Arriving in Yangon Airport was my sign to show that SEA2014 had really started. After checking by border control and getting my Visa accepted (be sure to do this in advance, back home you pay €25, while here you're expected to pay around $50 in cash -with plain dollar bills that are not accepted if wrinkled), I took a cab to the city. Although I was not planning on staying in Yangon for more than a day, I knew it was going to be a good one as I was going to meet up with Wim, a good friend of mine I got to know via AFS in Belgium and whom is now temporarily working in Yangon/Myanmar.
Getting to the festival was one thing, but getting in and finding a place for our newly bought tent, another. After waiting about half an hour at the entrance, a couple of Dutch guys, accompanied by a Belgian, told us that we had to get our wristbands somewhere else. Well damn. I left Liesbeth in the line and went to get our tickets exchanged. Once this was done, I ran into a friend from home who was at Volt Festival as well! A nice surprise indeed to see Kyra, a colleague-volunteer from AFS here in Sopron, Hungary.
As you might know, this semester I'm doing my internship for Belgian Beer Café, a global franchising concept by worldwide market leader in beer brewing: AB InBev. They produce: Stella Artois, Beck's, Budweiser and more than 200 other beers all over the world.
In 2013, it's all about Social Media Marketing.
Could I therefore ask you to click on THIS page and hit the LIKE button on Facebook? Eternal thanks will be your reward.
Today is an important day. When you read this I will have started my second internship. This time I have the opportunity and the luck to work for one of the world's biggest companies, Anheuser-Busch InBev! More specifically I will be working on the department of the Belgian Beer Cafés. For the next 15 weeks I will not be the consumer but part of the producing of beer! Got to love the job, right?
I am sure that I will learn a lot of my co-workers in this multinational company and I am very eager to interact with people from all over the globe! Root for me!
Amigos hispanicos:
que sean Españoles, Argentinos, Peruanos o Mexicanos, Chilenos o Ecuadorianos,...
Me gusteria que leyen: El Viajero en Lovaina. Es un articulo del diaro 'El Pais' (España), y se trate de Leuven (= Lovaina), la ciudad en cual estuvé estudiando desde que volví de Argentina y en cual pasé incontables noches inolvidables y olvidadas... Es el hogar de la cerveza famosa: Stella Artoisy el centro de Belgica para los estudiantes.
Lovaina - Oude Markt - 'El bar mas largo del mundo'
Segundo, tendrían que leer: El Viajero en Malinas. Este articulo, también de 'El Pais', es sobre un citytrip a Mechelen (= Malinas), la ciudad en cual crecí y al lado de cual vivo todavia. Espero que les guste y mas que nada espero que pronto vengan por aqui a disfrutar de esta cervecita 'Gouden Carolus' que gano el precio de 'Mejor cerveza negra del mundo en 2012!)!
EEET2012-update: after two days of chilling at the beach in Split and a Pub crawl downtown, tomorrow we hit adventure yet again: Canyoning and to our next, and final, destination: Zadar!
On the 17th, day 15 of EEET2012, we
were forced to get up around 7.30A.M., as our host, Sebastian, had to get to
work early. We decided to go to Munich Hauptbahnhof and arrange our trip to
Ljubljana right away. Which we did successfully, the seven hour trip would be
done on Friday and we decided to do a six hour layover in Salzburg, to ensure
that we visit five countries during our EEET2012. That was no problem.
Unfortunately our search for free wifi failed there, so I was unable to update
my blog before the next day.
Around 11A.M. we took a
Free Walking Tourthrough Munich, hosted by a crazy Texan guy, called Austin (not
joking you…). During a 2,5hour tour we got to see most of the historical city
centre of Munich and learned a lot about Munich, Bayern and Germany. At noon we
met up with Sebastian for a quick lunch on one of the many nice markets which
Munich contains.
After lunch, Toon and me, decided to
visit as much as was possible in one (short) afternoon. The English Garden,
with its Chinese Tower, the Munich soccer stadion, Allianz Arena, the BMW-Museum
and last but certainly not least, the Olympic village of the dramatic –remember
the terrorist attack- Olympic Games of 1972. All these things were quite far from
each other so after the Olympic Village, we decided to head back to the
Hauptbahnhof and take our 1,5hr train ride to (train station: Dollnstein and
then by car to) Tagmersheim.
Allianz Arena - Bayern Munich
Chinese Tower - English Garden
Do not look to the back, as the future holds the answers
Why on earth would we go to a
700-people town in the middle of Bayern, you’re asking yourself? Good question!
We went there to visit Segundo and Joaquin, two friends from Ameghino,
Argentina! They are working there, together with three other Argentineans, as
polo horse trainers. During six to eight months, they train the horses daily
and play various tournaments, and in European winter they head back to Argentina
to enjoy their summer holidays and play polo over there. Amazing place, where
they are living at I must say. A completely renovated old Schloss and an
amazing 25hectares of land surrounding it. I have to admit it, they have found
themselves a good job for the next couple of months, maybe years!
