At the beginning of June, 15 Local Guides from 8 different countries made our way by car, plane and train for the 2nd European Meetup in Gent, Belgium. Following from the first European Meetup held in Krakow 2018 which was very successful, expectations for this meetup were really high and I can honestly say that not only was it met but it definitely surpassed mine by many folds!
Our host for this year was the excellent Jan @JanVanHaver (Belgium) and he cajoled a motley group consisting of David @davidhyno (Italy), George @GKhouri (Greece), Niilo @NiiloA (Sweden), Jane @JaneBurunina (Ukraine), Michael @ikaramon (Czech Republic), Inna @helga19 (Russia), Torben @TorM (Germany), Kristof @KristofVaneeck (Belgium), Arne @arnedery (Belgium), Jean-Ignace @JeanIgnaceBE (Belgium), Irena @IrenaS (UK), Fazz @FazZ (UK), Peter @PeteMHW (UK) and myself, to come visit him in Gent to celebratehis birthday our common passions for travelling, eating, drinking and socialising amid much revelry; everything that makes us Local Guides!
Note: Countries listed are as per our current country of residence rather than by origin.
Iām a bit late to the recap party but better late than never! You can find the official recap post here and do visit recap posts by David and Inna as well to get their perspective of this amazing trip! Itās taken me a while to complete my recap because I wanted to try something different: I wanted to recap my experience through my reviews and photos!
For each day of the meetup, Iāve made a list of all the places that Iāve visited, each of them linked to my Google Maps review, plus Iāve added a little snippet so you would know what the venue is about! It may not be the best way to tell my story but itās certainly something that Iāve never tried before! I hope you can enjoy it!
Note: POI with a little * indicates that thereās no review written. Chances are, I wasnāt there long enough to properly experience and explore the venue so I donāt feel comfortable leaving a superficial review. Instead, the link will just be for the Mapsā listing.
Saint Bavoās Cathedral - gorgeous cathedral housing the famous Gent Altarpiece with an intriguing history-mystery of a stolen and still missing the panel.
Belfort Stadscafe - a brief stop to top up on the sugar and caffeine levels (for me) and to have a late breakfast beer (for others) and free WiFi to upload even more photos!
Groentenmarkt - there is plenty to see in this area but most famously (in recent times) this it the battleground of the āwar of the nosesā, a quarrel over (oh so delicious) candy.
Gravensteen - beautiful castle in the heart of Gent, rich in history and wonderfully presented to visitors through the humourous audio guide!
Ellis Gourmet Burger - lunchtime venue; quick, delicious gourmet burgers! And a spit of rain too!
Boat in Gent - boat trips are always fun and a great way to explore a location from a different perspective! Highly recommended!
Dulle Griet * - pointed out to us during the boat trip, we went in search of this huge cast-iron cannon that has never been fired! Interesting to know that it has a sibling at the Edinburgh Castle!
Dulle Griet - a bar sharing the same name as the cannonā¦why not!? As it turns out, a fantastic choice with so much character, scary looking puppets with nooses and a funny ātraditionā for anybody buying the ākwakā beer!
Amadeus Gent 1 - hands down the most amazing BBQād ribs that Iāve ever had! And unlimited supply too!
Damass - post-dinner ice cream stop that proved to be a rather hilarious experience! Too saucy for a re-telling!
Graffiti Street - like moths to a candle, Local Guides are usually drawn towards graffiti covered streets! No exception here and an excellent backdrop to one of my favourite shots from the trip!
Trollekelder - despite the long day, we managed to drag ourselves to this cosy bar for a nightcap to end an excellent day!
Old Tom - impromptu meeting point in Ypres for Arne to meet the two parties (thanks to Jan and Torben for driving everyone)
Paris Croissant - my hungry tummy prompted me to explore a bit to top up on food supplies whilst waiting for everyone; I ended up with three buns that I sneakily tucked into during the whole day!
In Flanders Fields Museum - a top-notch war museum that served such a humbling and educational experience to all. Jan and Arne were great too in pointing out bits of local history.
Saint Martinās Cathedral - whilst waiting for the rest to finish, I made a mini stop to this cathedral just next to the museum for a wee look around.
Il Gusto dāItalia - āinfamousā ice cream shop where Local Guides battled to have their photo as the hero photo on Maps! And they served lovely waffles with ice cream too!
Sint-Pieterskerk * - a short stop at this church en route to the city walls.
Ramparts Cemetery, Lille Gate - another brief stop as we made it to the old city walls. This is a small cemetery overlooking a beautiful lake.
Ypra Inn - after all that walking, this was a nice stop for a cup of tea and scones beer! And free WiFi!
Pizza Babilonia - dinner at this convenient pizza restaurant. Not the best meal weāve had though but the cost was decent, easy for groups and was just a brief walk down from Menin Gate.
Tyne Cot Cemetery - the last (but not least) stop of the day. On one hand, the sprawling cemetery was hugely impressive but on the other hand, it was so sad to see the āprice paidā for it.
Bundervoet nv - local bakery recommended by Kristof to get a birthday cake for Jan, almost succumbed to the scrumptious pastries
FranzGustav - a really awesome find by George (well done again); amazing healthy breakfast options, very Instagram-able food! Also, just around the corner is a street full of street art/graffiti! Group photo!!
Los Churros - a mini stop in Brussels for one last stop for waffles!
Brussels Airport - so long, farewell, beautiful Belgium!
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And thatās it! 30 reviews completed and 1208 photos plus 53 360-photos taken and filtered down into a more digestible quantity (check out the photo album here). It just goes to show that my success rate at taking good photos is remarkably low!
