going to bene without the lux: bruges and brussels
after amsterdam, sam and i said that nothing could top amsterdam.
after antwerp, sam and i said that nothing could top antwerp.
strike one, two and three. because bruges is bloody fantastic.
pronounced as 'brugger' in dutch, this town a little away from antwerp is a tourist magnet. shops of godivas, leonidas, neuhaus' and many many many other chocolate shops (touting to be the best in belgium, -__-) line the cobbled roads. there are tourist thingys like canal tours and horse carriage rides. but for the budget tourist like me and you, we dont buy expensive chocolate and we WALK. yes, up and down and all around. again bruges is easily explorable on foot and with a map in hand, just go whack the whole place. its all about exploring, and wandering around to get a sense of the town. i mean how much photos of cathedrals do you really want to take right.
bruges is characteristically catholic, we found a female beguinage (somewhat like a nunnery) and the corners all have a little mary statute, and beneath it 'ave maria'. i didnt manage to ask why it was so though. lunch was at a super cheap but highly recommended place called menard and true to the recommendation, the owner looks like freddie mercury, only fatter. must be all that cheese. i had a ham and cheese tagilatile and it was SWIMMING IN A BOWL OF CHEESE. damn jelak. sam was one better. go and order the large plate (it was only 5.50 euros) and the amount of spag can probably be weighed in kilos. it looked like it amounted to 3 normal servings of spags.
we climbed the highly recommended belfry, all 366 steps of it, but because it was a pretty foggy day, the horizon wasnt clear. a tad disaapointing actually after you've climbed our saviours church here in copenhagen. it is not as tiring as in cph and we were surprised how quickly we did it. we kinda didnt believe that we reached the top when we reached the top. and it was an expensive climb! 3 euros just to be at the top of bruges.
because bruges is so touristy, naturally the foodspots besides our lunch foodspot was expensive, so dinner was a sharwama pita. hiaz. but we did have another waffle (this time with melted chocolate all over) and an icecream (with the hot icecream girl: sam has pictures) for tea. i know its alot of food. dont roll your eyes.
i highly highly recommend bruges, even hotel lybeer which we stayed at. apart from the freaking long staircase and the one loo one bath PER level policy, its an interesting place with eclectic furniture. i made friends with the owners dog, chloe. i almost made friends with tiger the terrier (haha) at the antwerp dinner. love dogs!plus it has a good breakfast spread.
because im losing steam and because brussels is just like any other capital city (serious), i will make it short. i only really liked brussels for 3 things, where we had dinner, the tons of comic and bookshops and record shops, and the fact i can practice french here. i managed to buy like old music scores for pretty cheap at this funky record shop and the scores feature old advertising graphics, which i really really like. and the bookshops are just crazy. they stock so many graphic novels, even translated manga. i dont know if you guys know that belgium is home to tin tin and the smurfs, among many others. comic literature here is totally astounding. and i can practice french here! it nice to revisit la langue de francais after so long, and thankfully the basic grammar and vocab is still there. roshni, if you are reading this, i cant wait to head to france with you! nous pouvons parler francais ensemble! hope that turned out right. and two amazing concidences happened: we met sarah, one of our fellow hostelmates from abhostel in antwerp along the street and we also met waikit lah! who was sleeping in the same hostel as us! how amazing is that! the world is truly truly small.
after antwerp, sam and i said that nothing could top antwerp.
strike one, two and three. because bruges is bloody fantastic.
pronounced as 'brugger' in dutch, this town a little away from antwerp is a tourist magnet. shops of godivas, leonidas, neuhaus' and many many many other chocolate shops (touting to be the best in belgium, -__-) line the cobbled roads. there are tourist thingys like canal tours and horse carriage rides. but for the budget tourist like me and you, we dont buy expensive chocolate and we WALK. yes, up and down and all around. again bruges is easily explorable on foot and with a map in hand, just go whack the whole place. its all about exploring, and wandering around to get a sense of the town. i mean how much photos of cathedrals do you really want to take right.
bruges is characteristically catholic, we found a female beguinage (somewhat like a nunnery) and the corners all have a little mary statute, and beneath it 'ave maria'. i didnt manage to ask why it was so though. lunch was at a super cheap but highly recommended place called menard and true to the recommendation, the owner looks like freddie mercury, only fatter. must be all that cheese. i had a ham and cheese tagilatile and it was SWIMMING IN A BOWL OF CHEESE. damn jelak. sam was one better. go and order the large plate (it was only 5.50 euros) and the amount of spag can probably be weighed in kilos. it looked like it amounted to 3 normal servings of spags.
we climbed the highly recommended belfry, all 366 steps of it, but because it was a pretty foggy day, the horizon wasnt clear. a tad disaapointing actually after you've climbed our saviours church here in copenhagen. it is not as tiring as in cph and we were surprised how quickly we did it. we kinda didnt believe that we reached the top when we reached the top. and it was an expensive climb! 3 euros just to be at the top of bruges.
because bruges is so touristy, naturally the foodspots besides our lunch foodspot was expensive, so dinner was a sharwama pita. hiaz. but we did have another waffle (this time with melted chocolate all over) and an icecream (with the hot icecream girl: sam has pictures) for tea. i know its alot of food. dont roll your eyes.
i highly highly recommend bruges, even hotel lybeer which we stayed at. apart from the freaking long staircase and the one loo one bath PER level policy, its an interesting place with eclectic furniture. i made friends with the owners dog, chloe. i almost made friends with tiger the terrier (haha) at the antwerp dinner. love dogs!plus it has a good breakfast spread.
because im losing steam and because brussels is just like any other capital city (serious), i will make it short. i only really liked brussels for 3 things, where we had dinner, the tons of comic and bookshops and record shops, and the fact i can practice french here. i managed to buy like old music scores for pretty cheap at this funky record shop and the scores feature old advertising graphics, which i really really like. and the bookshops are just crazy. they stock so many graphic novels, even translated manga. i dont know if you guys know that belgium is home to tin tin and the smurfs, among many others. comic literature here is totally astounding. and i can practice french here! it nice to revisit la langue de francais after so long, and thankfully the basic grammar and vocab is still there. roshni, if you are reading this, i cant wait to head to france with you! nous pouvons parler francais ensemble! hope that turned out right. and two amazing concidences happened: we met sarah, one of our fellow hostelmates from abhostel in antwerp along the street and we also met waikit lah! who was sleeping in the same hostel as us! how amazing is that! the world is truly truly small.
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