Scary Gravensteen (Ghent, Belgium)

If anyone had ever asks me which town will come to my mind if they mention word "student" I will immediately replied that this will be definitely Ghent in Belgium! Back in the summer, I bought my cheap airline tickets much earlier then usually and I gave to myself more free space and time for discovering whole Belgium, before festival to which I had planned to go. Maybe it's weird but immediately after my landing in Brussels airport I did not stayed in capital and instead I headed directly towards the Ghent of whom I only knew how it looks like from some of pictures which I searched on the internet couple of days before my flight.

(Beautiful Little Lake, Ghent)

Photo taken by Igor L.

One super clever thing which I've done this time is that I bought my train tickets on the internet and they works just great around the Belgium + I got student discount on each ride (so buy the tickets online)! Back to Ghent, when I arrived on its train station, first thing I had notice was how everything was clean and that there were not even a single piece of paper on the streets! From my friends in Belgium I learned a lot about ecology, although I'm after convinced that everything is not quite as perfect as I tough in my first impression. Anyway parks and nature are very well preserved and Ghent although small even has its own lake where people are swimming and enjoying on rare sunny days which you can see in the picture above.

(View on Ghent Belfry, Ghent)

Photo taken by Igor L.

Old cathedral bells are ringing while I walked down the street and the Sun also smiled to me that day which is not a very common weather phenomenon comparing to the standard rain with dark clouds. Students, universities, beer, young people, bicycles, parks and trams are everywhere! Another fortunate situation for me was that in the town at that moment was held some kind of festival for which I even did not know that it would happen, so in addition to already positive groove there were a lot of other activities and of course lots of fun with a good live music and local people that I meet. Ghent Belfry was decorated with flags, so the next morning I took great opportunity to photograph this building that is now under the protection of UNESCO and which, believe it or not dates back to the ancient 14th century when construction was finally completed.

(Scary Gravensteen, Ghent)

Photo taken by Igor L.

I can admit that I was always fascinated with a different medieval castles, especially with those that are pulling a certain scary mysteries inside of their quarters. Although during the sunshine day, Gravensteen castle can look like a front side picture from some Disney park, at the night this become strange building in a whole new dimension and it can be really considered as a great place for a horror movie scenery. The original medieval castle of Gravensteen dates back all the way to the 12th century, but over the many years it was built and damaged upon again and again while eventually it passed with a complete reconstruction process in the late 19th century so that today it is one of the main attractions of Ghent and the whole Belgium.