All set in Kerkrade!

I just arrived to Kerkrade and met up with a new internet friend of mine from Second Life. Currently her name is Tim, but soon enough she'll transform herself to Nadine. She have already started with the initial steps of becoming whom she was since birth. An adventure I'm truly amazed by her bravery for!

Today she introduced me to some really nice home cooking. A stew of sorts with horse meat, potatoes and read cabbage. I can imagine this being something my father would like. Since it tastes a bit like the liver stew he use to make, and since he likes red cabbage.

 As a snack we later had rolmops, which is a pickle and onions rolled into a herring! I never ate fish as a snack before, but it works really well. Tomorrow she'll show me even stranger fish snacks.

We also had some "bitterballen" which is basically is animal stew which have been deep fried into tiny balls. Tastes really good and makes for an awesome snack!

In transit!

Just got on the bus from Hasselt towards Maastricht. Waved good bye to my awesome host Bart with a promise that next time would be during the summer and hopefully a bit longer too. Who knows, if I'm bitten by the travel bug I might very well just keep going until that.

Anyhow, I have noticed a vast increase in my active and spoken vocabulary. So who knows, with enough of this I might actually get somewhere near as good speaking as typing.

Breendonk

Today have been another eventful day!

Bart and I slept in late and then headed to Breendonk concentration camp. It was another one of those museums which really look good. At the beginning you got a little machine into which you typed numbers. Though out the whole place you found the numbers, and when you punched them into the machine, a speaker voice gave you information about that item. The English voice was really awesome.

The exhibit told us everything from practical information about the area. About the guards there and what happened to them after the war. About the prisoners and their faith where available. Witness testimonies from inmates who survived. Over all it was truly scary and horrible to hear about and see. The fact that it was raining/snowing and really wet and muddy and cold when we went outside for the outside parts of the tour didn't help. One just felt guilty about complaining.

After that we went for a cup of hot chocolate to warm our cold hands and chilled souls.

Then off to IKEA for meatballs and fries and make Bart drink some swedish Julmust, however it didn't taste as good as the one I'm used to.

Now we're having trappist beer tasting, so I'll be signing out!

Two Wars, one Pub

WW1 Gas Mask

What a day!

Today Bart and I started out early. We got up at 9 and stumbled into the kitchen for some breakfast. Then we headed off to Ieper for a World War 1 museum. That museum was simply amazing. It was really hightech with bracelets with chips in them that you used on different stations to activate monitors and things like that, to get everything spoken back at you in the right language. Also, it checks if you had any relatives who fought in the war, and if you did you get all sorts of available information about them. Sadly I had none (but then again, the Swedes were neutral in that war...too).

It is hard to put in words how amazing that museum was, and how well it was put together. Really, if you go to Berlin, this is a must-see place.

We also went to see a Brittish monument for the fallen soldiers in the WW1, with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of names.

After that, my dear guide and I headed towards Kemmel, where we went to a Cold War bunker. A bunker that was a big secret, even long after it became a museum. Only really know to the local people and was really only made popular after a TV show explaining about different sorts of local sights worth seeing that no one knew about. The whole place was like a time capsule back to the 60s. Really nice design and very well done over all.

Then we had a quick beer at a local pub in the tiny town of Kemmel. A very, very cozy pub. I only wish we would have had a bit more time to spend there.

Last, but not least, I was invited over to Bart's parents for a family dinner with Bart's parents and brother. Together we had a traditional Belgium stew consisting of three kinds of meat (chicken, rabbit and turkey) called Hobokens stoofpotje, beans, cauliflowers and of course real home-made double baked Belgian fries with mayo. Mmm, mayo. The national drink of Belgium. Bart had to leave me for a while, so me, his parents and brother got to practice our English skills together. Showed that they have been to Sweden for a road trip, the parents that is, and that they really liked the Vasa museum.

Belgian goverment!

The Antwerp Grand Centra

Okay, I'm in Belgium now, and I'm going to teach you just how the government work. I know all about it since I had it explained to me one and even saw a youtube video. One. Basically you got one single government which likes french fries with mayo. They control the whole country. Then you got 3 other government (Flemish, French and German) who also have the same power. Each of theses doesn't much like one another and work in different regions (mostly, but sometimes they overlap). Neither much agree with the other, and they all speak different languages so they can't much understand one another, but they all agree on that the national dish is French Fries with Mayo.

When voting, you do it 5 times, since it is a very democratic nation (6 if you count the european parlament vote). Once for Government. Once for the other government. Once for quite local area. Another time for a very local area. And another which I forgot, but is also important.

But they all love fries, even if they say it differently. Oh, with mayo.

To Belgium!

So, there we go. Finally the trip is taking me out of the country towards the land of cheese, beer and chocolate. I just realised that I probably spoke Swedish for the last time in a long, long while when I gave my father a call before the bus left.

Right now I'm bussing though the snow heavy south of Sweden, a bit happy that I got to see a snowy Sweden before I head over the bridge to Denmark, where I'll take the connecting train to Amsterdam, and from there to Antwerp. Huzzah!

Changes

I've made some changes...

The plan was to head to Odense after this to meet up with Andreas for a weekend in the city. However, that had to be changed due to too much work for Andreas which he couldn't dodge. However, my hosts were kind enough to let me stay a bit longer here.

My hosts are really happy to see me stay longer!

This, however have caused a bit of problems train-wise. Especially since I had called to a travel agency and asked about the train tickets from Denmark to Amsterdam and then onward to Antwerpen. They said they can't book within europe. I said I can't book though the site and it asks me to call in. They say that It will be available closer to the departure date. I try to get a ticket, and it says "we would give it to you, but it is too close to the departure date!"

Sooo, there I am, my friend Bart waiting for me in Antwerpen and have gotten a few days off even. Panic rising. I start calling all agencies I can find online to see if anyone can help me. Noone can. I am about to give up, half-choking sobs, when it strikes me... one of the sites showed which train company the trains belong to. So I do a new search on that site, then go to each and every company's site and manage to get an e-ticket from them, which my beloved brother printed out for me.

In other news, these last few days have been rather calm and nice. I've spent a day shopping with my brother's girlfriend. Spent an evening with my good friend Peter, drinking a few beers and talking about travel in general. Also eating on a Dutch themed resturant (hutspot and meat, mmm). And today I spent an afternoon and evening with Oscar and his girlfriend Mia. Oscar have made a really, really, really awesome mulled wine and also threw together a really sweet pumpin soup.

So, on Sunday I head to Denmark to spend half-a-day there, with monies donated by Peter towards the cause. And then onwards and forwards to Belgium!

My beard got upgrades!