Crazy guides and more atmospheric weather in Bruges!

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Bruges - day 1

We all arose much brighter and earlier than previous mornings (breakfast finishedmat 10am so normally we made it down at 9:50) but today the bus left at 8am.... I am used to early starts back home but travelling is helping me appreciate a good sleep in. I dragged my re-packed backpack to the bus and met my bus buddy Fiona whom I had partied with in Paris. :-) We had a stop at an amazing french servo....amazing you ask. How could a servo be amazing? Well there was a freshly baked pattisery, a grocery store selling dehli type delicasies and had a free microwave in case you needed it, another eatery with french pasteries, cooked meals, fresh ham and cheeses, fresh fruit and yoghurt, a yummy french boy behind the counter....whoops! Hehe, I really wanted the fruit! He was a bonus! A gift shop....you get the idea, nothing like the servo's back home.

We then hopped back on the bus for Bruges, border crossing was a non-event, blink and you miss it. We watched "In Bruges" the movie on the way. It had a beautiful soundtrack and showed us the landscapes of Bruges beautifully but the movie didn't take my fancy. Not a fan of voilence and hitmen.

Americans when at war in Belgium, met Belgians in the south who spoke French. The Belgians shared their food which was fritz mit mayo or Fries with mayonese and then the Americans took this back to their home as French fries which are really Belgian not French.

Some Belgian words:
dunkuvel - thank you
sprect du engel - do u speak English?
aouchtoblecht - your welcome

Bacially you speak Flelmish by clearing throat like velociraptor.

Interesting fact: in 1500 Bruges had double population of Europe. Belgium is also famous for waffles! Yum!

We arrived at the hostel and took a walking tour of the city with a crazy local who swore like a trouper and told us he hated tourists but that if we joined him in taunting the other tourists he would tell us "interesting historical crap". Tourists (accorrding to him) fell into 3 categories -

1 boat people, RULE: everytime we crossed a bridge with a tourist boat heading underneath we all had to sniff like we were going to spit on them as they went under and watch their faces grow in horror and umbrella's race to be put up....

2 asian tourists, RULE: All turn and point to a random spot in the sky and raise all our cameras, once they start to look and react we all quietly sneak away...

3 old people (described as Bruges Relics), RULE: walk quietly up to the old people and scream loudly before crouching down and covering our heads with our hands, again walking quietly away or quickly away if heart attacks had ensued...

Luckily he only got to try the first two, although while passing a local old couple he loudly announced we were passing 2 of Bruge's oldest relics, to which they shook their heads and fists at him. Very entertaining. He was very blunt but gave us a great history of the town. He was very passionate about his history, at one point even attempting to make love to the oldest bridge in town (no joke!). About half way through (after we stopped for a beer break in a fire heated bar where the fruit beer was surprisingly delicious) the rain and wind started quite profusely and not being a creature able to cope in cold weather I lost focus in trying to keep myself concious enough to continue walking so missed the importance of some stops. I had forgotten my rain jacket, umbrella and waterproof shoes. Haha As I walked back later tonight after my delicious dinner the history all made a lot more sense as I had gone back to the hostel and gotten warm and dry again. :-)

The town is so quaint, horse and carriage rides frequently pass through the cobble stone tiny streets. Canal ways outline the various shoppin and eating areas, decorative stone bridges feature next to glorious churches and the giant tower in the middle of town, there is a beautiful park in the middle of town with a blue gazebo, a pair of swans, ducks, flowers and tree lined walkways. It is almost straight out of a fairytale. I chose the place reccommended by our crazed guide for dinner and it turned out to be delicious. Cheesy Belgian entre, chicken stew Belgian style and Belgian chocolate and icecream for dessert. Now off to bed for an early night and catching up on delayed blog writing! Haha

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