The wonders of Southern Africa

It had been 6 months since my last big trip, so it was about time I'd go somewhere again. In this blog post I'll take you with me on my journey through Southern Africa: from Cape Town to Pretoria, plus Kruger Park and Victoria Falls.

A table for the clouds

I started with a few days in Cape Town, where I met my good friend Georgie again, more than 5 years after I last saw her in her home country Czech Republic. She was in Cape Town for a church conference and of course we wanted to spend some time together. On the first day we hiked up Table Mountain together with her friend who is a flight attendant for Emirates. It was very cloudy though and I wonder if Table Mountain is called this way because it's like a table for the clouds. In the evening we went out with some people we met during the hike. Despite the cloudy weather, it was a great day!

The following day the flight attendant had already left (crazy life, hiking up Table Mountain after a flight of 10 hours, going out in the evening and then flying back the next morning), but some people from the church conference had arrived and together with some of them we made a daytrip to see African penguins at Boulders beach and to visit Cape of Good Hope. So my first few days in Cape Town were quite action packed and full of meeting new people.

The biologist and the two hippies

South Africa is not really a country to travel through with public transport. You just won't get to the most beautiful places. Since it's a bit boring to rent a car and drive 2000 km on my own, I bought a Baz Bus ticket. The Baz Bus is basically a hop on hop off bus for backpackers. It picks you up at your hostel and drops you off at the next hostel. The Baz Bus route runs between Cape Town and Johannesburg and has stops at all the beautiful spots. My first stop was in Knysna: a small town with a beautiful lagoon next to it, separated from the sea by some magnificient cliffs. I stayed there two nights and wanted to do paragliding on one day. The paragliding was taking place in Wilderness, so I went there by shared taxi. The paragliding was however cancelled last-minute due to too much wind, so I had to find something else to do. So I explored the beach and the town. I also met the Belgian biologist and his two hippie friends, who I had talked to a lot on the bus the day before. I would meet them on 4 different occasions in total. That's the fun part of going with Baz Bus: you make new friends on the bus and you never know if and when you will see them again. Below some pictures of Knysna.

A mountainbike ride in Storms River

Up next was the relatively unknown Tsitsikamma National Park. I was staying in a village called Storms River in a bit of a hippie hostel with a goat walking in the garden who was sometimes pooping on guests' flipflops. In the hostel I met another Belgian (South Africa is full of Dutch, Belgian and German backpackers!) and we decided to go mountainbiking in the park the next day. We were rewarded with some awesome views:

Lesuuthuu

After a short stop in Port Elizabeth I went to the Drakensberg mountains. One of the most beautiful parts of these mountains is the Sani Pass which connects South Africa with Lesotho, so that's where I went. Lesotho is a country of roughly the size of Belgium and it's the country with the highest lowest point in the world. I wanted to spend 2 or 3 days there but the only possibility to stay more than 1 day was to join a 2 day pony trek. I really really don't see myself riding a pony for 2 days, so I joined a day tour to Lesotho in a 4x4. The views from Sani Pass were indeed stunning. We drove into Lesotho at the most relaxed border crossing ever: they gave us all an entry and exit stamp at the same time, so we wouldn't have to come back in the afternoon. Something I didn't know: Lesotho is actually pronounced as Lesuuthuu. The first time I heard it was while talking to a British girl at the hostel. I remember thinking "oh boy, she has the worst British accent ever" but the next day I found out she just pronounced it correctly. :) So in Lesuuthuu we visited a traditional village that was way too touristic (it reminded me of the floating village at Lake Titicaca in that sense), went to see some sheep shearers (sadly they were on lunch break), had a beer in the self-proclaimed highest pub in the Africa (hard to believe that this is true, but still, Lesothian beer tasted very good) and made a short hike during which we met two young shepherds.

In exchange for some apples we could take some pictures with them and I gladly took advantage of

this opportunity:

Onwards to the Kruger Park...

