Finally. For a week we have been travelling through North-East India, crossing around 1500kms by bus and train. For a week we, well at least I, had been longing for this day. For a week we were feeling great, right today at least five of us got sick, with regular toilet visits as a consequence... Finally, the day came. TAJ MAHAL would be checked of the infamous bucket list! One of the world's most beautiful buildings!
Look at this picture! Watch me enjoy this moment! Be jealous!
Took us a while to wake up on our seventh day in India. Well, we had to wake up at 4.30AM, maybe that's why... After a short night and another busride, we arrived at the Jalandhar train station to take the 6.30AM train to New Delhi!
"Hindhi, Hindhi!", meaning the language Indians speak - but we used it as "Go, Go" or "Yes, Yes" or anything else that didn't make any sense at all saying it, let alone saying it twice... a dozen times a day.
After a short night, every one was still tired from the previous' day trip, and packing a bag for a one-night stay, the whole group met up in the hotel lobby to leave for a two-day trip to the north. After, yet again, a loss of time due to latecomers, the group got split in to and we each hopped in a van not knowing what we had to expect. I can tell you, Indian roads and Indian drivers... not a joke... Shimla, here we come!
Namasté! On our third day in India we left our hotel in the morning for a 3-4hour bus ride to Amritsar. Again, driving in India is mental and I really thought we were going to hit someone or something about a dozen times during the bus ride. Amritsar is a, in my opinion, typical "small" Indian city (+1million), located in the north-west of India. I even think there's actually no reason at all to visit this city, except for one amazing place located right in the heart of the city. The Golden Temple.
Next to offering a wide range of sports, business and social engagement opportunities, the International Office ofCoventry University offers international students, as myself, the possibility of visiting various cities or landmarks around the UK.
This is how three Belgians -being Hans, Ben and me- ended up, on a casual Saturday, on a bus full of chinese students to Liverpool, home of The Beatles. The program was quite simplistic:
08.30AM Depart from Fairfax Street, Coventry
11.00AM (approx.)Arrive in Liverpool, Free time to explore the city
04.45PM (latest) Meet back at the coach
05.00PM Leave Liverpool 07.30PM (approx.) Arrive in Coventry
I’ve been living in Coventry for about a month now. University work is getting more interesting and more intense every week but also I am planning and trying to arrange to sneek in visits and sightseeing trips into my agenda. You can see where I’m going here… If you want to know more about my student life at Coventry University, I will have to dissappoint you but can reassure you that I am working on a, rather long, manual on The Student Life in Coventry: How to survive the first weeks. There is, however, still a lot of work to be put into that post. This one is completely dedicated to MANCHESTER.
As a conclusion to our summer tripping of 2013, Liesbeth and I had a last week of full, relaxing holidays in Laboule, France. A great week in Mas le Braud, a former Auberge and/or farm with the 'family-in-law' was a perfect way to conclude our experiences of EEET2013.
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.
After
experiencing the advanced and quick driving skills of Balkan bus drivers
(irony), we decided to make a short stop during our last road trip between
Sarajevo and Dubrovnik (Croatia). Some research about the city and its
history lead us to Mostar, a small picturesque city in
the deep south of Bosnia and Herzegovina. You can reach the city either by
train or bus. Both are quite cheap and more or less take the same time to get
there, but the train just leaves very early in the morning or late in the
afternoon, making it impossible to a) rest well or b) stay over for only a
couple of hours. That is why we decided to take the bus.
Posting our
post cards in the last minutes before our night train left the Budapest train
station, I realized that it had been approximately six years and ten months since
I had been there the first time while on ‘Mini-Exchange’ during my Exchange
Trimester in Austria in Fall 2006. But no time to remember too much about
it. Before we knew it the train left and
country number two, after Slovakia, was checked on our EEET2013 –list. [If you
still don’t know it: EEET2013 stands for: Eastern Europe Eurail Trip (and the
year)].
