For Sites and Sights, a history course I took at CCCU, I was able to take a class trip to Bruge, Belgium. As this was meant only to be a day trip, the students were able to make the choice to either return to Canterbury on the bus or to continue traveling in Europe for the weekend or longer.

Streets of Bruge

We left Canterbury at five in the morning on Friday and arrived in Bruge in the early afternoon. We walked around the city for a short time and then took a boat tour with a local who spoke a number of languages, conducting the tour using at least three (English of course being one). As he talked about the history of Bruge, he was able to add a lot of his own memories and family history to it. It gave the history a lot of meaning to hear about how the greater history of the city related to him in such a personal context.

Following the brief boat tour, the students were released to travel or return to Canterbury. I stayed for one night in Bruge with some classmates and then took a short trip to Antwerp, where one of my best friends, Dominic, and her family live.















I was very lucky to be able to visit a close friend in the city because it has an extremely rich history and it helps a lot to be with a local. As her parents both work as architects in the city, they were really connected to the art scene. They took me along with them to see art shows of many of their friends. It was amazing to see Matteo Pugliese's work.

Matteo Pugliese