An exhausted hello from Bruges in Belgium...

It all started when I was back in Kaarst visiting Maggie briefly to plan Highfield Music Festival... I had a week to kill before the music festival and 3 nights before I was scheduled to be back in Berlin... We pulled out the map and thought where to go... Belgium was only a couple of hours by train and seemed like a much better option than spending 24 hours on trains trying to get to Poland.. I had read a bit about Brussels and Bruges and decided 2 nights Bruges and one night Brussels before heading to Berlin... Perfect...

So I got the bus from Maggies to the Kaarst train station, then the train to Neuss, then another train to Koln, followed by another train to Brussels and lastly a train to Bruges.. It seems like a lot but when you are doing it... it's actually not to bad swapping and changing trains... you get used to it...

So I get to Bruges main train station and read the directions of the hostel I am staying at... St Christopher's Bauhaus Youth Hostel... I catch the bus and the driver tells me where to get off and where to go to get to the hostel... easy as... I check in go to my 10 bed dorm and claim my bed... top bunk (eeek) number 9... (Remember this) I then go into a walk to the market place which is the main square of the old town... have a walk around and get my barring's... it's only a 10 minute walk into town so location was pretty perfect.. On my way back I stop at a bar called Charlies Rocket and ask the bar tender what's good... he gives me one called Augustine's (I think) after about 3/4 I started feeling a little tipsy which was very out of character and put it down to a lack of sleep and food. I head back to my hostel and go to the bar for happy hour... €1 beers one would be crazy not to. I again asked the bar tender what's a good beer he pointed to the one I already had and one called Jupiter or something... I see a guy at the bar drinking the Jupiter and ask him what it's like... he replies good so I order one of them and start chatting to him and his friend.. He is from the south of France, his name is Martin but he got the nickname Frenchy pretty early in by another Aussie girl who you will meet later... His friend is Elien and she is a local girl from Bruges... their backstory is they met and lived together in London where they were both working for 6 months. Elien had been back in Bruges for a couple of weeks and Martin was on his way home to Montipilar (not sure on the spelling) via a visit to his friend and Bruges... they ask if I was kicking around solo which I naturally said yep and they said excellent you can hang with us.. That was easy I thought... We had a few beers at the bar and then headed outside where we had a couple more... I was then telling them the story about how I haven't heard an aussie accent for about 2-3 weeks since I left my friends in Amsterdam and how I am hopeless picking accents... as I was saying this I noticed a chick laughing to the left of me and I looked at her and said are you aussie and she was like yeah sure am.. Elley and her boyfriend Brendan were from Sydney and Elley told me a trick to picking Aussies that proved to be quite accurate... look for thongs... usually havi's, Aussie backpackers where things no matter where they are and the weather.. We tested this theory during my stay in Bruges and yep we sure do... us Aussies have no concept of sensible and weather appropriate footwear.

Anyway we wrapped up drinks at the hostel bar and invited the Sydney guys to join in on our pub crawl... Elien was going to take us to a few bars that her and her friends frequented before she moved to London... First stop was the Charlie Rocket bar again where Martin ordered me another Augustine beer... it was now I learnt that this beer is 8% no wonder I was a one pot screamer earlier... by this stage we are well and truly sizzled.. Elley has a beer that tastes like cherries... no s*** it is called fruit beer and is the best thing I have ever tasted... I jumped off the 8% bandwagon and joined the cherry one... yummy... after listening to some rockabilly music and throwing back a few beers it was time for pub number 3, we went outside where there were heaps of people chilling out and drinking, the Sydneysiders got some food, Elien started talking to a local and Frenchy tried to either chat up 2 girls on bikes or tried to steal their bikes... we are not too sure which one but he failed at both.. I decided food was a fantastic idea and joined Elley and Brendan in the Brikys Burger shop where I had my first encounter of Belgium Fries... and let's just say my life will never be the same... I had not heard about Belgium fries... they were amazing... the best fries I have ever eaten... and I am not just saying this because I was drunk they were that good. I learnt the next day that the secret is they are double fried... I could feel my arteries clogging as I heard this but it still didn't stop me going back to the burger shop 4 times before I leave Bruges.. So at this stage I walked outside with my massive cone of fries to find out when we were heading to pub number 3 where I offer my fries to everyone I see saying how amazing they are.. I then chatted with the local and Elien for a bit where I gave him advice on raising a daughter as he had just become a father... I think... I have no idea what words of wisdom I shared but no doubt I was just speaking s***... anyway we headed off... Frenchy gave the bike back to the frightened girls and we dragged Brendan out of the burger joint and headed to pub number 3.

