úterý 30. srpna 2011

The arrival

The D-Day is finally here. August 26, the day when I finally set out on the trip to a destination more than 1000 km far from my home. This destination is going to be my home for next 5 months. My trip starts at Prague airport (actually in Ostrava, but a boring journey by train is not consider even to be a trip). The first moment I realize that I'm going to Belgium is when we are flying over the Belgian borders because it starts raining. Anyway, I had to take into account that this weather is classical in Belgium.
    Firstly I'm in doubt after I leave the plane. Due to the fact that the airport is in Charelroi, in the Walloon part of Belgium, everything is written in French. They don't speak English, I don't know Dutch yet and, moreover French is for me the same like it would be written in some language which is not even of the earthly origin.
  Anyway I got to my new home eventually. I would mention one more situation which I experienced on the way to my point. The only thing I had known before I found myself in Ghent was the name of the stop where I was supposed to get out of the tram number 1, but I didn't know which stop it was. With my 30 kg heavy suitcase I took the tram, which was indeed overcrowded,  so that I couldn't move to a driver to ask him, i couldn't move anywhere, so I decided to try to ask people around me if they knew which stop was the famous Witte Kapr...something (I already know, it's Witte Kaproenenplein). Of course, they didn't know! But....what was fairly pleasant for me was the reaction of the women I asked at first. She forwarded my question to people of almost the whole tram with such a pleasure and smile that since first minutes I already started to be happy here. 
In fact..... this wouldn't be so worth mentioning, but I can't just imagine such a reaction in my home city.....

čtvrtek 25. srpna 2011

Which one to choose?

Before I start talking about my first impressions of a new city, the city that is going to be my home for next few months - Ghent (Gent), I should perhaps tell you why I have chosen to spend upcoming months right in this city. To be honest, I was already here a  few months ago when I was travelling within my one week holiday in BENELUX. I really took a fancy to both the Netherlands and Belgium and in addition, one of the most amazing cities I have ever seen is undoubtedly Ghent. The impressions of this city have been so great that when there was an opportunity to choose a city for ERASMUS I decided to come back to Ghent again. Ghent is a city with approximately 250 000 inhabitants, so a pretty big city, but what is really worth saying that the one third of all people here is formed by students! Could it be there anything better for a student than to go to a real student city?