In Bruges!

During second year in BA Culinary Arts in SETU Waterford I had the opportunity to choose somewhere to go on college placement in my third year and I decided to go to Vives University in Brugge in Belgium. Having never been to Belgium and not knowing how to speak Dutch which is the main language of the region I’m staying in I was pleasantly surprised to see that the level of English was really good from everyone so I have no issues talking to people. After I got here we had a fun induction day with all the other Erasmus students who came to Vives too. Learning about Belgium and its culture has been pretty fun so far, with the best parts in my opinion being food, beer and chocolate for obvious reasons, because they all lead to a good time. Through one of the classes I’m taking here called Taste of Belgium I’ve been able to not only learn about the culture and history of the area, I’ve also been able to taste many different products and go on trips to see different places.

The last one of these trips we went on started in front of a large cathedral here I Brugge and we walked around some of the restaurant area to take a look at all the different types of cuisine that was in that small area. I was surprised at how many good restaurants there were compared to the amount that are in Waterford, but it makes sense with how their culture views food and eating compared to Ireland.

After that we went and got some cookies in a chocolate store and took a walk past the Belgian Beer Wall, a glass wall that contains what I assume is close to evert Belgian beer and the glasses that these beers are expected to be enjoyed from, since Belgians are quite adamant that each beer needs its own glass. Something I had thought was a bit excessive but its still interesting to try different beers and see the different glasses that they are in.

After the beer wall we made our way to the chocolate museum to learn about the history of Belgian chocolate, a product that I’m sure everyone likes to eat and is very famous worldwide. We learned how chocolate was first created and how it evolved into the sweet treat that people love in this day and age. Of course there was also different types of chocolate that was available for us to try at the end of the tour, along with chocolate sculptures that were made with amazing precision and craftsmanship. I did a bit of exploring around Brugge and the surrounding towns myself going to a few of the tourist attractions myself such as the torture museum, Sculpture museum and to the beach at Oostende and Knokke. I think next I’m gonna start going to some more of the restaurants that are around to see what the food is like and I’ll be sure to tell everyone about them. Hope you enjoyed, Conor