Oostende, Bruges, and Parrainage

Hello all!

I had three really amazing opportunities occur yesterday.

Some friends of mine threw together a spontaneous trip to Bruges so I ended up joining them, bright and early (7:30 am), at the Liège-Guillemins train station. Mid train ride, we decide that we want to spend the morning in Oostende, a small sea side city in the northern Flemish region of Belgium. This is what I love about travel in Europe. All we had to do to fulfill our new travel plans was stay on the train for an extra stop or two. About two hours after we hopped aboard the train, we were standing in perfect sunshine on the coast.

7 people all sit in a circle and pedal. One person drives with a steering wheel. Too much fun!

Our time in Oostende was extremely brief but a lot of fun. We walked around the shopping district en route to the beach and most of the group grabbed pastries or coffee. When we finally located the water front we broke into two groups. 7 of us rented a "conference bike" for half an hour while the others wandered the part of the 19 km long promenade/boardwalk. I got in on the conference bike and I am so glad I did. It is absolutely ridiculous and was so much fun!

Other than the conference bike (which is worth a quick google for a proper image of what the actual bike looks like), we went down to the sea shore for a quick dip of feet/hands in the water. By many people's standards the beaches would be considered beautiful. Nice soft clean sand. However, if you know anything about me at all, you know that I absolutely hate being sandy. As such, I flat out refused to take off my shoes and carefully maneuvered down to the water's edge.

I have now officially touched the North Sea!

One quick train ride later we arrived in Bruges. If I had to recommend a place to visit in Belgium, out of all the places I've been so far, it would hands down be Bruges. A canal based city considered to be the "Venice of the North", Bruges was so unique and picturesque. Because most of its medieval architecture is still in tact, the historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site! We took advantage of a boat tour through the canals. The tour guide was extremely interesting and gave a great mix of information relevant to past and present. He told us that a house on the canal retails somewhere between 250 000 - 1 000 000 euro! Yikes!

Little boat - lots of people!

Following the boat tour we grabbed a quick ice cream, stopped in some chocolate shops for souvenirs, and hit the train station. Bruges has a reputation for unpredictable and usually unpleasant weather. I don't know how we scored an absolutely perfect day but we had nothing but blue sky and sunshine. You can bet I'll be returning to both Oostende and Bruges in the near future.

Represented: Brazil, Poland, Sweden, Canada, Britain, Latvia, Germany, and Italy

Lastly, for the evening the ESN team put together a Parrainage (translation: sponsorship) Night. They had students wear stickers with numbers on them and had corresponding numbers on local students. You got to wander around talking to people until you found your buddy. It just so happened my parrainage and Chelsa's parrainage were good friends; the four of us spent a good couple of hours conversing. Against the odds, another friend of mine, Tina, was partnered with a girl who was an exchange student in Lethbridge last year. I was really excited about that. Finally, I don't know how this happened because people were literally requesting to be his parrainage, but K Sweet's parrainage never showed up. As such, the entire ESN team adopted him for the night. Poor boy never had a moment's rest. It was quite a sight to see!

You can never  have too many friends.

Love and light,

Jacqueline