Tuesday 8 December 2015

Some people

These kind of people are so very important in life because every little bit counts.

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Peace at mind

Be at peace, not in pieces.

A few weeks ago I set myself a new life goal.
Graduating high school I wanted to be free, see and get to know the world. This I started by backpacking through Australia. Now I’m doing this by studying. My Sister told me that she had never felt freer than when studying, that it was the best time of her life. So, here I am. In my first year studying animal care in the beautiful city of Ghent, Belgium.
So far I’m not really feeling all the ‘freedom’ and ‘time of my life’-ness yet so I set myself some new things to do in life, besides studying.

The first of which is to celebrate my birthday every year in an (for me) unknown country. As my birthday is around Easter as long as I’m at school I know I’ll have 2 weeks vacation, which is just awesome. And later if I’m working or traveling or just living my life no matter where in the world I can just go on a weekend. There are so many countries I haven’t even heard of in my life and this way I’ll go on vacation at least once a year.
Now that I’ve tasted the freedom of traveling I can’t get enough of it.

Secondly I want to find adventure where I first wouldn’t of dreamt of looking, in Belgium that is. City tripping doesn’t always have to be London, Paris or Barcelona. I want to go backpacking in the cities I think I know. Because you see the thing is, I don’t know them at all. I’ve lived in Ghent for almost 3 months now and the other day I got lost driving home from school on my Vespa. Anyway, by getting lost I ended up on the whole other side of the city, which was pretty adventurous.

So I’m going to find adventure close by just as well as around the world.

SURPRISING NICE
At the beginning of November I went on a srprs.me trip to Nice, France. And it as absolutely fabulous !
The weather was great and we had an awesome time walking around the old city up the hill for fantastic views, good laughs and about a million selfies. In the evening we stuffed our faces with sushi or took a train to Monaco to go play 5€ in a casino without understanding the game so just pushing buttons until the money was gone to then have some badass burgers and take a strole across the fair.


It was in other words the perfect getaway weekend. Exactly what I needed.

xoxo, Lizzie



France, October 31 - November 3 2015

Monday 26 October 2015

SURPRISE

Alright, so this weekend it’ll be a year since I left on my great Australian adventure and because I really didn’t want to be in the country that weekend I booked a little broke city trip with my sister.
But this little city trip ain’t going to be your average London, Parijs, Amsterdam-citytrip. No. You see the thing is we have no idea where we’re going to go. In fact we won’t have a clue until we step on the (hopefully) right plane in Rotterdam (NL) on the morning of the 31st. How exciting is that???!

Yes I know, VERY.


So, Tweenie had found this awesome site a few months ago already but we didn’t really had the time to go anywhere over summer and with me just coming back from Oz and being down and all we never really got to booking a trip. But now a couple of weeks ago it started daunting on me that this coming weekend it would be a year since I had left and I realised that I REALLY didn’t want to be in the country that weekend. (And Monday is a national holiday so neither of us have school! Woehoe!) Alright so we started looking at like the basic London (where I’ve never been btw!) but as London is very expensive certainly if you start booking on short term like we were. So than all of a sudden I remembered the ‘broke’ category on this 'srprs.mesite so I went on the site and booked immediately!

The basic principle of the website is ‘you'll of wherever you're meant to go’.  Which is totally awesome.
The site works like this:
  • First of all you start by choosing a category ( City tripping, broke, solo together, Multi city, adventure, road tripping… ) and date.
  • After choosing your date, filling out the form and paying the actual fun begins!
  • In the week before your actual depart, you'll receive an envelope with a card on your doorstep. This card contains certain information on which airport and at what time you are expected to be on the day of your departure but the most important thing on the card is the unique scratch code  which you (and your friend) are to scratch once at the airport to reveal your destination unknown! 
  • So all that is now left to do is to board that plane and be ready for an awesome adventure!

  • For more information , reviews or anything else regarding this awesome site please go to https://srprs.me

Tuesday 8 September 2015

a year ago

Exactly one year ago my dearest grandad left us behind here on earth 
a year ago I wandered through the beautiful city of Budapest with my sister 
one year ago I made the decision not to study but spend my year abroad, in Australia, instead.
 what a year it has been.


xoxo Lizzie

Monday 7 September 2015

new starts

In little less than a week I'll start yet another new chapter in my life; STUDYING

I've noticed that life's all about the new things.
Which is good, because I love new things, they keep me going just as old ones do too. But in different ways, of course.

