Beautiful Bruges

Since Belgium is a very small country, we get to travel around to all the different cities. First up was Bruges. Bruges used to be a bustling port city, until all the rivers silted up and boats couldn't get there anymore. However, it is probably one of the most beautiful cities (towns?) I have ever been in. Lots of cute little canals, which you can apparently tour by boat a la Venice, and beautiful scenery. Jerry, our program director and professor extraordinaire, led out little tour group around and told us lots of fascinating stories about the place. 

Apparently Bruges was the site of a very famous battle between the French and the Flemish, in which a small army of Flemish peasants killed a whole bunch of French knights. The date of this battle is still the national day of Flanders and there is a giant statue of the leaders of the rebellion in the town square. No wonder there is linguistic conflict in Belgium, eh? Anyway, there is a plethora of beautiful buildings around Bruges, all with their own unique history. We saw one of the only Michelangelo statues outside Italy, of Mary and Jesus as a boy. There is also apparently a piece of cloth that has the blood of Christ on it, which dates from the Crusades. So, long story short, we learned a lot about history and saw a very beautiful city.

Now on to the really important stuff, what we ate! I had my first belgian waffle in Bruges and it completely lived up to my expectations - fresh strawberries and creme and pure deliciousness. After we had lunch we had to work off all of the calories so we climbed the bell tower. We timed our ascent just right, so we reached the top just as the bells started to ring. It was quite loud! After that we decided that the traditional fare of Frites (fries) was in order. My friend Trent and I were adventurous and had ours with mayonnaise (which is traditional), and I have to say that it was actually quite tasty. It was also warm, which was nice because the temperature outside was frigid. And we capped our little trip off with a nice Belgian beer, brewed in Bruges. The beer was good, but we were really confused because they only had bottled beer and we thought that in a brewery they would have at least one beer on tap! 

I might end up back in Bruges in the next couple of years, because the College of Europe is located there. The College of Europe is like the Harvard of the European Union, so if I can swing it maybe I'll head back this way for grad school! Not a bad place to spend a year studying, at any rate.