After arriving in the train station
of Dollnstein, Segundo came to pick us up and we went straight to a cheap and
good Italian (and the only) restaurant in Tagmersheim, where we met up with
everyone. Kate, Joaquin’s girlfriend, was also there. We had already briefly
met in Ameghino in February last year, so it was nice to see this British
Fraulein again as well. We had a good meal and when coming ‘home’ went straight
to bed, sleeping until late the next day.
Argentineans, a Brittish and Belgians!
That next day was awesome. We had
been travelling a lot the past few weeks, so two days of rest were more than
welcome. And where better to rest than in a place, being hosted by Argentineans?
At noon we had some delicious sausages with vegetables and potatoes (you see
mom, we’re even eating healthy!) and of course the siesta was held as well.
Next up was: horse practice. While the ‘big boys’ were playing polo, Toon and I
each got a horse and we drove it easily and chill, with the occasional galloping
of course, outside. A great day for horse riding actually. In the evening we
chilled and enjoyed an evening outside in a pleasant summer temperature.
Next day was more or less the same
story, although I would like to mention that we had (sort of) an asado (with
hamburgers, so doesn’t really count), made by Segundo. Very nice indeed!
Instead of riding a horse, I read a couple of chapters in my Lonely Planet - Eastern Europe during the afternoon, enjoying a mate or two. Around 7.30P.M.,
we said goodbye to Tagmersheim and my Argentinean friends –hoping to see them
again sooner rather than later (except for maybe Joaquin, porque a veces es un
poco boludo el pibe, jaja joda amigo!!) and took the train back to Munich, for
another chilling night at Sebastian’s. Next stop: Salzburg (Austria) and
Ljubljana (Slovenia)!
PS: in the 10 hours we actually
walked around in Munich, we noticed not less than 34 Porsches. Those Germans
and their cars…
I’ve written several blog posts in
the past few days, so if you’ve missed out on checking my blog, be sure to
scroll down and click on the titles of every post you might’ve missed. I can
assure you that the Krakow and most of all the Auschwitz–post are sure worth
reading…
When we returned from our trip to
the concentration camp, we were all a bit depressed. We finished some
administrative work (like checking bills, sharing costs, etc.) and decided that
each of us needed some time to rearrange his mind. Everyone got into his own
world, some read, others went out for a walk in the city, others slept and of
course Facebook was checked by all of us.
We had bought a bottle of wodka and this bottle was actively going around, occasionally being mixed with fake Fanta (0,6€ for 3liter!). Around midnight we all decided we needed to leave the apartment to get some fresh air and we found ourselves in a ‘shotbar’. No, this was not a bar where people were shot (I think), but you could buy ridiculously cheap vodkashots, and cocktails-based-on-vodka-shots there. For €12,5 we got 24 (not kidding you!) shots and the five of us put them down one by one. After some more chatting there, we went back to the apartment and hit the bed. The next day was a big chill-day. The original plan was to go to the Tatra-mountains, but the weather was not good enough for this, so we decided to go to a big hill, next to Krakow and chill out for the afternoon. That’s where I started writing both previous posts.
The view from the afternoon @Krakow - Poland
In the evening, just before
midnight, something unexpected happened! All of a sudden Thijs, my ginger buddy from
Holland whom I had met in Argentina on the AFS Trip To The North(halfway the post) back in 2009 and
whom I had seen only a couple of times since, was in Krakow at the same time as
we were! He could stay over as well and he told us all about his roadtrip
(Holland-Gdansk-Torun-Krakow-Holland) and we told him all about our EEET2012…
Extremely weird but so awesome to meet up with him again in the far south of
Poland.
On Monday 16th of July,
day 14 of our EEET2012, the next phase of our trip began. On to Munich,
Germany! I know, I know, we were supposed to pass by Brno (Czech Republic)
first, but trains don’t always work the way we want them to, so we had to
cancel that idea. We went straight to Munich. The train would’ve taken us from
Krakow-Berlin and Berlin–Munich, in seventeen hours for +180euros pp. We
decided to check the planes: we found one for 137,6€ pp. But wait, don’t you
think “Wow nice, by plane from Krakow to Munich, that’s easy! Not so
adventurous, but convenient nonetheless.” I can say you: this was probably the
most adventurous travelling day, concerning flights, in my life. We did not
have a direct flight, neither did we have to change once in some airport. No,
dear readers, we had to change TWO (!) times to get to fu*kin’ Munich! And all
this in a total of less than 7 hours! Thanks LOT – Polish airlines, even the
hostesses at the airports declared us crazy (Katowice is only 81km from
Krakow), but hey it’s not my fault that eDreamscame up with that as the
cheapest option! Check the map.
