Places I have seen...

Note: I'm French and I lived there for the first 20 years of my life.

Note: My father, mother and brother all live in Le Mans. I have lived there for 8-9 years. And no, I'm not a big fan of the famous car race...




My parents live 10 minutes from this cathedrale

Note: My sister lives in Paris. Me and my wife have been there many times and we always had a great time there. I couldn't live there though (too big, too many people, too much stress...).

Note: My mother is French and my father is Dutch so half of my family is Dutch. As a kid, I would go there very often on holiday. In 2002, I moved there and I have been living there ever since. No plans to move anytime soon.

Note: My first name is Johan which is a very typical Dutch name and I spent practically my whole life teaching French people how to pronounce it correctly...

Note: When I was younger (I'm a very old guy now...), Amsterdam was my favorite Dutch city. Lots of fun and interesting cultural stuff. Nowadays, it's little too touristic for my taste and I prefer Utrecht. But still a very beautiful city.

Note: I watch all the games of the Dutch national soccer team (I don't care about clubs). They just kick ass! If you wonder who the f*ck is Johan Cruijff, he was the best Dutch soccer player ever. He also had a really cool first name, don't you think?



Johan Cruijff

Note: I went like 8 times to the US. The first time, I was 16 and I was sleeping at a host family. I was lucky to end up with some of the best people on earth (seriously) so I kept coming back every year. So, I don't really appreciate when people (many people in Europe at least) criticize American folks when actually they haven't been there even once...

Note: My host family was/is from Baltimore and they always will be close to my heart. Honestly, Baltimore is nothing expectional but I always had a great time there.

Note: The fist time, I went to Baltimore (something like 16 years ago), we went to see a baseball game in the actual Baltimore stadium (which is called the "Oriole Park at Camden Yards"). If I recall it correctly, it was a game between The Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians (the main protagonists in "Major League"). When I was a kid, I really liked "Major League" so it was quite surreal to see them playing. I remember that there was some animation about Carl Ripken Jr. which I later found was one of the best Oriole players ever. We had some really bad seats, really high up there and we couldn't see sh*t... but the atmosphere was really relaxed (nothing compared to the hooligan parties we have in our European stadiums... shame on us!!!) and honestly, most of the people didn't follow the game at all! Anyway, it didn't matter much and it was definitely a cool experience.




Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Note: I have been to Washington DC at least once and I saw many of those famous historical places (you know the white obelisk they always show in the movies? I was there!)

Note: I spent one day in New York and if I record correctly it was before 09/11 and I saw the World Trade Center when it was still standing. A big big city, one day was way too short.

Note: Sometimes, my host family would rent a house in West Virginia. I mostly remember the hot-tub outside, something really new for me back then... They bought me a t-shirt (which I may still have somewhere) with a sheep on it and the following text "West Virginia, where men are men and sheep are nervous". I had so many comments about this t-shirt...





Special thanks to the giraffe who helped me find this movie!

Note: I went to Annapolis but honestly don't remember much about it.

Note: My host family kind of liked gambling so we went to Atlantic City which was OK ...

Note: ... and Las Vegas which was very awesome. It's like Disneyland for adults. Completely unique and unforgettable. All those lights and awesome buildings... About the gambling, definitely not my thing... You seat on a table and after 30 min, you just lost 100 bucks!!! No way... If you are curious and you don't mind artificiality, go check it out.

Note: When I was a college student, I spent my 3rd year in England. It was just awesome! Party, party, party, party, learning, party, party, party, party, learning,... you get the picture....

Note: I haven't seen Bjork in concert (though it could be fun...) but I spent my year in England in Cambridge, The Student City of the world (seriously, something like 80% of the population are students!). A great oportunity to study there (I swear I did some learning there...) and also a great oportunity to meet some people from all over the world. One of the best year of my life.




that wasn't my university though

Note: In Cambridge, I lived at the YMCA (yeah, I know the stupid song...)

Note: Back in England, I have been a couple of times to London to visit the basic historical places. A beautiful city but, like Paris, just way too huge for my taste.

Note: When I was a kid, I have been twice to Algeria with my parents.

Note:, When I have been to Algeria, I have even been to the freaking Sahara a couple of times. As a kid, you aren't really aware about the greatness of being there but still I will never forget it.

