A plan is born.....and dies

For a change i made an actual plan, just because this will be my first time driving my car abroad and i don't want to get stuck somewhere without a place to sleep. I will drive for a couple of hours and then stay with a CS host (read more about CouchSurfing here). My first host will be Douglas from Leuven, but because he is in Gent for the Gentse feesten i will drive to Gent to party. A couple of days before I found out that my CS buddy Duke is going to Paris so i will have company until Gent. I will drop Duke a a gasstation for him to hike to Paris and after the Gentse feesten i will go to Leuven with Doug. From there I will stay there for a day and be on my way to Metz to stay with Juan. Next stop will be Lyon where i am surfing Guillaumes couch. From there i think i will stop somewhere in Valance or Marseille and then Mataro Spain and Barcelona

...offcourse nothing of this actually happened...


23 july; Rotterdam

Mondaymorning I am very wellprepard, i've made lists and packed everything in advance. Just a last check and i will be on my way.
car: check
bags: check
gps: check
passport: check
guitar, phone charger,tent and flip flops: ah fuck!

that is a good start of my trip 45 minutes to go and 45 minutes to come back to pick up my pretty important stuff with my parents in Nieuw-Vennep. After a little breakfast and a 20 minute warning instruction by my beloved and worried parents I am back on my way to conquer half of Europe but not before i pick up my best CS buddy DUKE

Travelling with Duke is fun and i am happy i am not alone on this trip just yet. we talk and listen to Marillion and Mexican songs and Marillion, and some more Marillion (i am really starting to like Marillion)

After hours we arrive at the last petrol station before Gent, Duke has to get off here according to plan to hich hike to Paris so he comes with me to Gent.

In Gent we meet Douglas 35 minutes late (our fault), we park at Tibeau's house, Bo is a friend of Douglas and we make a Gentsefeestenplan. The weather in Gent is worse than in Holland. But the 3 of us are having a great time. After a couple of hours and much food and music later Duke and I decide to get back to Tibeaus house while Douglas and his friends are going to a Techno party called 10 days off. We get back to Bo's place where Bo, Nicola (Bo's housemate) Koen (a fiend of Nicola) and an Italian couple (Andrea and Marta) have just finished eating (it's 23:30) We listen to music, Duke an Bo play guitar and sing and there is no sleeping going on what soever. So around 2.30 we get around to a bit of sleep....until 2,5 hours later cause Doug comes back from 10 days off. Luckily he decides to go to sleep instead of getting me to drive back to Leuven in the middle of the night.

Of course the next day the weather is fantastic. After breakfast we have to drop Duke off at the petrol station (again) for him to hich hike to Paris but instead......

we all drive to Paris.

So long plaaaahahaaaan, it's time that we began to for-get we are having a plan at allllll (to the melody of L. Cohen's so long Marian)






24 July; Paris
After a long and exhausting but great journey (Duke and I have been singing mexican songs at the top of our lungs while Doug is trying to get some sleep for the fist time in 48 hours)
we get to a bridge where the trivia part of a CS meeting is going on (by the way i think i can be called a qualified driver by now cause i have been driving around in the center of Paris and I did not kill us or other people....oh and i did not damage my own or other cars or objects)
We realize that we haven't eaten since breakfast so we run for expensive Parisian food and arrange that the 3 of us can sleep at Frediric's place. He guides his to his house, so instead of a TomTom we use the FredFred.
Fred lives in the 5th district in Paris, he will not be staying at his own house (in couchsurfers we trust) but with his girlfriend after 2 episodes of Family guy we fall asleep.

Couchsurfing rules!!!Family guy rules!!!


25 july; Paris

After a very slow morning we finally got ourselves out of Freds apartment. Got breakfast and went back into Freds apartment. Ate the breakfast and finally got ourselves out of Freds apartment. I got familiar with the Parisian subway culture and the happy trinity arrived at the........bar.
This week there is a big CS thing going on, the Paris Rendez-Vouz, where lots of CS organizers get together. We meet up with Tiina from Rotterdam and some more people that i have met before.

On the menu for today there is a tour through Paris highlighting a couple of interesting places. A group of about 40 people including a French (Amelle) and an American guide living in Paris (Caroline) tell us something about the places we stop at. The tour is quite long but it is fun to walk around Paris while talking to lots of people who are from all over the world.
Later that evening we go to some Lebanese restaurant with a group of 40 people to watch the Couchsurf documentary inseparable Steve and Cedric did on local tv.


Tonight we can't stay at Fred's because Casey and Aldo are staying there. Luckily we found Antoine a.k.a. SUPERYAMI prepared to host the 3 of us. Ben (the bends) from Australia is already staying there. Antoine lives in Chelles a little outside of Paris. We have a snoring contest but Antoine is and forever will be the undefeated winner. I have a headache!!!