PUTUJUĆI blog

Our friends asked us astonished: „You are going to Belgium? Why?” We really didn’t have any particular reason, but if we want to see the whole world we have to go to the Belgium too, don’t we? So, we packed up our things and rushed to our Belgium adventure – Bruges, Atwerp and Brussels were our stops, and of course we didn’t regret it, we loved it!

Bruges – our first stop and the town I will tell you the story about. Everybody loves fairytales, and let me tell you, this small town on the north of the country is a true fairy tale. It looks like every canal here is telling its own story.

Most people visit this small town in West Flanders during summer. We visited Bruges in October and it turned out like best time of the year to go there. Empty streets and a few people wandering around in the evening make this city even more special. In fact, you feel like you are all alone among these picturesque medieval buildings and small houses. Center of the city has a population of 20,000 people but at night it seems like they all suddenly disappear. Shortly before midnight we were on the main square where you can see the bell tower 84 m high with 366 steps which lead to the top. Believe it or not when the clock ticks midnight the lights in the city go off. At that moment the darkness embraced the whole main square and all we could hear was silence.

This belfry is the most famous monument in town, it has 47 bells so you have to hear at least one melody that comes from a high tower. Those who have not had a chance to stand in front of it probably will recognize it from the movie “In Bruges”, with Colin Farrell in the lead role. Bruges residents we meet are a bit angry because now many people associate this city only with this movie. But they have to get over it because there is a great number of tourists who had heard for that small town, in the north of Belgium, just from this film and it was their reason to visit it.

Every corner of Bruges, which was proclaimed as European capital of culture in 2002, is worth of taking a photo. We came back home with around 200 photos just because we wanted to “take” with us every part of this town and everybody has at least one photo taken at the Rozenhoedkaai. If you are going to send a postcard from a fairy tale, take the one with this motif, it will surely stir up the imagination of your friends.

Bruges is 1374 kilometers away from our hometown but we don’t regret kilometers that we had to pass just to see it. If someday I will have a list of the most beautiful towns I visited, you will for sure find Bruges on the list too.