Travel
1 Introduction
I am in Liège, Belgium, for the summers (Indian summers, May–July) for my internship at ULiège. I had to get a short-term Schengen visa to get here. Now, one blessed thing about the Schengen VISA is that it gives you access to (almost) all of Europe. Since this is my first time abroad, my plan was to visit a lot of places around Belgium during the weekends. Places like Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Berlin etc. topped the list.
A lot has changed since then, and this is the documentation of that.
2 About me
Not to disclose a lot, but to provide relevant context, this is an essential section. Whenever I want to do anything, I have this huge tendency to push the planning part of things until the very last moment. This usually plays well with strangers and gives me the “living-in-the-present” look, but to me and the people who know me, it’s just decorated procrastination.
Nevertheless, it does spin off into some trivial benefits. Spontaneity is one of the most relevant ones here. I like it. I like the idea of not stressing about planning when eventually, in this undeterministic environment, no plan is ever accurate (which ironically induces more stress, but more about that on a different post).
3 Where is this guy headed?
(I have no idea either, honestly.)
Two weeks here, and I have my first opportunity to travel big. A long weekend is approaching, and I need to plan something out. My colleague is planning to go off to Amsterdam and is asking me to confirm if I will be joining her. There is only 3 days left and the way of travel is simple: the earlier you book, the more you save.
Ooooh, time to make a decision.
Honestly, I was almost ready with my yes, because there was no reason to say no. But two things happened that day.
3.1 Thing 1: Belgian influence
Google, having identified my interests, shows me posts related to mountain biking. This is normal (Should it be, though? Post idea: “Normalization of Corporate Overwatch and Why You Can’t Do Anything About It”), and I usually ignore these suggestions. But that day I was hit with “Best MTB Trails in Belgium” and this caught my attention. Now, it’s been really long since I have hit a trail. REALLY long.
I opened the post, and guess what? The trail that tops this list is a collection of hiking routes in Nonceveux, Liège. Thirty kilometers south of where I work.
As I looked at the pictures, memories flooded in like an elaborate reel of experiences sprinkled with adernaline-filled fantasies.
Take a lung full of green air, strap my jacket on, and hit the roots on a mad descent. Split-second decisions on the pedal to avoid the last fall only to be tested on the next one.
Ran outta breath? The legs can’t stop; no, they can’t, not today, not here. WHHAAAAAAAA
And my mind was almost made.
3.2 Thing 2: SurfCouching
Finding accommodation has been a pain here. Either it’s too costly or it’s just bad. Usually, it’s costly and bad.
Sitting on my bed, scrolling through Google post suggestions (OK, I do this a lot), I come across another brilliant blog on traveling cheap in Europe (I didn’t save the link :/). Flixbus, cheap hostels, transport cards—the usual stuff. Towards the end, the author mentioned CouchSurfing. I had heard of the term before but didn’t know there was a whole site dedicated to it. And I have no idea which came first, the site or the concept.
The concept summarized is “a bunch of hosts ready to spare a couch and provide the travelers with the local experience out of nothing but their generosity and the idea of meeting interesting new travelers.”
SIGN ME UP!
Convenient timing.
4 Cheap thrills and a long checklist
Going off to Amsterdam for four days, living in a hotel, visiting the cafe to get the greens, and, and… And what?
That is when I realized all I was doing with my rough travel “plans” was trying to tick off a mental checklist. A list of cities. A list of tourist attractions. A list of places that are fun. A list I made by looking at the limited sources I’ve come across.
Aren’t all sources “limited” then? What do you base any logical decision on, then? Your gut? Haha, that can’t be true. Right? RIGHT?
Fuck.
Gut’s Monologue
Don’t you want to get on a train to nowhere, or hit the exciting trails that no one talks about, or go karting in Spa?
Don’t you really want to feel this country and its culture by staying with the locals here in small towns that no travel blog has ever talked about? Sure, you might not get the fancy bars or the loud clubs—or even any entertainment at all.
And maybe that’s precisely what you need.
Boredom.
5 So, where is this guy headed?
(I seriously have no idea, but it’s not Amsterdam.)
Here I am, sitting in my lab with my dear coffee and Pink Floyd on the stereo, writing this elaborate blog on… I don’t even know what. The long weekend starts tomorrow, and I still have no idea where I’ll be headed, but sure, I will head somewhere.
Maybe all of this is just a plot to save on travel costs to Amsterdam or just an excuse to write something. Maybe.
Whatever it is, it feels right.
Lately, that is all I’ve been looking for.
Written after the weekend
"Pink Floyd on the stereo"
6 Where did this guy go?
Munich.
Hahaha.
I was headed to Spa but found out Roger Waters was performing on Sunday. Took the next day’s bus, found the sweetest host on CouchSurfing and headed there.
Conclusion
I don’t hate Amsterdam. Just like I don’t hate people who plan and try to get things sorted out at the earliest. I hate the planning.
Honestly, I don’t think I am even close to figuring it out.
It really is hard. I still have a lot of questions. I understand the philosophy I preach very vaguely, and I am restless and a hypocrite at times. I want to be spontaneous; I want to procrastinate the planning to fill it with activity, but I hate the times when I am lazy. When I push writing. When I push reading.
It hurts the most when I push creating.
Well, at least Munich was fun.
The sweetest host
Beer gives you wings
Does everybody at the bar feel pain? Yeah, sure. They do.