Bruges, the medieval beauty frozen in time

As I am doing my Erasmus in Holland, this weekend I had the opportunity to visit Belgium with my friends from my halls. I'm sure you've heard Bruges being referred to as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. That's why you can't not go and visit Belgium. Today I am going to tell you what the city is really like, my impressions of it and go against the general opinion a little.

Sometimes you will have really high expectations for a place, film or book, and when you see it or read it for yourself, you think that it doesn't live up to the hype. I think this happened to me a bit with Bruges.

Bruges is a small medieval city situated in the Flemish zone of Brussels (Belgium has two zones, the French-speaking zone, Wallonia, and the Flemish zone, Flanders, where they speak Dutch).

It has a really cool Gothic old quarter, with small narrow streets which are full of charm. Two of the prettiest squares that we found were: in first place, the Market Square, which is the biggest square. The buildings there were incredible and very emblematic as almost all of them have been declared as Cultural Heritage Sites by UNESCO. There are lots of cafes, restaurants which are great to eat or have dinner in, and of course the waffles, which are delicious and a traditional Belgian delicacy. The smell that comes from the chocolate and waffle shops will make it impossible for you to resist buying something.

In this square, you can find the Belfort Tower, an extremely tall medieval bell tower, which you can only access by walking up a spiral staircase of 365 steps. You have to pay to enter, but the views from the top are the best in Bruges and it is definitely worthwhile.

The other charming square that we found was the Burg Square. All the buildings were both impressive and mesmerising, transporting us back to a different era. In between them, there is the old Stadhuis City Hall, and the Basilica of the Holy Blood. We didn't have enough time to go inside either of them, but apparently they are both a worthwhile visit.

When walking through the narrow streets, we came across a huge line of people entering a church. We later found out that it was for the Museum of the Church of Our Lady (Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk), the most famous gothic church in Bruges for it is home to Michelangelo's statue of the Madonna and Child.

The best thing to do in Bruges is to let yourself get lost without a map and wander around freely. Something I remarked on was that there were not as many canals as I had expected, it certainly isn't like Venice or Amsterdam. They had the occasional canal, I saw two or three, which almost seemed like small streams, and I crossed over two bridges. Still, some small boats passed through the canals, which you can ride on to take a trip through the city. I didn't do it myself, but I'm sure that if you do it you will see more canals and charming places than those that I came across.

In conclusion, it's clear that the city is full of charm, it's very medieval and isolated and it has a certain magic about it (particularly in the night) but it is small enough for anyone to end up being bored after spending half a day here.