Hello lovelies,

it's been a while since I travelled to Belgium. uh, about 3 months but never mind that. I truly enjoyed my trip. It was another eat-, see- and buy-all-we-could and honestly, this is what we like about holidays. 

There was a reason for flying out to Belgium that was not lace (I know! Shocking!) But a lolita tea party but I will get to that in a separate post. This is about the cities we visited in the land of the cradle of lace: Brussels, Bruges and Gent. 

March 12 

On Thursday March 12 we flew out to Brussels. It was raining slightly but that didn't bother us. We stayed at "Craves" a boutique hotel near the grote markt. Craves is a boutique hotel, with a weird theme. But we like the colour scheme. 

 

 

  

 

This letter was so kind but I did not like the sweets. It tasted weird but the texture was nice.  

 

And now look carefully at the pattern. The more you look, the weirder it gets! All those eyes and mouths are so weird haha. But I like it.

 

As our flight was during midday and we arrived in Brussel Centraal Station around 3pm, we didn't have a lot of time in Brussels for sightseeing but we did manage to see the queer town, grote markt and the fashion and lace museum. 

 

 

  

 

  

 

I still don't get why this is so famous. We have pissing children statues everywhere in old Vienna. lol.

 

The fashion part of the museum was closed but the lace part was open and therefore it was free to visit. That was nice! And it was nice seeing the lace again, it was so beautiful!

 

  

 

And here are the pictures from the queer town we found by accident. No idea if it's really the queer town but everything was rainbows, there were a lot of flags and interesting shops.

 

 

My friend who hates France travels there more than once a year because of concerts and other reasons. We would have loved to give her the Bonjour Bitches t-shirt but they did not have it in her size anymore. 

 

 

  

Sadly, there was no time for the Royal Museum of fine art which was a shame because I had enjoyed it immensely when I visited last time in 2022. Being in Belgium was a bit bittersweet for me because I embarked on my 2-month Interrail journey from there with Brussels being the first leg of the journey. 

But on this first day we managed to see a few churches, bought chocolate, and ate some Vegan Burgers. Because Thursday is Burger day even on holiday! The shop's name was Kitsune and they only had vegan stuff and it was very good. 

 

Brussels, and also Bruges, smelled like chocolate and waffles all the time. I got hungry constantly and ate waffles every single day. I also got a bunch of Dolfin chocolate and they even hat Philippine chocolate with cocoa beans from there!

 

 

And here they are...At the end of the day, i got some delicious waffles! Yummy. Just waffles and Nutella.

 

 

March 13

We got up early-ish and I got a huge meringue for breakfast which I took one bite and decided it was not breakfast but dessert. Look at how huge this one is and I had already eaten one swirl. And that for only 2,20€

As we were close to centraal we took the train from there to Bruges and it was still raining on and off the train ride. It was also quite chilly and once again I ditched warmer clothes for more flimsy but stylish ones. Don't judge, I was betting on nicer weather. And that gamble paid off during midday when the rain stopped and the sun came out. 

 

 

Bruges is so beautiful. I would love to live there for a while and just study lace. Maybe I'll take time off from work next year and just do it.  

The first point on our agenda was walking through the old city to get to the kantcentrum with a small detour past the old chocolate house where I got a gingerbread hot chocolate which was delicious! Hias could not eat and drink anything so he settled with a hot tea. I also have been to the shop in 2022 and I got the ruby hot chocolate which was okay but not my favourite. The gingerbread chocolate was so much better.

 

 

We found a few souvenir shops with real lace and machine made lace. We also stumbled into a crafting store and I got new needles, bobbins and thread. Success!

Afterwards we passed a food stall and I got some bitterballen. And then we were almost at the museum already.

The kantcentrum was closed in 2022 when I wanted to go there because I arrived during a national holiday. But this time I could enjoy the lace, and even do some interactive lace on a screen which was fun. 

I did not upload all of the lace samplers, maybe I will do a separate post about it. 

 

There would have been a bobbin lace demonstration in an hour but we decided against it as we wanted to see more of Bruges. I bought a few items in the shop and then we left. We stopped at a cafe for a break because our feet were killing us already. They had vegan food for Hias and I got a Lady Di tea. 

Then we stumbled into a bookstore that was recommended to me as they had tons of bobbin lace pattern books in the cellar. And there I bought even more. 

 

Hias is not fond of churches as I am and as I had seen most of them already last time, we just roamed around the inner city instead. The city hall was free to tour so we did that. In the last floor was a small exhibition about a village they unearthed and reconstructed. And you were able to reconstruct it there with lego. That was fun! Plus, it was a good excuse to just sit down and relax our tired feet. 

 

This was such a nice place for pictures. I am wearing my btssb dress and a liz lisa cardigan. 

 

My daily steps is between 3.000-5.000 steps per day but on holiday it can be anything between 10.000-20.000. When we were in Disneyland Paris and Versailles we were even close to 30.000. No wonder my feet hate me on holiday and no matter the shoes I wear, they are always upset. 

I think Bruges is so pretty, I love water and canals and living near water would be my absolute dream (and probably mosquito nightmare in summer).

We grabbed dinner at a Belgium fries shop and I probably got the one food item with the most things on top. I could not finish it and Hias could not help me because he is a vegan. Uff, that was so much food.

 

We just rolled into the train station and got into the next train. I think I fell asleep on the train a bit but we made it to Brussels and back to the hotel. 

And here is my Bruges haul! 7 books, some bobbins, needles and thread!

March 14

We took our bloody time in the morning and only arrived in Gent around 11ish. The park next to the train station was calm and tranquil and we slowly walked through it. 

The weather looked bad and like rain but it then cleared up in the afternoon again. 

As we skipped breakfast we just went to the next restaurant that had vegan food which was a Pakistani restaurant. The food was okay but mid overall. 

 

On the agenda was the Museum of fine arts in Gent were we spent all of the early afternoon. There was just so much too see. The entrance fee was a bit steep though but I am used to Austrian fees and those are not low either. 

I love these memento mori style art. 

In the museum we also got to see some lace samplers, which was an unexpected but welcome surprise. 

My outfit for that day: a comfy angelic Pretty dress and hairbows.

 

We then started the long and arduous walk into the old city. As in Bruges, the train station is way outside the old city and it took us almost 30mins to go there. We went into a few churches and roamed around but we were so dead tired already. To our surprise, in a small side street was a wonderful vegan cafe and restaurant. They had good tea and even better cakes and Hias also liked their fried mushrooms.

Afterwards, we went into another church again but it was already late, probably around 5pm and we decided to go back to the train station. That was when the nightmare began because when we got there we saw that there were no trains going from Gent to Brussels that day due to an accident on the railroad. People were piling into trains that wouldn't drive, others were squished on the platform, waiting for the next train. Usually, when something like that happens in Vienna, we will get buses that take you to the next train station where trains could be functional again but we learned that this was not happening in Belgium. 

Instead, we had to take a train to  Antwerp and then change train and go to Brussels from there. The train to Antwerp was completely full and I just sat on the floor because my feet were killing me. It was an uncomfortable ride. In Antwerp the train to Brussels waited for us but when we saw all the passengers squeezing themselves into the train again we decided to wait for the next train. 

 

It was cold and chilly and the wind did not help. But after half an hour the next train arrived and it was empty. We got the next best seat and that felt so good. 

Back in Brussels we just went to the hotel and I got döner from across the street. Then went to bed. It had been a long day and we didn't see a lot in Gent which was a shame. 

 

 And here is the video of my Belgium lace tour!

 

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All the best, 

Auris Lothol