On Friday, my friend and I discovered a little neighbourhood in Ghent called the Patershol. It's the only medieval quarter left in the city, and is a maze of narrow streets and alleyways that used to be home to all kinds of tradesmen and craftsmen. Then in the 19th century, a factory opened nearby, and the quarter housed poor factory workers, and later became known for shady cafes and brothels. Here are a few photos from our stroll:







Today, the Patershol is no longer a shady neighbourhood. It looks quiet in the photos because we went during the 'middagpauze' (the Belgians have a mid day break and everything closes! It's impossible to get a meal at 4 o'clock!).

Then on Saturday I was out for a coffee with a friend, and we came up with a brilliant idea! We decided to go to Brussels for the night to check out the Big City nightlife. We took the 10 o'clock train out last night, and caught the first train back to Ghent this morning. Brilliant! I will be back, of course, in search of more intellectual pursuits (museums, galleries, etc.), but this was a spur of the moment thing and I'm glad we followed through with it.



After arriving at the Brussels train station, we ventured through some pretty scary looking neighbourhoods and made it to a little cafe. We had some time to kill, since the clubs don't open until midnight... We ended up at two different places. The first one was called Havana, and was a great tropical themed venue with four separate areas: a lounge, two bars, and a dance floor.



It was packed to the brim with people: the windows were steaming, it was so hot in there! So after sweating to the beats for a little bit, we decided we had had enough and we headed down the street to Bazaar Club.

Bazaar is one of the most "recommended" places to go out in Brussels (it was in my Lonely Planet book), and it was definitely more comfortable! I really enjoyed the DJ, who was playing everything from old school hip hop, to funk, to techno, to the Doors and Pink Floyd... And we met some interesting men, who spoke to us in beautiful French and were perhaps a bit too relentless in their quest for love... But overall it was great and we had a lot of fun!

We ended our night with a stop for some Belgian Fries (doused in a curry ketchup). A perfect night in Brussels.



Kusjes! xoxoxox