Fodors Travel - 1936--ON THE CONTINENT

JUGOSLAVIA

by

ALEXANDER VIDAKOVI

I T sometimes happens that you do not see a certain dear friend for a long time, a very long time. Months. Years. To be quite truthful, this state of affairs does not distress you particularly, yet now and again you think of this friend. Suddenly, without apparent reason, in the midst of your work or piercing your daydreams, her face appears and you say:

Dear Muriel. How pleased I should be to see her. I wonder what has become of her?

And, for an instant, the memory of pleasant hours spent together weighs upon you.

A few days pass, and, better by far than memories, you find yourself pacing the quay, waiting for Muriel. She has fixed the rendezvous. In ten minutes she will be with you. She is coming to spend a short holiday in Belgium, and this is what she wired you:

DEAR PIERRE STOP I SHALL ARRIVE AT 3 OCLOCK STOP PLEASE MEET ME AT THE QUAY STOP MURIEL.

Immediately on receipt of this you, being a really obliging fellow, took the boat-train, and here you are, waiting at the quay-side for the Dover mail-boat.

Good old Muriel. What a pleasant surprise. Will she have altered? Is she still as jolly and charming as she used to be? Married, perhaps with children. Who knows? A lot may happen in five years. How impatient you are to see her again. Youve lived so long without feeling her absence, and now, because you have two more minutes to wait your impatience swells unbearably, and if she should not be on that boat, coming slowly nearer, youd be the most wretched man on earth.

It takes three hours to cross the channel, three hours and twenty minutes to be accurate. She, too, will have had time to remember your firm friendship of the good old days. What adventures youve had together what happy days youve shared! But all that was very long ago. It goes back to the time when Muriel helped you to discover England. This time its the other way round. Muriel is going to discover Belgium, and you will be her guide. You owe her that, and you intend to be the most attentive of guides.

Three hours to cross the Channel. Its really not a journey to speak of. Why has she waited so long?

Three hours to cross the Channel, pondered Muriel; or rather three hours and twenty minutes. (The posters tell us its a three hours crossing, but it takes fully three hours and twenty minutes, and one and a half hours to go from London to Dover.) In five hours, roughly, I can be in Belgium. I may as well go there. Ill write to Pierre, then off we go.

How surprised Pierre is going to be. What years since we met. Itll be great fun seeing one another again. Hes quite a good sortbut what a curious profession hes taken up: journalist, writer, the idea! However, you earn your living according to your talents; what matters is to earn it.

This is quite a comfortable boat. And the sea is really delightful. There is much less noise, too, than in London. The sky and sea are boundless. Just imagine! There are people who cross this swimming. One must really be very hard up or very strange to undertake it. Its so much more convenient to go by steamer. Especially as the sea is so smooth and calm in these parts. The seagulls accompany the ship. Are they the birds who each carry the soul of a dead sailor? Or are they messengers of brighter things, telling us that Belgium is waiting for us and that we shall be welcomed there as old friends?

I hope Pierre will be there. Not that Im afraid of travelling alone, but I know nothing of Belgium.

Oh! but I do. Heres just a glimpse of Ostend in the distance, which is no longer quite strange to me. It modestly calls itself The Queen of Watering Places. Old King Leopold II, who reigned before King Albert, and who had such a lovely white beard, did a great deal for Ostend. He made it a fashionable resort by building a royal chalet there, which is very much deserted these days. And that enormous building which occupies the centre of the sea-front and which bulges outwards, what is that?

That is the Kursaal, madam, says one of the stewards. That is where they play roulette and baccarat. One may win a fortune there in one night. One may lose it, too.

Oh, says Muriel, I shall have to look more closely into all that.

Here is the jetty. The boat swerves round. Are we sailing back to Dover? Not a whit. Were just sliding gracefullybackwardsinto harbour. Here we are all ready to land.

Hello, Muriel! Had a good crossing?

Good old Pierre. Im so glad you managed to come. You havent altered a bit.

Thanks. Youve not changed either. Youre as pretty as ever. I hope youre staying for some time? Are you alone?

All alone, but Im counting on you to show me round. I dont know a thing about Belgium. Can you spare the time? Are you free?

Entirely. And my greatest desire is to show you everything. If you want my advice

Any advice you choose to offer. Decide. Lead me. I follow you blindly.

Off we go then. This is going to be a wonderful trip. Taxi! Hotel Imperial, please.

If you dont mind, well stay at Ostend for a few days, well visit the other seaside resorts, then well travel inland. For the moment, just get settled down. Youll see that your room is very comfortable; the bath is in working order and through the window youll see the Kursaal gardens and the sea. Your room is at about 200 yards from the sea. (If you should prefer a room directly in front of it, there are several excellent hotels along the front: the Osborne, the Wellington, the Htel des Thermes.)