In Bruges

"Two weeks? In f*ckin Bruges?"

This past Sunday, my friend and I took a day trip to see Ghent and Bruges in Belgium. In "preparation" for Bruges, he had me watch the Colin Farrell movie, "In Bruges." It was actually a decent introduction to the city (and where I got this line from... it's so much better in an Irish accent). I am not a fan of Colin Farrell but I found the dialog of the movie to be great. Very inappropriate and quotable (okay most of the good parts in this trailer..). Parts of the story were a little too far-fetched for me to allow me to enjoy the movie, but I found myself thinking about the movie's meaning for long after we finished.

In any case, both towns are very charming and worth visiting. I wish we had more time in each, but it was a good introduction. Ghent's city center appears to have a massive church/cathedral on every other block. For a small city, that was impressive. The old church was fantastic, with one of the most beautiful pulpits I have ever seen. It was made out of wood and marble, and the sculpture just had a very natural yet ethereal style to it.

Bruges is a well-preserved medieval town-- practically the entire city center is a UNESCO world heritage site. For me, this meant it departed slightly from the narrow buildings that I had become accustomed to, but it still has many similarities with the other Belgian and some Dutch towns. Canals and all.

I love the color gradient on the vine-covered tower....

Church of the Holy Blood-- supposedly Jesus Christ's actual blood is contained here.

My Golden Compass Daemon :)

This is my Golden Compass Daemon :)

I want to see this movie. Even though I've never heard of the book before... to be honest, as much as I love the Narnia books, I didn't really like the movie that much, so I hope that this movie does better. I really like Nicole Kidman too.

I love these fantasy stories, although sometimes it can make reality sad. After reading the Velvetine Rabbit when I was young, I really wanted my favorite stuffed dog to become real. And I thought maybe it didn't because I didn't love it enough, which made me sad.

Anyway you can take a quiz and find out your own Daemon at the website hahaha
http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/

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Update:

So I found it interesting that these books are based on a trilogy with atheist viewpoints. And that the author hated C.S.Lewis and wrote these as "the other side to the story" of Narnia's allegories. Apparently there is a little bit of upset from the religious side that they are making a film that introduces kids to 'anti-Christianism' and atheism.

I guess I'm not surprised that some more extreme religious groups would be upset, but I doubt that the message is carried over too much. I mean the Narnia movie wasn't a religious movie to me. Hollywood is a business and I doubt they would try to endanger their market by making it too one way or the other.

Besides, there's really not much wrong with making a film on 'atheist' books if it's okay to make a movie (Narnia) based on Christianity. Why censor kids from a fair debate? Plus, crazy adults are forgetting that symbolism, religious or atheist, is often lost on kids. The allegories in Narnia were lost on me when I read then in 2nd, 3rd grade. I just thought it was a great story. Oh poor Susan didn't get to go back to Narnia because she no longer believed in Aslan! Sad turn of plot events'... wait a minute... anyway, I haven't read the Golden Compass books but I would think that it's a similar situation.

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/is_the_golden_compass_too_anti.html
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

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Picture of the Post

A Dragon fires on the crowds in Paris' train station.
(the dragon is made out of crumpled soda cans... I thought that was cool)