In Bruges

Location: Le Havre, France

Yes, I'm still in Le Havre! Actually the ship will be here tomorrow as well, but we have classes and aren't allowed to leave, so that will pretty much just mean seeing city instead of ocean out the window. I still haven't finished writing about my adventures in Belgium though, so read on!:

Day 2: In Bruges

First of all, has anyone seen the movie "In Bruges"? Yes, as it turns out, there is a movie called that; it is a black comedy starring Colin Farrell and it's supposed to be very funny. Apparently a lot of visitors to the city of Brugge in Belgium actually go there because they saw and liked the movie. I had never actually heard of "In Bruges" before three days ago. I went to the city because I had heard that it was beautiful and I wanted to escape all of the metropolitan hustle of the big port cities we have been frequenting.

So that is what I did! On the 13th I packed my bags and set off via train from Antwerp Central Station to go see the city Brugge. Note that I'm using the Dutch spelling of the name, which is what I mostly encountered in my travels (the city of Brugge is located in Flanders, which is what the northern Dutch-speaking region of Belgium is called), while the aforementioned movie uses the English/French spelling: "Bruges." I occasionally merge the two by accident and write "Brugges." I am always talking about the same place though.

So after managing to locate the correct train and get off at the correct stop, I arrived in Brugge! I actually stumbled upon a group of SAS students upon my arrival and traveled with them for about 20 minutes (during which time we wandered around and went in a very impressive gothic-style cathedral), but then I deciding to set off on my own to find a hostel (the rest of the group would be returning to the ship, while I was planning on continuing straight to Paris the next day.)

Brugge is gorgeous! Yes, it is definitely a touristy place––chocolate and souvenir shops dot the streets, and everywhere you look there are people on horse and cart rides or canal tours. But the tourists of Brugge tended to be a happy and laid-back bunch (with canals and chocolate everywhere you look, who wouldn't be?) so you couldn't really hold it against the city. I hadn't been able to book a hostel ahead of time because of the lack of internet, but fortunately my map had a list of places to stay on the back which included hostels. Of course, all of the hostels listed were very far apart from each other and not very near where I was at. So I chose one with a funny name (Snuffel) and starting walking. The entire way was lovely; one would be hard-pressed to find an eyesore in all of central Brugge. I arrived at the hostel within about 15 minutes, and asked if there were any beds left. Yes, there was one! It was in a four-bed female dorm on the second floor, and I was very happy to have it.

As it turned out there would be a free walking tour of Brugge leaving from the hostel about an hour and a half after I arrived, so I decided that would be a fun use of my evening and signed up for it. That is how I learned about the movie, "In Bruges"! I was in a group of about 8 people, and our tour guide (Andy) was very surprised to learn that none of us had seen the movie. Over the next two hours he showed us around the town, and a combination of the less-touristy places we visited and the increasingly damp weather meant that the streets were never packed with tourists, so it was actually quite nice. Andy also walked us past many of the locations which were used in the filming of "In Bruges." Everyone reading this should either rent that movie or put it in your Netflix queue, and while watching it you can think "Hey, Lindsey had a walking tour right by that spot!"

By the time the tour was over it had gotten dark, so I grabbed some fries at a Frituur which our guide had recommended before heading back to the hostel. By the way, don't let someone from Belgium hear you calling fries "French"––they insist that fries are a Belgian invention, and it is something of a national dish. The fries I got were available with a choice from at least ten different sauces. I wasn't even sure where to start, so I just had the guy use his favorite, which was delicious!

Thus ends my second day in Belgium. Comments, pretty please?