Farewell Croatia! Today we are flying out to Belgium – I must admit I am looking forward to cooler weather as it has been so incredibly hot. We headed to the beach early for a final swim, had showers, packed, got pastries from the supermarket for breakfast then had the usual coffee.
The owner of the apartments we were staying in drove us to the airport – he is such a lovely man, loves rock and roll music, and was full of information on the local area. Happy to give anyone his details if you intend on coming to Dubrovnik and don’t want to stay in the main city (which I strongly suggest would be a good move).
Plan from here is to go to Belgium, stay with friends Choc and Koen in Ghent for the weekend and to visit the Ghent Festival (Angus and Julia Stone tonight, dinner tomorrow night), drop Al at the train Sunday afternoon then Choc and I are going to the champagne region of France for a couple of days (Koen unfortunately has to work). From there, nothing is definite yet but I want to see a little of Belgium before heading back to London. I then have about 4 weeks to catch up with people and see places in the UK eg Lakes District, Pam in Oxford, Newforest, Camden Market, then head to Asia on 18th August. I have only 8 weeks of my trip left – although I would love to see friends and family, and sleep in my own bed, I struggle with the idea of going home.
We flew from Dubrovnik to Zagreb (capital of Croatia) on a little plan, disembarked, went through customs, then boarded the same plane! We were getting on board and watching our backpacks be loaded on a the same time. We arrived in Brussels at about 5.30pm and Choc was there to greet us. We then had about an hours trip to Gent (English spell it Ghent), and greeted Koen. We had a bottle of champers to celebrate our arrival, had a chat then changed and headed to Gentse Feesten (festival that goes for 10 days, with the official opening the next day. There is a lot of music, performers, alcohol and food - especially muscles, to be had).
I had my first official Belgian beer in Belgium, and really enjoyed it. We sat outside and had something to eat and a few drinks before heading into a tent to watch Angus and Julia Stone (siblings from Perth who I think are great singers, songwriters and musicians). To start off with the crowd was fairly small but later on into the event I looked back to see the tent was crowded and they all seemed to enjoy the gig - especially Julia's performance. It was a great night, and we ended up staggering back to Choc and Koen's, past Hooker Street (prostitution is legal in Belgium), at about 2am. What an introduction to the country!!
 |
| Our concert wrist passes, Jacobs Creek sparkling - in Belgium!, and Belgian beer |
 |
| Asian rice, fries with mayonaise and mussels |
No comments:
Post a Comment