July trip
30/6 - Utrecht/Bruges

*This post was supposed to have some photos in it, but thanks to the incompetence/stupidity/laziness of a French Internet Cafe staff member in Nimes, they have been lost for eternity*

*Appelflappen exterior and interior*
Luckily, I snapped a replacement photo before leaving. I love appelflappen. Mmm...

I got a "Welkom in Utrecht" card from the city/state administration a few weeks before I left. Gah.

The Utrecht University general purpose administrative applet has a 'shopping basket' where you can add modules. Good name.

I went to the post office again to ship stuff, and found out that 5kg was the boundary between 2 prices, so at 4,975kg I was 25g from paying more than €10 more (I paid €22,50 to ship this second parcel). Darn, I thought it was charged by the kg.

I saw a sticker on an advertising panel: "I ♥ Murphy's Law". Wth?

Even the Dutch call their country "Holland" in English. You have orange banners which say: "Hup Holland Hup". I guess it's snappier in a 2 syllable form than 3.

In early June, my housemate went to see the Last Supper. He said it was funny because Christ's leg was cut in half because they needed a new door.


One Belgian train had on its window: 'Nooduitgang / Issue de secours / Notausstieg / Uscita d'emergenza'. Looks like they forgot one very important language.

At a snack bar (or frituur, as the Flemish call it) near a train station I transited at, my frites-containing baguette was wrapped in paper, and holes were then poked in it. The plastic bag this paper-wrapped parcel was placed in also had holes poked in it. With such dedication, it's no wonder the Belgians are said to make frites better than the Dutch (though I don't find that so).


A combined map/guide (Use-It) called Bruges the Venice of the North. They must be joking - I thought that was Amsterdam. Bruges doesn't even have that many canals! For an imaginary country they sure are cocky. Other information from the guide follows.

Bruges is the most expensive city to take a public pee in in Flanders - the fine is €152. This compares to €60 in Ghent and €50 in Antwerp (for first time offences).

Belgium has the highest suicide rate in the world after Sweden.

Heilig Bloedbasiliek (Basilica of the Holy Blood): At 10:15, a vial believed to contain the blood of Jesus Christ is placed on a pillow. Believers believer that the solid blood is changed into fluid. In August 2005, scientists found this was due to temperature changes, "but what the hell do they know".

In 2005, Spencer Tunick conducted some mass naked procession thing (Photos)

The map marked 'Romantic hotspot's. Haha.

There's a place where you can buy 1kg of pancakes for €4,50.

Astridpark was labelled: 'Frisbee and cute asses park'

Instead of a traditional distance-based scale, the map had a scale graduated in terms of time taken to walk between places.


Someone was asking me to give him travel tips, so I thought up as many as I could think of. At the end I'll compile them into a master list, so if readers have any to add they can leave a comment.

Travel tips:

- Don't be too ambitious, especially if you plan to enjoy the nightlife in the places you visit
- Know your stamina. Not everyone can sustain the same pace
- Don't travel in July, August and probably early September and late June also. It's hot and crowded
- Know your tastes. Don't plan for 8 days in Italy and get ruin-ated
- If you'll be traveling in Europe quite a bit, a Eurail pass may give you good value for your money. Buy it before you enter Europe, since prices are higher if you buy them there
- Find which trains require reservations. For example in Italy and France the expensive ones need reservations
- Travel with someone if you can so long train/bus rides are less boring
- Plan ahead, especially for things like the Last Supper. You do lose flexibility though
- Buy a guidebook. There's a reason why they exist; there is a good reason people don't take the roads much less traveled. But don't use take them as the gospel truth or otherwise be shackled by them
- Use protection
- Don't travel with Jiekai
-> Unless you are blur, so since he's a cock, together you'll be "blur cock"
- Don't trust the French to burn your photos to CD properly. Actually you should check, no matter who burns them
- Don't travel by Eurolines
- Bring your own sheets if you want to save some money. I only got to save money once though
- Read my blog. No, really. So you don't do stupid things like walk 7km to the wrong lake
- Don't travel for too long - you get travel fatigue
- On Mondays, most museums and many attractions are closed


Quotes:

Don't look at other people's exam papers... I get very annoyed... I have work to do also... Most of the time I will be too busy to check.