Bilzen

  For one day and one night, I went to visit Amber, a former exchange student who stayed in Melfort. Amber's parents had some different beers for me to try which was great. During the day Amber took me to see a see-through church, caves, and a big castle. 

  The first stop that Amber and I made was to an artwork called "Reading Between the Lines". This is a church that was built so that you could see through and view the landscape. Some pictures of it are below. 

Me standing in front of the church

One angle of the church

Another angle of the Church 

Here is the Tripadvisor article https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g644058-d7029071-Reviews-Reading_Between_the_Lines_Church-Borgloon_Limburg_Province.html

  Seeing the caves was my favourite activity. The caves, called Caves of Kanne, is a cave system that was created by people taking stones to be used in their houses. Inside the caves, it is usually around 11 degrees no matter the time of year since it is so well insulated. In the cave system, some fossils of fish from the prehistoric era were found. There are paintings of various things in the caves as well. Most of these paintings are of the animal fossils found in the caves.

  In the caves, there is a gala area which can be rented to host a party. The tour guide also offered everybody a local beer that is stored in the caves. 

  The caves have also been used to grow mushrooms in the past, but not so much now. The guide did show us one place where some mushrooms were being produced. 

  It was a cool tour. 

  The last thing Amber showed me was Alden Biesen. This was a beautiful big castle that is much bigger than Gravensteen in Gent. Right now Saint Nick is there with all his helpers. Saint Nick's helpers were showing the kids how to climb a roof. There were also many other activities for kids happening around the castle. A few pictures of it is below.

Amber and I in front of the Castle

 Front view of the Castle

Inside the Garden of the Castle

  After this Amber and I went back to her house and had some coffee and sandwiches before I headed back to Gent.

  Thanks again to Amber and her parents for being so nice while I visited them! 

 

Lille

  A few other trainees and I went to Lille during the flea market to see what all happens there. We toured around the flea market, but no one bought anything. There was also a fair type thing happening just outside the center. Right beside the fair, there was an old fortress that is now a NATO Rapid Reaction Corps. Lille is a very interesting city.

  Every year in Lille a massive flea market takes over the entire city.  This flea market was interesting to tour and look around, but I did not see anything to buy. There were a few old Dell computers that did look interesting though. It was annoying that all the beer being sold in the street was at least a euro higher for 500ml. It was all quite interesting to see either way.

  There was a small fair on that day too. This fair had some rides, but most were just regular fair rides. There was one that catapulted two people into the air and then let them bounce back close to the ground to have them slung up again. I thought that ride was cool.

  The NATO Rapid Reaction Corps is located in the Citadel of Lille. There is a nice walking/running path around the citadel that many people frequent. Around the path, there are some grass places where people can relax. It was a cool place to visit and I think it would be cool to even hang out at. 

Here is the WikiVoyage page for Lille https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Lille

Brugge

  The people from IAESTE Leuven organized a day trip to Brugge. During this trip, all the main attractions of Brugge was seen, although there still is quite a lot considering the whole city is UNESCO world heritage site. For lunch, the group split going to two different places. One of the IAESTE Leuven people had a lot of good stories about Brugge. At the end of the trip, a few of us went to a nice bar in the middle of a small street. It was a great day trip.

  Brugge has many old buildings and churches that are great to go and explore. The Belfort was very large and impressive. The Basilica of the Holy Blood that has the blood Christ, and it was worth a visit to see. The Church of Our Lady, Bruges, which has a sculpture by Michaelangelo called Madonna of Bruges, was visited. Unfortunately, we did not go see the famous sculpture because it was inside a museum that cost money to go visit.

Here are some photos the church that contains the Michaelangelo sculpture 

These next photos are from the church that has the blood of Christ.

This is a photo of the Belfort

  Some of the places we visited had a story attached to them that an IAESTE member knew. There was a nice bridge that people go with their loved ones because, according to a story, it was built by a man grieving about losing his loved one. She also talked about a house that was connected to a church so that the former, rich, inhabitants could go to church without going outside. The house is now a museum of some sort. There is also a story about how a man killed a bear with his bare hands (http://www.oxygenium.be/thebearofbruges/), but I don't think there was a building connected to it.

  One of the first stops in the city was to walk through the Beguinage. This was a type of covenant where women could "marry god" and live there. These women were not like nuns since they were allowed to keep their riches and grow them. There was also a church there to look at.

This is the Church at the Beguinage

Here is some of the houses at the Beguinage

  The lunch I had was a rabbit stew and fries. It was at a nice Belgian kitchen.

