Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

We said our goodbyes last night and caught a cab this morning to St Pancras station. We departed on the Eurostar at 8:30am from London to Brussels. It was about a three hour train through the Chunnel to Brussels. I was so tired that I slept through most of the journey. All I remember is waking up, looking at Allyson and saying how much my neck hurt, then turning over and falling back asleep.

We arrived in Brussels and took the Metro into central Brussels. We walked to Grand Place, or Grote Markt, the main square in Brussels. The buildings surrounding the Markt are beautiful. We spent a little bit of time there taking photos, and then we found our way to Manneken Pis, the statue/fountain of the little boy peeing. It is just one of those things you have to see when you are in Brussels. Apparently they dress it up in different outfits everyday, so today he looked like a matador, or some kind of army official. It was pretty weird. I would have rather just seen the statue in its nude glory, instead of in some stupid getup. We walked to the Kathedraal (Cathedral). Haha our backs were absolutely killing us from carrying our backpacks around the city, so we didn’t actually go in the cathedral. We collapsed on a bench outside and took pictures from there. We headed back towards the metro, first getting a chocolate covered waffle from a stall. Belgian waffles in Belgium! We took the metro back to the train station, Brussels Midi Zuid, and caught a train to Bruges. We had a hard time finding the train we needed to get onto, because ‘Bruges’ wasn’t listed on the Departure boards. Luckily we saw a sign in a window that said that Bruges departures were listed under Burgher and Knokke. Weird names, but they got us to Bruges!

We arrived in Bruges! We walked out of the train station to find the sun shining and all of the trees covered in flowers and new leaves. We found our heading and made our way through Bruges to our hostel, Lybeer. We checked in with the man at the counter and he told us that they had upgraded our beds from bunks in a dorm room to a private two person room! Yippee! He also gave us maps of the city, as well as Bruges City Passes, which give us discounts at different attractions. Our room is pretty nice. We are on the third level, up 63 stairs (3 short of the Centre). The stairs are very narrow and rickety. Our room has a sink in it, which is nice, and the view is really pretty. The houses in Brussels are all very beautiful.

Haha so we had no idea what the language spoken in Belgium was, but apparently in Southern Belgium it is French, and in Northern Belgium it is Flemish, but most people are bilingual or trilingual (most people also speak English). It is really fun to wander the streets here and try to pronounce the street names. We mainly say them using lots of grunting and heavy German accents.

We left our hostel and headed to the center of Bruges, Market Square (Markt). In the square is the Belfry that we plan to climb tomorrow morning (366 stairs to the top). It is supposed to have the best view of the city. Right in front of the Belfry were two French fry stands. We bought French fries. I got mine with mayonnaise. I know gross sounding, but it is the way they eat them here! It actually wasn’t bad. I felt like I was clogging all of my arteries, but they sure were tasty. We walked around a bit more and explored. So apparently, fries were invented in Belgium, but they are called French fries because the Belgian commanders during World War I spoke French when they baked fries and their Allied colleagues remembered “French fries”. Voila!

After traveling on foot for a while, we rented bikes and rode around the city on two wheels. Bruges is a biking city. There are bikes everywhere. I have seen more bikes than cars. It is hard to tell roads from sidewalks apart, but it doesn’t seem to matter much, because bikes can go all over, and the cars seem to do the same as well. It is kind of hard to navigate while you are riding, because you go by street signs too fast. We eventually found our way to Minnewater (park). It was a beautiful park, and had a pretty section of canal running through it. Close by was another small park that was full of swans and ducks. There was a mama duck with a bunch of adorable ducklings quacking and waddling around. They were so cute! The mama duck was super alert the entire time, and watched her babies closely. There were also a lot of nesting swans, sitting in their massive nests. I say some swan eggs, but no babies yet. We continued our biking adventure and rode along the canal past the windmills that lined it. So many pretty flowers, trees, and windmills. It was such a good decision to rent bikes! They were so much fun! Haha the only problem is that the roads in Bruges are mainly cobblestone, and cobblestone hurts your butt to ride over on a bike. It was very bumpy and my butt is killing me! Super sore! Haha. We headed back to drop off our bikes, and then continued our adventure on foot.

Bruges is so beautiful. I like it so much better than Brussels. The buildings are beautiful, the roads are beautiful, the flowers and trees are beautiful, and the people are beautiful. I love it!

We got dinner at a recommended family run cheap eat – Medard. I ordered €3 pasta. I got a small, but it was the biggest portion I have ever seen. The spaghetti noodles were really good, but it was the sauce that was amazing! The tomato sauce was filled with chunky vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc). So good! It was super filling; I couldn’t even finish it. Allyson got some really good homemade tomato soup! Delicious!

We wandered around some more, but by that time most of the stores had already closed. We found a gelato shop still open. We weren’t aware the Da Vinci was the most recommended ice cream shop in Bruges. It was so good! I got tiramisu flavored. It was amazing! It was freezing when we left, so we hurried back to the hostel. I have no concept of time here, because it doesn’t get dark until 10pm! It is crazy!

We hung out in the bar at our hostel and checked email for a little bit. We met a girl named Sea. She is from Australia and has been traveling since November. She is traveling for an entire year, and has spent quite a bit of time in Africa, as well as four months in Oxford. She is also part Egyptian! We had a good time chatting with her, then went up to our room around 11pm and planned for tomorrow. So exhausted!