Ambassadeur Ostende

... chocolate, and fries. French Fries actually originated in Belgium, and two stalls sellthem in the middle of Bruges outside the belfry tower in the same location they have been selling them for the last century. Apparently there is a long running rivalry between the two and locals often argue who sells the best fries - we couldn't really tell the difference.<br>From Bruges we went on two day trips to Ghent and Brussels, and poked ...

... here. "A church!" you say. I know I know you would think that i got my fill of churches in Italy and Spain however I have not been to the church that boasts to be the proud owners of a vile of Christ's actual blood! Yep you read correctly, they claim that they house the DNA and blood of Christ. Now, I'm no doctor, I gave that dream up a while ago, but I'm pretty sure that 2000 year old blood would have evaporated by now. But ...

... sister Bec! We spent the rest of the day with them, wandering around, saw the wizzing girl, ate choc strawberries (sooooo yum), had hot chocolates, visited HEAPS of chocolate shops, and then went back to their hotel room for a bit before heading out for dinner. Apparently they are famous for their mussels, so Jac, Bec and I shared a big bucket of them and then had some pasta. Turns out I had a BAAAD mussel, or my stomach just really doesn&#8217;t like them, because I ...

... and she wipes it with disinfectant after each person comes up. I was a bit concerned about all of this because if I have my hands on it then how would I see in? I watched another girl tackle the problem by just putting her finger tips on it and taking a good nosey.<br><br>When my turn came I went up the stairs and put my donation in the box, hoping they wouldn&#8217;t see it was only 50 cents! I needed to go to the bank! I went and put my fingertips on the vestibule, it&#8217;s ...

... sales person or hotel desk person for what they want and they don&#8217;t care about who&#8217;s behind them. Then when they&#8217;re finished, and you think they&#8217;re on their way, one person leaves and the next person in the group starts the process all over again. In a restaurant they&#8217;ll sit down, start to order, then talk among themselves and tell the waiter they&#8217;ve changed their mind. I don&#8217;t understand Flemish ...

... more (what else would we do?) we sat down at Bocca, an Italian restaurant that serves pasta in takeout Chinese container lookalikes. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was some of the best 5 euros I have ever spent &#8211; the homemade sauce was absolutely delicious! We liked it so much that we are planning to write to Europe on a Budget and recommend it. Seriously, it was that good. <br><br>To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

... is another cute little bar. So after we ate we went across the street and had a couple beers. We also saw our tour guide from earlier that day there.<br><br>The next day it was rainy but we walked around the city anyway. It was just too cute to not explore. We walked to the edge of town and saw the dutch windmills then walked back into town for some chocolate and went on a shopping ...

The trusty Lonely Planet guidebook advises not to judge Belgium in an hour, which is exactly what I did when I decided I hated the place five years ago. Today was an opportunity to give it a chance. Bright sunshine greeted us directly through our dorm window at around 5.30, and the combination of such greenhouse conditions with a small room housing eight people made sleep pretty much impossible from around this time. By 7.30, I elected to give up and ...

... and then apparently try to forget that half of the country exists afterwards. I don't know about you, but don't current events seem slightly more important since there's still a realistic possibility of changing them??? Back to Bruges. We took a canal boat tour through the city - this one far more interesting than the one in Amsterdam. Probably mostly because we got on the boat knowing little about the place (well me at least), and the boat driver was ...

Ahhh Belgium! Where chocolate grows on trees and beer flows in the rivers (well almost) Sometimes referred to as the "Venice of the North", Bruges (said brew-shz) has many waterways that run through the city. This was the highlight of our trip ...