An eight hour trip, with a one hour stop in the middle of nowhere to
check all the passenger’s passports, later we stepped out of the train in Belgrade, capital of Serbia and former capital of Yugoslavia. That last word was going to
come back to us for numerous times in the next week, although we didn’t know it
back then.
Getting tired of continuous travelling, but still standing strong.
I know I am disappointing you at the moment. I really was trying to keep up with the blog, but it's just... There's so much to experience, to do, to live, to see, to touch and to experience again that I sometimes feels like a waste of time to write about the things I'm doing. I do promise that everything will be described on the blog in the future days/weeks...
Liesbeth and I have been in the Balkan for four days now. We spent three days in Serbia, two in Belgrade and one in Novi Sad where the famous Exit Festival is held this weekend. We didn't go to the festival itself but did visit the city during it. We have already experienced a lot of awesome things and met some great new friends about whom I will write later on. This message is just to let you know that the two of us are safe.
Today, after an eight hour bus ride, we got to Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and we are staying at the private hotel Vila Hipodroma on the outskirts of the city. For 12,5€ per person per night we have a fully equipped appartment and an outdoor swimming pool. We were received by English&German speaking hosts. Though they are Muslim and participating in the Ramadam, they offered us a local Sarajevian beer and tonight we will have a barbecue with them! We will be staying here for at least two nights and then continue south to our final destination: Dubrovnik (Croatia). Hopefully I will get bored soon so I will be able to write you a proper update of our great adventures in Eastern Europe.
There came
the day. After surviving five days of hard work, after suffering rain and sun,
cold and heat, the beach and the indoor swimming pool, the jacuzzi and the
sixty-year old waitress at the hotel bar… after all that came the day. Time for
the Big 16th International Workshop – Bo Cash Business Game Finale!
On Friday, after tree days of business game, we had a "Day Off' and went on an excursion. In the morning we went to visit a chocolate factory. Well, at least that's what we thought.... Once we got there it was more like a big garage with a nice chocolate shop attached to it. Reily's Candy was, honestly, quite of a disappointment and we are pretty sure that in Belgium this kind of shop would be closed due to extremely hygienical surcumstances. But wait, it gets better....
Monday morning we left D.C. On our way to Point
Pleasure Beach in New Jersey State, where the business management game was
going to take place, we made a stop in Baltimore.
[The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page...
With that in mind, and with my motivation to see the USA from a different angle, I applied to participate to the 16th International Workshop (2013 - USA) edition. Together with 59 other students from, among others: The Netherlands, China, UAE, USA, Germany etc. I will be participating into an international business game on the East Coast. We will be visiting Washington D.C, Baltimore, Pennsylvania and finish in New York City in a two week timelapse.
Today is a big day. With Toon, Heike and Liesbeth, the main compagnons of EEET2012 [Eastern Europe Eurail Trip 2012] we made plans for another trip. Off course, as awesome as we are, we came up with a very awesome name: Eastern Europe Eurail Trip 2013, or short EEET2013 - EEET'13! Original, right?
This is, again, not only a message which aims to make all you readers jealous about the awesome trip we will be making. Well maybe a bit. But more than anything, this is a call for all people who would want to join us for another legendary travelling experience.
Just like last time, Eastern Europe, according to the movie: Eurotrip
For now, there are two ideas. Yet to be determined where we will be starting/finishing defintely. But some of the places, including the Exit Festivalin Novi Sad, Serbia, are already sure things. We would be leaving around June 28th and returning to Brussels July 20th maximum, which makes 22 days of living the good life...
Two possibilities at the moment:
Romania - Bulgary - Serbia - Bosnia & Hercegovina - Croatia OR the same trip, but the other way around. So starting in Croatia and ending in Romania/Bulgary depending on the timeschedule OR the same trip, but instead of starting/finishing in Romania - finishing in Thessaloniki (Greece), as we need a cheap (ryanair/...) flight to get back to Belgium.
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...
