bruges.

Friday came earlier for all of us as we had to leave our hostel in Haarlem and take a train back into Amsterdam at 630am. Then, we transferred onto a train for Brussels before arriving in Bruges, Belgium around noon. We self-guided our way into heart of this quaint, charming city and stopped for our first Belgian waffle (mine with drizzled chocolate sauce). Hands-down the best waffle I've ever had, which I had been anticipating! Next, we crossed the street to experience our first helping of authentic Belgian fries, which are typically served with mayonnaise, not ketchup. I tried the fries with both and found the ones with mayo to be better than expected. I never eat fries in America, but the ones in Belgium are definitely better and less greasy! After our fill of authentic Belgian food, we came across a large Christmas market in the middle of the town square of Bruges, which was absolutely beautiful, similar to those in Vienna, except this market had an ice-skating rink! Then, we found our way to the Chocolate museum, which debriefed us on the history and origins of chocolate as well as the production process.

The rest of our time in Bruges was spent walking through the city, weaving in and out of chocolate street shops and enjoying the beautiful canals that Belgium has to offer. We hurried back to the train station by 540 to catch our train to Frankfurt, before connecting on an overnight train back to Vienna. By the time we arrived in Frankfurt, we were all exhausted and excited about our sleeping couchette for the night!
As you can see, we didn't have a full day in Belgium, but I am completely content with what we did have the opportunity to see. Bruges is such a beautiful city that I hope I have the opportunity to explore again in the future.

I will finish up the weekend blogging soon, but class is about to start for the day. Once we got back to Vienna on Sunday morning, we headed straight to Budapest, Hungary for the rest of the day. The adventures never end here in Vienna. I will post that blog sometime later tonight :)