kristigoestoeurope!: Bruges/Brugge!

Before I start, let me give you a one minute of history of Bruges... (it's actually five minutes of history on the back of the map I got today but I'm only posting the interesting dates)

1277 Arrival of the first trade fleet from Genova (Italy), making the harbour of Bruges the most important link with the Mediterranean Sea.

1302 Big fight with France.

1600 and 1700 and 1800: Bruges falls asleep.

1892 Bruges wakes up. The popular book, 'Bruges la Morte' describes the city as a dark, poor and ugly place. Locals are not too happy with this, but tourists see some romance in it, and start visiting Bruges more and more.

2009 The movie 'In Bruges' wins an award for best scenario. Quote: "If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn't, so it doesn't." So just like in 1892, somebody calls Bruges a shithole, which only attracts more tourists.

This weekend we went to Bruges/Brugge (depends whether you use French or Flemmish), the place where everybody says you have to visit when you’re in Belgium. It was very quaint and cute just like I thought it would be, but I actually think I like Gent better, because there were a lot less tourists. We went with Express, a group for Erasmus students organized by ULB (université libre de Bruxelles), so there were around 80 students altogether. It was super cheap, we paid 8 euro for the train and a tour of a brewery (with a beer). // Ce week-end on est allée à Bruges/Brugge (ça dépend de français/flamande), l’endroit où tout le monde dit qu’il faut absolument visiter quand on est en Belgique. C’était pittoresque comme je pensais, mais en fait je pense que je préfère Gent où il y a beaucoup moins de touristes. On y est allée avec l’Express, un groupe pour les étudiants d’Erasmus qui est organisé par ULB (université libre de Bruxelles), donc il y avait environ 80 étudiants. C’était très bon marché, on a payé seulement 8 € pour le train et un tour d’une brasserie (et bien sûr une bière à la fin).