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40/ [[left margin in red]] Ostend [[\left margin in red]] The large hotels are closed except one or two and the latter have few if any guests. [[left margin in red]] Boats [[\left margin in red]] From my quiet room (+ bath) well situated to give me a view on the incoming small craft and fishing boats I have a good outlook on the quiet easy going life of the people. The former [[red underline]] sturdy sail fishing boats [[\red underline]] have all disappeared and have been replaced by [[red underline]] two masted diesel- [[\red underline]] engined boats Ketch rigged without bowsprit carrying a forestay-sail, a [[strikethrough]] loose fooled [[/strikethrough]] mainsail and a jibsail, [[strikethrough]] all uniffe. [[/strikethrough]] all [[strikethrough]] dark red, [[/strikethrough]] tan color - but insufficient sail capacity unless in strong winds but the sails serving as auxiliary to the engine, or for trawling, also for heaving [[strikethrough]] bro [[/strikethrough]] to in a storm or while fishing. A rough looking set of men, many wearing wooden shoes. Fish is brought to nearby market. Turbot, cabiltane[[guess]], sole - eels plaice etc.- also [[red underline]] large crabs, [[\red underline]] some of them [[red underline]] 12" wide[[\red underline]] with a shell as hard as our [[red underline]] stone crabs [[\red underline]] in Florida but of less inviting color and without the characteristic specks of the stone crab. [[left margin in red]] Bruges [[\left margin in red]] [[underline]] June 17 [[\underline]] After a good nights sleep weather is brighter. So I took train to [[red underline]] Bruges. [[\red underline]] Same old station as in 1887, and no changes whatever to the beerhouses, cafes, restaurants, hotels [[strikethrough]] coachmen [[\strikethrough]] men and coachmen around the stations. - Also same [[strikethrough]] ebigin [[strikethrough]] strolling, loafing uniformed officers and soldiers as in Liege and Brussels. Walked thru the streets absolutely [[red underline]] everything the same as formerly except Cinemas [[\red underline]] and the sound of the [[red underline]] ggramophone [[\red underline]] or [[end page]] [[start page]] 41/ [[left margin in red]] Bruges Ostend [[\left margin in red]] the radia. Same slow moving population. Went to see the [[red underline]] canal and the bridge, Celine painted last year. [[\red underline]] - The painting looks better than the reality. - The water was as black as ink and as smelly as a sewer with [[strikethrough]] thiks [[/strikethrough]] many waste-things [[strikethrough]] floatidro [[/strikethrough]] floating in this stagnant water. The streets, the shops everything is exactly as it was when I was professor here. - Yet I feel an [[red underline]] absolute stranger [[\red underline]] now and when I ask for any information the men and women treat me as if I were a stranger who had never had anything in common with the place. I walked to the old gothic [[red underline]] State normal school [[\red underline]] thru the same narrow and curved street thru which I had to sprint in a hurry after my lectures to catch the train which by the afternoon would bring me to the [[red underline]] University in Ghent [[\red underline]] to direct the laboratory work of the students there. [[strikethrough]] Nothing here also has [[/strikethrough]] Everything here also has remained the same. On the corner of the street near the entrance I saw a gray haired old woman, sitting on a chair in the entrance of her open door of her house, bent over [[red underline]] her lace-making outfit [[\red underline]] exactly in the same spot as I had seen her last in 1888 with the difference that the new old woman who succeeded the former was then 44 years younger and probably a little girl of 16 at the utmost. Not a living being entered or came out of the wide door above the large entrance stairs of the [[red underline]] Normal school. [[\red underline]] For a moment I had the impulsion of ringing the bell and visiting the school. - But when I was about to do it the thought came to me that I was not in the U.S
