In Bruges - A Fairytale Land

On Thursday evening, we arrived at our hostel in Bruges. We stayed at a place called St. Christopher’s Bauhaus Hostel that was much nicer than the one in Brussels. It had a cool bar/restaurant attached where they served a delicious breakfast of pastries and hard-boiled eggs. When we got there, we checked in and found my friend Katie resting in our room. Katie and I had randomly booked the same hostel for the same nights in the same city and figured this out a few days before we went (thank you, Facebook). Rebecca really wasn’t feeling well (pobrecita) and she got a single room to try to recover. Julia, Katie, and I went to the hostel bar to try some Belgian beers. I am not a fan of beers, but I got a very light-tasting Hoegaarden that turned out to be bearable. I might actually have enjoyed it. Katie got a typical Belgian beer called Kwak that comes in a strange wooden contraption and is supposed to make a sound like a duck when you drink from it. After the bar, Katie and I went to the sound-proof club right next to the hostel where we sort of wreaked havoc. It was “rock night” and the only people who were dancing were head bangers. So we requested that the DJ play “Waka Waka” by Shakira – he was not having it and showed us the rock symbol with his hands. I was talking loudly over the music to the bar manager when the music cut out suddenly and everyone heard me yelling. He looked at me, said, “Jesus Christ,” and walked away. I’m not sure I’ve laughed that much in a long time. Because the club was so terrible, we called it a night and planned to go out somewhere better the following night.

The next morning, we headed out to see the gorgeous city of Bruges. We met some guys from our hostel on the walk there. We had actually eavesdropped on their conversation the night before and knew they were studying abroad in Granada, but we played dumb and chatted with them about southern Spain. After a quick stroll around the Christmas market (I love Christmas!), we climbed the Belfry Tower. It was quite an adventure but a lot of fun to do in a group. There is a line in In Bruges where they tell a family of overweight people that they would never make it up the tower, and I wasn’t sure if that was an exaggeration, but I found out that it most certainly was not. The tower consists of a windy 366 steps to the top. Both the steps and the spiral become narrower and narrower as you climb. The traffic jams of people going down and coming up are quite terrifying. You pretty much have to hold onto the rope or railing or down you’ll go. But we were laughing and joking with the boys and the other people in the stairwell throughout the entire thing so it was a lot of fun. The view from the top was certainly pretty, but I enjoyed the view from the top of the tower in Ghent more. The one in Bruges had wire covering the windows and it was very foggy. Nonetheless, it was definitely a memorable climb. The only time I stumbled was near the bottom on the easiest step in the entire tower. It was so big that I didn’t even realize it dropped down. That was quite ironically funny.

After that work out, I got the most delicious cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream from a stand at the Christmas market. I forgot how good hot chocolate can be (or maybe it’s always that good if you use milk). We decided it was time to eat and went to get cheap pasta with the boys. Katie and I shared a delicious salad and pasta carbonera. Then we went to see Jesus’ dried blood at the Basilica of the Holy Blood. It was in a fancy tube up at the altar, and you walk up to the tube and place your hands on it. That is some seriously old blood – it looked a lot like a dried scab. There is a priest who wipes the tube after every person – I felt bad that he had that boring job but I guess it is pretty cool that he gets to work with Jesus’ blood everyday.

Me and Katie on a Canal

The boys departed for Amsterdam and we went on a lovely walk around Bruges. The town is just plain adorable! The roofs are so cute with their ridged edges. The shops are full of cheer and, most importantly, chocolate. I have never seen so many chocolate shops in all my life. I think we went in most of them, too. The sugar content of that town has got to be off the charts. If anyone who lives there is not diabetic, I am impressed. I bought some boxes of chocolate to give as gifts but mostly looked at the beautiful candies. And when we found free samples, it was a joyous occasion. After many Christmas and candy shops and priceless views of canals, we sat down for a waffle. This waffle was infinitely better than my waffle in Brussels – it was soft and covered in amazing whipped cream and cherries. Yum yum.

Then we headed back for a brief rest before the night began. While I was in the lobby, I asked a group of boys a question. When we got to talking, I asked what school they went to, and they said, “Tufts University.” I freaked out and said, “Noooo way!” I was so excited to see people from that amazing place that I miss so much. It turns out that I had actually met one of them before at a frat party. We reminisced about Tufts for a bit before they headed out. We got Rebecca to come out of her room – she was still very sick – and had some take out dinner in the bar before going out.

Katie and I left around 11:30 and headed in the rain to a section of town called the Egg Market. The second bar we walked into turned out to be a success when I immediately got approached by a guy who claimed to be from Kazakhstan. I called him out on his lie because his British accent was shining through. We hung out with him and his friend for the rest of the night. They were hilarious! Katie and I mostly enjoyed when they would bicker with each other in amazing accents, although they tried to say that our accents were better. One of the guys was really sassy – he didn’t quite understand what that word meant though – so there are some memorable quotes from the night. We went to a few different bars but none of them were the dance clubs we were seeking. But Katie and I did dance to “Waka Waka” alone in the corner of a sit down bar. Eventually, we headed home and stopped by the club near our hostel. It was terrible again so we walked out after five seconds. Some Spanish guys followed us out and we started talking in English. I asked what he spoke and he said Spanish so we switched to that, which made them very happy. I had a blast chatting with them in Spanish and translating some things for Katie. It had certainly been refreshing to hear English speakers in Belgium, but it is infinitely more fun speaking in Spanish. It made me very excited to go to Madrid today. After a funny conversation, we decided it was time for bed and passed out after 3:30 am.

We got up too early this morning, had breakfast, checked out, and went to the train station. We got off at Brussels (Rebecca headed to her flight back to Sevilla) and Katie and I went to see the Christmas market that I had missed the first time around. It was massive! The one we had seen before in Brussels was a joke compared to this one – it is apparently the third largest in Europe. There were endless delicious-looking stands. My favorites were the ones with interesting jams (prunes with dark chocolate, pears with rum, strawberries with vanilla) and candied fruits of every kind (melons, kiwis, celery). I was in a bit of a rush to catch my flight, but I’m so glad I got to see the market, even in the rain. On the way to the big square in Brussels, someone grabbed my arm. I was about to tell them that I couldn’t help them with directions, but it was my friend Andrea from Sevilla. What a small Europe!

I bid farewell to Katie (I’m soooo happy we got to meet up in Europe) and headed to collect my luggage and trek to the airport. I had to take the shuttle back and then wait for a bit in the airport, but it was not bad. Someone in the airport said to me, “Hey, you were my orientation leader at Tufts!” What are the chances of this happening? She had actually spotted me on the train to Bruges too. We caught up on life – she is studying abroad in Alcalá – and I met some of her other friends from Tufts. It was great hearing about their experiences and not having to fly alone. On the flight, I met some really nice people from Madrid who gave me a list of things to do there. They were super sweet and, again, really fun to talk to.

Now the plane is landing and I’m off to meet up with Brenna and Rosa. I am beyond excited to see them – I know we will have the best time together for the next 15 days. A little bit of home is coming to Spain, and I cannot wait!