Brugge = Heaven - Part II of Spring Break

On the 18th I took of for Heaven, even though when I left I thought I was going Belgium. Turns out that the chocolate there is as good as they say it is, but even better.

Tuesday morning I boarded a plane bright and early to head to Belgium. I got off and was waiting for the bus for Brugge and what a temperature difference there was. Instead of the 70s like in Granada, it was probably in the 30s. It was windy. And then it started to snow. SNOW!? AHHH!!!!

Some shops in the main square of Brugge. So cute!

The bus ride was about 2 hours to get to Brugge but well worth it. I absolutely loved this little city! The people there were VERY friendly! They know like three languages, Dutch (I think), French, and English. And on every street there seemed to be at least one chocolate shop!

Me in one of the many chocolate shops!

That afternoon my friend Jessica and I walked around the city taking pictures. I had once heard that Brugge was Beglium's version of Venice because there's water flowing through the city and some of the buildings are built on top of it. So we paid 6 euros and took a boat ride. The buildings were the neatest things I'd ever seen. Every time we saw a new one I wanted to take a picture of it!

People on a boat tour of Brugge I went on one the first day I was there.

The weather in Brugge was so strange. One minute it was sunny and the next it would be raining. Or sleeting - as it did a few times. We learned that if that happened to just go inside a building for a few minutes to let the rain cloud pass.

That first night we tried some amazing French fries! They had two street vendors right next to each other in the center market who would compete for customers. We tried each of them, one each day, in order to be fair. Yet the men working there were the least friendliest people we encountered on our whole trip.

We went into a cafe and had a Belgium waffle that afternoon! It was so much lighter than the ones we make for breakfast. What is great about Belgium is that when you order hot chocolate they bring you out a little plate on the side with some treats. At this one cafe we were given a chocolate egg (delicious) as well as a chocolate covered coffee bean. At another cafe they gave away cookies with the coffee. So cool!

One of many windmills along the river

That night we hung out in our hostel. I got to meet some really cool people. Two women were back packing around Europe on their own - each separately. I would never be able to do that so it was neat to hear about their adventures!

The next day we woke up and rented bikes!!! We biked around until 10 (because everything was closed until then) and even rode through some horrible rain and sleet.

Renting a bike is the thing to do in Brugge!

We then walked up 300+ stairs to the top of a bell tower. It was scary going up, but not bad going down.

A view of Brugge from the top of the bell tower

We went on a tour of the brewery here. I am 21 now! haha. But I don't like beer so I was just there to say that I was there. We got a free drink at the end but my mind was too concerned with chocolate at that point. I'll always be a chocoholic! We had to warm up in the hostel before going out to a candy shop where we watched them making candy. We rode around some more and returned to head to Brussels.

I'm not sure if you have ever heard of couch surfing but basically there's this online site where you create a page like Facebook and get in touch with people who have couches available for people to sleep on. I don't' know if that made sense. Basically, if you're traveling and want to stay somewhere for the night and not have to pay, you get in contact with someone from that city and ask if you can stay with them. Jessica had gotten in touch with a girl in Brussels who was on couch surfing and the girl invited us to visit her at her chocolate shop. So we went to it and it was so amazing! She gave us free samples and I told her how it was always my dream to work in a chocolate shop. I thought she was the luckiest girl in the world.

We saw the peeing boy and walked around a little. Later that night we saw the peeing girl even!

For such a popular attraction, I couldn't believe how tiny it actually was. And it was in a really random location.

We went back to the shop to get directions from the girl Antoinette around 8ish. However, after everything was said and done, we found out that we would be spending the night at her house! She had a friend who worked at another chocolate shop and we had to wait until 12pm for them to get off of work before we could go to Antoinette's house. She's only 18 and lives with her mom. But guess what her friend, Jeremy, did for me?! He had saved a broken box of chocolate, taped it up, and gave it to me. She had told him how much I loved chocolate! I was in so much shock. I'm pretty sure that was a 30 Euro box of chocolate he was handing me. I just really couldn't believe that had happened!

The chocolate shop that Jeremy worked at

Antoinette, Jeremy, and her mom were so nice. Her mom made us breakfast at 6 am and drove Jeremy, Jessica, and I to the metro station. We were so lucky that Jeremy was with us. He rode the metro to us until we got to the bus station, where he ran around helping us find the bus we needed. Without him we surely would have missed the bus for the airport, and would have missed our plane. I can't believe the luck we had in meeting the three of them, but they were probably some of the most friendiest people I have ever met!

And so that ends the Belgium chapter of my journey. Up next, Barcelona.