Arrived Gent, Belgium Monday afternoon.  Here for two nights.  It’s kind of on the way to Paris.  

Last night was the Remember Sports gig at MEZZ in Breda, NL.  No opener.  11 euros to get in.  It was great.  Better even than the night before.  The venue was a two-minute walk from my lodging spot.  The hotel room was nice mainly because it had an electric kettle with an assortment of tea and coffee. 

I met a guy about my age at the Sports show.  He wore a Grandaddy band t-shirt and said he came to the gig after listening to some cuts of the band online.  The guy rode his bike to the show from a town he said was sixty minutes away.  By bike.  “I ride slow,” he said.  

Bikes are everywhere in the Netherlands and here in Gent.  People ride at a leisurely pace mostly.  No helmets.  

Before the Sports show, I found a brewery in Breda serving haze.  It was tucked away in a large industrial complex about a half-hour walk from the gig.  It was called Frontaal.  It’ll probably be the only haze I find on this trip.  My server handed me a can of one of their pale ales on the way out.  I consumed it after the gig.  It was much better than the stale-tasting Jupiter at the venue.     

My bus this morning from Breda to Gent departed at about 11 AM.  It was operated by Flixbus, a big German bus operator which has widespread route coverage in Europe and is making advances in the US.  The ticket cost just 9.99 euros.  I added the assigned seat option for 1.49 euros.  A woman who had previously boarded in Amsterdam was sitting in my seat when I got on.  It didn’t seem worth making a fuss about given it was just a two hour ride, so I just said hello and sat next to her.  The driver exuded competency but I was still nervous largely because he seemed a bit preoccupied with a personal phone conversation for about the first half of the journey.  He held the steering wheel with one hand – and a small device the size of a marble with the other.  The device was some kind of phone accessory that he deemed important to hold close to his mouth.  My fear was he’d drop the device and then become preoccupied with finding it while driving. 

Irrational, I know. 

I walked into Gent’s city center after checking into the hotel.  It’s beautiful.  I’m going to try to recharge while here after going full Frontaal without proper rest since Friday.