bruges, bunkbeds + barak obama

i just read this and laughed until my eyes teared up. it reminded me that i haven't run down our trip. i am not going to now because i am lazy, but i will document a funny story. well, i think it's funny. you probably won't.

so. we got to bruges on a very wet sunday morning and checked in to our hostel. they told us what beds we were in and we stashed the bags in storage as our room was still occupied. but, the good thing about bruges [and brussels and antwerpt, even though we didn't go there] is that some company had provided the hostels with excellent, very cheap-traveler friendly maps with excellent suggestions on where to eat and what to see. so, we consulted the map and found a place where the owner looks like freddy mercury and you can get 3 euro spaghetti. because we had spent the night before drinking an entire box of wine in the park [that only cost 1.92 euro] we were hungover and needed drunk belly meal. so, we found said restraunt, medard, drank cheap belgian beer and ordered large spaghettis, even though freddy thought we might be better off with the smaller size. i told him i could handle it. when our bowls arrived, filled with [what looked like an entire pound of] pasta covered with cheddar [why?] cheese i felt a little sick but tried to eat it all. peter kindof accomplished this but i failed.

anyhow, after the pasta we were zombies and tried to walk it off.. we climbed the tower [which looked nothing at all like the one in the movie] and walked along the canals, checked out some shops and got stuck in a rain storm. eventually we made it back to the hostel, got our bags and went to check out our rooms. first we had to squeeze ourselves and our bags up a very scary free-standing spiral staircase that moved with every step. it was dangerous. then we saw out room was the first exit for the third floor. there was a sign on the door that read "in case of emergency all key cards work on this door." which really meant "anyone can get into this room at any time!" anyhow, we had a fire escape/balcony so i guess it made up for it. there were two bunk beds in the room and bed #1 had mr. man beach towels on it so we went for the far bunk bed thinking those two beds were ours. while peter changed and hot on the interweb i made the bottom bunk for us [with two pillows] and hung our towels on the top bunk to air out. we also met our australian roommie who was going to take a nap after staying out [until 6am.. what! we're too old!]. having made out bed for the night we peaced out to go find a grocery store. we got kindof lost of walked in circles around town but finally found a market that was jsut about to close. all the normal bread was bought up so we grabbed what looked like whole wheat pitas, red pepper, tomatoe, zuccini and goat cheese. and three bars of cote d ore chocolate. [we still have one and a half left!] back i the hostel kitchen i made sandwiches for the next day's train ride [just like my mom used to for road trips] and headed off to eat dinner.

i was hungry for ice cream and frites so we consulted the map again and found a close place named cafe brituur snack. it turned out to be an american themed diner filled a couple old farts who were drinking tiny glasses of beer chatting. we ordered frites and burgers from the lady with a blonde bouffant hairdo and 60s style eyeliner and sat down in a little booth with a mini-table-side jukebox. peter went up to get a beer and started speaking to one of the old farts. when we heard we were american he yelled out "barak obama!" and called us yankees. he also brought his adorable flemish sheep dog to meet us. he was a very friendly guy. after eating we went went to see the old windmills and wandered town for a while. it was so quiet and you could see into everyone's windows. made me feel like a creeper. eventually we bought beers and sat around in the park. we spotted a kitty stalking the ducks near the pond and, using my skills, eventually got her to come over and hang out for a while. she was very purry and obviously someone's lovey house cat. i wanted to steal her.

because we were leaving for frankfurt the next day we figured we had better go and try as many belgian beers as we possibly could. with guidance from the map [again!] we went to brugs beertje bar, the only brewpub in town. it was tiny and crowded and smokey and everyone was having a good time. especially the giant table of brits and australians [including our wino roomie] sitting across the room. anyhow, peter and i tried a few of their specialities and chatted until we got sleepy and headed home, stopping in quick [the belgian equivalent to mcdonalds] to use the restroom.

when we got back to the room i spotted a very large pair of yellow crocks in front of our bunk bed. i knew that our roomie was a petite girl so i thought she may have borrowed them from a large-footed, crock-wearing man. so i moved them so they were in front of her bunk. peter, of course. took our his laptop, sat down on the bottom bunk and started doing whatever he does on the internet. i took my pants off and brushed my teeth then went for a pee, then changed into pjs and sat down next to peter. i was sitting there for a few seconds before i realized there were infact an asian man sleeping in the bed. he was the owner of the mysterious yellow crocks and he was sleeping with both our pillows in the bed i so lovingly made earlier that day. he was also a very heavy sleeper, or thought i was a voyeur. anyhow, i laughed at peter's inability to realise when he was sitting on someone and was angry that he stole out bed and two pillows! i then had to make the other bottom bunk and we had to share. i was angry.

the next morning we got up and showered early to be first to enjoy free breakfast. i am greedy like that. and i don't like people to watch me eat 5 pieces of toast. mr yellow crocks sits down at the table next to us and i make peter apologize for sitting on him. instead of apologizing fo sitting on him and disrupting his slumber, peter tells him he slept in our bed and he should pay more attention to the bed he is assigned. a few minutes later they start talking all about traveling and engineering so its no big deal. turns out he is from korea and we are the stupid ones and made his bed for him instead of one of our own.

that is it.

oh, and we discovered that those sandwiches i made were the most disgusting things imaginable. the "pita bead" was actually sickly sweat and that mixed with goat cheese and red pepper tasted like a regurgitated meal.