  There was also a boat trip during the visit. The trip went around all the canals in Brugge, and the driver spoke about everything we were seeing in multiple languages. I was very impressed with how easily the guide switched between languages. It was a really great tour and I'd recommend it to anyone going to Brugge.

  At the end of the trip, a few of us went to a bar towards the end of the smallest street in Brugge. It was a very nice bar with a wide selection of beers and three floors. To find a place to sit our group had to go all the way to the top of the bar. I'd recommend it for anyone wanting to have a nice beer in Brugge, and others must agree with me since it is listed #1 on WikiVoyage for drinking.

Here is the WikiVoyage page for Brugge https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Bruges

Some other photos from Brugge

This is where all the swans live for some reason

Kortrijk

  On a quiet Saturday, I decided to go to Kortrijk for a day to tour around that city. I went to see a museum about a battle that Kortrijk is famous for. I also saw a museum about flax. Of course, I saw the church and the Belfort. This was a special visit too since it is the first time I primarily used WikiVoyage to tour a city. 

  The first thing I did when I got there was go to a nice burger place. The place served me a very nice burger with fries. The fries, of course, had mayonnaise on the side. I also had a nice local beer. It all cost about 12 euros which I thought was great.

  When I finished eating I went to Sint-Maartenskerk's church. The church was really nice and contained some artwork. I have included some pictures below.

A picture of an old organ in the church

A picture from inside

A picture from the outside

  After the church, I went to the 1302 Museum. This museum was made to commemorate the Battle of the Golden Spurs. The battle was fought between the French army and militias from various parts of Flanders. It is interesting to note that some cities in Flanders did not participate, such as Gent. In the museum, it recounted the runup to the battle, the key players involved in the battle, and the misinformation about the battle as stories were told over and over about it. It was a very interesting museum that explained this part of Flemish history well.

  I also saw the Belfort of Kortrijk. This Belfort was a bit disappointing to me since it is just a free-standing tower in the middle of the main square. I then read more about it and found out that there used to be cloth halls but they were torn down after bigger cloth halls were built elsewhere in the city. 

The Belfort

  One of the most iconic symbols of Kortrijk is the Broeltowers. There are really nice when looked at from the bridge across from them. In the area of the towers, there is a nice place where people can sit and enjoy the river. Below I have included a picture of it.

  There is another well-known museum in Kortrijk about flax. The main point of this museum is about using flax fibre as a kind of yarn to make cloth and such. I did not know about this application before and it was interesting to see how many different ways people have used flax in history. The reason why this museum is located in Kortrijk is because flax and the textile industry used to be the main drivers of the economy of Kortrijk. If anyone is wondering most of the flax grown in Canada is grown for its oil, and not for the textile industry. 

Some photos of flax products

  During my time here I also found a nice bar that has below it another bar that has rock concerts every so often. There was a free concert the day I was there, but I did not go since I was tired. I may go again some other time. 

  This was a fun day trip and everything I found is located on this page https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Kortrijk. It was a great resource and I think I'll be using WikiVoyage in the future when I go explore cities.

Here are some photos of the Leie river.

 One with the Broeltowers in the background

Passchendaele and Ypres

  I went on a guided tour with a group called Marnixring that my friend, Sebastiaan, parents are a part of. The tour involved going around and seeing the Passchendaele Museum, viewing a few memorials, and touring some reconstructed trenches. It was a really good experience and a great tour to learn things about the war.

  The first part of the tour was the museum. At the museum, there was first a tour of the grounds around the museum. These grounds are actually a public park now, but it had a long history before that. The guide explained how the whole area used to be owned by one man, and how everything was pretty much destroyed during the war. The guide showed were the abbey used to be before the war. He also explained many things about how the grounds were kept and the struggles of keeping it looking good since it is a public park. 

  Towards the end of the tour of the park the guide showed us the fairly new poppy gardens. There are currently seven gardens that represent one of the countries that fought in the battle. Each garden gets decorated by the country it represents. The Canadian one contains separate sections for each of the ecosystems in Canada.

 Photo of me at the Canadian Garden

  Shortly after the poppy gardens, we entered the museum to tour it. In the museum, the guide explained how and why the war started. The causes of WW1 are quite complicated so instead of recounting them I have included a link to the very long Wikipedia article in case anyone wants to read it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_World_War_I. After that introduction, we saw the exhibitions that recount what the war was like. 

