Bruges and Beer and New Friends

Wow, I’ve been having an amazing time in Bruges! But I’ll start at the beginning…Last night was a pretty early one, I had a few “kriek’s” or cherry beers with Sergio, a guy I met from Austria who was also traveling by himself. The beer was amazing; it was more like liquid candy than anything! Bright red, fairly cheap, very delicious. I think if I lived here I would have one every night for desert it was so yummy.

This morning I got up at a decent hour, had some cereal and vanilla soy milk (sooo yum, the brand of soy milk over here [AlproSoya] is TO DIE for) and then went about touring around the city some more. It is really, really tiny, and before long I had realized that I saw everything that I needed to yesterday, minus the chocolate museum that I gave up on finding. But I continued to wander, especially because it was a beautiful day out and I had my camera this time.!

Then I set out on finding lunch. I tried 3 different grocery stores, all with nasty “fresh” produce and meat-filled salads. Yum. Then I asked where a sushi place was, and the clerk led me to one that was closed Mon/Tues. Great. I ended up at a local fast food place thinking that I may as well get fries seeing as how I’m in Belgium, but they had a veggie burger and salad that was far too overpriced, but at least I got some veggies. The burger had ketchup on it too and it was delicious! I am a changed woman… anyways so that was all good. I then set off back to my hostel, changed into my bathing suit, and tanned in one of the many parks near my hostel. It was heaven as I nodded in and out of sleep and wiped the sweat off my forehead; I’m finally getting a summer! Only took till mid-August but that’s ok now. I tanned for a few hours, then remembered I should do my laundry as there’s a Laundromat next to my hostel and I don’t know if I’ll get as lucky in the next couple of days, so I did that and read.

As I was organizing my stuff in my room, I met Josh, a solo Aussie traveler, and then later I met Sarah, another solo Aussie, both on the BusAbout tour. Sarah invited me out to dinner with her other BusAbout friends, and after googling the place and finding that it had veggie options I joined in! We met up with her friends: Brooke from Aus, Kerry from near Ottawa, and Annette from Germany. Very fun girls night out! And I ended up having the best meal I’ve had over here. Huge baked potato, salad, fresh green beans, and a tofu/eggplant/pepper stew over rice. OH MY GOD so good, and any tofu-haters out there would so be conformed by this dish it was amazing. We ate and talked and had such a good time! We then went out to find a bar to get a drink at, and of course when you’re looking for something you can’t find it, but we ended up in one just down from our hostel, with the friendliest bar owner I’ve ever met. We ended up meeting back up with Josh and the bartender pushed our tables together and took us into the back and showed us his 460 different kinds of beer, including apple, raspberry, pomegranate, banana, chocolate, coconut, Jesus, and many more. Most of us had the coconut, which was an excellent choice, and Sarah had the Jesus, which is apparently named after, “Jesus, we got it right!” because it’s so good, and 10% as well. Sarah had a sip and was like, “Oh my god.” and the little old bartender was like, “No, JESUS!” it was so perfect. I had an awesome night, minus the fact that I actually can’t talk and won’t be able to tomorrow. The bar was like a hotbox of cigarette smoke and I left before everyone else just because it hurt to breathe. I fully appreciate the laws in Canada against smoking inside, they are literally saving peoples lives I bet. Thanks Canada!