Headaches on the road

With any trip like the one Bolt, Squishy and I have embarked on there are bound to be headaches, but I wasn’t expecting anything quite this soon.

 

While we were still in Ireland we encountered a Canadian girl at our hostel. She had been traveling around Europe for a few months and was full of tips for us. When we told her that we were stopping in Brussels she told us “then you have to go to Bruges.” She claimed the chocolate was just as good as Brussels but the atmosphere a hundred times better. After she showed me pictures I was convinced. If you imagine Brussels to be the city of the 17^th century nobility than Bruges looked to be the city of the proletariat.

 

Bruges is green and lush, but not in the same way that Ireland is. It looked plant life looks to be a combination of lush green and golden yellow. That combined with the simple yet beautiful architecture made for very impressive viewing. We decided immediately to try and get a train to Bruges.

 

Booking the train to Bruges was not an issue. What was an issue was booking a train from Bruges to Amsterdam (the next leg on our trip.) After trying to book the train for an hour we still had not achieved our goal. We tried several credit cards but every time we tried to pay our fare the card was denied.  Eventually and to our despair we decided to take the hit by eating the 13 Euro fare we paid on the ticket from Brussels to Bruges.

 

Although we were certainly in a frustrating situation it was heartening in a way. None of us erupted in anger at the others (although I for one could feel the frustration mounting inside me.) We all stayed calm and worked our way out of the situation as best we could. So although I think each of us probably could use a few advil, none of us are in search of new traveling companions.