Showing posts with label bruges. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bruges. Show all posts

Monday, October 6, 2008

Hostel Review: Snuffel Backpacker Hostel [Bruges, Belgium]


I visited Bruges in late March of last year, and came away with a love for Belgian beer and waffles. Bruges is a beautiful old city with canals running throughout the city. The Snuffel Backpacker hostel a short distance outside the central square, I reached by walking down a narrow path along a canal that felt like a fairy tale. (see picture) The hostel like a neighborhood dive bar, was filled with more character than amenities. You take a spiral staircase from the first floor upto the dorm rooms, which surround a common area with big lockers. My room was in the back of another room on the second floor, and was relatively small with only 3 bunk beds sleeping 6 people. Unfortunately, the hostel only had one bathroom on my floor, and the bathrooms showers weren't great. Although, I found people in the hostel friendly, freely chatting in the lounge downstairs and around the lockers upstairs. At night the lounge became a local bar with cheap drinks and a cool vibe. The bar had a great selection of Belgian beers, and it was there that I fell in love with the doubles, triples, and quadrupels for which they are so famous.



After returning from this trip, I discovered "The Monk's Cell" at "The Publick House" restaurant in the Brookline neighborhood of Boston. This bar captures the vibe of the Snuffel Backpacker Hostel bar and having a Belgian beer at this bar allows me to relive the time I spent in Bruges.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Brugge, Belgium [Bruges]



Bruges is a beautiful old city with canals and cheap beers to die for. The local brewery is "De Halve Maan" brewery that offers what I think was called "Brugse Zot" that had a dancing jester on it. The hostel I stayed in, Snuffel Backpacker hostel, wasn't the greatest hostel ever, but it had a bar with cheap beers. (and you don't have to tip the bartender!!) Scratch that, it was the greatest hostel ever. The town, easily previewed by watching the film "In Bruges", has an old world charm and cheap spaghetti in a cup. A few girls I met from Britain informed me of the spaghetti deal. This was the first city I experienced the wonders of Belgian beers, and it will always remind me of that "ah-ha" moment when I found I truly love beer.