In case you miss me

or Belgium for everyone or Look, tdm, I can, too ;-)

I'm travelling Belgium for a week from today with my mum and plan to write a little travel diary.

Day 1 - Brussels:

+ four hour journey - rain, shine, rain, shine, rain, shine!!!

+ "You can park in the yard, no problem", that's what my friends told me the first time I visited them at their new place. And so I did today when we arrived before them. Left and at our return an hour later, my little car was blocked by a huge vehicle. First argh. Later, when we were to move on to the other place, there was a hand-written note on the windshield: Private parking space. Last warning! Big argh!! Interestingly, I never got a first or second warning :/

+ Took my laptop with me in order to transfer photos from my camera every night. And just for the heck of it, I checked if there was one or the other open wireless network around - and yay! there are :-) So I hope to write something here every day.

Dag 2 (aha!) - Oostende, De Haan, Brugge

+ Lovely beach, sunny weather but Oostende is a relatively ugly place. Plus there is construction going on all over town. Someone asked the following question:

(So much of digging and still no treasure?)

+ "There is Dover!" "Where?" "Over there! (pointing to the horizon)" "Oh yea, now I can see it, too" So what if we just saw a far away containership..

+ We both don't like fries, normally never eat them, but in De Haan, we decided that at least once, we should have the Belgian national dish. All the food in this "friet kot" was deep-fried, add the famous chocolate and beer to that and you are surprised that not every Belgian is rolling instead of walking.

+ Went on a boat tour along the canals of Brugge and had a very entertaining captain: "To the left, you see a brewery. The water used for this beer comes from the canal and the beer is destined for export only.". "Now we are passing the lowest bridge in Brugge, please don't stand up. By the way, this is where I lost my hair."

+ Oh, and a little footnote: Somehow there is a wrong connection in my mind. It thinks that you can get sunburned only during actual beach holidays, not on a city trip. Alas ...

Dag 3 - Antwerpen, Gent

+ The most brillant part of Antwerpen is the Diamant Museum. I want all of them, or at least a pair of little diamond ear studs, half a carat each, from one of the numerous jewellery shops in the "diamond area" - for the modest price of 2650,- €.

+ Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch! My shin hurts after i missed the last step of stone stairs on Thursday :(. How do you know if you've broken something?

+ ".. en twee postzegels voor Duitsland aub." "Wow, u spreekt goed Nederlands!" "Dank u, ik heb het ooit geleerd." "Heel goed, echt!" *pats own back*
I'm always amazed when I understand people speaking Dutch, they understand me and don't even have the urge to switch to English or German. This was the first open compliment I got, so apparently my Dutch isn't as rusted as I was afraid it might be :D

ACHEMA 2009

The book fair, a music fair, an art and crafts fair, that's where you would expect to find me. But the ACHEMA? The 29th International Exhibition-Congress on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology? Hmm...

Have I all of a sudden discovered my long dormant interest in natural sciences and engineering? Not really. But still, I went to that fair, feeling a little bit out of place from the beginning and earned quite a few looks - admiring, disapproving, plain curious - it's hard to say. The men-women ratio at the fair was about 9:1. And then I wasn't dressed like your typical congress attending business lady, in costume or pantsuit, nor like one of the few female students, in worn out jeans and T-shirts. So you can imagine that I stood out a little.

I walked through the endless corridors, from one moving walkway to the next, escalator up, escalator down, trying not to lose orientation until I reached Hall 9, the engineering hall. Because - and now we are coming to the purpose of my visit to ACHEMA - that's where the friend I was going to meet had his stall. I roamed around the stands at H21, hoping to see my friend. When I had surrounded the area twice without having seen him, but not without being watched intensely and with slight suspicion, I messaged him to learn that he would be back in 15 minutes.

What followed was a quarter of an hour well spent. I was strolling through the aisles, amazed by the passion and earnest all these people were displaying. Shocked by my own entire and complete ignorance, and deeply amused about slogans like "We bring plastic in shape" or for some sealing device "Nothing may come out". Not so funny now but on the spot, I really had to work on not bursting into laughter. So (not only because of this) I was relieved to finally see my friend..

I'm sure you read this, so I want to say thanks again, it was great meeting you, and you also provided me with an experience I normally wouldn't have had ;-)

Ground Rules

I haven't written much lately. I started writing this blog because I wanted to have a place to puke out my thoughts and emotions in order not to run amok in "real" life. I wanted a valve. But then a few people started reading my blog and commenting on it. And that made me all conscious. It's just like on TrekLens where I take ages to decide on a photo to post because people started watching me.

My sister reads my blog, one friend tagged me, another one advises me not to publish too personal stuff, one person thinks he knows me because he has read a couple of my posts. I know you all mean well but I will go back to square one, follow the rule again that I made when I started this thingy: If you like what I am writing, I'm happy. If you don't, I couldn't care less.

So if what I am writing doesn't make sense, appears useless or foolish to you - I don't give a damn.