Stairs. Lots of them.

Author: Noah Meier

Some of my classmates have been abroad before, some of us have not. I am in the latter group, and while I had been told repeatedly to expect a lot of walking, I had never given much thought to the idea of climbing stairs.... repeatedly.... stairs that have no railings... winding, seemingly never-ending circular stairs so tight my shoulders brushed either side simultaneously.

Maybe I have simply grown too accustomed to Fargo's flat terrain, but I could feel my legs begin to tremble as I began my ascent up of one of Ghent's tallest towers: the belfort.

***The previous day we had made a similar climb in the city of Bruges at their belfort, so maybe my body was simply remembering the pain it had endured before***

Here I am, both admiring the view and anxiously awaiting the climb to come...

I figured the view must be worth the climb... and I was right

The trickiest part about climbing towers I found was surprisingly not the lack of foot-space, shoulder room, and on some occasions absence of handrails...

No, the trickiest part was when we encountered other visitors exiting down the spiral stair, as we were trying to go up, or vice versa.

To help better show the tight quarters we were faced with, here is a photo of us on our way down. Whenever we came across someone going the other direction, we attempted to shove ourselves in any corners we could find, such as the one shown below.

Ultimately though, the climb to the top was very much worth the view, and I can definitely say that the experience was something I'll never forget. Here are some photos we took at the top.

We have no idea who the guy in the background is with the blue hat...

As I write this, I know I'll need a couple of days to recover from my first weekend abroad, but I definitely hope to return to this beautiful city in the near future!