Back in Ghent, we retire to the room to warm up and plan our strategy for tonight. We thought we’d explore the student area where there are lots of bars and restaurants. I asked the brothers what they would recommend and they gave us two expensive places and 3 cheap Italian places. Also showed us how to walk through he park to get to the student area. After doing some research on the restaurant, we decided the “expensive” ones were “really expensive” and the cheap ones – well – we don’t want Italian. Then I also saw where Thursday night is student night in the area – and it gets fairly crowded, wild and crazy. Change of plans!
We did some more research on the Patershol area, which was originally the poor, rundown, seedy section of town – but now has been revitalized and has tons of restaurants and cafes. It’s a little farther past the Kornmarkt Square where St. Nicolas is located. Ed is game, although we are planning to take a cab back (remember the Tram strike – it is walking or taxi – or nothing!).
After we rested, we were ready to head out. We walked back into the old historical center, ended up having drinks at same café as the previous night only upstairs this time – hey – why mess with success!
Patershol is only a few blocks away, so headed over to look at a couple of restaurants – one Tapas, one traditional Belgium. We chose Kloks Huy – the traditional local Belgium cuisine. Excellent choice - awesome and cheap! Cute little place with specials on a huge blackboard.
We had all the local specialties – Waterzooi for Ed (a specialty of Ghent, a creamy soup traditionally made with fish, but tonight it was with chicken), which came in this huge serving bowl and had basically a whole chicken in there…
Flemish stew for me (beef made with dark beer – of course - awesome), that came with a few pieces on the plate, but a whole bowl of extra beef on the side! Oh, and then they added the frite!
Steak with béarnaise sauce for Gaby and the Sorrel dish for Sigis – a combination of sausage, bacon, pork and mashed potatoes. Then dessert! Sigis decided to try the Belgian chocolate mousse – with 4 spoons. Delectable!
All of us thoroughly enjoyed our meals and the ambience. Totally yummy.
And fun – there was some discussion about being an optimist and then a bet about being an optimist and Ed would pay 10,000 Vietnamese Dong if he wasn’t (or some such thing) and so the guys shook on it, while Ed held up his 10, 000 dong with Uncle Ho on the face of it!
We braved the walk back home, because once again we were all so full, but oh boy, it was brutal. Very cold and very windy. Absolutely freezing – but the trams still were on strike and while there were very infrequent trams during rush hour (one so full no one could squeeze on), there were none at this time of night. So we persevered – and made it safely back to the Carlton, just a little bit bluish and frozen.
Can’t believe Belgium is almost over. This week has flown by with good friends and a lot of good fun!
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