The hostel seemed to have a hipster and hippie feel to it all at the same time. It wasn't exactly our crowd. This was also, by far, the dirtiest hostel we have stayed in to date. Garbage cans were overflowing with trash and our room, which was more humid than most Indonesian sweat shops (believe me, I've been), smelled of feet from the last 20 backpackers that slept there (side note: foot order is the backpacker's most unpleasant attribute. We walk around in the same shoes day after day, which causes us to rank somewhere between a baby's diaper and a street bum on the pleasant-odors-scale). We shared this particular room with a Serbian and Australian. Anyway, we overcame all obstacles and fell asleep a little after arriving.
The following morning we planned to walk around Brussels, which didn't have much to offer it turns out. And the graffiti covering the buildings was easier to see during the day. Its a city of unique contrast; it has some of the most eye-catching modern buildings I have ever seen, but the rest of the city is not well maintained and garbage cans on the street tend to be overflowing with filth (maybe where our hostel got the idea). Other than enjoying a famous Belgian waffle and having a beer at a bar that holds the record for widest selection of beers there isn't too much to talk about that we did. We saw the famous statue of the boy being, Mannikan Pis. Brussels has one museum whose man attraction is the different outfits they dress him in... starting to get the picture of just how much there is to do here? We left around 4:30pm and headed to Bruges, Belgium.
We arrived in Bruges around 7pm and found out we had a 30 minute walk to our hostel. Great, I love walking with my pack on. So we walked to the hostel and took in our first views of Bruges.
Bruges is unique from other cities. This city was once the richest city in the world during the 15th century and has laid dead since the 16th century when it's harbor silted up, when it's harbor silted up. It remained a beautiful, but dead city, until tourists rediscovered it and have brought Bruges back to life (I'm convinced tourism is keeping most of Europe alive. It certainly isn't the laid-back work ethic). It has quaint streets that are all one-way because they are too narrow to accommodate more than one car and a few bikes at a time. Though overrun with tourists, it still has a peaceful ambiance to it. I really liked this city.
We arrived at our hostel and it was a vast improvement. also, it turns out we are the only people staying in our 4-bed room. Bonus! I was still feeling sick so I went to bed early. Brandon went for some food before going to bed himself.
The next morning we rented bicycles from our hostel for the entire day for the low, low price of 9 euro (about 12 American for those of you who aren't as cultured as ourselves). Bruges is quite small so having the bikes allowed us to easily see the whole city in a day (and a couple miles outside the city when I missed a turn trying to find some windmills).
We first went to a town square that housed an old clock tower, a medieval castle, and a church that contained the blood of Christ (yep). So we had to check out the blood of Christ! Brandon actually went to the altar and placed his hand on the holy plasma. Only 1.5 Euro! Can you believe it?! I think he had hoped, much like the ninja turtles and the ooze, that by touching it he would inherit the power to turn water to wine. I was hoping he would, too, to save me some money at the pubs. After Brandon's Coming-to-Jesus moment we climbed up the 700 year old clock tower for a beautiful panaromic view of the city. After climbing the 366 steps to the top we discovered that 270 of the 360 degree view was closed off due to restoration.
Altar with Christ's blood (the woman up top has her hands on the vial encasing it)
Clock tower at night (courtesy of Brandon and his wandering around cities at night, by himself, taking pictures. Worried yet, Mom?!)
Our 90 degree view from the top
We then road our bikes farther down the road to get some grub and found clothes to be real cheap in Bruges. Everywhere else in Europe clothes tend to be more expensive than in the U.S. However, Bruges was on pair with a J.C. Penney-type store. i picked up a couple shirts and 2 pairs of boxers for 29 euro. Brandon freshened his wardrobe, as well. Then we grabbed some cheap food just outside the store before continuing our bike ride.
We then headed to the western part of town. Along cobblestone streets, we made our way to a garden previously occupied by the Beguinage, but now claimed by a nunnery. The Beguinage were...? Only one is still in existence, and she is a officially a UNESCO national heritage site. The garden was kind of, well, plain. We didn't even bother to take a picture. But the cobblestone street leading to it was beautiful. 95% of the streets in Bruges are cobblestone, by the way. From there we went to a local bookstore. I had powered through 4 books at this point and Brandon would read them for free when I was done buying them and reading them. Pretty nice system for him. Well, here I made him repay the favor. The books were only 2-3 euro each, so I still feel slighted having been dumb enough to buy new books for 12 euro each. We picked up 4 books here. Next store we did the Halve Mann Brewery Tour. It was pretty interesting and full of dry humor. the beer, I think was good. I still had a really sore throat and it was difficult for me to taste anything at this point. Only headaches in the morning though! We then headed back to the hostel to drop off the clothes we had bought earlier, and on the way stopped at a chocolate shop recommended by Rick Steves himself. it was the best chocolate either of us has ever had. A Hersheys will never taste the same.
On a side note, I'm convinced my hygenic lifestyle has been my downfall here. My filthy, unkempt brother who eats food off the ground and licks salt water off rocks has built up quite an immune system by ravaging is body with all different kinds of bacteria every day. Myself, always washing my hands after the bathroom and before eating, have rendered myself at a disadvantage when it comes to the dirty world of backpacking. I have no problem with wearing the same shirt, or not always being able to shower (in fact its been 3 days as I type this), but my lymphocytes have never seen the kind of germs that can be found in a 12-bed dorm room. Because of this I have been consistently sick for almost two weeks. Starting with having to run to the bathroom every 2 hours, or whenever I sat up. This was followed quickly by a fever, then headaches, then neck pain from a nerve that tightened overnight consistently and had to be remedied with motrin (which broke the fever and headache, too), followed by terrible sore throat and cough that wouldn't allow me to talk in the mornings, followed by a simple cold (runny noise, sneezing). This cycle lasted 2 full weeks. It later ended on my second day in London, which I realize the blog isn't up to yet. However, in Amsterdam i only had a sore throat, cough, and cold so I was able to start going out again... i don't think anything would have stopped me from going out there, though. Come to think of it, maybe the consistant drinking had something to do with it. ...Naw.
Back to Bruges. From the hostel, we took our bikes to the perimeter of the city and followed that around. Located here were the gates that originally protected the city. The walls have since been demolished, but the six gates to the old city still remain. On the one gate was a replica of a skull that used to hang on it. This skull belonged to a traitor who opened the gate to an invading army. From there we went along a river that hosted 4 windmills on it's bank. These windmills, I don't believe, are historic. however, they were built in a classical style and were cool to see. We then headed back to the hostel. I went to bed as soon as we got back, trying to do everything in my power to make sure I would feel good enough to go out when we got to Amsterdam the next day. Brandon went out to walk the city at night and take pictures.
the next morning I slept in as long as I could. I even slept past check-out, which doesn't seem to be an issue at hostels. Brandon woke me up around 11:00am and was worried I was feeling more sick. I told him my strategy was to milk this nap as long as I could so I would be up for going out tonight in Amsterdam. We got on a 1pm train to Amsterdam and arrived at 6:00pm on Tueday, June 8th.
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