Carbon Hotel Genk

... I put warm cherries on top!"
"Excellent, I thought I might have missed out,it's getting late."
"Ah, I know you coming!" he said cheerily
I got two scoops of Cherries (as it was the end of the night) and a plastic fork that was wholly unfit for the task so after several muinutes the citzens of Maastricht got to witness me consuming a cherry laden waffle by hand - messily, fortunately my friend the waffle man had also given me a napkin ...

... about 30 minutes later, this was a new thing for me while carrying so much extra weight and I was very glad of the few days lead in. A friend of mine at CaNkorf (Hi Dave) who has done some touring says that it is surprisingly easy to get used to the balance and this is definitely true; I can now stand up in the saddle with ease - a skill that proves handy when the gradient starts to rise.
Of course with uphills come down hills and over the course of the day I ...

... and the thought that this is only the 4th day in a long journey; add to this the fact that I will soon be moving out of the COuntry where virtually everyone speaks at least a bit of English: I actually got a lump in my throat and shed a tear or two. This passed in the space of about an hour, it would have been faster but I got the Dido song 'Life for Rent' stuck in my head. Lovely song - just not the lyrics I needed right then.

Shortly thereafter I was joined by ...

... get one either in Ghana or in Europe. I attempted to get one in Ghana, but there was a huge line of visa agents, each holding about 20 passports, and the line there never moved - I later found out that many people had been queueing there for weeks to get visas. Eventually I gave up and decided to get a visa and pay the express fee in Europe somewhere. Upon arrival in Berlin I went straight to the Chinese embassy there and, after the most frustrating, and yet also most comical ...

... and we had a good time bowling.
We also got to try lots of new foods and enjoyed some of our favourites that we hadn't had for a while. Luckily for me the Strous family feels the same way about chocolate as I do. In the mornings I had chocolate spread on toast and after dinner I had chocolate custard! Delicious!! We tried multiple new types of cookies and the Bami was very good- I will have to get the recipe and give it a go myself.
On Monday Steve and I ...

... 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.

... kids were there: my cousins Marc, Taco & Judith were there along with Judith's husband Taeke and son Wouter. My sister Henriette came from Hoorn and my sister Jaaike and her husband Horst came from Germany. There was even family from my mother's side - my cousin Pepi and his wife Bogusia from England.


Jaaike ...

... accepted in these kind of cultural difference situation (I reckon my time with Gil's family). Back to Geert and Katelijne and meeting with their young children, we simply had a relaxing time, warm and cosy! I loved it! -------------- October 24 As we stayed out late with the computer (uploading the picture to this blog), watching tv or playing at the play-station we had a lazy day and woke up late ...

... to all that Dutch colonial imperialism in the then Dutch East Indies a few centuries ago, spotting Indonesian restuarants in the Netherlands was about as difficult as spotting druggies at a rave party. And if this particular restuarant is indicative of the others then finding a superb meal is no more difficult – even though the Dutch menu didn’t give us too many hints on exactly what we were choosing.

... je moest het maar iets nodig hebben en het thuis hebben laten liggen.

Maar zo, ik vertrek! Ik ga genieten van mijn jaar in het buitenland, aan het strand, tussen de palmbomen, de blauwe zee. Zoals ik het opnoem lijkt het wel een droomvakantie. Maar vergeet niet: de nieuwe taal, nieuwe mensen, nieuwe gewoonten, nieuwe omgeving, ... Hier lijkt het een avontuur dat ik absoluut niet wil vergeten.

Later meer.

Groetjes Stefanie