{"id":194,"date":"2011-07-18T10:58:40","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T10:58:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=194"},"modified":"2011-07-18T10:59:14","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T10:59:14","slug":"au-revoir-to-paris-hallo-to-ghent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=194","title":{"rendered":"Au revoir to Paris, Hallo to Ghent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The gardens of Versailles were beautiful and full of heaps of tourists like ourselves. We decided not to go to the palace or Marie Antoinette&#8217;s area because the lines were too long and we wanted a relaxing day, and we probably didn&#8217;t have enough time. The gardens took all day as it was!<\/p>\n<p>It was really interesting to see how they were all laid out like different drawing rooms and the sculptures and fountains were beautiful, and I liked how they played matching music in each area.<\/p>\n<p>We had a quiet evening and the next day it was off to Ghent in Belgium. The reason we came to Ghent is because Ghentse Feesten is on (and I read about it in the lonely planet guide of top 10 places to go in 2011 that lil sis gave me). It&#8217;s a 10 day festival and in this student town it is very fun.<\/p>\n<p>The only downer is that is kept raining on and of, and my new shoes don&#8217;t fit as well as I had hoped. Being sopping wet didn&#8217;t help. But by evening it had gotten a bit better and our hotel room is very spacious and comfy, so if you have somewhere nice to go back to, getting rained in isn&#8217;t so bad.<\/p>\n<p>Plus I got to use Ghost Kite, which is what I have named my cheap raincoat\/poncho because I have to wave it around like a kite in the wind when I like it to dry. I look a bit silly wearing it, but since I&#8217;m a tourist, who cares?<\/p>\n<p>In Ghent there are about 4 big churches very close together, and all of them seemed to have a concert stage set up in front of it. It was fun to hear slightly accented covers of some great 80&#8217;s hits. <\/p>\n<p>The food and drink has been delicious. I tried some cherry beer and sampled lemon, apple and vanilla gin. Tasty! Also, who would have thought that Belgium chocolates are cheaper in Belgium? Dangerous. We also tried these purple cone shaped candies that are gooey in the middle. Mostly just sweet tasting, I think they might be some kind of speciality here. They even have a mcflurry version at mcdonalds. Neusjes, I think they are called noses? <\/p>\n<p>At a candy stall there were smurf gummy lollies and I had to get some&#8230; And while it felt wrong eating them, they were pretty tasty too.<\/p>\n<p>I got some sad news this morning. One of my uncles in Thailand has passed away. It was expected as he was very sick. My mother is over there with my brother right now. It is a comfort to know I will be over there in less than a month too, but will miss out on seeing my mum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The gardens of Versailles were beautiful and full of heaps of tourists like ourselves. We decided not to go to the palace or Marie Antoinette&#8217;s area because the lines were too long and we wanted a relaxing day, and we &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=194\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,21],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ghent","tag-paris"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ob9H-38","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":196,"url":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=196","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":0},"title":"Buddhists and Bruges","author":"admin","date":"July 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"When we set off (quite late in the day) yesterday I had vaguely wondered if there might be a buddhist temple nearby so that I could pay respects and offer merit for my uncle. I had been somewhat resolved to just having to wait until I got to Thailand. Well,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bruges\"","block_context":{"text":"Bruges","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?tag=bruges"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":138,"url":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=138","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":1},"title":"Toms and Brooklyn Gardens","author":"admin","date":"June 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In my final days in Indianapolis I went shopping with Bride1 and got some new shoes. They are Toms brand, multi-coloured and say \"the journey is the destination\" on them. They also donate a pair of shoes to a child in need with every pair that is sold. How could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Indianapolis\"","block_context":{"text":"Indianapolis","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?tag=indianapolis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=220","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":2},"title":"Totoro in Tokyo","author":"admin","date":"September 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I forgot to mention that on Tuesday I bought an umbrella that was lighter than my cellphone! It wouldn't last 2 seconds in Wellington NZ, but has made a great parasol for in the sunny heat. On Wednesday we headed off to the Ghibli museum. You have to get advanced\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Totoro\"","block_context":{"text":"Totoro","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?tag=totoro"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":118,"url":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=118","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":3},"title":"Goodbye Chicago: the return to Indy","author":"admin","date":"May 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In my final days at Chicago I went to visit Navy Pier. Well, first I got lost wondering around Chicago trying to figure out my way to Navy Pier. Which was pretty fun. I was wary of the place because I heard it was so touristy, I think a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chicago\"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?tag=chicago"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=209","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":4},"title":"Hay on Wye and back to London","author":"admin","date":"August 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Hay on wye was pretty good. After a bit if confusion over bus times and where our bed and breakfast was we eventually got there, and it was a beautiful place to stay. We got there in time for a market the next day so we had a good time\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Hay-on-Wye\"","block_context":{"text":"Hay-on-Wye","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?tag=hay-on-wye"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":193,"url":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?p=193","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":5},"title":"Paris","author":"admin","date":"July 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's see...I have been in Paris for 5 days. We met up at our hostel with Mackerel and their friend Mlle. G. We got up to a lot of stuff so far, so I shall just list it (see svendsblog.isprettyawesome for more details): - visited Sacre Couer and almost lost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paris\"","block_context":{"text":"Paris","link":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/?tag=paris"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mallika.isprettyawesome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}