BRUGE – The Charm of Chocolate

We arrived in Bruges early evening and checked into the Snuffel Hostel after getting lost on the bendy streets. NEVER stay there!!! We had 1 toilet for 16 people that was disgusting and unusable by the end of the night. The basin was in the room we had to walk through to get to ours – I would have been soooooo shitty if I was in that room with us randoms walking through! My bed was dirty and the sheets stained with grease and who knows what else. You had to lean on the push-in button to have a shower if you didn’t want to wash one-handed… getting bruised in Bruges. The staircase was tiny, windy and very unsafe. And the reception girl had no idea about anything.

Hostel aside….Bruges is beautiful and so much better than Brussels!!! The square is beautiful and the food is divine!

The most important thing though - I got to have a chocolaty weekend!!!!

After strolling around the Christmas markets, admiring the outdoor ice-rink and freezing, we had dinner at a cute little restaurant. It was really yummy (although I only had a hot chocolate) but really expensive! 5.80euros for a coke, that’s about £4 when they are usually no more than £1.50 for a can!

There wasn’t much to do afterwards as it was 7pm and most shops had shut, so a sports bar was next on the agenda. After spending about an hour there Caroline and I headed back to the hostel to sleep, we had been up since 3am.

Sunday 2^nd December 2007

We wanted to tackle 1kg of pancakes as suggested by our map/guide but couldn’t find it, and didn’t feel like looking for it in the freezing cold, rain and wind. So we settled on a cosy tea room where I had an omelette and sampled the traditional waffles with sugar and butter –mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

After consideration, I decided not to pay to go up to the Belfry as the weather was absolutely crap and there would have been a similar view of the city.

We did go to the Chocolate Museum though, where we got to see chocolate being made, sample it and I bought a ½kg bag of Belgium chocolate buttons – mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I may have eaten half the bag by the end of the night hehehe.

Afterwards Caroline, Amanda, Ed and I went to catch up with Ana and Nathan (Claudia and Kylie were on their way to Venice and Rome). After waiting in the gail force winds for 30mins and fighting to get on a bus, we went to Snow & Ice Festival which was AMAZING!!! -5’C but amazing! I lost feeling in my little toes and thought they were frozen together but that didn’t stop me from going down the ice slide and spending time in a proper winter palace – my home – as I am an ice Queen – well it was until I felt just how cold my residence is. I have since changed my mind lol.

After defrosting, helped out by some bratwurst it was time to get the train back to Brussels and head for the airport. We thought we might be cutting it fine to check-in at the airport but got there with time.

All in all enjoyable and I LOVED Bruges. I would just Google Brussels rather than visiting it lol.

I was feeling great about the whole weekend until, I ate too much chocolate on the way back, spent more time on the transfer bus from the airport then I did in the air (38mins!), then had to pay £4 for the tube home.

The most important thing though - I got to have a chocolaty weekend!!!!