title: and so, to ghent!

fortunately, bruges does not speak for all of belgium. ghent is awesome. it's like if bruges and brussels had a brilliant lovechild. it's full of art and medieval charm, just to the right scale, and everything is affordable for a lowly student such as myself. (don't get me wrong, you can go expensive if you want to, but it's not forced like in CERTAIN towns.) plus, the people are friendly here and the oldsters aren't scabs. i had coffee with a woman who has lived in ghent all her life, and had been going to that particular coffee shop (mokabon, where you can go to the best cappucino ever for only 2 euro) since she was nine years old. a cute young couple also sat with us, and spent the entire time pinching each other as they stirred their coffees. and that was only the beautiful beginning to my day.

one more cool thing: there is a street in ghent where you can do graffiti without getting in any trouble. behold.
does it not speak to the innermost happiness of you soul?! they love art in ghent. i also took in the s.m.a.k., where i saw some crappy modern art and some cool modern art. in addition to its exhibits, there is "coming people": the museum displays art students' work, chosen by curators from the museum itself and from international museums (this year it was a person from japan). also, they actually allow you to take (non-flash) photos in the museum, which is an awesome idea. i'm still working out whether or not any of the photos i took are good enough to be worth posting. only photoshop will tell! for now, just enjoy this beautiful image from a junk shop (where, incidentally, i wound up haggling for and buying a melodica):wow.

title: i love junk shops

i am an old lady at heart. junk shops catch my fancy like no other thing. there is something about the layers and layers of compounded lives in them that is at once crushing and fascinating. so, dutch junk shops? count me in! this particular junk shop was in maastricht, owned by a really nice man with a really bad cough.don't tell my cousin max, but there were world war ii helmets and gas masks in there!