Hmmm... Lorraine pointed out that Liverpool won the finals, instead of Leeds. Doh! Apart from that a pretty uneventful day, well... somebody visited to check my place and apparently I'm now certified to officially live here. And the Eels cd I bought at the concert yesterday turns out to be brilliant. Oh and my roof started leaking again *gaaaaah!*.

The lady at the rental place appeared to be severely unimpressed with my roof leaking and even less so with me pointing out that last time it took them 3 weeks before somebody even contacted me. "We called the people that are supposed to fix your place within the day". My reply:"But after that it took 3 weeks" did give some reaction:"I'll make a note of this". Hmmmm... Have decided that this time I'll refuse to call any people other than my rental people. And I'll be calling them often this time. They're the ones supposed to fix my place, I don't own a house, why on earth should I be calling the home-owners?

Spent the night playing with my playstation. (And doing some useful things not really worth mentioning)

After a pretty unventful day, girlfriend and I went to see Eels play. For some reason they manage to stun me everytime I see them play (though one of that times they stunned me by making Jeroen Burgerhout faint, something I had never seen before in my life).

This this time E brought with him a string-quartet, a double-bass player and somebody dressed as a Scotsman the last two both being multi instrumentalists, playing instruments varying from steel guitars, double bass (duh), piano, organ, a drum kit consisting of a suitcase (bass drum as well as hi-hat) and a garbage can. All in all pretty awesome. Spent most of the evening staring at the stage, thinking:"Oh wow!' Even the pre-show little film was brilliant.

I fear I may need to go and see them more often.

Woke up early to help Karlijn move. Picked up McR and went Kaz-wards, where people were already busy packing her place (at 9:30 am). Found out that we were all just in time to move the heavy objects (among which a washing machine and what looked to be "the mother of all couches"). Fortunately Kaz's old place is only on the 2nd floor and forunately the washing machine lives on the 3rd in her new place.

Managed to pack her whole house in a trailer and 7 cars and did all the moving business within 3 hours. Then McR and I found that we had plenty of time on our hands and not the slightest clue what to do with it. Managed to fix this by Picking up Nicktor and heading for Breda for a few drinks, after which the brilliant idea was born to drag Nicktor through all the phone-shops in Breda so that he could make his new choice of mobile phone. Unfortunately Nicktor now claims information overload.

At night we (Nicktor, Marlies, girlfriend, Annemarie, Sabrina, McR and I) all teamed up in "de Consul" and ended up in the Off Corso, which was brilliant but possibly somewhat hot.

Managed to play a game of football in my lunch break. Managed not to suck completely, there may still be a career as a professional football player for me.

Seeing as I spend most of my time indoors nowadays, I attempted to do something outdoory at night. Ended up walking to "de Euromast", while dragging girlfriend along. De Euromast rules!!!

At night I popped by my old neighbour to help him with computer-troubles and just to spend some time chatting. Fun. As for the radio... I got it installed this morning. Only 1 little problem. Radio reception currently sucks. Somebody may have to look at this.

Started watching the UEFA Champions League final at home, decided to pop by parents to pick up a book I had ordered on Amazon and saw that Leeds were already 3-0 down. As for the second half of the game:"Whoa". For the foreigners, Leeds managed to win after penalty-kicks in the end.

Made an appointment to get my radio installed this Thursday. The sounds of silence are already driving me mad. Did another 1.5 hour stint at city hall with as a result that I'm now more or less living in Rotterdam. I may have cheated a bit as officially I should first be visited by somebody to check that my living conditions are the way I claim they are. Never suspected it would take this much effort before I officially live in Rotterdam.

Had girlfriend pop by at night. Didn't do anything special, I fear.

Got to swap my Peugeot 206 for an Audi A2. Woohoo! It's fast, it's cute, it's everything it's black, it's got climate control, I'm pretty happy with it. There's only one minor feature missing, the people in the western world nowadays like to call it radio. Arse!

Bought a radio on the way back home, which also lets me connect my mp3-player and made an install-attempt with my dad. Connect 3 cables, push power-button and... nothing. Oh well, who needs radio when he only spends about 3 hours a day in his car? :-(

Woke up somewhat hungover (strangely enough), managed to do grocery shopping (woohoo) and spent the evening somewhat catching up with my weblog and unpacking my backpack.

