In Bruges

Hello everyone,

Well I am in Bruges. I had a plan of staying at a hostel here for 3 nights and maybe doing a day trip somewhere or something but at the last minute my parent's friend's daughter Julie e-mailed me and said I could stay with her in Liege, Belgium. that's the biggest city in the French part of Belgium and just south of Brussels. So I'm going there today and I'll stay with her for 2 nights and then on to Luxembourg. I'm just going to skip over Brussels because there are other places that I want to see and I'd rather see some of the smaller Belgian cities. Plus i talked to this guy last night that had just been in Brussels and he said it wasn't that fantastic. Nice city with things to do but it's not a gem or anything.

This hostel has already been better than the last one. I met this Canadian guy Josh right of the bat who works in graphic design in Toronto. I also met this couple from NYC. The guy runs a small business where he makes custom furniture for people and she handles all the legal work. plus people in the hostel room have just been friendlier to chat with. Yesterday when I arrived here I walked through town to the hostel and just chilled for a little bit. Then I went on a walk through the town before it got dark for a couple of hours. Got some frites, chocolate and beer. I came back and they have a happy hour at the hostel bar right below us so me and the people mentioned before sat for a little bit and had some drinks. Then the couple retired to bed and Josh and I went out to this hidden bar where only locals go. It didn't even look like there was anything in the alleyway but it was packed with people. They gave us recommendations on beer and chatted with us. it was a good crowd. We left early though because we knew we were getting up early.

So here I am. It's the morning and I'm eating breakfast. It's cool that I'm only staying one night though because a lot of the people that I've met here either decided to stay one night (because they thought it would be overun with tourists, like me) or last night was their last night. That's what makes the traveling a lot of fun is the people you meet and then the things you go out and do or see with them. That's why Amsterdam wasn't thrilling for me. So before I hop on the train a few of us are going to walk up the spiral tower in the center of town and maybe go to this museum briefly and then I'm out. No deep revelations this time. I've been to a few cities now and so I'm really into the traveling groove of moving around and taking in as much as you can. You sacrifice sleep, great quality food, your health a bit but it's all worth it. I have these fat blisters on a couple of toes on my left foot because it's bigger than my right foot. With all this walking around it's been putting some stress on it but that happened last time. I just need to build up a calus. Other than that though it's all grand man. Later.