Oh, the beaches of Belgium

I have returned from my final trip on my final weekend in Europe. It is so weird that we just have one week left. Dr. Wasser just came in to inform us that the weather in Berlin is going to be the typical European weather we should have been getting, so that will be a nice break. This weekend Leslie and I decided last minute to go to Brugge. We had originally planned to go to Nice or Barcelona for a relaxing time at the beach, but realized that overnight trains and constant traveling take away from the whole relaxing part. So, we took a nice, short 3 hour train ride to Brugge. We stayed in one of Europe's "famous hostels," although I'm still not quite sure what made it famous. The Hostel website said it was a 30 minute bike ride from the coast, so after taking their word (bad idea) we set off on our bike journey. We biked through the country side of Belgium until we reached the beach, and no it did not take us 30 minutes, but TWO HOURS. 20 KILOMETERS. We were dying/mad at the receptionist for the bad direction and lying about the time. We soon got over it once we saw the vast, sandy beaches. Very unexpected. We even got into the North Sea which was surprisingly not too cold, and had some nice waves. Due to the fact that we were certainly not going to ride our bikes back, we begged to get on the bus with our bikes and returned to Brugge about 20 minutes later. That night we relaxed at a restaurant in the main square, while being entertained by a rather weird concert and drinking wine. We went back to the hostel bar and drank some more (just because it helps us sleep) and headed up to our room that held a possibly Australlian couple, and a nice Asian lady. The next day we went to the Beach in Oostend (by train this time) and it was also spectacular. Just what we needed. Laying down peacefully on the beach, and not having to walk around a large city all day long. We got back to Dusseldorf late than expected last night due to a few missed trains, and were welcomed by the rain. Not the best thing to walk in while carrying luggage/gifts. This week...BERLIN. The Grand Finale.