In Brugges

I had been in the country literally three weeks and already had itchy feet so luckily for me my lovely friends and I had planned a weekend in Belgium for my birthday.

I was excited to be heading to Brugges which I had heard from lots of people what's gorrrrgeous. While I had actually been to Brugges for a total of one hour on my Topdeck tour I hardly thought that counted and was keen to explore a bit more.

I was also excited as it would be my first trip on the Euro star! so straight after work on the Friday I met all my girls with my little wheelie bag at Kings Cross. We armed ourselves with some wine snacks and cake (from the girls high tea)and set off on our journey. We spent most of the time just chatting away but I was a little disappointed that since it was so dark we weren't able to tell when we were underwater until I got a message saying  "welcome to France" from my phone company when we were on the other side.

Once we arrived in Brussels we still had to get the hour train to Brugges and unfortunately for us we had just missed one. After an hours wait and hours train journey we finally arrived in Brugges and the "popping" over to Belgium ideal was slightly shattered. Luckily for me though I have friends high places and we had managed to get a cheap deal to stay at the Crown Plaza which was a great four star treat. So even though it was well past one o'clock before we went to bed they were extremely comfy ones.

The next morning after a brief sleep in we left on a mission to find some Belgian waffles for breakfast. After being informed that waffles for breakfast wasn't really the done thing we managed to find a cute little restaurant to grab something to eat. Since we were in the land of chocolate and were yet to have any most of us went about getting some and ordered a hot chocolate with " real" Belgian chocolate. When they cane out we were excited to see they were cups of warm frothed milk served with a stick with a chunk of chocolate on the bottom. The idea was to dip it into the warm milk and swirl it while it melts so its the perfect chocolate consistency.

Once we had our chocolate hit it was onto seeing the city and we couldn't resist getting a horse drawn carriage around the city. It was about £10 each for a half an hour tour where we sat under blankets while we clip clopped around all the cobblestone streets. It was one of my most unique tours in Europe and was really fun way of seeing the city. Plus it was freezing outside so being huddled under a blanket was even better.

After the tour it was time for to try a typical Belgian Beer so we headed down the skinniest street in Brugge to their oldest pub and wandered up the rickety circular staircase to the top where we found a table and ordered a beer. A couple of the girls tried the famous fruit beers while Ainsley and I tried a local beer. After about half of it was I already feeling it and wondered why until I found out it was 13%! The best part about the pub was that they gave you some cheese and meats to go with your beer.

Since we had ticked off a Belgian Beer we had to tick off another couple of things so our afternoon was spent eating Belgian fries covered in mayonnaise and wandering around to try and find the best place to grab some waffles. On our food mission we got to see quite a bit of the city so it worked out well!

Once we had ticked that to do off our list we headed back out into the city to wander around and check out some other scenery. We wandered into a lolly shop and spent 45 minutes watching two of the staff make boiled lollies. It wasn't the most riviting thing but kind of addictive! A couple of the other girls checked out one of the churches before it was time to head back to our lovely room and enjoy our picnic of goodies bought at the markets plus a fair share of wine. Once we were all ready to go we headed out to try and find a nice bar or pub to hang out in.

On the way into the square we met some other people who were heading out and they recommended a bar so we followed them to a little square right around the corner and found it full of pubs. They were all one next to another which provided a good venue for some birthday drinks and dancing. The first place we went to was pretty quiet which suited us fine but it soon got busy so we moved on to the next place to compare. It was fun and we danced the night away until the wee hours. Luckily for us we had a nice comfy bed to go back to so even though we got back in the early hours we were pretty well rested the next day.

Sunday we spent the day recovering from a hangover and finalizing our touring of the city. It was pretty cold so much of the time was spent ducking in and out of shops and cafe's before heading back to Brussels on to get the Eurostar.

It was a perfect weekend away with my favourite girls and a great way to celebrate my birthday. I was so lucky I had the chance to jump across the ocean and explore a new country and do something I love to do on my birthday. I'm not sure what I'll be doing next year but hopefully its exploring somewhere new!