In Which I Wander And Find Cool Stuff

So this morning I woke up sort of slowly, and got ready and went over to the other part of the hotel for breakfast. I was one of the last people there, so it was kind of hard to find a table that didn't have dishes and stuff on it. I got a very good little bread roll with nutella, and some yoghurt and orange juice. Then I got a map from the lady at the desk (who I found out also speaks perfect French, in addition to her perfect Flemish and English and probably German. >.>)

When I headed out, I didn't really have too much of a plan. I was headed towards the Markt, where the Belfry is, and from there I thought I'd find the Burg, which is the town's administrative center. I headed down one of the streets and right ahead of me was the Belfry! I love when the major monument of a city is really obvious and easy to find! So I followed it, passing a pretty brick cathedral on the way, and came out in the Markt. There actually wasn't much to see; there's the Belfry itself, and some pretty Gothic-style buildings that I took pictures of, and the horse-drawn carriages go through pretty constantly. I wandered on through to the inside of the Belfry, but the line was really long to go up, so I decided I'll do it another day.

When I wandered back through and found the Burg, I didn't really know what was there besides the Town Hall. I ended up taking some pictures of a random building that turned out to be a church that turned out to be the Basilica of the Holy Blood! Who knew? I went inside, took pictures, and it turned out I was just in time for the Veneration of the Relic. So I stood in the line, and went up and touched it, as you do. (Or, well; I touched the glass they lay over the reliquary inside of which is the sealed bottle containing the piece of cloth supposedly soaked with Jesus' blood.) It was supposedly collected by Joseph of Arimethea when he washed Jesus' body for burial, and was given to a Flemish Count when he was on Crusade in the Holy Land. (Historians think it was actually probably looted from a Constantinian treasure house.) After I went through the line, I went around and took a few more pictures, then went out and into the tiny basilica museum, where they have various items relating to the relic. I will say; as helpful as the occasional translation into French and English is, I still feel like I miss half of the information in those places, since it's all in Flemish. I bought a little charm from the Basilica; I'm going to use it and the little labyrinth charm I got in Chartres and start a charm bracelet! Then I went into the downstairs part of the Basilica. That part is all made of brick, with vaulted ceilings, and is basically a little prayer room.

After the Basilica, I went into the building right next door, which is the Town Hall. They have a program in Bruges where you can pay for a 1-day, 3-day, or year-long pass, and visit 16 of the major Bruges Museum sites in the city. I went ahead and got the 3-day one, which was awesome since for me (being between the ages of 12 and 25) it was only 5 Euro. The Town Hall didn't have too much stuff; the major feature was the Hall Council room, which is beautifully carved and painted, with a huge fantastic fireplace, stained glass windows, and giant murals depicting important people and events in the city's past. It was a good thing I had the audio guide, though, or I wouldn't have had any idea what any of it was.

After the Town Hall, I wandered out and through a side street going away from the Burg, which led me to one of the canals. There was a stand selling tickets for the boat rides, which give you a brief tour of the city from the water. I'd wanted to take one, so I figured why not and bought a ticket (they ended up being over 6 Euro; one of the most expensive "attractions" in Bruges!). I was in a big line of people, but the boats apparently leave every few minutes and they pack people in pretty closely. I ended up wedged between some people speaking French, and an older couple that spoke Spanish, with an American couple across the way, and the back of the boat was filled with a big group speaking Flemish. I will say, Bruges has been one of the most intercultural and interlingual experiences of my whole life! The guy doing the tour was giving commentary in Flemish, French, and English, so when I didn't catch something in the French I could usually pick it out in the English, which was nice. He was kind of a young punk; he went really fast, talked faster, and kept making all kinds of uncouth comments and jokes. When he was helping some kids into the boat at the beginning, I don't think they spoke English, because he was muttering something about "Step careful, get in, fall in, I don't give a shit" and at one point we went under a bridge where some girls (admittedly dressed rather skank-ily) were standing, and he yelled at them to come back in summer and wear skirts. Despite him, the trip was at least helpful for getting more of an orientation on the centre of the city, and he did know the script for the various things to look at. I took a lot of pictures.

When I got out of the boat, I just continued along a random street, where there ended up being a lot of restaurants and some market stalls selling jewelry, random knick-knacks, and a guy who'd done really awesome paintings in a "hyper-realistic" style, so they looked like photographs. I ended up going back to the Burg for lunch, and had moules frites! I pride myself on being able to finish an entire pot of mussels and fries. :D

After lunch, I went back out, and wandered further through the market area. There were more stalls set up farther along the canal, so I went and looked through them. I found a stall where a guy was selling what he said were Roman and medieval artifacts that a friend of his finds with a metal detector, and he makes into jewelry. I went ahead and got a necklace that's supposedly a Roman pendant with Roman glass. I don't know if it's real, but at the least it's very pretty, and I like it. Then I wandered further along the canal, and found some cool random art in a garden, next to a couple of the art museums in Bruges. One of the pieces was a set of four men on horses, meant to be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I went through and took pictures since they looked cool, and as I was walking away, some random group of, like, 30- and 40-year-olds went by and were laughing and exclaiming because the Horsemen had obvious penises. Because immaturity is not reserved for the young, lol. I wandered around, saw some more random stuff, and ended up heading back towards my room since my feet were hurting.

I hung out in my room for a while, not doing much, and around 1oish I went out to find some dinner. Unfortunately, apparently Bruges curls up and dies on Monday evenings, because nothing was open (and it was all really expensive anyway). After wandering around for way too long trying to find somewhere to go, I finally found a little pita place, and just got a pita with fries and a drink to go, and ate them back in the room, and just stayed in for the evening.