The young dude and the Sea

Whelp, I'm back. Went to Nieuwpoort for a few days.

It was mostly boring, and although I had good moments, I slept a hell of a lot, which isn't great.

The meds working overtime to subdue stress and anxiety maybe. As you might remember; I don't go out a lot, so travelling, while not exactly new, has become something rather significant and very stress-inducing.

Also, my bed was pretty horrible as it was one of those metal ones whose bottom starts to sag after a while (cue joke here), and because of that I ended up leaving more tired and with more backache than I came in with. At this point it's become quite a nuisance, but, it'll settle in a while.

Old man points at sea.

So, shortly after arriving we walked to the sea, where we indulged in staring at every grain of sand like the tourists we were before making our slow, sedate way to the pier.

The pier had plastic bottlecaps placed around some of its screws, wherever that was possible, making for an occasional quite colourful stretch of boardwalk.

Some sort of tradition among the youth, I'm guessing.

Old man stares at tiny lighthouse.

I ate out only once, on the day we arrived, which is something of an achievement for me (that I ate out at all, that is).

And the food was, if nothing quite out of the ordinary, very damn tasty.

Massive, fucking steak. And they didn't even frown when I asked for it to be well-done.

On day two I also made an effort to be a part of things rather than just lying in my bed trying to read.

(And no. I didn't even read a single page of Moby Dick.

I stuck to Summer of Night and even then I only read about 50 pages of that.

It's how books start to stack up: you make plans but then something else happens and then the book you were gonna read ends up at the back of the shelf somewhere.

Ah, well. There's worse things that can happen.)

I went along to the old harbour in spite of my disturbed sleeping pattern, various aches, complaints and disinterest in all things 'old harbour'. I came here to look at the ocean, goddamnit, and I already did that didn't I? Yes, yes I did. Which means that this point I was ready to go home, but still, as I said; I made a determined effort to be a part of things and have a good time.

Picture of the artist's backside as a young man.

Some cool pirate-looking boats out there... Or is it ships?

Well, let's see:

Ships solely for cargo, whether that's passengers or transported goods, also; ocean-going.

Boats can be carried on ships, but ships cannot be carried on boats. Boats also have a variety of uses, and aren't just for transport.

Eh...Vague definitions, vague definitions everywhere.

So, anyway, yes, Ships. And boats. I also saw boats.

We ended our lengthy walk (lengthy by my standards --- I don't do walks. I either run, or I sit.) with trying to get to the top of this monument. 

But, alas, it was closed. Bit of a shame really, as it looked really high and I would've liked to go up there. Apparently we'd been here once before, as squealing children, at its peak. Can't remember anything of it though.

I gather there was some maintenance going on, right before the tourist season begins in full.

Pretty impressive place actually.

After that, I ditched the parents and went to the house to sleep again, but not before making a photo with just the three of us. The day after, we went home. 

Pretty boring, as I said. But, going through the pictures, some nostalgic joy has seeped in and I must admit that I did enjoy the whole experience.

Give it time and it'll be one of those best-time-of-my-life kind of things.
It's how the mind works, the lovely bastard.