Strangers in the Night...
December 1980 I got a call. I had won something in a balloon contest. My balloon had reached Hungary, and so I had won the second price in the contest.
I knew the first price was a motorbike, so I wondered what I would get. I came late, but anyway, I was told I had won a travelcheque for the value of Fl 600 (now about Euro 250 or so) but I also could choose to take an envelop with the same amount.
Chosing the last option, I still wanted to travel. I had found a boyfriend in Belgium, after my first love had borken up after he had gone astray with someone from Sweden and THEN suddenly got the idea of mariage. So I made arrangements to go to Antwerp by train, and Marc (his name) would also arrange for us a visit to Knokke and Brugge. Everyone thought I would go to London or Paris, no one actually knew why I would Antwerp, but ofcourse I didn't tell them why.
It became one of the best trips, but also one of the funniest I had in all my life. After arrival at the one of the most beautiful railway-stations in Holland and Belgium, we had to look for a hotel.
Just close to the station I saw a sign "hotel" and went inside to ask for the price. I booked for a week and the lady looked at me as if she saw a miracle! We went upstairs and in the evening it started happening. We heard a lot of nice, people, going in and out, coming up with the lift and going down, giggling. We had no idea what was going on. Untill the next day I saw some woman going in with a man and finally "saw the light"!
Now I realised WHY they looked so strange at us wanting to rent a room for a whole week, even though they had no breakfast, no restaurant, nothing. This hotel was used by prostitutes just for an hour and occasionaly for a night, but never longer! They thought that my Belgian friend was a male prostitute with a Dutch customer, even though we were both young, but still, a week? We did stay there all week, enjoyed Antwerp and Brugge, Knokke was awful and cold, and we enjoyed each other even more (...) My first holiday completely on my own, just "next door" in Belgium.
But it was one of the most unforgetable holidays I ever had!!!
