Flanders Today

Flanders today october 7, 2009

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(Wednesday to Saturday) When THE WHITE CAT N gets crowded, it really turns hot and sweaty. AThat’s A bars typical for Ghent, where we like to putF Lour O in medieval cellars without any fresh air... N V E R Sone H JAThis P E YE NS NI X S the fourteenth century, but now has a pink TR . is from TR ceiling,A pink walls and an aquarium as a bar. Why AT not. Usually live funk or jazz concerts on Friday and Saturday. BEGIJN

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(Usually open, unless when it’s closed) When you arrive at opening time in ‘t VELOOTJE, you might still find last night’s glasses on the table. This really is quite a scruffy place. The 101 bikes that you see dangling from the ceiling are the bearded barkeeper’s personal collection. But watch out for the prices – this little bar might be the only tourist trap in town.

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(Every day except Wed in winter) At THE SMIX, Tony TR H RA RD AA AB E. BOCF:8CK@G (' TURKISH PIZZA stirs ‘em nice and easy, without too much S G fuss and withONEN D VLA S TR . N F ONT EI NEP L EIN E out too much hurry. Try a cocktail mulata or batida Some say it’s AKDENIZ, some I Z E Nsay it’s GÖK, some A I de BR DUVUR KA guava. Experts think it’s the best in Ghent. every IE 31 A N say GÖK 2, some say GULHAN: U G student has E A L L I S E with any BURGSTRAAT his favourite but you can never go wrong LE BEG IJN ENG RA CH T PO . RA AL TR AT V O S + WELL-HIDDEN N of the cheap pizzerias in the Sleepstraat. TheR Tmenus JAZZ NE OE S RH O E show, beare full-colour, and what you see is what youT R Aget KO (Every day) Don’t talk too loud duringG Rthe AT H ECOHOSTEL (you’ll Gpay around € 7,50 for a meal cause the regulars are really here for the music. HOT A K K and the typical ERST AT RAA I Nayran drink). This street is the heart STRA T L salty of Turkish CLUB DE GAND is a good hangout for live music H S E I T O N D A E O with a noisy soundtrack of jingling trams, (mainly jazz), always for free. Concerts almost everyA N Ghent, GST NG RAAT VA 32 day, look in the small alley to find the entrance. E W G E yelling children and pimped-up BMW’s. It’s always POEL W alive except in July and August, because then many U E , BEST BEER AND JENEVER go on a holiday to Turkey, usually to their grandNI R SIN Tparents’ birthplace Emirdağ. It is from this small (Every day) DREUPELKOT is the only traditional ‘jenever’ MICHIELS PLEIN AT A R T S N E N A city that almost all the first Turkish immigrants bar left in town. Real jenever is made from grain and T H E R E S I came SCH O UW VE TR A AT G ERS S T R . malt (around 40% alcohol), but you can also ask Pol PI J LS in the 1960s, to work in the rough textile industry of Ghent. Today, the third generation speaks with a about his home-made chocolate, banana and pepper ST R. RT U IN better Ghent accent than most locals. versions (around 20% alcohol). To continue AT drinking, W IN TE RA 34 ST ER 33 PP A WATERHUIS AAN DE BIERKANT (Waterhouse on the K W EL L ING S T R ZWARTEZUSTE RSSTRAAT OL A AT O K (( INTIMATE JAZZ BAR Beerside) is just next door, with 14 beers on draught, B R A ND ST AS I N O R A AT 150 Belgian beers on bottle, and a lot of international (Tuesday to Saturday) The MINOR SWING is CPone LE I N beers (that are of no importance of course). of those typical Ghentish bars where the same five P OST EER N E STR. barflies hang at the counter every day. It’s a cosy I S T R A AT H P E G A Awine Abeer, - MEDIEVAL LABYRINTH P place to stick for hours with good jazz, E . ANN N LDESTR36 ON EVE and whisky. Don’t wear high heels here. RThe Patershol is a AT ND I CIA TW STRA VA AAL N D . IJ R E F K A ME RE N N S T 35 labyrinth of tiny medieval streets with cobblestones, BR EMA R. ROZ GE N () MOROCCAN TAJINE where it’s fun to get lost in the evening. It was TR a A ZAND KR O M M POOR N IESTLAAN TS T R AA T 1970s, but rough worker’s neighbourhood until the (Closed on Tue / Lunch and dinner) Everything looks T L A L E B OO G A now you’ll find mostly expensive restaurants a bit plastic inMMIMOSA, but the tajines are big, tasty N with a AR P EKELH touristy crowd. and steaming. This isT Ea pretty and unknown corner of ARING E Ghent too. € 12. EV LI . ROMANCE AT BETT Y’S (* BELGIAN FRIES (Tue to Sun) Betty opens and closes the ROCOCO when she feels like it, and she also serves when she (Mon to Sat) Don’t leave Ghent without eating fries! feels like it. No electric light, just candles and an JOZEF and his wife still bake their fries the oldBI JL RE open fireplace in winter. You can add to the Wliving fashioned way. No frozen potatoes here, everything AT OK CHT M EV YA C SPO ER S E ES H home-made ‘Elixir A room atmosphere by drinking her is carefully peeled and cut by the man of the house. R T BA T RT LIN AN d’Amour’ (love potion) and by playing the piano if Taste the authenticity, because there areE Lnot many KS A Ain the you like. First ask the lady of the house of course, ‘frietkoten’ (fries barracks) left like this one BI RSL JL G OK A NI EH because she’s definitely the boss. O R E whole of Belgium.

