I have an exam on Wednesday. I leave on Thursday morning. Therefore, I am feeling like procrastinating studying...so I am writing a new post! (don't worry parents, i am studying...just not at this specific moment) Before I came to Europe, I asked various people for recommendations on places to visit. One of the suggestions was Bruges. This past Saturday, I finally made it there. I don't say finally lightly here... On Wednesday, I impulsively decided to plan this trip with my friend Shannon. I purchased our train tickets on Friday night (the WHOLE journey only cost 18 euros!!). I woke up early on Saturday to print the tickets off...only to remember that nothing opens until 10 am on Saturdays. That is a big problem. I told Shannon the bad news, but we decided to persevere. We thought that surely the train station ticket desk would print the tickets for us...lies...we tried twice. We also briefly jogged around Tilburg looking for a hotel to print from...also no luck. With our hopes high and our hearts beating from jogging and nervousness, we boarded the bus to Turnhout, Belgium. From there we planned to get on the train (the one that we needed to print the tickets for) to Bruges. We made it to Turnhout with 5 minutes to spare before our train left...needless to say we missed it. We did however finally get our tickets printed out at a lovely Best Western. With a great sense of relief, we went to wander about Turnhout for 30 minutes before our train left. Now, funny thing about our day... all in all, we spent about 8 hours in transit and only 4 hours in Bruges. But, what a productive (and worth it) 4 hours it was. When you walk out of the train station there isn't much to see...but that doesn't last long. Soon, we walked over a bridge, saw a park, and began walking to the city center along the most adorable street ever - cute houses, cobblestones, cafes, y'all Bruges has it all.
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| Can all houses look like this? |
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| On a whim, we decided to walk down an alley and into a courtyard area...this is what we found. There was green space, a church, a canal, and the most picturesque bridge I have ever seen. |
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| This is me sitting on the above mentioned bridge. |
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| Have I mentioned that the map we had of Bruges was not very helpful? Well, I printed it off of the internet...onto 4 front and back pages...which meant that we had to hold several sheets together to find out where we were. No worries though, wandering was the best approach to Bruges. Oh, by the way this building is in the main square. Pretty snazzy, huh? |
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| These are also on the square. |
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| According to our map, this is the best place in Bruges to get ice cream. I believe it. Also, this was the one thing that I wanted to do in Bruges besides see things. Culturally deprived? Maybe. Lover of ice cream? Definitely. |
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| Bruges is beautiful. All of the houses that we saw were cute, very very well maintained, and old. I wouldn't be surprised if every resident of Bruges has to pay a fee so that a crew can come and clean the town every night. Everything just looked so spectacular. Many doors were decorate (though not all were as elaborate as this one). |
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| Yet another picturesque spot! Also - I'm not wearing a jacket!!! Finally!!! But it is like 70 degrees and it is June...what a treat for this Georgia girl! |
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| Bruges, you have my heart. I will be back. |
