On Saturday, Celeste, Emily and I went to Bruge. We looked up the tickets before hand and the website said they would be 24 round trip, but when we got to the ticket counter at the train station, it only cost us 8 euro!! With this in mind, we decided we would treat ourselves this weekend. At least for my, I had been eating rice and veggies every day for dinner and it would be nice to finally have some real food.
The trip was only an hour long and a pleasant ride. The Belgium countryside is beautiful. It's mainly flat with lots of green open land and a few rivers and canals and cities along the way.
From the train station, it was only about a 15 minute walk into the city center. Surrounding the city is a wall and a canal. Immediately when you enter the city, cobblestone greets your feet. (A note about cobblestone: it is not good for your feet and hurts after you've been walking on it for 8 hours!) The city brought me into its fairytale right away. For one couple, it was just too romantic to handle and they absolutely had to stop in the center of the sidewalk and make out to express their overwhelming love. That's just what Bruge makes you do!
To get to the market (the center of town), you must walk over bridges and by churches and by chocolate shops and each is more delightful than the previous. When we finally got to the market, we were hungry and there was a little store that said "cheeseburgers". We had all been craving some beef so we went over only to discover it was a Quick. Quick is like the European McDonalds only less good and a lot more expensive. I was unimpressed because as people from Califorina know, nothing beats and In n Out cheeseburger.
After eating, we went on a walking tour of the city as per Celeste's guidebook. After walking for about 15 minutes, we realized there was a couple to seemed to be going the same direction as we were. We noticed the book in their hand was the same as Celeste's which we all found amusing. We helped each other travel through the guidebook's tour. The tour took us to the fish market, to various status, along the canal with city views and charming stores, through a couple churhes, and finally we ended up back at the market.
With all this walking, we set out to get a snack.....and not just any snack...a waffle!! We found one rather quickly and I immediately studied my options. Chocolate, whip cream, ice cream, fruit, sugar, etc. I decided to go with the fruit and whip cream. AGHHHHHH soo good! It was a little hard to eat, but sooo soo good. Did I mention it was good?
After eating, well actually before eating we had gone shopping. I bought a sweater as Pinkies and a scarf at H and M. I also rain the rain jacket that was stole at H and M, but it wasn't worth buying it again.
We went back to the Market again and walked 366 steps up to the top of the Belltower for a superb view of the city. I was actually surprised on how big the city was. Every roof has a red roof and you can even see to the flat areas around the city!
After this we went into a few churches. In one we saw the Madonna and Child statue. It was the only one of Micheangelo's sculptures to be removed from Italy.
Next, we went back to the train station to see if we could catch an earlier train. We had only written down train times for after 9pm. When we were walking back to the city, we walked around the wall and next to the canal and stumbled upon the most beautiful place! I was in love. I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.
Finally we grabbed a drink at a bar and then set off for this Egyptian/Mediterranean place we had seen during the walking tour. When we arrived we were the only customers. We all tried the Tajine which is meat and veggies and sauces cooked in this special pot (where the name tajine comes from). It was delicious!
After that we walked back to the train station and took a train back to Brussels. It was a wonderful day!
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