in Bruges

I meet Pieter from AMOK in the Market Square beneath the tower where Brendan Gleeson meets his angelic end in In Bruges. I’m glad to have watched this movie as it did yes alter my er Bruges? feeling before coming, no doubt also mixed with memories of elderly women in frilly hats making lace on grey days witnessed aged 9.  Pieter grew up here and after uni in Ghent (with Eva from timelab we discover) returned to make his own home and family, tolerating the nine million tourists annually – population of Bruges is only around 19,500 –  making the most of the safe clean quiet place, history so present, it provides. I’m staggered by it. The lack of noise, dog shit, rubbish, traffic lights, evidence of humans of all kinds, no-one visibly begging or homeless. It’s so clean, its medieval history so perfectly preserved that it’s surreal and almost frightening. Where’s the real world?! What’s really going on behind these polished scenes ?