Well it WAS the weekend at least. On Saturday at the crack of dawn, we were on a bus to the coast to Oostend for some North Sea beach time. At 9:30 AM, we pulled into the parking lot of a land yachting business for us to learn the ways of the land yachters. Land yachts make the sport sound much more luxurious and peaceful that it was. Sand sailing, no even that sounds more graceful than it was.
Wind go-carting. That sounds more like it. Basically we were in a three wheeled vehicle with a simple mechanism to turn the single front wheel with your feet and a huge sail that you controlled its tension by pulling on a rope. The sail control was more related to sailing because you have to consider which direction the wind is blowing relative to the direction you want to move. At some point, I was seeing me trying to move in a physics force-body diagram and a bit of Calculus III vector problem. That what happens when you put an engineering major in a land yacht. Being a pretty small human, the wind could catch me pretty strong once in a while and tip me, pulling a wheel off of the ground. Luckily I never tipped over, but that doesn’t other people didn’t, Zack. It was a workout, but I would definitely try it again, hopefully on a windier day so we could really zoom.
Then after a light lunch, we were scheduled to hop on the bus and get to our hotel in Oostend. However, nothing had gone wrong on the program yet, so it was about time. The wrong key was put into our bus’s ignition which apparently is a big no-no (I don’t know, I’ve never driven a bus before) so we were bus-less. While we were at the land yachting area without a bus, we went for a walk through a sand dune park while a bus was driven to us from Gent. It was actually warm and sunny which made it seem very un-Belgium-y.
After the sand dune hike, we hopped on our new bus to drive to our hotel in Oostend. Our hotel was beautiful, aged, and filled with couples who probably didn’t want us comparatively loud American students in their quaint restaurant area. Luckily, the hotel was on a promenade which ran along the beach and had a restaurant or shop appropriate for any ages. While some people went for a walking tour after arriving in to the hotel, some of us found the sand dune hike enough walking for us that day. Instead, we went on our own small tour to find a place to get a basket of fries and relax.
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| Front side of hotel in Oostend |
We finished off the night by checking out Oostend’s night life. There is a street of restaurants, bars, and clubs when many local and international students gather to listen to music and socialize. One of my favorite businesses on the street was a arcade and game room that looked like a Dave and Buster’s on steroids. We didn’t have time to play, nor did I really have the euros to lose, but a girl can dream. There are also interesting public bathroom situations around the cities including Oostend. At night, the city raises small restrooms out of the street to reduce instances of public urination. They’re very public, especially the urinals, but it seems to work. Some of us thought it would go into the street while you were using the restroom. We were pleased to discover that was not the case.
Sunday morning brought us more adventures that required physical effort again. We broke into teams to ride around the city in a metal cage go-kart which we powered by pedaling in order to find various information and attempt mental and physical challenges. I was incredibly fun, but it was also slightly terrifying since we could actually drive on regular road with the cars and trams. Keep in mind, we can go at max maybe 8 miles an hour and have a turning radius of a Boeing. If I had to drive, I probably would have had a heart attack. It was a fun way to learn about the city and laugh at each other and ourselves. Here’s some pictures of us attempting to ride teeny tiny bikes.
We worked up an appetite being scared and pedaling through the streets of Oostend, so we had a spaghetti lunch at a nearby restaurant. There was a gorgeous, lithe dog with a very extravagant collar laying in the restaurant. That’s been a difference between the US and Belgium; dogs are allowed in bars and restaurants frequently. Also, I think short-legged dogs are a trend here. It sometimes looks like gravity is working extra hard on the dog population. Jim mentioned to us that Gent has nearly no stray animals here. I don’t know the particular reason, but I haven’t seen any strays since I’ve been here.
In the afternoon, we rode down to Bruges and took a short tour down the canals. It was a bit drizzly, but that’s just classic Belgian weather. One of my favorite part of the tour was the tiniest Gothic window on the side of a building. It looked to be about 8 inches tall, and it looked hilariously out of place. I also loved the architecture of buildings that have courtyards looking out onto the canal made of brick. It makes me wonder who had stood there at one time and what they might have seen where I was floating by.
The rest of the afternoon was for us to explore and shop around Bruges. Several of the girls went to a waffle restaurant for dessert. Mine had ice cream and chocolate sauce, yum!
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| It looked and smelled so delicious, I forgot to take a picture before taking a chunk out. |
After the torture museum, we rode on a regional train back to Gent and then a tram back to our side of the city. From the long day of walking and seeing and thinking about torture, I was ready to hit the hay. Can’t believe my time in Belgium is already halfway over.
