We arrived in Charleroi Airport, about 50 mins south of Brussels after an ordinary (ordinary meaning s***!) flight from Rome on Ryanair. Ryanair is a budget airline in the Uk/Europe, like Tiger at home and is rather crap. You don't get assigned seats - have to make a mercy dash with a hundred other people.. We never get to sit together.The whole flight some annoying air hostess's voice is heard blaring out through the speakers that are at full volume trying to sell various products such as bus tickets, perfumes, food etc. Not only do you hear them scream in English, but then again in French, then Spanish, then ITALIAN! It's a joke. But you do get what you pay for.

Tim's turn..

Hi, My turn to talk again. Luckily for us our hotel was located right in the centre of Brussels, 100m from the train station. A few people had told us not to worry about going to Brussles, but head straight to Brugge, about an hour away. After a good walk around, we were glad we went and thought it was one of the prettiest cities we had visited. I loved it because of the food, chocolate and the beer. I try a new beer everywhere we go. Some have been great, some pretty ordinary. Brussels has the best city centre/square that we have been too, with some great old buildings which look as though they have been re-painted in recent times. It truly looked amazing. There really wasn't a great deal to do there but we did manage to find the Mannaker Pis fountain - the little boy taking a leak, which was cool to see.

In the afternoon Jaz had a sleep while I went in search of some camping equipment for the Pukkelpop Festival. I came back with two bags full of tents, sleeping bags, mattresses and so forth. We decided that our first night in Belgium should consist of beer, Belgium food and a waffle, with dinner consisting of local specialties of meat balls with an awesome sauce and sausages and mashed potatoes for Jaz. It was an early night as we had a big few days coming up.

I thought I would write this section as I think I have more experience in music festivals than Jasmin. I had a great time whilst there and Jasmin seemed to too (however this could have been a façade). We left Brussels on the train headed for Keiwit, about an hour away and where Pukkelpop was being held. The train was packed with fellow poppers, all with massive bags and tents. It was about a 10 min walk from the station to the festival ground. We arrived and got our tickets and thought it would be easy enough to go meet Liam and Burtos and a few other mates who arrived the previous day and set up camp with them. We were wrong. The main campsite, where the guys were staying was directly opposite the festival ground and by the time we got there was "as full as a state school" - As Mando would say!! We were informed that we had to walk "10 mins" up the road to the second site. Yeah no worries, 10 mins is ok. 45 mins later after lining up 10 times and walking actually 30 mins in the sun with all our bags along with tent, sleeping bags, gumboots and sleeping mats, we arrive at our designated site. I will say that I have been camping many a times, but trying to put up a tent made in Belgium was very annoying to say the least. Probably the dumbest designed tent I've ever seen. It said 2 people plus bags, but was lucky to fit 2 people in. After an hour of trying, we finally got it up and it looked pretty much like it did on the bag. If it had rained though I think we would have got a wet arse. Luckily for us it didn't.

I think Jaz was a bit down at this time as we thought The Kooks - the only band Jaz wanted to see the whole weekend were playing at 3, and the time was 3.30pm once we actually got inside the festival. Much to our joy they were actually on at 5pm. We had decided earlier that the first day would be taken very easy, see some bands and try some different types of food (They had plenty from all over the world - I sampled most of it) The first day we saw the Kooks, Blink 182, Miike Snow, Steve Aoki who were all very good. The festival went til 4am each morning but we called it quits at 11 the first night as the second day was the big one. It was a bit chilly once we had walked 30 mins back to the tent and pretty much jumped straight in for bed. It was one of the worst nights sleep for both of us - people coming in at all hours making noise and all that. The ear plugs didn't really work that night.

The next morning we awoke feeling very average, had a good breakfast and a lot of water and decided to take a little snooze out in the open under a tree as it was very hot in the tent and Jaz had a terrible headache. We didn't go into the festival until about 4pm and pretty much walked around for a few hours taking it all in. Hot Chip - one of my fav bands was on at 8pm so we got to their tent about 7.15pm and got a good spot, about 5 people back from the front. They played for about an hour and were awesome and played all their good ones. Then next we had Deadmau5 followed by Fake Blood, who I thought we both pretty average - we ended up leaving both early and went to see the end of Snow Patrol who were ok. We really just wanted them to finish so my fav band/Dj's - The Bloody Beetroots- could come on next. We had a pretty good spot and could see them on stage and on the big screen. They were awesome but didn't finish until about 2am, at which stage we were both very very tired. We troddled back to the tent and pretty much fell asleep as we got inside.

The next day - day 3 and the last - had a few good bands here and there. We both woke up feeling pretty average and very tired, so I made an executive decision to unpack the tent and head back to Brussels for the night to sleep in an actual bed. I think Jaz was very very happy to say the least. I don't think she could have lasted another night in that s***ty tent and probably would have killed me.

All up it was good fun, 110,000 people each day was the biggest festival I've been too - a bit too many if you ask me. Some great bands and good food. I think Jaz will pass up the next offer though!!

Our next stop was Brugge. After an hour on the train from Brussels we arrived into Brugge. It seems that everywhere in Belgium is only an hour away on the train. A short 10 minute walk from the train and we arrived at our B & B, a cute little house pretty close to the centre of town. The owner Maria, is from Italy, now living in Brugge is very full on and funny. She loves to have a chat. We arrived and Maria drew us a plan on a map as what to see, where to eat, where not to eat and all that. It was very helpful.

Brugge is a cool little town. Cobble stone paths, horse drawn carriages (very touristy and about $35 Euro a pop, which we decided not to do-plus the smell of the horses wasn't overly pleasant!), well preserved old buildings and lots of beer and chocolate shops. We followed Maria's map and wandered the streets. We visited a Chocolate Museum which was rather boring until the end where we got to sample some of the goodies (I thought it was interesting, Jaz not so much… I think she only paid the 6 euro so she could sample the chocolate!! It was a museum though so I had to read all the signs). We tried chocolate from some other shops, had a look at a few churches, one with a statue from Michelangelo, which was cool to see and walked through the city centre and square. Jaz was a bit tired in the afternoon and I was keen to do a brewery tour (when in Rome), so she gladly went home for a snooze whilst I went on the brewery tour, which was a great 5 euro spent. This included the tour and a free beer at the end, not bad value and a good beer too.

Jaz again.. Tim has pretty much summed it all up. Again, not with as much emotion and finer details but I am just happy he has written something and just quietly, I think he quite enjoys putting his 2 cents in!

Till next time xxxx