Brussels, Bruges and Bonnie!

So Belgium is definitely not the country for me. After four days in Amsterdam, Brussels is a huge let down—the city feels very generic and dirty in a way that makes it seem unloved. Sure, it has the standard European ornate buildings (churches and palaces and such) but most of them look like they haven’t been cleaned in over a decade.

Ewww.

Brussels also houses the EU headquarters, which is in a completely separate part of town and is primarily made up of unmemorable glass office buildings. Jay and I only had a short while to explore Brussels and we didn’t even use all the time we had, opting for laundry and rest instead.

The next day, we headed out to Bruges, which was much more enjoyable than Brussels and a nice place to spend a day. Lots of old fancy buildings, lots of red roofed old buildings, lots of canals. My favorite part of the town was climbing up the 366 steps to the top of the Belfry. The views are great, the 47-bell carillon (like a big music box) was another fun feat of engineering to admire, and the stairway clearly not intended for two-way traffic was quite amusing.

Bruges from above

Carillon with 30,500 teeth!

Stairwell built for one

But by far the best thing about Bruges was seeing Bonnie!! Bonnie is a classmate from MIT whom I lived with the summer I was working in DC. We’ve been close since then, though we don’t see each other often because that's just what happens after graduating, following jobs around the country, and letting life get started. She was in Belgium for a wedding and though we didn’t try to force coordinating schedules, the timing just happened to work out beautifully and we were both in Burges the same day. Modern communications are great but there really is no replacement for seeing a friend face to face and I am so thankful to have old friends who make time to see me when they can.

Bonnie and Elena in Bruges!