In the mountains the weather can change quickly. The next day it was rainy and foggy so I had to change my plans to go hiking and get some nice views. I got a ride to a nearby city from a friendly British couple and spent a day there. After that, I continued towards Pretoria. For time purposes I will not write about that and skip to the Kruger Park. I booked a package tour to go there. It was supposed to be a camping trip, but the tents had real beds and electricity and there was even a working fridge on the campsite to keep our beers cold. There was no wifi, which forced us to sit around the campfire sharing stories. Such a horrible way to spend our 3 evenings there. :)

The first day in Kruger Park didn't go as planned. Angry villagers had set up a roadblock and were throwing stones at cars so that nobody could enter the gate to Kruger Park. We had to take a detour of 2 hours to get to the next gate. We were rewarded afterwards however with lots of animals. We even saw 2 cheetahs chilling in the grass after just having eaten an impala. Some baboons were having some casual sex nearby, when the impalas asked them to take revenge on the cheetahs for killing their friend. So then the baboons attacked the cheetahs! It was not the most violent attack, but it did make the cheetahs stand up and cross the road right in front of us.

In the meantime we were also trying to spot the Big Five. We found the rhino, elephant and buffalo already. Just the leopard and the lion were still missing...

So the next morning we got up at 4am to beat the villagers (no, not beat them up, just to be ahead of them) and got to Kruger Park before any riots could start. We didn't see the leopard, but did see lions. At one point we were waiting at a crossroad because another safari vehicle was rapidly approaching. The driver shouted "ngala ngala" before making a right turn with squeeking tyres. So we followed them, racing with 50 km/h on a very bad dirtroad. We saw a lioness chilling in the grass in the distance. We waited for a long time and got rewarded: the lioness stood up and out of the bushes at least 4 other lionesses appeared afterwards. It was a nice moment.

Swimming in the Devil's pool

Victoria Falls has been on my bucketlist for a long time already. Since I was in the area anyways, I made a quick stop in Zambia to see the falls. I knew that December is a bad time to visit them because it is the end of the dry season. So the falls themselves were not super impressive due to a lack of water. But: when life gives you lemons, you just make lemonade. Since the water is low, it is possible to swim in Devil's Pool: a part of the falls where tourists can swim right next to a waterfall of 100 meters high. And then I don't mean at the bottom, no, at the top. So one wrong move could make you fall down the falls. It was a very cool experience and a great way to end my journey!

The results are in!

The results are in! International Song Contest #9 is officially over and all points have been added up. And we have a winner! Quick, check out who it is via the link below:


http://tummiweb.com/scorewiz/scoreboard/view/192163/isc-9


It was interesting for me to see how music tastes among people can differ. Also it was interesting that for the first time there were voters from 5 different continents (the Chilean flag doesn't work in the tool I used). That was also very nice for me.


Most voters were already thanked by me individually, but also via this post I want to thank everyone who voted. Without you this edition wouldn't have been possible and as you can see all votes had their impact on the final result. See you next year!

International Song Contest #9

Hello and welcome to edition 9 of the International Song Contest. A special edition. Not only because every edition of this song contest is special, but also because this is a themed edition. The theme is "languages". All songs in this contest are in (one of) the official language(s) that is spoken in the country. So today I - together with some friends who helped me selected the songs - am sharing 22 new songs from all over the world in 20 different languages.



This edition will therefore be different from all previous editions, but I hope you still enjoy listening to these songs. As always there is a voting section below where I kindly ask you to vote for your favorites in Eurovision-style. Any vote is extremely appreciated. :)



Voting rules:
- Voting goes via the traditional Eurovision-system, see below. You may also vote in a personal message to me, if you have me as a friend on Facebook. :)
- You can vote for your own country and/or your own entry, as long as you promise to vote honestly. You can also ask one of your friends to vote, as long as this friend votes based on his/her own taste and not on your advice. :)
- You can vote until 9 October 6:00pm CET.
- Voting tip: personally I find it easy to rate the songs I like 1-5* while listening to the recap video and rank them afterwards based on this rating.



After the voting has ended I will publish the results on my blog and make a fancy animation of the voting process, to give the viewer the feeling that he or she is watching the results of the real Eurovision song contest. If you include your e-mailaddress, I will send you an e-mail when the final result is published.

Recap video:






This year for the first time I made a YouTube playlist of all the songs, to make it easier for you to listen to the full version of your favorites! You can find it via this link.



