EEET2013 - End Lyrics

You are probably sick of it by now. Therefore this song. One more time, it is all about EEET2013. 

Eastern Europe Eurail Trip 2013 - End Lyrics

Are you ready to go?

EEET2013 – Day 18-20 – Dubrovnik (Croatia)

On the bus between Mostar and Dubrovnik, Liesbeth and I decided that not booking a hostel was probably the smartest thing to do. In Croatia, especially in summer months, people open up their houses to receive tourists for a couple of days. Kind of like a bed&breakfast but I doubt it is highly legal. Nonetheless it is very common that when a bus full of tourists arrives in a city, once leaving the bus at least ten people jump on you to convince you to stay at their place. Last year we were really lucky to get different awesome places and hosts for a cheap price so we decided to do the same this year. We were right.

EEET2012 - Day 25-27 - Zadar (Croatia) & End Lyrics

Put on a sad song to relive a happy memory.

The last few days of EEET2012, we stayed in Zadar as this was the city from wich we would take a Ryanair flight back to Belgium.

We arrived here on Friday night, after the canyooning, and found ourselves surrounded by at least 8 people offering their place or a studio to us. We decided to go along with a women who’s brother in law had a free floor. Yes indeed, for a mere 11€ per person we had a whole floor with 2large bedrooms, a private bathroom, a big living room (with huge flat screen) and a kitchen.  We took it straight away and headed to the supermarket, open until  at least 9PM in Croatia.  After coming back form the supermarket we watched the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and we all, Liesbeth more than all of us together though, got excited about it.

The next two days, the last days of our stay, we did some sightseeing in the city of Zadar, really nice city –but rather small, and we hit the beach for some chilling and relaxing. Toon took part in the Millenium Jump while I was at the hospital, nothing bad though. I had around 15 splinters in my foot and we didn’t really know if the mussels and sea urchin, who’s parts were in my left foot, would be bad or not. Nothing bad, luckily, and we enjoyed our last days of EEET2012.

On Sunday night we were having our last meal in a restaurant, enjoying the sunset –known as one of the most beautiful ones of Europe, and it really was amazing!- when suddenly a friend of mine from KHLeuven, Maxime, yelled my name. They were having dinner right next to us, in Zadar, Croatia! He and his girlfriend had also made a trip around Eastern Europe through: Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia and they as well were flying back the next day with Ryanair! How small is this world, really !

So the next day we packed our stuff, left for the airport and flew back home. The end of EEET2012 had come to a beginning and while flying back home, and tacking the train from Charleroi-Sud to Mechelen, thoughts about a next trip were already popping up.

This trip, EEET2012, had been amazing. The friends I travelled with and met up with had been awesome. The people I met had been great. The places we've been to have surprised me in a way I can't explaing properly, although I did try writing about it on my blog. Everything, except for perhaps the budget, had gone more or less as planned, or as not-planned. I must say it was way better than expected. Thank God for that, wouldn’t you agree?

peace out _

Toon&Heike,Liesbeth&Thibault

Zadar, Croatia

Tony Starr, enjoying the sunset 

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This is the end of my blogging on EEET2012. Maybe some more anekdotes will follow, we have some good ones, but they will not be related to the travelling as were the past posts. I hope that in the future, maybe, some travelers will read this and maybe use it for their purpose, enabling them to enjoy this trip as much as I have.  Thank you for reading you all. It really means a lot to me –a bit of commenting now and then wouldn’t hurt though! Haha. All the way down this post you'll find the map of the actual route we followed during EEET2012. Be sure to check it out!

Thank you Pawel, Justyna, Silke, Wojciech, Billie, Sebastian, Segundo, Kate and Joaquin.

And above all thank you: Heike, for finally giving us some peace of Toon who missed you terrible, thank you Liesbeth, for being the kind, cute and amazing support and girlfriend that you are, and thank you Tony Starr, for accompanying me all the bloody 27days from f*ckin’ Day 1 to day 27. I don’t know how you survived me and my bullsh*t but you did and you even smiled during it! So thank you all, because without only one of you, the chain, the line, the whole frame of this trip wouldn't have been the same...

peace out and cheerios_

Thibault

EEET2012 - the final edition map

EEET2012 – Day 22-24 – Split (Croatia)

After arriving to the Split bus station at 6A.M., Liesbeth and me, who were both wrecked, quickly found a place to crash. That’s the awesome thing about eastern-europe. You can arrive at a city, without even knowing where to sleep that night. Because once you get out of the bus or train, at least a dozen people jump towards you shouting ‘zoda, zimmer, room!’, meaning they have some extra rooms, or even a whole floor, or studio which they rent per night. Usually this is even cheaper than hostels and sometimes you even have your own kitchen or bathroom (sometimes no kitchen, or bathroom to be shared with host family).

Basically, that’s what happened in Split. We got jumped by a lot of people who tried to convince us to go to their place and the second guy we talked to looked ok. That’s why we decided to go take a look at the place he was offering us. Two rooms with double beds and a shared bathroom with the family for about 17euros per person per night, in one of the most expensive cities of Croatia. Not bad at all! We took it and went straight to bed.

Around 11AM we woke up again and decided to hit the beach, where we tanned (and got burned a bit) until 5Pm when Toon and Heike arrived (that’s his girlfriend, I know it’s a funny name. But hey, she can’t help it). We went to pick them up at the bus station and then hurried back to the beach. Once there we had two girls coming towards our group to invite us over to a Pub Crawl for that night. 15euros for 1hour all you can drink and then three drinks in three different bars.

