Corner La Trin: My Chocolate Affairs

Bruges. That was our destination. When we reached Bruges, all of us in the tour bus were divided into two groups, English and Spanish. With the English group, we had a walking tour. We saw the medieval style buildings, which were simply gorgeous. They were quite narrow, but most of the buildings had three or four stories. They reminded me a lot of a European village in the 1600s.

As we walked along, I noticed that the narrow roads were cobbled. It really added to the impression that I was in a medieval village. There were even lots and lots of horse and carriages. I saw the white convent, where the olden day ladies would live when their husbands went to war. It was set in a green, picturesque park. It was very pretty.

We saw the canals of Bruges. In fact, because of these canals, people call Bruges ' Venice of the North'. There were boats on the canals that did tours. We kept walking until we reached the Market Square. It was the largest square in Bruges, and it was where people in the olden days would sell goods. It really was very big, and there was a large statue in the centre of it. It was surrounded by shops of all different sorts. They were also very medieval looking. The walking tour ended here. My parents and I went to have lunch. They decided to have mussels with fries and a beer each. That meal is like the classic meal of Bruges. I decided to have a Flemish style steak with fries and a Pepsi.

When the food arrived, let me tell you, it smelled amazing. My food was set down in front of me, and I dug in immediately. It also tasted amazing. This was truly the way to enjoy food in Belgium. I was ecstatic.

After the delicious meal, my mum uttered the words I'd been itching to hear all day. " Let's go look for chocolate." Bruges, after all, was renowned for their chocolate. My heart skipped a beat. I leaped out of my chair and grabbed my bag. My dad payed the cheque and we left to get chocolate. Well, I skipped.

It was very hard to decide on the first store. The cobbled streets seemed to have endless lots of chocolate stores! Eventually, we just walked into the first store that captured our eyes. We looked at all the delicacies. They were all handmade and very beautiful indeed, but, then again, when is chocolate not beautiful? Never, that's right. We bought a selection of chocolates there. We headed back to the street and walked into the next store. We spent ages in there. We eventually decided on the chocolates we wanted. There were pralines and ganachés, milks and darks, crèmes and whites, and not to mention the different shapes the chocolate came in. We must have headed into about twenty stores by the time we reached Chocoholic, my favorite chocolate store that we went to. Well, they were all my favourite, but Chocoholic just had a lot of pure awesomeness. I bought two chocolate sheep, and my mum bought more chocolate pieces. I hadn't thought that was morally possible. I was having more fun than a kid locked in Disneyland overnight.

When we finally finished with all that chocolate, mmmm, yum, yum, we headed to the canals where we would take a half hour boat tour. As we were waiting for the boat, we started munching on the chocolates. They were absolutely scrumptious. I was enjoying this. A lot.

The boat tour was very relaxing. With the occasional spray in my face, the boat tour was very informative. The tour guide spoke four languages! Amazing. We saw the little stone bridges, paved to perfection. We saw the medieval townhouses. We saw the churches. We saw Bruges.

After the boat tour, we headed to the Notre Dame Church of Bruges. Notre Dame means old lady, so there are a lot of Notre Dames Church in Europe. We went inside and saw the grand gothic interior. There were majestic pillars and intricate statues. The tiled floor was decorated with various patterns. There was an underground tomb and a canister with Phillip the Handsome's heart in it. Eerie but interesting.

Finally, it was time to meet the tour guide again. As we were waiting for everyone to come back to the meeting place, I saw a confectionary store. I bounded in gleefully and bought some chocolate-covered waffles. As the woman at the cash register processed my waffles, I inhaled deeply. It smelled so good! Like gummy bears mixed with chocolate. Mmmm, delicious. I headed back out with my purchase just as we were leaving. This would be a day that I would never forget.