Wednesday, January 03, 2007

wrong way

LAVAZZA!
On the 31st i planned on visiting my friend Dennis in Belgium, only 3 hours away from Amsterdam, and it was his birthday, and there was a new years party. Not many people go to belgium, not really marked down as a "must visit" kinda place. The problem of understanding each other could also be one of the reasons (people are more likely to speak french than english as their second language). The trip started out great, taking pictures of the scenery a woman on the train began to talk to me, only to help me find out that i was on the wrong train. I had gotten on a train heading in the opposite direction - my train was on 14a not 14b, i had turned the wrong way on the platform. The conducter was quite nice, and helped me plan a trip to belgium that didn't include turning around and starting again. This is my trip to Antwerp, Belgium: After a very convuluted trip, i managed to make it to lier, the city nearest to Dennis' village Lint (like the pocket stuff!). That night i had dinner with Dennis family plus a few extended relatives and than we went to his friend's Jimmy's for a new years party which included fireworks in his backyard. People were very nice and everyone knew english and attempted at including me.
Jimmy's girlfriend Ellen was very sweet and was helpful in bringing me into the fold. Dennis djed for some of the party..did a rather good job, and than we went to a youth hang place for a bit more fun and to rub shoulders with other people (and so as not to keep up the neighbors). We stayed up late and slept in rather late as well. The next day we helped clean up from the party and than went to Dennis' girlfriend's house for a new years dinner. Everyone was nice and the mother and younger sister tried to help by speaking in English every once in awhile. Truthfully, it got a bit overwhelming by the end of that night (alot of Dutch) although i found it quite easy to follow along with certain key words and hand movements. And than we went to Antwerp for the day. Dennis showed me his favorite places, and we took pictures of this special square only for graffiti

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