Day 16

kortrijk 3, originally uploaded by Ryan Runs Europe.

29 Kilometers.
The run seemed much easier than the day before...mainly because I had taken the time to look at a map and plan out my route before I left. I planned a route that was fairly direct and wrote all the important intersections/towns on my hand. I had decided that I would run around 16 km and then stop to walk, to avoid more shin complication. I ended up running 22 km before I stopped to grab a sandwich a few kilometers north of Kortrijk. It took me a long time to walk the rest of the way to Kortrijk. Once I got into town, I wandered around for a bit, stopping by the library to check my e-mail, and calling up my hosts for the night (Lut, Philippe and family), whose information was given to me by Simonne, my host in Kalmthout. I had a wonderful evening, with a huge home cooked meal. I even got to practice up on some of my Italian. It will be a long time before I have to use it for real. We went into the town and had a look around all the old buildings...many of which date back to the 13th/14th century.
I spent a little bit of time trying to find hosts on couchsurfing before going to sleep...for my last night in Belgium.