  They explained what each soldier got to eat (what a German, British, or French would eat was different). There was also a place where you could smell what the food smelled like. Uniforms from the different soldiers were also on display. There was also a place where you could smell the different gases that were used as chemical weapons. The best exhibit, in my opinion, that showed how it was in the war was a recreation of a dugout. The ceiling was low enough that even I had to slouch sometimes, and almost everyone else seemed to be slouching all the time. There was also a pump because during the war someone always had to be pumping or else the tunnels would flood. 

  In the museum there was also exhibits about the battles fought in this area, and the guide also talked about them. The Second Battle of Ypres was talked about around the gas exhibits. It was the first time during the war that gas was used as a weapon. When it was used the French troops, who got the brunt of the first attack, fled but the Germans were not immediately ready to take the territory. By the next day, Canadian troops had taken over the space left by the French troops. During the next 48 hours, 2000 out of the 18000 Canadians died, but they did not give up the line. There is a memorial to commemorate this battle that I talk about later. 

  There were also exhibits and talk about the Battle of Passchendaele. This was a very bloody battle, with at least 200,000 were casualties for each side. The number of people who died for each meter of land gained numbered in the thousands. A group of forces was stationed here until such time their army was exhausted then a new group took over. It was the Canadian Corps who were the group who finally captured Passchendaele. 

  After this tour everyone went to get lunch. While waiting for lunch Sabestion, a Marnixring member, and I went to go visit one of the graveyards the Canadian memorial called the Brooding Soldier. The memorial commemorates the participation in Canada's involvement in the second battle of Ypres. There are graveyards just like the one below, that I visited, all around the Ypres area. They are mostly soldiers from Commonwealth countries. 

A photo of the memorial

Sebastiaan and I at the memorial

A photo of the graveyard

Some photos of headstones from a different graveyard

A headstone for a Canadian soldier

Headstone of a German soldier. This headstone is unique in that it was the only non-commonwealth grave at that graveyard.

The grave of an unnamed soldier.

  After seeing the memorial and the graveyard, and eating lunch the tour went to some of the further away places. There was a location where German trenches were recreated. We got to walk around in them and learned more about tunnelling activity. The guide explained that the Germans knew the British were tunnelling because of large mounds of soil by their trenches. This gave the Germans the idea to spy on them by building their own tunnels and listening for the British. During the next part of the tour, we learned about something the British used those tunnels for. 

Photos of the recreated trenches

  The British planted many mines and fired them under the German trenches (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_in_the_Battle_of_Messines_(1917)). During the tour, we saw some craters left by the mines, and the guide explained some of the more interesting ones. One that I found really interesting was the one that never blew up and now is underneath somebody's farmhouse. 

  The last part of the tour was seeing the Last Post at the Menin Gate Memorial.  There was a lot of people there to see and hear the sounding of the Last Post. The Gate itself is quite impressive too. It contains all the names of the soldiers who were not found during or after the war. The amount of names listed there is enormous. 

Photo of the gate

Inside the gate during the Last Post

A photo of one of the plates inside the gate

  It was a very good tour. Thanks to Sebastiaan, his parents, and Marnixring for letting me come along.

Flemish Ardennes

Saturday
  On Saturday we travelled to the Flemish Ardennes and then went for a hike there. During the hike, we passed through some small villages. One of the villages had a tourist information place that also offered some locally made products such as jam and beer. I bought two warm beers, a thing of jam, and one cold beer for the road. In the middle of our hike, we had lunch in a field.

  Lunch consisted of lots of sandwiches, and some juice if I remember correctly. After eating we all somehow started discussing religion and politics, and that went on for a very long time. It was probably one of the oddest discussions I have had in a while. When the long, informative, weird discussion was over the hike towards a local pub started.

  At the pub, two rounds were completed, and one person ordered a Carlsberg for one of those rounds. Carlsberg is a Danish beer which is ok, but not nearly as good as some of the great Belgium beers that were being offered. This person was therefore made fun of for ordering this beer.

  After the pub, we then went to the place where we would camp. The tents were set up and one IAESTE member, Michael, had a mansion for a tent. I think it housed at least 10 people. When the tents were set up the rest of the night was spent playing games with some time inserted for eating. One of the games involved one person reading a story and then others asking questions to find out what the story is. It was an interesting game that I had never played before. When the games were done I went to sleep

Sunday
  This day everyone packed up the tents then went and caught the train back to Gent.


Thank you to Sebastiaan for organizing this great weekend!

Graspop

Bands I Saw

Rise Against

  The band was really good and had lots of energy. The lead singer seemed to have a really good time. He jumped off the stage to go into the crowd once. When he went to go back on the stage the security made him walk around instead of jumping on the stage. I found that funny.