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(Mon to Fri / Lunch and dinner) DE LIEVE is one of the few traditional restaurants left in the centre of T Ghent. Don’t expect a romantic interior AorA candlelight, R ST just good home-kitchen food. The Thandwritten menu R is only in Dutch, so the easiestA Ething is to ask Ivan N E I will be the only tourist what he suggests for today. RYou T R. ST AA here, unless they’re all using this map. Between € R10 EL SP ST HA R for ‘blinde vink’ (roll of bacon filled with minced V E meat) WE AT and € 20 for Belgian fish like ‘sole meunière’. RA K E T TI ST

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(Tue to Sat) “A medium-length curly A B wave and a Triple . Westmalle please.” Yes, in BARBIER you can order a TR RS AA beer with your haircut (also inA ATthe evening until 22:00 EL K U TR BE on Thu and Fri). This must A S be Ghent. CI AC

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MAËL (19) MUSIC ADDICT My week of free concerts: Sun + , Mon ++ , Tue )' (Kinky), Wed *( , Thu )' (Charlie).

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This map was made by USE-IT, the Tourist Office for Young People. Download the full version on www.use-it.be, or get it for free in the Tourist Office in Ghent or the USE-IT office in Brussels. You can also get free maps of Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Leuven en Mechelen.

BRAM (22) THE BONY KING OF NOWHERE In London, musicians are happy to get a free drink. In Ghent, I even got money for my first show.

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+, CUBAN CIGARS AND PIZZA (Closed Wed) LA CASA DEL SIGARO CUBANO is run by a Colombian-Italian couple, so this is is what they sell: cigars and... pizza. They even have a special room with Havanas if you like ‘em fat and exclusive (the cigars, not the pizza).

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ALSO GET THESE! And check the site for hostels and festivals in Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Leuven and Mechelen. WWW.USE-IT.BE

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COME VISIT US IN BRUSSELS! Visit the USE-IT office in Brussels! We have maps and budget guides for other European cities + free internet + free tips from the locals + free coffee (if you’re nice). Schildknaapsstraat 24 Rue de l’Ecuyer (close to Central train station) Tue to Fri 09:00 to 12:30 and 13:00 to 18:00 / Sat 13:00 to 17:00 USE-IT EUROPE USE-IT tourist maps and budget guides also exist in Rotterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo, Ljubljana, Warsaw, Dresden... USE-IT is not commercial, no-nonsense, free, up-to-date and made by young locals. If you want to make the network bigger: WWW.USE-IT.INFO

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(Tue to Sun) ABACHO is good for a party with pop hits in a big thirteenth-century cellar (not gay, but many gay regulars). In the same street: WCLUB CENTRAL . BL ANC Kceiling. for salsa and PLANSJEE for dancing on the STR.

