Day 16: Hello, Oostende!

Today we bid farewell to Brussels (and that awful hostel) and took a train to Oostende, a city located on the Belgium coast.

In the Middle Ages, the sea went as far as Bruge, with the remaining space consisting of islands and such. It was around the late Middle Ages when the inhabitants decided to reclaim the land up to this city for agricultural purposes. For a long time, this area was very poor, as the city of wealth at the time was Bruge. Farmers and fishermen mostly populated this city.

This would change in the 19th century, when people became increasingly concerned with health issues. Sea bathing was seen as an activity that would boost health, so many wealthy people would move to Oostende. Even the king of Belgium at the time (Leopold II) decided to build a palace here! Oostende suddenly became very fashionable, and many small palaces began to appear. Interestingly enough, not many local houses were built at the beachfront, as this was considered boring by many of the locals. The wealthy thus built their palaces by the coast. These small palaces were later demolished and replaced with apartments when this area became more accessible, but some of these “small palaces” still exist today.

This city became a place of many luxury activities, such as an annual carnival and a casino that still exists today. England was also very close by, and the population rose dramatically over the span of a few years. Oostende became filled with gossipy people of sorts.

So basically, it was every reality TV show ever.

There was an early expressionist painter by the name of James Ensor who was born and raised in a souvenir shop here. Ensor noticed the “flip side” of a society of wealthy people like this and decided to integrate that with his own artistic works. He often painted his subjects donning masks, preparing to go to the outside world of artificiality. To me, it’s not very far from the truth.

Our tour ended with the Mercator boat, a ship that had made many voyages and was associated with a local hero. Father Damien was a Flemish missionary sent to Hawaii to spread religion. However, when he came upon the island of Molokai and saw the leper colony there, he abandoned his orders and decided to stay on the island to take care of them. Of course, leprosy is a contagious disease, so he later became sick and died. He was declared a saint after death, and his dead body was brought back on the Mercator ship.

It looks like a great city! I'm very excited to explore what's around here!