All good things come to an end. Woke up fairly early (8:30), packed everything up and after some tent-drying, made our way to the airport. Caught flight, got picked up by mum and dad and eventually made our way back home from Charleroi (with a slight detour due to me doing a 180 on the ring around Brussels and driving back towards Charleroi).

After dinner at home, made it to Remco's place, where loads of beers later, I eventually rolled out around 4:30. Woohoo!

And... we still had to drive back to Pisa. Tried just that but may have made the mistake to opt for the orange (non-autostrada)-road. 4 hours later, we arrived 150 further, in Lucca *gaah!* Where girlfriend and I did some walking.

Eventually made it to Pisa, pitched tent, looked at tower and went out for dinner.

Visited Parma with girlfriend, walked around for a bit, saw churches, had a drink, loads of fun. This holiday is getting me terribly well rested, darkness sets in early and because we don't have too many lighting sources on us, I've usually been in bed by 10 every since I started camping. Obviously I refuse to wake up before 9, so many nights I manage to get more than 10 hours of sleep. Woohoo!

The worst thing of a camping holiday is probably having to pack up while its pouring down with rain. Did just that dressed in shorts and my rain-coat (trying to keep all my other stuf dry in the car) Dealing with soggy tents is never fun and Bart's tent turned out to be no exception.

After packing up we headed for the hills on the theory:"It's probably dry on the other side of the mountain". Found out that taking a C-road to get over a mountain is very time-consuming. Loads of corners, loads of rain but eventually we made it to Parma, 4 hours later, where we found the local campsite (after some problems) and... got told that they only accepted caravans. Arse!!!

Drove 30 km more and pitched the tent on a large campsite, which looked like a ghost-town (hundreds of caravans placed there by their owners, who probably don't show up till the height of summer). After barbecue-ing dinner, a walk into town showed us that we were by far the youngest people in the whole village (the average age of the people on the street being 85). Looks like it's some sort of an old-people resort. Weird!

Walk around Cinque Terre day. Took the train into the furthes town and did the main thing to do in Cinque Terre (a world heritage site, which consists of 5 seaside farming villages on a very rocky coast) and that's walk from village to village.

Walking from village 1 to villlage 2 was the girly bit, then the walks got progressively harder. Beautiful sights, lots of elderly people kitted out in full walking gear and girlfriend and I just looking like the clueless inexperienced walkers we are. Fortunately the "hard" paths turned out to be survivably hard.

After making it to village no. 4, I desperately wanted to walk on to no. 5 (not much point in seeing only quatre Terre, is there? But decided against this when girlfriend pointed at the clouds coming in from the see. Managed to get to the train-station before it started pouring down and got soaked on the way from the train-station on the other side of the mountain to our campsite.

Found out that Bart's tent is more than water-proof, tried making a salad in the tent (after doing some shopping) and spent the night drinking wine and looking at rain.

"Swap girlfriend for Bart"-day. After packing up the tent and dropping off Bart at the train-station, I arrived at the airport only to find out that girlfriend's plane had been delayed by 2 hours. (Okay, she had texted me about this but I decided to pop by the airport anyways). Passed the time by driving around Pisa once again, filling up the car with petrol and then playing carpark-games for the remainder of the time.

At the Pisa airport, the first hour of parking your car is free, being the Dutch boy I am, I spent the waiting time, driving around the carpark, checking in the car, waiting for 45 minutes checking out the car, driving around the carpark again, etc.

After getting together with girlfriend again, we did the only thing one can do when one's in Pisa and that's:"Leave". Which was also the reason why we're not sticking around for the 18th to team up with Crissy (better luck another time) Yes, there's still the leaning tower for girlfriend to see, but we'll settle that on Friday.

Drove up all the way to Cinque Terre (which looked great while driving past but we were running late already) and then some more, found a campsite and pinned tent. Out for dinner at night.