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,- DANCE CLUB & AFTER-CLUB (Mon to Sat) On a sunny Sunday morning, come and have a look around here. Ghent’s nighthawks are hanging around on the sidewalk, unable to open their eyes, figuring out the meaning of life. DECADANCE is the only all-week club in Ghent. Different styles for every day of the week (the drum’n’bass nights on Wednesdays are legendary). Usually between € 2 and € 5, free before 23:00.

+. EXOTIC COCKTAIL CORNER All the popular cocktail bars in the Lammerstraat have the same owner, but he styled all of them differently. African, Spanish, Mexican or French interior: take your pick. Drunk will ... anyway they ... you get.

*) HOTSY TOTSY (Every day) HOTSY TOTSY: jazzy student bar in 1930’s I style with aApooltable. Live concerts on Thursday.

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,, INTERNATIONAL BAR (Mon to Sat) Many regulars of THE PORTER HOUSE are exchange students, so come here to say “cheers” in 35 languages (especially on Wednesday).

+- THE GLASS STREET In Ghent, a typical nineteenth-century shopping gallery (like you still find in Brussels today) turned into the redlight district, where women sit behind windows to attract customers. Everybody knows it as ‘the little glass street’.

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CF:8CK@G *( UNEXPECTED PLEASURE LT ER S L the new jazz bar (Wed to Sun) Locals who first enter AA N HET ONVERWACHT GELUK all say the same thing: it feels like it’s always been here. On Wednesday, barkeeper and sax-player Xavier mainly programs old-school jazz in 1930’s to 1950’s style (for free).

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,+ ROCK, METAL, PUNK (Every day) With about three live shows every week, FRONTLINE upholds a long-standing tradition in Belgium when it comes to death, speed, white and black metal, punk, trash, gothic, stoner rock, hardcore, industrial, noise, doom, grind and crustcore. Entrance is in the little alley. Between € 0 and € 10.

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*' BEACH WITHOUT SAND S ST N U O M 90’s you could still drive and Hard to imagine K that in Kthe E O a fine summer day, the Graslei park your car here.TOn is now an open-air festival all night long. The terraces A A N cans N E from the nightshop. serve beer, but most drink M

The late-gothic/early-renaissance CITY HALL has been restored down to the finest details, for a few million euros. Then somebody found out in an old dusty book that the historically correct colours for the drainpipe are white and blue. So that’s how they painted it, in happy lollipop colours. To see is to believe!

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,) COSY SOFAS (Mon to Sat) The well-hidden GEUS VAN GENT is a bar made up of living rooms with comfortable sofas, golden mirrors, many grandma’s tables and one pooltable. Jam session on Wednesday with Ghent’s music students.

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CF:8CK@G ++ GOOD FOOD GOOD JAZZ (Every day / Dinner) EL NEGOCITO lies right next to the red light district, but the special thing is that shady nightlife people, old smokers, students and Ghent’s best jazz musicians all mix perfectly. Free concerts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and some more live music just when they feel like it. Juan Carlos, the cook from Chili, does good honest food, like sardines for only € 6,50.

)0 JAZZ CLASSIC (Every day) Through the thick smoke in the beautiful wooden interior, you spot bar philosophers, talkative people, and many dreadlocks. DAMBERD has been a bar for about 250 years, and since 1978 jazz has been the thing.

