Ghent Travel by Vijai Maheshwari

“The problem with Belgium,” cries Goldmember in Austin Power’s 2002 Goldmember film, “is that it’s close to Holland.” For Amsterdam residents hopping over the border into Flemish-speaking Belgium, the region’s charms lie precisely in its deviations from its brasher and more confident northern neighbor. Simply put, Belgium is a sleepier, friendlier and more charming version of the Netherlands: It is the Canada to Holland’s America.

Stray dogs amble along the platform of Ghent’s East Europe-style train station with its green wooden sidings and heavy metal doors; the residents are shorter and less stylish but smile a lot more readily; the bars are darker and smokier with a stronger working class edge; and the canals in this small Belgium town seem to meander aimlessly through the town instead of crisscrossing it in straight lines as in Amsterdam. While the Dutch are world-famous for their ‘coffeeshops’ where marijuana is sold over the counter, the Belgians have their rich chocolates, foods & beers. French fries were invented in Belgium, not in France, and the Belgians are rightly proud of their legacy: ‘Vlaamse Frites’, thick fries with soft juicy interiors, that are eaten with mayonnaise, are sold at almost every street corner. They are also served with mussels, the country’s national dish: The time-consuming imbibation of mussels seems to suit the Belgian character. Like the French and other southern Europeans, they are partial to long, long lunches and even longer dinners, washed down by hearty wines or the hundreds of beers that originate from this tiny nation. The German and British ales pale in comparison to the Belgian smorgasbord of flavored beers including Trappist ales like Chimay and Orval that are made in monasteries, kriek beers flavored with cherries and strawberries, brown and even red beers. The most famous Belgian beers are Stella Artois, white Hoegaarden beer, and Antwerp’s frothy Konig beer.

While Ghent in Flemish Belgium is not as much of a beer town as nearby Antwerp or medieavel Brugge, it has other qualities which endear it to the discerning visitor. Unlike Antwerp, which has been discovered by the fashionistas and is now celebrated as a hip city for its Antwerp Six designers, Ghent is still very much an unpolished gem by contrast. Although it has much of the cultural vibrancy of bigger Antwerp (locals claim it is much more happening) its scene hasn’t been spoiled by excessive media hype. Although a town with just over 400,000 residents, it boasts world-famous DJs, including the brothers from 2 Many DJs, whose remixes of diverse sounds, like Dolly Parton vs. The Strokes, have won them a cult following worldwide. The Glimmer Twins, who started out in a converted underpants factory, and now spin their soulful house worldwide are from Ghent, and so are Vive Le Fete, Karl Lagerfeld’s favorite electro band whose lead singer Els Pynoo has been hailed as a ‘new modern Blondie.’

So pervase is the influence of Ghent’s music scene that its Ten Days Off Electronic Music festival, coinciding with a bachanalian summer bash of the same name that lasts for ten full days, has replaced Berlin’s Love Parade as the platform for innovative musical acts. This year’s Ten Days Off, featured everyone from Ronni Size, Munich’s DJ Hell, Chicago’s Felix Da Housecat to Berlin’s Miss Kittin. Unfortunately, we had to leave Ghent a few days before the festival started, much to the chagrin of the local residents who were gearing up for a marathon midsummer madness. Ghent is probably one of the few cities in the Western world where almost all offices close down for the period of the festival and the city just plunges itself into a no-holds-barred celebration. Streets are blocked off to traffic, speakers at set up in the squares of the Old Town, and beer flows all night. “Sometimes I’ll be coming to the gallery at ten in the morning and they’ll still be partyers around St. Baaf’s Cathedral,” said a curator from SMAK gallery, the city’s cutting-edge contemporary art gallery.

Well, we missed the festivities but we still were up into the wee hours of the morning. Wim Delvoye, Ghent’s celebrated iconoclast, whose Cloaco shit-making machines have earned him a niche in the art world, declared that the ‘bizarre is normal in Belgium.’ Spend a few nights wandering the city’s bohemian student bars and trendy cocktail lounges and you might be inclined to agree: At one bar, Krawietel, Iranian emigres asked for our autographs before launching into a Sufi version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. (I kid you not!)

Nightlife aside, Ghent is quite a pastoral and compact town, dominated by the spires of its three main edifices: St. Nicholas’ Church, the Belfry and St. Baaf’s Cathedral. The large open squares that connect these monuments form the core of the city. The 15th century Gothic St. Baaf’s Cathedral houses Jan Van Eyck’s classic triptych, Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, and a painting by Heronymous Bosch. The Museum voor Schone Kunst (Museum of Fine Arts) is home to Flemish primitives and a few nightmarish works by Bosch, who lived in Ghent for part of his life. Just outside the center is the 12th century Gravensteen Count’s Castle with its moats, turrets and arrow slits. Like Brugge, Ghent reached its peak during the medieaval ages, becoming Europe’s largest cloth producer by the mid 14th century. With the construction of Amsterdam in the 15th century and the silting of the Scheldt river, the city’s influence began to fade and it has been in decline ever since.

It is this aura of past glory that lends the city is unforgettable atmosphere of defiant decay. While trendy eateries and fashion boutiques are slowly livening up its historic center, the city still has a sense of being suspended in time. Especially when it rains and the sky touches the ground as it often does in the Low Countries. Visit Ghent now before it turns into another Antwerp and becomes part of the tourist trail.