From a3aa81ca2d3f44c21e9e973e2a1227db4f54aa24 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brian Picciano Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2018 13:13:40 -0400 Subject: add bruges to mr-worldwide post --- _drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 63 insertions(+) (limited to '_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md') diff --git a/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md b/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md index 023c2c0..47fa761 100644 --- a/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md +++ b/_drafts/mr-worldwide-pt-1-europe.md @@ -200,3 +200,66 @@ about worker's rights. While it was a funny situation, in a way, it did make my life quite a bit harder. Once I finally got back to the hostel I stayed in for the night, and the next day headed on to Bruges. + +## Bruges, Belgium + +I'll be honest and say that 90% of the reason I wanted to go to Bruges was +because of the movie, _In Bruges_, which is one of my all time favorites. The +movie was shot almost completely in the city, and makes a lot of fun out of +tourists coming to see it. "It's a fucking fairytale" is a common refrain in it. +Bruges always had a pretty solid tourist game, but after the movie it really +took off, so that most of the other people in my hostel said they had only +really heard of the city from the movie too. + +{% include image.html + dir="mr-worldwide" file="bruges-pano-2018.jpg" width=1492 + descr="View from atop the the Belfry of Bruges, 2018" + %} + +The city itself is actually beautiful. Once out of the busy tourist area, +centered around the Belfry, the streets and canals wind around through quiet +neighborhoods and small parks. Bruges is sometimes called the Venice of the +North (though Amsterdam also calls itself this), due to its history as an +important historical commercial port built on top of a maze of canals. There are +many canal boat tours available, but I was too ~~cheap~~ poor to spring for one, +so I took a free walking tour instead. + +"Free" walking tours are a fairly common business in European cities. The tour +guides collect people from various hostels they have arrangements with, and walk +them around the city, talking about whatever is worth talking about. Most that I +took were quite good, weaving together the history of a place, its culture both +then and now, and current events, all while giving you a good lay-of-the-land +and two-ish hours of being out-and-about. At the end of the tour the guides ask +for tips/donations, and most people give between $5-20. + +On the tour of Bruges our guide had pointed out a sea shell cemented into the +pavement. This was part, he said, of the Camino De Santiago. In the middle ages +the Catholic Church considered pilgrimage to be a suitable form of atonement for +sins/crimes, and so many people throughout Europe were sent away from their +towns to travel by land to the Santiago de Compestela Cathedral in northern +Spain. Over time the various routes materialized into a network, denoted by sea +shells or sea shell symbols, which stretches throughout Europe and which people +continue to use today. + +Even as the guide was telling us about it I knew I wanted to do. As the trip +wore on I talked to a few people who had done the pilgrimage, and for every one +I became more and more convinced that I must do it. + +{% include image.html + dir="mr-worldwide" file="bruges-canal-2018.jpg" width=1920 + descr="Canals of Bruges, 2018" + %} + +I made a few friends in my hostel, our friendship having been forged in the +struggle of trying to find an affordable meal in Bruges. Every restaurant in +Bruges, it seemed, did "full" meals, where you pay a fixed amount and get two, +three, or four courses. But the fixed amount was never lower than €45, and so we +spent a lot of time searching for alternatives. After a lot of searching we +found a couple places which were reasonably priced for the couple nights we were +all there, and one of the group knew of a hard-to-find pub which made and sold +13% alcohol beer for a few euro. After all that Bruges wasn't as unaffordable +as it first seemed, and was a lot of fun, but it took a bit of work to make it +so. + +After Bruges I took a bus back to Brussels, where I hung out for a while waiting +for my next bus which would take me across the pond. -- cgit v1.2.3