--------My Trip to Oostende, Belgium (1992)

Belgium 1992

We came from Dover by ferry to Ostende (in dutch the name is Oostend), a pretty port city on the North Sea of around 80 000 people in 1992. It is located 72 km northwest of Brussels. The town is located in the dutch-speaking region of Belgium. We did not stay there for very long. Unfortunately, I did not see any beaches. Is there any near? We saw a beautiful sea walk by the port. (map source: www.merriam-webster.com)

The town was damaged by both world wars.

Everything seemed so expensive. We were paying a 25% fee to change money, we clued in after we bought some buns and coffee, and our money was gone. Later on we changed another $20.00 and we realized that a big portion of our money was going to the exchange. Basically they were charging a flat fee of $5.00 for any amount of money. After we changed our $20.00 bill there was not much money left. Obviously we should have changed a larger sum of money. This kind of commission is actually charged in many countries.

By then, my wife Tara was crying, she did not realize how much money we already had spent in the first few days (London included). I tried to encourage Tara by saying things were going to get better and they did. By this time she was thinking it would be worth it to go to some place like Turkey or Greece. Tara felt the Canadian dollar was worthless abroad.

I wanted to try a bouille a baisse (a fish stew) but it was to expensive. We finally left to Holland by train. Once there we noticed things were more affordable.

Read about my other trips