Saturday 6th August
OK, I won’t lie, the main motivation for going to Bruges was the fantastic film with Colin Farrell and that Mad Eye Moody actor who I forget the name of as I am writing this (Brendon Gleeson). Let’s see if I can naturally get many quotes from the film in (by the by, I don’t recommend this film to everyone, it’s got a bizarre sense of humour). I had myself a nice large breakfast at the cantina (but no band) in Cologne before hotfooting it to station. I said goodbye to Moritz as I left. He too was moving on to, his time teaching kids done for now. I think he was heading the way that I had just come from since his girlfriend was out east.
Now, the train through to Bruges was stopping at a different station than Köln HBF, but instead at Köln-Ehrenfeld, a 20 minute train ride out of the town with only two platforms. You may be wondering why. I have no clue. I just obeyed what the rail app was telling me I had to do to get to Bruges. Therefore, I got on board a commuter train at Köln HBF and hopped off at Köln-Ehrenfeld to wait for the high speed train through to Bruxelles-midi and onto Bruges. There were plenty of other travellers who were doing the exact same thing as me, so that was slightly comforting. At least, I assumed they were travellers, they all had massive backpacks on.
The train was good. I slept most of the way. Upright, arms crossed, music in, head lolling against the window. No idea what happened outside the window, except that it was sunny. Arriving into Brussels was confusing though. That train station is not well laid out, and has absolutely no signs. Yeah, nah. There were trains every half hour to Bruges (commuter trains, stopping everywhere), so I missed my first one through due to the lack of signage going on, but eventually found the correct platform to catch the next one. This train was full of people off to the beach it seemed. There were plenty of buckets and spades and towels and swimming costumes packed into bags around the train. Instead of seats, these trains had long padded benches and kids and adults crammed in on all sides. I myself sat beside a lady sitting upright with big sunglasses and opposite an elderly couple.
I arrived into Bruges and walked to the hostel and left my bag in storage – I was too early to check in! There was actually another bag identical to mine in storage so I was kinda worried about the other person picking up the wrong bag!
I was In Bruges, hoping to “strike a balance between culture and fun”. Anyway, I headed on out into Bruges, looking for a spot of food. I had googled cheap eats, and was recommended a sandwich place called Brazi’s Sandwich shop and I am so glad I went there. They had fun South American music playing in the shop and the guy making the sandwiches was just about the happiest guy, dancing as he wiped spreads on bread halves, singing at and with the customers and dropping everything to hand dog treats to people passing by with furry friends. If he could, he would have fed them I am sure, but health and safety probably said no. He had a round face, a hat and an apron on. It was a mood lift just being around him, despite not needing my mood lifted!

I got the penultimate sandwich before Brazi shut up shop, and went and ate it sitting on a beautiful bridge. Bruges was stunning so far. Absolutely picture perfect. Red brick houses, tall facades, cobbled streets. It had a fairy-tale feel to it, as if it had been lifted straight from a Brothers Grimm story. There were canals winding their way throughout the city and little gondolas and paddle boats made their way along these canals, their oars making ripples in the calm surface. There were trees everywhere, leaning over the canals and roads. Just wonderful.

But it was also chock-a-block full of people. The crowds were absolutely packed. This is what I had been expecting when I went to Venice! Therefore, wanting to escape the crowds, I walked down and round to the Koningin Astridpark where I sat and read in the early afternoon and post lunch lethargy. “There are a lot of alcoves in Koningin Astridpark”.
I headed back to the hostel for 14:00 to check in and put my bag somewhere more secure. I actually passed a puppeteer on the way, making the cello play some Beyoncé. There was a half moon crowd around him and people were filming it. It was very cool to be fair.


The hostel itself was just amazing. I loved it so much. I don’t think my descriptive powers give it justice. It was an old converted townhouse or something, three stories tall. There was a large common room with an attached bar, and a kitchen out back. There were varnished, shiny wooden floors that squeaked, comfy worn sofas and the walls were exposed red brick. The stairs leading up were as tight and steep as a medieval spiral staircase in a castle and the floors with the dorms were like rabbit warrens, twisting and winding all ways it seemed. It was fun, and so aesthetically beautiful. My bedroom itself was probably smaller than the small room at The Green with four beds stuffed in, two bunks. I was on top of one and had to climb up with my limbs at funny angles since there was not enough space to climb up normally! I was sharing the room with a six year old and his mother. He called himself Mowgli and acted the part. But it was fine. The fourth bed was empty for now.
I spent the afternoon touring around the town a little by myself. I had booked a free tour for the next morning so that I could learn something of this amazing place. I hit all the good places, seeing plenty of churches and the old town square but before long I was hungry again. Trying not to be the “worst tourist in the whole world”. All the restaurants in Bruges were hella expensive. Like I kid you not, all very expensive, and all very full. The tourists were out in force. Therefore I went cheap, buying myself some food at the supermarket and eating it in the hostel’s common room.

