Onto Bruges and Ghent

Now onto the trip.

Friday morning at 6am I got off the bus after probably an hours sleep. I couldn’t be bothered thinking so got on a bus to the hostel. I wasn’t allowed to check in until 7:30, so I sat in a chair and slept with my head on the table for an hour. I was wondering what to do for the day as the first member of Da Esci Boyz wasn’t turning up until 8pm. I noticed a sign for day trips to Ghent and Bruges… so that was me sorted.

Started talking to a Canadian named Macool at the bus stop. That was my temporary friend sorted for the day :-P
I chatted with him all the way to Ghent which was about an hour away. He was working in Copenhagen for Microsoft. Found out some new destinations to add to the list of places to go, the main one being Iceland.

It was a guided tour, so we drove around Ghent and saw a lot of the places. Then got out and walked around. It was a really nice city and it is famous for its flowers… but not at this time of the year :-)
Ghent was quite old and heaps of churches. One church we went into was pretty cool, it had new age art integrated into the church.


We got some time to ourselves so Macool and I walked around the city and saw some of the other parts of the city. One statue that was quite interesting was the one pictured below. It symbolised charity. A man was sentenced to death by hunger, his daughter came to visit him and feed him from her breast… well yeah, a lil incestuous, but you can see the point. I imagine death by hunger wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience in the world.


After Ghent we got back on the bus and headed toward Bruges. It was another 60km and about an hour away… so I got a little nana nap. I had heard a lot about Bruges from various people, and now I see why.

It is a spectacular little town, with a romantic ambiance hanging around the place. Walking into the old town there is even a place called “Lover’s Lake” where you can wish for good luck in love… but it’s only valid for 1 year so you gotta keep coming back :-)

We had some free time to grab some food and we were supposed to meet at 2:05 (well so I thought I heard). So I got a really nice focaccia cheesy thing and some Belgian chocolate (yummo), then wandered around the city. I headed back right on 2:05, and of course nobody was at the meeting point. I figured I had it wrong, so decided to wander around the city by myself and meet back at the bus when it was going to leave.

I wandered around the canals, which were extremely touristy. The water was polluted and there were heaps of tourist guiding fizz boats going around the city. It was still rather nice just walking about the place. There was a very entertaining busker playing a winch powered music-box. He was extremely friendly and just looked the part. And also this older lady in “traditional” clothes doing some weaving. I got a video of it because her fingers moved so quickly you could hardly see them.


The rest of the afternoon I spent walking around and took a heap of pictures, a selection are in my gallery. I also tried a couple of Belgian beers... one was 11% and tasted like white wine mixed with beer, wasn’t particularly nice.

I met back at the bus and arrived before the rest of the crew. I asked them if I got the time wrong, and sure enough I had. But at least I was getting a ride home. I had another nana nap on the way home and got dropped off at the hostel.

It was now 7:30 and James (one of Da Esci Boyz) was going to arrive some stage soon. The hostel had an onsite bar (fantastic!) so I had a couple of beers with Macool while waiting. When James arrived, we had a couple more. The rest of the evening consisted of going out to dinner and then having a few more beers.

By the time Ben, Brad and Chugs turned up (about 11:30) we had a good catch up and quite a few drinks. Of course, once they arrived, we had a few more… then eventually checked into our room about 1am. We were in a 6-Bed room… so we felt a bit sorry for the other guy in there as we came in and had to make our beds, while a little intoxicated :-) Went off to bed and that’s it.