Paid Lucca a proper visit. Cool little town, visited the antiques market, visited some churches, climbed a tower, Bart and I appear to be getting pretty good at this whole holiday thing :-)

Also popped by Viareggio, where we walked the boulevard and where I almost crashed our car because I failed to mention a car.

Out for dinner at night. Tomorrow will be the big day where I swap Bart for girlfriend. Which probably requires a whole change of mind, there are some things that Bart just won't let me do ;-)

Drove from Florence to Livorno, which turned out to be a dump, drove on to Pisa, checked out the tower and found out that's about all there is to this city (except for that cute little church next to the river). Decided that we didn't want to camp in Pisa and drove on towards Lucca. drove around Lucca twice but completely failed to find a camping place there. Got to camp in Pisa after all.

Drove to Florence, found the camp-site and pitched our tent. Then drove into the city to check it out and managed to do the "Florence in half a day"-thing. We failed to see much art but we saw all the other main sights. Cool city, I may need to spend some more time there. Somehow failed to arrive at the meeting point where we were supposed to have tried meetingCrissy's friends. Sorry people!

Observation of the day was that apparently I can survive busy Italian city traffic in a car. With Florence being one of those towns where in some places 4 rows of cars ride around on 3 lane road, driving gets a bit scary now and then. Probably spent more time looking in my mirrors than I did looking forward.

Then driving in Italy has its interesting bits anyways. Whenever I drive 20 km/h over the speed limit on a mountain road and feel like I'm really doing top-speed everybody except for old ladies, tourists and toddlers on bicycles appear to be wanting to overtake me.

Barbecue at night with Bart.

Amazing how drinking loads of good wine leaves you almost completely hangover free the next morning. Had my slow day, which consisted of updating my web-diary, reading a book while sitting on the Siena city walls (while at the same time trying not to fall down) Did find out that I'll be getting a new car when I make it back to Holland, a black audi a2. Woohoo!

At night teamed up for one last time for drinks and dinner with the married couple and the rest of their gang.

Finally, it was the big day. This meant having to shave, dig up my wedding shirt out of my backpack (wrinkled, but not too bad, most of the wrinkles in straight vertical lines anyways). Did wonder what moron decided that wearing a black shirt at a wedding in sunny Italy would be the convenient thing to do.

Teamed up with all the guys and Kimberley at the main square to drink a beer and watch people. (We were all without any useful tasks in the pre-wedding process, while all the other girls were busy with make-up, hair and flower arrangements.)

Attended the wedding. The short version of that:"Both of them said yes, they're now husband and wife". (The long version envolves wedding dresses, suits, crying babies, photographers and the odd rapier swishing soldier (okay, made up that last one))

After that Dan and Crissy took off for their photo session we had a drink and then eventually all got together for dinner. Had enormous loads of food thrown at us, drank large quantities of wine and mainly had loads of fun. Left the restaurant so filled with food and drink that we could hardly move. The last sight we had of Mr and Mrs. Denker was them leaving the central square in their wedding outfit, holding hands, while we were walking away.

Picked up Kimberley + mum and set out for a drive through the Tuscan countryside. More medieval villages, a roman amphitheatre (or what was left of it) and lots of fun was had by all. (I hope) Bart did get us somewhat lost while looking for a scenic route, but eventually we showed up again in Siena.

Managed to team up with Dan, Crissy + all their friends and spent most of the night in their appartment drinking beer and having fun. Got to do a 30 minute walk back to the tent afterwards (note to self:"buses don't run after 9")

Packed up our tent and did the 120 km drive to Siena. Stopped at Montalcino, yet another mountain town, apparently famous for its wine making. Eventually showed up at the campground, and took the bus into town, after pitching our tent.

After jumping out of the bus made the remark to Bart:"Hey, those people look like Dan and Crissy, it would be funny if it was them". And it obviously they turned out to be Dan and Crissy, who had just walked out of the train-station, still carrying their backpacks. Jumped them, said "Hi" and bumped into Kimberley (a friend of Dan and Crissy) and her mum straight after.

