Ghent – Our Trips Around The World

吃在根特（Eating in Ghent）

Aa delicious English translation is inline below:

7月7日星期六 – Saturday July 7

同样在比利时也没吃到什么惊艳的东西 😅 比利时华夫比较有名，还有就是比利时人坚信薯条是他们发明的，所以这里点餐给配的薯条！不像其它地方，配的是面包。这里还比较流行吃青口贝，我俩没吃，因为我对青口贝并不感兴趣，而且看起来觉得非常没有味道 😁

Again there’s nothing to be surprised about in Belgium. Belgian Waffles are pretty famous and Belgian people believe that French fries are their invention, so many meals come with French fries unlike everywhere else, where bread is served. It is also popular to eat mussels, however we did not try them because first of all I am not interested in mussels, and it really looked very tasteless 😅

Meeting an old Friend (见朋友)

(这篇中英文在一起) English and Chinese will be in the same post …

Friday, July 6

Today is our last day in Ghent. In the morning, we returned to our AirBNB and now the water situation has returned to normal. We enjoyed our morning tea and coffee on the roof balcony, washed some clothes, checked my autumn class schedule, etc. The morning was very relaxing.

At noon, I have an important thing to do, and that is to meet an old friend, Helen! She came to visit on an intercity train from a city in Germany called Aachen, near the border with Belgium. She and I first met when I had just arrived in California, and we were in an English class together at an adult school in Mountain View. She left California to return to Germany about six years ago and I was particularly happy to see her today in Ghent! We had lunch together, took a small boat tour in Ghent, and then drank a Belgian beer together to catch up on the time, to talk about politics and talk about life.

My Hat (我的帽子)

中英文在一起

Thursday, July 5th

If you see me wearing a fisherman’s hat in later photos, it’s not because I particularly like this hat, but it’s because I have to wear it ~~~~ After more than 20 days of wind and sun, my face finally couldn’t hold up, especially around my nose and mouth. The skin under my nose became like leather and scratchy like a layer of cockroaches. 😭😭😭 I bought two bottles of PF50 sunscreen and moisturizer in a pharmacy in Paris but it seems that it still didn’t improve. Today I went to a pharmacy here in Ghent. The salesperson recommend a moisturizer for inflammation and post-operative skin care. She had a look of apology and even helped me to check if it was some sort of a disease. Finally, in order not to let my face get shackled by the sun, I bought this big hat, plus I added my own shoe lace hat band that prevents the hat from being blown away by the wind (really with shoe laces) … I feel a little more practical. 😅

根特第二天 (Ghent Day 2)

What, you can’t read Chinese?!? You’ll find English inline below:

7月5日星期四 Thursday, July 5th

当然今天早上还是没有水，房主的女儿说好9点会给我俩打电话，告知一下修水管的进程，9点半多了还没有她的音信，PJG就给她打了一个电话询问。她说咨询一下再回复给我们，过了一会儿，她说工人说下午两点也许会弄好，然后她给我俩定了一个附近的酒店。稍作整理，我俩带了一些必需用品搬去了酒店。终于可以洗个澡和上厕所了 😅😂😂😅

Of course, there is still no water this morning. The daughter of the landlord said that she would call us at 9 o’clock to inform us of the status of the pipe repair. At 9:30, there was no news from her. PJG gave her a phone call. She said that she would reply to us after a consultation. After a while, she said that the workers said that they might get it fixed by 2pm and then she booked us at a nearby hotel. We took some essential supplies to the hotel and I can finally take a shower and go to the bathroom. 😅😂😂😅

比利时的根特市 (Arrived in Ghent)

7月3日，星期二 Tuesday, July 3

今天早上离开了巴黎，乘坐大力士高速列车从巴黎直达比利时的布鲁塞尔，火车时长大概2个小时，然后转城际快车到达了根特市，大概1一个小时的车程。我俩会在根特停留4晚，这是一个非常小的港口城市，之所以停留4晚是要把这里当作中转城市，白天会坐城际快车去周边的城市，比如布鲁日。

We left Paris this morning and took the Thayles high-speed train from Paris to Brussels the capital of Belgium. The train took about 1.5 hours followed by the intercity express train to Ghent, about an hour away. We will stay in Ghent for four nights. This is a small port city. The reason for staying in Ghent is to use it as a home base. During the day, we will day trips to the surrounding cities, such as Bruges.