Here is a link to Rise Against's website http://www.riseagainst.com/.

Stone Broken

  This was a British band that I had never heard of till I went to Graspop. They played early and I was just walking around and sort of stumbled upon them. Since it was early and not many people were there I got to stand right against the rail to see them. They played some good old style raw rock and were pretty good. The drummer did a wicked solo as well. During this concert, I did not wear earplugs, but after it, I decided it would be a good idea to wear some for the rest of the festival. Later in the day, I was able to get their autograph on my Graspop flag.

Here is Stone Broken's website https://www.stonebroken.com/home

Seether

  This is a band I have known for a long time and I really enjoy most of their music. I was expecting more from their performance. It was a good show, but I enjoy listening to their recorded version more than hearing them live which is very rare for me. I think maybe it was because I was standing further away and it was an open-air festival, but I am not an acoustics expert.

Here is Seether's website https://seether.com/

Arch Enemy

  This is a band that I had never heard of before Graspop. A guy told me about them when we were waiting for Stone Broken to start playing. He explained to me that the lead singer is a woman, but sounds like a 50-year-old man who has smoked his entire life. Initially, I did not believe him but it is certainly true. 

Here is their website http://www.archenemy.net/en/ 

And here is a link to the youtube video of one of their songs if you don't believe me on how she sounds singing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk2-bgwA0Ro

Megadeth

  I think most people already know who this band is. I found them very good. One thing I really noticed though is that the lead singer, Dave Mustain, looked very old. I also later went to try and get their autographs but the line up was way too long for me. 

Here is the Megadeth website https://www.megadeth.com/

Volbeat

  This is one of my favourite bands and I was not disappointed by them. I love how a lot of their songs have some influence from the wild west. They even have an album where each song is about a different person from the wild west called Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies. I learned that the band is Danish which I found interesting. One of their songs even had some Danish lyrics. Overall I found the band to be very entertaining and fun.

Here is there website http://www.volbeat.dk/en/

Marilyn Manson

  Everybody who knows of this performer knows he is creepy. He is like some weird hybrid between a vampire and human. During the show, he asked who in the crowd would kill for him and quite a few were very enthusiastic to do that for him. I was later told that he was very tame compared to other times. 

Here is the website for Marilyn Manson http://www.marilynmanson.com/

Hollywood Vampires

  This is a band that I did not know of before I saw them, but I did know who the band members were. The main members are Alice Cooper, Joe Perry, and Johnny Depp. They mostly played songs from their other bands which was cool. I just really liked who laid back everyone in the band was during this show it felt like they were up there just to have some fun. 

Here is their website https://www.hollywoodvampires.com/welcome

Limp Bizkit

  I had listened to this band before, and I must say they are much better live than I would anticipate from their music. I was also surprised at how nice the lead singer, Fred Durst, is. He constantly complimented people in the mosh pit on how they were taking good care of each other while they were slamming into each other. He also brought a girl in a wheelchair onto the stage after she was crowd surfing. He then told her to just look and watch the crowd as he and the band did another song since it apparently looks amazing from up there.

The website of Limp Bizkit is here http://www.limpbizkit.com/

A Perfect Circle

  This band has many good songs and a few that I have listened to repeatedly such as The Doomed. The concert was also very good, and no-one that I know of got kicked out for using their phone (they've been known to do that). The only issue I had is that they finished 15 minutes before they were supposed to which really disappointed me.

Here is their website https://www.aperfectcircle.com/home/

Judas Preist

  This is the only band ever that I have seen twice now. They were just as good as last time, and last time they were great. This time around I was a little bit closer to the stage but things were a bit hard to see because of all the people. I was also on the side of the stage since I wanted to get a good place to see Ozzy which was going to play after on the opposite stage. 

This is the Judas Preist website http://judaspriest.com/home/

Ozzy Osbourne

  If I met someone who has never heard of Ozzy I feel sorry for them right away. His music is great and his career has stretched for what seems like eons. The performance he put on was magnificent even if he was a bit creepy throughout the show. He also really seemed to enjoy himself even though this must be his one millionth or more time playing. Ozzy's main guitarist, Zakk Wylde, was also great. He played his guitar for a bit with his leg on the railing, which made me wonder whether he is serious about wearing nothing under his kilt because if he is the audience there would be able to see everything. Overall it was a great show and I included some photos below.

Here is Ozzy's website https://www.ozzy.com/

Zakk Wylde being awesome

If you can't tell I was only three people away from the rail.

Other bands I saw were Bullet for my Valentine, Eskimo Cowbell, and I believe a few others but I forget them.

