But really what it came down to was the huge line at the train station at the ticket office and only 4 people working. One thing Americans do well that the French lack is efficiency. Really? Four people in an international train station on the eve of France's month of holidays and vacations? We put our larger suitcases in train station lockers and coughed up some extra euros to get tickets for the next train.
We had a decent ride there and arrived in Brussels with no idea of what to do next lol. We realized that we were quite unprepared. We only had a vague idea of what we were going to do based of an itinerary my friend who studied in Brussels had written for one of his friends who came to visit.
After walking around the station for a few minutes, we found a place to buy tickets to Bruges. The tickets were substantially more expensive than we had anticipated but not terribly unreasonable so we coughed up those euros too. We ended up buying this youth train pass that the lady told us was cheaper than the regular tickets and if I happen to be in Belgium, I can use the pass I bought again (highly unlikely that that will be the case but who knows what could happen).
On the train ride to Bruges, a little girl Clara sat in front of us with her grandmother. She kept turning around and playing with Brittany and I and we tried to talk to her in French but sometimes she was hard to understand. I don't know if that was because Brittany's and my French was bad or if she had a funny accent or if she just couldn't prononciate well being only about to turn 4. Or a combination of those options. She had a little Goofy doll she was playing with so I got the doll I bought Gretel out of my bag and played with her for a bit. Clara loved the doll and was sad when I put her back in my bag.
We got to the Bruges train station and went to the information desk to make sure we the train times for coming back to Brussels and stowed some stuff in lockers there. We got a 50 euro centime map of Bruges and headed out the door. To our surprise and pleasure, we found out that Bruges is a small city, and very easy to walk. We ate some pricey waffles that tasted more like cake than breakfast but I was ok with that :) . Waffles are more of a desert in Europe, sometimes they sold them at crepe stands in France with nutella or fruit.
We saw a shop called DIDI and I had to buy my sister something from it because that is her nickname. Then we found the main square with the Belfry tower. I felt like I was at Disneyland but it was real life. It was mostly funny to me and I exclaimed in disbelief, "What is this?" Brittany was like, "This is Bruges." We just stood there for a while taking it in and spinning around in the middle of the square to take in all the colors and architectural details on the Gothic buildings.
We decided to climb the stairs to the top of the Belfry. I am glad that Europe has discounts for students and youth because it was like eight euro normally which would have been a rip off but for those under 26 it was only four! It is motivation to go back to Europe in before I get past my mid twenties for sure. It is much cheaper that way and the cheap way is still assez cher. But anyways, the Belfry was pretty cool. The stairs were very narrow, windy, and steep. I felt like I was basically crawling up them at some points. The view from the top was beautiful and we stopped on a level to see the giant music box like contraption that plays the bells every 15 minutes. On some special occasions, the bells are still played manually.
After our descent, we wandered through streets looking in chocolat shop windows. They were all different and yet the same. Some were cute and whimsical with chocolat ducks and shells and others displayed their impressive selections of pralines. Some had pretty displays dressed with boxes and bows like jewelery stores. On our way, we decided to impulsively take an hour boat tour. There is a river/canal that goes through the center of the city (it seems pretty like the cool thing to have in your city in Europe ha ha, of course because that is how civilizations developed, around water but anyways, it is something different and charming). Our tour guide spoke English, Dutch, and French and said all his informational blurbs and jokes in all three. Pretty impressive but I could see it getting really old for him after two boat tours lol. Brittany and I loved it.
After our lovely tour, we went to the Church of our Lady and saw Madonna and Child by Michaelangelo. They had a lot of really cool art in that church and even a small museum with admission fee. We just stayed in the free part of the church and admired the workmanship as Brittany explained some Catholic beliefs and ordinances to me. It was all pretty fascinating actually.
We wandered through a few more chocolat stores and I bought some chocolat gifts and we decided to head back to the train station. We made it back to Brussels around 7:00 and were once again completely clueless as to what to do next. We had a hotel reserved but didn't exactly know how to get there lol. Luckily the girl at the tourism booth was extremely helpful. She gave us excellent directions and we took a short metro ride and walked less than five minutes to our hotel.
The hotel was surprisingly nice and had free wifi, something we didn't notice when booking so that was a pleasant surprise as well. We checked in and relaxed for a while. We had a rough morning so it felt good to just lay on our beds for a few minutes and check email.
As our need for rest gave way to our hunger, we decided to head out in search of Belgium's traditional meal of mussels and french fries our as the French say, Moules Frites. We saw some places very close to our hotel and didn't feel like walking to the center of the town because we weren't exactly sure how far that was in addition to the fact that we were very hungry so we sat ourselves down and orderd a moules frites to share as per Madame's recommendation that the dish is large and perfect to split. The moules were great and the fries even better. We ate them with mayonnaise instead of ketchup and I think I will do that forever. It was good. I know it sounds disgusting and fatty but trust me, just try it. Maybe get some European mayonnaise first though... I don't know if french fries and Miracle Whip or Best Foods would yeild the same taste. (I just have to have a disclaimer in case you don't like it :-P)
After our yummy Belgiun dinner, we walked towards the Grand Place, the center of the city. Luckily the city was tiny and so it took us like five minutes even though looking at a map you'd think it was like a twenty minute walk. Brussels is pretty at night and pretty quiet until you get to the Grand Place. There was a light show on it with music, and I got the impression that it is a regular occurance. I wonder if they do it every night. Brittany got some ice cream and I bought a waffle and we sat down to watch the show. After the show was over, we walked through some more central streets. It was a lot more lively there and there were more restaurants and greater selection of cheaper mussels so we were kind of upset that we hadn't walked down here earlier. It was a lot more happening and there were people actually out and about walking through the streets through the colorful shops and restaurants.
We didn't stay out too late because we had to walk back to our hotel alone but we actually felt very safe. We didn't really see any shady people or anything really and the streets were very lit up. But we were also tired and needed our rest.
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