Lost in Bruges

Since England is super awesome with their holiday benefits, I have decided to head of to mainland Europe for 16 days. Yeah, I already got 16 days off and I’ve only been working over three months! And boys and girls, I get another 28 days, not including my days off added on, starting in March! Come on Canada, I think you need to follow England by example. Well as it is now, I am sitting on my hostel bed in Bruges, Belgium. And as a movie about this town starring a famous Irish actor once said, “It’s like a bloody fairy tale.”

Yup, Fairy Tale

Yes. It’s a canal, and chocolate fairy tale. I think I went into at least 7 chocolate shops today. Oh man, this chocolate is good. For example, and my mom will be super jealous about this one, I got a dark chocolate cherry liqueur treat since they are my favourite. Seriously, I stopped dead in my tracks when I bit into this thing. First off it was a real cherry, none of that maraschino crap. It even had a stem and a pit! But it was probably the most delicious chocolate I have ever eaten. Then I went to the next shop. A dark chocolate ganauche with these crunchy bits on it. Oh.. Oh, yeah. Then I proceeded onto the next shop. Man, I almost can’t wait to get out of this country just so I can’t temp myself with delicious chocolates! Well as I am here now though, I bought a few and was nibbling on them all day. But enough about chocolates, I was talking about this fairy tale land I’m in. It’s full of super cute old buildings that wind down twisting lanes and over top of these lovely canals.

Beautiful Bruges

It’s exactly what I picture when I think about what Europe should look like. So I’ve tried to act like a local, but in these winding lanes, I’ve gotten a bit lost every time I try to find my hostel, so I have to pull out my map. But what I did was just explored. When trying to see the city, don’t look at the map and try to take a direct route from one thing to the next. Just get lost. The map is there when you need important things. Like me trying to get home. But just lose yourself in the cobble stone streets and try to picture what this place would’ve been like in its glory days a few hundred years back. I went and saw the Belfry Tower. Though I am scared of spiral staircases I told myself, “Kailea, you are going to climb up that thing to look at the view of this town.” So I marched up to that tower and went to pay for my admission, only to read a sign saying that the tower would be closed until March due to restoration. Well, at least I tried. So then I went to the Chocolate Museum. Nope. Closed until later this week. Come on Bruges, there has to be something open. Well there was, I went to the City Hall where I had a look around and all the historic paintings in there.

Inside City Hall

And I also went to the Basilica next door, the Holy Blood Chapel, where I saw , (you guessed it!) the Holy Blood. It was a glass and gold encrusted cylinder that has what is supposed to be Jesus’ blood. Well, I’m not the most religious person in the world, but I gave my offering and looked at this blood. It was kinda interesting. Definitely looked like 2012 year old blood. But there was a lot in there. I would’ve thought it would’ve maybe evaporated or something in there. But anyways, away from the awkward religion discussions. Then I went to the Church of Our Lady where I saw Michelangelo’s statue, Madonna with Child, and ended up later on at a Salvador Dali Expo. No complaints there since he is the creator of my favourite painting. So the rest of the day I wandered aimlessly around Bruges, dodging horse drawn carriages and cyclists alike and going into whatever church or place of interest came my way.

First meal in Bruges

I started the day with the most delicious hot chocolate I have ever had, which I think was just steamed milk and Belgian chocolate shavings, sampled the famous fries with some mayonnaise while looking up at the Belfry Tower, last night gobbled down a stupid amount of mussels with garlic which I think is something of a national dish, and for dinner tonight I had “stew, in the Flemish way” which was very good. So if you are ever heading over to Belgium, check out Bruges. It’s a fairy tale.