Studying always seemed so scary and real to me, I never pictured myself actually doing it. But here I am, about to start a new chapter called agro- and biotechnology (literal translation).
Animal care, more specifically, is what I'm going to be studying the next 3 years. Well, it's what I'll attempt to study. We'll see how it goes.
Anyway, I started packing last week. How strange it is to fit 60% of my stuff in boxes and buy another 30% worth of pots, pans, cutlery, mugs, plates, spatulas, and so on. It's weird because I've already done all that stuff, buying the household things you need while living on your own. I already had and bought all that stuff in Australia, but I only have a pair of tongs and a whisk from Oz. The rest I sold or gave away. So buying things twice just feels strange. 
Good thing I like buying new stuff especially if they're for my own use in my own little home. ;)
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.  -Barack Obama

night night,
xoxo Lizzie 





Saturday 29 August 2015

Sweden baby!

SWEDEN JULY 2015
This was my last minute Scandinavia-adventure this summer.






In the early evening on July the 20th I boarded a plane toward Bromma airport, Stockholm with my mom.
As soon as the plane left Belgian ground I felt a heavy weight lift of my shoulders as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. How wonderful it was to be back at cruise height again, flying toward new adventures!







Good evening Stockholm!

Once touched down and in the tiny 'arrivals/baggage collection- hall we found my oldest sister who was already in Sweden for almost 3 weeks by car whom we would join.

Our 3 day Stockholm- adventure!




 The first day we bought a city-bike pass and cycled through the city a bit until it began to rain like hell whilst on our way back to the apartment. The picture in the middle is the 'Stadshuset' as they call it in Sweden, meaning city hall. The City hall is located next to one of the thousands of water ways in Stockholm as you can see on the picture on the right, just above.



This is the Vasa.
This maritime museum is located on the island DjugÃ¥rden in central Stockholm and displays the almost fully intact 17th century war ship Vasa. It's only almost fully intact 17th century ship ever salvaged. 
The Vasa sank merely 1,3km in its maiden voyage because of the very poor initial stability. A strong gust of wind forced the (open) lower gun ports under the waters surface allowing water to poor onto the lower gun deck causing the ship to sink quickly to a depth of 32m merely 120m from shore.

It was quite impressive to see the museum build around the huge full-size ship. (Impressive and hard to get onto camera as you can see thanks to very poor lighting.)
The Vasamuseet, in Swedish, is Scandinavia's most visited museum according to the official website. 
For the entire history I would love to invite you to explore this very awesome museum ! 
(for more information see: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/ )


blue skies, sunshine and rainbow in Stockholm



To end the day we took our bikes again and cycled around the island of DjugÃ¥rden in the setting sun and ate the best sushi EVER! 



Our last day in Stockholm we woke up early for our #goodmorningStockholm boat tour.



 This early morning guided boat tour talks you through Stockholm's wonderful archipelago stopping at the island of Fjäderholmarna for a guided walked around.
This little island has merely one inhabitant who lives there all year round but s-during the summer there is loads to do. From cosy restaurants too glassblowers, pottery-makers, smiths, handicrafts, they even have a whisky brewery and pub.
After a walk around we treated ourselves to some coffee, hot chocolate and sweet treats!

At noon I had the privilege to see the royal change of guard at the royal stockholm palace which was pretty cool to see!



After Stockholm we hit the road South







 the next 2 days consisted of driving around, wild camping next to random lakes, rivers and forests, skinny dipping in the evening sun, going to bed with beautiful sunsets and home made hot chocolate, cooking and eating in the same pots on open wood fires and so much more wonderful adventures!
















 




























So after 3 days of driving around and camping in the wild we found a place called Kyrkekvarn Mulljsö where we rented a canoe for 2 days.
And so in the early morning of July 26 we (my mom, sister and myself) jumped into a canoe with all our survival equipment and set off. In the drizzling rain.




The First day we didn't get really far because of heavy wind, cold and a lot of rain so we made up camp at the first suitable campsite.
Even though we had only paddled for just over 2 hours that day we still kept ourselves busy with cutting fire wood, maintaining a little selfmade fire/BBQ and preparing lunch and dinner.