If you are old-fashioned and still want to have the links to the songs one by one, you can still find them below:

1.	Slovakia	Zuzana Smatanová	Horou
2.	Norway	Morgan Sulele	Bare Min
3.	Colombia	Morat	Yo Más Te Adoro
4.	Estonia	SHANON	Jäätunud Jäljed
5.	Kyrgyzstan	Kyrgyz Kyzdary	Ak Sedep
6.	Germany	Adel Tawil	Ist Da Jemand?
7.	Croatia	Mejaši	Zavela Me Ana
8.	Malta	The Travellers	Xemx U Xita
9.	Brazil	Gisele De Santi	E Eu
10.	Czech Republic	Sebastian	Toulavá
11.	Netherlands	Racoon	Oceaan
12.	Romania	Vunk ft. Fly Project	Fa-mi Cu Mana
13.	Albania	Vedat Ademi ft. Yllka Kuqi	Ne Zemer Te Mbaj
14.	France	Claudio Capéo	Ça Va Ça Va
15.	Italy	Emanuele Corvaglia	Una Nuova Dimenzione
16.	Cambodia	Preap Sovath ft. Kanha	Rom Anh Jek
17.	Ethiopia	Teddy Afro	Marakiye
18.	Mexico	Natalia Lafourcade	Tú Sí Sabes Quererme
19.	Finland	Haloo Helsinki!	Beibi
20.	Montenegro	Andrea Demirović	Odlazim
21.	Armenia	Sofi Mkheyan	Hamadzayn Em
22.	Switzerland	Beatrice Egli	Wo Sind All Die Romeos

Voting section:


Voting is over!

Eurovision 2017: my top 5

It's that time of the year again: next month will be the Eurovision Song Contest. Last year I didn't share my top 5 with you because I was not satisfied with the entries (I had no clear favorites and in the end the catchy pop song by Denmark became my number 1, but I was too ashamed to share this) and apparently in 2015 I forgot to share my top 5, but this year I will do it again. Enjoy!

5. Italy (Francesco Gabbani - Occidentali's Karma)
Italy's Francesco Gabbani is a huge favorite among the bookmakers to win this year's edition. This song (and its singer) just have something catchy, although to some people this may also be perceived as annoying. A friend already pointed out that this is certainly not a typical Laurens-song, so does the fact that even I like this mean that Francesco will indeed have a very good chance to win Eurovision? We will see next month.

4. Netherlands (O'G3NE - Lights And Shadows)

Last year the Netherlands was in my top 5 for the first time since 1999. This year they sent in exactly the band that I wanted to see at Eurovision: girlband O'G3NE. Their song didn't disappoint, so this is the second year in a row the Netherlands is in my top 5. The three sisters Lisa, Amy and Shelly (who also participated in Junior Eurovision a few years ago) are unique in this edition because they sing in harmony and hopefully this will be enough to at least secure a place in the final.

 

3. Switzerland (Timebelle - Apollo)

As usual Switzerland is also in my top 5 again. In the video below I shared the live performance with you, because in my opinion it's much better than the official music video. Among the many, many ballads this year the song will not really stand out, but to me this certainly is the best of the ballads and I hope to see Timebelle in the final as well.

2. Cyprus (Hovig - Gravity)

Cyprus has the kind of song that doesn't stand out at first, but if you start to listen to it more often you will start to appreciate it more and more. The song is powerful and without a doubt a song that I will keep on listening to even after the contest is over. 

1. Romania (Ilinca ft. Alex Florea - Yodel It!)

I accidentally found this song already way before the Romanian national final while searching for new songs for my own International Song Contest. With a title like "Yodel it" of course you have to click this link and I immediately fell in love with the song. As I was hoping/expecting, the song qualified from the national final with ease and now Ilinca and Alex Florea get to represent Romania in Kiev. I have no idea if they have a realistic chance to win it this year and I know that Ilinca is not the best singer in the contest, but the song certainly stands out and is my clear personal winner of 2017!

 

If you have any comments about my top 5 or want to share your own top 5 or top 10 with me, please let me know. :)

Trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore

As a travel enthusiast I often get to meet people who travel a lot. Whenever I get the chance, I always ask those people what is the most beautiful country they visited. Besides the answer that I always give - this is impossible to say, every country has its own charms - quite a few people named Thailand. I have not been there yet, but this year I decided it was time to pay this country a visit. And while I was in the area, I went to Cambodia and Singapore as well.

