From the airport, we bought train tickets to Bruges. We were confused because we were told to "change trains in Brussels," but there were three stops in Brussels. As it turned out, we could change at any of the stations. About an hour and 20 minutes later, we were in Bruges. Armed with the chapter on Belgium I ripped out of Let's Go Western Europe, we made our way to our hostel. It was weird because en route we didn't really encounter anyone on the streets.
Bruges is in Flanders, the western region of Belgium, where the official language is Flemish, a dialect of Dutch.
We stayed at Lybeer Traveller's Hostel in Bruges, which Let's Go Western Europe called "charming," which apparently is code for "falling apart, with unfortunate hygienic situations in the bathrooms and kitchen."
Bruges is a small little city, so it would be impossible to stay in a bad location. We set out from our hostel to explore and bumped into a big church, which as it turns out was St. Saviour's Cathedral. We were on the main shopping street in town, but all of the stores were closing, as it was around 6 p.m. Everything in Madrid is open until about 8 or 9, although I suppose that is to atone for closing down during the siesta.
We bought waffles from a window on the side of a café and they were SO GOOD. Really, much better than anything you've ever had in the U.S. labelled as a "Belgian waffle."
From there we wandered to Markt, one of the two main squares in Bruges, home to the Belfort and, as you can imagine, the old market. The plaza is absolutely gorgeous. It was I think at this moment that I absolutely fell in love with Bruges. Nah, it was probably my first waffle.
At this point we decided to look for a restaurant for dinner. The guy at reception in the hostel couldn't recommend us a place, instead telling us to just window shop in certain areas (aka away from Markt and Burg). The only problem is that it was cold and started to rain (a condition that followed us on and off throughout the trip). I had been looking forward to a cooler climate than Spain's, but even I do not enjoy having cold rain blown in my face.
After a bit of "window shopping" we just decided on a restaurant to get warm. I had a fixed menu consisting of a cheese croquette, Flemish stew and chocolate mousse. I also ate almost half of Allison's curry moules frites... As you may or may not know, Belgium is the home of the "french" fry, and in Belgium they are generally consumed with mayonnaise (European mayonnaise is nothing like American mayonnaise. In the first place it is actually edible).
By the time we finished dinner, it was raining much harder, so we ducked into a bar for a bit to enjoy another Belgian specialty, beer. The bartender was...a little bit crazy, although we talked to him and he acknowledged this fact and blamed it on the medication he is taking after a heart attack a few days earlier. Who am I to judge. After that we pretty much called it a night.
The next day was luckily the driest of our trip! Our first stop the next morning was the Church of Our Lady, home to a Michelangelo sculpture, which is extremely novel in Belgium but obviously won't be in Italy, where I will be very soon.
Crossing the canal that runs through the middle of the city center, we saw some tourists taking a boat ride and felt the need to do the same. It was 6 euros well spent. Nowadays only the tour boats are allowed on the canals, so I guess that adds to the "Disneyification" of Bruges that locals complain about.
To warm up after the boat ride, we ducked into a shop boasting "real hot chocolate." At first we were heartily disappointed because we saw her holding a cup under a machine. As it turns out, only the milk comes out of the machine. Then she puts in a chunk of chocolate on a stick, which melts into the hot milk into deliciousness.
Our next stop was Burg, the other cute square in Bruges. It is home to the Gothic town hall and the Basilica of the Holy Blood. We peeked into the Basilica but did not pay to go into the treasury to see the relic, the blood of Christ. Sorry Mom.
Allison didn't want to climb the Belfort, or belfry, in Markt, but I did. All was good until two-thirds of the way up the climb when the stairs changed from a solid stone construction to wooden slats. As you may know, I have an irrational fear of such stairs. In general, the holes between the steps are much too small for me to fall through (however I'm pretty much a klutz, so I also worry about falling and messing up my knee or ankle no matter what). I thought about going back down but I didn't.
Once I was back down, Allison and I had lunch at this pita place with a student menu. It was pretty great, and we followed it up with waffles. We went into a shop to buy some chocolates and were given some free samples. Afterwards, we decided to tour De Halve Maan (the half moon) Brewery where they produce Brugze Zot, literally the pride of Bruges. We had a bit of time so we grabbed our bags from the hostel before the tour so afterwards we could head to the train station.
Arriving to Brussels was interesting. It might as well have been another country, with everyone speaking French.