We got to Munich around 21hr and, after
Toon declared the loss of the rain protector of his backpack, it took us about
1,5hr to get to the centre of Munich, where we were perfectly (read: with a
beer) received by my other awesome roommate from Rennes: Sebastian! Munich it
is!
On the 10th we said
goodbye to Pawel and Warsaw, a three hour train ride and some catch-up sleeping
later, we all arrived to Poznan on our 8th day of travelling.
Wojciech’s mother was so nice to make us dinner, after which him and me drove
to the airport to pick up Laura! Yes, yet another Erasmus friend had joined
us. Some nice drinking games with vodka
later we hit the bed. A busy day was ahead of us.
We all got
up and had breakfast, takes some time when there are eight people willing to
shower and eat…Wojciech had arranged an
awesome visit to the Lechbrewery, a typical beer from Poland, like Jupiler in
Belgium. At the end of the tour we got a free 0,5l beer. A nice gift after a
two hour tour through a brewery. PS: All this for only 1,5euros…
Group picture in a huge LECH beer can
A quick KFC visit later, four of us, Liesbeth, Wojciech, Toon and me, went to
an awesome water park. Slides and everything included. Note to myself: I love
water parks. After some walking through the city, a small restaurant visit and
a quick visit to Tesco’s (supermarket) which was interrupted by an employee of
Tesco’s dropping a whole crate of chocolat boxes, causing an area of three m²
to be full of chocolat, we hit the bed again. I was so happy after that day. I
do love water parks
The next day was dedicated to the actual visit of the city of Poznan, the
economic centre of Poland and a fine city. I must note: Wojciech is a fine
guide indeed! Thank you for that dude!
peace out_
Toon,Liesbeth&Thibault
Walk on water
Belgian style
Group picture in front of the statue remembering the Polish risings against the Soviets
PS: I know I'm a bit behind on schedule. We've already finished Krakow, the next step on EEET2012, as well. I'll try to update that one tomorrow!
EEET 2012-update:Auschwitz:
I am not usually speechless, but I really have no idea what to say
about this... Hitting the pub now to forget the WWII-madness -
vodkashots please ..
Anyway, Poland is coming to its end, flying to Munich (Krakow-Warsaw, Warsaw-Katowice, Katowice-Munich) on monday, meeting up with Erasmus & argentinean friends.
After washing the first load of
muddy clothes at Pawel’s place, we met up with Justyna and Silke who came over
from Krakow. Next, Pawel’s mother made us some excellent typical Polish dinner.
We then made a late-night walk through the ancient city centre of Warsaw,
before being hit by a thunderstorm right above our heads. First time ever, that
I actually remember, lightning struck right above my head. Crazy experiences
indeed.
Citytripping at 11 PM
The next morning, we met up with
Wojciech and made a long trip through the city of Warsaw. From the city centre,
with its National Museum of Science and Art – erected by the soviets, the
national library, city hall, etc. In the
afternoon we had lunch and chilled on a beach, next to the river Wisla, which
floats from the Tatra Mountains in the south, through Krakow and Warsaw to
Gdansk in the north, and next to the new soccer stadium built for Euro2012.
Colossal building, built by the Soviets - now the Mueseum for Art and Science
View from that same building
Group picture - Belgium and Poland
In the evening we went out to a
so-called dodgy neighborhood in Warsaw where we drank some beers and met some
random crazy Polish people. Intercultural experiences as they say.
On Tuesday we chilled out, packed
our bags, bought a couple of postcards and went for a real ‘kalasjnikov’
(Mitraillette in Belgium, is called kalasjnikov in Poland…). At three we took a
three-hour train ride to Poznan, first capital and economical centre of Poland
and home city of Wojciech. That’s for a next post. It’s almost 1.30AM and
tomorrow we’re going to discover Krakow! I’m off.
After a good night of sleep in the
River Side (motherfucker) hostel, we packed our stuff to head for the Heineken Open'er Festival in Gdynia. In the pouring rain, and after a quick stop at a monument
which remembers the beginning of the end of communism and a picture next to a
piece of the Berlin Wall, we took the train to Sopot, where we walked around
for a while and enjoyed a nice hot chocolate. We met up with Pawel, my Polish
Erasmus friend from Warsaw, who gave us tents for the festival and we hit the
train again for Gdynia!
