In Bruges!

Hello everyone! Since Poh wrote the last entry about visiting a Dutch home (damn I wanted to do that), I guess its my turn to take the initiative for this post! We sort of have this mutual unspoken agreement where one will update the blog on the trip and the other will post photos on facebook. haha. But no complaints, because I'm loving keeping each and everyone of you back home happy! winkz

On Saturday the 8th march, 6 of us took a day trip down to Bruges (pronounced “broozh” acting atas and chichi only), in Belgium. I'm proud to say that I know a Belgian, even before travelling to Europe. She's none other than my Quantitative Management Professor last semester. She was a pleasant lady but an INTENSEEE teacher who loved muttering to herself in class and secretly revelled in seeing our painful distorted faces by giving out exam papers that were PhD worthy. Darrell, Rolyn, Poh, even Ambrose can attest to that!

When I was in Bruges, I couldn't help but feel like Pascale was around watching my every move. I could hear her voice resounding through the town about simulation, queueing, linear programming etc. Oh myy even when I was buying chocolate, I could hear her telling me about store operations and estimations of demand and supply!

Okay now I'm scaring the daylights out of myself.

*Clears throat and puts on lonely planet voice*

Bruges is approximately a 2.5 hour train ride away from Maastricht and was kind to our wallets with a 2 way trip of only 15euros. Bruges exudes a quaint medieval charm and is one of Belgium's most visited town. This town teeming with tourists, was added to Unesco's World Heritage List in 2000 and, in 2002, Bruges took centre stage as the European City of Culture.

All 6 of us were on an adrenaline rush as we knew that we were only going to be there for one day and we wanted to seize every second of it!! Just for this trip, I willingly broke my 2008 record of not waking up earlier than 7am. We met at the Guesthouse reception at 6 (freaking) am in order to catch the 7am train to Liege and then the 8something train to Bruges. Even at 6am, we were all still chatty and enthusiastic as ever! Everyone was excitedly showing off their research on what possible activites we could do at Bruges. Poh displayed his knowledge from this thick dusty book (courtesy of Joyce) titled "Europe on a shoestring: Big trips on small budgets" while the others boasted their research about Bruges from the net. At the end of the day, it boiled down to a few must-visit places and thats how the trip began! :)

6.30am at the bus stop outside our Guesthouse waiting to take a bus to the Centraal Station

Catching our 7am train to Liege

Finally we arrived in Bruges!!

yayness!

We found out that most of the must see destinations were located around the Markt.

The Markt is the heart of Bruges and the focal point of your sightseeing. Most major points of interest in the city are no more than 5-10 minutes walk away

#1 Must-Do-Thing: Climb the stairs of the Belfry

Belfry of Bruges, or Belfort, is a medieval bell tower in the historic centre of Bruges. You must be blind to miss one of the city's most prominent symbols. For an entry fee, we got to climb the Belfry tower's 366 steps (aside to lex, debs and nise: can;t beat climbing the great wall with you!). Our reward was an unrivalled breathtaking omniscient view of Bruges from the top. Seriously these 366 steps are no joke. The winding stairway is not only steep bu narrrow! But when we got to the top, all the complaining and aching just disappeared into thin air. Everyone was completely flabagasted at the view.

My camera lens was not pro enough to capture the whole Belfry so the photo below is to do it justice

Indulging in some beer and oysters before our challenging task ahead

On our journey up the steep and narrow stairwayCrazy winds at the top: Some gui stranger transformed Chian and I into rabbits

Our highly anticipated reward: The breathtaking view of Bruges

#2: Must-Do-Thing: Take the Canal Cruise

When we were at the ticket booth, we asked the uncle whether there were any student discounts and he gave an answer that made us burst into uncontrollable guffaws. His reply was a simple straight to the point, "Nope, we don't discriminate." Pretty good answer if you ask me. haha

The starting point of the cruise rideThe back-seaters

#3: Must-Do-Thing: Visit a Chocolatier

I think visiting a chocolatier was not an issue at all. Every few steps you take, you'll see chocolatiers galore. We were spoilt for choice. Too much chocolate, too little time and we had to control our chocolate urges. I think we visited Belgium at a perfect time where Easter was just around the corner because seriously the creativity and quality of work when it came to making the chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies was just top-notch! I even mistook a porcelain rabbit for a chocolate one, thats how pro and real life they look!! The chocolates look too good to eat like I just want to keep the bunny in my maastricht cupboard for 4 months and tapow the bunny home with me after. Without saying, we bought packets of yummylicious-melt-in-your-moud truffles back. I just savoured 3 sinful truffles at one shot just now. Terrible! This had better stop before I become unrecognizable again like after I got back from work and travel :(

Slabs and slabs of chocolate!

Spot the 3rd bunnySeriously, there are no limits with the creativity in chocolate heaven!

#4: Must-Do-Thing: Take copious amounts of photos

Presenting the Bruges gals

Presenting the Bruges guys
There's in company in Singapore called: Poh Lee Bus Transport Services, no seriously.

To everyone back home who will not be visiting Bruges anytime soon, don't fret because I heard that there is going to be this movie titled 'In Bruges' starring sizzling Colin Farrell and it is filmed on location! If you can't wait, click here to watch the trailer!