Medieval Wonderlands
When I began planning my trip, one place I was sure that I wanted to go was Bruges, Belgium. Largely inspired by the film, In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Basically everything I knew about Bruges was from that movie, which depicts it as a fairytale-esque escape from the modern world. A small town locked in time, displaying the full beauty of a well-to-do medieval village. I needed to see it for myself.
As I talked to people about my trip, another suggestion that came up repeatedly was Ghent, Bruges’ big brother, just twenty minutes down the rail line. Ghent was the largest and wealthiest city in northwest Europe in its heydey, during the 13th century. Given its location, with Bruges just to the west and Brussels — my next intended destination — to the east, I opted to stay in Ghent and make Bruges a day trip.
My hostel in Ghent came highly recommended. The Hostel Uppelink sits right across a canal from Ghent’s historical center. And upon arriving in my room, I immediately understood why it was so lauded.
Ghent’s historic center is made up of a series of impossibly elaborate buildings, each as majestic as the last. Three enormous churches, Sint-Michielskerk, Sint-Niklaaskerk, and Sint-Baafskathedraal make up the religious core of the old city. Not to be outdone, the secular Stadhuis, Post Office and Belfry each make their mark on the already impressive skyline.
The entire area is car-free, but for the taxis, trams and buses that occasion the streets. Walking amongst these aged beauties transports you back to early ages, with the market stalls traded for bustling restaurants and bars, and peasant farmers and traders replaced with hundreds of tourists and their phones and cameras. Even still, despite the commercialized nature of the squares and streets, the charm of this place radiates with a furiosity. The golden light of sunset spotlights each building, casting each crevice and minor detail with a dramatic glow. It’s truly a magical place.
Just down the road from this marvelous square, sits Gravensteen, the Castle of the Counts. The castle dates to 1180CE, though it was preceded by other fortifications as early as 1000CE. Once the seat of the Count of Flanders, it has lived many lives as a courthouse, jail, mint and cotton mill. I spend a morning walking through its halls, passages and ramparts, imagining how it would have served each of these purposes.
The modern of city of Ghent encircles this tight collection of antique buildings. The streets immediately adjacent are suggestive of their medieval origins. Tight alleys and small two-story buildings. These streets continue to carry all of the charm of the broader squares and plazas. Wandering through them at random is a peaceful and pleasing exercise. The further you move from the center, the more the modern world encroaches as the streets widen and fill with cars. However, even out amongst these more familiar surroundings, you can sense the golden heart of the city that lays within.
Getting Friendly
A strong contributing factor to my enjoyment of Ghent was the number of wonderful people that I met in the room of our hostel. On my first night, I met Tessa, a friendly, kindergarden teacher from Utrecht, who invited me out for drinks with a couple of other hostellers that she had met earlier in the day. This led to a fun evening with Tessa, Hussein (a marketing specialist originally from Turkey, now residing in London), and Carlos (a recent law school grad originally from Mexico City, now living in NYC). We hit up a bar famous for its Belgian beer selection, as well as for serving a yard of beer in specially made glasses (you needed to trade a shoe when ordering this beer, to ensure that you didn’t steal the glass). An evening of conversation, getting to know each other and exploring the differences and similarities between each of our home countries and the places that we had visited on our travels.
Sadly, Tessa and Carlos left the next morning, but we managed to connect for breakfast before they headed on to their own separate locations. I wouldn’t see Hussein again until our last evening, where we compared our experiences in Bruges. However, the disappointment at saying goodbye to these new friends so soon, quickly subsided as I met my new roommates. Tristan, an Irishman who had spent the last three months biking from Germany, through the Netherlands and into Belgium, just on the cusp of finishing his tour before heading home to finish his electrical engineering degree. And Mariam, a Dutch student in the process of applying to the University of Ghent’s film program. The next two evenings were spent decompressing after busy days and chatting with these two lovely individuals.
Tristan and I would go on to meet up in Brussels, but that’s a story for next time.
In Bruges
I had heard that Bruges was best experienced in the evening, when most of the tourists left and the lights came on. So, obviously I planned to be there for mid-morning, at the height of the wave of tourists, dumped into the town by bus and train. But, as luck would have it, other plans were in store for me.
I set out to find the tram platform that would deliver me to the Ghent train station. After a couple of wrong turns, I arrive on the correct street. I stand at the corner, looking left and right, trying to spot the sign that marks the platform, when SPLAT. A giant, wet bird poop lands directly on my shoulder, covering my backpack strap and my button-up shirt.
With a curse, and a sigh of resignation, I turn around, back toward the hostel. I need to do laundry today anyway. Back at the hostel, I relate my story to the receptionist, who informs me that getting pooped on by a bird is considered good luck in Belgium. By the end of the day, that prophecy would prove good.
