Take off

Leuven Town Hall

After purchasing a bike, navigating the city became much easier; I managed to make some friends from the hostel. One night I went out with a group of people for a couple of drinks, and our group consisted of representatives from Italy, England, Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Canada, and America. This variety provided a fascinating range of perspectives in our conversations.  I have only tried maybe 1/20th of the available variety of beers in Belgium, and most have topped any beer I have ever tasted. On Monday, I met up on the main shopping stretch  with a Dutch man from my room at the hostel.. He is a street musician so I brought my travel guitar and contributed to some of his songs; afterwards, I cooked him some curry in exchange for his help changing strings on my guitar (thanks to Jack and PJ for the acoustic strings).
The next day, after an exhausting and ultimately unsuccessful day of apartment hunting, another one of my roommates, the bloke from Australia, and I made a deal to split dinner and he made a combination I had never heard of before which turned out to be delicious: steak, eggs, and sweet potato.

Klein-Sinai

On Wednesday I took a train to Lokeran to visit my friend Ellen who had spent a year at my hometown high school as an exchange student with the Salerno family and stay with her family.Her mother treated me to one of the best meals I've had in a long time. This included: A special sort of French cheese with tomatoes and radishes grown in the garden with sparkling water for an appetizer; salmon, eggplant, zucchini, spinach lasagna with Italian and Chilean wine and salad for dinner; followed by home-made rhubarb ice with mint and a honey-vinaigrette glaze.  The hospitality had only then begun; while Ellen and I worked on researching booking options for my trip, I was treated to Duvel beer, fruit, and lemon-Speculoos cheesecake topped with blueberries.  Then in the morning after breakfast she drove Ellen and I to the train station with packed lunches as Ellen was kind enough to come to Leuven with me for the day to assist me in my apartment hunt.

By the end of the day we were successful in our mission, and I'm not sure if I could've landed this particular building without Ellen because the landlord is an older gentleman who doesn't speak a whole heck of a lot of English. My lease will begin August 31st which is a perk compared to the date of most rental properties (Sept. 15th). Perhaps the best thing about my spot is the botanical gardens located around the corner with flourishing plant life, streams and winding walk-ways.
I will be leaving Leuven tomorrow for awhile to travel to Antwerp; to Rotterdam; to Amsterdam, to Copenhagen, to Germany (location undetermined, suggestions welcomed