A day off to honour the Day of Peace

Today almost everyone in Belgium has a day off. Because today is the day that World War 1 ended.
Every year there are a lot of things going on to remember the ones who died on the battlefield.
I always find it very impressive to go "Ypres" to see the massive wargraves.
(More information can be found on this wikilink : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres)

In Ypres you can also go and visit the Flandres Field museum. A must-do If you want to learn more about the war. (http://www.inflandersfields.be)
The name of the museum is taken from a famous poem written by a canadian surgeon who worked in Ypres during the war and wrote a lot of poems about the war.
(After watching a friend of him die)
His "Flandres Field" poem became a big symbol of the war in and around Ypres.
I always found the poem really moving.

-----
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

----

a great videoclip in the city YOU love the most...

A couple of weeks ago when I was couchsurfing in Verona, my host showed me this great videoclip of Arcade fire.
It's a video supported by google chrome (so you have to install this browser before watching it!).
But I find it amazing! The idea is you have to type in the name of the city you were raised. And then you can watch the video with this catchy song and with streetview images of that specific city.

So type in the name of your favorite city and put on your running shoes!!!

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

London Life: Meet up!

Have you ever heard of meetup.com? It's another of those life-changing things I just found out about. Create your profile, choose your city and browse around the million groups they have there and I am sure you'll find one ( or many, like me !lol) that will interest you.

Yesterday I participated of a Treasure Hunt with the Culture Seekers group. It was very interesting, but if you don't know a lot about London's history, you would be lost. I was! Lucky me, there was a cab driver in my group and the guy was a walking encyclopedia! I also joined lots of language groups, because learning languages is one of my biggest passions. Besides , it's a great way to meet new people and practice + learn for free ( or a small fee, in some groups). This week I have the French and the Italian meetings, and soon I'll attend the European Languages one. In this one, you can even volunteer to teach.  I am still waiting for a reply to see if they accept me as a Portuguese - conversation level teacher, but if not, I'll be just as happy to attend the Italian, French, Spanish and Dutch classes they may have.

So take a look, check for something that interests you and have fun! :-)

IT'S HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it adorable? If I were a fan of sweets would have bought it just for fun!

London Life

So finally I have moved to London, my favourite city in the world, and life has started to get back on track. I'm settled and started working. And going crazy by having so much stuff to do! Free time is the only thing I miss from Belgium, to be honest.So many plans of places to visit, museums to go , things to do! I have a to-do list with more than 50 items, and strange enough, I have been to London often while I was living in Belgium and never even considered doing those things...too much partying maybe LOL

So from now on, as I won't be travelling as often as I used to, I'll start updating the blog with London info + news + cool stuff to do.

 And as people say around here, "Cheers mate!"

some people should travel more....

Het begon allemaal op...

de dag waar alles goed ging. Geen treinen die staakten of waarop we plots geweigerd worden. Geen flessen sie spontaan openbreken op het perron, waardoor kleren nogal beginnen te stinken. Geen gemekker van een loketbediende omdat we teveel bagage meezeulen.
Neen helemaal niets. We begrepen er geen snars van. We vlogen naar Rome alsof het de normaalste zaak ter wereld is.
We waren er toch niet helemaal gerust in gezien ons "zwaar verleden".
Maar toen klommen we op naar onze tweede beproeving: het vinden van overnachting.
De eerste jeugdherberg die ze per email reserveerden bleek dan toch volzet te zijn waardoor we terug op straat belanden. De vriendelijke Italiaan aan de receptie kon ons wel verder helpen. Met een kaartje en wat goed advies konden we onze zoektocht verder zetten.
Uiteindelijk konden we terecht in de jeugdherberg "colors", vlakbij het vaticaan.
En eenmaal we onze kamer volgooiden, doken we het mooie Rome in.
Rome bleek dan ook echt de max te zijn. Gezellige steegjes, om elke hoek een prachtig gebouw die telkens met verstomming doet slaan.
Plus ook het feit dat we terug in de zomer zijn belandt. sAvonds zaten we zo nog om 22h in onze zomeroutfit een flesje wijn te degusteren aan de Trevifontein.
Later die avond liepen we nog een oude bekende bekende tegen het lijf. Jaja, niemand minder dan de Italiaanse versie van Libie.
"libie2 werkt hier als ober in een restuarant en vond ons blijkbaar ook grappig. Toen ze vertrokken moesten we kost wat kost op de foto in de keuken.
Eenmaal in de jeugdherberg maakten we kennis met onze kamergenotes. Gezien er dit keer geen jongens op de kamer waren en geen koppels waren er gelukkig dit keer geen opgewonden nachtgeluiden waar te nemen. :-)
Zodat Lieselot eens een met rust gelaten nacht in een jeugdherberg beleefde.

Vele zomerse groetjes,

Mariana helping the readers keep track of time!!!

Remember, the clocks go back by one hour at 2am on Sunday 31st October 2010.

One extra hour to trick or treat my darlings!!!!
Plan something cool with your unexpected gift ;-)
I didn't even remember about it LOL

Do you wanna know more about Belgium?

Ok, it's official: Belgium is a much to complicated country.
Some weeks ago we celebrated the fact there have been 100 days without gourverment since electionday number two.
And it's true, french and dutch politicians in brussels don't get along anymore.
Some people even say the crime numbers are rising... And the best thing we could be doing right now, is splitting the country up.
But then you have to agree, Belgium is a very complicated country to live in.

Also this video is also a celebration the co-writer of this blog: mariana who is becoming a belgian in (hopefully) a couple of weeks.
so Mariana, be aware of this strange new nationality!

My reference for Mariana....

Mariana,

 

You asked me to leave a reference on couchsurfing to tell the world something about our crazy friendship.

Well, I don't think the spot on couchsurfing is big enough to describe everything we went through together.

 

But maybe this poem describes better the years that we have become friends:

I was sitting here thinking

of the words I want to say,

but they just wouldn't come out right

so I found a different way

 

I got a piece of paper

and I wrote this poem for you,

but there's no way to thank you

for everything you do

 

For always being nice to me

and staying by my side,

for helping fix my problems

and never leaving me behind

 

For accepting my thoughts and feelings,

though you do not understand,

for never giving up on me

and being my best friend

 

For making me laugh

and letting me cry

and saying you'd miss me

if I were to die

 

Everything you mean to me

you could never know

In all the ways you've changed my life

I could never show

 

The way you take care of me,

you're my shining star

and though it's so incredible

that's just the way you are

 

Before I get too mushy

it's time for me to go,

but before I leave this ink-filled page

there's one thing you should know

 

As long as we are living,

no matter when or where,

if you ever need me

just call and I'll be there

 

I wish you the best in of best in London,

 

Your crazy sister.

Online classes on Youtube

OMG, how beautiful is knowledge? I'm in love with youtbe!

As a good Travelling Monster that I am , and a big fan of languages that thinks they are fascinating and the most interesting thing to learn EVER, I'll study Greek from September on. So, I was just checking on Google some "Greek courses online" to have a better idea of what is coming my way and also because I'm going to Athens again and I would like to have a bigger vocabulary when...surprise, surprise: I found online classes on Youtube! See for yourself below!

And the best of it is that probably they have of all languages you can think of! There are no excuses anymore friendies!!!!
I can count until 10 already ;-)

Some pics I took at Tintagel...

 

tintagel (England)

Tintagel, is certainly one of the coolest places I've ever seen.
Some weeks ago, I went to the south of England.  Where I went around for two weeks.
In a bookstore I bought a book about England that 's called "the traveller's guide to sacred engeland."
Which is a guide to the legends, lore and landscape of England's sacred pagant  places.
During my trip I made it my crusade to visit as much places that where described in the book.
So let me start by describing one of the coolest places I've ever seen...Tintagel.

It's believed to be the legendary site of King Arthur's Castle and birthplace.  And ok, King Arthur is just a legend.  But if you see the giant rock of Tintagel, you can easily imagine this place once belonged to a powerful and important person.  On the site they found a lot of archeology proof (luxury products from abroad) that indicated that fact as well.
 
The rock rises 250 feet above sea level and it's perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
You can walk around, gaze at ruins, watch the waves of the Atlantic ocean, lay down in the grass and wonder which people and creatures once stepped foot on this mystical land.
And at low tide, you can go to the awesome Beach next to it.  Where you can also visit the caves where, off course Merlin once lived.
You just have to love those old stories and myths...

4D

Just have been to London and the new cool thing around there is the 4D attractions.

It's a 3D movie with crazy special effects like "snow" (cotton!), wind , chairs that move and the kind.

At London Eye is included in your ticket and at Madame Tussaud's "Marvel super heroes" costs €2.50, and so far is the best 3D I have ever watched.

