My favourite spots in Kortrijk

A couple of months ago, I started this blog with two posts (one and two) about my home town of Kortrijk. I was actually planning on writing three, but my usual laziness kicked in and I never actually wrote it. But since I don't have much to do for the moment. I've pretty much covered the culture & history angle, so now I'll just talk about places that I personally like, for whatever reason that may be.

 't Mirakelstraatje
't Mirakelstraatje (literally: "the little miracle street") is a small street on de Buda island between the two arms of the Leie River in the center of town. Several decades ago it was always very vibrant. It was the place where the very first Kinepolis cinema opened its doors (which now operates some of the largest cinema complexes in the world) and there were many little bars in the street that were open all night. About 15 years ago however, Kinepolis closed it down and built a much bigger cinema complex near the highways outside of town. The street declined and many bars closed.
Now however, a new cinema, called Budascoop, that focuses on "art" movies and european movies has started there, and several bars, including one very large Irish pub have opened, and it is very active untill late at night. Maybe I also like this place because it is on the buda island, and I was born there (there is a large hospital on the island as well ;-)

The Skate-bowl near the river
Don't get me wrong, I can't skate at ALL, I'm absolutely horrible at it. But if I'm bored I go here and stand in awe looking at all the skaters and BMX'ers doing amazing tricks. Here is a short video of some action at the Kortrijk bowl. When the city decided to build this I thought it was a cool idea but feared that it would not get used very often. However, much to my delight, there are nearly always people skating of bmx'ing whenever I walk past, and there are some international tournaments hosted there every year.

't straatje
't straatje ("the little street"; just like "the little miracle street" these are just nicknames, not the actual names of those streets) is a small street that connects the train station with the theater square. Every house in this street is a bar, and when you say to somebody that you'll meet up with them "in town" this is the place you are referring to. The average age of people here is probably younger than in other parts of town, and the bars get very noisy and crowded, especially on thursday, friday and saturday night, when police closes down the street for other traffic to avoid having too many drunk people get run over by cars ;-)

Hoog-Kortrijk (high kortrijk)
This is a newer part of town where everything that needs a lot of space and good access to highways is being built: the kinepolis cinema I mentioned before, the Kortrijk exposition center, the University and other schools etc. The people you meet here will nearly always be students. Now I'm not a big fan of hoog-kortrijk, but every once in a while we anybody feels the urge to act all american and go see the latest batman movie followed by a trip to McDonalds, and when we do, this is the place to go

De Vlasmarkt (the flax market)
This is a more alternative part of town, when I was in high school the square consisted of: 6 bars, a frietkot (fries selling place), a videogame store, a tattoo shop, and a striptease bar. Obviously this was the coolest square in town and our favourite bar was there. It was called "loggia" and we had our own little place on the 2nd floor where nobody else came, and the furniture just consited of seats that were taken out of a bus (don't know if this happened legally) it was great. Nowadays, one bar is abbandoned and the strip club closed down (now it is a centre where local bands practice and perform, but it's still called "the strip") and the loggia changed names. The whole square seems a lot nicer now, but the atmosphere is still there and it is also the best place to go have a beer when the weather is nice because every bar has a nice terrasse.