Day 8, Sunday April 21st! Here’s my short recap from Instagram:

Day 8 (April 21) – ever since seeing In Bruges we’ve wanted to visit, so Steven, Dunja (@waclarissima), and I took the train there on Sunday! We walked around, had brunch, reenacted a scene from the movie 😂, then met up with Anita and her husband and three kids to go up in the tower! Then Dunja had to go and we ate and walked our way across Bruges, as we do.

I was so happy we got to spend so much of the weekend with Dunja. We loved talking to her and made such a connection. And it meant the world to me that Anita drove 3 hours each way with her husband and 3 young children to see us again. I got to see her on the first and last day of our trip and feel so grateful.

All the friends we spent time with there are amazing people that make me feel so much joy. I’m trying to be grateful for the time we had and not sad it’s over!

Our last full day in Europe! WAH WAH WAH! Ready for one last loooooong recap of great times with friends, cool buildings, and ALL THE FOOD?

WHO’S GOING TO BRUGES?

I wonder how many other folks have gone to Bruges solely because they saw In Bruges and felt completely enchanted by the city (the movie is very dark humor, I actually don’t recommend it unless that’s your thing). The funny thing about the movie is that Colin Farrell’s character keeps saying what a “shithole” Bruges is. So we made lots of “shithole” jokes throughout the day.

Originally I thought it would just be me and Steven going to Bruges. I couldn’t remember what time Dunja left Brussels on Sunday and didn’t know if she’d want to travel to another city on the day she was leaving, but on the first day we were together, she said she’d like to come with us. Yes, please!

I have to pause here to share how affirmed Dunja makes me feel (as a reminder, words of affirmation is my love language). Leading up to the trip, she kept saying how she just knew we were going to have the best time together (we did), then when I talked to her about Amy joining us on Saturday she was immediately on board, saying “if she’s your friend I’m sure she’s wonderful!” (how many people could you say that to? that’s such a nice thing to say!). Then to have one of the first things she says upon meeting me be that she wants to spend more time with me?! Before she’s even seen if she enjoys my company?! It made me feel so good. She is great at sharing the love. (I also like to think that how I represent myself online is genuine/authentic and I give people a good idea of how I am in real life… but I do have a lot of internal snark that sometimes comes out in person.)

Okay, back on track. So we had Dunja joining us in Bruges for part of the day, and Anita and her family joining us in Bruges for part of the day as well! It’s so nice that we got to spend our last day with friends!

TRAIN TO BRUGES

We met Dunja at the train station a little before 8:00. She dropped her luggage in a locker, and Steven and I searched for breakfast.

I forgot to mention that when we dropped Amy off at the train station the previous day, she helped us get our Bruges train tickets. She also showed us an app to use to see train times, and showed us where the platforms are. It was so nice to have a local show us what to do and not have to use my brain to figure anything out. Thank you so much Amy (and to everyone else who did that for me during my travels!)!

We searched for eggs for Steven again with no success. I think it was another croissant day for him? I got a yogurt and vegan croissant.

Dunja caught up with us and joked about how tired Steven looked. I looked pretty tired too!

I got a chai from Starbucks then we all got on the train for the hour-ish ride to Bruges.

I love seeing the countryside when I travel somewhere new. The sun was out but it was also raining, so we saw a rainbow on the way in.

Dunja thought she might finish the thriller she was reading while on the train so she could give it to me to read. As if! You know we talked that entire train ride! Ha ha, Dunja, good one!

ARRIVING AT THE SHITHOLE

As soon as we got off the train we WhatsApped (can I use that as a verb?) Amy this picture to let her know we made it to the “shithole.”

We saw another post box, and I always had filled postcards to mail with me on this trip, so we dropped one off. A lot of them have been reported received, yay!

The walk from the train into the city center takes about 25-30 minutes (thanks for the heads up, Amy!). It was sunny and windy, and I was surprised at how dead it was. Like, we weren’t walking through the super busy part of town, but where was everyone at 9:30 am? I wondered if it was going to be a quiet city (nope – not at all).

BRUGES CITY CENTER

We came across Sint-Salvatorskathedraal on the edge of the city center,

and went inside to admire the organ (and finally got to hear one play!),

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then we walked to the huge square (Grand-Place) where the Belfort is.

It was so neat to see it in person after seeing it in the movie!

We continued on our way through town toward where we had a brunch reservation.

BRUNCH AT BLACKBIRD

Our reservation at Blackbird wasn’t until 11:00 but it was freezing out and we went in and asked if they could seat us earlier (like at 10:30…) and thankfully they could!

