"Gro's World" Groentje's Profile

Oostende in the summer - the good life!

Hey all
Thanks for coming in and having a look at my VT-page! I hope you can find some information here that can proove valuable on your trip to anywhere I have been to in my short life. If you have any questions on any of the places I visited, feel free to ask me! I'm also always ready to guide people through Belgium, well, at least through Gent and Bruges (even Oostende) if they want to :-)
Other questions are, of course, also welcome.
Enjoy your stay!

Groentje

Go see the night sights!

When I go somewhere (especially lately), I try to savour as much as possible the way people live in that particular place. Eating local dishes, drinking local booze, trying to speak a bit of the lingo: it all adds to that special vacation feeling! I usually also prepare my travels not too carefully, so as to still be able to be surprised by sth I see.
If you ask me, the best vacations you can have are a) by yourself, b) with someone you love or like a great lot or c) with someone who lives over there. This in no particular order, of course! I've had the pleasure of doing all three of them, and I hope I can keep doing so.
Travel mottos:
- get local!
- don't be afraid to get lost!
- travel around the place where you live yourself!
- try to go to a local festivity, e.g. a festival in Belgium (such as the "Gentse Feesten" or "Lokerse Feesten"): in here the true spirit of a country lies
- take your time to get to know sth
and many other pieces of advice which I will post in due time.
But as I guess everyone already knows this wonderful advice, I'll go on and tell a little bit more about myself.
I'll try to post a lot of tips on my own surroundings, such as Flanders, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and on my own behaviour, such as local customs here in Belgium: the advice I would give for anyone coming over here.

Sight from a Miradouro onto the Castle in Lisbon

Most of the places I have visited are in Europe. I've been to Paris, Prague, Cyprus and more recently in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Scotland. I've also been in Turkey, which is where we met the most friendly people (really amazing: they'd rather give away something for free than that they'd let you go empthy-handedly!).
The country I liked the most was Portugal (didn't like Cyprus all that much: it was good, but a bit too crumbled down for my likes...), the cities I loved the most were Barcelona and Prague.
I just came back from Scotland, and I must say that I actually liked that one even better than Portugal! Maybe a mix of the two would be perfect?
Last year I have spent two weeks in Brazil as well, in what would be one of the best holidays I ever had! Check out my Brazil pages on this marvellous adventure...
New York was also one of my destinations last year... I never felt more welcome in a city than there! Can't believe how much I've seen, really. I must be a very lucky man...

I have been to some places in Europe, but I would like to extend my horizon in the future.
Places I simply have to have seen in my life: Roma, Krakow, Egypt, Jordan, Mexico/Peru (well, the Inca trail maybe?), ... Tips are always welcome!
Not that I'm rich, though, but, as I always tend to say: you only live once, so carpe diem!
This year my plans will (hopefully) bring me to bonny Scotland, crazy Croatia and many other Belgian places!
Bring it on!

Kiwiland!

2005 should be a great year for me! I'm taking off time at work to do a Kiwi adventure from February until mid-June! Yes, indeed, I'm taking off 4 (FOUR) months to check out New-Zealand, country of countries, and this hopefully by bike. Unfortunately I hurt my knee last month, and I hope I'll be fit enough to do the whole tour, but I guess we'll see about that pretty soon.

To read a Dutch report on my trip, go to groentje.skynetblogs.be which will be my weblog while there. Of course, ANY tips are more than welcome :-)

Not too good a story, but I have been punished for whatever bad I have done in my life severely. First, I lost my camera, and no one had the curtosy to give it back; then my mobile phone got nicked! One moment it was still there, ten minutes later it was gone forgood, in the hands of some lowlife... And now, to top all of this: they have stolen my bike! Seriously, this is not a good 40 days for me...
Out of all of these the loss of the (digital) camera was the worst for me! It still had pictures of a party on them that I hadn't downloaded yet. And best of all: once the battery is out, they cannot use it anymore without a charger!
I must say though that ever since I returned from Brasil I can understand the phenomenon theft a bit more. People like me have everything we need, and it's just a small setback if we lose sth; but for the thieves it might mean a lot, such as food for a week or even a month.
Still sucks, though :-/
But it's in the past, so no need to worry about it anymore!

Our studio

Whenever you're in Belgium on a Thursday evening, jump in your car and drive to West-Flanders!! You'll be able to hear our radio show! It's called "de Frequentie", which means the Frequency :-) It's on 106.50 FM, in the region around Tielt. Check it out!
Just an update for 2006: the programme has been cancelled some time ago, but we are thinking about starting another one, more oriented to the radio's general public ;-)