Bluebottle's blog

In Bruges

It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing? How can all those canals and bridges and cobbled streets and those churches, all that beautiful fucking fairytale stuff, how can that not be somebody's fucking thing, eh? Harry Waters, In Bruges

I also spent 5 days on holiday in Belgium, mainly in Bruges. Have you guys seen In Bruges? It's a very entertaining hitman black comedy entirely filmed in the city, which gives it an unique sense of place. Also extremenly quoteable and great if you want to hear Ralph Fiennes at his sweariest.

For this trip I used a roll of Kodak Gold film my boyfriend got me as a small anniversary gift. I really like how these came out :)

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Some other interesting things in Bruges - there were a few houses with coloured windows, which made me wonder what it's like to live inside.

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I liked this picture I took of the moon and the canal at twilight

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We encountered this group fencing by the windmills.

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And this horrible chip mascot (actually this was in Brussels)

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We also went to the Groening Museum and looked at a bunch of medieval art. A good game you can play here is looking for the weirdest looking baby, although sadly I did not take photos of them. Some of these are screenshots from the film, where the characters visit the gallery and discuss the nature of being a good person and divine judgement.

PXL_20250627_095910146 I can't remember where this section of painting was from, but I enjoy seeing witches.

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The Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch (maybe, dubious attribution).

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The Judgement of Cambyses - such a brutal painting! The man here is being flayed alive for taking bribes - in the background, his son has inherited his judge's role, and sits on a chair covered in his father's flayed skin to keep him honest. This was displayed by the burghers to "encourage honesty among the magistrates". I wish I could have found a screenshot of Colin Farrell's facial expression looking at this painting - it's priceless.

And finally, a dog.

PXL_20250627_102722118 Neo-classical painting dog - I love that every so often you get a fairly serious painting with a goofy pet in the background. This is from 'Narcissus' by Joseph Denis Odevaere

#blog #bruges #holiday