Hotel Royal Astor Ostende

... 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.

... I'm wrong. Who knows? (Probably historians, or doctors shh.) <br><br>That's it, I got on a train and headed back to Amsterdam for the night. It was a whirlwind trip through Belgium but so has the rest of this trip so why would this be any different. <br><br>Oh I did stop in Antwerp and had a Belgian waffle. I had three bites and threw it away it was so sweet. But I'm sure everyone else would love it. <br><br>Update soon!<br><br>Dina

... a really really bad stomach ache from them &#8211; knives stabbing me type pain. So that kinda killed the night unfortunately, I wasn&#8217;t sure if I was going to start feeling sick or what, so Megg and I headed back to Bruges (don&#8217;t worry I was fine though!). Note to self DON&#8217;T EAT BRUSSELS MUSSELS.<br><br>Jac and Bec came to Bruges for the day, so we met them for breakfast (I had a pancake!) before we headed off to our final backpacking destination - Paris!

... to be quite good and inexpensive so we checked it out. Unfortunately it was shut so we wandered the streets looking for somewhere else. There was a wine bar in the same book as the Italian restaurant and it was on the same street, so we went in to have a look.<br><br>It was a tiny little bar with a very limited menu but I decided to peruse the wine list and see what was on offer. If they had a really good red I was prepared to overlook these two issues. Unfortunately I didn&#8217 ...

... my feet and I needed the protein recharge. Snap, snap, snap, snap&#8230;photos done and I&#8217;m done with the Grand Place. Chocolate shops everywhere. Yes, it&#8217;s good. Yes, it&#8217;s better than See&#8217;s. But they&#8217;re in every nook and cranny and you start to feel like you&#8217;re on Mainstreet USA in Disneyland. So I struck out to find the peeing boy statue which is Brussels&#8217; other claim to fame. Through winding ...

... waffles. My friend and I split a banana, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate syrup-doused waffle, which was completely gone in about the span of 49 seconds. Our other friend got up from the table for a split second and basically missed the entire thing. After we scraped off all the leftover powdered sugar and chocolate sauce on the plate, and drank the rest of the sauce in its cup (I&#8217;m sad to say, that is totally true), we were ready to head off again.

... for beer and the corresponding glasses...because every beer in Belgium has a specific glass that you are supposed to drink it from. We spent as much time as we could in Bruges before we had to head back to Brussels to catch our plane and we still needed more time in Brussels to meet up with a friend from Clemson. I was sad to leave Bruges. It was definitely an amazing place to visit. <br>

... trailing wheel is also moving, rotating left or right, in relation with the 2 others. And finally check the album for more pictures! I don't understand a bit on how this stuff it's supposed to work because my pictures are all around the place in the text anyway so... It was so hot, nearly 30°c, an increase of 16°C in 2 days :-) that I decided to go and ...

... a freeway. The juxtaposition of modern and traditional elements ... it's a striking snapshot of time. A reminder of how much the world has, and will continue to change. Some things may remain constant but everything around it will always be in a state of flux. It's a unique and memorable experience to sit here and take it all in. Obviously the traffic on the freeway took away some of the magic of the moment, but still - it's at ...

... a wide selection and went to our room. There were two problems with our plan. One - Belgian beer is stronger than normal beer (in fact some of the beers I had chosen were 9.5%). Two- we had no food in our room so were drinking on an empty stomach. It wasn't too long before I was singing (quite loudly) the praises of Bruges and Belgium. Apparently by eight thirty I was passed out on the couch snoring and Fee put me to bed a couple of hours later. I do like Bruges.