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Published: January 31st 2010
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bruges 006
The old hospital museum BRUGES Day 4
On my way to the train station to go to Bruges I decided to stop in on a daily market in the Marolles neighborhood. This is the area of Brussels where they would quarantine/cast out those with leprosy. The area is now a really neat and interesting area that has a lot of antique shops. The Market had a lot of fun stuff and even some vintage clothes. I found a pretty 1930ish yellow floral dress with lace trim. Super cute but I decided that it isn’t really something that can be worn today so I decided not to get it. There was also a pretty dirndl dress from Germany but it was about 5 sizes too big.
Next stop… Bruges…
Bruges is a really nice town. I was there on a Sunday so it was really quiet and peaceful. The majority of the town is the old medieval style but significant portions have been rebuilt in the last century but it is still a worthwhile see. The Markt, or Main Square, is pretty nice but Brussels is definitely superior. It is a nice town to just wander around in as there are nice buildings
and statues to find along the way. I came across a lovely statue of a couple dancing with their ball masks on and another building that had conductor hands coming out of the top of the wall and then a small orchestra coming out below the hands. Neat things that aren’t on the tourist maps and you can only find by walking around aimlessly.
While walking towards a beautiful fountain I was suddenly surrounded by a group of small children. They were holding a thermos of hot choco and a bucket for change. They were all asking, at once, if I would like to buy a hot choco (in dutch). I asked “parlez-vous francais” and they started at me confused so then I went for “do you speak English” and they looked even more confused. So then I went for holding up my finger saying 1 Euro… 2 euro… 3 Euro…. Eventually a little girl shouted 50 cents. So I bought their hot choco. As I was sipping my warm choco I began to think… Either I have just given money to some evil organization that uses children for labour or I have given money to an organization with
belfort
You can climb a couple hundred stairs to the top of the tower. a very intelligent marketing ploy of cute small children surrounding people until they buy stuff. I later found out that they were collecting money for Haiti so I guess it wasn’t some evil child labour scam. But it was funny… as I was being surrounded all I could think was “ahhhh small children everywhere. How do I make them stop???” Further down the road I found another gaggle of small things but they weren’t children this time they were… get ready for it… Canadian Geese!!
I stopped to chat with my peoples in feather form but they didn’t really understand me. I tried a little heart stirring rendition of Oh Canada and nothing. So I’m thinking they were geese from Quebec. I yelled “Bloc Quebecois” and thought I saw a glimmer of excitement in their eyes so I think they were Quebecois Geese so I left them rather disappointed.
I moved on to the lovely grounds of the Ten Wijngaerde Beguinage. This is a place for religious women who did not want to take vows (either widows or spinsters) but still wanted to live a religious lifestyle. These women got together and created these Beguinage, aka ‘cities of
peace’, so they could live together. It was an interesting place to visit and there are still some ladies living there. My favourite part was when I was walking out of the compound I kept hearing a morning dove and I was looking and looking and I finally found it. It was nested in the arms of mother Mary and baby Jesus in a statue coming out of one of the walls of a building.
While visiting Bruges, where it is far more Flemish speaking, I have come to the conclusion that the Dutch language sounds like an English speaking person but with a head cold. Take some Benylin and we can clear that Dutch right up... he he he just kidding. I am aware that both Dutch and English are Germanic languages and we most likely stole words from them and that’s why they sound so similar but it is really funny. Here are examples:
1) Thank you = Dank u
2) Good morning = Goedenmorgen
3) Good Day = Goedendag
4) It is = Het is
5) I am here = Ik ben hier
6) Where is = Waar is
7) Is this = Is dit
I arrived back in my hostel and had two new aussi roomies (Annie and Meaghan) so I joined them for dinner. We went to the famous food street where reps form the restaurants stand out in the street yelling for you to come in and have a meal. We picked the cheapest one for some mussels and fries. It was a pretty good dinner for only 10Euros. The girls had been traveling Europe for the last 6 weeks and had two weeks left.
Tomorrow I am Paris bound.
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