Walked Dan and Crissy towards their hotel and after a pretty steep descent, found out that they had an escalator right next to their apartment. doh! Also somewhat remembered Crissy's birthday (I knew that it was either the 9th or the 19th) but completely failed to realised that that was today, not even when I asked Crissy whether her birthday was the 9th or the 19th)

Left them to unpack and promised to meet them back at 6 at the Palazzo. Appeared an hour late (bus trouble) and completely missed them. Found out later that Dan and Crissy hadn't bothered with showing up either. Did get rugby-tackled by Kimberley and mum who booked Bart and I as tour-guides for tomorrow. (This means we now have to tidy up our car)

Up late, first drove towards Orvieto, which was a pretty winding drive with loads of hairpin corners. Yet another cool medieval town with great views over Tuscany.

Drove on to Perugia, which was pretty far and turned out to be a far duller town than expected. Had dinner at a restaurant at night (forgot that we couldn't do any shopping on a Sunday)

Btw, Selmer recommends Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle series of book. The first 400 pages of part 1 are somewhat slow but after that it appears to continue at breakneck speed.

Bart up far too early (before 9am), putting pressure on me to wake up as well. Refused somewhat till it was at least past 9, got dressed, got packed and took a long tram, tube and bus-ride back towards the airport, where we were supposed to pick up our car.

This turned out to be a brand new ford Ka, which is a somewhat small car but fortunately it does fit all our luggate and the two of us nicely. Not too many problems with Italian traffic, which meant that after some shopping (purchased a barbecue) and a visit to Viterbo (a really cool medieval town) , we eventually rocked up in Bolseno, where we pitched Bart's tent on the side of a lake.

Spent the night barbecueing with shitty coals (almost all small dusty ones) and read books, while drinking wine from coffee mugs.

Apparently Bart didn't pass out but he took off with some other guys to drink more beer in a pub across the road. I must be getting really old seeing as I completely missed this. Still, he looked severely hungover this morning, decided to leave him in bed and took off to see the Colosseum by myself. Eventually got joined by Bart, who claimed he was still too hungover to walk and spent the rest of the day reading a book in the Villa Borghese parc.

Went to Ostia Antica an old Roman port-town, now completely in ruins. Really cool, could have spent at least a day more there. Unfortunately we had to go back eventually, then downed a whole bottle of cheap scotch between the two of us, while chatting with all the foreigners in our bedroom, and texting girlfriend that I thought she was cute (over and over again), after which I passed out.

Decided I wanted to see the Thermae and the Palatino, which Bart didn't, so ditched Bart and did so by myself. Got reminded pretty severly that I've still got hayfever and that my medicines are at home so decided to take the tube into town while the signs of it were still visible (gesturing hayfever is a lot easier when you've got the red eyes and are sneezing the whole time) Fortunately pharmacy girls in Rome do also speak English so now I'm fine again.

Watched a killer football match at night (PSV-AC Milan) but unfortunately while the dutch team won 3-1, Milan still got through to the finals.

Spent the whole day at the vatican, walking through its museum (large, lots of art, whoa), the st Peter (getting to the top appears to be quite a climb). Another long and tiring day, I fear.

Besides the beds being banana shaped, our room also lies at a very busy square. Loads of traffic noise all night. Fortunately I appear to sleep through everything, unfortunately Bart apparently doesn't.

Spent most of the day walking through Rome, our original plans were ditched straight away, when "walk to the tube-station" turned into "walk for miles and miles and see stuff" Saw loads of churches, saw the forum Romanum, the Colosseum (from the outside only) and ended up dead tired from walking at the end of the day.

Still managed to make it to the vatican after dinner to look at the st Peter by night.

Drove to the Charleroi airport with Karlijn, Martin (who were dropping me off) and Bart to catch a flight Rome-wards. After planes, trains and a bit of a walk, Bart found our hostel this did envolve circling a square 350 degrees because we only knew the hostel was on a pretty large square but knew nothing about its exact location. (Obviously there were no big signs to be found)

After checking in, telling the manager that we weren't necessarily interested in smoking pot we set off on a food-finding mission and stumbled straight into a free open-air concert. Didn't know most of the bands performing there but did recognise Juliette Lewis. Passed out in bed eventually and realised that our mattresses are banana-shaped. Wahoo!