Thailand

Despite being tired from the flight, on the day of my arrival in Bangkok I already had a meetup with my Thai friend Jinwara. She was kind enough to show me her home town and give me recommendations about which dishes I had to try during my stay in Thailand. It was a good day.
The next day I went on a day trip to Kanchanaburi to visit the bridge over the Kwai river. This bridge is also a part of the Thai-Burmese railroad. We were lucky enough to see a train passing over the bridge (while the tourists were still on it):

After visiting this bridge, I went on to Erawan National Park. This NP is famous for the Erawan waterfalls that have 7 layers of falls and are considered to be the most beautiful waterfalls in Thailand:

As an experiment, I had not planned the Thai part of the trip in advance. I did know I wanted to visit a Thai island, but hadn't decided yet which one. The islands in the south should be the most beautiful, but going there would imply two travels of 12-16 hours and I didn't really feel like doing that for 3 days on the island, considering I still needed to go east to Cambodia too. So the decision was made to maybe visit these islands on another trip and to spend a night in Chanthaburi and go to Koh Chang in the eastern part of Thailand. Koh Chang is one of the biggest islands in Thailand. There are lots of beautiful beaches, like for example White Sands Beach:

I went for a swim in the sea with a view like this:

Not bad, eh?

Cambodia

I was already close to the border with Cambodia now and there is not a lot more to do in Eastern Thailand, so I booked package of a minibus to the border and a bus to Siem Reap (the town next to Angkor Wat) from there. However, when we arrived at the border town we were kept waiting at a restaurant/office until all other passenger from other cities had arrived. We were pretty much forced to buy the Cambodian visa from them for 40 USD, but I refused to do this because I knew that I could just buy them at the border for 30 USD. They tried to convince me this was not possible, but I didn't believe them. So after holding my foot down, I was taken in a minibus to the border together with 2 Russian ladies who also refused to be part of this scam and an American who had booked a ticket to the border and would look for a way to get to Siem Reap himself. Everything at the border went pretty smoothly (as expected) and we found ourselves waiting for the bus. After 30 minutes there was still no sign of this bus and based on the initiative of the American guy we booked a shared taxi to Siem Reap. So in the end I arrived 1.5 hours earlier than the girl in the bus who was going to the same hostel in Siem Reap, paid less money and had more adventure.

At the hostel I booked a sunrise tour to Angkor Wat and some other temples that were once part of the same complex. We had our own tuktuk driver who took us to all the temples all morning and waited for us while we were visiting them. Below you can find some pictures.

Up next was the southern part of Cambodia. I went to a town called Kampot with a VIP sleeper bus. The bus itself seemed luxurious with a private bed for each passenger, but the bus was old and soon we found out there were cockroaches and bedbugs everywhere. After discussing with the bus company for 1 hour, we got a better bus and went on our way to the south. Despite the distance between the south and the north (where Siem Reap is located), it was just as hot and humid there and during the day you were pretty much forced to have a siesta. That was no problem for me though, as I had more than enough time to explore the south. I visited an abandoned mountain village that was created by the French elite in the 1950s (Cambodia was a French colony back then), made a sunset cruise on the Kampot river and went to backpacker paradise Sihanoukville. I celebrated the Cambodian New Years Eve (14 April) on the beach, drinking from a coconut while watching the festivities. Once again: not bad, eh? ;)

Close to Sihanoukville there are some beautiful tropical islands. I decided not to stay there because the accommodation on these islands was either very expensive or very basic (no running water, no wifi, no nothing) but bought a boat ticket to do a day tour to two of the islands including some snorkeling. This was supposed to be the "Happy Boat" with tourists, dance music and partying on the deck and lots of other fun. But since this boat was already fully booked, without notice by the lady who sold me the ticket I was put on a not-so-happy-looking wooden boat with only Cambodians on it. As I love to talk to locals, it turned out to be quite an interesting day after all. I was "adopted" in a Cambodian family reunion in a family of which 3 members moved to the USA 40 years ago. This was perfect for me, because these 3 people spoke very good English and I could ask them lots of questions. During the lunch I even went on a photo with the oldest family member, who was from a village and had never seen a foreigner before from such close distance. :) The snorkeling was not so impressive compared to my previous experiences in Belize, but the islands were very nice. So all in all, the day was not what I expected it to be, but still a great experience.

