If you take the train in Bruges, you will be in Ostend in 15 minutes.
And after the narrow streets, canals and crowds, Ostend seems like a completely different world. There are vast expanses of the North Sea, and the wide strip of low tide seems completely alien.
Ostend is the largest Belgian city on the North Sea and a world-famous resort in West Flanders. It is the terminus of the state railway Brussels-Ghent-Ostend. The official language is Dutch.
Some people swim here, some just take a stroll, but I came here to meet the sunset.
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt has a short story called "The Dreamer of Ostend". I read it after my return, but I will still leave a few quotes here.
I've always dreamed of going to Ostend.
When I travel, I am attracted more than by the places themselves - by their names. These words sound in my ears like a distant, ringing alarm, whose sounds, soaring above the bell towers, are carried for thousands of kilometers and give birth to amazing images in the soul. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt "The Dreamer of Ostend".
The first thing I see when I leave the station is the official hashtag. And it suits this place very well=)
I look into the city and the first thing I see is a festival! Flanders is truly the land of festivals, they are always and everywhere
And cheerful houses on the square, as well as no less cheerful people
Where they are looking:
But my goal is to meet the sunset, so I purposefully move towards the sea.
And here it is
The name of the city is connected with the fact that it was originally located on the eastern (Dutch: oost) edge (Dutch: einde) of the island of Testerep, which later merged with the mainland due to the lowering of the North Sea level.
The sand is very sticky at low tide.
And creates alien landscapes
I wandered around Ostend for many hours, trying to go into the inner city for no more than twenty minutes, and always returning to the seaside boulevard or the dam, just as a seagull is drawn to the salty air of the ocean. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, The Dreamer of Ostend.
Bathers:
Source: travel.ru
