Ostende, Belgium

3 weekends ago 4 of us decided to go for a night up to Belgiums coast on the North sea. It was nice to get away from the big citiness. When we first walked off the boat we knew right away we were on the shore; the wind was some of the strongest I had ever felt. I could almost lean forward and have the wind catch me. Needless to say it was freezing, but it was still nice to be on a beach town.

The first day we walked around and went to an aquarium. We also braved walking on the pier and watched the large waves roll in. By the second day the wind had died down and it was beautiful out. I forgot to mention that the Ostende was hosting the Blegium national cross country championchips the same time we were there so our hostel was filled with rowdy Belgian runners. We were going to go watch but couldnt figure out exactly how to get there. Instead we took a tram to the beaches. We were walking along the beach and we found this abandoned bunker from WWII. Come to find out their scattered all along the beach, just abandoned. It was really wierd. It kind of freaked me out, especially when I thought about people actually fighting in them. None the less they were fun to explore. We walked along the beach, and even stopped to play frisbee. It was truely one of the first nice days we've had here in Belgium. Eventually we wandered from the beach hand found this crazy museum. It was called Earth Explorers and it was a museum/amusement park all about the Earth. Wow it was right up my alley. hehe. There were all sorts of things about weather, water, volcanoes, etc. They had this water ride inside that was supposed to mimic a volcano ride and also this tornado simulator. We all thought it was great.

In all, through some exploring, Ostende turned out to be a great weekend. We always seem to happen upon great things to do.