Till then have a look at the pictures here!

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So, I’ve finally arrived in Lisbon almost a week ago now. After a strange flight that involved two firetrucks fixing the right wing of the plane at Faro airport while we were escorted into the terminal, the same plane touched ground in Lisbon a few hours later with a small delay of about an hour. I took a taxi to my new appartment and Hylco and Kasper – my roommates for the upcoming 5 months or so (they are also from the same faculty as me in Holland) – were at home waiting for my arrival.

They showed me the house and which room was mine and a few minutes later I enjoyed my very first Portugese beer (Super Bock). I freshed up a little and Kasper wanted to show me a little more of the city by night. We went to the Erasmus bar for a beer and after this to a nice viewpoint over Lisbon.

The next couple of days I tried to arrange my transport ticket. Had to wait in the que about 3 hours the first time and had to come back the next day and the day after that. I finally mannaged to get the ticket, though. It makes life a lot easier in Lisbon because now I don’t have to upgrade my ticket every 24 hours, but only once a month. It’s cheaper as well!

With my new ticket I explored the transport of Lisbon a little more, with the help of Kasper who got here a week before me.

Next week I’ll start my internship. If there is time I willl meet with José Mineiro for a coffee first to get to know each other a little. So far we only had contact by phone and email. I’m really excited to start my internship, but more about that later when I’ve been working there for a while. For now, enjoy some photos I took of Lisbon on my third day here when I did some sightseeing.

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Nonethelless, I was surprised about the video because I actually still like (allthough the voice would have been better in English instead of Dutch) and I’m planning on capturing all the raw material again and edit a better film out it. For the time being, I hope you enjoy watching this one

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Everyone who knows me, even when it’s just a little, knows I’m a true travel junkey. Last year I travelled mostly alone throughout ‘Turkey and beyond’ after I finished the Cinema & Television semesters at the Anadolu University in Eskisehir.

But this year, I’ll be travelling with one of my best friends again: Vincent Tuntelder. We’ll be heading to Slovakia this year. Vincent and I have known each other since we were in fourth grade, and we’ve allready travelled to Slovenia and Bulgaria together.

Our plane leaves from Dusseldorf (Weeze airport) to Bratislava on the 21st of july and we’ll be traveling till the 4th of august throughout Slovakia.

What we’re going to do exactly is not quite sure yet (it never is, really!), but we’ll definitly travel throughout the country, visiting several villages and mountainess areas such as the higher Tatras. We’ll probably climb and/or hike there for a while and maybe even spend a few nights under the shiny stars in the mountains of the higher tatras. I love climbing and hiking and spending nights in ‘the wild’. Vincent loves caves, so probably we’ll visit some of those as well

Personally I love the people you get to know along the way. Especially the smaller villages where things still go on in a more – traditional way intrege me. Where people still know what it is to ‘live for life’, instead or prosparity and money and a good career.

Also nice to know, we basicly never book a hotel or something else when we leave. When we land, we’ll figure something out along the way to the center. It always works out fine in the end (although in Bulgaria we were awake for about 35 hours or so looking for a place to sleep). Sometimes we get invited into someones house, sometimes we sleep in a hostel or a hotel.

When you travel like this, you get to know a country more the way it really is. Also guarantees better (more honest) pictures, if you ask me!

After the 4th of july, Vincent will fly back home because he has to go back for his work and arrange some stuf for his upcoming school semester. I will stay a bit longer and fly home on the 13th of august. On the 4th of august I will travel to Budapest and meet my Hungarian ‘dostum’ (Turkish for close friend) Denes Tozser there.

I met Denes during my study in Turkey, and we became really good fiends in a short time. After a few days in Budapest we’ll head for Vienna (his favourite city) together and after that we’ll probably enter Poland to visit Agnieszka – I love her name – Kuczkowska.  Agnieszka (Aga) also studied in Turkey and Aga, Denes and me were always hanging out during our time there.

Earlier in 2009 I allready payed Aga a visit in Poznan, Poland with two Dutch girls Baukje Hoffman and Willeke Dijkstra and an American girl Sydney Willson. They all studied in Turkey as well, and I think that’s what makes studying/living/partying/traveling/working abroad so interesting: you get to know so many interesting people and spend time with them, even when your study or internship abroad has allready ended. You stay in touch and you visit each other when you can. That way, your ‘Erasmus expierence’ will never truly end.

When I return from what will probably be another crazy journey, I will upload the photos onto my journal here, as well as on my Facebook. So stay tuned for updates

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The basic idea was to show people, mainly students, what it’s like to study abroad and to motivate others into doing so as well. For me it was an unforgettable experience where I met new friends from all over the world. When studying in a country where the culture is so different from your own, for me personally, it gets even more interesting. But then again, I’m a ‘travel junky’. Anyway, when sharing with all these people your ideas and thoughts, go clubbing and traveling together suddenly makes all the cultural diversities and prejudicus you might have had dissapear and you realize we are not at all that different from each other after all. As a good friend  told me during our time in Eskisehir: ‘Erasmus is the lesson of your life.’ Well, I can’t agree more. In  some of the following posts I’ll try and tell more about my time in Turkey. Hope you enjoy(ed) the program and didecide to study abroad yourself!