After another long walk I spent Saturday afternoon and evening chatting with some italian dudes in my new hostel. I learned about the origin and evolution of the Italian language and the various dialects they speak. I also gave them a doric lesson, much to their amusement. The girls with all the shoes were Catalonians by the way, I didn't get that much conversation out of them.
I decided to stay in on Saturday night. The internet connection in the hostel was really good so I played a bit of poker, I came 1st in an 18 player tournament. Unfortunately it was on Pokerstars which is annoyingly slow and there were no breaks to go to the toilet or have a cigarette. I have very little money in my Pokerstars account so only play low stakes. I have really missed playing rush poker since the FBI decided to close down Full Tilt but there is good news. Full Tilt have paid off their debt to the gambling commission for unpaid licence fees so hopefully it will be up and running soon and I wont be playing ridiculously low stakes tournaments that take hours.
I went for another wander around the picturesque streets of Bruges on Sunday. I hadn't had a coffee in about 4 days and decided to order coffee in Flemish having picked up various words here and there. What I got given was quite possibly the best cup of tea I've had in ages. I ordered my next coffee in english.
I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon honing in on my skills in the art of getting lost in Bruges winding cobbled streets, when I got back to my hostel I had a nice 4 hour siesta. I was joined by three Chinese people in my dorm. It was encouraging to get compliments from them regarding my Chinese. One of them even said I had a very good accent. I was feeling peckish at about 10pm and went out for food, allowing my Chinese room-mates to use my laptop whilst I was away. I got a cheap rubbery burger then played a game similar to Uno in the hostels smoking area for an hour or so (lost every game). When I returned to my room everyone was sleeping. There was a wee thank you note on my computer and a lucky charm. How nice of them.
The previous day I had waked into my room and someone was there. I introduced myself and asked how long he would be staying in the hostel . I felt like a bit of an idiot when he told me he was just in the room to change the sheets!
I got chatting to the staff (in the smoking section) before I checked out. They are all nice people (Passage hostel, Bruges). One of them was giving me poker advice and was adament that 3-6 offsuit is better than AA. never mind. I get a real buzz in my stomach when I've got my bag on my back and I'm going somewhere new. I had City of Lights by Runrig floating through my head as I walked to the train station ( a non existent acoustic version with some improvements I've made to the lyrics). I thoroughly enjoyed the train journey to Antwerp. My sciatica is not bad at all now so I only took on DF. Antwerp was the last stop so it wouldn't have mattered if I had necked two and sprawled out in between the carriages.
Antwerp is pretty cool. The area I'm in is full of Orthodox Jews. I reckon every second male on the streets around the hostel all looked identical. It was a bit surreal seeing kids dressed just like their granddad's playing on skate parks with no skateboards. The hostel is nice but has no security whatsoever. anyone could walk off the street, go into a room and help themselves to whatever is lying around. I hid my laptop in my pillow when I was out. Off for a walk around the city with a Serbian girl and South African girl. better head.
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