Fookin' Bruges (and Brussels)

Challenge 3: Go on lots of day/weekend/many day trips (don't stay in the same place, explore, travel, wander)

When I look back, if the beginning of my trip to Belgium was anything to go by there were always going to be glitches. The night before departing I naively went out for a friend's birthday with the belief that I'd be tucked up in bed by midnight. However, as I'm currently staying with my friend Cat, our departure time was completely dependant on when she finished 'getting acquainted' with my friend's housemate. As it turned out this wasn't until about half one, which was slightly problematic as I had to be up to catch my bus to the airport at half three!

Nevertheless, I got up and caught two buses to Heathrow only to pass out on the plane. Luckily, the adrenaline kicked in upon arriving in Brussels as I was meeting one of my oldest and best friends Tess in the Belgian capital. Our reunion was everything I'd thought it would be, after all, Tess was my first "boyfriend". At our all girls primary school, Tess kindly offered to dress up as a boy and be my date at a barn dance on year 5 camp. Obviously, with such a rich history, our reunion was bound to be dramatic. Just like in a movie we ran to each other and embraced in excitement. Well, she ran and I kind of cautiously shuffled as I was on a hill holding bags.

Tess had picked an amazing location for us to stay in Brussels, right off Louisa Avenue, a stunning street with a combination of high end and high street fashion for us to explore. It reminded us of Paris, without the wank. Our first port of call was a good coffee shop. We were amazed to find a very cool cafe that had soy milk (a rarity in Europe) where we caught up on the events of the past year. From there we went exploring the city and found ourselves meandering through in a gorgeous Christmas market where we indulged on bratwurst and crepes.

To finish up a lovely day together we went to dinner, and this I believe is where it all started to go wrong. The meal was in a very touristy part of town and was overpriced with terrible service. So when the bill arrived minus the acidic house white we had struggled down, neither of us were keen to point out their mistake. Tess was riddled with guilt afterwards however, I didn't bat an eyelid. Perhaps I should have, after all, karma's a bitch. After our meal Tess and I went for our first waffle, which was unfortunately undercooked. This may not seem like a big deal, but it was the twig that started a tumbleweed of disappointment.

The next day we went on a walking tour to really discover Brussels. It turned out to be a very cool city, with no bill boards because the mayor decided that people should be able to look at images that are creative, inspiring and don't aim to sell anything. Where bill boards used to be, there are now murals of Belgian comic characters like Tin Tin. On a short break we stopped in a pub where we had yet another disappointing waffle (this one was like cardboard with cool whip) which put a bit of a damper on our morning. It seemed that this was a turning point in our tour too; our once jolly guide all of a sudden became solemn and bossy. Bad waffles will do that to you I guess.

Our culenary mediocrity continued when we went in search of the famous Belgian frites, which are supposedly double fried to make them extra delicious. But after hearing all the mouth watering hype, the chips were sadly pretty average. We were having no luck and Belgium only had two chances left to reinstate it's reputation: chocolate and beer. The rest of our afternoon was spent chocolate shopping and in a cafe called Delerium which served over 2000 Belgian beers. The first beers we tried were amazing fruit beers which tasted similar to cider however, not as sweet or carbonated. Sadly, bad luck struck on our second choice. Tess had made a friend at the bar who recommended the Christmas beer which he described as being full of cinnamon and other festive flavours. In reality, it was a dark ale that left a bitter taste in your mouth (both literally and figuratively). 

We had planned on heading to Bruges that evening however, after a few fruit beers we thought it would be better to grab some dinner, an early night and catch the train in the morning. I'm so glad we did because on our way home we stumbled across a sound and light show in the main square that was totally magical. Watching the historic town hall light up while Tess held me to keep me warm made all our bad luck melt away (best "boyfriend" ever). Just to top it off, on our way home we admired the Christmas lights and sang Christmas carols.

However, in the morning our Belgian bad luck reared its ugly head again. My weekend bag broke and I had to hold it together with my scarf. Then the owner of the hostel wasn't awake to process card payments so Tess had to go hunting for an ATM, delaying our departure to Bruges. To provide a little background, I've wanted to visit Bruges ever since I saw the movie In Bruges years ago. When I read there were Christmas markets there it only heightened my excitement. Unfortunately, our arrival was dampened by the people at St Christopher's hostel who attempted to charge us an extra €50 for the room we were going to book online. We assumed the prices had gone up since we looked the night before, but actually the price to book in person was just ludicrously more expensive. Feeling ripped off we decided to go in search of the famous Christmas markets to lift our spirits. Turns out I was mistaken, the markets in Bruges are actually tiny and the big ones are in another town called Gent. My heart was officially breaking. 