Piece of the Berlin Wall
Barely inside the camping site, we
met up with three West-Vlamingen (Flemish guys with an accent we barely
understood) and we decided to put up our tents next to each other. I’m not going to write too much about the
festival itself, most of you who know me, know how we roll: sleeping until the
heat of the sun chases you out of your tent, having a beer for breakfast and
chilling on the camping site until we want to see the first group. Not this
time! Basically it was raining every morning when we woke up, and then 30°C for
the rest of the day… Beer, except for
Heineken (but since when is that beer), and other alcohol is not allowed on the
camping site. You’re not allowed to cook on the camping site either. Bands only
start playing around 17hr, so except for a theater, a museum and a movie
theater, there’s nothing to do around the festival until 17hr. A festival site so big, that it takes
literally 30minutes (without crowd traffic or whatsoever) to get from the main stage
to the second biggest stage. And the worst is yet to come: on the festival site
you cannot drink alcohol in front of a stage, you have to stay behind ‘Heras’-fences
until you finish your glass. Who
invented that sh*t?
One thing they couldn’t help: rain,
so much rain…: Mud was the bummer of the weekend
Anyone needs mud?
You need to wash?
Festival, belgian style
Good things are: International and
local top artists for only 95euros for a four days festival, camping included.
1,5euros per 0,4liter of Heineken/ Desperados. A festival on a airfield, so
plenty of space. Little crowd for all the gigs and big screens at all major
stages, so you can easily be in the front to see your favorite artist or band. Two
stages which are located INSIDE an old bunker where airplanes used to be put,
camouflaged from radars and satellites: epic moments indeed. [And yes, they do
know the Tetris dubstep remix here, as well as Gotye’s Somebody I Used To Know].
After realizing there was nothing to
do around the festival during the day, we decided to do some sightseeing in the
cities located around the festival site every day, before heading for the
concerts at night. Our first stop was, yet again, SOPOT, known for its 513m
long pier, it’s a quiet holiday town in the north of Poland. We chilled on the
pier for a couple of hours before taking the boat to …. HEL! Yes, ladies and
gentlemen this trio went on a boat to Hel and back! It was a 1,5hr trip to get
there and unfortunately we only had 30mins to be in Hel –yes, it even was kind
of hot there- -I even went for a quick swim in Hel, and then 1,5hr back. A
successive excursion if you ask us.
We went to Hel and came back alive.
Biggest pier of Poland - official start of EEET 2012
Port Hel - " we went by boat to Hel and back!! "
The next day, we just stayed at the
camping site. We were going to sleep for a bit in the afternoon as we were still
tired of the travelling etc., and Liesbeth and me were still exhausted from
Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. But then again, we were on a festival… We
met a nice Canadian (so nice Canadians do exist!) and chatted for like two
hours about a lot of stuff. He and his brother have this pact with each other
that they do one different festival every year. They’ve been going to a
different festival every year for 13 years now. After all that chitchat, it was
already time to hit the festival again, so no napping for us…
The last day of the festival we went
to GDYNIA and mainly visited the beach, the port etc. Nice to see that in so
little time, since the fall of the Berlin Wall, some cities have become so
touristic and pretty – not that they weren’t pretty before of course-.
Sunday morning, we got up at 6.45
(!!), packed up our bags and tents and dragged ourselves to the train station
of Gdynia where we took the train to Warsaw, together with Pawel. In Warsaw we then
met up with Justyna, Silke (BE) and Wojciech, but that’s for the next post!
I should be finishing my thesis right now, but really don't feel like it. So I thought 'let's write about Road Trip #1: Luxembourg!"
Friday May 25th.: second to last week of my internship is done. After some drinks at dancing at the Plug In Festival in Mechelen, I headed to the last monthly meeting of AFS where we, the AFS youth comitee MEC said goodbye, but not farewell to our local chairmen. After some last drinks I headed home. An OD weekend was coming up. Now put on the Placebo-tune and read about my first-ever Road Trip!
Saturday May 26th: A long night of sleep wasn't enough after a hard working week. PACK ALL THE STUFF ! and, after a quick stop at a restaurant, picking up the tents and chairs, we all met up at Pedro's place. Trying to put all the material in our cars. Liesbeth, co-pilot on duty, and I left fully packed to the pretty Am Aal. We stayed at camping Im Aal and from the moment we got there we knew it was going to be a crazy weekend. A part of the group had already arrived and they had installed themselves on a higher place, all the way in the back of the camping site right in the sun. When the third team got to the camping site we right away started of with a nice dinner, consisting of hot dogs and beer, and we installed ourselves for 48hours of perfect fuck-it-all-attitude. A long night was the start of it, argentinean and belgian flags, dutch and german people, our group and alcohol were the ingredients.
Picture of the 'Friendship'
Sunday May 27th: such a beautiful day to wake up in a tent. After a small breakfast and an amazing lunch we hit the road for a hike. Unfortunately, due to my leg being injured, we weren't able to walk far, but WOW, that region is amazingly pretty. Walking next to a river, over a dam and resting and chilling in an idylic meadow for a couple of hours, enjoying the view, the nature and environment and most importantly the friends. It was amazing indeed. The perfect afternoon for me, after having been locked up behind a desk for about two months in Brussels. At night, we got back to the campingsite but the sun had done its damage. Not only were most of us sunburned, but everyone was very sleepy. So we decided to go to bed early.
