Galavanting around Flanders

First, I'm a life long procrastinator that will never space out my workload no matter what it is. This past weekend I've been off to a new city in the northern half of Belgium known as Flanders. I actually remembered my camera this time so I got pics for y'all. Our professor, Jerry, gave us some great tours around Leuven, Antwerp, and Ghent.

Friday-Leuven
Basically the Belgian equivalent of Happy Valley, PA. The town centers around the college and is teeming with young people. It's also teeming with a lot of old shit. When I say old I mean like Middle-ages kings and queens old. Thats what we mainly saw.

Tower on the original wall around Leuven

Cathedral. I don't remember which one; it looks like the other 500 gothic cathedrals I saw

street in Leuven. Quite quaint

Saturday- Antwerp

Antwerp is the biggest/second biggest port in Europe (depending on definition) Definitely a cool place, the weather was beautiful. Because the weather was so beautiful, there were a million people there shopping. Streets were just PACKED with people from god knows where. We went in an amazing cathedral that contained one of Belgium's two artistic treasures, The Descent from the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens

badass painting

After seeing Rubens's famous works, we checked out a tour of his house. His house was seriously awesome. I'm not exactly the artsy type, but the tour/art exhibit was totally worth the 1 euro. It was also very educational. That's why I came to Europe, right? Later in the afternoon I also learned about the wonders of Australian ice cream which I guess is a thing here in Belgium. Anyways it is so delicious that it deserves your time to read about it.

Garden in Rubens's house

Sunday- Ghent

By this time in the weekend, I was pretty christed and had had enough walking (christed=tired). But yet again another walking tour all around the city! I sucked it up though and had a great time. The best was the gigantic castle we visited. Highlight of the weekend.

King in the Castle

Reenactment of a medieval torture device? 

After that tour a few of us decided to take a boat tour down the river. This was much more chill. The river boat did all the walking for us. Thank goodness we spent the 6 euro on the riverboat tour because they told us about the Turkish district of Ghent. After wandering around for quite some time we finally found the Turkish district and ate some amazing food. All of us but Mike. Mike opted for the only all you can eat restaurant that I have ever seen in Europe, basically a Belgian fogo de chao. I'm just not manly enough to do that/ wouldn't work very well with my vegetarian lifestyle.

beautiful riverways in Ghent

So definitely a weekend of traveling. Next weekend, Oktoberfest! Because I am so bad at updating this, you get to see that post in a matter of minutes!