Belgium Trip 2011 - Day 3 - Basilica of the Holy Blood

 Hey guys!

D-d-d-d-d-double posts! This is just a short post about after the boat tour in Bruges, we went onwards to the Heilig-Bloedbasilie also known as Basilica of the Holy Blood. It's apparently a really small but magnificent place where they have the ritual of the holy blood or something like that.

It was before coming here that we were seemingly harassed by the musketeer hobo. That story can be found here.

The church itself it pretty nice looking, at first we were confused to where photos could not be taken. And later we found out it was in the treasure/artefact room (which costs 2 euros to enter by the way) I do NOT recommend going in there as there are just random stuffs in a small room which you can finish looking at in about 15 minutes. The explanations in English made no sense whatsoever either.

The church area was pretty nice... wait I said that already. It gives this calming feeling I guess? Though the thought that pickpockets are lurking about seeing the signs warning visitors removed the same calming feeling.

Didn't take many photographs here as I said this place is quite small and also I didn't want to bother the visitors who were praying and stuff.

After this we went onwards to go get ice cream and then go home!

All in all the trip to Belgium was great! Sure there isn't much to do there, but the sights and taste of Belgian hospitality was brilliant! But if you want excitement, this is not the place lol.

~Fox

Belgium Trip 2011 - Day 3 - Boat Tour

Hey guys!

I should definitely finish off these sets of posts lolol. Anyways, after going to the Christmas Shop in Bruges, we finally found a company which provides boat tours! It costed only 6 euros per person and the tour itself is just half an hour long. Those tour book thingies do recommend you to go for it :P

Anyways it's basically pictures of buildings which I forgot which were what as well as some sceneries.

Enjoy!

 This was an interesting sight! This dog was sunbathing and has the look of bliss on its face. Adorable!

Am proud of myself to be able to actually get such a good photo because we were just zooming through the place. Actually I'm more proud of my camera to have the shutter speed to match! LOL

 Apparently this canal leads to Brussels in the olden times. If you look at the map of Brussels, there's no rivers but there's actually one (or so, not sure) under it. Why did they seal it off? Seems that it got so polluted that the fumes were making people sick or something lols.

Gasp! Is this Hyrule Castle? Note the Triforce lols.

Well that's the pics I got from the boat trip!

Guess I'll just put up the rest of the day in Bruges as well. Onwards!

Note: Dagnabbit, I named the photos as Brussels when they were Bruges... Oh well... Just so you know they are definitely from Bruges xD

~Fox

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Movie) Review

Hey guys!

The other day Shin and I went to watch POTC4 but I haven't had the mood to write about it til now ha. On a side note, Shin is on her way back to Brunei :( Ronery...

Anyways!

In short!
Not too bad
Worth a watch
Jack Sparrow's humour is well played
Plot is linear but not necessarily a good thing.
Pirates!

Long story:
POTC4 continues with Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow without Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley. Instead they introduced some new and old characters, Penelope Cruz as Angelica; Jack's old heartthrob of sorts, Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Geoffrey Rush returns as Captain Barbossa.

This time the story revolves around seeking the Fountain of Youth. Like the previous movies you'd likely need to ponder a bit if you get lost in the scenes. I can't really detail the movie, strangely... It feels like a massive cluster-mindrape to think about.

Jack's dad tells him there are prerequisites to access the Fountain of Youth and 2 silver goblets are part of it. As the movie progresses Jack learns more about the ritual and items required, which is ironic as in the beginning they make it sounds as if he was looking for it for ages and yet he knows less than the monkey on the Black Pearl. He is abducted onto Blackbeard's ship where he is forced to lead Blackbeard to the fountain because it was foretold that he would be slain by a man with one leg.

Story-wise, it's not an innovation. Imagine playing a game where you have to do side quests in order to achieve your main objective; that's the feeling I got if you put yourself in Jack Sparrow's shoes. You get what you paid for I guess, there are pirates, in the Caribbean (somehow) and Johnny Depp. The plot is pretty linear because of that but there is a stupid thing or two in the movie which defy common sense. E.g. Jack knocks off the hat of a guard and he chases him, leaving his guns on top of a surface of some sort. Jack goes back and takes the guns. I know, wtf right?

The acting was well done though, I quite enjoyed that. Jack Sparrow's sarcastic and whimsical humour is back and it amused me quite a bit. I read somewhere that POTC4 is rated PG13 because of mild sexual content and innuendo; huzzah, Disney.

The music was pretty good however it was because of the track "He's a Pirate" dating back to the first POTC that won me over. It's just so good a classic and sets the mood for a pirate movie perfectly.

Action scenes are loud and confusing as there are many "team battle" sequences. For me, the action scenes are not really the highlight of the movie. That would likely be the fantasy and supernatural elements they implemented.

All in all this movie is worth the watch if you're a fan of the POTC series or Johnny Depp or there's nothing else to see. It won't exactly wow you but some scenes are fun though.

I give it a 3.5/5 because of the humour and at least it has a bit of impression in my mind rather than the previous movie which escaped my memory completely.

P/S: Stay until after the credits. But let me tell you now not to expect something huge haha.


~Fox

Belgium Trip 2011 - Day 3 - Eternal Christmas Shop

Hey guys!

I recently went to Nottingham to spend some time with Shin as she will return to Brunei very soon :C (which was also part of the reason why I didn't really post anything) Anyhoo, continuing from the Belgium trip posts, during Day 3 we went to Bruges.

One of the shops we encountered which I thought was pretty cool was this one which looked as if it was Christmas everyday! It was pretty cool and the items and knick knacks looked pretty well made as well! Sadly though we had a time constraint to find one of the boat tours so we didn't spend as much time looking at the stuff as I would've liked :P

One of the aisles.

 Fluffy stuffs! They were a bit pricey if I remembered correctly

 Christmas trees and ornaments!

 Dizzy just looking skimming through what they had...

 Miniature Noah's ark! It was cute and there were other stuff from the Bible I think.

 Frosty the snowman?!

 This lion statue thing was so adorable, I wanted to get it but I was flat broke.... 

!!!!!!! Miniatures! I love miniatures!

 How can you not like these things when they're nicely made like this~

 And a flock of cute sheeps~

After this shop we went on to the boat ride! More to come!

Thanks for reading~

~Fox