Monday May 28: after all the cleaning up, a small arguement with a luxembourg 'sect'-member and paying our stay to the owners -even this was an adventure, with a grumpy old dutch guy- we went to a nice lake for a swim and then headed back home. A long way back after a very nice weekend out.
Having been to Luxembourg makes, after Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Italy, five countries uptill today. Many more to come. Luxembourg 2012, might be the first edition of many, it was definetely the start of Summer 2012. And what a summer it will be...
Ik ben een derdejaars marketing student aan de Katholieke Hogeschool Leuven in België. Leuven, de oudste universiteitsstad van de Benelux, en tevens de thuisbasis van Stella Artois, is een bruisende studentenstad. Meer dan 30 000 studenten genieten er het hele jaar door van de gezellige cafés op de Oude Markt, rustige parkjes in het centrum of aan de rand van de stad of van de bonkende muziek in één van de verschillende Fakbars.
Net omdat de hoofdzetel van Stella Artois zich in Leuven bevindt, bieden de Fakbars vaak bier aan voor slechts 1 Euro. Jongeren van over heel Vlaanderen trekken jaarlijks in september naar Leuven om er hun eerste jaar aan de universiteit of hogeschool te beginnen, verlangend naar de vrijheid en uiteraard het uitgaan zonder controle van thuis uit. Ik heb veel vrienden uit het buitenland die mij af en toe komen bezoeken. Wanneer we dan richting Leuven trekken om hen te laten kennismaken met het Belgische studentenleven valt hun mond meermaals open. Niet alleen hebben wij het geluk om in zo'n mooie stad te wonen en te studeren, ook zijn de feestjes legendarisch en ongekend voor hen. Dit is in het kort waarom ik Leuven een fantastische stad vindt. Waar je ook gaat, je komt altijd wel iemand tegen die je direct of indirect wel kent. Je komt altijd een plek tegen waar er een feestje gebouwd wordt.
230 woorden - beschrijving van de stad waar je woont.
First I thought, make new friends but keep the old. One's silver other's gold. But now you too are old friends, now you too are gold.
- that's the quote I would use to describe all the friends and connections I've made these past four months in Rennes. Argentineans, Canadians, Americans, French, Germans, Belgians, Irish, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Egyptian, Brittish, Welsh, and all the other countries I've forgotten, thanks people.
Get started with the tunes I posted as well!
" First of all, for people who still haven't figured it out, if you click on the pictures they will enlarge themselves in a new tab! Secondly, as you might've noticed it's now possible to share/like/forward my posts via the buttons at the end of each post. Please feel free to do so, it's free! Thirdly, comments are very much appreciated and if you log in once, normally your computer should remember your information for next time! Forthly, if you see that words are written like this : Bold and red, it means that there's a link behind it, waiting for you to click on it. Do so, it will only enlargen your knowledge! "
I know, I know, it's been too long. But here you go: the closing down session of Erasmus Rennes Fall 2011.
After coming back we had to prepare a paper and presentation for the next day, which ended pretty good actually, thank you very much.
On Friday we went to the Transmusicales de Rennes, an anual festival in the city with bands from literally all over the world. It was sort of Gentse Feesten-ish, with bands performing on different places in the city. Some could be seen for free, others were not. As we were supposed to be studying we, Anja, Esther, Chris and me only went to see two bands: Isbells, a belgian band and Moss, a dutch band. They were performing for free and they were really good I think.
The next day, Max, Pedro (Brasil), Laura and me were invited to Arsène's house. Arsène was our French Culture teacher and he had, appareantly, really liked us as he invited us over for coffee and cake. We spent about 3hours with him and his wife, they live in the absolute city centre of Rennes, discussing exchanges, school differences in our home countries and other intercultural experiences, knowledges and interests. Fascinating how a bond with a teacher can be so loose, and that you feel like you could basically talk about anything with that person. But then again a teacher stays a teacher and you won't talk to him about what happened 20 years ago. Wrong. He showed us his pictures of when he was 'famous' in and around Rennes, the books he wrote etc. To conclude a fine afternoon with whom would probably be our favourite teacher, he gave me a book about French people making fun of Belgians and dedicated it!
Hey! What the Hell?! 6th of December: Saint Nicolas day in Belgium. And we have a government?? No way josé! Re you freakin' kidding me?! Meet our, named by the Independant (UK): "Gay-socialist-and-born-in-a-squatters-camp"new Prime Minister: Elio Di Rupo! Good luck man, you'll need it!
