travel with aimee

We started our journey on the 30th January 2025. An early start to catch a train to London, through border control and eventually on the eurostar. The very first of our trains. With our backpacks ready, energy fired up and our squished butties, we were unstoppable. We caught a connecting train from Brussels to head to our first destination, Bruges.

Obviously we arrived quite late and so we headed straight to our first hostel, Lybeer Hostel. Roughly £21 a night, it had a bar area downstairs and then dorms upstairs. Since no one else had taken it, we were offered the one double bed on a higher level of our dorm room and obviously we took it! The beds reminded me of little boxes which dollys could be put away into. Square sized holes fitted into the walls. After our long travel day we were eager to sleep and so we got snug (checked for bedbugs first of course) and watched some netflix (A saviour! download it on your phone before you go and download things to watch offline!) before falling asleep, ready for the next day.

31st January 2025

We had decided to spend just two nights in Bruges leaving us with one full day. I’d definitely recommend around this length of time or two full days maximum for the city. I fell in love with the quaint little old town very quickly as we passed horse and carriages everywhere, (€10 for a ride around). We made sure to see all the main sights including the Belfry (you can pay to go up), the City Hall, the beer wall and the Basilica of the Holy Blood. All of these attractions were very near each other in the main Markt Square. We also strolled along the canals for ages and visited Minnewater Park where we saw geese and kissed on lovers bridge. All this we did within half a day!

We went back to our hostel to chill for a bit, watch some more netflix etc. We then plucked up some courage to talk to a girl in our room. Result! Our first friend! Carys was on her own, visiting the city as she used to come all the time with her family and was itching to see it again. That night we went out to two pubs with her, chatted for hours and felt on top of the world. With smiles on our faces, we went back home later that night to catch some z’s before we moved on tomorrow.

I remember my biggest worry for this trip was that we wouldn’t find or make any friends since we were in the off season. However people travel all the time, and we both soon realised that friends are not hard to find. Especially not in hostels where everyone is doing the same thing.

I’d recommend a canal boat tour if you are to go to Bruges, me and Ben didn’t as we were following our budget but we saw many people on them and it looked so serene. Also take a look at some of the restaurants on Markt Square because they are so adorable!!! (PS: don’t forget the iconic belgium waffle)