My final stop in Cambodia was the capital city Phnom Penh. The city itself is not so interesting, but there are some landmarks related to the history of Cambodia. You may have heard of the Red Khmer regime that was controlling the country from 1975-1979. This was not the nicest regime. They wanted to make Cambodia a communist state and made everybody work on nationalized farms. Intellectuals were seen as suspicious and put in prison immediately. Over the years, the regime became very paranoid. Even wearing glasses was enough to arrest and kill you under suspicion of being an intellectual. To illustrate the paranoia, of all the people who got an important role in the government only 1 out of 3 people was still alive 3 years later. In total more than 3 million people (25% of the total population!) were killed between 1975 and 1979. Near Phnom Penh I visited the prison in which people were held and interrogated and one of the "Killing Fields" where people were sent to get killed. At both places I had an audio tour, with background stories about the regime and personal stories related to these places. All these stories were very impressive and made me - even for though I am sometimes considered as a "cold" Dutch guy - a bit emotional.
Visiting these places is not nice, but it's an absolute must to go there if you visit Cambodia.

Singapore

Before going back to the Netherlands, I spent two days in Singapore as well. Singapore is one of the cleanest countries in the world and it really is - as one t-shirt I saw in a shop - a fine country. And with that I don't mean that it's fine, but that there are high fines for everything. You can imagine that smoking and littering are subject to huge fines, but even eating or drinking in the subway, feeding monkeys in a park or even spitting on the street can earn you a fine of up to 1000 dollars... The country (or city) itself has some interesting places and you can do a nice walk through nature. Singapore is also a city with lots of immigrants and it was fun for me to visit the Arab, Indian and Chinese neighborhoods in just a matter of hours. A disadvantage of this is that the city itself is lacking a bit of soul in my opinion: it's mostly a place where people work and I couldn't really find anything that is typical for Singapore other than the cleanliness (and all the warning signs about fines everywhere). But this does make Singapore a perfect place to start a trip in Asia: it's like a light-version of Asia where you can experience typical Asian experiences or foods in a clean, western environment. And that has its charm too.

Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador

Last year in November and December I spent 3 weeks in Central America, visiting Belize, Guatemala and El Salvador. I didn't have the energy to write a full blog about this trip back then, but based on the fragments of my travel diaries and my photos I still put together a post about this trip. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Part 1: Belize

I have always wanted to visit the Caribbean. However, I made a promise to myself that I would go there for the first time on my honeymoon. On this trip I had the opportunity to visit a Caribbean island without cheating on my promise. I started my trip on a Belizean island called San Pedro, which is also known as La Isla Bonita. And yes, the song by Madonna is about this island. It took me more than 30 hours to get here, but it was worth it.

The island itself is quite crowded. It used to have big beaches but now the nice beaches are gone and replaced by beach resorts. It's still nice to make a seaside walk though.

I was staying in a great hostel with a rooftop terrace with hammocks. It was quite nice to lay in one and have a view like this:

Notice the shape of the palm trees: in the months before I arrived it has been hurricane season and you can see how the wind affects the growth of the trees. Also notice the Christmas tree in the background.

I also went on a boat excursion to go scuba diving. After some initial problems, I finally pushed myself over the mental threshold to just put my face underwater  and a whole new world opened up for me. The coral was absolutely amazing, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I can really recommend to go scuba diving in this area, the water is very clear and the coral is amazing.

After two days in San Pedro I headed back to the mainland again. I went to San Ignacio, a small town inland from where you can visit the holy caves of Actun Tunichil Muknal (or as everybody calls it: ATM). The place is really in the middle of nowhere, but it is also a must-see. The hike to the cave is pretty cool (you have to pass through the jungle where you need to cross a river twice). The caves themselves are a must-see: they are partly underwater, so again you need to walk through the water or sometimes the water is so deep that you need to swim. How often do you get to swim inside a cave? Very deep inside the cave there are also some Mayan artifacts and a skeleton of a human sacrifice that was made 1000 years ago. Sadly you are not allowed to take any photos in the cave, because some tourist dropped his camera on the skull of the 1000 years old skeleton and broke it. So I can't share any pictures with you, but as mentioned before: if you ever get to visit Belize, this is a must-see destination!