Having found a good deal online, in Brussels we stayed at Hotel St Nicolas for only 2 euros more each a night. It was heaven. We had our own (clean) bathroom. The hotel was pretty well-located (although once again the center itself of Brussels is somewhat small). The view was rather funny though. If you looked down, you saw the Versailles Palace, a game hall aka casino. If you looked up, you saw an art deco facade and the top of the neoclassical Bourse (Belgian stock market). Our hotel was similarly sandwiched between two game halls, so it was a bit noisy at night.
For dinner we decided to go to Vincent, recommended by a friend of Allison's. On our way there, we had to pass a heavy tourist street, where everyone was pimping their restuarants and the menus were translated into many languages. It was like Little Italy in New York except without the street in the middle giving you at least a little peace to pass through or even compare menus. Right around the corner was Vincent, with no one outside and no English menu. We both had moules frites and it was really good. We were sitting next to an Italian man who at first we would have believed was British because his English was that good. He also spoke French. I wish I could do languages that well.
Afterwards, we went to Delirium, which made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most extensiver beer menu. They had 25 beers on tap.
The next morning we started out by heading to the Grand Place, as my host dad put it, "la Plaza Mayor de Bruselas," which is very pretty. I was surprised though that they let cars into it. As it was Saturday morning, we saw a lot of people getting ready to get married in the town hall.
Afterwards we saw Mannekin Pis, the emblem of Brussels. It is a fountain of a boy peeing.
We made our way downtown, passing the Eglise Notre Dame de la Chapelle. We came to the Palais de Justice, from where you get great views of Brussels, including the Atomium, a funny looking structure far out from the center of Brussels built for some international fair or other in the 1950s that people pay 9 euros to ascend. The halls of justice in Brussels were very similar to the halls of justice in Washington, DC. The Palais is supposedly home to the tallest room in the world but we couldn't see for ourselves since it was a Saturday.
We passed the Eglise Notre Dame du Sablon and went into the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. The highlights of the collection are The Death of Marat by Jacques Louis David and a number of works by Rubens. They apparently have a big canvas by "Giuseppe" Ribera (um, Spanish even though he worked in Naples), but it was being restored. When we left the museum, it was raining, again. We passed by the Palais Royal, the incredibly ugly park in front of it, and the Palais de la Nation, which I'm pretty sure is their Parliament.
We hopped on the Metro to go out to the European Union (no NATO though...). The Metro in Brussels doesn't really seem to stop anywhere in the city center, and it kind of just had a weird feel to it. They also use the inexplicable system where you are supposed to buy a ticket and then are on the honor system slash face a hefty fine to validate it.
We saw an incredibly ugly building when we got out of the Metro. Home of the European Commission. We tried to go in, but I got the impression visitors really weren't ever allowed in that building. He pointed us across the street to the Justice Lipsius building, home of the really offensive sculpture commissioned by the Czech Republic when they assumed the EU presidency. Unfortunately the building was closed on Saturdays.
It was raining, but we had some consolation: Maison Antoine, a frites place that seemed popular with all locals, which was cool. Our map suggested eating them in the nearby park, by the European Parliament, but it stopped raining by the time we got our frites and we didn't want to push our luck. They didn't put the sauce on the cone of frites for you, giving you a little plastic container instead, which was tricky to maneuver. Unfortunately I dropped a good quantity of frites on the ground. Those pigeons eat so well!
We went back to our hotel and ate much chocolate. For dinner we ate at...Subway. We made another appearance at Delirium. We had missed it the previous evening, but down the same alley as Delirium is Jeanneke Pis, a girl peeing. It was installed by a restaurant that apparently didn't fare so well, so the fountain is no longer functional and it's just a sculpture of a girl squatting behind iron bars.
I had intended to get up early the next morning to visit the Cathedral St Michel, but Europe finally sprung ahead for DST so we lost an hour and that didn't happen. Now I'm back in Madrid. In fact, I should be at class right now, but my throat has been bothering me for the past week or so and I called the doctor's office (quite reluctantly, but I can't be sick for Italy) and they could see me today, so I took that as an opportunity not to be missed. I'm also trying to figure out my schedule for the fall at Georgetown. I'm decided on my primary selections for classes, just not the order of priority I should put them in: Politics of the Christian Right, American Expatriate Writers, American Political Theory, Portuguese for Spanish Speakers I, and Modern Spain.
Haha and I just got my absentee ballot for the local local elections apparently taking place on Tuesday.
I still don't know how to properly upload photos on Blogger, so Brussels is before Bruges.
Grand Place:
Mannekin Pis:
View from the Palais de Justice:
Palais Royal:
Hi, Europe!
Belfort (Bruges)
Markt:
So adorable I wanted to die:
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