Day 36 - 38 Bruges

22 - 24 August 2014

Day 36
Train
When I turned up to the Brussels train station to catch my train to Bruges, I was pleased because it said there was a train arriving in a few minutes. I went down to the platform but was worried because the 4 trains before mine were all running late, up to 45 minutes. I don't know what happened to those other trains but mine turned up on time.

At the other end, in Bruges, it was raining. I suspected that it would end soon because everyone was waiting inside so I too waited and sure enough, after a few minutes it cleared up. When I walked outside and looked at the sky, it seriously did clear up.

Look at that contrast of weather

Free dinner
In the hostel I met some Turkish guys who cooked too much pasta for dinner and kindly offered to share with me. Teşekkür ederim.

Beer Tasting
My hostel was running a beer tasting session tonight so I signed up. I think almost everyone in the hostel was there so it was a good place to mingle. We tried 6 Belgian beers like: Duvel, Chimay Blue and Hoegaarden Citron. Most of them were pretty strong and although we only had a small glass of each, it really hits you.

Going out
After the beer tasting I headed out with some Canadians. We didn't really achieve much because we were a bit distracted. We walked for a bit then stopped for food and road beers, went a bit further and stopped for more beers then arrived at the club. We were screwed before we even tried to enter the club though because another guy from the hostel already pissed the bouncer off and then he said none of us can come in.

Instead we crammed into a packed bar round the corner for about 5 minutes before deciding it was home time. On the way home we grabbed some fries and when I felt a few rain drops, I decided it was home time. I tried to beat the rain home but failed and it started to pour down. I left my map at the hostel, rookie mistake, but I thought I'd be ok because we were staying right by the church tower. Turns out Bruges has three towers so I was lucky I had a map saved on my phone and managed to successfully find home.

Day 37
Walking tour
The same guy who ran the beer tasting was our tour guide for the walking tour today. We saw...

The smallest window in Bruges.

Colin Farrell's character's house from In Bruges.
Lucky I didn't write "the house Colin Farrell lived in in In Bruges."

Beer wall

Burg Square

And we finally ended up at the Beer Museum where we enjoyed some of their 2 euro beers. I tried a sour beer for the first time and it was an interesting taste but I don't think I'm a fan of it...yet.

While we were having a chat over beers in the museum, I learned that hops were originally added to beer for their antibacterial properties to make it keep for longer.

Windmills

After the walking tour I went over to see the windmills and try to get a view out over the town.

It's a windmill.

The windmills have European stairs (aka a ladder) on the back that you can climb so I thought that'd be a good spot  fora view of the town.

Windmill stairs

The problem is they were pointing away from the town though so I couldn't get the best view.

Partial panorama of the city from the top of the stairs

Another partial panorama from half way up the stairs. Still not great.

On the way back to the hostel I stopped for a traditional waffle, cooked fresh in the waffle van.

Traditional waffle. So good when it's fresh

I also saw some markers for the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage.

Bronze shell marker

And I saw an old crane that was used to (un)load boats in the canal.

Old crane

My map mentioned that I should kiss this frog for good luck too, so I did that.

Kissing the frog

Day 38
Chance encounter
A friend from my home town now lives in London but today I bumped into him and his girlfriend in a quiet lane in Bruges. If either of us were 10 seconds off, we wouldn't have seen each other but then using that logic I've probably missed seeing a lot of people I knew by 10 seconds.

His girlfriend had a great idea to go get some beers, so we did. We tried a bunch of different beers but the most interesting glasses we had were these.

My friend with a Kwak and me with a La Corne

After a few beers and a chat it was time for me to jump on a train to Ghent.

Thoughts on Bruges

• It's very touristy but other than pushing past some people in the streets, I didn't have a problem with queues.
• Lots of the town is covered in green moss.
• It's a small town so you can easily walk around the whole thing in a day.
• The church bells are used like a choir and when they go, they go nuts for about 10 minutes straight.

Supermarket stuff

I don't think Australia would let a product say cigarettes on it