For now, I sat in the common room and worked on a blog post while waiting for my laundry to finish. Luckily, I was able to snag the single washing machine in the hostel right away and didn’t need to wait. It was, otherwise, a quiet and uneventful morning. And by around 1pm, I was ready once again to set out to Bruges.
Trains to Bruges run roughly every 10 minutes from Ghent, and even late day in the day as it is, my train is packed with tourists looking to explore the famed medieval town. 20 minutes later, we spill out on to the streets in the modern part of Bruges, which is laid out similarly to Ghent, with its gooey historical center enrobed by layers of more recent construction, getting older and older as you move inwards. I don’t even need to look at my phone to see where I should be going. I just follow the masses of people, guided by a church steeple off in the distance.
As the buildings and streets grow older, the crowds of people grow larger. Until the crush grows so strong that moving through some of the narrow passageways essentially becomes a queue, politely waiting for each tourist to get their selfie with Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) in the background. From the grounds of the church, we flow into a wide boulevard along a canal. Here, the crowds are Disneyland sized. A constant stream up and down the sidewalks, and even in the canal as tour boats float by regularly.
A bridge crossing the canal marks the entryway into the heart of the city. The narrow streets are lined with chocolate shops, restaurants and bars, souvenir stands and waffle kiosks (as were all of the nearby streets that fed into the Grote Markt, I would learn). The light at the end of the tunnel was a wide open square, as large a plaza as I’d seen since arriving in Europe. At the south end stands the tall and imposing Belfort, a massive clock tower, that features prominently in several scenes of In Bruges.
For all the anticipation that I’d built up as I approached the plaza, I honestly felt a little let down. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I did not find here in this wide square busy with tourists. In Bruges takes place in winter, in what appears to be a quiet and contemplative small town, which did not resonate with the sun-soaked plaza in which I now stood. And certainly, compared with the grandeur of the buildings in Ghent, Bruges came off worse.
Unfortunately, I could not shake off this feeling for the rest of my time in Bruges. Everything that it had to offer, I had already seen in Ghent. Of course Bruges had its own charms, but nothing that really pushed it over the edge. I enjoyed a leisurely, canal-side walk around the outer edge of the inner city, and there were plenty of interesting alley sized streets away from the busy center, but ultimately Bruges just wasn’t what I wanted it to be. Originally, I thought that I would would stick around to catch the evening lights, instead I called it a day and headed back to Ghent for the night.
Prophecy Fulfilled
Back at the hostel, I recount the events of the day with Mariam and Tristan. Mariam spent the day performing various tasks for the entrance exam for the University of Ghent, while Tristan sought out the best chocolate shops he could find.
As we chatted, Tristan came to explain how he had biked across Germany, the Netherlands and into Belgium, planning to finish his trip in Brussels the following day. I told him how when I began planning my trip, I had day-dreamed about buying a bike and touring through Europe. And he absolutely surprised me by offering his bike to me when he was done! He had bought the bike relatively cheaply, and he planned to simply leave it on the street for someone to take in Brussels, so he said I could take it. I am overjoyed. Riding around a city is my favorite way to explore and having my own bicycle would be an absolute dream.
We make plans to meet up in Brussels, so I can buy him dinner before he transfer the bike over to me. And just like that, the promised good luck for my earlier bird poop misfortune is delivered!
Bird Corner
I spent an afternoon hiking out to Stedelijk Natuurreservaat Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen, a large nature reserve park with a hope of spotting some new birds and I was not disappointed. Though, it did take some patience. When I initially arrived in the park, I could hear song birds all around, high in the canopies at the front of the park. But, after an hour or so, I had not managed to have a clear look at a single bird. Eventually, frustrated, I set out on the path that encircles the park. Another hour of frustration followed with hardly any birds, other than some very shy wood pigeons. It wasn’t until I was already three quarters of the way around the park that I spotted a small wetland that was just covered with birds. It was a good distance away, so even with my telephoto lens, the birds were relatively small. But despite this small annoyance, I am quite delighted with what I came across.
Where Next?
If you’ve been following closely, you may have noticed quite a delay between this post and the previous. I received some unfortunate news upon arriving in Brussels, after Ghent. My mom has been diagnosed with leukemia and been hospitalized for almost a month, as I write this. I returned back home to Canada on September 4 to help support my family, while she undergoes her initial treatment in hospital. So for the time-being, my trip is on pause. If all goes well, I’ll be on my way again in a few weeks, but we’ll just see how things go in the meantime. For now, I will slowly update the blog with the next couple of places I saw before making my way home, expect Brussels and Lille in the coming weeks.