Un Petit Belgian Getaway...

It's been a long time coming, but a few weekends ago, we finally got a chance to escape Barcelona in search of a little Christmas market action. You know me, I'm never one to resist a good ol' gluhwein and bratwurst during the festive season...

Of course, we started our holiday with the standard overpriced taxi, the driver taking the 'scenic' route to our destination and hoping that we would not notice. At least we got to our AirBnB apartment pretty quickly...even if our host did not answer the phone so quickly. Being the one who booked it, I was pretty nervous, especially as it was a quiet residential street...but all was well within 10 minutes, and we were soon being shown around his apartment. For anyone looking for an AirBnB flat, I would definitely recommend Liam Torne's flat. Clean, comfortable, a little balcony, a good size for 4 girls- we were able to split into 3 rooms- and, best of all, an extensive record collection! More on that later...

When you go on holiday with someone for the first time, you never know whether your travelling styles are going to be compatible. Luckily, Erin, Nina, Julie and I all had the same vision for the weekend- wanderers wondering where the next street may lead. As long as we could have a croissant in the morning, a few local beers in the afternoon, and a sampling of the local cuisine, we were tres hereaux. Speaking of Frenglish, between us we kept accidentally reverting to Spanish. Although I only learned Spanish a little longer than French, the latter seems to have slipped away from me a bit. Just goes to show- it´s all very well learning a language, but you need to practice, practice, practice if you have any hope of remembering it!

After thinking it was going to snow all weekend, the lovely weather on Saturday was a pleasant surprise- that perfect Winter combination of a crisp, chilly day and gorgeous sunshine. We started our day with a croissant at the local ´boulangerie´, where there were dozens of what looked like little chocolate Popes. These figurines were actually representations of Sinterklauss, who, as I had learned from one of my half-Dutch students the previous Friday, comes to visit on 5th December.

Then, it was time to get the fast, hour-long train to Bruges- or so we thought. ´Great´, we thought when we saw that a train was just about to leave- but the train conductor soon brought us down to Earth. ´This train is the local train that takes 2 and a half hours´ he said in an unnecessarily booming voice, just to make sure that the whole train realised what stupid tourists we were. I heard a few people muttering around us as well, so I don't think we were the only ones!

But Bruges was certainly worth the journey. From the train station, we seemed to be a part of a Spanish and Italian tourist procession, through cobbled streets, and little houses that looked too quaint to be real. Finally we found the centre- where there were more chocolate shops, cafes and British tourists than you could shake a croissant at. We found a lovely little corner cafe, where we tried the local beers, sampled a little moules et frites (the start of our love affair with frites this weekend), and soaked up the cosy, Christmassy vibe.

That wasn´t even the best part- we wandered further into the city, and discovered a plaza straight out of the Renaissance. Majestic, 18th-century buildings surrounding the main square, with a huge ice-skating rink in the middle- but before we could sidle up to the side and laugh at everyone slipping and sliding, we got ourselves a cheeky little Belgian waffle and, naturally, some gluhweins in polystyrene cups. Magical. We were perhaps unwise to keep them on the side of the ice-rink, as people kept skating wildly into us- but hey, we like to live life on the edge.

After the cute beauty of Bruges, it was difficult for Brussels to compare. The Christmas markets were OK, but it just seemed overcrowded, and even more British. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be tourists- I just get a little wound up by British tourists sometimes! For me, Brussels had two other major highlights. One was our Sunday morning- a perfect mix of a few Delirium beers and some classic records while chillaxing on the sofa. Stones, Beatles, the Grease soundtrack, and putting the world to rights- perfection. The other was visiting the Delirium cafe itself, or should I say 'complex'. It is actually a collection of bars that each have their own character, for example an American church abbey. We decided to visit the main bar, which pulled off the grungy chic look. Brewery tank lids hovering over booths, lit-up beer adverts from the past...it felt like something familiar yet very new and distinctly 'Belgian' all at once.

A brief summary then...in hindsight, we would have spent a few nights in Bruges, rather than travel there from Brussels. That doesn't mean I didn't like Brussels...it just felt a little more like a city, and I think I'm forever looking for that big-town Christmas market that I found with my good friend Gemma in Würzburg back in 2007. I certainly came close to it in Bruges. 

On Belgium itself, it was strange to be somewhere to felt so much like home, with its homey bar-environments, then to hear French and Flemish spoken all the time. Basically, I felt a strange comfort being there, yet at the same time, a homesickness for Barcelona. Strange how much this city has had an impact on me in just 6 months!

I've uploaded pictures from the four of us below, in no particular order...enjoy!