Weekend Trip to Ghent

For Valentine's Day weekend Charles and I took a trip to Ghent which is supposed to be just slightly more hip than Brugge. It was really an awesome way to spend a day or two. First off, there is a castle in the middle of the city...



A ticket lets you explore the inside which includes a mini museum featuring weapons and various torture devices....



From the top you can see the whole city...



We also took a boat tour through the canals...



The streets were interesting and it was quite entertaining to just stroll around. Here is a shot of a genuine Belgian waffle place...



The food was incredible. We had some delicious French food at this place and tasted the Delirium beer whose logo is a pink elephant. Supposedly if you have too many this is what you see.



The poodles came along and enjoyed the hotel room while we explored the city. They did get the occasional walk, hence the doggie coats...



And I think the cutest picture of Remus and Charles is a good way to close out this post...



If you would like to see the rest of the pics they are up at our Flickr gallery.

Democratic Primaries

We voted yesterday for the Democratic candidate. Democrats Abroad represents US citizens overseas, and sends 23 delegates to the convention.

It's weird being over here, because you don't get the constant news paper and TV barrages. I voted for Obama, but to be perfectly honest I think whoever wins out of Obama, Clinton, McCain I think I would be happy.

Requim for 60/120

So I thought I'd make a quick post of advice for soon to be expats.

Before we moved, we found a couple good deals at electronics stores and picked up within 5 months of moving:

• A new flat screen TV
• A PS3
• A new computer for my wife
• A new computer for my self
• Assorted monitors for said computers
• An ice cream machine

The problem that you may already know, especially if you've traveled before, international power is wonky. To be specific in the US, the mains power is 120V at 60hz. When you go over to Europe it changes to 240 at 50hz.

There are a few options available for making the switch:

1. Your electronics use a switch mode power supply - This is the reason your laptop works in a foreign hotel room with minimal difficulty. You'll need an adapter for the plug shape however. Things like your hair dryer, or cell phone charger usually don't have this. Plugging them into a plug converter will end up blowing a fuse/ruining whatever was plugged into it. Most of our big items had this. The PS3, TV, and computers all took a plug that looked like this:
   All I had to do was find a local computer store and ask for a replacement power cable. Our laptops used a slightly different plug shape, but I found replacements for those as well.
   
2. You use a transformer - These are huge humming things that can convert from 120->240 or 240->120. They are good for high power devices, such as hair dryers, toasters, big TV's, waffle makers. Transformers don't do anything about the frequency. Old TV's and cheap clocks will be most effected. In our guest room we left a travel transformer plugged in for guest use, along with one of our US alarm clocks. What happened, and drove a few guests insane was that it would lose 10 minutes each hour. It was used to running on 60 cycles per second, that was now 50. You may also notice a slightly different sound coming from anything with a motor, like hair dryers.
   
   I recommend picking one up, though. I bought a 2500 watt one for around $100, and leave a power strip plugged into it. Any of our old electronics can be plugged into it, and guests appreciate being able to charge phones/cameras/etc...
3. You use an inverter - These produce the exact same power you would get from the US. To be honest, there's no reason to have one of these if you have a transformer. Inverters handle much smaller loads and are more expensive.
4. Your device takes DC through a wall-wart - The wall warts are the little black boxes that plug in. Most of these can be replaced. Take your current one into an electronics shop and they can match it up for you. Phone, portable devices, and handheld gaming devices are extremely easy to replace. I think we paid about 5e each for a replacement cell charger and DS lite charger.

My Mistakes

1. The printer. Bought this right before we left. It would not be happy here except for the transformer.
2. My computer. It has a switched power supply. Manually switched. Look for a little red thing on the back where the plug goes in to see if yours has one as well. I forgot to switch it from 120 to 240 before plugging that in. Blew the fuse.

Look for my second part of this series, where I discuss the excitment that is European vs. American television scan rates!