One of the funniest things about the movie “In Bruges” is how amazing Bruges looks and seems to everyone–both other characters in the movie as well as the movie-watching audience–and yet Colin Farrell’s character hates it with a passion. He illustrates this hate quite elegantly throughout the movie: “Prison… death… didn’t matter. Because at least in prison and at least in death, you know, I wouldn’t be in fuckin’ Bruges.” This dichotomy has since intrigued me and, I must guiltily confess, partially motivated my desire to go to Bruges on this trip.

Having spent two days in Bruges, I think I understand this divide a bit better–Bruges while a very pretty city, can feel quite small and boring. It can feel particularly confining when you are stuck in a very dirty hotel room with a clogged shower and a literally shitty toilet as we were–a fate not even Colin Farrell had to endure. Nonetheless, we did find ways to amuse ourselves (albeit primarily outside of Bruges itself).

First and foremost, we had real Belgian pomme frites! I have been in love with “American” frites ever since Brian, our friend Joey and I drunkenly stumbled across a frites place one night in Seattle and then made it our favorite go-to place for snacks after a night out at the bars. For the unfamiliar, frites are essentially thick cut fries with assorted dipping sauces to choose from. However, while in my previous experience I have had such dipping sauces such as ranch dressing and rosemary/olive oil mayo, here in Belgium we had such confounding choices as Brazil sauce and Joppiesauce (the latter apparently a big hit with Americans, which is why the guys working the counter thought we should be familiar with it).
Fortunately, the staff at the frites place recognized us to be ignorant tourists and allowed us to taste a variety of the sauces while trying to helpfully provide recommendations. I have to say that none of them appealed to me terribly, so we randomly picked curry ketchup and brazil sauce. All of this is to say that our Belgian frites experience left me wanting.

However, what did not leave me wanting was our amazing bike ride in the country (which I’d better talk about lest you get the impression that the only thing I care about on this trip is food!) Most importantly we rode pass windmills, which was very cool. We also rode through very cute little towns, including one that was in the Netherlands.  Yes, you read that correctly, we crossed country borders on our amazing biking tour! Plus, we made it out to the coast to stick our feet in the ocean. All in all, a pretty good day.

The one really interesting thing to actually do in Bruges, is apparently see the blood of Christ. Yes,the literal blood of Christ. There is a church that has a vial of blood that was brought here in the 12th century during the crusades.  The “veneration of the vessel” occurs every day from the hours of 11:30-1pm during which you can lay eyes on the blood. I am under the impression that there is no real evidence for this being the blood of Jesus, which makes me really really curious to know whose blood is it then?? Sadly, just as my question to this will never be answered, we were not able to actually see the blood ourselves. I suppose that gives us one reason to return someday to “fuckin’ Bruges”!