Bonjour, Belgium!

Bikes & Champagne Picnics in Bruges

After countless attempts to plan out the remainder of our European travels together, we finally sat down to purchase tickets from Dublin to continental Europe.  In Asia, doing this a few days in advance was completely normal, and although prices would fluctuate, the price would never inhibit us from journeying somewhere new - it was all affordable.

Surrounding Bruges

As we sat in Hailey's flat in Dublin, the realization that we were quite stuck and going to have to change our plan once again dawned on us.  Summertime Europe does not compare to any other place I've been in terms of terrifying costs for a backpacker, and these costs make places aggressively unattractive in terms of visiting:cost ratio.  The result of our debate, finger crossing, and endless Google searches (while clearing our browser cookies in order to avoid pricing schemes for repeat searches on the same flights) - we were headed to Bruges, Belgium.

Windmill in Bruges

As soon as we arrived in Bruges and spoke with a local couple, we were off to our hostel, Charlie Rocket's.  We arrived at the same time as our Swiss roommates, and chatted for a bit before heading to the nearest tavern to watch the FIFA World Cup Final while enjoying our first Belgium beers.  This is an important point to review: Jennifer does not drink beer.  AT ALL.

Exploring Bruges

I was in Belgium with my sister, who for the fact prompted the beer ordering, while watching Argentina play for the World Cup Finals - life was a dream!  Although Argentina didn't win the game, we had a great time enjoying the atmosphere and a few delicious beers before calling it a night.  

Bruges, Belgium

Our next day was spent biking, exploring and taste testing our way through the chocolate shops of the beautiful city, and picnic-ing next to the river that encompasses Bruges' city center.  We had (like our time in Ireland) fantastic weather, which allowed us to relax and cat nap in the sun before we had to return our bicycles late in the afternoon.

Biking around Bruges

After three days in the Neverland of Bruges, we decided to spend a day exploring Ghent before catching our flight leaving from Brussels and taking us to our next stop: Prague, Czech Republic.

Bruges, Belgium

Conveniently, Ghent was only a thirty minute train ride from Bruges.  We arrived in mid-morning, rented lockers in the train station to store our backpacks and proceeded to access wifi for great advice from Jennifer's Belgian friend, Gerald.  

Historic boat tour in Ghent

We visited the Gravensteen Castle, took an hour-long historic ferry tour of the city, and enjoyed the most ridiculous Belgian fries that I could have imagined.  I took at least a few years off of my life within minutes, but they were delicious!

The two of us had a great time walking around the city and learning as we explored; one of the coolest streets we stumbled upon was a graffiti lane.  There were two little punks spraying, or rather refining their skills, which was fun to watch for a bit.  

Graffiti wall in Ghent

Towards the end of the day, it was time for us to catch the train to Brussels where we had no reservations and no idea how far away the airport would be for our flight the following morning.  It was one of those moments when all of our devices were dead, we had no wifi or prospects of finding it, the sun was setting and we were exhausted and clueless.  We toyed around with the idea of renting lockers and finding a club to stay in until early in the morning, but decided against that immediately when we realized we were both quite tired.  

Castle View in Ghent

Instead, we asked for the city center and headed out of the train station.  After a moment of adjusting to the new city, I spotted a group of four guys who had backpacks and were heading down the street. After a quick look at Jennifer to gauge our level of desperation and complete indifference to sleeping on the street (which was quickly rising to "extreme") I started sprinting towards them, as fast as my backpack-laden body would allow.  In one of our greater strokes of luck, they happened to be four Mexican guys who had just arrived and were headed towards a hostel where they'd had the good sense to make a reservation.  

Beautiful flowers on the river in Ghent

They welcomed us to join their group, and after chatting in a very animated, interesting combination of Spanish and English, we learned that they lived outside Mexico City, DF where Jennifer spent last summer.  In true Mexican form, they were looking for a party, and our previous exhaustion dissipated immediately.  

We arrived with them at their prearranged hostel, and in another stroke of luck, got two of the last beds available in the place.  Jennifer was assigned to the room with our new amigos, as I was headed upstairs to drop my bags in my assigned dorm.  We agreed to meet downstairs in 20 minutes, during which time I recruited two Canadian guys and three Korean freshmen I met in my dorm.  Our posse's plan was changed when we heard about 1 euro beers until midnight at a nearby pub, and then it was decided we would head to the infamous Delirium Cafe, an absinthe bar located down the street from our hostel.   

Wall of Beer in Bruges, Belgium

We had one of the most fun nights of our trip that night.  To say that we were surprised that we made our flight would be an extreme understatement.  I think we got back to our room well past 3 AM, and had to be awake at 5 AM to catch a cab to the airport.  We were awakened and ushered out of the hostel by our extremely intoxicated Mexican friend who was quite the gentleman and insisted on carrying our bags downstairs for us.

