Everyone always ask what my favorite destination has been, and oh how I grow tired of that question. Destinations can be so wildly different not just the attractions there but the people, the food, and the architecture. All so fascinating due to the history. More so I have never felt I could ever give this question a fair answer as I feel like even six months in one location does not really do the area justice, but there is one location that has always stood out to me: Gent, Belgium.

My trip to Gent was a bit of a last minute travel choice. At the time I was exploring the Netherlands specifically in Amsterdam, wandering the in countryside seeing the cheese farms and villages that created the traditional dutch wooden clogs. I met another traveller that just came from Gent and highly recommended a visit. So I cut my Netherlands travels short and visited Gent for about a week.

In my opinion this photo may be the best photo I have taken as it is quite the representation of why I love Gent so much. Let's first focus on what you can see in this photo.

Here you can see the gothic architecture of Saint Bavo's Cathedral created in 942AD with the ironic modern day trolley running on top of cobblestone roads disrupting the center of the photo.

A bit of history to this photo will add some context. In the 1500s, Charles the V who was originally born in Gent has now become the ruler of the Spanish Empire. He demanded that Gent had to pay much higher taxes. When the fathers of Gent refused Charles brought his army in. Forcefully marched the fathers of Gent through the streets gaining the attention of the whole city. They marched over the very bridge that I stood on to take this photo and took them right in front of the cathedral where a crowd had formed. Each and every government official in Gent were given a choice. To either pay the taxes or to be hanged right then and there in the city center in front of their people. Every single official chose to be hanged. To this day you can walk the streets of Gent and see some locals wearing a noose around their neck to symbolize the sacrifice those individuals made about 500 hundred years ago, this is most popularly seen in the month of July.

While there is much more to be seen in this photo, I want to point out what you can't see.

Directly behind this photo, perhaps ten feet back was my hostel. The best hostel I stayed in anywhere and it had the same view as seen above. In this hostel, I quickly made friends from around the world and we enjoyed a beer tasting on the first evening I arrived. By the end of the beer tasting we all were feeling pretty good in part due to the high alcohol content of the beer. We proceed to see some of the bars afterwards where the local leading the beer tastings showed us a trick to order the local beer at the bar quickly. Any bar in Gent has a universal sign of if you stick your thumb out then without any words spoken the bar tender will bring over the house beer. Quite the trick and very convenient.

After a great night out my new friends and I went back to the very bridge in front of our hostel. We laid on our back on the rough cobblestone road, looking up at the stars and said nothing. Just enjoy the moment. Perhaps some of us were thinking above the history this bridge represented, maybe some of us were thinking about the risk of laying down in the middle of the road, or maybe some of us were simply trying not to throw up from on hell of a evening out. Gent was an amazing place but the reality is you can have a great time anywhere and sometimes for reasons outside of your control you could have awful time in a terrific place. I can't say any one place is my favorite but i'll never forget my time in Gent. Till next time.