Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I arrived in Bruges early afternoon and had 5 hours to kill before I could meet my Couchsurfing host Ann. I put my luggage in a locker at the train station and then just decided I would wander around the old town aimlessly, and hopefully find somewhere to have lunch. The very first thing which greeted me as I walked out the train station was a fair being setup. Ferris wheels, small roller coasters, spinny rides and sideshows, that kinda stuff. Walking around was nice, though it would have been nicer if the weather was a bit better. I did quickly come to the realisation that it's a rather expensive place though, I guess due to being so touristy. The old town really does give off a very medieval vibe though which is great, and the canals give it an even more picturesque feel. I'm really hoping for a nice sunny day to walk around in and to get a great view from up the bell tower.
I met Ann at one of the gates along the river surrounding the old town and we walked together back to her place. I had already organised going to the weekly meetup which Ann had also put her name down for. However she decided she was too tired so after dropping off my stuff and having a brief introduction and discussion I was back out the door to go the meetup. It was a fun night and it turned out that it was the birthday of the bar, so at one point they brought out a massive bottle of beer, like 5 litres or something and popped it and gave everyone in the bar a free glass. I also learned that Belgian beer while delicious can be lethal. The stuff I was trying ranged from 8% alcohol up to 12%. Four of those and I was basically wasted. Followed by the next day being almost a complete write-off.
I was hoping to find a new host for the Saturday night (next night) also as Ann was already hosting two guys from Chile. I did speak to one guy who said he might be able to, but that ended up not happening. Ann was nice enough to arrange something though and let me stay the extra nights. The Chilean guys were really cool and had brought a bunch of instruments with them including a ukelele and a melodica which they brought out and played together. Ann also had a guitar which they played a bit of. It was a fun night.
Now that the weekend was over I was actually able to book into a hostel for a reasonable price. So that's what I did. Still hoping for that at least one day of decent weather. The first night in the hostel they organised a pub crawl which I was too particularly keen on attending since you had to pay 15 euro upfront. But enough other people were going that I didn't want to be the loser to just hang around the hostel (even if it does have a pretty good bar). I'm glad I did go because it was a lot of fun, but I did have to deal with my second hangover day in 3 days. I was not being very efficient at seeing Bruges.
So finally I got my act together and went out and did the free walking tour. I'd probably have to rank it in the top 2 or 3 I've done for sure, it was great fun. It was done by an American guy who was very outgoing and kinda stupid in a funny way. On top of the usual walking tour stuff, we also played some games. One game took place on one of the many bridges going over the canals in Bruges, and that was to duck down below the bridge when a boat tour was coming and just out and scare them just as they went to pass under. We got some fantastic reactions. The other game was whenever we came up to a "umbrella tour". These are the tours normally done by older people, and the tour guide holds up an umbrella to keep everyone together. Sometimes they have mics and each person has an ear piece. Those tours are not about fun at all, so we'd try to help. We would stand next to them and then our guide would point to something in the air and we'd all make a huge deal about it and see how many people we could get trying to find what we were looking at, which of course was nothing.
Then after the walking tour a small group of us headed back to a bar we had had pointed out which brews a unique beer only served in that bar. And after just one of those it was on to the beer tasting, which as it turned out was run by the same guy who did the walking tour. We got to taste 5 different Belgian beers, and they were pretty much all good. Then we got some street vendor food and went home.
The next day was a day to get a few things done which I had been meaning to for a while. It was finally a decent day weather-wise. So I got some nice photos of the windmills along the river, some more around the town, of canals and such. I got a Belgian waffle with cream from a van. Bought a box of chocolates from a place recommended by our tour guide from the day before. And mostly importantly finally went up the Belfort (the bell tower). I also had a quick glimpse of Jesus' dried blood on a cloth in the Basilica of the Holy Blood. You had to "donate" to get a closer look, so I didn't bother. Probably not really his blood anyway (though it actually has been dated to around that time). And one last thing, I bought a bottle opener. Can't forget to do that.
- comments