It was so real that I was scared of the bees LOL and teh wind blows REALLY hard.

Letters to Juliet

Italy is one of the biggest loves of my live, along with Athens and London. I mean Italy as a whole: as a country, gastronomy, cute cities, cute guys, wine-wise, language, culture, friendly people and the list can go on forever.

On my previous life, I'm sure I was Italian LOL

As my dear co-writer nathalie is going to Italy next week, and I'm sooooooooo jealous (positively jealous, mind you!) I sent her a list of my favourite cities:

*Siena

*Arezzo

*Rome

*Florence

*San Gimignano

*Assissi

*Any of the 5 in the Cinque Terre

*Turin

*Padova

*Perugia

*venice

*Verona

*Trento

*Bergamo

*Around Como lake

*Around Garda lake

Just didn't like Bologna, Milan and Genova.

As Letters to Juliet is in Veneto,the region where Verona is situated, thought it could give Nathalie a boost ;)

The movie is completely predictable, but is interesting for the landscape, just like "Under the Tuscan sun". Well, at least I like to watch movies about places I have been / am going. makes me nostaaaaaaaalgic!

Girlie, fun in a few words:

 Vernaccia di San Gimignano ( white)

Chianti (red!)

Spritz : a mix of aperol or Campari with wine wine. DANGEROUS AFTER THE THIRD!

Zrce, Croatia

The trip was well worth it, but a week, like I stayed, was way too long. Well, in Novalja there isn't much to do and spending the whole day at the beach under the killing sun isn't exactly my kind of fun. But after 4PM, when hangover has given you some peace of mind and the cocktails started floating around your veins, well...AGAIN, it becomes super fun. dancing monster mode ON and all that.

At Zrce beach there are 3 clubs, all of them with after beach parties , but Aquarius is my favourite.
As you can see on the pictures, sobriety is something I haven't done much.

The after beach parties go from 4 to 7-8pm; you gotta go home, get dressed , sober up and come back. Zrce beach is the only nightlife spot worth going in Novalja, so if you stay long enough, like us, you are going to meet the same people over and over and over again. Well, let's be honest: beautiful people, boys and girls. Have never seen so many women on stiletto's, and felt like the smallest person on earth with my ballerina's.

Haven't seen anything else/ gone anywehere else in Croatia, but tat least the landscape on the 5hours drive back to Budapest was beautiful.

Zrce, Croatia: next trip!

Take a look at the videos: that is the place that will have my company for a week, starting next Tuesday.
My friends from Budapest invitated me to go to this festival in Croatia. They have been there for the last 5 years and they really love it. It's not quite my place,seen that i'm so not a beach girl, but beautiful people, good music and loooots of drinks can make the place quite fun.





I just hope someone stops me if I decide to go Bungee-jumping in a very drunk state. Or if try to do anything that risks my safety, like wakeboarding or the kind.
Because as the Amy Winehouse already said " You know I was trouble, you know that I'm no good". And I'm the kind of drunk that doesn't take no for an aswer!

"Belgian" T-shirt conquers China

This is so stange! that i can't help posting this.

There is a new hype in china about belgian t-shirts.
Just when we are in a very unsure political situation over here.

The world is a funny place!

"Belgian" T-shirt conquers China

treepics that I get from around the world - Italy

this week I got an unexpecting email from Ilaria Gobbini who contacted me on couchsurfing.

Apparently she is also very into trees and wanted to feed our blog by sending us some pictures.

 

I really do love the treepics that she send me. 

 

And here is wat she wanted to tell about it;

 

The first one is in Aquileia, near the ancient roman ruins in the city. I found it so magnificent, because it looked like a very ancient tree..

The second one is inside the acatolic cemetery in Rome. It is a cherry tree, and it was beautiful with the romantic landscape of graves.

The Perugia's one is another oak, in the middle of a small square in Perugia. It just dominates the place around.. for me it was awesome!

 

Thank you Ilaria!

Balloon ride!

I was drunk when I accepted my friend's invitation, and when I went to youtube to see what a balloon ride was all about, it was , well, too late. Payment had already been done, dates scheduled.And me, scared as hell.
The day finally arrived, and I gotta confess that it raises VERY fast. TOO fast, even.
I couldn't move for the first 15 minutes out of the purest fear and a man was walking around to take pictures, causing some "turbulence". I went from afraid to horrified.
But then, it became very smooth and quite pleasant. After you learn to relax, it is.
Honestly? Found the landscape a bit boring. The belgian countryside is beautiful and sooo green, but I think that The Loire valley would be a much more interesting place for it.


By the way, I enjoyed it so much that I'm certainly planning to repeat the experience.

World cup: Brazil 4 X 0 North Korea

My very own official T-shirt:

I'm ready for tonight. Let the vuvuzela's come my way!

Spain ==> Andalucía saga: Córdoba!

I just realized now that I'm travelling to celebrate my birthday's birthday!
I explain: on April 29th was the official date. Then on May 29th I was in Spain,and on June 29th I'll be in Budapest. Soooo, I have now the obligation to be somewhere on eevry 29th to keep the tradition, am I right?
This gipsy life can be so hard sometimes!

Thanks to Ryanair ( I wonder when they'll hire me as a spokesperson???), once more, I have travelled to Andalucía last week. The route was Sevilla - Córdoba - Granada-Málaga - Marbella- Gibraltar -Tarifa - Cádiz - Faro- Albufeira (these last 2 in Portugal).
So I'll post city by city, or the posts will be as long as the Chinese wall!

Let's start with Córdoba then!
The city is cute, but pretty small. The road from Sevilla to there isn't interesting, but when you are arriving, it looks like the city is in the middle of the desert. I have never been to L.A yet, but I suppose it's like that too.

Old moorish architecture + medina and castle was what I found most interesting. More than 1 day there is certainly not needed...

It was a dream I had since I started taking Flamenco courses and, surprise surprise, when we got to Córdoba there was the Feria de Córdoba, which is a 1-week-folk-event to celebrate their roots and...FLAMENCO!

It's so nice that next year I'm planning to stay there for some days just to enjoy it.
There are lots of discos, with all kinds of styles, open day and night and even grandpas stay dancing like there is no tomorrow all night long. We stayed there until 4Am and it was still full of people!!!


Forgive me my poor recording skills, but it was the best I could do in my drunk state LOL

I sooooooo wanted to be friends with those girls! They seem to be having so much fun I was jealous!
Here and here you can check 2 more videos!

"Brussels on the Transfer List?" by Nigel Williams

I used to be proud by the fact I am a belgian. (Expecially for our great beers that are well-kown all over the world)
But since we are in the biggest political crisis since I don't know when.
I can't say I am very proud to be a belgian for the moment.
The last couple of weeks were very frustrating. And the future doesn't look that great as well.

But because it's always great to have a laugh when your country is in a crisis.
Here is a view of a british/belgian stand up comedian on the whole thing.

I thought It was quite funny. And it made my forget about how screwed up the situation is for the moment!


"Brussels on the Transfer List?" by Nigel Williams

Italy

So after Athens, Ryanair tempted me with a €16 return ticket to Venice.
Being the travelling monster that I am and having already been there, I had to rent a car and also go to Verona, Garda Lake (Sirmione is sooo cute!)and Bergamo. Well, had been to all of them anyway, but I love Italy so much that I really don't mind.
Did a lot of new stuff tough.
I remember that last year when I went to Venice, the gondola guy asked us €50 per person for a 30min drive! Now the cosmo helped us and we payed €25 each. It's pretty cool, I reccomend!
Found again my €3-a-bottle-of-wine place and now they have Prosecco for the same price. The place is hidden in a corner, I can't even explain how to get there, because Venice is a crazy labyrinth, I just can get there! (so if you ever wanna find it, invite me to join!) The guy makes his own wine,has many options and sells the wine in plastic Coke bottles. And they are d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s! Well, my friends that got completely wasted on it can testify on his behalf!
Also bought a carnival mask to decorate my house. So beautiful I'm even afraid to wear it (if I even got the chance...)
In Verona we went to Juliet's house. I'm not a romantic person, and I have read somewhere that that's not even the original house, but doesn't cost anything to pretend it was, does it? I mean, it's kinda nice for picture's sake, so there I am in her balcony!

Sirmione is a very touristic place, so be patient for parking spots. If you are passing by the Garda lake it's worth a stop for some hours.

Bergamo, aaaaah Bergamo. It was the first place in Italy I ever visited,and I went there for work reasons, and I love it since the. Cittá alta is a dream! So many good restaurants, narrow streets, medieval buildings! An hour from Milan, and much more interesting. Well, I hate Milan and think there is nothing besides the Duomo, so...

Athens!