Bruges temporarily redeemed itself when I caught glimpse of a little cafe called 'Miss Ellie'. As this is a nickname from my parents as well as what the kids at work call me, we obviously had to stop in for a snack. Tess went to town taking pictures of me with the placemats, signs, menus...really anything that had my name on it! We were so distracted by Miss Ellie's that we almost missed our walking tour. Luckily we didn't because while the tour itself was just ok, it provided us with the vital information we needed about a pub crawl that night.

That night we grabbed some mulled wine and bratwurst from the market for a quick dinner and went to meet our pub crawl group sporting some amazing Christmas getup. I was particularly fashionable in a Christmas jumper with a cat wearing a sequin Santa hat, pompom included. We enjoyed some more fruit beer, shots poured straight down our throats in the street and some quirky company. From American brothers who were cagey about their professions to a total stranger who insisted on drawing us, everyone seemed nice, albeit a little odd. However, odd quickly turned to confusing and downright disturbing when we reached the final bar.

This bar was more like a club and was completely full of men. Tess and I were having a great time dancing when I spotted a guy by the bar with shaggy blonde surfer hair. Convinced he had to be Australian, Tess went and asked him only to discover he and his friends were Belgian and deaf. We had an amazing time communicating with them via text which amused us all no end. After our conversation Tess and I returned to dancing when suddenly one of the American brothers announced he was a stripper and would take his shirt off for Tess for €20. She laughed it off assuming he was joking, but he sat her down and began to slowly remove his shirt and tie, flinging the tie around her neck. Meanwhile one of our new deaf friends was getting very upset by the whole situation and stepped in to tell him to leave Tess alone. Being deaf this wasn't an easy feat and I swear I saw them writing their argument on napkins at one point! Apparently whatever he wrote didn't get across because the American kept coming back demanding money from Tess. It was only when she got really upset that he changed his mind and said it was a joke. We're still not sure if he was kidding but we knew it was time to leave...

We were escorted home by an Australian guy who was concerned that some creeps in the club had been sneaking photos of us. Desperately in need of a pick me up, we decided to grab some chips on the way home. I befriended the chip guy who played me music off his iPod and provided us with a heater while we waited. Unfortunately, after this hospitality Tess dropped the chips down herself, covering her coat in 'samurai' sauce. We managed to salvage some though, and admittedly they do taste better at 3am after a few drinks.

So we had come to the end of our time in Belgium. We spent the morning shopping in Zara and eating at Miss Ellie's. We had left ample time to get back to Brussels and to the airport but of course, every bus and train we had to catch was delayed, causing us to almost miss our flight. When we finally reached the airport we were told the only way to get on the plane was to throw out any liquids over 100ml, meaning we lost almost all our toiletries. Belgium had broken us. It must have been obvious because the flight attendents were more than happy to give us a large dose of vodka on the plane home and kindly told us that if we needed more, we knew where to find him.

That's the Jingle Bell Ball

London Bucket List: See Olly Murs Live

In his song Thinking of Me Olly Murs asks, 'Winter time in London, are you making plans?'.

Who is Olly Murs you ask? Well shame on you. Olly Murs was a runner up on UK X Factor and has apparently become England's (and my) sweetheart. He also happens to be the reason I forked out over 100 quid to go to the Jingle Bell Ball at the O2 last weekend. See, I have found a kindred spirit in my friend Cat who also loves Olly, so we promised each other we would see him live before I leave the UK. It turned out the only gig he was doing in London in that time frame was at the huge Christmas party, the Jingle Bell Ball.  

To clarify, JBB isn't actually a ball, it's more like a one stage festival that goes over two days. We were thrilled to discover that sharing the stage with Olly would be Katy Perry and Ellie Goulding along with an assortment of British artists like Tinie Tempah, Rizzle Kicks, Union J, Naughty Boy, Disclosure and James Arthur. On first glance I only vaguely recognised the names on the lineup, but it turned out I knew songs by everyone who played. In fact, quite a few of the songs have been the backing track to my time in London, or at least my time on London dance floors.

The atmosphere at the O2 was amazing. If I wasn't already feeling festive, this was the place to get an injection of Christmas cheer. The audience were all given tiny lights that you attached onto your fingers so that when the house lights went down it looked like thousands of tiny stars were floating in the stadium. At one point in the show they held a giant karaoke session with the entire audience by putting the lyrics to All I Want For Christmas Is You on the big screen and towards the end of the event they even made it snow. A number of balloons filled with white confetti and iTunes vouchers were burst over the audience, it's just a shame Cat and I were a tiny bit too far up to reap the rewards.

First to take the stage was mine and Cat's future husband (there's a religion that allows that, right?) Olly Murs. Cheeky as anything, the notorious troublemaker paraded around the stage pulling off some awesome moves and singing some of my favourite songs. He even changed the words of his own love ballad Put Your Hand on my Heart to "put you hand on my ass", which admittedly isn't quite as poetic. Regardless, I was transported straight back to when I first moved to London and I used to listen to Olly on my walk to Liverpool Street station to get to work. He was even the soundtrack on my train trip to Cambridge before my interview at the University.

