First weekend trip using my Eurail pass!! For anyone who doesn’t know, the Eurail pass is a 3 month train pass that I have to use on 26 different countries in Europe. Essentially, I get to travel unlimited on non-reservation trains throughout Europe! These passes are so awesome because everyone at GTL travels almost every weekend to cities and countries all over Europe, especially because we have no classes on Fridays. My first stop was Belgium: land of waffles, chocolate, fries and beer. We stayed in Bruges on Friday night and then Brussels on Saturday night.
The train rides were about 4-5 hours total, so definitely not too bad. Our first stop in Bruges was the first hostel that I would ever stay at!! We had a little trouble finding it and ended up having to ask some other travelers where it was, but thankfully they spoke English. I took a couple different pictures of the place. It was really cool and had this old-time aura, like most of Bruges.
St. Christopher’s Hostel in Bruges
My friend Carolyn in our beds!
The other beds in our room, also with GTL people
Oyya Belgian Waffles!
Next, we attempted to go on a walking tour of Belgium, but were just too hungry after still not eating since 7 am when we got on the train. We ended up awkwardly ditching the walking tour for more important things… like Belgian waffles!!!! Wow. Those things are heavenly. The Belgian waffles in America just don’t even come close to comparing. We quickly realized that it was because the Belgians use magical dough with sugar chunks to cook their waffles instead of a batter like many Americans do. I really don’t think I can ever have another “Belgian waffle” in America ever again.
After the Belgian waffles, we walked around the city of Bruges for a while. It feels like a completely different decade. Everything looks very Medieval and there are horse-drawn carriages everywhere!
Main Square in Bruges
A cathedral… probably?
We decided to take a 30-minute canal tour of Bruges. Bruges used to be a port city and there are multiple canals running throughout the entire city. It was all very beautiful and we got to see many monuments. Unfortunately, we were sitting near the back of the boat right next to the motor. With both the food coma from Belgian waffles and the lulling of the motor, a bunch of us kept almost falling asleep. It didn’t help that our tour guide kept switching off between English and Dutch. It was still really cool though!
Before we started to fall asleep 🙂
Canal tour!
CHOCOLATE ❤
Then we walked around and did some shopping… obviously for chocolate. There were so many chocolatiers everywhere! We went into almost every single one one of the streets connecting the two main squares. It was great because almost every one gave us free samples. I didn’t even have to buy any chocolates to have the deliciousness that is Belgian chocolate. Of course, I obviously couldn’t resist the temptation and ended up buying some for myself. They were soooo yummy!
After dessert as our appetizers, we decided to get some real dinner of… French Fries! French Fries really shouldn’t be called French Fries because they actually originated in Belgium. There are French Fry stands everywhere, except they call them “Frites”. I had Frites and sausage for dinner. It was quite delicious!
The Belfry tower!!
Finally, we went back to our hostel (and back to Wifi ;)) after a long day of traveling and exploring! I was so exhausted that I just passed out. Unfortunately, there was a bar on the main floor of the hostel so people were super loud and noisy until the wee hours of the morning. It also didn’t help that we were on the top floor and had to leave our window open at night because it was so hot. It didn’t really bother me though because I was so tired. However, I know some of my friends had trouble sleeping because of screaming and loud music.
On Saturday morning, we got up early to hike up to the top of the Belfy clock tower! All 366 spiral staircase steps of it!!! That was definitely my workout for the day, as if walking around wasn’t enough. This tower has many different bells to regulate the lives of the people back in the day. From the top, we were able to have an amazing view of the entire city of Bruges. It was so beautiful and well worth the trek.
After that, we headed to the train station and off on our way to Brussels!! I did stop for a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte. Hehe, I figured it was going to be the only Starbucks that I would see during the season.
The view from up above!
Another view!
Little Swan, Big World 