Note: Don't worry... I didn't climb the K2... But I went way up north with my father, up to 3500 meters. A great travel. We went 20 kilometers from the Afghan border and on september 11th 2001, I was there playing cards and smoking joints with some locals when all hell broke loose... I will never forget that day... The hotel manager came to us, told us what happened and I first didn't get exactly what was going on. I went to the lobby where about 20 people were watching a small tv in complete silence... The days after I haven't seen any angry mob or whatsoever. Only people in shock. Of course, pretty often some people asked us if we were Americans but what would you expect from them ?!? Where we were, there were like thousands and thousands of Afghan refugees. What would you think about Americans if you heard they will bomb your whole country ? Anyway, my mother was rather relieved when I was back home in one piece...







This is the Shandur pass which was the highest point of my journey (12,200 ft / 3,719 m)

Note: I have been a couple of times to Spain. The first time, it was a school trip when I was 14 years old. We had a great time.

Note: The second time, I went to Bilbao to visit a friend from Cambridge. It was very nice to see him and my Italian friend again and it was just awesome.

Note: With my buddies, the last time I was in Spain, I went to my first football/soccer game in a real stadium. It was the first game of the season and it was a derby between Atletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad (San Sebastian). I didn't expect it to be so entertaining. My friends was pissed off because his team lost someting like 3-1 but still, it was just awesome.




Anoeta, Real Sociedad Stadium

Note: After Bilbao, we went to Madrid as well. A very nice city.

Note: For her 50th birthday, my mother wanted to go back to Algeria but back then it was torned by a dirty religious civil war so she settled with Marocco. I haven't been to Casablanca though.

Note: I haven't been to Casablanca but I have visited Marrakech.

Note: 'Love Wrecked' is actually a really shitty movie but it takes place in a resort and, if I recall it correctly, it was shot in the Dominican Republic. Anyway, my wife and I spent our first holidays in such a resort in the Dominican Republic. I couldn't say I really enjoyed it back then because I was rather used to more cultural/adventurous travels but still it was an interesting experience.

Note: Years later, I went twice to the same resort in Greece with my wife and the kids. And this time, I was really able to enjoy it. We went to Kos. Just chilling, doing nothing all day but eating, sleeping, swimming a little,... And guess what? I haven't seen any historical stuff at all! I know I should be ashamed but I couldn't care less.







Kos

Note: For my work, I spent 2 weeks in Bruxelles. It was quite nice but I haven't seen much of it.







Bruxelles

Note: In 2010, I went with my wife and the kids to an amusement park in Germany (Movie Park, if you want to know...). We had a lot of fun. I know, I know, what about the adventure? What can I say? I'm a family man now...

Note: 3 years later, in 2013, we went back to Germany but this time to Dortmund because my step-son had a track-and-field competition there. Ok, it wasn't actually at the Borussia Dortmund's stadium but it was just next door, at the Helmut Kornig Halle. Anyway, we had a blast and my step-son even broke his personal record in long jump so we had a great time.



Signal Iduna Park, Borussia Dortmund's stadium



Helmut Kornig Halle

Note: In 2012, we went to Sweden with the kids and my mother-in-law. My wife used to go there every year as a child and it had been more than 10 years since she went there so it was quite emotional for her and my mother-in-law. So, we went to this cabin in the woods around a lake (no psychos though...). The weird thing is that even though the location was gorgeous, even though the weather was great, I couldn't really relax during the whole thing and I kinda ruined the holidays for everyone... Better luck next time, I guess...





A lake in the regio of Halland

Note: My parents always loved to walk. As a kid, I always found it so boring (give me back my Super Nintendo!). Sometimes, we would spend a week in the mountain and walk the whole day... So terrible... One day, I was walking ahead, and I kept walking, walking, walking for like 3 hours and completely lost the group. After a while, I took a break and I realized that nobody around me was speaking French but.... freaking Italian!!! I didn't pay attention and I just crossed the f*cking border! I walked the whole way back on my own (I walked from 10.00 until 17.00...) and everybody was so worried, they even sent a helicopter to get me! Not funny... But I did spend a couple of hours in Italy so it deserves to be mentioned on this list, don't you think?

Note: Alright, pretty much like Italy, this entry is a little bit ‘undeserved’ but I thought it was still fun to add this country. Basically, the last time I went to France on holiday (like pretty much every year), my sister had rented a villa all the way down south. Anyway, when it was time to go back home in the Netherlands, not only we had to cross France almost all the way from the bottom to the top but, for some reason, the GPS made us also cross Luxembourg. So, for about 45 mins, we were then driving in this country which I had never seen before. The funny thing with this country, something I have actually never seen in any other country before, was that there was not even a board saying something like ‘Welcome to Luxembourg’ (or maybe I just missed the damned thing but I doubt it). Anyway, except for the highway, I didn’t see anything else of this country.