In Bruges

So I realized right after I posted that I had forgotten the best fact about our journey from Prague to Strasbourg--our bus got pulled over by undercover cops!  We were all asleep just after we'd crossed the border into Germany from the Czech Republic and then suddenly everyone was like "PUT ON YOUR SEATBELTS!" and then there were two German men in corduroy pants with guns coming onto our bus and demanding that everyone pass up their passports.  After looking at two people's identification and seeing all of our terrified faces, they left the bus and went back to their sketchy sketchy unmarked blue van.  Our group leader suspected that it was because they were required to take down the border checks when the Czech Republic joined the EU but Germany still doesn't really trust their customs and passport control checkpoints... interesting theory.  Needless to say, I'm not a fan of people with guns yelling at me in foreign languages.

We left Strasbourg yesterday to come to Bruges, and thanks to a well-placed rest stop on the part of our bus driver, Roger, I've now also been to Luxembourg!  We arrived in Bruges with no issues and went out to dinner last night.  We were assured by our professor that food would be cheap here, but even Thai Food is ten euros!  Sheesh!  The beer here, however, IS cheap (and amazing), which is a definite plus.

Today we took a day trip to Brussels, which is definitely one of my favorite cities that we've visited.  We went to a really sweet art nouveau apartment, and we learned that art nouveau design was actually strongly influenced by the theories of Charles Darwin, which was really interesting!  Our assignment today was to go through the apartment and find examples of art and architecture as "metamorphosis" or "natural selection."  After that we went to a great musical instrument museum then had lunch and headed back to Bruges.  On the way out our bus driver, who's Belgian, gave us a quick bus tour of the city, which was very nice of him.  We were supposed to go to see the Ghent Altarpiece on the way home, but our finals are tomorrow and everyone wanted to get back here to study.  Oh well.

Right now I'm at the laundromat, one of the few places in this city with free wifi.  After this I think I'm going to grab a quick bite and then study some more.  Fun night :-)

Dara

PS:  Finally, here's a link to the Prague pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2015367&id=1326450024&l=b87abbf214