This is when I started chatting to a bunch of people, first one or two before eventually there was a large group of us all chatting amongst ourselves:
- Owen. From Long Island in the USA. He was already on his fourth beer of the afternoon and was heavily American. He had majored in politics at university and was off to work for the Red Cross in Germany.
- Leroy. A really cool, tall Dutch guy with a wicked sense of humour. He was actually in the army and was enjoying some time off by coming here for a small holiday.
- Jason (40). He was a kiwi who wore boots without laces and had travelled an absolute tonne. He was currently travelling by local buses up from Spain to Copenhagen. A really cool guy, he had made sweets in a factory in Japan over lockdown before coming out here.
- Zala. A Mexican surgeon who was living and working in Paris. He had a constant smile on his face and had travelled tonnes as well, doing plenty of hiking around Mexico, climbing volcanoes and doing trails on horseback. He too was on a weekend break.
- Yaël (42). She was a mother who had come from Brussels for a small holiday whilst her partner looked after their kid.
- Thalia (19). Honestly, all I know about Thalia was that she had had some miserable experiences at hostels so far on her inter-railing trip which she told us about to a quiet table. Which was a shame.
There were other people too, a couple of girls, but I didn’t catch their names or really interact with them. We all had a lovely time, chatting. Leroy and Zala were particularly cool people that I enjoyed talking to. Before long, there was a motion put forward by Owen to head out to the Moods 2022 musical festival tonight. It was meant to be a jazz group playing tonight so I was more than up for it, as was everyone else.


We made our way to the town square as a group where the show was happening, dawdling along in pairs. The festival was free as well, which was another big win. However, instead of a jazz band as advertised, it was instead a band called Babylon Circus which were more of a ska band, absolutely full of energy. Fast rhythms, happy, French, festival music. Major chords and major keys all round. We all had a great time! Zala basically showed us how to dance and Leroy supplied us with more chips than we could manage as a group, whilst Owen supplied everyone (bar me) with beer. Apparently the Belgian beer is good. I also got myself some of those original Belgian Waffles too and had a wonderful time. We all sang Happy Birthday as a crowd to one of the band members too.
However, this was high tempo music that exhausted you just by listening to it, and so I tapped out at midnight and headed back to the hostel with Yaël. I had a free tour in the morning after all! “A great day this has turned out to be”.
Sunday 7th August
When I woke in the morning, I sat up in bed and looked across at the fourth bed that had been empty when I fell asleep last night. Instead of being empty however, it was actually filled with Zala and we both laughed in shock at seeing each other. He had made plans with Thalia to go cycling that day (with hired bikes). There were a tonne of bike routes all around Belgium in general, but the one they were doing was going to lead them into the Netherlands where they were planning on grabbing lunch at the border town of Sluis or something.
I myself, after grabbing some breakfast from Carrefour, headed into town for the start of the free walking tour. It was another super sunny day, the bright blue shy without a cloud in sight. Even though I had put sunscreen on, I was very conscious of the back of my neck and tried to remain in the shade. We were meeting under the Belfry. I didn’t have time to go up there. “I mean it’s all windy stairs. I’m not being funny”. Again, the tour was split in two due to the large number of people, my group was being led by Wendy.


Along the tour, she basically talked a lot about taxes, the kings and queens, Flemish people, trade and the architecture (to make it look impressive, historically everyone made fake facades, giving the impression their houses were more impressive than they actually were). Did you know that Bruges used to be on the coast, but over time the sea has retreated, leaving it quite a bit in land. The amount of canals means that it has the nickname of the Venice of the North. It was a massively touristic town, I really had not been expecting it to be this busy! There were bells everywhere too, and plenty of churches. I passed a kid on the tour that was shouting at their sibling “Braino reparo” in reference to Harry Potter. We also saw the smallest window in medieval Europe, used to spy ships coming for trade purposes.



I also saw plenty of stuff from the In Bruges film. It was an decent tour, not the best. Nothing has beaten Spyros from Genoa yet. I was kinda sleepy and the sun was searing hot throughout the tour though so I wasn’t really paying attention the majority of the time. That’s OK, it was free and I had a good time. I got myself some pasta for lunch from a pasta bar. Oh my god, Yum!
I headed back to the hostel where I had to put my phone on charge. I had forgotten to charge it overnight whoops. I encountered Jason there and spent the early afternoon talking to him about his travelling experiences and reading. When I was happy I had some juice in my phone, I headed back out to check out the windmills at the edge of town. That was cool. There were a series of these old, wooden windmills along one of the cycling paths. Very picturesque. Very quaint. Very… Flemish. I sat and read under a tree beside one of these windmills. That was nice. Plus, my book was getting really good. Really tense. It was a sci-fi murder mystery after all!


I had an early dinner and hung out in the common room in the evening. I spied a couple playing a game of Carcassonne and before long, I ended up playing with them. They were Rosaline and Samuel who were from the French speaking part of Canada Quebec, over here for a holiday. Leroy turned up later as well and he joined in too. That was actually a really nice evening and completely different from the previous one with the music festival. They were all laughing at my French pronunciations. Apparently “Pour que?” is not pronounced “Pour-key” or “Pour-koy”.

Before long, I was heading to bed though since I was having to get up early in the morning.
Impression
Bruges is a wonderfully quaint and beautiful town. Absolutely stunning. But when I was there, it was also overpriced and full of people.
Some facts and fun stats
- Days spent: 2
- Jazz clubs: 0, but I went to a “jazz festival” which was a completely different genre of music altogether
- Number of things that went wrong: Not any really
- Memorable moment: Definitely spending the evening with those people and heading out to the jazz festival together
- Music suggestion based off of city: The Passenger, Iggy Pop
- Postcards sent: 0
- Bruges used to be on the coast and was a large trading and coastal town before taxation from Brussels and the retreating of the sea left it as a tourist town.
- Places seen from the In Bruges film: plenty, but not everywhere. Certainly Koningin Astridpark and the alcoves. I do not recommend this film to everyone by the way… It’s a certain humour
- Composers seen: 0
- Burnt-o-meter: 5/10
- Hostel rating: 9/10, only mild complaint being the size of the rooms but that was more of a fun idiosyncrasy than anything else.