looking for travel companions
Well, Thursdays are for laying about :) And for planning future trips, like the travel to Maastricht, the oldest town in the Netherlands, down south, in a strip of land sandwiched between Belgium and Germany. I am staying my first night in a Hostel tomorrow, fri! Couldn't find any accommodations in the town, so I'll be hopping over to Liege, in Belgium, for the night. It was too far for a day trip. Let's see how that goes. After that, I am planning on hostelling it aaaall the way through Belgium to London... so it's kinda cool to get a trial night first. I am so spoiled :D
Also, since I'm facing 10 days of travel alone, with no friends nearby, I posted this ad on a couple of forums, to see if it's possible to find a travel companion:
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Hello fellow travelers,
I have been traveling through Europe for the past 2 months, solo, but I am tired of doing the touristy things alone. I am looking for a travel companion for the following tentative itinerary:
start tue, june 6 early afternoon in antwerp (I'm coming from the netherlands), stay a night or two. sights of interest: royal museum of fine arts, mayer van den bergh museum, rubens huis.
thu, june 8-10 (or 11) in brussels, for grand-place, brewer's museum, museum of cocoa and chocolate, and, of course, the mannekin pis statue :) Also the Musee Royaux dex Beaux-Arts, and the center for comic strip arts.
mon june 12 from brussels, one day trip to Leuven, to have some Laffe beer, and check out the pretty city
tue june 13 head early to bruges, but stop by during the day in ghent to see the cathedral and the city.
Stay the night in Bruges, and spend the next day checking out the sights. Not sure which, but I'm told it's a must-see town. One thing I know is there is De Halve Maan, a beer museum and brewery.
From there, find a train-ferry-train combination to london. Stay somewhere centric and visit all the major sights. Return trip is on fri, june 16. I'm going back to friends either in the netherlands or france to rest a bit before heading south towards italy.
As you can tell, I love museums, and I love beer :) I am on a pretty tight budget, so it's hostels and cheap transportation all the way. I'll gladly spend money on museum entrances, though, and can live on sandwhiches, even though I like good food. Can't say I'm an energetic and high-spirited companion, I'm more on the shy side. I'll happily try bars and/or clubs, I love to dance and drink, but this trip I'd rather see the sights during the day than drink and party. I'm not much of an early-morning person... but I'll make an effort 'cause most of the cool places close early! Plus it's hard to sleep late when you're in a hostel.
The ideal companion would be another girl who is in a similar situation as I am, traveling solo and with no fixed itinerary, just a desire to travel. I am *definitely* not looking for a hook up, so I'll be wary of single guys. Really, if you are looking for personals ads, go to another site. Don't bother replying to this. I'm also older than I look, I'm close to 30 yrs old, so I'm more keen on the cultural stuff than the late-night partying. I do enjoy my beers, though :) An older person would be cool. Younger people might want to look for others of their own age, unless they're geeky enough to be into museums over partying.
I have been keeping a detailed blog of my travels on blogspot: http://battlegirlEU.blogspot.com . You can check that out to know more about me and the places I've visited. If you have something similar, please share it.
My trusty guide for all sight-seeing has been the "Let's go Western Europe on a Budget." It has proven very accurate and useful on all data, from best places to see to transportation. Since it covers so many countries, it is often light on details about smaller cities, but if I stay in a town or country long enough, I buy a specific guide for the place.
If you think you fit the bill, reply to this or send an email to webgirl at the domain name battlegirl dot net. If you're not geeky enough to get that, just reply to this post, I'll keep an eye out for replies. ;)
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Think I'll get a reply? I can't be the only one traveling about alone, and checking websites. I do see that on average only 4% of posts to the forums are of solo travelers looking for companions, or info... but I figured it's worth a shot! Also, what is the chance to find traveling skeeves? Most have got to be locals, preying on tourists...
Kinda thought of this a bit late, but still worth a shot!
More info after I come back from the trip to Maastricht. By sat night, when I'll be back, I should know about the apt with the cat in amsterdam, and see if i got replies... wish me luck!
3 comments:
Dear Male Travel Companions:
You hurt Val WE come to the EU and Kill You THE End, Don't Pass Go!! :)
capiche?
lol, thank you for the thought :)
i wonder who posted it, though. do i have to enable the "only registered users can post" rule? ;)
Hi Val, I replied to your posting but thought I’d add a few personal notes.
I will be in the Netherlands at the same time, but am probably not your ideal companion as I’ve seen a lot of the sights in Belgium. I am the 50-something, not exactly a party girl and I’m also on my own a bit. My husband is working in Den Haag and I’m hanging out & doing short travels until the 23rd when we take our vacation. If you’re interested in a companion closer to me I would love to join you for some day trips (e.g. Utrecht). If the weather improves as promised, I plan to cycle Kinderdijk (Rotterdam area) soon. I would be interested in a day in Antwerp and the bar there on the 7th, and would consider a trip to the brewery in Mechelin (and an overnight in that case). If those are of interest to you, let me know and we could make some plans. I’ll certainly understand if you want to stick to your plans.
I did want to respond to your itinerary, though, with a couple of suggestions.
I relate as a beer fan and want to suggest two bars - the best in the world I believe. One in Antwerp is the Culminator (Kulminator?), very relaxed, neighborhood style, but with a beer cellar to die for. sign up and they send you a postcard on your birthday every year (good for a draft beer, but also a memory jog and connection to Belgium). In Bruges, t'Beertje has more than 200 beers.
Also, in Brussels, the Lambic bar/restaurant is entirely unique: the fresh lambic beer, available in a very small area around Brussels, ina traditional (country?) style cafe; I would skip the food but observe the way they serve it. The name is La Becasse I think.
For my time & money, I'd skip Brussels entirely, but they do have some good museums and the Grand Place of course. BUT I would not miss the chance to see Brugge, and I would not go for less than two nights. Also Ghent is a treasure not to be missed. The weather is supposed to change so maybe you'll get a chance to bike around the Brugge or Ghent countryside.
Karen
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