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Central Asia and Caucasus
  • Sean Plamondon
  • Sean Plamondon

Central Asia and Caucasus

A 31-day adventure by Sean Read more
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  • Sean PlamondonCentral Asia and CaucasusSean Plamondon

    Lille

    July 27, 2024 in France ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Walked about 30 minutes to the Ghent train station, which was a bit laboured because i sprained my ankle a bit trying to exit the craziness of the festival the night prior. 30 minute train back to brussels and another 30 minutes to reach Lille, France. I was here to attend the Canada v Greece olympic men's basketball game

    Walked from the train station into the old town with all my gear and sat down for a small break and then continued to my hotel. About 30 minutes total. The old town is really beautiful.

    I wasn't able to checkin until 4, so i dropped off my bags and walked back to the old town to get some food and check out the quaint streets and sights. Wearing my canada shirt, i got heckled by many greek fans and surprisingly i didn't see any other canadians. But it was fun to interact in good natured ribbing.

    My friend Alexandra was en route from Paris to join me for the game but her train endured massive delays because of numerous sabotages to the tracks. Many people here are thinking its russians doing it. Eventually i realized Alexandra wasn't going to make it on time for the game, so i contacted Charlie who lives an hour away in Bruges to see if he wanted to come to the game with me. 90 minutes later he arrived and off to the stadium we went.

    The crowd was mostly greek supporters and they were really loud. But canada led the game from start to finish. Definitely a nail biting finish but canada prevailed, yay!!!

    In the meantime, poor Alexandra still hadn't arrived in Lille. This whole game was her idea and she was so discouraged to not be able to attend. Took Charlie and i two hours to get back to the hotel around 1:30am and Alexandra arrived at the same time. Poor her. We all walked to the old town for a beverage and then charlie drove back to bruges and we crashed out too.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonCentral Asia and CaucasusSean Plamondon

    Luxembourg

    July 28, 2024 in Luxembourg ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Today Alexandra and i took the train to Luxembourg. Unfortunately our train to Brussels got delayed by an hour "because of terrorism" according to the overhead speaker announcement. So arrived a bit later than originally planned, but otherwise all went well.

    Walked around the immaculately clean old town for a bit. Alexandra being the basketball fanatic that she is, really wanted to find a place to watch the usa v serbia match - which sounded great to me as well. Found a sportsbar with a lot of Americans wanting to watch it too. After a while, it became apparent the sportsbar didn't have that channel despite all their frantic efforts. But i remembered i installed a streaming service on my phone before the trip. And with permission from the bar manager, i was able to broadcast the game from my phone to the bar's big screen. Everyone was so happy haha.

    After many thank you's from the manager and all the americans, we left and found a nearby microbrewery and did some beer samplings. Followed by trying some local wine at another establishment and a game of rummy 500. I am slowly teaching the world how to play that game haha.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonCentral Asia and CaucasusSean Plamondon
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    Bruges

    July 29, 2024 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Train ride from Luxembourg was 4 hours, connecting through brussels but missed my connection. Fortunately there was another connection 20 minutes later to Bruges, arriving at 3pm.

    On arrival, Charlie greeted me at the train station and off we went into the old town of Bruges. What a fantastic place to wander aimlessly with all its beautiful old buildings, quaint streets and canals. "Venice of the north".

    Charlie and i stopped at a small beer place where we met lovely sofie and oliver from denmark. Chatted with them for about an hour and then made our way to the main plaza, which is just spectacular. Had some snacks there until Mike found us and took us to a really nice interior courtyard place for some beers. Followed by another Mike hand picked spot for supper where i ate an awesome fish stew. And one more spot chosen by mike for late evening beverages before he had to train back to Ghent.

    Charlie and i then drove to his house a block from the seaside in blankenberge. Walked the beach enough to dip our toes in the ocean and then found a nice beachside place for a beverage before heading back to Charlie's apartment to cap the night.    Read more

  • Sean PlamondonCentral Asia and CaucasusSean Plamondon
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    Edinburgh

    July 30, 2024 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Arrived about 15 minutes before the canada v Australia olympic basketball game. Tried a few sports pubs close to my haymarket area hotel but neither had the game. So decided i would hike 30+ minutes with my backpack to the cowgate area to the Oz bar. Figured they must have the Australia game on. And i was right, phew. I was surprisingly the only one watching it but was an impressive canada victory nonetheless.

    Hiked all the way back to haymarket, checked in and lay down for a few hours. Charlie and i were up late chatting away the night before. Took a lot of effort but convinced myself to get going and took the tram to the Leith port area. Unfortunately the seafood restaurant i wanted was completely booked for the evening but i found a really nice spot on the water instead. The only table i found available on their massive multi level deck was a table for 6. So i wasn't very surprised when a foursome asked if they could join my table 10 minutes after i sat down. 3 from belgium and 1 american. Chatted with them for a few hours and then left early cuz the temperature dropped to 15C. I congratulated them for outlasting the canadian and hopped back on the tram :)

    Had a few beers at a nearby pub to my hotel and chatted with super friendly guy from london sitting next to me for quite a while. One last pint at the sport pub and off to bed. Had to be up at 6am for the flight back to canada.    Read more

    Trip end
    July 31, 2024
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