Ostend
Charlie’s trip to the Belgian coast
You might wonder why Charlie decided to go for a weekend trip to the North Sea at the beginning of March, but there is a simple reason: Charlie was meeting some old friends from the time when she was living in Malta. They were going to play a Volleyball tournament. This again might seem a bit random but there was another good reason for this: they had all been playing Volleyball on the beach in Malta together, Volleyball was the basis of their friendship. Will, who had initiated the trip to Belgium had been playing with his family back in the UK since his childhood and they had been coming to play the tournament in Ostend every year for the past 20 years. That’s how they all ended up in that small town by the Belgian Coast the first weekend of March.
Getting to Brussels
Most of them were still living in Malta and came together, Ben and Antje had been travelling from Austria, Ethan and George from Germany and Charlie from London. She took the Eurostar from King’s Cross St. Pancras on Friday evening as this was a lot easier than flying. The airports in London are quite a bit outside the city and it takes some time to get there. King’s Cross St. Pancras however is right in the city centre and easy to reach. It only takes 2 hours to get to Brussels from London by train and if you book in advance you can get a good price.
Charlie arrived in Brussels-Midi by 11 p.m. and for some reason the ticket she had to go to Ostend was for a train leaving at Brussels Central. If only she had known that this train would also stop at Brussels-Midi, she would not have missed it. The next, and last one for the night, would leave at 0.20 and Charlie found a pub, Brewdog, opposite the station where she could make the time go by whilst waiting for the train. The extensive beer menu though ended up being a challenge and Charlie simply ordered the first one on the list. Her French must have gotten a bit rusty because she was served two pints instead of one. The waitress was kind enough to amend the order and charged her only for one beer. Since the second one couldn’t be used, it was offered to Charlie. When she made a joke about getting a good nap on the train, the waitress simply replied: “It’s alcohol free.” And smiled. Now that was a good start for Charlie’s trip to Belgium: She ended up in an English pub and was served a 0% beer. Not quite what she had had in mind about Belgium.
Charlie arrived in Ostend at 2.30 at night and went straight to the Hotel. She was sharing a room with Antje who was already asleep. Charlie tried to be as quiet as possible. She would meet everybody in the morning at breakfast.
A day in Ostend
Right after breakfast, they went to the gym where the Volleyball tournament would take place and spent the whole day there. At the end of the day, they came third which was quite a surprise as they had never played in this setup and indoors together. Even though they did not win, Will was very pleased with the result as the team of his dad and brother only ended in 4th position. He was now the best volleyball player in the family and the trophy had to be carried around the whole evening.
Ben, Antje and Arthur had a somewhat crazy idea after the tournament: they wanted to go for a swim in the sea! (Reminder: it was the first weekend of March.) It was indeed a refreshment after the sports day and it only lasted a few seconds.
Charlie had taken the camera and was capturing the beach promenade at blue hour. It was a beautiful walk along the sea and onto the groyne to get some views at the town’s skyline from the sea.
They all met again later for dinner and finished the night off in a pub. This time around, the beer did have some percent. Charlie went to bed around midnight, some of the others did not go to bed at all and they all met again for breakfast Sunday morning before going to Bruges.
