Exploring Bruges (my last day in Belgium!)

Today I decided to get out of Brussels for the day and take a day trip to Bruges, back in the Dutch speaking part of the country and closer to the coast. Although I have been enjoying my time in Brussels, I was well overdue for a change of scenery, and the smaller cities in Belgium really do have my heart, so I knew I would enjoy this little excursion.

And I was correct!

The IC train from Brussels to Bruges was just over an hour, and I arrived a little after midday. It was bittersweet to be on that train, as we stopped in Ghent on the way there and it made me yearn to get off there and hang out in my favourite city some more. But we have more places to see and more places to explore, so I stayed on the train for another 40 minutes and soon we arrived. This train station was in a much better spot than the Ghent one, it only took a 10 minute walk from the station into the town centre, and I didn’t needs maps at all, I just followed everyone else.

My first impressions were that I was surprised how quiet the streets were. They were so peaceful and calm even though they were busy. I immediately felt at peace just wandering around, and soon realised this place was similar to Ghent in that I could easily not use maps and just explore street by street, whatever looked interesting. Finding a small alleyway with no one walking by was a jackpot, and the 10 minute walk to the centre ended up taking almost an hour. But I walked past some magical gardens, homes, arches, churches, the whole bit. The only bad thing is I have zero idea what any of these places were called, I just happened upon them. But then again I’m sure everyone in Bruges would find these little hidden spots, so there would’ve been stuff I missed, guaranteed.

Eventually I made it into the main square of the city, which is always a good spot to orientate yourself from. The buildings of the square itself were beautiful, as you would expect, but in my opinion did not begin to compare to Bruges’s winding streets. I was expecting overcast and cool weather today, so I brought my new jacket with me, excited to show it off, then realised pretty quickly this would not be the case. The sun was out and it was much warmer than expected, which was lovely, but I was disappointed to have to just carry it around all day.

From the main square I was going to climb their bell tower for a nice view, and assumed it wouldn’t cost too much, since the one in Ghent was only around €4. When I went to buy a ticket however, I was faced with a nasty surprise of a €15 ticket, and there wasn’t a student price which I feel like for Europe in general is quite unusual. So there was no way I was going to do that, I decided to do a self-guided op shop walking tour instead, thinking I would see some nice places on the way too. I was correct about that, but my self-discipline has never before been tested like it was for that hour or so. Everything was so cute. And exactly my style, honestly Belgian people really get me, they really do. I ended up abandoning the op shop tour only because I knew my ability to not buy anything was waning by the second, and there is zero room in my luggage as is, so I had to keep on my no-purchase policy.

Instead I wandered through to one of the main city parks of the area, which has seemed to become a tradition of my travels. I’ve toured some beautiful parks so far, and today’s was no different. It looked like a Bridgerton set, not joking at all. There was a beautiful pond in the middle with a fountain, massive willow trees surrounding the area, and a gorgeous pergola at one end (think Sound of Music). I found a spot that I thought looked cute enough to chill out for a bit, and popped my headphones on to get stuck into my book. I’m currently reading the Picture of Dorian Gray by (the legend himself) Oscar Wilde. After having been in Dublin I added this book to me TBR immediately, and since I’m waiting on Lilly to finish our most recent book club book, I thought I would start this one in the meantime. And though this isn’t a book review website, I have to admit, I completely enthralled by Oscar’s writing. It’s just stunning. Even the author’s preface had me gobsmacked, I can feel my brain expanding in real time. I can’t wait to keep reading, I feel as though I need to ration out pages to make the genius last longer. That’s how obsessed I am.

