Ang and I had made an "itinerary" *proud face.* 19 awesome pubs. We were going to go bar hopping and drink at least one beer at every single one of them! That's right! Yeah! Because we all know that the thing to do in Belgium is DRINK BELGIAN BEER! (and drink we did)

Here is a proud Angela with her itinerary and Michiel excited because he will get beer.

Our first walk through the city of Gent was breathtakingly awesome. It has a great atmosphere and a lot of the really nice buildings are lit up with these lights which are embedded in the pavement floor. It was, however, hard to get very nice photos without the flash as they kept going blurry - damn shutter speed!

We ended up getting quite lost but eventually found our way to the restaurant area of the city.

Pretty right? I was also told that I HAVE to drink thgis beer, which was made by monks and was meant to be amazing. I found this sign advertising if in the window.

We had already picked the place we were eating: a restaurant specialising in different animals such as rattlesnake, ostrich and crocodile. The menu looked pretty awesome!

We ordered ourselves a round of Delirium Tremens and it was, actually, really delicious! I really liked it and not bitter at all!

In terms of meals, Michiel and his brother both ordered the Crocodile, Angela wanted to try Kangaroo as she had not yet tried it and I was going to get the Ostrich. But they ran out and for that night, there were no other crazy meat dishes. The only other thing on the menu which was kinda different was a Congo dish called Moambe which was Chicken with lots of things we didn't know, one called "saka saka". One thing to remember is that the menus here and in Netherlands are in dutch and that makes it quite hard in a restaurant. I'm lucky to have people with me to help me and translate but it must be pretty interesting for other ignorant tourists.

Of course, here is my food shot.

So what were the meals like? Haha, well we tried a bit of everyone's and that was definitely an experience. The crocodile looked a little like largish pieces of white fish and they were topped with red curry sauce. It was suprisingly chewy but with a fishy texture. The kangaroo had been cooked to perfection and it was very soft and really yum! (usually the times I've had it, it has been kinda chewy too). My chicken was also quite tasty but reasonally non offensive. The two interesting things on my plate however, were the "fried banana" and the "green goop." Which to talk about first? Well, the green goop can only be described as having the look, taste and feel of crushed up, blended, grass. It tasted like grass. It smelled like grass. Do I like eating grass? Um, not really...  haha. And the banana was especially strange. You'd think it would be soft and mushy but it appeared to maybe be dehydrated, so it had the texture when you cut it, of hard butter and just tasted odd... ODD, I tells ya! All in all though, we were quite content with our interesting meals, in the interesting restaurant, drinking our beers. We got quite full actually but still managed to fit in dessert. Here is my creme brule! YAY CREME BRULE

A group shot before we left

From there, we moved on to Pub #1, a reasonably packed European looking pub, with barrels, beer signs, and specialising in something like 100 different kinds of beers.

My first beer was called Barbar, recommended to me, and was a honey beer. It was quite tasty, but if I had to pick, I liked the Delirium even more!

Next round was the killer. We decided to get, after seeing the guy on the table next to us, a round of "QUARKS" or "KWAKS?" (I'm not sure how to spell it). They were these crazy big glasses of beers with a bulb on the top and a bulb on the bottom. But they came at a price. Our shoes. No joke. The guy who took our order stole one shoe from each of us! It was a deposit to get the glasses back. Now we knew these glasses were going to be something special.

All the drinking meant lots of toilet trips, so my sock also got quite dirty :( I did try hopping

Angela refused to walk to the bathroom with one shoe, so I had to give her my other one. Except she was wearing a boot with heels and I was not so, that was a good look. I think it will really take off!

From there it was all kinda down hill.

We also decided to see how many kwark beer glasses tall I was:

I am 3 qwarks tall!

Yay we got our shoes back eventually!

Needless to say, we had a pretty fun night and eventually stumbled home, getting very lost again for a nice long sleep. During the trip home, I lost my camera lens cap, my umbrella was broken, and the furry hood of my jacket got a ripped off a little bit and now it flops weird. The photos I took, however, are AWESOME.

This is getting long so I'm going to pop the actual NYE into a new blog for your convenience. Aren't I kind?

It's Ying Cha not YUM CHA

Yesterday I got a haircut finally!!!!

