Summer in the City

As a South African, what I really appreciate about Europe is that Summer is an event. The sun comes out so rarely, that when it does, it's like a national celebration. I love it.

And what a summer weekend it turned out to be. 30 degrees C. Absolutely lovely weather.

I went for a cycle along the River Schelde, which was cool. Really lovely. On the way back, I cycled past the Navigaytion event - it's kind of like Antwerp's answer to a gay pride party (I think). I stopped to... well... stare... and my bike (you remember her) was grabbed (in a nice way) by a drag queen.

I've never laughed so much - we must have spent no more than 5 minutes talking - in which time more swearing and one-liners came from her lips than... well, I don't know what. Really funny. His name is Selwyn. Not sure what her name is. Here she is with TLVVF:



Imagine - that head-dress in that weather. Oh my. Turns out Selwyn is from South Africa, too. Small world. And small bike, too. With place just for one - and after a nice, pleasant chat - I cleared off. And then found another lady (I'm guessing this one was real) handing out free beer. What a good idea. A promotional thing. Some new beer. Tastes like river water. But at least it's canned.

After the beer, I stumbled across some rhythm and blues festival, which was such a treat. Here's a pic - but there's more on my Flickr pages. Real cool bands & tunes.



Some time later, I found an area on the banks of the River where the council had put up a stand of sorts and thrown some beach sand down. Just so folks could watch the sunset. And what's more... they've even published the times when the sun will be setting, so you know when it's gonna happen.

Wow. Drag queens, free beer, cool tunes and a sunset stand. What a City.