Part 2: Guatemala

From Western Belize it's only a short way towards Guatemala. I went on the road together with 2 Germans who I met in the hostel in San Ignacio and we decided to not take the easy way to the big city but head directly to the Tikal National Park. It was a bit of a struggle to get there because we had to change minibuses in the middle of nowhere. We needed to wait a long time for the bus, but luckily we found a small restaurant (that was pretty much a big room next to the house of the lady who owned it) where we could eat some homemade food. There was no menu, only a lady mentioning all the dishes she could make out of the top of her head in fast-spoken Spanish, but in the end we ate a good meal there. We were in Tikal in the early afternoon and had just enough time to visit the ruins and watch the sunset from the highest point of the national park. It was a beautiful sight, with nothing but jungle and a few ruins as far as the eye can see. Below an impression of the Mayan ruins in Tikal.

After a short stop in Flores I headed down to Antigua. Antigua is lovely colonial town that used to be the capital city of Guatemala, but after a series of earthquakes the capital city was moved to a different location. As a consequence, Antigua is now a small town with lots of history and a backpacker paradise. It is also home to the one of the best hostels I have ever been to: Hostel Matiox. The place really felt like a home away from home and the set-up with a patio makes it an ideal place to meet other backpackers. I also went to a place called San Pedro La Laguna for a few days and met some nice people there. This place has a nice lake and some volcanoes around it. I also went hiking on a volcano. Below are the photos of the main square in Antigua, the view on a volcano we got during the hike and me making marshmallows on dried lava, using the heat from mother earth.

Part 3: El Salvador

The final stop in my trip is the relatively unknown and not at all touristic El Salvador. According to some statistics, El Salvador is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. I knew it was the murder capital of the world before I got there. It's quite funny that after I got home I read a news article that in January there had been at day without murders in El Salvador for the first time since forever. My friends and family made fun of me for going to such a dangerous country, but I knew better. Most of the violence in El Salvador is gang-related. As long as you stay away from "bad" neighborhoods it's totally safe for tourists to travel around here. Although due to the lack of touristic infrastructure it can be somewhat difficult to navigate sometimes, as I will show with an example in a minute.

I started off my stay in this country with a day at the beach. It had been a personal goal this trip to travel from the eastern side of the Central American continent (the Caribbean Sea) to the western side (the Pacific Ocean) and to "set foot" in both waters. I visited a little surfers' paradise called El Tunco. The facilities for tourists there are quite poor and I was the only person staying at my hostel (which was also a bit outside El Tunco and owned by an old man who spoke no English at all - very convenient), but the beach was nice and I did meet some people from other hostels there. Probably the waves too, but I wouldn't know since I am not a "surfer dude". :D Below an impression of what a Salvadorean beach resort looks like:

Next up was the capital: San Salvador. Thanks to a couple of Americans it was quite easy for me to find the right bus to my hostel after I arrived there, but in general it's quite difficult for a person who doesn't speak Spanish to get around here. As usual, I went everywhere using local public transportation. But when you are on the way back to your hostel outside the city center, stuck in traffic in a minibus and the bus driver starts to take a detour to avoid the traffic jam, you lose all sense of where you are and how far away the neighborhood of your hostel still is. Then when you ask in your best Spanish to the person next to you if you need to get off soon. This person seems to indicate you need to stay seated but you don't understand a word he is saying, so you stay seated. He keeps making the same movement to stay seated with his hand upon your next requests and seems to understand your destination, so you stay seated. However, when he gets off and a new person takes his seat, it turns out that you are already waaay past your destination and even in another village by then. Something like this happened to me only once before in Moldova (another country that is not very tourist-oriented), but just like that time with the help from some helpful locals I found a bus that was heading back to the city. And there was even someone who did speak English on this bus, so this time I got very clear instruction about where I needed to get off and how I should walk from there back to my hostel.