The week of the 5th of December my exams started. I had six exams on following dates 7-8(2exams)-9 and 13 (two again). I'm going to keep this short. The exams weren't as hard as at KHLeuven. For some exams we even already had the questions! Whatthehell,areFrenchESCStudentsstupid? For others we got 5 questions and only had to answer 3 out of 5.. I'm not saying it was easy, not at all, but to be honest: it was. We had no clue of what to study exactly and after every exam I had the feeling I had written even more bullshit than on the previous one, but I'm pretty sure I passed them all. I'll let you know in February, when I get my results. Exactly February. What the f*ck, ESCRennes. How slow can you correct exams? I mean seriously, two months to give us all A's?
Vive la France!
On the Saterday of the exam week, we all got together with the whole group to celebrate our own little Christmas party. We did something called Secret Santa. Everyone got to pick a name and during one week you need to be extra nice to the person whose name you picked. I picked Anja, the german girl, and I think I did pretty good, haha.I was the best Secret Santa. My Secret Santa was Justyna, from Poland, who was the girl who put all the balloons in my room when I came back from Ireland. As it was also the last night we were all together, it was kind of awkward because none of us was able to fully get that it was the last night. Pawel, Polish, had brought his Brettoon flag and we all got to sign it. Chris' parents where there as well, telling us that they were happy for Chris to have met such amazing people and that now they understood why Chris was having such a good time. Well, they only said that after 8-ish beers, so not too sure if trollin' or not. Nice people those parents, I now know where Chris got his amazing hair!
After my last two exams, and having a huge fallback when hearing of the suicidal attack in Liège (Belgium), we prepared for the last days in Rennes. The last days of all of us together, the last days of Erasmus. We started Tuesday night of with a picture night. All of us had to choose their favourite pictures and then I showed them on a big screen with a projector. Of course this went together with the casuals glasses that were raised during our game. Check the next tune! After our picture game we left for the Rue de la Soif and ended the whole night in style taking pictures with containers, statues and cars. Driving home in a cab with a Canadian and an English lad, waking up without a girl in bed, unfortunately! Haha!
The next day Chris came by to say goodbye, he was leaving on a Eurotrip with his parents. Sad but true, he left and left all of us with more than a memory, he left us with a Canadian friend for life. Thanks for that Chrisso. Your smile, your hair, your laugh, your acting, your soccerskills, your going out nights when you go home early to watch hockey, our casual spaghetti dinners with beer and our going out evenings starting with some beers in the living room of Avenue Winston Churchill 23, etc. Yes, I am in love with you and yes if I were a girl I would want to make love to you!
After that me and Laura, not my roommate, the other one, had a crazy brunch with eggs, tomatoes, onions, cheese, toast and juice! Nextly we hit the city for a last afternoon of wandering around in Rennes. We tried to find some touristic shops, to buy gifts for family back home. Well we nicely failed in that. There are excatly two (of the same owner) souvernir shops which both sell rather stupid stuff.
In the evening I had dinner with Pablo, argentinean gigolo, when the spanish people and our holland friend-from Holland or Poland, or Poland and Holland, I would like to write your name but no freaking idea on how to spell it- and we started of for another night out with more strange happenings!
On Thursday I had to go to school to close my school account, as well as to fetch my paper that I was actually attending classes there. I finished doing all that around 4.30 and with Pablo we decided to stay at school until seven, which meant we played pool for about two and a half hours. At seven the Well'come Team had invited all the exchange students for a last dinner all together. As we are used to it it was: too little, too small, to little alcohol and to much bullshit. But then they started giving out gifts. Some people got an i-pod, a camera or a headphone! 'Yo, that's sick yo!' was Tam's first reaction when he heard he had won a headphone. After that we went to Appart'city, where a lot of Erasmus people lived and where the Belgian girls had organized a Predrink. Around ten thirty we went to the city to get the bus to the last Open Bar. And what an OB it was! People litterally suffocating while trying to get in the bus, French people singing songs in that same bus, electricity and music falling out due to a huge storm, crazy people jumping around in their underwear on the beats of LMFAO, walking home in the pooring rain and waking up after noon.. Johnny la gente esta muy loca. whatthefuck! One for sports:
On Friday it was, let's state it, an epic night which was 50% on my account. Thank you and no, I'm not going to be modest over this. It was an incredible night and I had the best time. I had the idea of organizing a dinner with all the Erasmusfriends, all together. On Facebook, the event I had created had about 50 people attending. But that's not all, another student from Erasmus had had the same idea and had also put a Facebookevent online. So we dediced to team up and expected about 65 people, which would've been crazy and fantastic. But what happened was beyond our expectations. Not less than 82 students showed up at the El Negocian restaurant! It was the perfect opportunity for me to stress completely as we had to make sure everybody would pay his all you can eat 20euros. A total of not less thant 1 640 euros was collected in cash and cheques. But after paying it all to the restaurant keepers and making their day for paying so much, I finally had the time to enjoy it. Being together with all these people with whom we had founded a strong friendship in not less than three months was a great experience. I got to talk to most of the people with whom I wanted to share one last dialogue, got to take pictures with some people I hadn't taken pictures with yet and got to see all those hot bitches who dressed up nicely for one last time all together. Because yes, I hadn't told you yet but we were dressed up. Like a Boss.
