Tulip Inn Antwerp-Astoria Hotel

Every two years, the weather man declared, there are strong gales in the south of England, the type that disrupt train services, housewives lose their laundry drying on the line, umbrellas get blown inside out - and even trees are blown down. This was the day that we chose to fly to England. It's OK, the gales will die down sometime in the afternoon, said the same weather man, but not after we've flown over to ...

... leggings are popular and everything, but they are literally covering 89% of European legs. But ok, fine, at least they have been somewhat modernized (lost the stirrup - at least I hope. But I really just about lost it on the street when I was walking past a sports store and what do they have displayed in the window? Neon Reeboks with the double bubble high top!!! I swear, these literally could have been the exact same pair as I ...

... was shocked to learn that they only pay about $400USD a month for such a nice apartment with such an amazing vantage point of Brussels. After a night on the rooftop, we were up at the crack of 11am like usual to go on a ..... wait for it ..... a SEGWAY CITY TOUR. After riding along on a Segway all day (see the photo), I felt like a Neanderthal reverting to using my feet afterwards. I believe they sell these on Amazon.com, but my model costs about $10 ...

... ve just become lazy around the cities. Brussels It doesn't take long to get onto the ring road of Brussels, but it was much harder finding our hostel. Loads of roads were closed. We found out that there was a strike by the train people of Belgium. We did ask if the guys had caught a train in but they didn't get my joke. Realistically, Belgiques don't have much of a sense of humour !!! Car and bags dumped, we walked the city. It ...

... all confined by towering, baroque era guild houses. What we expect is the silent murmur of the historic. What we find is an all-out rock concert at the center of the square. "Of course, what else should I expect," I think as I snag a coveted café table for the two of us and sit down in the thick of this historic-meets-modern contradiction that we have come to love about Brussels ...

Yeah, Not much to write about, Ive been locked in a dungeon for the past two months And gained nothing but money and a very strong urge to never do such a thing again. This dungeon, was made of galss metal and concerete and was filled by many confused mice with a brainwashed need to shop. Some part of me, the old, wiser part - knows this was an essential part of my learning cause you gotta taste the poison ...

... in my life. The train back to Dublin was broken by the time I had to head back, and so I ended up taking the local bus for a while, which was another chance to see the non-tourist Dublin, so no complaints. That night, I went out with Phil (the American from the previous entry), some Canadian girl whose name escapes me, a German girl who was really interesting (more in a second) and this guy from Kansas whose last name, literally translated from German to ...

... had signed up to be a student amassador, so I had 30 minutes until I had to be ready to go the airport. So I went to the airport to pick up our interport student, from London. He was really nice. His name was Ian. We pretty much just spent the day walking around town and having lunch. Then I gave him a tour of the ship. So, that was pretty much my stay in Belgium. At night when we were all getting back on the ship a band came out and a lot of people from the town to wave goodbye.

... festivities. As is the case in most ports, the night began with lots of singing and playing the guitar. Unfortunately, some of us had to do the laundry we had forgotten to do earlier in the day and figured now was the perfect time. It came to me to check on the dryness of our shirts after a few good hours of drinking. It's honestly a miracle I didn't fall into the water as I was walking along the docks because I wasn't anywhere ...

... of going there is to get a drive in the country, buy some great beer, and have lunch at the little cafe across the street from the Monastery - where they have the Westvleteren beer available and serve tostis made with Trappist cheeses. From Westvleteren, it was on Poperinge and the National Hop Museum. Hop plants are very susceptible to disease, so there are only specific places in the world where they are still able to be grown and the area ...