Belgium: the stakes have been raised

Spoiler alert: this story includes homemade wine, police, and lots of waffles.

Charlie and I left the farm last Friday and went into Brussels. It's a cool city--multicultural and very friendly. That weekend, we had an ultimate frisbee tournament where all the teams camped out at the fields. There was a party friday night, delicious food all day friday, a beer race that Charlie's team won on Friday (because the actual beer drinking was secondary), and more games on Sunday. Charlie's team won the tournament and mine got last!

Belgium is awesome: their specialties are beer (most delicious I've ever had), waffles (ditto), fries (double ditto) and chocolate (yum). After the tournament, we went to a music festival with a Belgian/Mexican couple we met at the tournament, and then the next day we grabbed some beers with a bunch of Belgian frisbee players. Tuesday night we spent at the parents' house of two of the frisbee players. They cooked Thai food with vegetables from their own garden and served us wine made by their grandfather in Italy. It was an idyllic house in the countryside that was mostly built by the father. We traveled there with some Austrians who we met at the tournament, and we have been road tripping with them since. Our goal: Amsterdam by Friday night (left Brussels on Tuesday).

Wednesday night we decided to try "wild camping," which may be mildly illegal. After having a picnic dinner in Ghent, we pulled off the highway and found a secluded little area. We set up our tent and played a German card game, then went to sleep. At 8:30 the next morning, I hear some people talking, then hear "bon jour, guten morgen, hello." our tent gets zipped open, and eight (!) Belgian police officers are staring at us in the face. We give them our passports and pack up our tent. The nice lady police officer tells us we're not in big trouble, but we were still sweating it a bit. After heading back to the car, they just say, "don't do it again, and have a nice day. By the way, do you need driving directions to Brugge?"

The answer was no, we knew how to get there, but thanks a bunch! It was good luck for us, but reflected really well on the Belgian police. Next, we went to Brugge, had another delicious waffle, then drove up the coast. We had a little picnic on a beach in the Netherlands. Afterwards, we found some wifi and decided that we wanted to stay legally in a building that night. Hostels in Amsterdam run at about 30 euros (45 dollars) a night, but we found a hotel just outside of the city for a little bit cheaper, so the two Austrians and us are staying in a hotel room and living it large tonight. Tomorrow we go into Amsteradam to play another camping ultimate tournament this weekend.

Finally, a little about the Austrians. We're traveling with a boyfriend and girlfiend, Flo and Caroline. They're both 23 and super chill. It turns out that Flo had already hosted one of my best friends Travis Martin after they met at a tournament a month ago in Hungary. Small world. Charlie leaves on Monday, and I go to Scotland to work at Wiston Lodge for a month.