Sorry guys! I've been crazy this past month with midterms, visits, and traveling that I haven't had a whole lot of time to post! Don't worry though, I promise to catch up this weekend so I can chronicle my last month here (EEP) and try not to forget anything!!
SO this post shall be about Brugge, Belgium. For those of you who haven't seen the Colin Farrel movie, you won't get the reference in the title, but don't worry, just know I'm not swearing without a purpose haha!
Alrighty where to begin. So I had to get up freakishly early on Friday morning to make a 6:45 am flight to Brussels from Barcelona. This entailed getting a cab and then getting on a night bus for over an hour to make it on time, so needless to say, I was up at four. Not fun. But alas, I got there safely and started wandering around the airport trying to figure out how on EARTH I was going to find Nora because a) our phones didn't work in Brussels and b) even if they did, I didn't have her number. Good planning? I think so. haha
Luckily I waited by the arrivals gate and jumped up an down like an idiot when I saw her so she pretty much couldn't miss me. We hopped on a train to Brugge and spent another hour catching up while admiring the Belgian countryside.
When we got to Brugge, we checked in at the Hotel Nicolas which was actually a surprisingly nice hotel for what we paid. We had our own room (always nice and so much better than a hostel) and free breakfast every morning, so we were pretty pumped. After dumping our bags, we had to get lunch because neither of us had eaten and we were pretty much eating ourselves. We went to the main market square (which was GORGEOUS) and found a restaraunt that served mussels which are apparently very typically Belgian with, of course, FRENCH FRIES. Had a lovely lunch and then made our way to De Halve Maan Brewery where we had a lovely (albeit very cramped) tour of the brewery and had a nice belgian beer (the best in the world if I had to elect one). There were all of these funny signs throughout the tour telling you to go backwards down these tiny flights of stairs because they were too steep to go down normally. It was quite a laugh. We also got to see a gorgeous view of Brugge from the top of the brewery which was a gorgeous picture opportunity.
After some delicious beer, we went on a boat tour along the Bruggian canals (bruggian? is that a word? haha well it is now!) which was beautiful and took you around to all the major tourist sites in the town (the Church of our Lady, the old Hospital, the nunnery, etc.). After freezing down to our bones, we got some true belgian hot chocolate. It was possibly the most delicious thing I have ever tasted. They literally give you a huge saucer of hot milk and pure dark chocolate chips and a whisk and you make it yourself. It was FANTASTIC! haha
That night we walked around the square and had a nice dinner and called it an early night.
The next morning we decided to go up to the belltower...366 steps up to the top and no elevator....it was a climb to say the least. The stairs were so narrow that you had to stop and let people come down before you went up and visa versa...it was very tiny haha but the view from the top was beautiful and it's one of those things you can't go to Brugge without doing.
Next we made our way to the Church of our Lady which has one of the only Michael Angelo's that left Italy. It was a beautiful statue of the virgin mary and Jesus and the church itself was quite beautiful too. Then we made our way to the nunnery which had beautiful leaf covered grounds and a gorgeous church as well. We took some pictures by the canals and enjoyed the nice fall day in the nunnery.
After a nice holy visit, what better to do than, of course, GET MORE BEER! haha clearly. Are you seeing a pattern yet? After a nice healthy lunch of belgian beer and french fries (yep, that was lunch haha) we went to the Groening Museum which was supposed to house what the call the "Flemish Primatives," major artwork from famous Medieval painters from Belgium. While the paintings were beautiful, they all depicted religious scenes (every...single...one of them....) and we were pretty holy-ed out by that point.
So we decided to take a nap. I know it's lame because we were in a new place and we should have been out exploring, but we were exhausted. We had another nice dinner and then called it a night. Yeah, call us lame, but we had fun so there :-P
Our last day in Brugge (tear :-( haha) we went to see the windmills which, apparently to Nora, were a bit of a disappointment. we walked to the outskirts of the city to see them and apparently they weren't old or cool enough for her haha. I thought they were pretty nice, but we'll move on.
Then we went to the two most historically relevant and socially necessary museums in the city: THE CHOCOLATE AND FRIES MUSEUMS. Yes, they have both and yes, we visited both. They both showed the process of making each product and then gave you a free sample at the end, which was a lovely way to end our trip to Brugge.
We got on the bus to take us to the train station and then made our way to the airport to go our separate ways. After an 15 minute bus right, and hour train ride, a 2 hour flight, another hour bus ride, a half hour on the metro, and a 5 minute walk, I FINALLY made it home and crashed after a great weekend with one of my favorite people.
So there's Brugge!!! Next up: NICK'S VISIT :-D
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