Advertisement
Published: July 27th 2013
Edit Blog Post
As if I won't get enough rain over the next year in England, it rained most of the day again today. Actually, this morning was more of a torrential downpour. The hostel was leaking everywhere and our floor was partially flooded. Beautiful. Thankfully I was checking out anyway and the water didn't get in our room.
The morning after a festival night is always a sight to see - so much garbage and beer cans and plastic cups. But they were in full cleanup mode. It was a weird vibe - rest of the city was quiet minus the street cleaners at work. I took this time to visit the churches though and wander through the quiet streets. Very charming city.
I hadn't noticed these last night, but now I'm seeing them everywhere... these portapotty urinals of sorts. Like. You are just out their in the open my friend - no doors, no walls. But I guess if you have to go... and it is free lol.
While skating along the streets (rain makes cobblestone ever so slippery) I had a thought - you know what would a be killer sport? Walking through old towns in flip flops...
in the rain. Bonus points for marble tablets rather than cobblestone. Oh the injuries. Oh the drama.
(Hey, I'm proud I didn't fall ok? It's is incredibly difficult to walk. I did the undignified flail of survival 3x. That is a dance normally reserved for Ottawa winters.)
Lovely moment: I stepped down onto one cobblestone that wasn't solid so it kind of flung up, in the process sending all the water from a puddle up my skirt. Yeah. Unfortunate surprise.
I took the train to Brugge in the early afternoon - the sky started to clear which was a welcome sight. I randomly had a turkish pizza for lunch - again not quite sure what I ate (other than the fact it was like a pita roll and had cabbage and onions in it), but it tasted great! And spicy.
Brugge is beautiful - I just love the houses, never mind the canals and the old town. I got thoroughly lost while walking around because I veered completely off the tourist path. I particularly love the use of red as an accent colour - on doors, window frames, everything.
(But yes, the canals and old
town is beautiful. Gorgeous architecture.)
I also found the absolute most amazing church I have ever been to - no, it was not the most beautiful, but the thoughts behind it were just fantastic. I don't even know what it was called - but it was near Gentpoort on the way into town. Gem of a find.
• It had a playground and the main foyer has a giant game of hopskotch leading to heaven. Uhm, awesome.
• There is a huge zen garden in the middle of the floor. As it is, it has sand and a Japanese garden. But they can empty it and fill it with water to do different ceremonies or what not. They had awesome pictures of them having candles floating on the water, kids artwork all over the place, kids sitting on the floor around the water and adults sitting in the pews at the other end. Very cool.
• They kind of have pews at one end, but they also have stools all around the water/sand area, and small pillows for people to sit on. Very communal.
• They have a room full of feathers. Like. Feather-mobiles. I have no idea
what it is, but it looks cool.
• Their "lampions" were in sand. Of course I lit two, as I always do.
And a whole bunch of other things - the vibe was very community, laid-back and family-like. I absolutely loved it.
And the best find? There was a table (full of papers, books and reading lamps), but they also had a bunch of paper doves for people to write messages on. My eye instantly went to one that said "Julie" and right beside it/half under it was another one that said: "We are here to have a wonderful adventure."
I think I've been grinning the rest of the day.
And now I'm back at the hostel, having a nice chat with my Montreal roomies (woot, le francais!) and watching the beautiful thunderstorm... the lightning is a beauty in this one.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0503s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb