Rain, Rain, Rain

Day: 62

My day started this morning at 3 am when the guy sleeping above me decided he should begin snorring with wild abandon, and destroy any semblance of a decents night sleep for the rest of us in the room.  I kicked his bed a few times, but to no avail, the rest of the night was just a series of falling asleep and waking up to him snorring. To top the night off, someone had turned the radiator all the way up so the room was so hot I was nearly sweating. When I finally rolled out of bed at 9:30 this morning, still groggy and missing my free breakfast for the second day in a row (they stop serving at 9), and when I glanced out the window what did I see? Rain, and lots of it.  Ok, I thought, it’ll clear up in a couple of hours, just like it has been for the last few days. No big thing. Anyhow I don’t really have any plans for the day.

I started working on some writing and photo editing on my computer for a couple of hours, sitting on the veranda while watching it rain and hoping it clears up.  After a while the rain got slightly lighter and I made a dash to the internet cafe around the corner to get everything uploaded and published online.  At this point I was still hoping that the day would turn out nice (or at least less wet), there was a chance, maybe.

Around noon I went back over to the hostel to put away my computer and see what was going on.  Liam and Dan were about to head out through the rain to see Mannekan Pis (dress as a Boy Scout today) and some statue of Jesus laying on his side, both within 100 meters of each other but about a kilometer from the hostel.  I had seen these sights before, but I had to do something with my day, and besides I was hungry and it was a good way to find some lunch. After our walk through the rain, the Brits were less than impressed with the statues and just settled on finding lunch with me.  Lunch and a beer later, it was still raining and we were thinking about going to the movies to fill this dreary afternoon unfortunately nothing in English started until seven. We decided to go back to the hostel and possibly make it back to the cinema this evening.

As soon as I was back, the disturbed night of sleep I had last night hit me and I crashed for a few hours. When I woke up, it was still raining.  I got up and showered, and decided to wake up some people at home with phone calls because I still had my phone card with like 150 minutes and I am leaving for Ireland tomorrow and this card won’t work there.  I woke Joanna up with my call and she got me caught up on her life and all the Islands gossip and I told her some stories about the World Tour so far.  We talked for about 45 minutes then she had to get ready for her day and I had to get the Brits so we could go down to town through the rain and get a movie.  We made it through the rain and watched The Constant Gardener.

After the film we went on a waffle hunt, it was Dans last day in Belgium, he hadn’t had one yet and knew his life would never be the same if he missed out on this experience . We meandered the streets in the rain for a few blocks and found a little shop selling waffles, we both ordered waffles covered in chocolate, and started our walk home through the downpour.  I made it back to the hostel a little after 10 and wasn’t really in the mood to drink (everyone gasp!), so I read for a little while and called it an early night.  At least the snorring guy had left our room, even if the rain never let up for the whole day.