Thursday: 14 May 2009

Beautiful rivers, bridges and windmills outline the townships edge with old city gates and walls giving this town a charming feel. City streets lead to the center with churches towering above and multicolored buildings tall and thin. Side by side houses, restaurants, cafes, chocolatiers and pubs that serves Belgian beer. Fields of little white flowers, Bright Red doors, cobble stone streets and lush greenery capture the early summer scene of Bruges in May. Frits, a Belgian pride, even have their own museum while Belgian chocolates fill window displays in shapes of hearts, swans and even white, dark and milk chocolate shaped “body parts”. Artists paint Bruges scenes and beautiful statues of lovers embracing can be seen through out the many squares and in open areas throughout the town. Each city in Belgium is so delightful as if it is not reality but a dream. The smell of chocolate in the air, charming people and the beautiful French language give this country a place in my heart as somewhere I would love to live and explore further. Bruges has an enchanting and romantic feel that can capture your heart and makes all the stresses of traveling disappear.

I stayed in a pleasant hostel near the city center with a bar just beneath our rooms. It was nice to leave our belongings in the room while we walked the streets of Bruges. Alex joined me the majority of the day and then set off for Maastricht to get ready for his travels to London and Iceland. We attempted to make it to the train station quickly but ended up following the river in the wrong direction. It was nice to see the rural areas and walk along the river, bridges with graffiti and winding dirt roads but as the sun set and the time coming near before his train departed it was a little stressful to know you are missing your train and not know when the next one may be. Luckily the next train was only another hour wait. I learned my lesson and the next day I arrived on time to catch my train to Bruxelles then on to Charleroi where I will be flying out to Bratislava, Slovakia.