Bruges and Brussels: Part 2

Let’s start with some random quotes. Context doesn’t really matter.

Ann: Ha. Kyle’s toes are pregnant
Kyle: Hey! All my toes are male, thank you

Kyle: I could hit myself in the leg with a hammer all afternoon and not leave a mark. You carry around a heavy bag and your entire side’s bruised

Kyle: I have skin like a bear

Kyle: Let’s have a metro day with all of the high class people. You know, with their top hats and molecules. And mullets.

Kyle: I’m going to sleep so I don’t have to exist in these pants
Ann: I’m pretty sure that you still exist when you sleep

Kyle: Something smells like wet dog. I think it’s me.
Ann: Yeah. It’s you.
Kyle: Yeah

Kyle: Notice that he didn’t speak English to us. It’s because we blend in so well

Ann: You’re wearing a 4^th of July T-shirt.

            So, today was Bruges day. We got breakfast at the hostel (cornflakes and milk from a box), and then got in the metro to the train station, where we bought a ticket and figured out what platform to go to. There were other tourists there (I think from Germany asking us, “Is this the platform to Bruges?” “Um, we think so…” We actually were right, except soon after, there was a platform change, We heard all of the German tourists go into a kerfluffle, and the word “Bruges” repeated over and over. Then, a very nice man who had been standing in the background (one of those “angels”) led us all to the right platform. The train ride was uneventful and the countryside is nothing to remark at (Kyle: This looks like Russia. Well, what I imagine Russia to look like). Kyle fell asleep on his tray and walked around Bruges for a while with a mark on his head. He also claims that he saw David Hyde Pierce driving around Bruges.

            To say that Bruges is picturesque would be understating it. It is intimate and not crowded at all, with many old buildings (some dating from the 1500s) and small shops, especially lace and chocolate, with many “specialty” chocolate shops. There are a lot of gorgeous, small parks and waterways. Kyle said that Bruges is crazy awesome. And that he was worried about the huge swans and spoke of throttling one. And we both said that his parents would love it there.

            In Bruges, there are many churches, including St. Salvatorkathedraal and Onze Lieve Vrowkerk), which we saw, as well as a priory called Beginhof that the nuns allow the public to tour through. It is here that I hit myself in the face with a church door and had my own personal Tommy Boy moment (“not here, but right here”).

            The two main sites in Bruges are the Markt (with the ornate Provinciaal Hof and the Belfort en Hallen) and the Burg. For me, the Burg is arguably  the more impressive of the two, with the beautiful Stadhuis (or town hall), and the Mansion of the Liberty of Bruges. Also in the Burg is the Basilica of the Holy Blood, where a vial of Christ’s blood supposedly resides. In the church, people queue up to touch the glass box containing the vial, and a person is stationed there to wipe the glass after each one leaves.

            Leaving the Burg, we got some “lunch” at a chocolate shop (he milk, I dark), and went back to the Markt to sit and eat it. Then I ordered fries ( or frites) from a street vendor, Belgian style, which means with mayonnaise. It is then that Kyle decides to inform me that I’ve been “walking around like a 3 yr. old” with chocolate all over my mouth. Just when we were finishing the fries, we felt a drop of rain; as we gather our things and head for the station, Kyle keeps assuring me that “it will pass” and starts counting down, ultimately in smaller and smaller fractions (“1 1/16…1 1/20…”). We walk most of the way in the pouring rain. I’m talking sheets soaking us. We make the train back to Brussels, and decide to go back to the hotel to dry off. I lend Kyle my hair dryer, and he begins using it to dry off his hoodie. All of a sudden, we hear a loud pop and sizzle and sparks and smoke come out of the socket (yes, lesson learned the hard way). We blew the electricity in our room, which meant no lights, etc., for the night. R.I.P. hair dryer.

            Thankfully, it wasn’t raining in Brussels, so we decide to walk to Basilisk (massive), and from there, Kyle decides it wouldn’t be too bad to walk to the Atomium. Plus, I could look for a pin for my friend Dan. Thus began our idiot journey in which we took turns leading us farther and farther into stupid. We ultimately wandered for hours, getting into more and more random parts of Brussels (“Didn’t we pass that headless fox before?”). Remember those winding, hilly streets? Well, every time we got a glimpse of the Atomium, we would take a street that looked like it headed there, only to be curved away and the Atomium disappear like a mirage. Finally, we decided to head all of the way back to where we started, using the compass app on my tablet to keep us straight, and take the metro.

            By the time we got there, mini Europe was closed (I got a glimpse over the fence) and I was an Ann-zombie walking through flower beds with knees that felt like they were getting stabbed repeatedly by tiny knives. We looked at the Atomium (“Look…giant…thing”) and then headed back to the hostel where I passed out shoes and all. The next morning, I took what I had begun to call a “holocaust” shower (dark, cold, stinky, and you had to keep pushing the button to keep any water flowing).

So, that was Belgium. Tomorrow, we go to another country: the Netherlands.