Bruges

April 5, 2010

Somehow Hilary and I were actually able to get up and catch the train to Bruges today on time. Quite impressive for us. The plan was to grab some waffles on our way to the station and each them on the train ride over. However, Easter is a huge holiday in Holland and they get a 4 day weekend so everything was closed since it was Easter Monday. I had some bread and cheese left over from a few days before so I ate that to hold me over during the hour train ride. Waiting for the train we got a little confused since we couldn't read the signs and weren't sure what everything meant. But after a little waiting around, looking clueless and attempting to ask people things in French we got on the right train.

Hilary crashed on the train ride as she does on most public transportation vehicles so I spent the hour eating and listening to a ton of foreign languages. It was actually really entertaining to hear what people were saying and trying to figure out the meaning behind the words by the tone of their voice and their expressions and hand gestures. At some points when I'd lose focus it was like white noise all around me. When you can't understand anything, you tend to hear everything. Instead of focusing in on one conversation or two like usually, I could literally unfocus my ears and hear everyone talking at once. It was an unusual experience and really made me realize different Europe is and how big language barriers are.

The cities we were passing by on the train were really beautiful to watch as well. They were all old cities made up of brick houses and stores. All the buildings in Europe seem to be between 3 and 5 floors and they line the streets touching wall to wall. The only differences are in the roofs and the color they are painted. It leaves a really cool feeling of being enclosed within these brick buildings while you are walking down the street. I feel so engulfed that I can't look at anything else other than the beautful old buildings around me. It's funny though because all of the buildings are somehow able to look the same but very different from each other at the same time. It's quite an accomplishment.

We got in to Bruges easily enough and set out to find the belfry tower which was the meeting point where Hilary and I were going to meet up with Hannah, Lila, David and Stella. They all got lucky and were able to drive in David's car. At noon we all met up and started to explore the town. The belfry was the first todo as you can climb the stairs to the top to see a great view of the city and countryside. The tower is 366 steps to the top with three view/resting points on the way up. The steps were super steep as are all of the staircases here. Apparently there used to be a tax based on how wide buildings were so everyone built them skinny and tall which led to steep and windy staircases. The tower is definitely the worst I've experienced though. I thought I was going to fall straight down at times all there was to hold on to was a rope attached to the inner wall. Having to pass people was literally a game of skill to make sure no one fell.

The top has some great views and we were lucky enough to be there on a pretty nice day. It was a little overcast but not awful and the sun was sporadically out during the day. While we were there we started to notice a bunch of quotes that were written on the wood parts of the wall from the movie "In Bruges" which we had watched the night before. It was really fun reading through them and actually knowing what they were talking about. Hilary and I also added our own quote to the wall and put our names on the wood. The way down was a little easier than the way up but I had to stare and each stair to make sure I didn't slip and fall all the way down. When we got down Hilary's leg started to spaz out for some reason. It was shaking on its own. We assumed it was from too much use on it since all we have been doing is walking since we got here and we just did all the stairs, but he is actually active and gets regular exercise so I feel like it would be my body freaking out if anything, not hers.

Outside of the befry there was a man playing some instruments that I had never heard before. He was really good though and fun to watch. Hannah got a video of him and the rest hung around to listen for awhile. Eventually we then made our way out and just started walking around. David and I ended up talking for most of the day which was a lot of fun. He was really interesting to listen to and we got along really well. At one point it was almost a problem as we were caught up in talking while everyone else wanted to get food. Apparently we were walking around for awhile looking for food and people were getting pretty annoyed and ancy and I was a little oblivious to it all. Oh well, it was a lot of fun talking to him and we all got food eventually.

While we were there we went in to a couple churches. It was the same old, same old. I've already expressed a little about my views on churches in an earlier post so I'll skip over that. At the first church I did a quick walk through and then sat down on the chairs waiting for everyone else to take pictures and whatnot. As I was sitting there was a little girl that went up to light a candle in one of the areas of the church and then there was a elderly lady in front of me who was kneeling and praying. I imagined what in their lives led them to the points they were currently at and how much things have changed for the lady praying and will change for the little girl. Pretty much I just compared made up personalities of two complete strangers and then tried to figure out the profound meaning of it. Very bizarre of me. I blame the churches. :)

At the second church I was waiting for the crew on a bench in the back of the church. This was the first church where all the stations of the cross pictures were lined up and they had noticed them. None of the girls were Christian so they were asking David about the stations. Once I saw him start to explain all of them one-by-one I slipped into a mini coma and got some sleep in. I remember having to memorize those stations starting in early elementary school and it was an annual event at Catholic school to go around in the church and recite them. I think it was actually an exam we were give at one point. Not the best or most exciting of memories so I decided sleep was better than thinking about that. Or perhaps thinking about that put me to sleep...

After this church the girls were interested since David had explained the stations. They started asking me a bunch of questions and eventually we ended up in a pretty lengthy conversation about religion. We had a couple girls raised Jewish, I was raised Catholic and the rest didn't have a religion. It was a really good conversation and made me realize how much I didn't know and/or remember about Christianity. I guess I haven't really practiced it since leaving my catholic school in 8th grade, and even then I only learned what I was supposed to learn for our exams on religion and then I forgot it like I do most subjects. Religion was never really something I believed in or felt like I belonged to when I was growing up, it was more just another subject in school that I used rote memorization to pass. Some of the questions were pretty basic and I couldn't answer them confidently. Whoops.

The next and final stop of the afternoon was at a really pretty park area in Bruges. We all had a mini photo shoot in the park and hung out for awhile then headed back to Brussels. Hilary and I set off to find a the train station and ended up getting lost again. By the time we made it to the station we were 4 minutes late for the train we were hoping to catch. Instead we had to wait a half hour until the next one came. We waited upstairs until about 10 minutes before the train time and then headed to the platform (once I woke Hilary up from her nap). Apparently the train had been there for awhile and when we got on the get seats they were all take up. We did not expect this to happen. We ended up having to sit on some stairs unti the first stop where people got off. The train back and walk to Estelle's was pretty easy. We are starting to get the hang of directions and getting around, finally.

We stopped by a mini-mart that was open - it was Easter Monday so not many things were open - and bought 4 pizzas for dinner. Everyone that was in Bruges plus Estelle was eating dinner at Estelle's so we needed a lot of food. When we got to Estelle's she was playing cards with 3 of her friends. It was a great surprise! We got to meet her friends who were all really nice and fun to be around and then the CS people came over so it turned in to a mini party. We pretty much just ate pizza, drank beer and talked all night. It was great. I also tried a traditional French drink but I don't remember what it was called.

Once everyone left Estelle ended up being pretty drunk since she had been drinking since 7ish that night so Hilary and I had a few good laughs at her - she's super cute! - and then headed to bed.