By next morning it had stopped raining (most of the time), the temperature had risen a few degrees and the wind had settled a great deal which gave us a great last day on the water.





Driving back down south toward Belgium we decided to stop in Copenhagen for a day as we were to drive right through it anyway.
So in our 24 hour day trip to Copenhagen we walked through the pouring rain, saw the little mermaid and heaps of other art works and statues in the city and in the Museum of modern art.
It was a good day in between long hours of driving back home. The following day we drove straight from Copenhagen to home in almost 12 hours.




It was a great sweet escape which I really really needed.
xoxo Lizzie




Sweden, July 20 - July 28 2015


Sunday 16 August 2015

big white room

Isn't it weird how some people just seem to have a gift of ruining EVERYTHING ?

All this bullshit, isn't what I wanted.
Things are back to as bad as they were, great.

Did I honestly think that things were going to turn out alright after all?
If I did, how foolish can you be Liza. You know to well that things never really turn out alright for you.

And yet, every morning I have to pull myself together again. Get myself out of bed, dressed, fed and of to work because that's how life goes.
Nobody cares how bad it goes you just have to be there and so I will. Admittedly I don't always manage to pull myself back together again, but I'm doing the best I can. And for the moment that's all I can do I guess.

If only I could just go back home, to where I really felt home for the first time in my life.
But things aren't that easy, I'll just have to keep finding the strength to pull myself together again every morning to get out of bed and start another day.



Sitting in a big white room alone, tilt my head back, feel the tears fall down. Close my eyes to see in the dark. I feel young, broken, so so scared. I don't wanna be here anymore. I wanne be somewhere else. Normal and free, like I used to be. But I have to stay in this big white room with little old me. 


xoxo Lizzie 

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Same name, different country

It's been two months (today) since I touched down in Brussels and a lot has changed.

I've made some decisions that weren't easy to make but I did what I had to do which brings me here today where I am now.


The last two months have been rough, to say the least. 
When I left Oz I was scared to come back and face 'real' life, the life that I had left behind. Turns out that that life doesn't exist anymore. 
So I had to start over again, but not like I had to start over so many times before in life. No, this time I had to start over with the full knowledge what I know had once been here. 
Everything has changed and yet it all still looks the same, it just doesn't feel the same which is hard to wrap your head around. Because you think you know something but than it turns out you don't even have a clue about whats going on.

I had a really hard time to get my life back on track again. 
I started working at the same cafe/restaurant I had worked before I left and tried to get hold of my old friends again. 
The long hours of hard work mainly kept me from packing my bag and leaving again the first month.
It was hard to accept that everything had changed so so much over the last 8 months. The friends I though I had weren't what I though they were anymore, they were different just as everything was. 
I dragged myself through everyday with a broken hart longing to go back to my world, the one I knew was real. 
This wasn't why I had left?
This wasn't what I wanted?
Why did I even come back, I had everything I've ever wanted and yet I came back. Why.

I came back because I had to. Because I wanted to too somewhere deep down I guess....

Anyway, I'm back now and there's not much to do about it now anymore.
meanwhile, I made some decisions in life one was to change my blog slightly.
the other was to pick up my horse riding here in Belgium.

The first you will have noticed by now think. I decided to change the name to Lizzies world adventures because well, Australia might've been my first great adventure but it won't be my last and as I quite enjoy writing I decided to keep writing despite being back in Belgium. I'm starting my next great adventure in September; Studying! 
And this summer I've been to Sweden for 10 days at the end of July so I'll tell you all about that in my next post for sure!




And the second thing is to start riding again. During my last years of high school I always trained other peoples (showjump) horses but with leaving I kind of said goodbye to that little thing too. (The little thing that wasn't that little in my life).
Anyway I know that horses have always been able to help me get back on my feet again and this time they will too. Since I'm back on horse back I feel my life getting back together bit by bit which is a great feeling after having it seen crumble so fast and far apart.


With only about another month to go until I start college I'm kind of reviewing my summer.
At this moment I would say that things are OK.
Everything and everyone has changed, but so have I. So that's alright.


talk to you soon again,
xoxo from me




PS; my apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes. It's obviously been a little while since I've been writing like I am.