Haven't been here for ages! A mix of my travelling agenda + busy busy busy days!
So let's start by Athens, where I went to celebrate my birthday, and loved it so much I already have my ticket to return in September!
Lovely sunny days, mega friendly people, delicious food...and surprisingly expensive prices! OK, food and souvenirs were reasonable, but drinks...WOW! Mojito's started in €10-15, and as a good drinker that I am, they were partly responsible for my travel expenses ;-)! All in all, bday isn't time to save money, so let's say that I was splurging on celebration LOL
Crisis they say...I haven't seen any to be honest! People out in not-cheap-at-all bars and discos, restaurants fully booked...people didn't look that concerned about their finances to me...
To be honest, 2 days are enough...buut I stayed 5 because people told me Athens is one of the best party places in Europe. and it's true.
Besides the Parthenon and the Acropolis, that can be seen in a couple of hours, and walking around Syntagma Square and the Plaka Area, there isn't much to see. Better to take a hop in - hop off bus.It's €10 or 15 for 2 days,and in 2 hours you went around the most important areas.
But the good thing was that we discovered this placed called Balux and it was a blessing! It's a mix of private beach + disco + beautiful / wealthy athenians gathering place..
Was playing rich there for a while and now my credit card bill keeps me bringing good memories! LOL
We have also done a day excursion to the 3 islands called Hydra, Aegina and Poros. They are small and supercute and I think it was totally worth it!

Be a virtual travelling monster !

Did you ever dream about visiting the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo.
But never had the chance to see it.

Or have you ever been there. But then got fed up with the fact there were just to many tourists. So you couldn't really enjoy the place.

Well for all those people, good news!!! You are just one click away to enjoy the paintings in your comfort of your comfy couch.
Enjoy!


http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Belgium?? / this only happens in Belgium

So this week two promotion videos came out about Belgium. Very bad timing ideed, as our gouverment is just having crisis n°????
At the release of these videos they expected our prime minister to show up to give a great speech about belgium. But because of the crisis he didn't showed up offcourse!! Booo Leterme!

A promotion video in the middle of a big gouverment crisis: I think this only can happen in Belgium!
But maybe also a good thing to show our wanking gouverment that Belgium is a great country and it shouldn't be so messed up because of their stupid issues!

Enjoy!

how to pronounce ""Eyjafjallajökull""

The vulcano in Iceland gave a lot travelling monsters big headaches this last couple of weeks.
And the fear of a new ashcloud that can destroy lots of great travelling plans is still among us!
Let's hope the chaos doesn't come back any more!
And my travelling partner in crime, can visit her greek gods in Athens next week!

But it's also very funny to see how the reporters struggle with this unbelievable crazy word. "Eyjafjallajökull"
Try to pronounce it yourself, crazy!!

Trike band promotion!

Nathalie organized the first Couchsurfing festival in Kortrijk last weekend and I had mentioned that I would go just to listen to Trike`s Macho Man waltz.
Indeed I went, but they didn`t play it ;(
No worries, seen that this week they are couchsurfing in my house, and using it as their studio, which is really cool. My house was even showed in their new video tararara!
You can check all the songs on their Myspace page.

And they are my first clients as an amateur publicist that I am! So, being this workaholic girl (lol), we decided to make a promotion for their first album: we are giving one CD ( when they are ready, what will be very soon!) for the first 3 people that email this post to 30 friends and put our email in copy. And coming here to tell us is handy ;)

Next week on 20th April they will perform here in Gent @chalet mini golf!

See you there!

Treepics from around the world - new zealand!

I got this next pictures from my travelling 'kiwi friend' Julian, who I met threw CS in Kortrijk.

Before he went back to New Zealand this winter, I asked him to take some pictures of his favourite new zealand tree.

And I am very happy he kept his promise!

So this is his favourite tree in the world!
He used to play in and around that tree from when he was about 5.
It is a Pohutakawa tree, a truly old tree, the one in this picture is probably over 150 years old but can get much older (up to 1,000 years!).
It is called the NZ Christmas tree because in December is starts flowering beautifully like this:

Thank you Julian!

Help Nutella this time!

So here they go again.

Now the survey is about Nutella:We appreciate your participation in this questionnaire very much! It will greatly help us for our research project on Nutella and why we love it! The questionnaire's aim is to investigate your perceptions about Nutella choco paste and it will only take you about 3 minutes to complete.

If you want to help them out and help me get free Nutella samples U_U, click here.