NH Mechelen

... Dutch all weekend (except for a few times when things would be in French, which was a more welcome sight than I would have ever thought), I can't tell you how familiar it felt to be back in French train stations! While I was reading a history assignment on Monday night, I realized that I had just been to the building they were discussing the day before in Brussels. I
love studying abroad! I can also say that I have already finished my box of chocolates ...

... Thankfully they don't start them before 8 a.m. We got quite use to the sound and may even miss them now that we are gone!

Another interesting find in Mechelen was the Toy Museum. The boys were very excited to be greeted by a 15 foot stuffed teddy bear. While we were visiting they had an exhibit by Playmobile. We all had fun building new cities and having some different toys to play with for a few ...

... the tracks I already recorded of KJ Sawka and Faisal Zedan.   The recordings couldn't have gone better.  Mainly we recorded hiphop, jungle, jazz, and R&B patterns.  Fatty K's percussion skills truly have to be heard to be believed.  Now its time for us to head back to Brussels so I can make my flight to Istanbul.   Check out the youtube videos if you haven't already...http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=z440p4W2MOM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqqIklF3 rUQ To be continued...

... We went to the laundromat before tea & after tea we packed up then relaxed in the dining room for our last night on board. The tour was pretty good all over, most of the people on board were retired couples from Canada or US, there was one family with an 8 year old girl, who did really well on the rides. It was good to get to a nice dry hotel room after though, nothing would dry in the damp room on the boat (i had wet shoes for a couple of days)

... might be! She has to come back to the station to pick us up. Dr T starts up his computer. I have no idea what he is doing. Until he says: it is in the scanner. He scanned it and left in there. I call Linda back. She is already on her way to the station and turns around to our house. Half an hour later, she arrives with the passport. What would we have done without her? If someone else would have given us a lift or we ...

... we went for just a coffee or lunch. So brace yourselves with patience cause you'll need it when in Belgium! After spending most of our time waiting and very little of it lunching, we had to go get ready for the second ceremony that took place at the impressive Mechelen cathedral. This time, the wedding was closer to what we had expected to see, but not entirely... Yes we did see the groom in a suit and the bride in a wedding dress BUT! the ceremony was sooo different and thus ...

... look. Of fatal proportions. Bags repacked we wasted the next few hours waiting for the next train to Brussels, doing not a lot bar checking my pockets for my wallet every 5 seconds. Just to be safe, you know? The train was quite crowded, and not as nice as some of the others we had used, but it did the job and a few hours later we were in Brussels. There we had the first bit of good news. Having failed massively to make the switch from German ...

... diversity than Sweden and Finland. This is not surprising because Belgium had a number of colonies, namely Zaire (Now Congo). People say that some neighborhoods could be mistaken for Kinshasa and that is no exageration. Julius fit in as well as Sara, except for the fact that he wasn't speaking French. After Brussels and the big city life we took the train an hour away to Tourist Heaven, Bruges.

... this part of Holland was rather beautiful as although it is not prime season for tulips there are still fields that are completely alive in colour and are full of thousands of tulips. Tonight we amused ourselves by inventing a new game called "strip uno" as Gem can't remember how to play poker.... So uno is the next best thing. Whoever looses has to fulfill whatever bet was agreed upon before starting. Day 94 - Wednesday 17th May 2006 We headed into the little seaside town of Hoorn ...

... than fries, chocolates, and drunken falafel, this was basically our first meal of the weekend. Chris had wanted to go to some restaurant that was recommended on some website called "beerdrinkers.com" or something like that. We were all a bit nervous about eating at some place recommended on a beer website but Chris seemed to really want to eat there. Then we got there, and Julie, Melanie, and I thought it looked and sounded really nice. The problem, now Chris didn't really want to eat ...