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You don’t really know Ghent until you’ve seen the sun A rise here on a morning during the Ghent Festival in EK T A S ** NICOTINE BAR July. This little square called Vlasmarkt is the last R A party M AT ST RA A to Thu) FATIMA used to be an old people’s OT place to drink Irish coffees when everythingR Belse closes (Mon ST A RS TA E L SS down. During the rest of the year, BAR JOS and BAR V bar. When the owners retired in 2003, an art student VI ZE LO DES AMIS are a good starter for a chat with a beer, took over and left the interior just the way it was cocktail or wine. The CHARLATAN is the musical with the nicotine-yellow ceiling. He calls the bar his epicentre of the square, with at least three concerts ‘graduation project’. On Monday the ‘Radical Knitters’ R A AT R SS T a week (usually free on Thursdays and Sundays). Dj’s gather here for a die-hard D W A knitting session. take over in the later hours. Charlatan is a Ghent tradeAT *+ MEAT STICKS KWITH mark, owned by a three-eyed evil man. KINKY STAR S T R A JESUS KER runs its own record label and puts on free concerts on (Tue to Sun A T/ Dinner till 00:00) ‘T OUD CLOOSTER A R EST Tuesday andRSunday. ‘T BEGIN VAN ‘T EINDE means (The E L D Old Monastery) is a restaurant-bar with religious AA SCH ‘the Beginning of statues and candlelight all over the place. A favourite T the End’. Indeed. for lovers. € 16 for the famous meatstick with vege)( MORE GOING OUT tables, fruit and fries. When you’re getting bored KofE Istanding in line outside O R Z THO =I<<N@=@ *, FREE FREE FREE the always-busy Charlatan )' ,Echeck P O S to R P O this square OU O D Elooks like a chilly lounge at first see what’s on. Especially the VIDEO isR T a cute ass(Every day) DE LOGE BR T A U Sendless coffee for € 3,50 A it up with magnet (m/f), and sometimes you have to Bsqueeze sight, but they STR Rmake SE R NAA L Swifi, a free concert A Z E finger for a refill), free U live them all just to get to the bar. On Wednesdays: free (raise Wyour SS . E L. TR W mee preparee’ TS indie rock or elektro. More (jazz) bars and clubs justE on Wednesday andD Efree ‘boterhammen ER A E F F LS LA OE T next door – go see for yourself. D. at 19:00 on Monday. E (bread with minced meat)

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(Mon to Fri / Lunch and dinner) In Ghent, it all becomes a bar in the end. BIZ’ART first was a butcher (see the counter) and an icecream saloon (see the frescos in the back), now it’s a crossover between a bar and a living room. € 7 for pasta Rachel with turkey.

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(0 WE COPS Being a cop in Ghent will never be the same again. T AS N N I ‘Flikken’ (Cops) was a popular Kseries on national TV, SI PLE A N filmed in Ghent from 1999 to 2009. ‘T KROCHTJE AN was the cops’ regular bar in the series. Every year, we a special ‘Cops Day’, when children walked S T-A N N AKER Korganized AT R A Ghent with fake handcuffs and police caps through ST EN AT G U G as if it were normal. Police vans happily wentR Aalong, T BR E S E and you could sit on a police bike if you asked E L friendly. TW OR Now that the TV series is over, nobodyF will happily ask for a policeman’s autograph again…

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(Every day) For strictly gay bars, extravagant parties or darkrooms, better go to Brussels or Antwerp. It’s not that there is no gay scene in Ghent, it’s just that R .and hangs out in the same the scene is ratherO Orelaxed IL A M ST bars as everybody else. CASA ROSA is a gay bar, but it’s also just a place for a chat and a drink.

CF:8CK@G ,' FRIES FROM JULIEN (Every day) Welcome to DE GOUDEN SATÉ or ‘The Golden Meatstick’, which everybody here just calls ‘at Julien’s place’ (although it’s Peter who bakes them during the night). Fries every day from 11:00 in the morning until 07:00 in the morning. Damn it, these guys are saints!

(Every day / Lunch and dinner) Just pick your own meat, vegetables and sauce for a cheap healthy meal at Thai wok DE ORCHIDEE. € 7,50 for a full plate.

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)-S T R AMORE AT THAN MOVIES (Every day) SPHINX is the oldest cinema in Ghent, programming arthouse movies. But many just come to comment on cute butts, with a cocktail on the terrace. Ask the barkeepers for going-out tips – perhaps they’ll even take you along.

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+0 24 / 24 SNACK-BAR (Always) Snackbar ‘T HOEKSKE is always open, and that’s quite unique in this small town. € 2,75 for a sandwich / € 8,25 for a spaghetti.

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=I<<N@=@ +' NEW OLD BEER (Every day) Like in most Belgian cities, the small citybreweries have all closed in Ghent. Annick is reviving the tradition here. Her father and grandfather were brewers too, and she just can’t resist. The beer is called GRUUT like this brewery and bar.

