Can't believe I'm in Bruges...

RECIPE for fun: take 40-odd travellers and place into a big blue bus; mix them around a little bit, then sift into random medieval town. Add personal preference of beer, fries and chocolate. Stand back and watch the results…

That was the recipe we used in Brugge anyway. Just over 40 of us jumped onboard the Busabout coach for the first time, with most of us jumping out in the well-preserved Belgian city made infamous by Colin Farrell’s incessant moaning.

First we had to get there. There was already a good crew waiting for breakfast at St Christopher’s when I got downstairs, so everyone had the chance to have a bit of a chat before Driver Dan loaded our bags and guide Nick checked us on. Once aboard I ended up chatting to fellow Brugge-ing Busabouter Lisa, whiling away the hours as we passed through the Somme and Lille before crossing over in Belgium.

Brugge itself was a lot better than Colin Farrell’s character gave it credit for – although had he been part of this crew he might’ve enjoyed himself a lot more. Nick had told us that beer and chips were Belgian specialties, so we wasted no time in trying a few beers before going on to grab some chips (and more beer).

Now full, we set off to explore the town. After the obligatory pics in front of the Belfort, we went down a random street and came across a Tintin store and a chocolate shop. Nothing special about that… but the chocolates were rather interesting. Think of certain parts of the human body (male and female) in chocolate form… Needless, a few brave souls gave them a try!

After that we kept walking down the same street, just chatting away when we came across something none of us were expecting: a fun park! Being a pack of big kids it was straight onto the fun house before Matt, Taleish? and I went on the scariest-looking ride there, screamed our heads off and came out sounding like the cast of The Godfather.

After that the day was pretty chilled. A few took advantage of some free wifi to organise travel plans while Matt and I took advantage of the fact we were in a pool hall to partake in ye olde trash-talking competition with some pool thrown in.

Day two dawned with most people hiring out bikes and going for a cruise down to a Belgian beach; Nick jumped onboard a Flanders battlefields tour; while I took the chance to have a quiet wander around town and catch up on some work-type stuff. Plans to head up the Belfort were thwarted though when I realised my camera battery had somehow gone from full to dead in one day…

Night brought more beer-tasting and quite possibly the worst restaurant lasagne ever! Tempted by a sign advertising €3.50 lasagne we went in, ordered up, then listened to the sounds of the microwave heating it up. To make matters worse Joel and Nick had upsized on account of being very hungry, only to find their €6.50 large was very similarly-sized to our €3.50 medium…

Aah, the joys of travelling… Good thing our recipe for fun was tastier!