And we had Ying Cha in the "China Town" of Amsterdam and all in all tried to take it easy. We also had Ollebollen which everyone raves about - they are like big round dough puffs similar to donuts covered in icing sugar. I am getting a bit of a tummy from eating so much! Of dear.

Me being an asian with my Ollebollen bag: 

At ying cha, it was so busy we had to take a number and wait like 30 minutes! But look how happy we are doing it.

This is what we ordered, cause I know you guys are familiar with the menu, you know. Cause there were no trolleys - you preordered whatever it was you wanted...

We chatted for so many hours that it was already nearly dark when we left. Then again, it gets dark super early. But you know!

It's hard to get a nice night shot without a tripod. I balanced my camera on a pole and apparently put our newly bought cheese fondue put bag in the place where dogs always pee. Angela was not happy.... ooops

Tonight We Build A School

Christmas is a time for relaxation....and clubbing. On second Christmas Day, we went to a charity event in which they had combined 2 very popular bars together to host a giant party in order to raise enough money to build a school in India. Nice Concept.

 We were all a little tired but we went anyhow, got a little dressed up, and did a bit of dancing and drinking and of course, photo taking!

Just a happy night out, starting with drinks at some fancy bar

Michiel get really mad and decided to bash me up

But it's ok, we made up :) We are friends again.

Angela thought she'd pose with an armpit

Crazy lights!

N.B: The narrative implied by my comments on the photos may not necessarily be 100% correct

Also there was a cloak room which was different and pretty cool! - cause it's WAY to damn cold to just wear a dress out.

Lastly, we got to go out and eat dirty but delicious fried food at a "snack bar" as we were quite famished. This is a... Kroket. Deep fried stick of meat or something.

And this is Angela's chicken burger. The funny shaped puff was YUM - it was filled with cheese... melted cheese.

SOOO MUCH CHEESE HEEERE.

Tonight, we are having cheese fondue with dinner guests. LOL And on Friday - we go to Gent BELGIUM!

In Amsterdam - Fanta is Yellow....IT'S JUST WRONG

My First European Christmas Dinner

On Christmas afternoon, I caught a train to one of the outer cities of Amsterdam - about 50 minutes away to a city I can't quite remember where I had the pleasure of meeting a real Dutch family and getting to have Christmas dinner with them. It was definitely a very interesting experience - and I had a lot of "firsts" that day.

First, we caught my first European train. People were asking what the train tickets looked like so here is a photo as well as the train.

Anyway onwards to what the house was like. OH MY. It was an amazing house. Apparently large houses are quite rare in Netherlands and so it was going to be very special to see a HOUSE in the Netherlands. But honestly, it was special even for Australian standards. It was a massive house which was exactly the kind of house you can see in movies. Like a fancy house with heaps of art, and everything put in the right place and every room looked like it came out of a movie. It was an amazing feeling to be in such a crazy posh house. Mind, I'm not saying it was like the house for the richest man ever. I mean to say it was like those houses that people who are reasonably fancy would live in.,. There were like a few living rooms, and like a kitchen with an extra kitche, with a giant garage and another garage, and study rooms and play rooms and lots of bedrooms and multiple bathrooms and terraces and sloping grass and hedges which had shapes and ... you get the idea..... Comprendez? No... Ok sorry it's hard to explain - I was just impressed.

We sat in the living room and had some tea and I became a little acquainted with the family. Michel's father did not speak much Dutch, and Michel's brothers and mother spoke it quite well but they did speak a lot of Dutch a lot which is a funny language to listen to. Michel's father also has a expensive hobby. He likes cars. A lot! Like enough to spend a lot of money on it. We went to his garage (which btw was big) - had to take our shoes off before going in and my mouth dropped.It was basically like a car show room, all white with lit up lights on the ceiling to make it look EXACTLY like a car showcase room, with the shiny floors and 7 extremely good looking cars. There were like a few Porsches and a few Asten Martins as well as Ferraris. You know, no big deal.... ok. It was AWESOME. And I don't even appreciate good cars. My idea of a good car is my Bread Van.

Mmmmm...what a beautiful car!

Haha.

Yeah ok anyway. So we started with some canapes - revolving around goat's cheese. There was like prosciutto wrapped around goats cheese, and goats cheese in some dates, and goats cheese balls and nuts and feta and stuff. Not bad, I tried a little of everything. Goats Cheese is ok!

