What can we say about Bruges?Fook'n Bruges!
Thats what Colin Farrell said, and he was both right, and wrong about that.
Wrong because, when we arrived in Bruges at 9:30pm it was dusk (it doesn't get dark round these parts till 10pm this time of year) and Bruges at dusk, is quite simply, beautiful. The mix of modern neon lights with ye olden day brick and tile houses all jumbled together like a jigsaw puzzle is adorable.
She has tiny little cobblestone streets that wind their way around a seemingly endless maze, broken up only by pretty canals full of swans and ducklings, and 500 year old horse bridges.
Sweet. And evil.
The first place we went for lunch when we arrived, served me a delicious and traditional Belgian meal of moules & frites. Aka mussels and chips.
The chips were fine, but the mussels tried to kill me.
At first I was fine, but as the hours passed and my stomach started making weird gurgling noises, I had to race back to the hotel in barely enough time before I started vomiting. I spent the good part of the afternoon and evening bent over some fine Bruges china. Not exactly how I had wanted to experience the place.
Fook'n Bruges!
But apart from this one minor blip in the road, I have to say, Bruges was pretty cool. There's no McDonalds or Starbucks. No mall or mega movie complex. It really is a township from another time.
We did the obligatory climb to the top of the clock tower a la 'In Bruges' and we visited the church that claims to have a vial of Jesus blood. We also managed to have dinner at a traditional Flemish restaurant (I didn't order the mussels this time) and I partook of the local Bruges amber beer. Sarah and I also both drank the very tradtional Kriek Cherry beer. It tasted a bit like cold cough syrup. Sarah loved it, but I definitely prefer the less sweet De Post version in NZ.
We also went to the frites museum, and learnt everything you never wanted to know about chips. Turns out, they're made from potatoes. Who knew?
And pretty much that's about all there was to Bruges. It was cool, and cruel, but we liked it.
And three days was definitely long enough.
