Airport pickup service

Day one. That means arrivals. Since we want to make everyone feel as comfortable as possible, Formaat sent out crewmembers to Brussels and Charleroi airport to give everyone a warm welcome. The people from Iceland were the first to be expected. And as everyone knows, you can easily recognize an Icelandic youngster by the shoes he wears: personalized, vintage rain boots. 

Fifteen minutes later the Romanian crowd walked through the arrival gate and joined our little get together. Some of the youngsters had been travelling since 10 pm last night. When I asked how they were feeling their tired faces lit up with a smile, ‘a bit wrecked but happy to be here!’

After we very proudly announced that we would be having ‘stoofvlees met frietjes’ for diner, a clever Romanian girl yelled that she hoped for it, since 'French fries are actually Belgian'. Hungry Julius informed about the ‘stoofvlees’ – and when we told him our carbonade flamande is meat stew with a touch of the finest beers in the world, he was perplex: ‘So it’s like cooking hot dogs in a pint?’ No, it is not. But we were not surprised that this question came from the Icelander. Because wasn’t it in Iceland where people eat HAKARL?

 
All of us got on a train in the direction of Antwerp, the European Youth Capital of the year. At the moment the first groups are getting settled at the campsite, while others are arriving. Is that Irish I hear down the hallway? Let's have a look - we’ll keep you posted.

For more pictures you can always have a look at our Flickr account !