Hotel Ibis Hasselt Centrum

I left the hostel and got the bike, riding it unloaded was weird. I headed back to the narrow shopping streets which were busy with shoppers and had a generally friendly feel to them. Returning to the tourist information I was directed to the station and a bikeshop that is open til midnight (this is because bike shops are often merged with manned bikeparks where commuters can store their bikes during the day). My sister in Law Kirsten had also ...

... I can still hear the cars - I keep missing sentences because of them)
It dulled over as the day went on but I kept the hammer down and even a bit of light rain couldn't stop me. Although some of the roads slowed me down (it was almost reassuring to see second rate public services again). I made only one wrong turn in Opglabeek (I missed As in what must have been very similar to yesterday's 'Eindhoven' incident (I leave it to readers to devise their own jokes ...

... wasn't my favourite day of the trip so far would not be an exaggeration. My host family, especially Goele, were fantastic though, and really supported me throughout. Another host family, the Bijnens family, have also been great, visiting and organising things, and I also had a visit today from my first host-mother, Nicole.

I spent the night in hospital, with some blessed IV painkillers, and they also started some IV antibiotics. On Wednesday morning I was still in pain, so ...

... full of confetti which flew everywhere when they burst. The killers were also very good. It was the third time I had seen them. Previously I had not been impressed by them, but this time was different. The next day I met a group of Walloons who were camping on the other side of me. This is when the Flemish and Walloons started competing for my attention; they constantly asked me "who do you like better, Flemish or Walloons?" I always ...

... met de lokale mannen. - het bezoek aan de bananenplantages in Tosagua, Ecuador. Veel geleerd, maar ik weet nog altijd niet waarom de banaantjes krom zijn. DEZE UITSPRAKEN ZAL IK NIET VERGETEN... 'Die kan naar Buenos Aires' (Pim, 8 feb 2008) 'Goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal' (voetbalpresentatoren, feb-jun 2008) 'I want a scoobysnack' (Rossana, 27 maart 2008) 'She ate too much sushi' (Scott, 27 maart 2008) 'Soy más Arequipena qué ceviche' (Daniël, 16 ...

OK i have just arrived in Hasselt today and I'm looking forward to checking out Pukkelpop which starts tomorrow... The hotel here is awesome, it makes me actually kinda glad I couldn't get anything cheaper. A little bit of luxury never hurt anyone right? So Bruges... It was good fun. I didn't do much sightseeing until Tuesday afternoon, when I went up the 366 steps of the Belfry Tower. Then I did a river boat cruise and finished off at a ...

... natuurlijk een jaar lang niet zien. Ik vraag me nu al af hoe het gaat zijn als ik terugkom. Vooral naar studiekeuzes van vrienden, hoe mijn broers en zussen er gaan uitzien over een jaar, ...

Ik ben er dus volledig klaar voor. Koffer is gepakt (en ik hoop dat ik ook alles bij heb) en zit niet over de maximum limiet van het gewicht. Moet je ook kunnen: een jaar weggaan en maar 20 kg meenemen. Al zou ik het liefst met al mijn hebben en houden ...

... me to the Candle shrine and sharing her time to take us to the Hill of Crosses Rafael (Yarpi) : thanks for trusting me at the wheel of your boat Anna (Angella): for the wonderful kotlety schabowy Krystyna : thanks for the hot-dog Kinga's father : thanks for the delicious beer Kinga : for signing my book Anna (Salata) : for the wonderful chocolate cake Tomek : for the strong drinks Mirjam ...

... maakte me lid. Al gauw waren mijn vrije avonden gevuld met surfen op de site van HC en ik had niet veel tijd nodig om volledig geboeid te raken over hun manier van reizen. Zelf kreeg ik een Indonesiër als gast over de vloer. Terwijl ik hem mijn stad liet zien, merkte ik al vlug dat ik hiervan veel te weinig wist. Van toen af aan ligt er naast mijn bed een boek over de ...

... Stan the whole day to prepare his marathon 24h. Hopefully we managed to be back home in the evening but the come back to the city with the bike has been the most godamning... I needed to carry some chair and with a bike it was so ****. I managed to reach finally at last. I spent some time there and went to walk afterwards and called Gil with whom I spent the whole evening. Great great. We went to drink a grimbergen, talked and spent some ...