"My my, at waterloo napoleon did surrender"

So today went for a short trip to Waterloo - the actual place where the European Allies defeated Napoleon. The weather was awesome, but there weren't many queues so it was great. The blue skies and the yellow wheat farms over the lands that over hundreds of years ago were host to one of the greatest European wars of all time. Here are a few pics to keep you occupied.

View Route in a larger map

And this is the route so far, pretty good coverage of the country, even if I do say so myself!

De Belgische leven.

The Belgian life. So after a month of living/working/travelling in Belgium, I think that I've got quite a good grasp on how the locals live. So here is a breakdown of the non-touristic view of Belgium.

The locals are very hard working, doctors here can start a day at out patients at 8am and keep on going for 12hrs with only an hour break. After that they try to squeeze in their real life, such as moving house, going for a drink with friends, seeing their kids. So yes doctors especially in the OBGYN department are very very hard working - yet they still seem relatively chirpy and smiling when they talk to patients.

Good manners are prime here - With an official hand shake with professional encounters and the cheek-kiss for 3times! I think its right cheek-left and then right again. But it might be the other way around. But this is only between girls or between a guy and a girl. The guys just shake hands. People are very respectful and helpful - they are also very educated with a lot of people knowing more than 3 languages proficiently and  many extra certificates.

Here exercise is nearly a must, the parks and streets are filled with people jogging and running. You find people of all ages, participating in sports all the time. Its a great way of life - hence everyone being skinnier and fitter than the average Maltese person. Even though it is the country of beer, pommes frittes and chocolate - this is far from the usual diet - most people eat a sandwich or two for their lunch and then a light dinner early in the evening. Biking is also another factor of life, all over the cities loads of bikes and their lanes and their appropriate parking can be seen - its so great cos its a quieter and greener way to travel - also healthier.

Beer! Now I NEVER used to drink beer before I knew I was coming to Belgium, and this place has the most amazing beers on the planet. Forget your wines and hard liquors - Belgium has over 8700 beers in production, when considering the special brews. They have amber, blonde, brown, champagne beer, dubbel, Flemish red, hop accentuated, lambic, pils, saison, scotch ales, stout, table, triple, white beer, Christmas beers etc... Ive had some great peach beer, honey beer, beer brewed by Carmelite monks - to name a few. But BEWARE the alcohol concentration is very high, so even one beer can have the effect of two or three glasses of wine. OH and EACH one has their own special glass!

What else...the weather - well I was lucky when I was here, cos there was a country wide heatwave so it was gorgeous blue and sunny ALL THE TIME, apart from when there was a freak thunder storm (at 30deg Celsius). This last week it has cooled down closer to the regular Belgian weather, more grey and fresh which is welcome :)

Also its extremely interesting being in a country that is so divided - Flanders, Wallonia - there is a language barrier as the first half speak Dutch and the latter speak French. But it is more than just a language barrier - its a different cultural divide - similar to the french vs english speaking parts of Canada I guess...alas - interesting.

In Bruges and Oostende

This weekend was awesome! We got to visit Bruges, which is allegedly the most romantic city in Belgium. It is a very cute dreamy city with loads of bridges and old historical buildings. It is also very touristic because of the movie that was shot here.

 Our couch surfing host was soo sweet and really fun to be with. She showed us around the city and since its so small it can all be done on foot. We went for a honey beer that evening and then retired to have a fresh early start! The following morning we grabbed 1kg of pancakes between the both of us and ate them facing a canal near the antique market place with a gorgeous view. Then we went around and did the typical tourist things, such as climbing the 366 steps to the top of the 13th century belfry. When we were up there the bells started ringing and it was an amazing experience to be around all the 47 bells while they chimed to a melody hand played by a guy a few levels further down. Then we met up with our host and a friend and kept on touring Brugges, including the Windmill parts where there was a soft rock concert being held outdoors where we just chilled out in the grass listening to the music and drinking some local beer.

