About adventures in the Ardennes, life and friends

A long weekend in the Ardennes, ‘nice’ most people would say, and nice it was, but in more aspects than I thought it would be. 4 friends, a tent, a camping close to Malmedy and lots of rain, doesn’t sound too exciting, but yet it was a good short break I needed much. My friends left early Saturday morning (at least that was the plan), but as plans always change and as long as we are all still students, they arrived later than expected at the destinations. I have been told that the weather was great when they arrived and also when I arrived, the weather was quite reasonable. I came in later, and when I came in, we drove through the exciting town of Malmedy. Only, in the town of Malmedy you do not want to be found dead, (at least I wouldn’t). It was a sleepy little town with old houses and old people, so getting used to our place, was something I had to work on.

After a few beers and a good night of sleep, we woke up to a sunny new Sunday. Since we had not done too much research on ‘what can we do in Malmedy’, we decided to go fishing and going on a hike after discussing this with our camping host. Maybe you would say fishing, who goes fishing these days? That was exactly my thought, but open-minded as I am, I kept my mouth shut and off we went. As a surprise, fishing was quite interesting. We went to a trout nursery, where we were helped by quite a surly woman. it felt like we were not allowed to move or say anything at all, but since we were fishing, it was not even necessary. We set up our two fishing rods and now we were on the roll. After 30 minutes without any fish, I felt quite bored, so I started to mess around a little. Then, one of the rods went under and before we knew it, we had caught a trout, our first trout! Since we were not that well prepared, we did not have dip-net or something of that sort. Luckily we had a German neighbor, who unluckily did not speak any English, who had one, so our fish were safe. After 2 hours we had caught 2 fish (well, I technically had not caught a single fish), but now a new problem arose. What were we gonna do with the fish? And again, our German neighbor saved us. He decided that we had to kill and clean the fish. My curiosity took over right away. He showed how us we had to kill the fish and now it was up to us. I will not go into detail, but I can tell you that it was quite the experience! After that, we had to cut open the fish, remove its organs and wash away the blood. At around 3ish, even darker clouds moved in and it started to rain. From then on, the rain was not gonna stop. However, adventurous as we were, we decided to do a 9 km hike in the Ardennes. The hike brought us along fields with crops, it gave us nice views of the surrounding hills, made us climb a little, showed us some sleepy villages, but most of all, gave us some great quality time no matter the rain. When we returned to the car we got another nice little surprise. The car would not start! We had left our coolbox with the fish in one of the outlets in the car, so the battery had died. There was no one with a car around, so we had to turn to our hostess in order to be able to start the car. Turned out, she was very willing to help! After we got the car working and got back to our camping at around 6 we decided that we were gonna go barbequing. Right before we tried to buy some meat at some supermarkets, but since it was already over 5 and Sunday, we thought everything was closed. I don’t know why, but when we stopped looking after we tried 4 supermarkets, we found one. We had to get cash, so we asked someone where we could find an ATM and when we found it, we parked next to a supermarket. However, it was only when we came back from the ATM, that we saw it. Lesson learned, try to see and not only to look! Back at the camping, the next problem arose, we couldn’t barbeque in rainy weather, with no cover to be found. So we waited, drank some beers and joked around, and when it got dry, we prepared the best fish ever!

The second day, we woke up to more rain. It was supposed to rain all day, but staying in a tent all day, nah, why would we? After we had one of our many deadlocks in which we would say were gonna do this and this and this where after we wouldn’t do anything and just laugh about our deadlock, we (or at least I) was packing some stuff for our 17 km hiking trip when my worst nightmare came true. My new camera had water damage. It would not turn on nor anything else worked, and since I am going to China in a week, I felt like I was having a bad dream! However, you got to accept how it is, same as for the rain, so without further ado we took off. We went along a stone mine, small rivers into the hills (mountains?) of the Ardennes. We hiked small, windy logger roads with flowers, deep into the woods and into the hills. Sometimes we were surprised by nice views of the surrounding areas, but what was even better, we were alone. Just 4 students and the rain and guess what, it was amazing! The rain and the mist created some sort of mysterious looking environment and it added a nice extra component to our hike. After 9 kilometers we locked our eyes on our target of the day: Reinhartstein castle. We had heard that we could get a nice little tour inside the castle, but when we arrived, we saw that there was no tour on Monday. Trying to negotiate with the woman working there, ended up in nothing, so there we were, sitting under a rooftop with rain pouring down. And again, we had to accept. After playing some games, eating some food and resting some, we were ready for our 8 km hike back. It was as beautiful as the trip to the castle. Our original plan was to stay till Tuesday night, but again, it was gonna rain that whole day. After we got back to our tents, we saw that our tent had disliked the rain and had decided to accept it as much as we did. But accepting the rain meant that it had incorporated the water into its interior (not as fun as it sounds). After some discussion we decided that it was best to leave tonight, we accepted our rainy situation and felt that our time in Malmedy was over. We put everything as soaked as it was (and yes, it was very soaked) in the back of our car and decided to go out for dinner at this pizza place. The food was good, but the wine disgusting. After we found the courage to tell our friend the waitress, we got a new one. However, the waiter apparently did not like that at all which resulted in many angry looks, pointed vingers and French gossiping about his 4 young guests. Nice conversations, a long drive and many new experiences richer, we arrived home one in the morning, quite exhausted.

When I walked to a shop the next day, I thought by myself, I miss the rain, our hikes and our talks, as miserable as it might sound, we enjoyed it there in the rain. Sometimes it is not only about the place you’re at, but also about the people and the situation. I remembered a quote Jesse had said on our trip: the art of life is not to get what you want, but to want what you get. In other words, accept how it is and be happy with it. The more I thought of it, the better it got. The broken camera, the shitty weather, the closed castle, I would not have liked it if I had not accepted it. I did not only accept it, I liked it and now I even missed it (yes, life is crazy). Something I want to add to that quote, it is not ONLY about wanting what you get, but about finding a balance between the two. And for the rain, don’t mind it, go enjoy it!