Once dinner was ready we went to the table which was set up very PRO. With like a big metal platter on the bottom with a few forks and knives and several wine glasses - this was going to be a fancy meal! We all were served some sparkling champagne and the entree was one revolving around Salmon. We each got a plate which had a generous serving of grilled salmon (yum, I can deal with that), but also a generous helping of raw salmon and raw salmon mixed with ricotta. HMMmmm... I don't actually really eat Salmon. The cooked one was super tasty though but the other two were a little struggle for me as it was hard to get over the whole "THIS IS RAW" thing. I tried to eat it though. But then I noticed everyone else at the table had gallomped it all down super quick and finished it all. Angela was eating slower but was making good progress to the finish line - so I had to just take a deep breath, and go for it. I'm still not a huge fan of raw salmon to be honest - but in my head saying "its not raw, its not raw, it's not raw" and drinking copious amounts of champagne helped. Still - the cooked salmon was YUM.

The main meal was served with a different wine to complement the meal. It was served with much grandeur and the meal was HARE: Michiel's mother proudly pronounced. "Oh, Wow! Rabbit?" I said. "No, this is not rabbit!" she replied sternly.... "this is Hare!" Very different. My bad. It was quite tasty. It was served with berries, and there was a pear which had been boiled overnight and was very sweet and soft and tasty. There was also some mashed potatos and brussell sprouts. Again, this was all very different to what I usually eat. It looked wondeful but I just wasn't used to it. Again, everyone gulfed everything down but it was so different for me and it took me a little time to adjust. Why? Firstly, I like berries but for some reason not berries with food, or berries in smoothies, etc. I also don't really like brussel sprouts - they are bitter. Still, I ate everything and I did enjoy it - genuinely.

I was getting pretty full now. Then I found out there were another 2 courses. WHATTT?!?!?! Next was cheeses! Yes, lots of cheese. There was 4 giant blocks which came out with almonds and grapes. Such a fancy meal, right? There was Cheddar, Old Amsterdam, Camembert and ... another one which looked like Spinach and Ricotta. Michiel's father was serving it to me, and asked would I like some. Sure, I said - I like spinach and ricotta! He puts a generous helping on my plate and goes: Blue Cheese!

ARGGHHH!!!! I had to eat that hahahaha.

Next came... DESSERT. Chocolate mousse with Berries and Icecream :D More berries. and Mousse! Wow.

Gosh, I was super full after all that and I enjoyed having such an interesting meal. It was a learning experience, my first time really feeling a little "culture shock." It was so nice that I got to experience this kind of thing though, and everyone was really nice to me even though I was saying silly things like Rabbit??? and OOOH Spinach and Ricotta!!!!

On reflection, I realised while I thought I was quite easy going and ate everything.. it turns out I don't. It turns out I am much more picky than I thought. I think that this next 6 months in Europe should be very interesting when it comes to food. I need to learn to eat a lot more cheese and cream and berries and sweet stuff. I'm going to try my best to appreciate and try everything.

We got a group photo before we left also!

OKKK. That was an epic 3 blogs written! And I'm still behind. far out. But I hope you enjoyed them, despite them all being a little rushed. Hope you guys had a great Christmas!!!!! :D

No Snow! Oh Noooooo's

Christmas in Europe.

First thing you think of? Oh my gosh - you are going to have a White Christmas!!!!! I'm sorry to disappoint you, but not this year. It was instead a "warm" European winter christmas. Warm being that it was about 8 degrees (it's warm, says Angela!!!) and with a icey cold wind - BUT NO SNOW. Where is the Snow????? Well, of course, after so much hype I was pretty unhappy that there was no snow. Here is a photo to show you how much NO SNOW there is. This was taken from my sister's balcony on Christmas morning in Amsterdam.

You think it looks hot right? It's not. I thought I wouldn't need a jacket but Michel and Angela were like ...nooo you will still need to dress warm and they were right. It was FREAKING COLD out there. Unbe-freaking-levable!!!!!!!

But nevertheless, it was Christmas Day so I settled down to read me some letters written by my wonderful friends. All of which were raving about how much I must be loving having a white christmas. lol thanks for rubbing it in guys :P

Not the whole box, just the few that I have out of the box lol - otherwise that would be nuts!

