Bastion Hotel Heerlen

... me three different mattresses, and none of them were foam. One was 85 and the other two were 99. The difference between the two was definitely noticable. Then the dude said that if I got the 99 one he would throw in a set of sheets for free (and they cost 10 euro). So, I took the deal. There was a 50 euro mattress, but it was very thin and for children. It would not have been comfortable for ten months. So, I got a mattress, sheets ...

... so it won't cost so much to get there. I am focusing on having enough money for food, electricity, rent, and a mattress, and Oktoberfest isn't really high up on the list of priorities right now. I will be so excited and relieved when I get everything settled and can really focus on integrating myself and learning German!!

Also I am concerned with the safety at the Oktoberfest.. with hundreds of thousands of people grouped in a ...

... br>2. hang up my flyers advertising my excellent proofreading skills (trying to make a little money on the side)
3. make a copy of my new apartment key for landlord
and and and...

WHEW!! all of this stuff has to get done sometime, I guess. I am just glad things are finally starting to come together, or at least they will have a little more by tomorrow night.

Going to bed for now!

... They told us we were at the highest point in Belgium, which was somewhere in the Nature Park.

We decided to call it a day for the roadbook, and make a detour to just get into Luxembourg for fuel, and to make sure we 'did' all the countries.

Looking back that detour cost us some time, but did mean we visited Luxembourg, even if it was too dark to see it.

... on.

We stopped at one point, because the roadbook wasn't very clear, at which point Gaz and Charlotte came up behind us. They had been left behind by the V8s, as they were in a Series vehicle, so we said we'd stick with them.
At this point, Kieran noticed a strange noise from our engine, which was duly investigated by James. It was diagnosed as the fan belt tensioning pulley. But we didn't do anything about it at the time.

lots to say.. where to begin?

On Friday we had a teacher outing to Stolberg. It is a very old city about 20 km from Aachen. We had a great time. The weather was very nice, for a change, haha. We first went out to lunch at a cafe. The food was pretty good, I had salmon and potatoes and salad. The only thing was we had to wait FOREVER (at least an hour) to get our food, and not everyone got their food at the ...

... and not pay taxes. It was pretty easy, I just had to show my passport and give a little information. I then got a welcome packet with a city map and lots of coupons to use all over the city.

One of the coupons was a monthly bus ticket. So yesterday I took the card to the main bus station (Bushof) to get it activated. I can use the card to ride the buses and trains all over Aachen and the surrounding cities and also to ...

... steak place that I am not so sure about, but it ends up having the best steak I have ever eaten outside Alberta. Apparently imported from Argentina. It's funny. The guideboods say that the waiters don't really expect much tipping, if any, but I have been tipping on the trip, and in most cases the waiter will take it. I remember the first one in Gouda seemed mildly surprised and pleased to be tipped. I try to ...

We 'trundled down past Maastricht towards Germany. The deviations were big ones but we still were able to make good time! The scenery was worth the deviations though. We past by some wonderful little towns and river gorges. Very nice bit of countryside. Will have to return there sometime, God willing!

... Las chicas hacian que no sabian hablar en ingles, entonces nosotros teniamos que "traducir" todo lo que decia, y hablabamos en castellano haciendo un chiste tras otro. Despues nos empieza a mostrar fotos de "su esposa" que era una mujer que estaba siempre sentada en el mismo sillon en la misma pose pero en cada foto con otra ropa, y nos muestra fotos de sus 6 guitarras, nos cuenta la historia de su vida que era pobre, y mas cosas. Ahi reformula una frase de Gandhi y nos dice "No hay ...