◄ a horse on a break harnessed to a horsecart facing a fountain shaped as a horse head.

Seeking for adventures, this time in Belgium, January 11..14. We visited our friend Nico, who had came over to visit us few months earlier. Nico has an amazing large apartment in Gent. That is where Nico has taken his photos of men (see his blog). But even without nude guys around waiting to be taken photos of, I could have spent whole day taking photos of his apartment. He has such an abundant collection of various figurines. I found some beautiful wooden figurines under a christmas tree which Nico had kindly kept on Margus’ request. I have a project on my mind with these three wise men from under christmas tree, but it will have to wait until I have more time to play on photoshop.

▼ Three wooden wise man figurines, and some more figurines from Nico’s collection ▼.

I am not usually into walking around between buildings anywhere. I rather enjoy landscapes and nature, yet sometimes I find myself being deeply amazed while looking straight up at the highest peaks of old cathedrals.

In present-day with the techniques and knowledge dimensions of buildings don’t seem to have any limits as with proper software one can precisely calculate how to make a building stay in one piece. But in 1352 when all calculation and planning was done on a piece of paper, it is beyond my comprehension how anyone could have build up a cathedral with 123 meters high tower. Even though it took 17o years to finish The Our Lady’s Cathedral of Antwerp, it only shows that it took more than one genious masterminds to coordinate the building process. (See the homepage of the cathedral.)

Last Summer, on Pakri islands me and Margus heaped up pile of stones high enough to cover our censorable body parts on photos – that height was the most we reached before our creations crashed. It would be easy to say, that we are too blond to master such advanced building techniques, but I don’t think that is the only reason why our towers reached less than a meter off the ground.

Club. The only gay club we went to was ‘Red and Blue‘ in Antwerp. Nice club, but one where You have to go in pants with big pockets to fit all the cash and coins that is needed there:

1. € As me and Margus were there the first, and likely only time, we had to obtain membership cards.
2. € With a membership card in hand I could pay for the entrance. This is the last time that my credit card was good for anything else besides feeling it in my pocket.
3. € Giving jacket to wardrobe, pay in cash.
4. € A drink. I did try to pay using my card, but as I did not agree with card payment solution I was offered by bartender that they charge my card for €50 or €100 and I can use that credit to drink through the night, the way to get the drink was to pay in cash.
5. € Discharging bladder. I had an idea that toilet of a gay club would be fun, but instead I was charged € .50 for visiting it every time, ..no fun there. With few more drinks and therefore full speed diuresis I think I repeated the last 2 steps for about 5 times, which adds up to around €3 I payed in exchange for my urine. As I was explained later, the pee charge was not a kink of that club, but common over Belgium.
6. € As Nico advised, we gave tip to doorman on the way out.

Since June of 2007 smoking is forbidden in all clubs and pubs in Estonia. This has spoiled us, non-smoking Estonians. Apparently such law does not apply to Belgium. I found it really disturbing that the club was full of cigaret smoke. I was trying to make myself like the club , ..all the drinks, but I think the smoke next to the pee-fee was why I was feeling that lousy at the club.

One exciting occasion at the club was that we saw a German guy with whom we had hooked up at a club in Gran Canaria. I suppose ‘small world’ sounds better than ‘we know too many guys’.

Sauna. Next evening we visited gay sauna in Gent. I think the name is ‘4men beautycenter’ or ‘Spades 4our’. Check their website for photo gallery and information. I have only been to few gay saunas, but among them this one is my favorite so far. It had a jacuzzi bath and a small pool, what I have always been looking for in the saunas. And it had a gym! Did not see anyone using it, but if I was more frequent visitor, I am sure I would enjoy the gym.

While playing around with guys in the pool with under water illumination, I desired so badly to be able to take photos of the scene. Imagine guys pulling themselves out of the pool and holding themselves on the side of the pool on straight arms
and with butts barely above the water and thighs illuminated by light reflecting under water. I just stared and drooled. Well, as much as I appreciate the beauty of male bodies, I kept thinking how hot photos I would get.

This is my favorite gay sauna so far, but apart from that, I actually had fun with guys there, which made it even more enjoyable. We talked, played in the pool and I was pushed to the pool in my towel. I am not sure that has ever happened to me so was even excited it had happened, but the sweetest part was that the guy who pushed me in, fetched me a dry towel right after he had pushed me. And of course I enjoyed showing off with my hot boyfriend :) I had fun!

Cash only! Another thing I have been spoiled with, is that main purpose of the cash in my wallet is for leaving tip, as most of the other payments can be done with my card or online. While on a trip, I was having surprisingly hard time finding a place where I could pay with the card.

Margus flew to Belgium with Ranno, but returned to Estonia with Erki… These days are in the past, when after getting a boarding pass I was so excited that I read through all that was on the front and even on the back side of the boarding pass, now I just take it and stick it in my pocket. Waiting in line to get on the flight back to Estonia, I glimpsed at my boarding pass and noticed that my last name had double P. Still waiting in line, I though, well, it is just a typo. Still in line and looking at my boarding pass again, trying to figure out how this mistake could have happened in the system, I realized, that I was being boarded as Mr Erki Ratsepp. No complications seemed to arise from it, so I left Belgium as a new guy.

Thanks to Nico for hosting us at Hotel Nico and for taking such a good care of us.