Saturday in Bruges

Express, the international exchange student welcome group here at ULB, organized an extraordinarily cheap trip to Bruges for us today. It only took a one hour train ride to get there, but that was enough distance for the weather to rapidly change from sunny to dense fog. No matter, the farm fields passing by in the train windows and Bruges itself seemed much more mysterious that way.

Bruges is a lovely little medieval town, with canals and buildings in all kinds of styles from gothic to gilded renaissance buildings. I'm no expert in architecture, but it's pretty interesting to see when they're all lined up together.

We did a bike tour that took us to a very nearby town called Damme, which is a bit closer to the coast (I still haven't actually seen the Belgian coast yet though). It was really weird riding a bike on cobblestone! Especially while trying to fit down a narrow street that's croweded with a strange mix of cars, pedestrians, cyclists, horse-drawn carriages, and motorbikes. I didn't hit anyone though, and no one hit me! It seems drivers in Bruges are a bit more willing to wait for pedestrians and cyclists than those in Brussels.

On our bikes we passed windmills and farm fields with furry clydesdale-like horses, although I didn't take pictures because we were busy zooming by. Next time I visit Flanders or the Netherlands I will get my windmill pictures!

A few of us decided to end the trip with some Belgian fries, and an assortment of sauces from curry mayo to a tomato-based provençale sauce. Next time I might try the samurai sauce; I'm guessing wasabi mayo. I didn't know what language to order in, since Bruges is in Flanders (the Flemish part of Belgium) and I'd heard French isn't appreciated too much there. Not speaking a word of Flemish, I opted for English which usually makes me feel like an ignorant tourist. But when I asked the guy at the fry place he said he can serve you in about six different languages, as can most other tourist places, because very few tourists speak Flemish.

So now that I'm back in my room in Brussels, I'm sore and tired from so much biking, but looking forward to my next trip, although I don't know just yet where to.

Monday I start my French course, and I have a few other classes to try out in this coming week as well. I'll see how that goes, and I'll update you next time I've got a good story!

All the best to everyone at home!