Brussels, I literally know nothing about you, and probably won't be back, but thanks for a kick ass night!

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Coasting Along Vietnam

After our exploration of Hanoi, we took the night train (our first night train of our travels, and Jennifer’s first train ever) to Da Nang, which is near Hoi An.  The train took about 15 hours, and when we arrived the next morning we found a café near the station to eat breakfast and explore our accommodation options with their wifi connection.  

With Hoa and Jessica, our fellow Canadian traveler

A few coffees, a brief hunt for a SIM card around the town, and a phone call later we were on our way to Hoa’s Place, a guesthouse in Da Nang. 

Beautiful, peaceful beach in Da Nang

It is low season right now in Vietnam, and we had the entire beach and guesthouse to ourselves.  Hoa has incredible English because he fought alongside the American troops during the war.  We had been warned about potentially receiving some hostility in central and northern Vietnam since we were American, so we preventatively pretended we were Canadians - all the time.  We kept up our new personas when we initially met Hoa, and he graciously asked us how we liked living in Toronto.

"Oh it's much colder than it is here" happily chirped Jennifer, and I joined in.  A few "ehs" later, and our well-disguised front was foiled when a real Canadian showed up…oh well, we had a good run.  Jessica was actually from Toronto.  When we were all at the beach later we explained ourselves and had a good laugh, though I'm sure she had her doubts about our sanity...

Exploring Hoi An

Our next stop was Hoi An, and if we had not already booked our train tickets a few days in advance, I could have easily spent more time here.  We rented bikes and explored the surrounding beaches and countryside, enjoyed fantastic food, had a number of custom-designed clothes made, and met up with some old friends from Phnom Penh.  

The town is quaint, and though it is a main tourist stop, the small streets and people biking everywhere gives it a lovely, and very relaxed beach town feel where the days quickly pass.  I would strongly recommend at least a few days here to anyone heading for Vietnam, and would absolutely insist on at least one visit to Morning Glory for those in the area!

Our next train headed further south was going to be much different from our first.  It was cheaper than the night train, and allowed us to soak up the local Vietnamese culture.  We were riding in the cheaper, hard seated car with screaming babies, many curious passengers who made their curiosity known, a notable language barrier, and a vast array of smells (including partially developed chicken fetuses boiled inside the egg, a local specialty that not even I could stomach), but we greatly enjoyed the trip. 

The ride was supposed to take about 15 hours and we would be leaving at 7 AM from Da Nang.  If you want to hear about this experience in its entirety, it might require buying Jennifer or me a drink one day…

When we arrived in Nha Trang, Jennifer selected our next accommodation.  Although it took longer than expected to arrive at the reception desk, we were placed in a shared apartment with 6 Canadian guys who we had a great time with over the few days.  They were the greatest – each morning they would wake up to make breakfast and surprised us with morning coffee.  

Evening in Nha Trang overlooking the bay

During the day we relaxed on the beach and visited the famous temples of the city, and at night we played cards and went out to Why Not? bar with our roommates.  It was such a fun stop off before heading further south to Da Lat, a much more relaxed part of Vietnam. 

Overlooking Nha Trang 

The bus ride to Da Lat reminded me of the road between Chiang Mai and Pai in northern Thailand.  If you’ve experienced it, you know how extremely windy it is, and would understand the stupidity in our choice of going out the night before a drive like this. 

Luckily, we were not the only Westerners, and passed the time chatting with a British couple that had made reservations at Paradise Backpackers in Da Lat, which saved us because we had done no such thing.  We decided to join them there and see if we could find an open bed.  We were able to secure the last two beds in the dorm that night before heading out to dinner and pastries with Paul and Nicole.

Da Lat's beautiful scenery

Da Lat is stunning and seemed to have a very similar feel as Hoi An, except that it is located in the mountains.  During the days in the town, we were fortunate enough to have fantastic weather, which made for enjoyable explorations of our new environment.

Countryside view from the coffee plantation

We opted for an Easy Rider tour of the countryside of Da Lat with two guides we met when we arrived.  Mr. Viet and his friend Chili would be our tour guides and made our experience worthwhile. 

The day consisted of a trip to the Elephant Waterfalls, a Flower Greenhouse, a nearby Coffee Plantation that produced Weasel Coffee, a Silkworm factory, a Rice Wine Distillery, and an “Ethnic” village.  

I.LOVE.COFFEE - Mocha and Arabica beans behind me at the plantation

It was so much fun to see the countryside and explore on a motorbike – this was Jennifer’s first time riding one!  It definitely puts biking through Vietnam on my Bucket List – I’m already targeting my future biker gang members – you know who you are!

Our last leg of our trip would consist of a bus ride to Saigon and a night at the same hostel we stayed in with Brad and Caroline.  These three weeks of our trip absolutely flew by, and Vietnam – I will be back!

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