New Astoria Ostende

... English detective show or something. We had a great night out and ran back to the hostel in the rain.<br>We walked all around the town and saw little parks and local areas to the north of the town where people actually live. Around town there are heaps of chocolate shops and even a TinTin shop! The clothing stores are all fancy and there are mouth-watering pink-decorated candy stores.<br>Our visit to Ghent was nice too. It is ...

... here. "A church!" you say. I know I know you would think that i got my fill of churches in Italy and Spain however I have not been to the church that boasts to be the proud owners of a vile of Christ's actual blood! Yep you read correctly, they claim that they house the DNA and blood of Christ. Now, I'm no doctor, I gave that dream up a while ago, but I'm pretty sure that 2000 year old blood would have evaporated by now. But ...

... sister Bec! We spent the rest of the day with them, wandering around, saw the wizzing girl, ate choc strawberries (sooooo yum), had hot chocolates, visited HEAPS of chocolate shops, and then went back to their hotel room for a bit before heading out for dinner. Apparently they are famous for their mussels, so Jac, Bec and I shared a big bucket of them and then had some pasta. Turns out I had a BAAAD mussel, or my stomach just really doesn&#8217;t like them, because I ...

... strawberry beer so we were a little apprehensive. I took the first sip. It was horrible! Not as horrible as the strawberry beer, but pretty horrible! It was the same bitter taste. We were determined to finish the bottle though seeing as we had paid so much for it, so we got by holding our noses each time we took a sip. Blech!<br><br>We thought we would leave it there and not push our luck so we went in search of a place for dinner. I had read about an Italian place that was ...

Spent Tuesday in Brussels, first going to the Grand Place..the place where everyone goes. To be honest, I didn't notice a lot of other things to do in Brussels. I decided not to go the Atomium since it was farther afield. First thing in the Grand Place I did was get me some breakfast. Crossant, coffee, juice and a big omelet. Breakfast came to about $35. That&#8217;s what I get for eating in the most touristy trap in Brussels, but it put me ...

... more (what else would we do?) we sat down at Bocca, an Italian restaurant that serves pasta in takeout Chinese container lookalikes. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was some of the best 5 euros I have ever spent &#8211; the homemade sauce was absolutely delicious! We liked it so much that we are planning to write to Europe on a Budget and recommend it. Seriously, it was that good. <br><br>To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

... is another cute little bar. So after we ate we went across the street and had a couple beers. We also saw our tour guide from earlier that day there.<br><br>The next day it was rainy but we walked around the city anyway. It was just too cute to not explore. We walked to the edge of town and saw the dutch windmills then walked back into town for some chocolate and went on a shopping ...

... on the coast too. I found a bike for myself that had a third wheel attached with a seat for a kid. That's cool because Killian was there, otherwise he was riding too slowly to follow the troup. There he could help my by cycling or just rest and have a look around while speeding at my own cost :-) It's like a tandem but with a small seat for the kid ...

Didn't sleep well again - must be depression over going home soon! So to make up for it, I of course had to stuff myself at breakfast. Some decent stuff - spicy ham (a little fatty) and lots of OJ. They had some ****** fruitcake - but with a little Nutella it actually tasted pretty good! Off for a walk - there are four windmills along a canal on the edge of the historic zone. It's a funny thing - running alongside the windmills ...

... court of almshouses with a quiet inner garden. The convent was inhabited then by the Beguines, a catholic order of unmarried or widowed women from wealthy families that took it upon themselves to look after the elderly. The serenity of the place was otherworldly, and I felt as if time had stood still whilst I was there. It didn't, and before long I had to make the trip back to Brussels for the night, but not before exhausting the memory in my camera!