Ghent

(from left to right: 'Slick' Rieck, 'Trap' Nichols, 'Nomad' Baumgart, Matt, 'Vandal' Mann, 'Q.' Quadri, 'Chewie' Murray, & 'Wyatt' Willingham) Sorry about the 'birds' flying in the photo.

The first weekend in December, Matt and I travelled to Ghent, Belgium, with a group of 15 friends for a quick get-a-way weekend. We had a blast hanging out with our friends and Matt and the fellas took the opportunity to try out some new Belgian beers. The story behind Matt's shoe-less foot (picture on the right) and the basket of shoes (picture below) is this: the hole-in-the-wall Belgian pub that we were hanging out in had a beer they served that came in about a meter long glass. If you dared to try it, you had to give the pub your shoe. They would then put your shoe into this basket that suspended from the ceiling. Once you were finished with the beer, you could get your shoe back. If you didn't finish the beer, you would spend the rest of the night shoe-less, because they kept your shoe...for good. Needless to say, Matt got his shoe back a little bit later in the evening before we headed off for dinner at the fondue restaurant (where the top photo was taken). You can kind of see Matt's shoe on the far left if you double click the photo to enlarge it (the pub was dark and his shoe was a chestnut color). His shoe is hanging out of top left of the basket. Sorry for the blurry photo... the basket was on its ascent to the ceiling.