Arriving into Belgium made a few things pretty clear to us. German trains have had more information and seemed to be a better maintained; true for international & intercity trains. The Belgian train station we landed in, Brux-Noord, has a lot of platform construction going on and made us feel like we had landed in WWII. Brugge station saved our opinion of Belgium transport a bit, we’ll see what happens when we leave and give a final opinion then.
The AirBnB we booked for Bruges was only a 25 minute walk from the train station, that’s why we hired a taxi. 10 hours on a train and we were done messing around with hauling around luggage. My backpack isn’t so bad in hauling things around, I packed 3 days worth of clothes, electronic charging gear and a bathroom bag. If you’ve seen our pictures, you’ve seen me in the same clothes over and over again. They’ve been laundered a time or two, don’t feel so bad for Brianna. Brianna’s bag is a smaller roller style, handy, just less so on cobblestone. A 7 Euro taxi fair and we arrived exactly where we needed to be, a stone’s throw away from the Bruges markets and city square.
The AirBnB room was a cultural experience all it’s own. First thing we noticed was all of the windows in the bathroom. Any one taking a shower could look out into the bedroom, and yes, anyone in the bedroom could look into the shower room. Same kind of window existed next to the toilet as well, but only for those of us who stand while we pee. Aside from the bed being a little on the really fucking hard side, everything else in the room was perfect. Coffee, tv, and a refrigerator were provided. A DVD for watching the movie In Bruges was also provided, which would be how we’d start and end every day while in Bruges ourselves.
Have you ever had mussels and chips at a restaurant? We hadn’t. If you haven’t, you should. They bring you large pots overflowing with cooked mussels still in the shells. Unsure of what etiquette rules we may be breaking, we went wrist deep into the pots, forking out the mussels and shoveling them into our mouths. I was eating so much so fast that I’m sad there wasn’t some mussels eating contest that I could have competed in; might not have gotten first, definitely wouldn’t have gotten last.
Leaving the restaurant was a bit of a struggle, not because we were full, it was because we ordered a flight of local beer that was larger and stronger than expected. Brianna has been trying to document all of the beers we’ve tried as we travel. Seems easy enough when you’re sober, I’ve no clue how she does it when we’re completely pissed (British for drunk).
A couple pubs later, we retired back to the AirBnB and tried to drink a couple more beers before passing out. Points for effort though, right?