I had spotted this cheap flight from Prague to Brussels early April and decided to get it as I knew by the time the date in May rolled around, I would be itching to travel to a completely different place and I was right.

I flew Ryanair, however, this fight landed in Brussels Charlorei, which is about an hour drive outside Brussels city.

I prebooked my shuttle bus so when I landed at 7.50, I could just hop right on. My fight was at 6.15 so I took an uber to the airport as it was too early for Prague’s transportation.

We landed early at 7.30 and I was able to catch the first shuttle at 7.50 getting into the South Train station at 8.40. I was meeting a friend there and had some time so I walked around a bit.

When we did meet up, we dropped my backpack off at a locker in the Central train station and started the day at 10.

We saw all the major sites. He was a great tour guide! P.S. Cafe Delirium is a pub. Cafe in Flemish/Dutch is pub. So when I asked if we could go to Cafe Delirium, my friend asked:

“You want a beer already?” It was 10 in the morning.

The peeing statue is very small and underwhelming, but the thing you have to see. It is dressed to suit the day or festivities and that day was the celebration of the grape harvest for wine. The Grand Place (pronounced pla-say), is a big market area, but it’s beautiful. I had the classic waffles and later I bought some chocolate.

I stayed with him in Leuven, a big university town, also home to Stella Artois. I didn’t see much since I was tired, but the next day I was able to walk around and enjoy it.

From Leuven, I got on the 8.32 train, if I remember correctly, to Bruges. I was able to see the major sights in several hours, but I slowly walked the remaining small streets taking the 15.57 train back to Leuven.

There is a weekend ticket, which is much cheaper so be sure to get that.

The train to Bruges was actually very fast. Didn’t even realize an hour or so went by.

I walked slowly around the small town and enjoyed the canals and the small streets. It is rather lovely, but extremely small. My suggestion would go for a half day especially if you are by yourself.

It is very romantic and having a partner or even a friend would have made the experience better, but I liked it.

I got a box of chocolates there to bring back to Prague. Since it is a big tourist item, chocolates are expensive, but I got 750 grams for 15 euros and I thought that was decent. (Over a week later and I still haven’t finished it and people are helping me). Picture is above.

For more information regarding Bruges and all the things to do and see, please check out this amazing post- 10 Fun Things to do in Bruges!

I got back on the train to Leuven to walk around and they have this statue of a student studying while pouring beer into its brain. Was a very classical student statue haha. There are a lot of pubs for the students.

I went to my friend’s orchestra concert and was surprised. Most of my Belgium trip was how things were not meeting my expectations, in a funny way, and this was no different. I thought I was going to be attending a Mozart concert or something, but it had movies being shown, and jokes in Flemish, which I couldn’t understand, but still cool. And! At the very end, there was a magic trick.

It was a pretty cool concert and there was free beer at the end. I’m glad I went.

I took the earliest train into Brussels, 4.42 or such, and then got on the 6 am bus to the airport. I arrived at my gate at 7.25 for my 8.15 flight so I had plenty of time.

I can’t wait to go back to Belgium to see its other cities.

Follow me on Instagram: myopenpassport

More pictures here

• 

•