Ghent days
Ghent is one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in Belgium. It is often compared with the much more popular Bruges: the architecture is very similar, the canals, again, boats, bicycles, nice people... But Ghent is a much more youthful and creative city. You won’t notice it right away, especially if the trip falls on an ordinary day when nothing grandiose happens. In fact, Ghent is youthful in many respects because a little less than a third of all students in the country study here (and live, respectively). Here is the longest street with officially allowed graffiti. Ghent is one of the vegetarian capitals of the world. And Thursday is officially Vegetarian Day for all states. institutions, including even kindergartens. A six-day bike race also takes place here regularly, the city is very suitable for two-wheelers. Lots of creative signs, signs and announcements.
In the summer, for a century and a half, the Genie holidays have been held - the largest cultural festival in Europe, by the way. And its uniqueness is also in the fact that almost all concerts are free! Holidays include musical concerts, street theaters, children's "animations". These days, crowds of tourists come to the city, and no less locals. Everything is noisy, loud, fun. Even if the weather is unlucky. We got to this holiday absolutely by accident, not knowing about it (and we really figured it out already at home). And we were very surprised by the scope and activities, we did not expect, honestly. After all, it seemed that Belgium, except for Brussels, is so calm, quiet, conservative. There were no less living statues in the city than in Barcelona. It is possible that they all rushed here from different cities.
It is also worth noting the Gensky florals, which I learned about quite recently. It turned out that this is a famous festival, held every 5 years in the spring. It is the world's largest indoor flower festival. The festival usually takes place in 0 and 5 years, but last year it got a little "lost" and was postponed to 2016 due to the renewal of the festival concept. The garden covers an area of .4. 5 hectares and is the largest garden in the world. Well, we didn’t hit it, we’ll hit it in 5 years (or 4? ).
The city should allocate at least one day, because you also need to see the city at night, and do not forget to climb the observation decks on the tops of the cathedrals, the castle. You can even swim through the channels in kayaks or kayaks. And for the most cautious, there are classic boats and boats)))
Also, there are quite a few antique and vintage shops in the city, and digging here also takes a lot of time. To my surprise, the prices are quite reasonable for fairly simple, but still old-fashioned gizmos.
I recommend to visit!
