Brussels - Brugge (Part 2)

Hello hello! It's time for me to post on Brugge, been putting it off for so long.

The previous Brugge post, I was talking about how beautiful the place is, in this post, you will see. :)

Brugge town gives me a very medieval and fairy-tale-like vibe with horses and carriages all over. It really feels like you are in some Cinderella land. The weather that day was perfect, so it makes the place even more beautiful. 

This was the park we chose to go to, not knowing there's a whole town around it. 

Pose. Had to. Too nice.

The little walkway that led us to a pleasant surprise. :)

Just love this candid shot. It captured genuine smiles with of course such a pretty background. :)

Pretty right? :)

And after that little pretty walkway, TADAA! We were welcomed into some kinda make-believe land! The sun was shining bright, just uplifts anybody's mood. :)

Couples galore

See? Doesn't the whole setting to the place seem unreal? Or maybe I'm being a little too excited, but really, I was smiling the whole time, in disbelief, that I'm in such a beautiful place. Photos does not do justice at all of course. You would have to be there to feel what I felt. :)

Swans and ducks chilling by the river, you know, what you see all that time in KL? Normal sight... not!

This is one the swans that turned into a man. Not bad looking for a swan huh? He even knows how to operate an SLR.

More swans basking in the sun

I think this is the horsies drink pan? No idea. Just thought it looked picture-worthy.

Belgium and its famous lace. They have from table placemats, to bread holder, to bottle dresses, to pouches, you name it, they have it. They even have baby lace shoes. :) It was so pretty I couldn't resist getting some for myself, though I wasn't really sure what I was gonna do with it then.

The girls doing some lace shopping with the not-so-friendly shop keeper at the background.

I found this rather intriguing. A random 'traditional' statue sticking out of the corner of a somewhat 'modern'  building. And it quite an odd spot to place a statue.

I totally forgot to take a pic of the streets, I was a little too into the place and was also busy shopping.

After walking around, it was time to fill out tummies. The smell of food lingering sure didn't help as well. They had waffles shops everywhere! So we stopped by this nice littlle restaurant, actually not to little, to satisfy our taste buds. :)

With waffles of course! :) We had raspberry and peanut butter ice cream if I remember correctly, and the other is just with maple syrup. It was gooood. ;)

We were leaving when we saw this 'money wall' by the exit. It's a map for tourist to leave a little memorabilia where you pin money or written notes on your country. We thought it was kinda interesting and there weren't any Malaysian notes or money pinned up! So we were the first from Malaysia to visit this place. Not that we deserve an award la, but it's cool. :)

Tadaa! :) A bit kiam siap I know. We didn't have smaller notes other than RM50 and I'm not gonna pin my 50 bucks there hello.

After makan, we continued our stroll along wonderland and snapped more pics as we walked. This is where tourist wait for their boat for a boatride around the canals of the town. I'm sure it would be fun, but it was soooo cold that just the thought of the wind in my hair while the boat swishes in the canals send chills down my spine instantly.

Moving a long, we saw this from afar and decided to look for it. I think it's called the Basilica of the Holy Blood. One of the famous cathedrals in Brugge.

Another poser shot with a blank wall. I just love blank walls, something so simple yet 'picturesque' about it. Not exactly the right word to use to describe a wall, but I'm sure you get what I mean? :)

Another wall shot.

I dubbed him 'The Happy Man' cos he has a huge smile on his face and he had happy colours around him. :)

Just a pretty shop. With a pretty dog hanging in there. I love how they are so chilled with pets there and of course, their pets are all very clean and well behaved.

Streets. This is another part of Brugge town, not to fairy-tale like. It's the shopping street with highstreet brands instead of souvenirs and lace shops.

This is the main square of the town. Medieval buildings everywhere you look. Now we just gotta wait for prince charming to prance out of one of these buildings.

We were looking for a chocolate factory the whole time and when we finally found it, it was closed. We were about 5 mins late. Sigh. We did some shopping instead.

Rachel and Jet bought some chocolate beer to try out. It tastes... odd.

Gals, you wanna pack on some pounds? Try this. Sure to help you put on weight the quick way. 

I doubt it would even stay on my lips for 2 mins before I lick it all up.

"Where to go next"

Hotels and B&B galore. Take your pick.

Love the window details. It glistens in the sun. Kinda reminds me of fish scales actually.

We walked in to this building but was wondering the whole time what building it was. We still don't have the answer. 

The swan taking pics.

Never thought I would say this but what a nice manhole. :-/

Poserama

I think this is the town hall building.

A seriously fat horse

Gorgeous structures all around us. Oh yea, we made it to the Basilica of The Holy Blood, but why no pics? Because it was closed! Again, we were late for about 15 mins. Oh the disappointment. Everything closes so early there, that's the only thing that I didn't really like about Brugge/Belgium.

We walked into a tiny walkway and again we were surprised with another town behind it.

There was a 3 piece band playing fantastic music. The way their fingers run on the accordian was unreal. I was sucked into their playing and sat there admiring them for quite a while, till my travel buddies abandoned me...

This shop would have gotten quite good business from me if it was still open.

We walked so much it's not funny. So it's time to fill our tummies again after all that walking.

Now for the restaurant hunt. Saw this contradicting restaurant. It basically means Small Big. 

Looks like some picture you would find on a postcard no? :)

AND.... We found our restaurant. Warm cosy place. 

I had bacon and cheese omelette with a generous amount of fries and they had...

Mussels and fries again. This was slightly different, it was sour cream and onions, yummy!

It was just us at the restaurant. The place was dead by 6pm. And one of the reasons why we picked this restaurant was because it was the only one open at that hour and is gonna be open for a while more.

Umm.... Yea, we had waffles again. With NUTELLA! *Slurps*

The owner (Or waiter, I don't know) was so friendly but a little over friendly. He became so comfortable with us that he started criticising Malaysia. :-/

He said he has been to Malaysia many times but noticed some 'ugliness' but of course he said it in a very cynical/joking kinda way. It was kinda funny actually cos there were some truths in what he said. Sometimes you have to be outside the box to really see what others see.

A shot with the friendly guy and it was time for us to leave before we miss out train back to Brussels.

On the way back to the train station, we continued to be amazed by the sights around us, and one of it was these bunch of swans that just appeared from out of no where. They were so peaceful and not quacking away like ducks (no offence, just a comparison) and honestly, I've never seen that many swans at one go before, so pretty. :)

The swan at it again, operating his SLR. I really like this shot though.

So after quite a walk, we made it back to the train station and caught our train back to cold unfriendly Brussels. There were bars right outside the train station so my travel buddies decided to grab a sip before we headed back since it was still kinda early. (Only bars are open at that hour anyways)

Check out the prices for their beers. Even Ice Lemon Tea cost more than that back here (if you don't go converting it la).

The Swan followed us back to Brussels and he has some kinda strange mixed drink, I think it was wine and champagne. I had Rosé.

These 2 just love their Hoegs. They had Hoegarden Citron and Rosé.

Where we had our sip.

Look! We paid for our drinks with coins. The bill was only 11.50 Euros can you believe it? How do they not get drunk every night? Ok I think I sound like an alcoholic but seriouly, I don't drink, just quite amazed at how cheap alcohol really is there.

I'm finally done with Brugge. All in all, I really enjoyed my time there and would definitely go back there again if I had the chance. I highly recommend that place if you like what you see in the photos above. I promise it is 10times better in real life. :)