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(. TOO MANY COLOURS CF:8CK@G P RO O / Late dinner) The interior decorator of (Every day S TS TR . PINK FLAMINGO’S is insane – there’s just too many S PA N JA A RD ST RA AT colours. This barbiedoll bar is totally kitsch, with funky T music and a GhentishA Sin-crowd. ‘The Pink’ is always TRAA GAND full, but especially a good choice on Monday when most other bars in the centre are closed. Spaghetti T till midnight. ST R A A T H U IS (/ GAY BAR T R A AT S

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=I<<N@=@ +/ GRAND CAFE (Every day) During the day, young intellectuals read the newspaper at VOORUIT K AFEE. Then they stay for a play or a concert. Then they get drunk and stay a bit longer. Then they stay all night for a weekend party. Also see (') .

+( AFTER-PARTY BREAKFAST (Closed on Tuesday and Wednesday) JACQUET is a good breakfast spot after a long night out, because they open at 06:00, and even at 05:00 during the famous Ghent Festival (second half of July).

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(- FREE CONCERT ON MONDAY (Every day / free concert on Mon) At TREFPUNT, folk singer Walter De Buck did a few concerts on a wooden stage in 1968. He and hisDfriends only had AMPOOR T some AT M P O O RT S T R A DA S Tand ATIO barrels of beer, acoustic guitars smellyNsandals, I A A K D N A A G E Lvibe was good. Over the decades, this smallbutHthe scale hippie gathering has grown into the Ghent FestiAI S CH O O L KA val, one of Europe’s biggest city festivals in the second T T R AA NI C HS half LofUCJuly, with over 1.500.000 visitors per year. A S MU

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(, A BAR IN AUGUST (Wed to Sun) Oh my god, did nobody tell you? If you Acome to Ghent in the first half of August, everyAN TENL R E G A Tthing is closed. After the Festival (ten nights of nonstop partying in July), the whole city falls into a coma, and all the barkeepers take a few weeks off. The last Ghent nighthawks now gather on the terrace of L’HEURE BLEUE, one of the only bars that’s open.

*0 MAKE UP CLUB (Fri and Sat) Big mirrors, soft golden walls, designer lighting and fashionable people: MAKE UP club is where it’s at. As the name suggests, don’t come dancing in your dirty shoes and ripped jeans – unless they’re designed ripped jeans of course. Between € 5 and € 10.

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FLORIS (20) STUDENT & NIGHT OWL During the week, I sit through the night at Abu Simbel ,* . During the weekend, I prefer the old centre to see the sun rise.

)+ NO, YOU’RE NOT DRUNK This number is on the map twice because the exact same building is there twice. This is why. In 1913, the World Fair was held in Ghent. The city wanted to look medieval, because that was what people liked in those days (just like today). So many buildings on the Graslei and Korenlei were reconstructed “like the good old Middle Ages”. For the house at Graslei n°8, inspiration came from drawings of the Bricklayer’s house, a 16th-century building that had disappeared. But during a renovation project in the 1980s, a house was discovered nearby, entirely preserved behind another wall. This was the original Bricklayer’s house! We decided to keep this one E G too, so Ghent now has W very close to each other. two almost-identical houses, N

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(+ JACOB AND HIS SWORD JACOB VAN ARTEVELDE is our hero from the Middle Ages. A wonderful statue, too, but somehow, somebody stole its sword in 1998. Panic! But fear not, the tourist board quickly ordered a new sword. Just when they were going to install it, a bunch of art students miraculously ‘found’ the old sword again. So then we had two of them. One is back in its place, the other is in the Counts’ Castle -' ... in the weapons’ collection.

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TRACY (19) DANCING FOOL I started taking the bus after my second bike got stolen. But a few days ago I woke up and it was inside my flat, on the sixth floor. It’s a miracle.

Flanders today

ANA (30) DANCED AROUND THE WORLD Ghent has the right cosy size: not small like Bruges, not big and anonymous like Brussels. And there is less ‘blabla’ than in Antwerp.

WALTER (74) FATHER OF GHENT FESTIVAL Of course the festival is commercial today. It has always been. If you have a bar, you want to get rich in ten days. Wouldn’t you?