I got another chai,

then Steven and I shared the Croissant ‘hamm’ & ‘cheeze’ with pickled onion. I got the Toast Tofu Scramble, he got the Toast Avocado, and Dunja got the Coconut Berry Pancakes. (Steven and I spent a lot of time discussing who would get which items to try and Dunja found this very amusing. We told her “this is how our marriage works” ha ha ha.)

Everything was delish! And even though we’d only been walking for about an hour (if even?) it was nice to sit somewhere inside and consume warm drinks and food.

While we were there, I booked entry for all of us (including Anita’s family) to go up in the Belfort.

BACK TO THE BELFORT

After brunch we made our way back to the Belfort. We stopped to reenact movie scenes:

and Dunja wanted to get me something since I had paid for breakfast (I had euros to get rid of! We’ll get into the girl math of that in another post.) so I picked out this Bruges cycling shirt. Thanks, Dunja!

We met up with Anita and her husband and three kids and began the climb up the tower. 366 steps! And it was very narrow at the top.

We stopped to admire the playing drum. It blew my little mind that it looked just like what’s inside of a personal music box! I think it played a different song every 15 minutes? It was SO loud when the bells went off when we were in there. So so cool to see in person!

The view from the top was cool! I was grateful it was a clear day.

I was also grateful to just be in the moment, and not completely focused on taking a bunch of photos.

When we got back down, Dunja had to leave to catch the train back to Brussels to go back home to Germany! She said “I’m not going to look back so I don’t cry!” and I did the same. It also helped me that I was still with Anita and fam.

DOING WHAT WE DO – EATING AND WANDERING

My only other plain in Bruges had been to try Belgian fries. I thought I’d found a place that did loaded Belgian fries, but I was wrong. Oops. That’s okay.

But first, we decided to try vegan Belgian waffles from Otto Waffle Atelier. Okay, but not as great as VeganWaf in Brussels!

Ha, then we realized FritBar, the place that had the vegan fries was literally right next to the waffle place, so we waited for a table. Then I realized it was a burger and fries and tried to order one for me and Steven to split because we were not hungry at all, and we both got one. Oops. We ate about half each. It was okay!

The burger was made out of beets!

THEN, we happened to find a Belgium chocolate place that also had vegan chocolates – Chocolaterie Sukerbuyc. Steven and I got some of each to try (I’m happy to report we did not try these until we were back in the states. We were so full!).

Then we wandered around with Anita and fam. We had fun seeing the city together, and goofing off with her three boys. Eventually we sat down to get drinks and the adults chatted while the children ran around. I asked Anita and Mike what beer I should try if I don’t like beer, but feel like I should try beer since I am in Belgium, and like sweet drinks… and they came up with Belle-Vue Kriek Extra and I really enjoyed it!

I’m not describing it well (or making much of an effort to) but we had a really lovely afternoon chatting and goofing around with them. I’m honored Anita drove all that way (3 hours one way!) to see us again. It means the world to me. It was hard to say goodbye to them, around 5:00ish, but I know we’ll see them again soon.

ALL BY OURSELVES

After we said goodbye, we walked back into the city for a bit more wandering.

Steven was so sweet. He said to let him know if I saw anything I wanted from a shop, because he really wanted to buy me something to thank me for planning such a wonderful trip. It felt really good to hear he enjoyed it so much. I could tell he was, and you can see it in the photos, but again, words of affirmation, baby!

I told him I already got what I wanted – Starbucks mugs and magnets (one from each country), but would let him know if I saw something (I didn’t).

Our wandering took us back to the Belfort. We were looking for a bathroom (there was one there but it was closed), and came across an art “installation” that we all thought was construction earlier in the day. The docent encouraged us to climb around and check it out. It was kind of lame but gave us a neat view of the inside courtyard of the Belfort.

We went through other parts of town we hadn’t seen yet,

then we walked back to the train.

We missed the train I’d planned for us to take and had some time to kill so I went to the Starbucks at the train station and got TWO MORE MUGS for myself. Yes, I brought back seven mugs from this trip. I have no regrets!!!!!

The train was much fuller on the ride back! We caught up on messages and things on our phones, chatted a bit about the day, AND saw another rainbow, this time a double!

So much for a shithole! Bruges was quite magical!

BACK IN BRUSSELS

We got back to Brussels after 8:30, and dropped some things off in our room then wandered to search for dinner. It was fun to walk around and see all the shops at night, when there were fewer people.

We ended up at a place that had falafel and fries. It was okay! Ha, most of the food we had this day was just “okay.” And that is… okay!

Steven’s edit for this section “It was my job to find a dinner spot in Brussels, and I was so confident that there were so many places with vegan options that I opted to wander around until we found something + you were getting a little grumpy or hangry or something…and that’s how we ended up with falafel.” (this is all true)

We wandered a bit more after dinner, then went back to our room to repack one last time, and get some sleep before our wakeup call to fly home.