A last post is also a little bit a best of. Winner is the quote of Maarten on a site where it was prohibited to camp: "You can shit here but not camp." After long consideration we decided on the worst mistake to be the day trip to the Edith Falls in NT, Australia, where we were proud to bring along two kinds of jam but forgot the bread in the car. And as best poem were elected the following lines, penned down during an extreme long and boring bus ride in Argentina:
Het landschap
Onder het schap
Valt
Onder de zeespiegel
Which would translate more or less like this:
The landscape
Under the shelve
Falls
Under the sea surface
Every time we bite an apple or orange we remember the border crossing between New South Wales and South Australia where we ate more than a kilo fruit because we couldn't take it across. The words of an aboriginal in Cooper Pedy often cross my mind: "it's only money". A truth by which we lived a whole year.
What has changed? Not so much. The views and ideas we had before only became more pronounced and stronger. We live with more awareness about the world we live in. We experienced what we already knew: you don't need to have much to be happy. We are more cautious with the use of water, knowing how many people have a lack of clean or even polluted water. We no longer take it for granted that whenever you open the tap clean drinking water comes pouring out. The time that we do things out of habit has long passed. We question everything. Certainly the capitalist system. We miss the encounters with like minded people, persons who decided just like us to leave behind the Western prestation focused society. Those who are born here are lucky to have the opportunity to travel. But if you do, take your time for it. Disentangle yourself from what you were used to at home, of what you think is normal, and a new world will unfold before you. In one year we learned more than in all the years in school. Too few people have the courage to let go of their small world. Travelling isn't really about the exciting stories or the paradise pictures that you will show when coming home. It is about discovering how different but yet the same people are around the world.
I hope that this lesson in live has made us a better person. To survive the challenges of the 21st century we need each other. The lack of solidarity is deplorable. Everybody should sit together, rich and poor, Flemish or Walloon, foreigners. If the Belgian politicians would look a little more outside the borders of our small country, they would focus less on futilities. If all Belgian citizens would do that there would be more tolerance, less inequality.
To end it is time for thanks and flowers. Everybody who sent us regularly a message or mail: thank you! Everybody who liked to read our blog: thank you! Everybody who sponsored one of our activities: thank you! We will never forget your support.
Our heart also goes out to all the wonderful people we met during our trip. Now we are home again our memories of you gives us the strength to believe in the good intentions of people. We will never forget the fantastic moments we had together.
You are all very welcome in Belgium. A country that will not reveal it's beauty very easily. You will need a good guide for that. It can be found in the delayed trains, the regional differences, the cloudy skys, the typical figures that ran away from the pages of a comic book, the bricks, the unyielding systems and organization, the food and the drinks (especially the beer). Hope to see you soon!
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| Happy faces came to pick us up at Heathrow airport (my mother in the middle) |
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| And a few hours later Maarten's parents joined us |
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| We came back on a typical clouded Belgian weather day |
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| Banners saying 'Welcome back' everywhere :) |