By this stage I was getting a bit tired so I decided to call it a night, it was about midnight... as I was leaving the guys were heading into "the pick" which was the 3rd place and the song was good.. Just one song I thought to myself... one dance won't hurt... one song turned into an hour and a half... Frenchy started playing a game where we balance beers on our head whilst trying to dance... Elien, Elley and I apparently have flat heads and could do this reasonably well... Frenchy however has a bumpy head and he wasn't able to balance the beer... I think he was quite envious of us and our beer balancing abilities that he got Elien to balance one and dance and in true form it went flying all over some chick.. Me and Elley looked at each other and thought ohhh s*** it's going to be on... typically aussie of us as back home Elien would have surely been started... but no not in Bruges, Elien apologised and they all started laughing about it.. Elley and I looked in absolute disbelief... after the beer spilling incident and a few more dances I called it a night and stumbled back to the hostel... didn't even get lost... bonus.

I get back to my room about 2am and climb up the ladder to jump into bed... as I put one knee on the mattress I noticed that there is someone in there.. I nearly fall off the ladder out of fear as I was seconds away from jumping off the ladder into bed... I climb down and think what the f*ck!!! I look below and the bottom bed is free... score!!! Then I remember my ear plugs, eye pillow and sunnies are under the pillow on bed number 9... So I did something really really creepy... I pulled the curtain open slightly and put my hand under the pillow and grabbed my stuff... I was trying my hardest not to start pissing myself laughing about how much of a creep I must have just looked like and hoped no one else was watching... I set myself up in my new bed and head to sleep.

At 6am bed stealer and her friends wake up as they were leaving... the disrespectable moles were so loud, walking in and out, talking at a normal level... first they steal my bed then they wake me up after 4 hours sleep... This was not sitting well with me... it took them 2 hours to pack their stuff up and leave the room.. I like to say that if they had of been 10 minutes longer I would have given them a piece of my mind... but let's be honest that's probably a lie... I would have laid there fuming for longer. I was awake so I went for breakfast and then on the internet and then at about 9 I realised I clearly had not had enough sleep and went back to bed... I woke up about midday and went and got myself some more of those fries. And a coke... perfect hangover cure at about 4 I met up with Elien, Frenchy, Elley and Brendan... we also had a new friend a Canadian called Daniel, Elien took us on a small tour and we got waffles and the boys got pasta.. We then of course had a few drinks... we did another mini pub crawl and then headed back to the hostel bar to listen to some music and have a night cap... tonight we had a semi quiet one.. Midnight as was still b*****ed from the lack of sleep the night before...

My last day/ night in Bruges, I sorted my train out to Berlin for the next day and looked around town then ran into Frenchy... we had a few beers at happy hour and he told me about a music festival that was happening all over town that night.. We hit up a supermarket, got some quiche and pizzas to heat up at Eliens and a 4 pack of cherry beer... €6... Still blows my mind we headed to Eliens where Frenchy got us lost... we wandered the side streets of Bruges looking at front doors and creeping in windows whilst he tried to remember the house... he decided on a street that he was confident was the right one and we decided that we would have to just door knock until we found her.. So here we go... Frenchy rings the bell of the first house... and who opens the door... Elien... what are the chances... we crack open the beers listen to some music and munch away on the mini quiche and pizza. Martin and Elien were working at the festival for a couple of hours so I was going to hang out until Eliens house mate came home... she insisted I hung out with her and her friends until the guys had finished work. Frenchy and Elien left for work and I watched TV whilst her housemate got ready, her friends came over who were lovely. One just got back from Peru so we chatted about South America and she gave me some much welcomed advice. We headed into the town and it was insane... people everywhere, stages randomly set up around the place and bars everywhere. People were drinking in the streets, dancing and partying away to djs and it was all for free... well not the beer but that was like €2 I could not get my head around it...

We ran into Frenchy and Elien who were pretty much finished and we moved to the main stage... the next dj was awesome... he mixed some awesome songs and also mixed in ACDC... as an aussie I of course went crazy for ACDC.. It started raining but no one really minded and then the dj mixed in that song raindrops keep falling on my head... was hilarious.. We danced and drank the night away... I was meant to have left Bruges today and go to Brussels but was in love with Bruges I decided to stay another night and I am so glad I did... this was a perfect way to spend my last night in Belgium with my new friends drinking, dancing and partying the night away in the rain in the medieval streets of Bruges with the bell tower (which took me 2 days to notice to the amusement of Frenchy and Elien) in the background.. At some stage in the early morning hours I thought it a best idea to leave as I had to be on the train at 9am... I walked home... got my last double fried fries and couldn't help but smile the whole way home... this was my first time by myself on this trip besides overnight trains and I met some amazing people and had the best time and made memories that will last forever... granted I saw very little of Bruges during the day and mainly saw Bruges by night but considering Belgium is famous for its beer and fried food I didn't think there was anything wrong with only seeing it by night.. It is a small town that I think is made for drinking and hanging out with new friends... I loved Bruges... GO THERE!! Seriously and stay at Bauhaus... it was all too perfect... next stop Berlin to see miss Carly Hulls!!

Bruges- 11th-14th August... Happy birthday mum for the 14th