Belgium

Belgium was AMAZINGGG!!!

Mari (my flatmate) and I went to Belgium last weekend. It was such a perfect weekend. We left around 4 after our Friday classes. We took the Eurostar (a train) from London St. Pancras to Brussells. The ride was only a couple of hours. We both really wanted to spend more time in Brugge than Brussells so we arranged 2 nights accommodation in a hostel in Brugge. When we got into Brussells, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then, through a series of pantomimes, pointing, broken English and French, we managed to purchase tickets to catch a train from Brussells to Brugge.

By the time we got to Brugge it was around 11 and we were supposed to be able to take bus 6 or 16 from the station to our hostel. We, however, are not fluent in Flemish, Dutch, French, or German and could not find said buses. We finally got on a bus that said it was going to a word that looked like it resembled the ‘town centre’. It was getting late so we figured we’d take our chances. Well, we made the right decision and the bus did indeed drop us in the town center. The ride was no more than 3 minutes so in the amount of time we took debating on which bus to take, we easily could have walked the distance.

Anyways, we got to the town center and still had to make our way to the hostel. We pulled out the map we, luckily, picked up at the station and found our way to the hostel. Checking in was interesting as there was no reception desk. The reception desk was literally the bar. After checking it we headed up to our room, which we were sharing with 4 other girls. It was nice enough for 2 nights.

Saturday morning we got up around 8:30, put on some clothes and headed down for the free breakfast (which consisted of instant coffee and bread and butter). We then headed out to explore the town. It was really nice traveling with Mari because we are both rather laid back people. We didn’t have a plan as to what we wanted to see or where, specifically, we wanted to go which made it really nice and relaxing. We wandered through all the main streets, went through little markets, moseyed down little side streets, sat by the river and watched the horse carriages drive by. It was just very very relaxing and non-stressful. We stopped in a small café to warm up and grab a bit of lunch.

After finishing my delicious panini, we hit the streets again. We went up the Belfry tower in the centre of town. We had to climb about 366 steps to get to the top but the view was amazing and you stand literally right under the massive bells (which makes it a VERY loud experience).

We spent the rest of the afternoon milling about and we ate dinner in a little Italian restaurant in the center of town. It looked so pretty at night all light up and they had Christmas lights up too. After walking the entire day we were ready to tuck in early so we headed back to the hostel around 10 and we just laid around and read a bit.

Sunday we woke up around 8:30 again and had breakfast. It was raining but we decided it would probably end up taking just as much time to get to the station if we waited for the bus as if we walked, so we opted for walking. We checked out and started the trek. About 45 minutes later we were at the train station on the next train to Brussells. When we got to Brussells we decided the two things we really needed to see where the Atomium and Manikin Pis so we decided to start at Atomium and throughout the day make our way back south west.

We got to the station and, once again, combining our acting skills with our limited knowledge of French we somehow managed to get metro tickets. We jumped on the next train to some city that started with an ‘S’ and from there we caught the metro to the Atomium. The weather was pretty gross most of Sunday but for the most part we were either on a train or standing in line at the Atomium while it rained most heavily. Mom and Dad have a picture in front of Atomium so I made sure to get one of me in front of it. After we climbed to the top, we took the metro back toward the market.

We wandered around, ate waffles and chocolate, and had pitas for lunch. There seem to be a lot of Greek restaurants in Brussells. Mari and I both decided that we liked Brugge better. Brussells was cool, but it felt very much like any other ‘large’ European city. We both liked it better at night. It felt less dirty and looked prettier with all the lights and Christmas lights.

After trekking back and forth across the city for the entire day we headed back to the station to catch our train back to London. We ended up getting there about 2 hours early so we had one final waffle covered in chocolate with haggen das ice cream. Delicious. We were both exhausted after lugging our backpacks around with us all day and having spent the majority of the past 2 days walking walking walking. We got into London between 10 and 10:30 and we went right to bed.

I had SUCH a great time. Belgium is the perfect place to escape to for a romantic and relaxing weekend. Brugge is quite possibly the cutest most picturesque city I’ve traveled to. It looks like it should be on a Christmas cookie tin and the people were all super friendly and helpful and I felt very safe there. All the cafes and pubs were so cozy and had open fires. The streets are cobblestone and you can always hear the horses walking around. Church bells ring loudly throughout the day and big windmills are scattered along the river. It is just so beautiful. I can’t wait to see what Stockholm will be like!