Is there never a right time to say goodbye?

Jetlag + qwerty = not the ideal situation to write but here I am!

So where did we left off? Right, my goodbye party. Ooow I liked it! I liked it like a facebook-like times 10! I had a wonderful time and I hope the invited ones felt the same way. I went home with a great but pretty wasted feeling. Around 4.30 o'clock I lay in my bed with only one thought 'I love my friends and that is why I am going to miss them so much..'

But I guess that knowing that there are people caring about you and vise versa is the reason why leaving is such a wonderful experience. If you do not have a home to come back too, than what does leaving means? I define 'home' not literally as the place where your house is situated but the place where you are surrounded by the people that you love and love you back. How meaningful and challenging is leaving when there is no home to come back to? I am lucky to be able to miss home and be missed by the ones that are part of it.

I woke up with a huge headache –‘one from here to Taiwan I would say in Dutch’ ;) – realizing that I still had to finish packing my bags with only one kg left to reach the weight limit. I could not think straight so I just filled my bags with the things I really needed (probably not) and hoped that they would have mercy at the airport! Eventually, I left with a bag of 26 kg (3kg overweight) and a handbag of 10 kg (2kg overweight)..Talking about taking a risk and winning the battle against weight!

 I said goodbye to my mother and cried off course, typically me! And then, after the crying and sniveling, Stephanie, my best friend from the hood, came to the airport to say a last goodbye <3! Finally, there I was, walking through security, looking one more time over my shoulder and waving my hand to my mother and best friend. My journey began, on my own.

 Chris Brown sings that there is never a right time to say goodbye but I do not agree. At my goodbye party everybody was surprised that I already left the day after but admit…How awkward is it to have your party two weeks before you leave and to still see your friends after you already said goodbye??? So Chriske, I do not agree and I know you are not singing about travelling but seriously dude! When you feel like braking up and saying goodbye? Just be a man and say it ASAP. ASAP IS THE RIGHT TIME, trust me...

Upcoming: a picture of my last Belgian meal and a third person that was there with me at the airport + the fly story and the weekend at Lilly's family.

Goodbye everybody! X

2, 1, Ready to take off?

The moment I lay my underwear in my traveling bag is always that moment when I start to realize that I will be away from home for a while. Honestly? IT FREAKS ME OUT! Why? You will understand immediately!

There are some qualities that come in handy when you are travelling alone:

1. Having a sense of Orientation                            (Remember the time when I missed my snowboard course because I took the wrong skirun (after 5 days)? Karen will never forget:))
2. Being well informed                                          (I am never "the one with all the gossip")
3. Being on time                                                   (I think, almost never?)
4. Taking care of your stuff                                   (If I sum up all the things I have lost until now, then those  Hugo Boss boots (<3) suddenly do not seem so expensive anymore.)

I suppose you all get the picture! It will be exhausting for me trying to obtain those qualities but HEY, challenge accepted!

Back to my traveling bag story! Something that I really need to take with me is a present for my host family. What would be better than a box of Belgian specialities??! CHOCOLATE AND BEER!

What is in this delicious box of heaven? Côte D'Or bars of all kinds, Cuberdons, Chokotoffs, Napoleons, Nougat, Waffles from Liege! Hope they like it!

For Beer I chose Grimbergen Blond (of course), Leffe Brown and Maes Zero (I read somewhere that some Taiwanese families do not drink alcohol). "Oh no, did you really bought cans instead of bottles?" Yes I did, I mean 23 kg? I have nightmares about that number!

Tomorrow evening, my last evening in Belgium for a long time, I wanted to have a real Belgian supper: A nice saignant backed Steak with pepper sauce and homemade fries! (Mmmmm) And to celebrate my last night, I organized a small goodbye party for my close friends.

This was my last message from Grimbergen, Still a lot to pack and puzzle!

(Belgian) Greetz. X

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly awaaaaay ...

I am now 5 days away from my departure and I am starting to feel a little bit nervous from time to time. I must say, there were a lot of things I needed AND STILL NEED to take care of before I leave...

First, to book a flight, it's a tricky thing because if you book too soon, you risk to miss an opportunity to book a flight last minute at a low price but when you wait too long, the chance of finding a relatively cheap flight decreases. It is the first time I am doing a long haul flight so I wanted to be sure that I had my ticket on time. I booked it in the first week of August and paid approximately EUR 950. I booked it online at fluege.de (a German website). 

I must say, the fact that it is a German one and that there was no possibility included to translate it, did not make it easy. So when I really did not understand the steps of the booking process I just copy-pasted the text into Google translate. I know a lot of people that are against Google translate. But seriously? For translations like that? It works pretty damn good and fast. ;)

EUR 950 is not that expensive for this distance but there are a few reasons that explain why it is cheap.. I have 2 stops on my way to Taiwan (one in Frankfurt and one in Hong Kong) and also 2 when I come back (one in Hong Kong and one in Munich). I fly 6 time economy class, 4 times with Lufthansa and 2 times with another airline (these are the two flights between Taipei and Hong Kong). The total travel time is 17 hours. At least, that is how I booked it. Unfortunately, I got an email a few weeks after my booking date to inform me that there were some flight changes in my schedule. What was the result? When I come back, I need to wait 10 hours in the Hong Kong airport instead of 1,5 hours what was pretty bad news. But you cannot do much about that. So I hope it now stays that way. 

I got some interesting information from a professor that I needed to check out the seat quality of my plane on the website seatguru.com. It is amazing. You can find all technical information of the specific plan in which you are going to fly. Good seats are green, bad seats are red. Basically it comes down to that. For more details check it out! 

I also downloaded the application TripCase on my BB so that I can check flight hour changes in my schedule at all times!

Another drawback besides the flight change is the fact that I can only take one piece of luggage with me of 23 kg + 8kg carry-on baggage...... 31kg for 2 months....................... ARE YOU KIDDIN ME? I think this will be one of the biggest challenges of my life. :) But still, I am so happy and excited that I will be singing this beautiful old song in my shower the day I will leave this little piece of the earth, called Belgium, behind.


Come fly with me, let's fly let's fly away.

Byebyeee.