I’m learning so much just by hanging out at my beer bar and I’ve already had some interesting experiences there. For example, Europeans use an “azerty” keyboard. They laughed at my “qwerty” one and we had an interesting debate on which name of the keyboard is less offensive. I was already outnumbered and thus lost by lack of majority. Then, a really sleazy Dutch tourist and his 2 nicer friends came into the bar. He asked if I liked Trump and I gave major eye roll along with my “no one does” response. But he likes Trump and says he is changing things. Let me describe this tourist and you’ll understand why he worships the Donald: old, white, sleazy. Enough said. My friends (the bartenders) could tell I was getting annoyed so they rescued me. Valiantly. After all, I don’t want to get kicked out of Belgium for fighting in public. Finally, I met a really nice couple from the UK who were celebrating their wedding a week ago. They were both impressed that I am traveling alone and the wife even asked if she could come with me.
Yesterday I went to the Markt square and took your typical tourist pics. 
I had a lovely day reading by the canal and even picked up an original piece of art from a local artist. I think it’s going into my bedroom – I need those colorful, feel good vibes in my personal space.
My bartender friends have been giving me good recommendations for things to do so today I’m riding the train to Oostende to “check out the coast.” They have asked me each day what I’ve done that day and usually it’s just me wandering around and reading a book on a bench. Today I’ll be able to tell them I did something.
Well I was at the beach for about 10 minutes when it started sprinkling. Never one to be afraid of a little rain (hello running through the rain in Brazil with Danielle and swimming in the rain in Argentina with Leila and Fay) I was going to tough it out but I remembered my iPad isn’t so versatile. So I raced back to the train station and am now on my way back to Bruges. I can at least say I dipped my feet into the North Sea (which I’m told is a dirty body of water – it was warmer than I expected). Tomorrow I meet Steffie at 10a and we’ll be off to Gent where a 10-day festival has been taking place. Should be a fun time with my old friend/new places theme.
Side observation: everyone seemed nonplussed at the rain. People were walking like normal, it seemed like even slower than normal. Wonder why they didn’t care.
There She Goes... 