After some discussing we decided to do it and hit the pubs. First on was the one hour free drinking: that didn’t go too well. Half of the alcohol was mixed with water and the other half was not available during ‘free hour of booze’. Slightly disappointed we took the train (yes a mini train, like in the amusement parks!) to the next bar. Free drink was: 1 shot (dafuq!). We ended up buying a LITRE of Sex On The Beach for only 16euros, that was a good deal. But their marketing had worked. They just wanted to get the foreigners to be tempted by pub crawls and then to start drinking in the other bars.  We did two more bars, same story concerning the free drink, and had one more LITRE of Cuba Libre. Around 3ish we got home safe and sound.

The next day was more of the same with sleeping until late, sunbathing and then (finally!) some sightseeing of the beautiful city.  Instead of eating the local dishes we ‘had to’ go to McDonald’s, almost half an hour walking. But hey, I didn’t complain…. The next day was going to be awesome!

Are you ready to jump?

you know, romantic stuff...

AND IT WAS! Day 24 of EEET2012 was another water-day! We had booked a whole day (well 3,5hrs at least) of canyooning in Croatia baby!  Another awesome and beautiful (because of the weather and the view) day! It was more rockclimbing than actually canyooning, but I had fun.. whatever!! Haha

The view from above the canyon

Getting ready!

That evening, tired after a hard day of sports, we all took a 3hr husride to Zadar. The next, and unfortunately, final destination of EEET2012!

peace out_

Toon&Heike,Liesbeth&Thibault

EEET2012 – Day 20-21 – Pula (Croatia)

After what seemed an eternity, but really was only a four hour bus ride, Toon and me arrived at PULA,  a city in the north west of CROATIA. We had reserved a hostel and headed there right away. When we had put our stuff away, and had helped the hostel’s owners to construct their new garden fountain, we hit the city for some quick sightseeing. We didn’t want to see too much of it though, as we were going to do the real sightseeing along with both of our girlfriends, who flew in the very next day.

On Monday, day 21, Liesbeth and Heike (Toon’s gf) both flew in and every couple had his afternoon/evening on its own. I had booked a private studio (with kitchenette, private bathroom etc.) for us. Liesbeth and me went to the beach and chilled for a couple of hours. Probably one of the best moments of the trip. Chilling on a (stone) beach with the sun going down slowly in the ocean. Beautiful. 

View from the afternoon at Split, Croatia

The next day we met up with the other couple and the four of us did some sightseeing in the old city centre. Pula used to be a very important city in the Roman Empire, proof is the big coliseum and the (Victory?) Arch in the city centre.  Today its beaches attract more people and the city centre is only visited by tourists who want to do something else than tanning for a change.

Coliseum Split

That evening, Liesbeth and me took a night bus to Split, in the south of Croatia. Toon and Heike stayed in Pula one more night and joined us there the next day. But that’s already for next post!

peace out_

Toon&Hieke,Liesbeth&Thibault                       

EEET2012-inbetween

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!

peace out_

Toon&Heike,Liesbeth&Thibault

EEET2012-inbetween

At the moment we are in Pula, Croatia. Enjoying life at the beach today and tomorrow. We will probably head to Split after this. I hope to find more time to update about the past weekend sometime soon.

peace out_

Toon&Thibault

EEET2012 – Day 0

This. Is. It.

Now this is not ‘It’, the famous last shows supposed to be presented by Michael Jackson, before he died, this is something way different.

This is the start of the EEET 2012.

What-the-fuck is that, I hear you say?

EEET 2012 stands for: Eastern Europe Eurail Trip 2012.   

Stuff to be packed.

A 27-day trip, on 2 planes, through (at least) 5 countries, (at least) 12 cities, on (at least) 12 trains and without a doubt endless experiences, meetings and stories to be told after this life changing event.  Well, life changing… Will it be? I don’t really know. Let’s be honest here, I’ve already travelled through 21 countries during my 21 years on this planet called Earth. I’ve had plenty of experiences, meetings and story-telling. My goal to visit at least 50 countries before I die is almost in its half. After July 2012, it will actually be over its half. Maybe I should adjust my dream... But let’s just see where we are when we reach 45 countries, right?

Enough said about how fabulous I am, how great my life is and how amazing the people I meet and make friends with are or have been. Let us look at the future... what will tomorrow bring?  No one knows. The only thing I know is that tomorrow, July 3^rd 2012, I’ll be leaving, together with Toon, one of my best friends, and Liesbeth, my girlfriend on a trip to Eastern Europe.  We’ll be going here:

The Trip.

Leaving by Ryanair from Eindhoven (NL) to Gdansk (Poland), heading for the Heineken Open'er Festival, meeting all my Polish Erasmus friends in Warsaw, Poznan –where German Mädchen Anja and Spanish chica  Laura will join us- and Krakow, travelling through the Czech Republic, meeting some of my best Argentinean friends and my German Erasmus roommate in Munich, travelling through Austria and Slovenia before enjoying a last week in Croatia visiting nice cities, beaches and hopefully with the occasional party.

I decided to do this trip after missing a visit to Argentina in January and after failing to find an internship in the United States this semester.  This trip is more or less as well the conclusion of my Bachelor studies of Business management with minor Marketing and Spanish at the Catholic College of Leuven, of which I graduated June 2012.

What’s next? What will the future bring? Where will I end up? Honestly, I don’t really care at the moment. The only thing I am going to do the next few weeks is enjoying my trip, enjoying my companions and trying to discover as many new things as I can: Europe’s biggest wooden pier, the world’s best know concentration camp, Croatia’s most beautiful cities… I’ll enjoy them all in different way.

For my followers or casual readers, I will try to update my blog as often as possible. I don’t know whether I’ll have internet every day, every other day or even once a week. But you may be sure that I’ll write down as much as I can, to keep you updated, to maintain the memories for me and also a bit to make y’all jealous! Haha

Let’s just say it the way it is: IT’S ON!