Lost in Belgium: Surfing in Oostende

After traipsing around Brugge for a few hours, Nick and I decided on a whim to head up to the coast and dip our toes into the North Sea in a beachside town called Oostende. Immediately when we pulled into the center of town it was clear that this place was a summer tourist beach destination, probably in the order of say the Jersey shore or Rehobeth beach in Delaware. But because it's only the end of May, it was still pretty quiet.

We got down to the shore and my first thought was, 'Why didn't I bring Kyma!' That would be my surfboard, yes, Big Red actually has a name. Anyway, the waves weren't amazing, but they were there and just as I was starting to wonder if anyone surfed in this town, Nick looked over at this van parked along the boardwalk and said to me "Hey, do you think those guys are surfers?" They were pulling on wetsuits, so my bed was yes. And sure enough about 30 minutes later, there was a solid handful of guys out in the water, leaving me on the short to wade up to my ankles and get all windblown. Sad, but honestly if I had known you could surf up there, I'd have probably been making weekend trips there for the last two months. Oh well, next time I suppose. First I have to learn to read the weather charts so I can actually make it worthwhile. Nice to know there's surfable water nearby though.

Oh, and Oostende was actually quite cute, even though it was touristy. After he managed to drag me away from the surfers, we walked down near the harbor and were met with the site of fish stand upon fish stand upon fish stand. Most of them were selling a combination fresh fish, smoked fish and some kind of fish stew usually. I walked away with a lightly pickled raw herring and a smoked herring that I thought might be kind of like the smoked whitefish I love having with my dad at home. (FYI: It turned out to be quite tasty, but also completely whole. I've never had to clean out a smoked fish before but this one, well lets just say that in addition to de-boning it, I also had to clean out the innards)

We ended up having an amazing meal of mussels before we left. I mean, I don't think it's possible to go to Belgium and not has the trifecta of foods it's known for: Mussels, Beer and Waffles. Oh and chocolate. I can't forget chocolate. Because I love chocolate almost as much as I love little critters that live in shells for eating.