So my weekend was just all right. Had a lot of potential, but ended up being just OK. I was expecting a lot more from the Lille braderie, but it ended up being just a giant street flea-market. Kevin Q would have had a stroke and died there. There was so much junk!

I had actually been there 12 years ago when I was visting my aunt & uncle (Bobbie&Bill) in northern france. But it was so long ago that I couldn't remember exactly how crazy it was and thus wanted to see it again. But alas, for some idea I thought they would have more entertaniments, like bands, or stages, or other things, but they didn't have very much. It was basically shopping for junk. Not all that exciting. Oh well.

Saw the half marathon in the morning, which I thought was a little weird having it on the same day as the braderie. You'de think they would have enough going on. But then walking around I realized it was OK, because non of the vendors, stuf, was really set-up until after the race. Around 1-2pm people were still setting up for the day. I find this common in europe though that things get started a lot later than they normally would in north america. Good if you have a hang-over from the night before I guess! :)

Then in the afternoon I just wandered around the city for a while. It was absolutely jammed with people! Over a very very large area too. Not sure how many are there for it, but it is at least a million I would say. Luckily I had set myself up to expecting it to be extreamly extreamly busy. So I was very proud of myself and how patient I was wading through the massive crowds of people. Of course I told myself I didn't need to death march to see the city, so that helped. Even though the little I did see seemed like it's quite a nice city. I was a little miffed that a lot of stuff for the braderie, marathon, etc. blocked nice building though. It was a lot nicer city than I thought it would be from what I was told. My work collegue insisted it was one of these northern france industrial cities that was not very nice, etc. But, walking through the city I thought it was quite nice. I was tempted to say to him when I got back that I though it was very similiar to brussels (where he lives). Even all the way down to all the dog crap on the sidewalks :)

Later in the evening I went out and the streets were a little less busy, but still a ton of people and it seemed to be turning into more of a party vibe. But unfortunately there were a lot of young people getting very very drunk all over the city and it was just not a fun vibe that you often get at these kind of parties in europe. It was more like a north american straight drunk fest vibe, where all the kids were getting stupid drunk and you could see trouble coming later in the evening. There was some mosh pits just in the middle of the street, people throwing each other into the public fountains, police with semi-automatics breaking up fights, etc... not nice. Reminded me of an american city when there is some big event where people get really drunk and out of control. Or like Vancouver if we are in the stanley cup playoffs and we lose :)

After only 1/2 on the streets and about midnight I had enough. Didn't even want to try and find a bar or club to go to because it was just a mess. The street were absolutely filthy from garbage thrown about all day long too. It seems such a simple idea to put garbage cans out so people can throw things away, and have people pick them up every couple of hours, but the people of Lille haven't quite figured that out. I guess maybe it would cost too much money. They probably did one masive cleanup after everything is over. Like vancouver fireworks, probably a lot cheaper that way.

So here I was I had taken a stomach pill and not had one drink. And, since I am running out of pills, I didn't want to waste another one like in Rouen. So I decided to drive back to Antwerp at 1 in the morning. It was only an hour and a bit drive, so no big deal. Only like Kevin Q or Scott driving into the city for the night. But it was sort of a big fiasco. Reason was when I decided to do this, I realized that I didn't know if the car-park where I parked would still be open at this time of night. So then I had a delema, pack everything and check-out of the hotel and risk it?? Finally decided to get the keys and see if the car-park was open and then try to bring the car closer to the hotel. Well, it was open, of course, should have figured on that night, but you never know in europe. So got the car, tried to get close to the hotel as I could. Luckily not much traffic at this time of night, although still lots of people on the streets. Back to the hotel, pack everything and then made my way back to Antwerp.

I didn't even use the 4-star hotel I paid a fortune for. The reason I paid a lot, was all the hotels were booked when I tried to book a hotel because of the braderie. Even though I booked like 2 months ago. So i had to stay at this expensive hotel because it was the only one available. So I paid 169 pounds for a hotel I hardly even used! Let me just go translate that... oh lord, that's $370!! Yeash! Oh well, you know me when I want to do something. It doesn't matter what is in the way, I'll do it! Oh well. It's still not the most money I have blown on a stupid whim. I seem to recall a few times I have been bored in certain place and so hopped on a plane the next day to go somewhere else in order not to waste the entire weekend. The bahamas was like that, I stayed one night and hated it. So, the next morning I hopped a plane back to Miaimi... which I don't even really like it there either... oh well. Somewhere else I did that as well, but can't think of where right now.

So, after a crazy time getting out of Lille and a fast drive back to Antwerp, I got back at about 2:30am. Just in time to go out!! :) The main club is open till like 8am, and I has been there twice before, so I knew where it was and that people went out late, and sure enough when I got there about 3am there was a line to get in. It ended up being not very busy though. Very dissapointing. The two times I had been before were both a lot busier.

Only good thing was that I met up with this guy that I have met a couple of times before. I met him in Amsterdam on Queens Day and then again we met up in Brussles for one of those big parties I think I told you about. He just happened to be in Antwerp that night, and was there with his boyfriend who I had never met before. So that was cool to meet them a chat. They are both dutch, from a little town near Tilburg. So we got to chatting and I am supposed to go to their house for dinner in 2 weeks. Since I have a free weekend that weekend I think we will make plans to go out in Cologne that saturday night too. Will be nice to get inside information on where to go and what to do for a change. Shoud be fun. That will be second to last weekend here! I can't wait, I am itching to get out of here.