"Postcards From Belgium..." Belgium by coceng

Belgium Travel Guide: 26,876 reviews and 52,632 photos

Belgium Started It All !...

EURO TRIP 2002
EURO TRIP 2003
EURO TRIP 2004
MIDDLE EAST TRIP 2005

EURO TRIP 2001 ( THE FIRST GREAT TRIP ! ) :
BELGIUM
THE NETHERLANDS
LUXEMBOURG
MAY 2001...
My 1st trip to Europe started in Belgium. Taking less than 2 weeks, covering 2 more countries, Holland & Luxembourg.
Why Belgium....& why not ? Actually, it was all because of a friend...Patrick....who lives in Antwerp.
Previous year, he asked me to accompany him somewhere...he chose Club Med in Bintan Island....south of Singapore....(not sure about the location though...)...
I said..I didn't have a passport...he asked me to make one, I said why should I....blah blah blah....I was not interested in going out from my own habitat...my room is my world..I was that type....
......but thanks to him......one day, as I am writing this in 2003, I would have set my own 2 feet in great destinations such as Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Croatia....& a few more !
Anyway, so the story with Patrick goes like this : ..instead we decided to go to Borneo..it's part of Malaysia & I don't need a passport....We went deep in the jungle by a small sampan (canoe-type with one pedal....)...into the Long Houses, where the men still wearing thongs & the women were topless....
It was just for a few days.....
...but I came back from that brief trip with a new zest in life !...& getting ready for the world !...
So, coming to Belgium was sort of returning visit from my part to him.....hence, my first European destination was...& will always be, Belgium.
Too bad that Patrick couldn't spend more times with me...& a British friend, Reg...came to accompany me.
It was my trip with Reg....exploring the best of Belgium, Amsterdam....& Luxembourg....meeting Internet friends along the way.
The first trip gave me so much good insights about meeting people, getting oriented about places, what should I eat, what should I do....etc etc.
I remember the first time I set foot in Brussels..although a few hours before that, my plane was stopping for a few hours in Zurich & I got out to have a smoke, so my first European air was inhaled in Zurich....Ha! Ha! Ha!...
....anyway, it was chilly...it was in early May....I started to get cold....that was good...because it's this feeling that I always wanted to 'feel' while being away from home....away from my own habitat...away from the world that I used to know....
Please have a visit to all these place pages with many photos to feel good at!

MY ITINERARIES...

June 2001. First trip to Europe.
Plus 2 more countries :The Netherlands
Luxembourg
11th June 2001 ( Monday ) : Arrived in Brussels ! At the airport, Patrick greeted me; Feeling my first European air ! Though actually I polluted ( ie smoking...) the first European air in Zurich when the flight (MAS Airline) had a stop-over there in Switzerland !
Feeling good after taking the first longest flight of my life !
Patrick took me home to his place in Antwerp & I told him that another friend would be flying in from London, Paul.
On this first day, 3 of us just chilled out around Brussels, amazing city !
12th June 2001 ( Tuesday ) : Me & Paul did our own walks around Brussels. Patrick was busy in Antwerp.
13th June 2001 ( Wednesday ) : Me & Paul took the train & went to Bruges & I just loved this medieval place ! On the way back to Brussels, we had time to stop over in Ghent. A university town but it was quiet when we were there...
14th June 2001 ( Thursday ) : From Brussels, we took the train to Antwerp ! Tried to call Patrick several times but couldn't get him so me & Paul just wandered around the beautiful Antwerp on our own...
15th June 2001 ( Friday ) : Again tried to call Patrick but couldn't. Well, we could just drop in front of his place but me & Paul had too much fun ourself that honestly speaking, I almost forgot Patrick.
I can say that I had 2 days of my life when I was with Paul in Antwerp ! I told Paul that "three's a crowd !" We just laughed !
16th June 2001 ( Saturday ) : Me & Paul decided that we wanted to get out from Antwerp & off to Amsterdam !

16th & 17th June 2001, I was in Amsterdam !

18th June 2001 ( Monday ) : We took the morning train from Amsterdam back to Belgium & got off in Luvain-la-Neuve to meet another friend called Dmitri.
Dmitri took us by his car to Villers-la-Ville to see some abbey ruins ! So impressive to my eyes ! We even had the time to see Namur !
By this tme, I was very much hooked to Europe ! I wanted to stay there !
Slept at Dmitri's place for the night.
19th June 2001 ( Tuesday ) : From Luvain-la-Neuve, we had to backtrack to Brussels to take the train to Luxembourg City !
I never planned to visit this country or city at all, thanks Paul !

19th & 20th June, I stayed around Luxembourg City

20th June 2001 ( Wednesday ) : In the afternoon, we had to take the train back to Brussels & stayed the night there.
21st June 2001 ( Thursday ) : Me & Paul went to the airport to take our flight back to our homes. Me to Kuala Lumpur & Paul back to London.

The photo on the left was taken in Brussels but I made it into a virtual postcard. There are many more virtual postcards from me on ALL my Belgium pages. have a visit !
Click...HERE to go to the page first....

Last visit to Belgium: May 2001
Intro Updated Jul 14, 2005
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Reviews (10)

Dmitry & me in Villers La Ville, in Belgium - Belgium

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Comments (2)

dragontml Dec 21, 2003 at 5:06 PM Report Abuse

great update, arnaud. i must firther explore Belgium in the future ! ;-)
annelies77 Apr 2, 2002 at 8:03 AM Report Abuse

I`m ready for an update ;-))