Strolling around Gent in complete disbelief of the beauty. Waltzing up to a stage with a mini performance going on by a couple of kids, we stop to watch them doing weird acrobatic stunts. It lasts for about 2 minutes and then the crowd applaudes. The lady in front, who was quietly watching, turns around to us and immediately starts to tear off in rapid Flemish.
Wow. The language is completely baffling, especially when someone speaks to you as if you've been speaking the language for years. To this moment, I have absolutely NO idea what she was saying. Not a clue. I couldn't even pick up one word from her sentence. This crazy language doesn't sound like French or German or English but a crazy, haphazard mixture of words, chucked together in a bout of confusing word vomit. However when she spoke it, it was beautiful. She was jovial and happy, laughing heartily through the words, clearly intent on sharing her joy with us. And neither of us had the heart to tell her that we didn't have a hope in hell of translating.
So we listened to her, smiled, laughed together and walked off.
My first conversation in Flemish? More successful than I would have thought.
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