Food and Beverages

  The food offered was varied and contained many good options. There was a food called beer balls which was a meatball that contained a good amount of beer as well. They had some fries that were very thin and it was called 'metal grass'. The metal grass also came with a variety of sauces which was nice. Along with all the neat and interesting foods, there was also some normal ones like hot dogs, braadworst, pizza, pasta, and even ice cream!

  The beer selection was also quite good. I think if you counted all the different beers offered there would be about 20 or so different kinds which is pretty good for a festival. The main one being sold was Jupiler. I tried to try several of the beers, but not too many since I still wanted to remember the concerts 😂😂. 

Accommodation

  I just set up my tent in the overflow campsite that was about a 10-minute walk from the stages. This was actually the first time I got to use my tent.

Conclusion

  It was a very good festival with an amazing lineup of bands. I would definitely recommend going. This was the website for the 2018 festival https://www.graspop.be/en/. If you look at the lineup you can see I missed several great bands on Thursday or Friday.

Genste Feesteen

What is it?
  Genste Feesteen is a 10-day long festival that happens in Gent, Belgium. The entire city centre of Gent turns into a party. In one area they had a Mardis Gras area, which is where I spent most of my time, it played mostly jazz and blues music through the day and at night they had some interesting shows. There was also Trefpunt which had some good bands. One stage had rock music quite often. Another stage had some more poppy bands. There was also many other countless stages The variety of music at this festival was phenomenal.

Mardis Gras Area
  This was where I spent a considerable amount of my time. During the day I went there a few times and was able to see some very small jazz/blues bands. This was also where a lot of the IAESTE people came during the night.

  One time when I was here I got a mask for doing the limbo. There was a kind of circus performance going on, and for part of it they did a limbo competition. There was only one prize, it was for participation, and it was a Mardis Gras mask. I was drinking a beer while I did it, but I was still able to accomplish the task.

Some Photos of the smaller jazz/blues bands

Trash Beatz
  There was a street band called Trash Beatz, and they play music with trash. The music they made was surprisingly good and very upbeat. The band members were dressed up in a chemical safety suit, and all played various 'instruments'. None of the instruments were easily recognizable since it was all built with trash. The reason they do this is that they want to bring attention to wastefulness and to encourage recycling. It was probably the best street band I saw at the festival.

Sint-Baafs Cathedral
  During the Gentse Feesteen Sint-Baafs Cathedral is open to be climbed! IAESTE arranged an event where a bunch of us climbed the Cathedral. At 1 or so everyone met to go climb it. I already had a beer which some people bugged me about 😕. There was only one set of stairs, so it was a bit awkward to traverse it since quite a few people were climbing it. The top had a very nice view which, I believe, is the tallest in Gent.

Here are some photos of that view

Trefpunt
  This stage had a few good bands that I saw. There was one from Zimbabwe that was called Mokoomba. This band had lots of energy. They were also very good dancers. Another thing I liked is that every song they have has a meaning. There were a few other bands that played here that was also good.

  At and around this stage there were many options for drinks and food. Irish coffee could be obtained here. There was also pizza, pasta, burgers nearby. It was a nice place to be overall.

These photos were of the band Mokoomba

Food
  There was a varied selection of food all across the Genste Feesteen. Waffles and fries could easily be found almost anywhere in the festival. There was some Indian food close to the stage by the Sint-Baafs Cathedral. A few places had pasta and pizza. Many other foods could be found but that is a couple of the best.

Beer and Drinks
  It seemed that a lot of the stages were selling different beers, and this made for a decent selection. The only thing was is that each of the stages had a different glass, so each time you changed stages you had to return your glass. There were also many other drinks you could buy like Irish Coffee. If none of these were apetizing the many bars in the city centre were happy to serve with their outstanding selection of beer

The Dragon
  Gent has a tower that overlooks the city called the Belfry and it has a dragon on top of it. This dragon usually just sits there and doesn't do much, but during Gentse Feesteen it spits fire. For many years it did not do this because it was deemed a fire hazard, but this year it did for the first time in a long time. At 10 pm each night of Gentse Feesteen it spit three shots of fire. It was very cool and the photo below should convince you of that.

Vrijdagmarkt
  This is a square in Gent, and it hosted some festivities during the festival. It mostly hosted games and some rides. There was also some classic fair style gambling games. It was also possible to get some nice food here.

Conclusion
  There were many other stages than the few mentioned here and there was lots of other stuff going on. There was a good selection of food and beer. The atmosphere varied depending on which part of the festival you are at, but it was always very good. If chance to go back someday I definetly will.