Of Bruges

It's funny how things can really stick to your mind sometimes.

I was sitting around in history the other day, and we were tasked to do a horribly juvenile assignment. I suppose that in the end, it's quite logical and pedagogic, and I did manage to do it with a bit of humour.

However, what really, really stuck to me was this one concept. I was meant to be writing a short text on the towns of the High Middle Ages. As international trade started to really rush on, urbanisation slowly crawled along the busy roads and the traders usually bunked up there during the winters, when the roads became harder to travel. And along with that, various artisans and craftsmen flocked around these towns, usually no larger than ten thousand inhabitants, to trade and to entertain the traders.

One of these towns was the city of Bruges, in Flanders, today part of Belgium. It lies just north of Brussels, and is a predominantly Dutch town. I know, partly because I'm such a raving academic, and partly because I spent part of my visit to Brussels there. The town is famous for it's medieval setting, and most of it is preserved in the way it was in the 1300s. It's extremely picturesque, with little exclusive chocolate shops that charge admission and so on.

Imagine being one of those wealthy traders, sitting there with all your money in a snowy medieval town like that. While it certainly was a rather dirty, boring, rough and deadly time, as those things usually go, it's still a lovely image somehow. And this idea of just sitting around in winter, in Flanders, in a place like Bruges... It really makes me want to commit some gruesome act of suicide because my life didn't turn out at all like it.

And no matter what I do, I can't get this image to bugger off. And I wonder if I should do something. If I sit down with the old software and start building computer games based on the scenario, I'll probably waste a whole lot of time and forget about it sooner or later, or find my incapability to complete it so depressing I'll end up blowing my brains out anyway. I think what I truly need to do, is I truly need to go to Bruges in mid winter and just chill out.

(Oh, and another thing. "In Bruges" is an awesome film. Go see it)