I made it here to Gent to see my Sunshine. This morning I was in Brussels so I took a short 30 minute train ride out here. Gent is really a beautiful city, even when it's raining. Yesterday I woke up and decided to head to Amsterdam for the day. After eating breakfast I headed to the Central train station and bought a round trip ticket. The trip took about three hours so I made a large dent in Michener's book. I was only going to stay for a few hours since I arrived so late. I yanked some Guilders, way too much, bought a map of the city at the tourist information office and started walking towards the Heineken brewery. Fucking thing was closed. So I went across the street and had a couple of beers and a sandwich. I then visited the house of Anne Frank. It was a really nice experience and I will likely pick up her book to read sometime this year. Amsterdam is really a pretty city and very pleasant to walk around. I'm definitely going back just to do some more walking around. I had spent so much time in the house of Anne Frank that it was getting dark and it was time for me to head back to Brussels. On the way back I talked to this cool Moroccan who was traveling for a while on vacation. He wanted to visit Belgium, Brussels just to say he had been there. I think he really was just on his way to France after spending a week in Amsterdam with friends. After getting back I just crashed at about 11:00pm to make sure I got my silly ass out here to Gent.
A funny thing happened when I was approaching the ticket agent for the metro. The guy just locked up his booth and walked away. Even more funny was that the ticket machine wasn't working either, so I just got on the metro and made my way to Central station. Today I meet Lien in Gent and a few of her friends. We had some lunch at her friend's house and then Lien took me on a little tour of Gent before she had to head off to work for a few hours. Afterwards I made my way back to the hostel and showered and shaved. There is a French guy in my dorm and he was teaching me some French and we were just chatting in General. William will be heading to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit a friend of his. Now I'm just hanging out in the hostel bar and having a few beers before I bail to meet Lien and company at 9:30pm.