To take the cake and make my day, was opening Alex's mystery card. I know you guys all wanna know what was in it, I've been getting bugged about it! Oooooooh and it was so amazing. I don't know if I should show you. The suspense is killing you right? Lol. Ok I'll show you. Thanks Alex for the AMAZING CARD and it is so beautiful and I cannot understand how you made it. TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME.

Ok HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS.

May I just point out, that is GOLD FLAKES. Real Gold Flakes. Do your friends give you gold flakes? That is something special. And you probably can't tell what it is made of.... it looks incredibly pretty though and I hope that Alex will let me know exactly how she came to make such a pretty card. Thanks for the card Alex and to everyone else who wrote me letters and the letters from before christmas and the letters I will read in the future.

Also: here is a cute photo of the cat and how excited he was on Christmas morning

Lol - he is cute. Still very feisty though! But he is starting to get better seeing as I am now the one who feeds him everyday :)

Moooving On. Next Blog - Christmas Dinner at Michel's Parents HOuse.

Tricked Ya! It's Cologne Part 2!

Happy Belated Christmas Everyone!

Hope it was a great one. I"ve been meaning to write a quick blog about Christmas but haven't really had much of a chance. I've been keeping myself reasonably busy and I like to write long blogs if you haven't noticed. Perhaps I should start keeping my blogs short and sweet. We will see, we will see.

So, something I realised I forgot to talk about in my last post cause the video took so long and I got too frustrated and just sorta cut it out without even finishing writing everything I wanted to say was about buffet breakfasts. One thing that is key to my heart is BUFFET BREAKFASTS. (Something to remember should you wish to woo me lol) Being treated to all that I can eat when I've just woken up while on holidays? That's the dream, that's THE DREAM. All my life, all I ever wanted to have was a buffet breakfast at the place I've stayed at - and for some reason, that always managed to not happen. It would be advertised that - yes, we have buffet breakfast - and then you turn up, and there is not one. It is a sad day when this happens. Mind, I have not stayed in hotels very much at all so it's realistically probably only happened once or twice. I did however have a buffet breakfast in Japan and it was wonderful. And I have now had a buffet breakfast in Cologne Germany.

How was it? Well, one thing I can say is it was tasty! But boy, Germans, and the Dutch and probably the rest of Europe as well sure do eat a lot of cheese and bread. There was a great variety of cheeses, and breads, and juices, tea, coffee, fruits, and bacon and eggs. I was quite happy and here are some quick photos of it because buffet breakfasts are important and need to be documented.

Also very important. I saw this crazy statue man who honestly looked like he was made of stone but when you put money in his bowl would do crazy moves like a ... I dunno, stone would move if it could move. He was pretty awesome. Like he would do crazy soldier swings and clack his shoes which were super clacky. I found him a little scary but I gave him money and got a photo of him like the dutiful tourist that I am.

Oh and cause it was quite cold in Germany, we went to a bakery and got some Hot Chocolates which was quite quite tasty!!!!!! 

OH dear, this christmas blog turned into Gent Part 2. I think I'll start a new post about Christmas now to make this all a little less confusing. MY BAAAD.


EDIT:
The hotel we stayed at was awesome but weird. They had heaps of paintings of feet everywhere. It was a little bit creepy LOL

COLOGNE GERMANY XMAS MARKETS

Guess what my jealous people, I have been to Germany!!!!!!!! GERMANY!!!!! Yeah, we just casually drove there on the 23rd Dec to go check out these small-time Christmas Markets, you know? It was about a 2 and a half hour drive. And ok, the markets were AH-MAZING!

It was hard to get photos again cause christmas lights don't always translate right on camera. Someone tell me how if you know! But I did take a few videos for you guys to enjoy! And I put them together roughly... it's just to give you a taste of the feel. We went to two different xmas markets. The first is the really super crazy one with all these lights and it's very festive but more commerical and the second one if a little more dark, and quiet, and halloweeny with purple lit trees and a nice vibe! It is common to drink hot gluwein - mulled wine - which you get in mugs you need to buy but then you can return and get the money you paid for them back. You can see that in the video - we ended up keeping the mugs we got from the second markets cause they were less crazy. The first ones if you see in the video were rather too colourful... the other market's mugs had like kissing dwarves. A much better improvement!

Cologne if you know anything about it is super famous for their giant cathedral called the DOM CATHEDRAL,. And man it looked pretty nuts and menacing with the christmas lights. Look it up but here are a few photos around the place for you.