Bruges

Bruges

We decided to get away from Brussels for a day and take a tour in another famous city in Belgium. Well, this was a good idea in theory. Bruges is one of the most culturally rich cities in Belgium. In Belgium Bruges is the chocolate capital. All of this sounded like a lovely chance to get away and our last tour was such a success that we were ready for another adventure. Well, It just started badly. First of all we booked the tour online and it was pretty awesome because the bus actually picked us up at our hostel. Well, it said that the bus would pick us up at 12pm. At 11:40 the tour guide came to us in a rush yelling about how he couldn’t keep the bus parked out front and asking why we went ready. So once we were on the bus I promptly fell asleep because I had taken some medicine for allergies because the hostel used white sheets and obviously bleached the hell out of them and I am allergic to bleach. And on the way to Bruges (a 1.5 hour journey) the tour guide didn’t say anything about the surrounding area. Once we got into Bruges we walked, in silence, to a small bridge where he talked about the history a little bit before taking us to the restaurant that we would eat lunch at. The restaurant was the most expensive tourist trap restaurant in the whole town. After lunch we walked silently through the town into a square where the tour guide told us a little more history before having free time to walk around and explore on our own. After reconvening once again we walked to a chocolate shop to do some shopping. This shop did not have the greatest chocolate and the shop owner was rude and unwelcoming. Let’s just say we didn’t get any chocolate. After getting back to Brussels we go dropped off and the guide said “you will find your hostel that way.” He pointed vaguely and then the bus drove away. So, this tour wasn’t a huge success. And if I hadn’t had GPS I’m not sure that I would have made it back to my hostel that night. All that being said, I did however thing that Bruges was a lovely town. It was quaint and charming, but it was really only touristy. I’m still not sold on this whole Belgium thing…