Three Countries in Four Weeks

by - 10:55 AM

Ah, home sweet home... Nothing feels as good as taking a shower in your own shower, sleeping in your own bed and going to the toilet whenever you want without having to walk a mile to and from the toilets.
Yup, after four weeks of European-style camping, I'm back home :)

My parents love camping the way it was back in the '80s, when they were young. So this means that for four whole weeks I haven't touched a computer, tv, my crappy old Nintendo DS, not even a radio. The big exception is my crappy old digital camera, which I've barely used, but my parents are in love with it.
We don't have an RV or caravan, so we slept in a tent. It was cold, sometimes wet and always to low for me to stand up and put my pants on the proper way. In the end I gave up, walked out of the tent with my underpants for the whole wide world to see and put my pants on in front of the tent.
To give you a picture of what I'm talking about, just look at this:

Our tent, our table, our 'dinnerware'. As you can see, it's all pretty basic. And all very different from my awesome trip to Australia last year. The most exciting animal I've seen this year was a dead fox...
A always write a diary when I'm away from home, to keep the homesickness at bay. Sadly, I was too lazy this year, so it looks a bit like this:

Day 1: We've arrived at our exotic destination of this year: Spa, Belgium
Day 2: I'm not a morning person. I'm not an evening person either. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a person at all.
Day 3: It's too hot for activity, or moving or... Oh hell, it's even too hot for thinking.
Day 5: I hate ponchos. They make me look like a colored penguin.
My dad and I went to WWI trenches and
cemetary. Except for the cobwebs, it was an amazing day
Day 6: I felt like Bilbo Baggins when our guide began to mumble like Gollem during our tour through the caverns of Remouchamps. It was pretty creepy sitting in a boat with that guy.
Day 7: Ponchos that are supposed to be used once shouldn't be used twice. The ridiculous colored penguin has returned...
Day 10: Moved on to the next campground in Waxweiler, Germany.
Day 11: Acted like a 4-year-old today: I colored in a coloringbook with smurf pictures in it and ate tons of pancakes.
Day 13: Moved to a campground in the middle of nowhere in the east of France.
Day 14: We're in the middle of a thunderstorm and what do we do? Right, go to the highest peak in the area...
Day 16: History is awesome. Untile you get a cobweb in your face...
Day 18: The tent almost washed away last night. Yet again we found ourselves in the middle of a thunderstorm, tough I felt a lot safer when I was in the car. Staying in a tent in that kind of weather is totally not awesome.
Climbing rocks isn't one of my talents
Day 20: Moved to another campground near Xonrupt-Longemer, France.
Day 22: Went to an adveture park with my dad. We climbed the hard parcour. My mom thought it was fun to make pictures of the horror on my face. Let's just say it's not very charming...
Day 23: Every muscle in my body aches.
Day 26: Walking to this mountain, walking to that mountain. I haven't walked this much in years.
Day 28: Going home. Stuck in the third traffic jam since we've crossed the Dutch border. It's hot inside the car. Chocolate is melting :(

After all, I had a fun four weeks. On the last camground we had neighbors from Germany, who spoke English pretty well, so I had a chance to practice with both English and German. They had a fifteen months old daughter who loved balloons and dogs. She called everything 'wauwwauw' (the sound of a German dog barking), including my dad :P I was sad when these people left. It was nice talking to them and playing with their little girl. She woke me up every morning, because as soon as she woke up she started 'talking'. It was weird when I woke up without hearing 'Wauwwauw, Ball!' coming from their caravan.

I like being home again, though it means having to work for school again and worry about a friendship gone wrong. I thought I was making a smart move, but immediately after I did it, I knew I shouldn't have... Oh well, I've got my entire senior year to fix things :)

And just because I like dumping pictures in the internet: my two favorite pictures of this year's vacation. (Please ignore the disgusted look on my face, I didn't know my dad was taking a picture)
Me on a rock. Wasn't very
comfortable
Kangaroo shaped chips :)
Gotta love Germany

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