Back in Gent

The view from my room in Paris directly across the road, from my window. Leaving my window open kept the smell of stale cigarettes out and the fresh air in and even though it was noisy I loved it all!!

Gard De L'Est (Train Station I could see from my window)

Gard De L'Est (I got a good deal here with the station so close and my room cost 49 Euro's a night)

After a fond farewell to Paris, I headed to the station way to early to catch the train back. The reason why I did this was that on the way to Paris we got held up in Gent picking up our tickets. We then had 3 minutes to spare to get the train to Brussels, and the memory of running for that train remains firm in my mind. Soooooooo since I was there early enough to catch the train before mine which I didn't, so I sat down and watched the board change.

There was an announcement my train was late and on the board appeared the "retarde" which means delayed. By the time it arrived and we boarded the train it was 20 minutes late which meant I missed the connection to Gent but could pick up a second connection. Got to Brussels safely and I almost caught the wrong train, which was all stations and was going to take a good hour compared to the half hour and I am so glad it was late and I caught the correct train instead, although I had a feeling I missed one somewhere between the missed connection and the one I finally caught..

Whilst travelling back to Gent, I was highly amused to see all these people kicked out of first class with the guard following closely behind them.

Once we reached Gent my next challenge was to catch the tram to Koren Markt so I could pick up the house key off Vincent who works near there. I made it collected the key and then had to get the bus back to the house, which I also managed to do and even got off at the correct stop. Seems silly that normal everyday things become an achievement in a foreign country where English is not always spoken!