My friends and I went to Bruges yesterday and it was wonderful. We went by coach via the Channel Tunnel. I only slept for about an hour on Friday evening and then had to spend most of the night getting ready as I had to be at the pick-up point at 6.25 in the morning. I couldn't sleep any way as I was too excited and too anxious – travel is still difficult for me. This was only my second trip abroad . It took us nearly six hours to get there, leaving us with a little over four hours to explore the city (it would have been quicker to go all the way by train but would have cost more than twice as much). We walked around the city centre, went to see Michelangelo's Madonna and Child in  Onze-Lieve-Vrouwerkerk and had a boat trip on the canals, which was delightful.Bruges is so beautiful; it was like being in a fairytale city.We didn't go to a restaurant; there don't seem to be any vegetarian or vegan restaurants in Bruges but we didn't have time anyway. Four hours wasn't enough to see everything; I'd need two or three days, but staying overnight is still beyond me at the moment. I want to be able to do that and am determined that one day I shall. There are so many places I want to go. I doubt that I'll be able to go to all of them, but I shall go to some and I'm not going to let the OCD stop me. OCD makes these things hard but not impossible. The day was warm and bright – the rain that was following us from England arrived just after we'd got back on the coach and were leaving. I got home around 10.30 at night. I felt quite ill by then because of the lack of sleep, but it was worth it. I expect that soon I'll be back to my usual state of rage and despair, but right now I feel that I've had an experience that was worth staying alive for, and there will be others.