Tara`s Grand Adventure - Bruges

Brugges was the first real stop of my extended Grand Adventure, and it was a magical way to start my trip.
I jumped on the Eurostar bright and early...maybe too early... leaving London St Pancras a little before 7, and arriving in Brussels around 10am.

I then proceeded to hot foot it across town, to the bus station on the north side. Naturally, the bus was late and I had quite the wait there, with my hiking pack weighing me down.
Eventually the bus rolled up, I rolled on, and then 2 hours later I rolled off, into a sunny, autumnal wonderland.

I was feeling elated at finally doing this trip, and excitement for all that lay ahead of me; and of course, being in the town that stars in one of my favourite movies (which is a hard thing for me to quantify, I loathe ascribing labels like favourite).

Ecstatically crunching through the dense leaves alongside canals, I made my way to the hostel, St Christophers at the Bauhaus.

When I got to the hostel, I couldn’t find the reception area, and I must have looked so lost, I was pointed in the right direction by the rowdy patrons at the bar. Throwing my bag into my under-bed locker, eyeing off my bed for the next two nights and its cute little curtains that would offer me all the limited privacy they could afford, I strode off into the afternoon.

This being my first stop of the journey my social skills were somewhat stunted, and rather than stay and chat, I powered off to a grocery store for my first cheapskate lunch, and stomp around town. I ate my cheapskate lunch sitting in the town square in the late afternoon, listening to the bells cascading. 

Apparently, the carillonist plays a few traditional tunes, and some modern, all of their own choosing, every day. It was beautiful to hear Taylor Swift pumping out of the bells of Brugges.

I treated myself to a proper dinner, after my baguette and cheese lunch, in a beautiful Belgian Flemish place. 

Starter was a cheese croquette, so sinfully crunchy. So good.

The main dish was a Flemish beef stew, so tender and rich, and perfect to dip fried into.

A petite chocolate mousse to finish. It was so lovely to spoil myself with a little celebration dinner.

I rounded off my first night with the Brugges After Dark walking tour, which was fabulous, and not really all that scary. According to our guide, Brugges only has one host story, and it involves a nun serving in a convent opposite from a monastery. The monks from the monastery would come across the canal to deliver communion to the nuns. Well, one monk fell in love with a nun, found a secret tunnel, and started their romance. One visit he asked her to run away with him, and she refused to break her vows to God, so he killed her. Now, it is said, both their ghosts haunt the convent.

 Brugges even has seashells that are part of the El Camino pilgrimage trail. Walking the trail and returning with one of these shells was used as punishment instead of prison at one time. Although people quickly worked out that the same shells were able to be found on French shores, so there was no need to travel all the way to Spain.

After the tour, which ended with a free beer at the hostel pub a number of people I befriended during the walk and myself were staying at, we kicked on a little, and added 2 American boys to our group.

I think it was night one that ended up with us going out out, to the only nightclub in Brugges.

The next day, I hauled my self out of bed to get to my free food walking tour of Brugges. Which was. So. Worth. It.

We sampled chocolates, and beers, and fries. I was in heaven. All for the low low price of free!

It felt like Brugges had so much to offer the budget friendly traveller, just a straight up abundance of all the good stuff. Views, History, Experiences, and Beer.

My lord the beer. Definitely my favourite city for beer by far. I mean Brussels comes a close second for good beer, tied with Vilnius, but Brugges had it all. Beauty and the Beers. Winner.

After the tour, we stayed in the Halve Maan brewery for a few cold ones, and then checked out the most beautiful harp concert at the old St something hospital with Mandana and Cory (who I had met on the walking tour). I remember falling asleep during the harp concert, it was so wonderfully relaxing to be in a dark, warm, comfortable room with this harp music cascasding over me in waves. After playing, he talked about some of his harps, and the development of his passion. He had recently built a replica of the “Lyre of Ur’, from Mesopotamia. Truly amazing to see and learn the history of, and hear it played.

After the concert, we all made plans to meet up for the pub crawl that night, and Mandana and I powered off to find something to wear. I ended up buying a very sexy long sleeve high neck black tee…. Ok so not too sexy, but with a few snips of borrowed scissors it was made into the edgiest long sleeve top in Brugges(maybe).

We ventured into the night after a few pre-game bevs, and met up with our guide for the night, and the news that unless one more turned up the tour could not go ahead. Thankfully, about 10 minutes after that Cory from the walking tour joined up with us, so off we headed off into the night, to see what Brugges had to offer after dark. Which turned out to be not all that much, but, what it did offer was mighty fun. As the pub crawl was quite small, we quickly became more a band of roving friends, than a group of strangers out to get smashed.

My final day was spent languishing at the breakfast spread, nursing a small hangover, and lamenting the arrival of my last day. Faced with an overwhelming decision of how to spend my final day by myself in this beautiful city, I recruited the help of my new friend from last night, Rebecca. She offered to mind my bags while she worked her shift in the hospital, and while she minded my bags, I trundled off into the city, to soak up my last bit of Belgium. 

Soaking up a city for me meant walking literally everywhere I could land my feet, peering inside churches and windows, and snooping through the local shops for wares I had no intention of buying. Pure bliss to me, as you get that little glimpse into what is important to the area you are in, what their flavour is, what`s their vibe.

Even as I was leaving the city at ridiculous-O-clock at night, it was made even more beautiful from the soft glow of the buildings reflecting onto the still canals.

Having made my bus at roughly midnight, and feeling success at conquering city number one, I climbed aboard to spend my first night sleeping on a coach, bound for Amsterdam.