Day 65-Belgium, Bruges

I absolutely adore Belgium. Every city we travel to and spend time in us so quaint and simply beautiful. Over the past two days, I've taken over 100 pictures...that's how picturesque it is! I see a bike leaning against a door, picture. I see a bridge, picture. I see the rows of colored houses, picture. I see a bird, picture (especially the seagulls, but more on that great story later). Basically, Belgium is too cute to pass up.

So the way we've traveled throughout most of this trip has been by train, which has been quite nice. :) I love sitting and letting my thoughts wander...I was even productive today on the way from Antwerp to Bruges as I compiled several to-do lists (one with all the movies I want to watch since coming to Europe). I also enjoyed our trip from Bruges to Ghent (where we saw Jan Van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece and I got yelled at for zooming in with my camera on one of the luminous gems...the lady thought I was taking a picture. Oh the travesties of a passionate art student ;P) because I was able to take a nap. Seriously, I can fall asleep anywhere now.

From Ghent, a few of us decided to travel to Oostende and see the coast. :) While we were there, Carlyle and I bought some frites with this delicious mayo sauce and were enjoying them all innocently when all of a sudden out of nowhere, this seagull swooped down and basically attacked Carlyle's head. Obviously we both reacted, her by throwing her frites on the ground where they were immediately attacked by the demon birds, and me by taking a picture of the situation while still maintaining a firm grasp on my frites because somehow I managed to have my camera out during the assault. It was quite the experience...and I think in honor of it, Hitchcock's bird movie needs to be added to my movie list. The best part about all of this is that we became super paranoid and hyperaware of every single seagull we saw after the incident and kept worrying we were going to be attacked again. Ugh. I hate birds.

The beach was fun, though. :) I found a lot of seashells and walked along the wet sand/dry sand line trying to avoid the tips of the frothy waves. It was lovely. Oh, and as we walked back, I found another chocolate store. :D Belgium is amazing!