Today was the first day David and I got to explore and delve into Bruges. We woke up and had breakfast at the hostel at St. Christopher’s Inn at the Bauhaus. Nothing special, just your typical breakfast foods. Looking back, I think today was one of the most eventful days of the trip. Many things happened all in one day.

First, our mission was to buy a sim card! We navigated around Bruges using the map they offered us at the hostel. It was quite useful, with local places to check out, and even had kissing spots on the map/lengend haha. We went to the Markt, and Burg Square, and City Hall. Around the Markt were streets of shopping areas. Another thing I learned today was that “straat” means “street” in Dutch and German. That’s why many of the street names are like “Leeuwstraat”, or “Steenstraat”. We checked out a few phone service provider stores and found that “Orange” had the best deal, $15 for 4 GB. What a good deal right? We also learned a new thing, that they require to see your passport upon purchasing any sim cards. Of course, both of us didn’t carry our passports so we decided to go back to our hostel after lunch and canal tour to buy the sim card.

Walking around Bruges was like walking in a storybook or fairytale. It is surrounded by canals, and often coined “Venice of the North”. To me, it reminded me of Beauty and the Beast where Belle was singing along the streets and buying a loaf of bread. It’s a cute little quaint town with unique features and nooks.

You can walk around different parts of Bruges and come across many different architecture and kinds of buildings. We wandered around finding little alleys and cute places to photograph.

We also had our first Belgian waffle! About 5-6 Euros for a strawberry and chocolate Belgian waffle. It was so delicious!

Canal Tour: We went for a 30 mins canal tour for 8 Euros. Our first canal tour together! It was really nice and we got to see other parts of Bruges that we haven’t visited yet. We came across an art installation in the canal of a whale made out of all the plastics found in the ocean!

For lunch, we went to a little patio restaurant outside by the canals where I had Carbonara and David ordered an eggs and grill cheese sandwich. I really liked my Carbonara! After that we headed back to get our passports to walk back to the Markt area to buy our sim card. Long story short: we ended up with a 500 MB sim card and got ripped off. Very ridiculous and not fair..but I won’t get into that detail. I was also able to find a little shop that sold Cuberdons!! I was really excited as I heard it was a Ghent specialty. I tried the strawberry Cuberdon for myself and got some to bring home for my friends and family as souvenirs. I also checked out The Chocolate Line shop, it was pretty cool! For dinner we went to a place nearby our hostel called De Pon (I think), it was a very retro inspired place owned by a couple. We had mussels and beef stew (Belgian tradition). Since it was a long day and David needed to rest, he insisted that I venture off on my own after dinner to go on my own little adventure and check out Burg Square at night. At first I hesitated but I agreed and was excited! We went back to our hostel and I got ready to go for my night adventure. When I left our hostel, David showed up at the staircase and decided to follow me! I told him to go back to rest but he didn’t listen…sigh. So we spent the night strolling around Bruges, but I was secretly really glad he came with me. Europe is quite romantic to walk around at night with the cute buildings, architecture, canals, and swans. It could be a lot warmer though! These past two days I’ve been walking around with my cardigan (not the summer weather we had anticipated!).

You know you have an Instagram boyfriend when he takes a photo like this (: David was very proud of this shot, he said it’s “the photo of the year” haha and I don’t disagree!

One of my favourite memories from today was just wandering around with David taking pictures and discovering little unique alleys and buildings. Another memorable moment was when I turned around at the staircase and there he was, not letting me go on a night stroll alone. Tomorrow we will be leaving Bruges and going to Rotterdam!

-Charlene