Later that night we stayed in with our host to watch a movie, as Bruges is not known for its night life. The following day we did a few more museums (which we got into for free----score!) and then we went back home where our host was throwing a birthday party cos she turned 28. It was nice to meet some of her friends and parents. Then we had to leave early to catch a train to the coastal town called Oostende. 

It was awesome to be on the sea! The beach was full of seashells and the view of the 9km beach was incredible. With a massive promenade all along it. At some point in the early evening they setup a market with fresh food and stuff to buy, which transformed it into a great experience with an amazing  view. We stayed lollying around on the beach and then had some dinner on the benches with the most awesome view.

The perfect end to an awesome weekend!

Day of Caving and Castles and Gardens in Wallonia

Yep, it was an awesome day, last Wednesday was a national holiday in Belgium so we took the opportunity to go and visit the south of Belgium called Wallonia. It started off with a trip through a gorgeous caving system, reached by a rickety old red tram. The caves themselves were excellent and so beautiful to see with a nice 13degrees inside! 

After this we drove northwards via a few Castles and Country Mansions and their beautiful gardens. This way we visited some cute little towns like Dinant and Namur with their beautiful Chateaus and citadels.

It was a beautiful and exhausting day, but we got to see the beauty of Wallonia which most visitors overlook when they visit Belgium. As the locals say, Fantastisk!

Fantastic Gentastic

So last weekend was kind of epic...we went to Ghent! Its a lovely town in the middle of Flanders in Belgium. We also happened to be there at the time of the Gentse Feesten where basically the ENTIRE town goes on a wild party for a whole TEN DAYS! The city is filled wit parades, live street performers, dancing, concerts, open air discos, and obviously a lot of beer. We got there on a friday night and the festival was to start on Saturday so we walked around the streets preparing for the festival, with awesome lighting of the features and a bar placed on the river banks - it was fantastic. The day of the actual festival was impressive with a parade with different groups passing through and live music everywhere, and at around 6 the partying starts and goes on for 14-16hours till the next morning. We joined in the celebrations obviously as one must and had some local beers (obviously) and an amazing local liquor.

After partying we finished off the night with some Pommes Frittes as per Belgian tradition. The Sunday was spent pretty much the same way, walking around vintage markets, salsa dancing in the parks, visiting the design museum and the medieval castle.

This city is awesome, the people are great and its such a cute city with beautiful buildings and canals and we were lucky enough to be there during the festival. 

Fresh from 7hrs of surgery, I give you....my sore swollen feet!


I kid...i kid...well actually my feet are sore but there is no reason for me to present that to you. Its been a few days since I blogged so here is the 411 on what has been going down. 


Over the last weekend I visited Antwerp - the fashion city. And oh boy yes it is! Firstly it is the most important diamond processing market in the world! So as one can imagine, there are loads of Diamond shops around - very pretty and sparkly. So when we got there we had a few hours of running about which we spent in some of their malls because it was like 34deg and hence....we were melting! Then we met our couch surfing host. For the newbies - Couch Surfing is an international community that since 2004 has been active and this is their mission statement: Our mission as an organization is to create inspiring experiences: cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging, and illuminating. These experiences take many forms. CouchSurfing's initial focus was on hosting and "surfing" (staying with a local as a guest in their home). Alongside these core experiences, we now also facilitate a growing array of activities and events.
Oh btw its also free - which is also awesome!


So we met our first host - a medical student from Ghent but living in Antwerp. She was great to be with and really fun and friendly. She was very accommodating and we had a great time going out to the local spots with her. On our first night there we went out for a drink in a close by square which had a canopy of fairy lights that made it look like stars! Very cute! 

The following day we had a slow morning with a long breakfast and then headed into town and went around some of the tourist spots around town and some of their vintage shops!! We also visited this uber-exclusive chocolate shop that had the most AMAZING flavors! (they also had the traditional classical flavors)
Few of the ones I remember include;

• white chocolate and yellow curry
• sun dried tomatoes and olive oil - yes in a chocolate
• lime and vodka
• passion fruit and milk chocolate
• Cabernet sauvignon vinegar
• Wasabi
• tequila
• etc etc etc.