The next day I felt forced to challenge myself again and went to Suchitoto by bus. Again it's not easy to find the right bus. I had to go to a big bus station at the other end of town. But when I got there, I got the impression that the location where you need to wait for this long-distance bus changes every week, as even people who spoke some English gave me different locations about where I should wait. Two people told me I should not wait at the bus station, but at the side of the road and indeed: after 10 minutes a minibus was passing by with the right number on it and I got onto the bus to Suchitoto. Suchitoto is... not the most lively city I have ever been to, but it was a nice change of pace after the hectic capital city. And it was a good place to sit and relax in the sun one last time, as I knew the next day I would be leaving to the European winter again.

The way home...

For my flight back I was a bit in trouble due to a relatively short layover at Atlanta and a delayed flight from San Salvador. I didn't want to miss my connection because that would mean at least a 12 hour delay, so I arranged with a friendly flight attendant that I could sit on an empty seat just behind business class before landing and rushed through all the security stations in just 30 minutes which must be a new record. When I arrived at the gate for the flight to Amsterdam there was almost nobody left, but I made it just before the final boarding call. My boarding pass was denied though, so I had to go to the lady behind a computer. She looked at me as if she saw a ghost and said to me in a way only fat middle-aged African American women can say it: "Whááát?!? Lawrence? From San Salvador? Maaan, they thought you weren't gonna make it so they gave away yo' seat to somebody else!". The lady - just a skinny white woman with blonde hair by the way - gave me a new seat and I asked if my luggage would be on this plane too. The lady - who in my memory will slowly be transforming into an actual African American woman anyway - laughed hard and said "darlin', yo' luggage got here waaay before you did. It caim on wheeeels.".

With a smile she checked me in and I was on my way back to the Netherlands.

Top 100 of all times

In the Netherlands the year traditionally ends with the top 2000 of the best songs ever made on the radio. From 1999 until 2012 I made a list of my own favorite songs every year as well. It started with a milennium top 50 in 1999 and I kept on adding more songs to the list after that. At some point I even made a top 350 every year. As I grew older and got more responsibilities this number decreased again to 200 in 2012. After that, I got a full-time job in the Netherlands and didn't have enough time to make such a list every year. But this year I felt like making a list again, so I was busy the last week of the year putting together a top 100 of my all-time favorite songs.

It's interesting how my taste hasn't changed so much over the past 4 years: the top 10 looks more or less the same as in 2012. As always, Bon Jovi is in first place. There is only one newcomer in the top 10: Ed Sheeran's beautiful 'Photograph'. Noticeable climbers into the top 50 compared to the previous list are 'Still Loving You' by Scorpions (from place 54 in 2012 to place 16 now), 'Summer Of 69' by Bryan Adams (from 52 to 26) and 'Weightless' by All Time Low (from 89 to 38). The oldest song in the list is 'Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter' by Herman's Hermits from March 1965.

Here's the full list:

1. Bon Jovi - Always (1994)
2. Joshua Kadison - Jessie (1993)
3. Volumia! - Afscheid (1998)
4. Marco Borsato - De Bestemming (1998)
5. Bon Jovi - Bed Of Roses (1992)
6. Bad English - When I See You Smile (1989)
7. De Kast - Hart Van Mijn Gevoel (2000)
8. James Blunt - Goodbye My Lover (2005)
9. Marco Borsato - Margherita (1996)
10. Ed Sheeran - Photograph (2015)
11. Moody Blues - Nights In White Satin (1967)
12. Eagles - Hotel California (1977)
13. Klein Orkest - Over De Muur (1984)
14. The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger (2006)
15. Billy Joel - Piano Man (1974)
16. Scorpions - Still Loving You (1984)
17. Acda & De Munnik - Lopen Tot De Zon Komt (Live) (1997)
18. Marco Borsato & Trijntje Oosterhuis - Wereld Zonder Jou (1997)
19. The Script - The Man Who Can´t Be Moved (2008)
20. Volumia! - Hou Me Vast (1998)
21. Bad English - Time Stood Still (1992)
22. Milow - Born In The Eighties (2006)
23. abel - Onderweg (1998)
24. Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting (1989)
25. Phil Collins - Against All Odds (1984)
26. Bryan Adams - Summer Of '69 (1990)
27. Michael Jackson - Heal The World (1992)
28. Hozier - Take Me To Church (2014)
29. Marco Borsato - Stop De Tijd (2008)
30. Billy Joel - Goodnight Saigon (1983)
31. The Pretty Reckless - Just Tonight (2010)
32. Ryan Star - Right Now (2008)
33. Genesis - I Can't Dance (1992)
34. Oasis - Wonderwall (1995)
35. De Poema's - Zij Maakt Het Verschil (2001)
36. Ralph McTell - Streets Of London (1972)
37. Art Garfunkel - Bright Eyes (1979)
38. All Time Low - Weightless (2009)
39. Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On (1998)
40. Paul de Leeuw - Ik Wil Niet Dat Je Liegt (1993)
41. Acda & De Munnik - Niet Of Nooit Geweest (1998)
42. Echt - Du Trägst Keine Liebe In Dir (1999)
43. Sunrise Avenue - Hollywood Hills (2011)
44. John Lennon & Yoko Ono - Happy X-Mas (War Is Over) (1972)
45. Stef Bos - Papa (1991)
46. Di-Rect - Don't Kill Me Tonight (2003)
47. Ryan Star - Start A Fire (2010)
48. Christina Aguilera - Hurt (2006)
49. Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer (1986)
50. Dashboard Confessional - The Secret's In The Telling (2006)
51. De Poema's - Mijn Houten Hart (1999)
52. Magdi Rúzsa - Unsubstantial Blues (2007)
53. The Click Five - All I Need Is You (2007)
54. Kayak - Ruthless Queen (1978)
55. Freek de Jonge - Leven Na De Dood (1997)
56. The Click Five - The Reason Why (2007)
57. Goo Goo Dolls - Iris (1999)
58. Aerosmith - I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing (1998)
59. Europe - Final Countdown (1986)
60. De Kast - In De Wolken (1999)
61. Bruce Springsteen - Born In The Usa (1984)
62. Bryan Adams - Everything I Do (I Do It For You) (1991)
63. Sturm und Drang - A Million Nights (2008)
64. Status Quo - Whatever You Want (1979)
65. The Feeling - Rosé (2006)
66. De Kast - Zonder Reden (2001)
67. Fool's Garden - Lemon Tree (1996)
68. Every Avenue - Tell Me I'm A Wreck (2009)
69. Di-Rect - She (2003)
70. Chris Rea - Road To Hell (1989)
71. Weezer - Pork And Beans (2009)
72. P!nk feat. Nate Ruess - Just Give Me A Reason (2013)
73. The Morning Of - Shine (2007)
74. Cranberries - Zombie (1994)
75. City to City - The Road Ahead (1999)
76. Boudewijn de Groot - Welterusten Meneer De President (1966)
77. Paul de Leeuw - Ik Heb Je Lief (1997)
78. Liquido - Narcotic (1999)
79. Flash And The Pan - Hey, St. Peter (1977)
80. Bon Jovi - In These Arms (1992)
81. Sherwood - Ground Beneath My Feet (2009)
82. Reamonn - Supergirl (2001)
83. Bloem - Even Aan Mijn Moeder Vragen (1980)
84. Sturm und Drang - Molly The Murderer (2012)
85. Gavin James - The Book Of Love (2015)
86. Wildstylez feat. Niels Geusebroek - Year Of Summer (2012)
87. Bon Jovi - I'll Be There For You (1988)
88. Herman's Hermits - Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter (1965)
89. Marco Borsato - De Waarheid (1997)
90. Status Quo - Roll Over Lay Down (1975)
91. Ryan Star - Breathe (2009)
92. Ricky Martin ft. Meja - Private Emotion (1999)
93. Westlife - I'm Already There (2001)
94. Meat Loaf & Ellen Foley - Paradise By The Dashboardlight (1977)
95. Bad English - The Price Of Love (1990)
96. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars (2006)
97. Mr. Probz - Waves (2013)
98. VOF De Kunst - Suzanne (1983)
99. Manic Street Preachers - Autumnsong (2007)
100. Phil Collins - Another Day In Paradise (1989)