Menen is just a few steps from the French-Belgium border. Jurgen, my new host in this little city, was coincidentally in Bruges himself and invited me over at his nieces’ First Commune Party, where the whole family had joined.
The next morning we all had breakfast and afterwards I contacted my host for tonight, who lives in Menen. Coincidentally he would be in Bruges this afternoon, at the First Commune Party of his little niece Kimberly.
So we agreed upon meeting each other at the Bruges train station at 4pm, where he picked me up.
For Annick & Jurgen that meant some more time to show me around in this old town, ha! We visited the oldest pub in Europe, Café Vlissinghe (established in 1515 and as you can see: still in the original state), walked through the tightest official street of Europe and searched and found the oldest canal bridge in Europe.
No wonder that Bruges is awarded as the Cultural Capital of Europe for 2002 – this year the Dutch city of Breda is the Cultural Capital of Europe.
At 4pm I met my host for tonight, also called Jurgen, who took me to this First Commune Party.
It actually meant I was very welcomed by the parents of the little girl. Because I hadn’t had lunch today, I could get whatever I want from the buffet and from the barbeque, just like the rest of the whole family.
After this festivity Jurgen brought his sister home and tried to fix his mother’s computer at her home, after someone spoilt some drink on it. It was unrepairable after all, and we got back in to the car to drive almost to the French border, to the city of Menen.
Being at this party wasn’t the most incredible thing I have experienced yet. What I found out in the car on the way the his home, is that Jurgen is a priest!
He has had a youth just like must of us – living life to the max and not care much about religion. He studied technology. Just, at a certain point in his life he started to study at the seminary and got more involved in ‘being right there’ for the people.
Right now he is a priest for a Catholic community in Menen for over 3 years now.
The following evening we drunk special Belgian beers and Jurgen talked a lot about his life. He is also a bit addicted to chatting on the internet. He has even used the internet to create this special cyber-mass in the church, where people all over this Belgian region could join in.
The Belgian internet magazine Clickx even asked him to write columns.
I am raised Catholic, and don’t practice it anymore and I asked Jurgen how he – as a priest – thought about that.
He said that life is about being happy with yourself and the people around you. “But just keep developping yourself in your life as long as possible”, was his main statement. “Keep ask yourself questions as you grow older”. It was unique to have this conversation with him.
But next to this all he is mostly a very normal person who has CD’s of Aerosmith and Tori Amos, just as most people have!
I can now say that I talked an drunk beer with and stayed at a priests’ house!
