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