Avenue Winston Churchill 23 For the win
Jose, el mexicano, como dicen todos
After this amazing dinner we hit Rue de la Soif again before heading for Pyms, where we weren't allowed in because there was more than five, fifteen to be exact, of us and groups aren't allowed in. Say what? We tried, but they just didn't want our money that we were going to spend there. And we were all suited up, so it couldn't have been of us not being nicely dressed! All of that b*llshit taken care of, we ended up at our place, good old Winston Churchill with a McDonald's midnight snack and a good wine, discussing our past experiences in Rennes and planning future trips to visit each other soon again! As it was already ridiculously late we invited the whole lot to stay over and everybody slept on couches, extra matrasses etc. The next day we all woke up and made a big, I'm talking gigantic, amount of spaghetti and we mixed up all the vegetables that we had left to make a really good and pretty spicy sauce. By five, I realized that my dad was going to arrive in little more than two hours and I hadn't even started packing yet. So I opened my cupboard, got out the cardboard crates and started throwing all my stuff in it. When everyone who was still at our appartment, about 15 people, saw me doing this, the emotional moment came.
We put on what I like to call: 'makesyoucry'music like Coldplay, Adele, Jeff Buckley etc. and people started hugging, saying goodbye very emotionally and promising each other that they'd meet again. The beautiful part of this was that, as we all are close, it's very probably that we will meet again in the future. In one's homecountry or in a completely new environment. One thing's for sure. I want to meet you guys again, better sooner than later!
After the packing and my dad arriving, we had some last shots of Jose's Jose Tequilla and me and my dad went for dinner in the city after which I left him at the appartment and went out, one last time, with my Erasmusfriends, one last time all together, to the Rue de la Soif, for the last time. Amazing how many people you get to know in such a short time, amazing the bond you create with them because you are living the same experience and seeing each other six days ouf ot seven. And yet again we came home too late to be healty.
The next day me and my dad got up, way to early to be healty, and hit the road back to Belgium. With a small stop in Paris, to pick up a carriage, we got home at around eight pm in the storm. I came home with a luggage boot full of stuff, a symbolic backpack full of knowledge and experiences, a head full of great memories, a photoalbum full of pictures of Erasmus Rennes Fall 2011 and a address book (=directory) full of phone numbers and addresses of new made friends and connections to visit in the future.
A perfect end to a perfect experience. Thank you so much people. Thank you so much to all of you.
Vive la France!
PS:
- What did Rennes' bars offer me? 2Amstel beer glasses (no Stella Artois glasses where available), 1guinness glass (well that one's from Dublin), 3shotglasses (one from San Sebastian, thanks girls) and 1 Malibu glass (I don't even drink Malibu..). How and two crazy flags, unwillingly donated to Pablo and Cintia, gimme my flags back!
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The fabulous adventures of chris, maxibaby, mi'hael, t-bone and two random Irish bitches in Dublin, Ireland !
These names were given to us by Katie's aunt and you've got to admit it: they SOUND awesome.
Well, I should be studying right now as I've got two more exams coming up, both on tuesday, but what the heck. I'll tell you about Ireland! While reading: here's an typical Irish song:
First of all, for people who still haven't figured it out, if you click on the pictures they will enlarge themselves in a new tab! Secondly, as you might've noticed it's now possible to share/like/forward my posts via the buttons at the end of each post. Please feel free to do so, it's free! Thirdly, comments are very much appreciated and if you log in once, normally your computer should remember your information for next time! Forthly, if you see that words are written like this : Bold and red, it means that there's a link behind it, waiting for you to click on it. Do so, it will only enlargen your knowledge!
Sound! Minus Craic! What's the craic? - Just some typical Irish words we learned during our stay in the country of the hot whisky, rugby, sheep and not-as-much-gingers-as-expected!
From the 24th -29th of November Katie & Caroline, two Irish girls I met in Rennes, were going back to their homecountry, Ireland to visit their family. Nice as these girls are, they invited us to join them for a trip to 'the other island' and kind as we are, we gratefully accepted this invitation.
This is how, on the 24th in the morning after having carpooled with Covoiturage, Katie, Caroline, Max and me took the plain from Nantes to Dublin. From there we went straight to Maynooth, where the girls' college is located. The first night we met some of Katie's friends and went out to a nice bar, where a very good live band was covering songs from Blur, over RHCP to Snow Patrol. As you all know me, I wasn't really paying attention to anything or anybody else and by the last songs, I found myself standing alone in the middle of the crowd going forth and back on the live music. At the end of the night we had a midnight snack. But not like in Belgium, where you eat a kebab and then feel sick all the way home, no! We had a portion of french fries with garlic sause and melted cheese. Sounds discusting but I swear it's extremely good!