There also happened to be a Tall Ships Race starting in Antwerp that weekend so the river side was full with MASSIVE sailing ships, all in top shape and there were loads of activities occurring all over the city including marches and fireworks. That night we had planned on going out but there was like a freak rain and thunder storm what was quite savage....weird European weather. So we just stayed in having a bottle of Trappist Beer (brewed by Monks - and yes its like over 9% alc).

The following day we went to see the house where the famous painter Rubens lived, which was really nice and then back home for a sumptuous BBQ with the dutch friends of our host.

Finally we caught the 45min train back to Leuven and refreshed a bit before going out to the olde markt to watch the game in the biggest bar in Belgium. Its such a pity that the dutch lost, the square was quite quiet after the match, I'm sure it would have been a bit more chaotic if they had won - but then again they are dutch.

Today back at the hospital I got to play with a piece of surgical equipment costing around 1.5Million Euros. This is the Da Vinci Surgical Robot. This is the ULTIMATE in boyz toyz. I got to actually use it and play around with a sample silicone tester set on a petri dish, and this machine translates the movements of my fingers into an amazingly dexterous and intricate movements that are not possible with standard Laparoscopic surgery. It was so cool and awesome! Apparently one of the surgeons here uses it, so I will try to get in to one of his surgeries and see this puppy in action!!! Oh the awesomeness!

the day from hell!

so, today was nutz! i woke up with my throat swollen to the size of melons and believe me...it hurt. So in the morning, I had a placement at hospital and had quite a good day apart from trying to stay awake during minutes or hours of a lot of dutch, but at least i can follow slightly with help from my two years of German. After then I had to go to emergency to have a doctor look at my throat...and get this... i have a "nasty tonsillitis" then I had a laryngoscopy (they shove a camera through your nose!)

and then I hung around while they took my blood - they had to shave a bit of my arm off to get to the desired vein - not that its hard on me cos mine are like the M1. I'm fine basically...but ye...so the lab results came out and the venflon/blood catheter was removed at 4:15, and I had to be at this medical check up at 4pm.....oops!

This test was quite intense - they actually asked me to pee in a cup! Now that is embarrassing!

oigh weh!

long day.

La vie est bonne à Bruxelles

So we just got back from a weekend in Brussels. This is a great city. Very business minded obviously it being the Centre of the EU it must be. But its also very eclectic and has a cool relaxed vibe too. Everyone speaks French here which just adds to the charm, though they are not cocky about it. It is also not very touristy so thats great, but obviously its full with designer chocolate shops.

Our first day there we went to see the EU parliament and then had the traditional "Mussels in Brussels" which were DIVINE! and then tottered around the central square which is so pretty and everyone just hangs out in the center chatting. We then met our host and he showed us around some night life of the city. Starting off with some white wine and hopped off to a street party area with amazing Moijtos and then off to a club that was so elite, it didnt even have a sign outside! You have to ring a bell and this guy checks if you are the right scene and lets you in. VERY FAB!

On the Saturday we took it a bit easier yet still managed to make our way to "little Africa" and then around some of the major sights. That night we dined at this divine Thai place and then went to The Music Village where we heard some live jazz while drinking some of the local brew. It was so great!

Sunday we went to this MASSIVE market place that had EVERYTHING and it was such fun walking through. Then we went to the Atomium and happened to intersect some celebration for the Tour the France entering Belgium.

Back to the apartment in Leuven...im about to sign off and try get some shut eye before tomorrows first day at the hospital.

when you wake up in a strangers apartment

So this is my first post from Leuven, Belgium. Its a really cool university student city but still buzzing considering the  uni days just finished. It has a lot of gothic cute buildings.

Last night we met up with some music students and went for some traditional pommes frittes and picnicked on the roof of a massive parking building with a view of the entire city. Then we went for a walk in the local - we went to this massive square filled with a squillion bars and tasted some of the local produce - Stella Artois.

So far its all great- but SOOOO HOT. Soon off to Brussels....

greetz from Leuven

(btw ye i know i got CRAZY EYES)