Tour de Belgium II - De Crayon

GIG ONE: CAFÉ DE CRAYON
Oostende Belgium June 26th 15h00

The Nazi pillboxes still line the Belgian coast complete with artillery aimed out into the North Sea… waiting for the Americans.

Filthy and I outflanked them…. storming in from the east… via a train from Brussels… meeting light resistance in the form of broken glass dropped by an English tourist blocking our path into De Crayon. At the bar, a punk rock Belgian tells us that he was attacked by Nazis a few months back… these bad ideas sure do stick around. I know I may seem a peaceful barefoot musician but I do believe if I should encounter a Nazi in Oostende and get the upper hand… I think I would keep pounding that skull… madness on madness… not stopping until that idea… that horror… was hammered through the brick streets… back into the sewers from which it came.

I am only human after all.

But there are no Nazis around the De Crayon. Still, Filthy and I are greeted like conquering heroes with La Chouffe and Thai food. The walls are decorated with cartoons depicting the Bishop of Brugge… recently defrocked and shamed for pedophilia… these bad ideas sure do stick around…The captions are in Dutch but I get the punchlines.

Hans puts together a sound system for us. Melissa and Alexander arrive. Kris and faithful dog Walter show up. Knowing my taste for fine ale, he greets me with a box filled with Rochefort, Duvel, and Hommel. Filthy and I are worn from the late night in Bar-le-Duc… early morning… and long travel…. but we are lifted by knowing we are in a good place… in the presence of good friends… We have home field advantage and we are going to kill it. Melissa and Croy circle around with their cameras. We are rockstars for one night in Belgium.

Oostende
June 26th 11h30

After a late night of listening to records with a local DJ, Melissa and Alexander head off to get some seafood for breakfast. They think they can just run off and ditch us but they are wrong. I know these two Belgians. They are going someplace good. Melissa looks behind and finds Filthy and I are not too far behind.

We are stalking you.

We follow them to a place called Oude Stad Kortrijk. It is a small place serving simply prepared fresh seafood. I have zeetong… seared in butter… with some white wine Alexander picked out…. breakfast is served.

Delicious.

Filthy and I drop our excess baggage off at the De Crayon. We head off to Brugge to pretend to be tourists for the afternoon. Brugge is probably the most well preserved city in Belgium but after a month in Europe, it is a bit underwhelming. The shops and overpriced tourist cafes don’t do much for us but we do find some solace in that one store with the two hundred Belgian ales. We grab a few for that ten minute trip back to Oostende.

Delicious.

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