I think itās rather obvious just how amazing this meetup was. And in stark contrast to the atrocities of the wars that took place in Gent (and wider Europe) that we witnessed in the numerous memorials and museums, this meetup brought together folks from 8 countries and showed us that we are different but those differences can be acknowledged and celebrated. And above all, it showed us that we have so many things in common too!
Some interesting facts:
Jean-Ignace attended Summit 2016
Irena attended Summit 2017
Jane, David attended Connect Live 2018
Torben hosted the first European Meetup 2018
Jan, Torben will be attending Connect Live 2019
Does it mean you have to be special to attend this meetup? Ah, definitely not. Itās just nice to see that the passion these folks have is still burning strong. In the wider group, our activeness in the Local Guides program varies but you would find that weāre not here for the points but for a chance to meet people, exchange stories, explore a new city and have fun.
I hope you enjoyed this recap post and if you feel inspired by it all, let us know in the comments below. Perhaps you have a question for Jan and Torben on organising an international meetup!? Or maybe you just want to know how to get started on a local meetup: you can read this handy post or you can ask us!
PS - Just tagging the extra folks that I couldnāt tag properly in the main post because of the limit; @Jean-IgnaceBE , @IrenaS , @FazZ , @PeteMHW
It is very interesting ,it give detail infotmation about every day of our Meet Up.You write about every seeghtseen in Ghent,mention all places ,which we visit.Thank you so much.
Recently I have already watched your photos in album of European MeetUp 2 ,I enjoy watching your nice and amazing photos!
The Meet Up was really amazing ,warm and had a lot of fun.
I am happy that I visit such beautiful and charming city as Ghent and Brugge.
Thank you @JanVanHaver for organizing this perfect Meet Up.
Thank you @AdrianLunsong for our big memory and your eonderful post.
Thank you a million times @AdrianLunsong for this amazing recap post - bringing back so many wonderful memories from the recent past . Iām really happy to read that you enjoyed it (including some of the beers) so much (although that was pretty clear already as the event was ongoing)
My follow-up promise: one of the posts I plan to write in the near future will be āTips on how to set up a successful Meet-upā where I will obviously be sharing some of my experience gained by hosting #euromeetup19 (one of them will be ācome up with a catchy hashtagā - credits to @ErmesT in this case, as he proposed it if I remember correctly).
And for those thinking āWow, I would like to attend such an event!ā: itās way too early to give any specfics, but there is a very good chance that there will be a #euromeetup20 next year, in another European destination, so keep checking Connect for announcements! And as always: any local guide of any level is more than welcome.
Thanks @helga19 for your kind comments! It was a pleasure to meet you and spend 4 days in your company! Hopefully, we will see each other in the next Euro Meetup, if not earlier!!
Thanks for the amazing time in Belgium @JanVanHaver ! Before the trip, I was worried I couldnāt enjoy the social drinking stops because I donāt really drink beer! But with some education from @KristofVaneeck and a bit of experimentation, I quickly found my favourite go to beer!
Letās just say that all my previous experiences with beer is like Beer 1.0 but Belgium beers are Beer 2.0! So glad to see the crazy amount of options to cater for different tastes!
Looking forward to your post on organising a meetup!!
And Iām so glad Iāve finally completed this recap post! Took me less than a week to finish editing the photos but it felt like an eternity having to write so many reviews. This post and reviews took up 19 pages on Google Docs! It turns out, Iām equally long winded when writing reviews too
what a great recap, well done! I see it has been a really great meetup ā¦ well done @JanVanHaver again to organize and host it.
I feel again shame to missed possibility to join it, thanks Adrian hahaha. I lived in Brugge for one year so that part of Belgium has very good memories for me .
@AdrianLunsong very nice post as usualā¦ the content is great and nice to get to know some of the most active European Local Guidesā¦ I keep in touch with some of them through this platform. very cool!
@AdrianLunsong Cool. That is a great meet up. Iām sure you enjoyed it so much. You did review for many places from this meet up, nice job. Thank you for sharing this recap and your experience with us.
Wow! What a lovely and detailed Recap post, i really like to read your post and as i can feel you make a lot of fun during meet up:)
Heartily congrats to host for organising such a miraculous Meet up and good wishes for all the attendees who make this meet up more splendid and amazing.
Thank you very much for sharing your brilliant recap and your great reviews with us! Youāve spent a lot of time on this content, but itās definitely worth it! Your reviews are so detailed and informative, they should serve as an example for the new Local Guides who have just joined the program.
I think such a picturesque city like Ghent was the perfect choice for the 2nd European Meet-up! Even though itās not so popular, itās very beautiful and it has some enchanting vibe.
All your photos are fantastic, but I particularly like the group photo of the Local Guides posing along Graffiti Street, because it represents all the activities that Local Guides do when they travel - searching the map, taking photos, writing reviews and of course having fun!
@JanVanHaver , thank you for organizing this awesome event! Iām looking forward to see your post
@Ruxellan@IshantHP_ig Thanks very much for your kind words! I thank you too for spending your time to read my post as I know it can be quite a long read!
Thanks @RadieN for the compliments; glad you enjoyed reading the recap post and the reviews! Itās also a part of a plan for a future post that is specifically about writing reviews so Iām just trying out different writing/presentation styles and building up a set of examples that I can then show in my post. It wonāt be suitable for everyone but hopefully, itāll start a nice discussion on different review styles.
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. Iām really happy to read that you enjoyed it (including some of the beers) so much (although that was pretty clear already as the event was ongoing)
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