Penniless/Euroless in Brugge

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Well for over 25 days we had been enjoying the high life-seeing the most beautiful places in Europe, eating delicious food, enjoying great accommodations. All of that came to a its-time-to-face-reality halt our 2nd day in Brugge.

Our day started off great when we enjoyed a delicious and lavish breakfast at the B&B which include various types of breads, assortments of jams and jellys, boiled eggs, yogurt, cereal and so forth. They even had this spread this is the new hot item in Belgium which looks like peanut butter but tastes like cookies you eat during Christmas. And, of course, they had the nutella which is an essential part of breakfast in Europe. As Khyati nervously ate, paranoid of the house cat she caught a glance of, we were joined by a young couple, who we later found out were from Germany. We had a great conversation and learned a lot about one another. They were on a minimoon and were saving their big honeymoon to Africa for next year. We had a difficult time in Germany for historical reasons and our own religious and cultural background and, as a defense mechanism, we identified the Germans we met, as either those who regretted World War II and those who didn't. Of course we had our own issues going on but we were also curious..fascinated by the people of a country that had become synonymous with war and one of the most horrific events of human history. That's not to say that any other country on the planet is not guilty of wars and crimes against humanity but the events happened in the lifetime of our parents and grandparents and are still so fresh in peoples minds. Anyway, meeting and getting to know a couple from Germany helped us leave Europe with a positive interaction to keep in mind.

After breakfast, we headed out to walk the small, very walkable town which had limited car traffic and lots of horse and buggys. Quaint and charming canals and bridges were found all over the city on different sides of the central market square. The town was filled with tourists who were very likely there for a day trip. There were a number of souvenir shops, doily shops, shops with cuckoo clocks, and then we entered heaven-a street filled with chocolate shops. You better believe Khyati was ready to unpack her bags for good. We sampled chocolate in a couple of shops and it was to die for. After a couple of hours of poking around, we headed to the medieval bell tower which a popular attraction in town. We waited in line for longer than we cared for and then hiked 350 steps up the tower. Every hour a bell ringer sits on top and plays a jingle on the 47 bells that you can hear throughout the town. It also provided great views of the city and housed important documents and served as a watch tower.

After our visit, we began talking about funds needed to wrap up our trip and were unsure if the funds we transferred days ago had been received in our accounts. When we checked our Kindle, we discovered to our horror that it had been 5 days and still we had not received the transfer. This set us in a panic causing us to spend the next 4-5 hours between the Internet cafe (managed by Indians) and the telephone calling our financial institutions. Around 16:00 we were starving but didn't want to spend all of the last 40 Euros we had left so we shared french fries and a bottle of water. We went back to the Internet cafe and called all 5 institutions we were a part of and none of them could help us to get cash immediately in order to get lunch, dinner, and most importantly to pay for our lodging the next morning since many places required cash. We called Jordan's parents since they had easy access to his account but banks were closed on Sunday and if they went in the morning, we wouldn't get it until our afternoon. We wracked our brains thinking of options wondering what people did and finally accepted that we would have to extend our trip in Brugge in order to wait for the money to come through on our account. This six hour time difference meant we would have to wait almost all day. So, that was our plan and we were prepared to tell the B&B and risk being thrown in a Belgian prison. It 21:00 by now and we had spent a lot of the change on the internet and phone but it was past dinner time. We went to 3 different places to try to get dinner for less than 25 Euros and it was near impossible. The restaurants were all overpriced and others had limited vegetarian options. We were even treated rudely by wait staff in one restaurant that demanded we each had to get drinks and meals and couldn't share any of it. After weeks of having not a care in the world, we felt not understood but felt what it was like to not have enough money, wonder where dinner would come from, fear punishment, and be disrespected by wealthier people. Boy was this a lesson that we had not expected to have. Finally, it was an Indian restaurant that was our saving grace and we were able to eat for 20 Euros sharing bread and curry. We decided it was time to go back but on the way to the B&B we heard a live concert at a nearby square. Jordan insisted we check it out though and so we did. It turned out to be a country music concert in Brugge with the great band singing popular songs like Sweet Home Alabama and Shakira's Waka Waka. We spent the next 2 hours dancing under the stars near historic Belgian buildings surrounded by locals dancing to songs we knew so well in the States. It was magical..
At 24:00 we headed back to the B&B and before we called it a night, we checked our email on the Kindle. To our absolute surprise and delight, we received an email from Jordan's father that said he had successfully deposited money into Jordan's account that was available IMMEDIATELY! We couldn't believe it! At literally the 12th hour, we discovered that we could pay for our lodging the next morning and leave for our next destination without delay. You can imagine how well we slept that night....

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