Cheerio England, Hello Brugge!

I made it to Brugge, and not a moment too soon! The burly bearded man (who was one of THREE roommates in a tiny dorm-sized room) snored like the dickens! I couldn't get a wink of sleep last night, even though I was exhausted from traveling and walking all-day.

After the internet cafe, I went back to the hostel to drop off my food and see if any of my other roommates were around. They weren't so I ventured back out alone. The weather wasn't the greatest so I decided to fore-go the double-decker bus city tour (maybe save it for when I come back to England at the beginning of August. I went in St. Pancras church but it was closed so I just read some of the bulletins that were posted in the lobby-area. Then the coolest thing happened. The priest (pastor?) opened the door for a second and I jumped at the opportunity to ask him for a quick glance. He was hesistant but said yes (after about 10 people had knocked in the past 10 minutes, I was the one who got to go in).

Churches, cathedrals, duomos, are SO much cooler in Europe. They have such history and such beauty to them. This church also was very "green". They had a lot of things about cutting carbon emissions, re-using / recycling and being sustainable at all times. Religion + environmentalism = very big potential impact. I wrote down a few things and took a great picture (but this is from a website)

I also found around the St. Pancras area:

• A lot more signs having to do with "green" (which I am all about)
• Planet Organic - a really sweet organic grocery store that has 3 locations in England
• I read some things about wind turbines, pros and cons
• I found a real old looking university (London Central University)
• Two parks, which were really cool. There were two people playing music together, a guy (the accordian) and a girl (guitar).

After this, i finally walked back to the hostel and made myself some dinner. Francis (from Hong Kong) was in the kitchen and we had a real good conversation about Green Building and real estate. He was a developer at one time and owns a bunch of properties in different countries. A few years ago he got rid of all his California properties due to the interest rate increasing something like 19 times in a 2 year span. Good old America.

I brought my dinner up to the common room and watched a futbol game with a few other hostelers , mostly older. Austria was supposed to beat Poland, but it looked like Poland would pull it out until the VERY last minute (stoppage time) the ref gave them a penalty kick. Austria tied it with next to no time remaining and the Austrian woman (75 years old i would say) had the biggest smile on her face. I'm sure the pubs were going crazy, but i was too tired to venture out for a third time by myself. Her face made watching that entire game worth it.

This is getting long so I'll wrap it up. Got to St. Pancras at 5:00 this morning. Took the 6:00 eurostar to Brussels, Belgium. Immediately took the next train to Brugge (lucky me it left a bit late) and now here I am at Lybeer Travelers Hostel. Internet is free here but there are always people waiting for it apparently (lucky me again!). I also found 1 pound on the train. WHO SAYS FRIDAY the 13TH is unlucky? Maybe just in America it is.

Here is a picture of St. Pancras International (it is massive).

Pictures of Brugge coming in the next few days.