Following Olly was another X Factor contestant, James Arthur who sings the song Impossible. I absolutely love that song and it too has the ability to transport me to another time and place. On my first night in the UK I was up in Yorkshire and struggling to keep my eyes open from the jet lag. My head was bobbling around like a buoy in the ocean as I sat in the back of a friend's car, but I can still remember that that song was playing on the radio. It's one of those songs that you can't sing along to without really belting it, as the Year 5s from work last school year proved. It was coming up to the summer holidays and I was left with them for the whole day, by myself, for the first time. I was merely given the instructions that they could do 'something fun' which I knew really meant finish off some drawings they had started. However, we all got bored of that pretty quickly so instead I decided we would have class karaoke. The rules were the kids could only choose a song if they were able to act or draw the title. The most memorable was definitely Impossible; one of the kids stood in front of the class and told them that he could fly. Eventually one of the other children responded that what he was saying was impossible. Bingo! So the song got played, year 5 belted it out and I got some raised eyebrows from other staff members. Oops. Needless to say, when James Arthur sang it at JBB I got really into it, it was just a shame he didn't. I've never seen someone so miserable on a stage in my life. Not to worry, I had enough enthusiasm and embarrassing hand gestures for the both of us.

Another song that reminded me of the kids was Ellie Goulding's Burn. This time it was the current Year 5 class who I had been teaching for an afternoon. They had been reasonably well behaved while they worked to the sultry tunes of Ed Sheeran, so I decided to try something a teacher at home used to do. She would let one child who had behaved well choose a song and the kids would have the length of that song to pack up. Because they wanted to hear the music they were often quite quiet. So, I allowed a girl to choose a song and she picked Burn. What I hadn't factored in was that these were not the private school kids from Brighton, they were spirited Londoners from Hackney who apparently become possessed when they hear a base line. Although the song begins quite gently, it certainly builds to the climax of the chorus where the dance beat kicks in. It was at that precise moment that my classroom turned to a chaotic nightclub for 10 year olds. Oops again. As it happened the kids had some pretty interesting moves, much like Ellie Goulding herself, who bounced around the stage flinging her gorgeous blond hair around like a mad woman. What was really surprising though was how well spoken she was. Considering she had such a big attitude while performing, she had the tiniest voice when she addressed the audience, spoken in perfect Queen's English with impeccable manners. I guess looks can be deceiving.

I have a few new favourite British acts thanks to Jingle Bell Ball, one of which is Rizzle Kicks. I had absolutely no idea who the hip hop duo were before last weekend and now I'm totally hooked. They had so much energy and their songs were so catchy you couldn't help but get up and dance. They even have their own dance to accompany their song Mamma do the Hump, which I now play every morning to motivate me to get out of bed and brave the bleak English weather. It involves leaning back, wriggling your hips and moving your fists around in small circular motions. Google it, it's addictive. My other new fave is Union J. Move over One Direction because a new boy band (also from X Factor) is in town. I already had a soft spot for Union J after discovering their song Carry You which I played on repeat for about a week. However, thanks to their performance at JBB my love has grown and I'd definitely consider myself a J-Cat. This could be because they captured my heart by singing a medley of Christmas songs, or because their Britpop sound is incredibly catchy or simply because I found out that one of them, Josh, is really cute. So cute in fact, I went to see the Union J concert this week and came ever so close to meeting the boys, thanks to my friend whose job is to market the Union J dolls. Sadly it wasn't to be, but my hopes are still high that he'll be under the tree on December 25th. I've been pretty well behaved this year...mostly.

Amongst the 9 acts at JBB there are always going to be the big boys. On our night there was the obvious headline act, Katy Perry, who brought all her Christmas cheer with dancing elves, falling snow flakes and even fireworks, but perhaps more surprising was Tinie Tempah, who the crowd absolutely loved. It was pretty amazing to see the whole of the O2 on their feet, hands in the air waving their fairy lights around. It turns out Cat and I knew Tinie Tempah well, we just didn't realise it because his name gets tacked on with better known artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris and Labrinth. While it was a little disconcerting to see so many 14 year olds singing along to Drinking from the Bottle, Tinie Tempah was the undeniable crowd favourite.

I personally loved Katy Perry, who was the perfect ending to my trip down memory lane through music. With so many reminders of why I love London it was good to have some tunes that reminded me of home. For my 21st birthday I went to see Katy in Melbourne with my best friend and her first album was always playing in my car when I cruised by the beach. Today marks one month until I fly back home, and with so many doubts in my mind it's good to have a little reminder of what and who are waiting for me on the other end. But to answer Olly's question, yes I do have some amazing plans ahead for my London Winter and my final month living in the UK!