I ended up hanging out for almost 2 hours in my little spot, taking reading breaks to catch up with some people from back home. I had bought some food from a Carrefour earlier that day in Brussels, so made myself a little solo picnic to munch on whilst I kept reading. Eventually I decided I should continue my explorations before taking the train back to Brussels, I didn’t want to arrive back too late in the day. I was glad I made myself leave the little park, I ended up passing by a busy canal where the boat tours went (they were booked out unfortunately) which was so picturesque, even more so than the main square. There were restaurants overhanging the water, apartment windows right onto the bank, and intricate bridges joining the different areas of the town. Continuing on I ended up walking through an antique market (you can’t get more Belgian than that) that was set up down a tree lined pathway right next to the canal. Unfortunately they were packing up, I would’ve spent longer wandering through if they hadn’t been.

Starting to make my way back to the train station I decided to take the long way, especially because the clouds had finally set in and the temperature had dropped, so it was finally jacket-appropriate weather (I was thrilled). I ended up walking through Minnewater Park, the city’s largest park, which I didn’t think I was going to see up until this point. So that worked out well, I added in a little detour to take me through the park, which was setup around another canal and a castle. Yes, a little castle right in the middle of the park. They had timber canoes in the canal planted with succulents that would float by, and a cafe right on the riverbank that seemed like the perfect spot for a chocolat chaud, although this was when I realised I was back in Dutch-speaking Belgium and couldn’t actually order in French anymore (very disappointing).

From the end of the park I crossed another bridge (beautiful of course) and ended up right outside where I started the day, at the Bruges station. The next train back to Brussels was in 20 minutes or so which was perfect, I found the platform and plopped myself down for a bit, before boarding the train around 6pm, The trip back to the Central Station was pretty uneventful, apart from the cute French woman opposite with me who managed to smuggle her Pomeranian on (I absolutely helped her with this). We chatted for a bit in French (and English when I didn’t know how to say what I wanted to say) and the dog even took a liking to me. Every time an employee walked past we would take turns hiding the dog somewhere just long enough for them to pass, then would spend the next minutes calming her down before doing it all over again. It was a pretty technical operation, but I didn’t mind, she was a cute puppy and the old lady was adorable.

We arrived back in Brussels a bit after 7pm, and walked the 10 minutes from there back to my hostel without any trouble. Well, I did end up in the middle of a Free Palestine demonstration; how do I always end up getting caught in those? But it wasn’t an issue, I added a couple minutes detour to the trip and made it to the hostel by 7:30pm. I caught up with Emma, who had spent the day doing some life admin and visiting the Atomium, and met 2 new girls who had just checked in, Eva and Simay. Simay is from Istanbul and grew up in Cyrpus, so she was cool to get to know. Unfortunately for her, she wanted to go out with us that night, but Eva and I were absolutely shattered after our days, and we ended up recommending a pub crawl for her to join, which she did (without trying to guilt trip us into joining first).

I ended up chatting with Eva for a while, who is from a town near Toronto, and turns out the rest of our year is looking extremely similar, she is also doing a semester exchange, also in Scotland! What are the chances of that, it’s honestly crazy. She’s doing some Euro travel before arriving in Dundee, which is a bit further north than Glasgow, but oh my god it was such a relief to meet someone who could relate to absolutely everything that was going on in that little brain of mine. I also think she had been a bit emotionally fragile the last couple of days so I hope she felt the same. It put me at ease to think that there was someone else who could actually, innately understand everything we were doing and planning this year. We’re planning to catchup in Scotland later in the year, which I know I would really love. I can tell we would get along well, it’s only a shame she’s not in Glasgow too!

Tomorrow we head out of Belgium and unlock another new country, the Netherlands! I have always wanted to travel to the Netherlands, so I can’t wait to start exploring. Tomorrow will also mark exactly 1 week of travel left before I end up back in the UK, it’s crazy to think I’m kind of in the final stretch of travel, it feels like I’ve just got started. Although I’m looking forward to not living out of a suitcase for a while, I’m definitely not burnt out travel wise, which is a relief, but really excited to have an actual home somewhere!

But until then we’ve got heaps to do and see in the Netherlands, so let’s go!

Currently MIA,

Lauren x