Trip 2, Day 2

We called for the normal cab to pick me up to get me to work and at lunch my boss took me to another parking lot and let me drive a bit on his car, then said let’s hit the town.  It was nice to finally graduate from the parking lot.  So I was able to drive around for a half hour or more around the streets of Lebbeke as he explained some of the signs to me and watched me stall a time here or there. After the session I felt much more comfortable but still wanted one more session before I took the plunge to driving back to the hotel by myself.  I hate slopes, and of course they have big sloped speed bumps at lots of intersections just begging me to stall!

I had a co-worker drive me to my hotel and then I took the long walk (~2-3 km) to the city center of Aalst, trying to find an ATM to get some cash and a good place for dinner as the weather was nice.  Halfway there I realized I forgot my book so I knew it was going to be a boring dinner.  I found an ING bank right away, and of course they don’t accept my ATM card so I walked and walked to find a different bank than ING – finally found the Citi I was looking for and of course their machines weren’t working.  So I then went to the bank next door to my old hotel (grudgingly) and got some money there – would have been nice to know my ATM card worked there during the last trip!  So then I went to the same Italian place as before because I wanted one of their pizzas.  Just as I am about to leave the client EU president walks in and says “Hey, come join me!”  So after another drink I took the long walk home and of course took a wrong turn off a roundabout and ended up near someone’s farm where an animal came out from the trees and scared the crap out of me – it was a stupid donkey.  So I took pictures of it. 

Then, finally backtracked my way to the hotel and worked on my business case for them putting me in an apartment in Gent.  Tomorrow I am thinking of driving to the hotel after work on my own.. wish me luck!

Picture captions: Very delayed pictures of the Aalst market place.  Very nice smaller town I call home.