Thursday 9 July 2015

struggle


The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong.
Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human condition. Facing the blind deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.
 
-Christopher McCandless


It's been almost a month since I touched down at brussels airport and I still go to sleep every night in tears wishing I wasn't where I am now.
Long hours at work make the days go by faster. I need money so I can leave again, but even if I had money I can't really leave because I'm starting college in september.
So I'm working to keep myself busy, to keep myself from packing my bag and leaving.


It's hard being back. It's really really hard.  

Friday 19 June 2015

where did I leave you


Yesterday a week ago I arrived back in Belgium after my almost 8 month Aussie adventure. 
Today, my laptop is fixed so I can blog again with all my pictures at hand ! 
I left you guys hanging at West MacDonnell National Park in the NT. After those couple days national park we had to head back south again. And so we did.

The Breakaways
 This had been said to be one of outback south Australia's best kept secrets !
The entire area was once (about 70 million years ago) covered by an inland sea, it's a very eery place to say the least it's almost like you're on mars. Even though this place has one of the world's harshest environments there are still an array of native flora and fauna who have successfully adapted themselves to survive the climate. It's awesome, hot, weird and even a bit scary driving through here.














This is a dog fence.
The fence is almost 2 meters high and stretches over 5,614km through South-eastern Australia.
By 1885 this pest-exclusion fence finished and should protect the (relatively) fertile south-east part of Australia and protect huge sheep flocks in Southern Queensland.
The necessity of the fence becomes very clear when you read stories about one station alone in SA losing more than 11,000 sheep in a year to dingo attacks, even as recently as in 1991 a station lost 3000 sheep in one year. The sheep farmers fought back with poison and shooting, and eventually ending up building world's longest fence.




After a night in Coober Pedy we stopped at hart lake in South Australia the next day.
Lake Hart is one of Australia's many salt water lakes. Which makes that you can just walk over the entire lake because it is entirely covered with salt. 

Lake Hart


Kati Thanda- Lake Eyre showing it's famous pink colouration from algae













The most well-known is Lake Eyre. Situated not far from where we were at this time is lake is the lowest natural point in Australia at approximately 15m below sea level and on the rare occasions that it fills (a few times a century) the latest lake in Australia and the 18 largest in the world!




April 10 was our last night on the Stuart hwy.
So we ended it good with a little fire, garlic bread on the BBQ, a very good tomato soup and of course our great books we had bought in Alice Springs. 















next up, Barossa wine valley, SA

 Because we had seen the entire coast up to Port Augusta we decided to by-pass Adelaide this time and head for the Barossa Valley.

This major wine-producing region has cute village names like Mount Pleasant and Nuriootpa. So we went cruising through there for about 3 days. It was great we went wine tasting at this big winery, Whistler Wines. We went here because they have a kangaroo nursery too! Hence the cute little kangaroo picture.
The wine on the left here is called 'Get in my belly!' (wadup Austin Power reference!!) hence the x-ray picture on the bottle too ;-).


After a delicious lunch of crackers and cheese from The Barossa Valley Cheese Co, grapes and a little bit of tatziki with a great view over the valley we presumed our driving tour through the valley.

Our last stop in South Australia was Bordertown where we got to meet these cool guys!
What makes this town special is that it is home to the white kangaroo!
These kangaroos aren't albino, they are just Western Grey Kangaroos who turned out white. According to a story the first white male white western grey kangaroo was found an captured in 1980. By 1984 the first white western grey kangaroo was born and ever since then white kangaroos have been borne in successive generations. 

So April, 14 2015 was the day that I saw an entire breeding colony of white kangaroos, not albinos naturally white kangaroos.

writing this all in retrospect was fun because I was still in Oz so it wasn't all so far away at all.
Now, however, that I'm back in Belgium it's a bit sad writing about it because it all seems so far away and I want to go back so badly but on the other hand I really enjoy it a lot too because I'm constantly reminded of those great happy times.
all about my first and last state Victoria will be for the next post!
xoxo Lizzie



Phuket birthday adventures

Two thousand nineteen has been a good year. Already. On the 3rd of April I celebrated my birthday in solitude. My 5th birthday abro...