In Bruges

It seems as the weeks go by, my weekends are getting busier and busier. I just realized on the train last night that I’ve been here for a whole month now. It’s hard to imagine my trip being almost one third of the way over! Three and a half months just doesn’t cut it.

If you look back at my last post, I mentioned I wanted to go somewhere, but I didn’t know where. Well about an hour after posting it, my roommate, Chris said he really wanted to go to Bruges and Paris this weekend. So we did! We planned our weekend that night and the next day, we had our flights.

We flew Ryanair, a low cost airline that many students and Europeans use to travel around the continent and parts of North Africa. The problem with this airline is that the airports they fly in and out of are way outside of the city. So we took an hour train ride to Pisa Airport where we were packed like sardines trying to get boarded. Apparently, Ryanair overbooks flights, so if you’re in the back of the crowd, there’s a chance you won’t get on the plane. Once on the tarmac, people literally ran to the steps of the plane to have first dibs on a seat. We got seats next to each other no problem.

We flew into Brussels, Belgium, or so we thought. It was a small town outside of Brussels called Charleroi. We had to take a 45-minute bus ride to actually get to the city Ryanair advertized. We had no idea where we were when they dropped us off at a train station. We picked the tallest church-like spire we could see, and walked towards it. About a half hour later, we were finally in Brussels. On the way, there was a bright yellow van that was selling fresh Belgian waffles. At only 1.50€ a piece, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse! I was in Belgium, eating a Belgian waffle. Let me tell you, I had never eaten a Belgian waffle that tasted so good!! It was a completely plain waffle, hot out of the iron, and it tasted like it was crusted with sugar. I don’t think I can ever order another Belgian waffle from First Watch again! 

We walked around for a few more hours, tasting the local cuisine and enjoying the beautiful mixture of architecture of both old and new. For dinner, we had another local specialty, French fries, (it makes you wonder why they aren’t called Belgian Fries!) and a type of chicken that looked more like fried potato wedges, and a local beer called Hoegaarden.

After dinner, we took a train to Bruges, Belgium, known as the Venice of the north. It’s also where the name of the film In Bruges took place, hence the name of this post. We walked through the streets of Bruges for a few hours, looking for hostels to stay in. At about 10:30 when we gave up, we came across a small hotel that had a bar on the first floor. For only 65 euro, we were able to stay in a really nice room that overlooked the canals and church steeples of the city.  After dropping our stuff on the bed out of exhaustion, we went down to the bar to try another Belgian beer. We asked for the darkest beer they had and he gave us what he said was voted Best Beer in the World in 2009. He was right. It was so good, we had to get two more to take back to the room and we saved the bottles.

The next morning, we went in search of the Basilica of the Holy Blood, a church that holds a relic of the blood of Jesus. It is said to be a part of the cloth that Joseph of Aramathea cleaned Jesus with after taking his bloody body down from the cross. It was brought back during the Crusades by a soldier from Bruges after the war and has remained there since. During certain hours, we are able to venerate the Blood of Christ by actually walking up to the altar and being able to touch the glass casing protecting the vial. A priest stands behind the altar, wiping fingerprints off the glass. Walking up to it, I didn’t exactly know what to expect. Would it be hard to see? Would it be covered in dirt after 2,000 years? When it became my turn, I was very surprised to see a completely intact white piece of cloth stained with the bright red Blood of Christ. The stains were so red and fresh looking, it looks as if the piece of cloth was used the day before the clean the wounds of Christ. It was truly an amazing experience.

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the small picturesque town, looking on as boat tours sailed by on the canals and horse drawn carriages took tourists on rides down the narrow cobblestone streets. We had lunch at a restaurant overlooking a canal and had the first piece of steak in over a month. It was so mouth watering juicy and came with fries, delicious vegetable soup and bread. We of course had another locally brewed beer that was as good as the one from the night before. 

Taking the train back to Brussels, we took a high-speed train to Paris, which only took about two hours. The ride was so smooth you wouldn’t even know you were moving at over 100 mph. We arrived at Gare du Nord and went straight to the Eiffel Tower via metro. This was my third time in Paris, but I didn’t want Chris to miss the beauty of the tower being lit up at night. Paris by night is a must for all visitors to the city!

The next morning we walked a few blocks from our hotel to climb the Eiffel Tower. We turned the corner expecting to see the tower, but it was gone! Well, half of it anyway. It was so cloudy and foggy that morning, you could only see up to the first observation deck. We decided that we would go up anyway in hopes it would clear up by the time we got to the top. It didn’t. It reminded me of when I was on a mountain in Switzerland seven years ago and all you could see was white clouds. An occasional gust of wind would clear away some clouds to give you a brief glimpse of the city, but that was it. 

The next stop was Notre Dame Cathedral. The magnificent bell towers rose high on the Parisian skyline, but not nearly as tall as Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame makes them seem. A quick walk though of the cathedral was all we could afford with a tight schedule.

On our way to the Louvre, we stopped at a side café to get crepes. Neither of us had eaten, so the big egg, ham and cheese crepes were at the top of the list. It was a great snack to hold us over in line at the Louvre. It went surprisingly fast and before we knew it, we were going down the escalator in the giant glass pyramid that has become an icon in Paris. As international students, we were able to get free admission, so we didn’t feel bad that we were only there for about an hour. We walked in, followed the signs for the Mona Lisa (La Giaconda in Italian), saw the Mona Lisa, took pictures of it, and left. It was almost a sinful thing to do, but we didn’t have a choice. The airport where our flight left from wasn’t actually in Paris… it was in Beauvais, a town that took us over an hour by train and a ten-minute bus ride to get to.

Overall, it has been the greatest weekend I’ve spent here. I ate a Belgian waffle and drank Belgian beer in Belgium, ate a crepe in France, touched the Blood of Jesus, went up the Eiffel Tower, passed through Notre Dame, and visited the Mona Lisa. I’d say it was a pretty successful trip.

A lot of you are telling me I need to write more, and I’d love to every other day if I could, but internet is hard to come by and I’d spend every second of my free time writing. I’ll try to get another up before my trip to Budapest!

Ciao for now!