Hotel Middelburg

... bit bigger than Bruges and has a similar feel to it. Brussels has a nice centre square, streets full of restaurants, and a royal palace. <br>Each day we returned to Bruges and wandered around the city. The centre market square is beautiful at night- all little buildings in a row all lit up. It would look beautiful with snow I would imagine. We strolled along the canals and popped into little pubs for a drink and had a great time.

... 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 ...

Megg and I arrived in icy Bruges in the arvo, and after finding our hostel went for a walk to see the sites. It's kind of like Cesky Krumlov in that it&#8217;s pretty small and there isn&#8217;t actually much to do apart from admire the ancient buildings and canals. We saw the 'Belfry Tower&#8217; in the main Markt square, but it was a rip-off to walk up the 300 and something stairs (I&#8217;m not paying &#8364;8 unless there is a lift!), so we just looked at it. There ...

... waffles really were great), and went to De Halve Mann, the only brewery still working in Bruges. After a tour of the brewery, which led me to reminisce about me being Dad&#8217;s underage basement-beer-brewing apprentice, we were entitled to a free sample of the blond beer brewed on-site.<br><br>After our tasty beverage, we continued our tour of Bruges. There are a ridiculous amount of lace and chocolate shops around, and we were lucky enough to ...

... 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 ...

... of the country of the Netherlands is actually under sea level: They have more hydro engineers than anywhere in the world. Today was Queens day in the Netherlands. it's their national holiday. Everyone wears orange and sell their things in the streets. We found some time today to eat some traditional food from the Netherlands

Today my Dad arrived! I left after class to go and pick him up from the train station. It was so exciting to see him get off that train, it was unreal. I'm so excited he is here! We walked back to my house with his heavy duffel bag and I showed him around my place and introduced him to a few of my house mates and friends. We walked around Middelburg for a bit and ended up eating lunch at Bart's Bakery and having an Oilibol for dessert, yum ...

Today was the Halloween celebration. I realize that it is not quite Halloween, but Tuesdays are the night to go out here, so Roosevelt Academy had the Halloween party Tuesday instead of Friday. Sadly, it doesn't really matter which day they have it, because there is no real Halloween here. Kids don't trick or treat, there are no decorations, and all the costumes are homemade, therefore, often kind of ...

... He struggles intensely trying to heave each parcel on and off the train 5 times. Later, George's card is eaten by the ATM after entering the wrong pin twice. Later that day, he is without a guide in the new town, he is lost, wandering about, searching for the bar we are all suppsed to meet up at. He then notices, his passport has gone missing from his boot, where he always keeps it safe. Heavens, he is truely going mad. More later

... check through security and have our purses picked through before we could enter. A little odd for a club in The Netherlands, especially in the province of Zeeland. Oh well, at least we were safe? There were a bunch of half naked people working there dancing on mini stages around the dance floor handing out free glasses of champagne as well as a free beer. So it was a good night, we headed home on the bus that left at 2:30am. I crashed as soon as I got home.