The next day Katie, Max and me took the train to Sligo. Katie's hometown as we went to visit her house, family and the Irish country side. That Irish country side and the people, Katie's friends and family were very nice to us and made me realize that not only in Belgium real friendships exist. We were received in different houses and offered soup, hot whisky and childhood pictures and videos from Katie as if we've always been party of the locals. Very nice indeed!
Notice the lines of every zip you take from a Guinnes
On Saturday (I've just learned that you write this day of the week with a 'U' and not with a 'E', thank you Katie), we trained back to Dublin to meet Chris and Tam, our canadian buddies who could only come on that day as they had classes the days before. After having done a small tour around the city centre we headed to Katie's aunt's house and prepared ourselves for an epic night out in Dublin, city of Guinness.
Well, that turned out differently. Sort of. In some kind of way. Let's just say that one of us, the weakest link we could name it, was not able to join us into the city
Chilling in the wind on the grass of Dundrum
and we ended up going out with only Chris, Tam, Max and me, which in the end wasn't that bad as we only had to pay for one cab. There were some problems figuring out how to come to the city centre though, as we were staying in the outskirts. The solution to these problems involved: hurting your back while carrying people up the stairs into their bed, three guys checking on Google Maps where the hell we were exactly and how to get to the centre, one guy running through the street of Dundrum (suburb of Dublin)trying to find a streetname, and grass being eaten by a Chinese-Canadian dude. After having found the exact way, we were on our way to a bar where we were going to meet up with Caroline. But she didn't bring her cellphone. And we didn't find the bar. And Tam missed the metro stop and had to run all the way back to where we got off. And this helped us all actually! Because, when we were walking through some random Dublin'er street, we heard a familiar voice screaming 'CHRIS'! and Yes, this was Caroline, who was about to go into some dance bar/discotheque/... And so, the fortune was with us and we had an awesome night with the four guys, Caroline and her friends.
City tour
The next day we got up, some with a headache, others without their head and others just had difficulty to get up at all. But after the 2,5hours we needed to get up, shower and have breakfast, we headed for the city centre of Dublin - Capital of Ireland and took a Hop On Hop Off Tour Bus, that brought us to all the 'major' and 'important' places in Dublin. We saw some nice things such as The Spire, Trinity College, Temple Bar and of course the Guinness Brewery ! - btw: did you know that the Guinness Book of World Records, actually is made by Guinness? Well maybe you did, but we didn't, that blew our minds for a second! -
On Sunday night, we decided not to go out as we were pretty tired and wanted to save some money. So we were just playing some games, checking out bands from each others' countries when Katie and her aunt and uncle came home in, well let's say, unsober conditions. Hilarious circumstances were the conclusion, certainly if you know that, during our cardgame of King's Cup (Kingen, Circle of Death,...), after taking the 'rule-card', the uncle said that all women had to go to bed and if not they had to drink. Well, they drank for sure! Irish people really are heavy drinkers, I can must now.
What made the night even better was that I met up with my buddy Géaroid, whom I'd met in Argentina back in the days and with whom I did Pukkelpop festival 2010! It was awesome to see him again, he's doing fine and working. The dude even has got a girlfriend! -Your song should be done by now: try this one : Irish Celtic Band.
Tam, Chris, Max and me @Jameson Distillery
On Monday, our last day in Irelandwe finished our tour of Dublin by going to the Jameson distillery. We didn't do the tour though, not enough time and too expensive, but we got some souvenirs!
After this we went back to Maynooth, for Katie to be able to say goodbye to her friends and for us to be able to hang out, play some pool and get back to our senses after five days of crazy Irishness.
On Tuesday morning, 7am, we took the plain back to Nantes, were a colleague of Max's dad was awaiting us to drive is back to Rennes. In the afternoon some of us had a presentation and Max and me finished an essay and presentation that we had to present on wednesday morning. 68% we got for that one, if you know they barely ever give more than 70 for most courses, that's kind of good I think.
That's about it people, I could keep on talking, but should actually do some stuyding today so I'll conclude here. An update about the two passed weeks will follow soon I think. I'll just inform you that more pictures, as usual, can be found on Picasa and that here too, it's free and easy to comment!
And btw: I did the calculations and you can see it on my previous post: Ireland was my 21st country to visit and this on my 21st year of living on this planet (haha, no red color here, it's not a link!). Only 29 to go to reach my goal of 50 before I die. And yes, I want to reach that goal to be able to set another one!
Ow yeah, I just realised I'll be back in Belgium around 20/12, so if you want to meet up let me know! And if you don't, you're probably not really a friend of mine so I don't care! haha!