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The city of Ghent is known for its many historic buildings, such as the Gravensteen Castle and the Sint-Baaf’s Cathedral, but also for the massive music festival Gentse Feesten in the summer and the many parties at the hipper-than-thou art centre Vooruit. Ghent has also a rich academic history, with the University of Ghent (UG) founded in 1816. Throughout the years, the institution has remained true to its original philosophy of being a socially engaged and pluralistic educational system.

The many research centres and laboratories put the UG on the international map, attracting every year nearly 3,000 international students, of which about 800 are on an Erasmus Exchange project.

And don’t forget Erasmus student organisation ESN, which often organises events or day trips to Brussels or Antwerp on weekends.

The helpful Erasmus Student Network (ESN) was founded in 1990 to support and develop student exchange all over Europe. They have a division in Ghent, which helps all Erasmus students make the best of their time in the city, which is the capital of the province of East Flanders. You can visit their office between 18.00 and 20.00. Becoming a member costs just €5, and in return you get invited to all their parties and events, enjoy discounts and consume drinks at promotional prices in the Erasmus pub The Porter House in Stalhofstraat.

Ghent’s art schools also supply a steady stream of students who populate jazz bars. That’s where you’ll usually find Thomas O’Leary, an American PhD student in his second year doing research on embryonic stem cell derivation. “I like places like Hot Club de Gand, Hotsy Totsy and a few places around the Graslei. But I’m always trying out new cafés in search for a new favourite,” he says. Being an international student implies being away from home. Beatriz already misses her friends and the Spanish sun, and Thomas misses his family and the option to shop on a Sunday. But sometimes it also works the other way around. Back in The Netherlands, Lizette missed international contacts so much, she decided to pause her studies for a year and join ESN Utrecht. As culture coordinator, she now organises all sorts of cultural activities for international students at the University of Utrecht.

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Beatriz Hernanz recently arrived in Ghent to begin law studies at the university. From Spain, she is one of the many international students to have a room in a “student house”. Like most of the Erasmus students, the 23-year-old spends a lot of time in The Porter House, which just happens to be in the same street as her room. “I’ve only just arrived, but I’ve already gone out a lot. I like places like The Porter House, Video and Charlatan,” she says. “I’m also trying to discover a lot of the city during the weekends because soon I’ll have to start studying!”

Thursday is the big bar night in Ghent; since most Flemish students go home on the weekends, nearly all student bars are closed then. So where do you go? “When you have your room in a student home, you never really feel alone,” explains Lizette Van Genugten from the Netherlands, who studied law in Ghent last year as an Erasmus exchange student. “We either went downtown – Charlatan was my absolute favourite – or held our own parties in our rooms,” she says. Then quickly adds: ““Of course, I also caught up on studying.”

The website of UG has a lot of advice for incoming international students, from how to use public transport to “how to act like a local”. For instance: “Ask somebody to teach you the correct Ghent pronunciation of vree wijs, goe bezig, beestig and de max. They all mean ‘nice’ but with some subtle differences.” (In fact, this piece of advice originally comes from Use-It Tourist Info for Young People, who co-produced this student guide.)

www.esngent.be

bars

Ghent has a lot of bars (319 according to www.cafeplan.be). Many students like to go out in Overpoort, a street with bars on both sides, often linked to student groups or fraternities. Enjoy a night out in Bowling Overpoort or check the legendary Decadance for some serious beats. Overpoort also has a few pita bars and one very famous frietkot (french fry stand) to still your late-night cravings.

In its first year, UG had a student population of 190, spread over four faculties. Now, about 32,000 students study here, in 11 faculties spread all over the city. This makes Ghent the biggest student city of Flanders, just edging out the historically largest university town, Leuven.

ESN Ghent’s office is in “De Therminal”, Hoveniersberg 24

Katrien Lindemans

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Bars bars

Like many cities in Belgium, Ghent is spelled in different ways by different people, so don’t get confused. In the list above, it’s Dutch/English/French.

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The logo of the University of Ghent is the façade of Aula Hall, an imposing site with its huge Corinthian pillars. You’ll get your diploma here if, sorry, when you graduate