July 5

This hostel doesn't include free breakfast, so we got to sleep in and enjoy the fact that we didn't have a schedule to keep to. We left the hostel around 10:30 for breakfast aka waffles. We ate as we walked back towards the station to get on a train to Ghent. My cousin is working there for a few weeks, and we just happened to be here at the same time. We were planning on meeting up for dinner, but because JT and I have seen the majority of Brussels already, we decided to make Ghent a day trip. We also looked into Bruges, because we've heard good things about that city, but the people on tripadvisor said Ghent was more "authentic." Authentic, to us, means better waffles and chocolate. We tend to plan our trips around food instead of "must see" destinations, and in okay with that. We have a 10k in 12 days, but, you're only in Brussels once (most likely)!

We spent our day simply walking around the city and its outskirts. At one point we were walking along one of the small rivers and came upon 3 dozen sheep, or so, being hearded along the grass by the river. It was so weird. They were eating the grass and the bushes. A few even got lose and the dog had to run then back into the area. We stayed and watched them for a decent 20 minutes, it was so weird. We walked into town and came across the shopping street, then walked to a chocolate shop really close to Rick's hotel. By this time it was almost 5 so we sat along the water in front of the hotel and ate our chocolate. Around 5:15 I went inside to do a sweep, but he wasn't there...and people were judging us, so we walked by out to wait. We went in again at 5:45 and decided to call just to make sure he wasn't there, he wasn't. This time we waited inside, charged our phones, connected to the Wi-Fi and at 6:06 he finally shows up.

We went out to dinner, and later, drinks, with Rick and his friend. At one point, when the guys left to pay, JT and I started talking to a elderly couple sitting next to us at the restaurant. They were from Sweden, and they were in town for the woman's surgery. She was telling me all about their dog and where she wants to go (NYC) if she gets over her fears of flying. I really love talking to Europeans about everything and anything.

This is the first family member of mine, that any friends, from over here, have met and in JT's words, "the rest of your family has a lot to live up to, because Rick set the bar high