URBAN ORIENTEER WORLD TRAVELLER

Flowers for the Shadows

a text by Linda Verbraken, Have you ever wondered why flowers are handed out to those athletes on the podia? Is there a possibility that Interflora’s sponsoring all sports? Maybe it’s to make fatigued sportsmen look better or to cover up the sweaty smell. Ballet dancers used to get flowers and money thrown at them…

When the foe has a voice

We are very quick to judge a person or a situation when we don´t know the whole picture or what has happened that led to that situation, or made someone do something, or simply made them appear in our life. No matter how much you say out loud “no, not me, I don´t judge”, deep…

Airport life

When you get to fly quite a bit like me, airports naturally become a part of the journey and sometimes, depending on how soon you arrive at the airport or if you have a connecting flight (which is often my case), it tends to be a place where you spend a lot of time. Most…

Have you gone AIR mode yet?

It’s funny how we evolve as orienteers through the years. Experience will do that to you, but also the sport itself keeps adapting and coming up with new things, new rules, new gizmos! I don’t know how long most of you have been orienteers, but if you have been at least as long as me,…

A trip is a trip

To this day, and during the course of my life, I’ve visited so far 24 countries (after a memory pre-check for this post). More than half were European countries, but a bit all over the world. Have no idea how many miles I’ve roamed, by air, ground or water, but I would say quite a…

The dreaded mp!

When you start orienteering, missing points (mp) are not really something you stress about, and go more like “ok, yeah, now that I see, I really didn’t go to that control” and you figure you’ll pay more attention next time and don’t worry anymore about it because it was so fun anyways. But then you…

ASOM, or should I say Awesome?

Remember my last post about Antwerp? Well, that was about the city itself, this one is about the orienteering event: Antwerp Sprint Orienteering Meeting aka ASOM… and it’s truly an awesome event! TROL (organizing club) has actually changed the letter “A” from Antwerp to Awesome since last year, when the event took flight from its…

Transportation, to rent or not to rent

Living in an island in the middle of the Atlantic means that all my trips start with an airplane, so I don’t have the possibility (I was going to say luxury…) to bring my own car a go on a road trip to my next orienteering event. I know many of you are going “yeah…

City Race Euro Tour

Be warned… I’m gonna be totally biased here… How often do you find something online that totally fits what you’ve been searching for some time and with numerous and different must-haves? That’s like… almost never, right! Back in 2016, after running the Lisbon International Orienteering Meeting, in January that year, and being the first ever…

Antwerp, a city with great vibes

I can’t believe two years have passed since I took my first trip to Belgium which also was my first urban orienteering event outside my home country. The Antwerp Sprint Orienteering Meeting (ASOM for short) in 2017 was also my first City Race Euro Tour event. A lot of firsts, I know… Antwerp couldn’t have…

Is Orienteering the better part of me?

As I look at the screen and figure out how I’m going to answer that question, a lot of feelings and memories come to mind… In truth, it’s not. I would say the better part of me is what’s inside that only comes out when I’m relaxed, at peace and doing the things I love…

Checking out the best hotel deals

Traveling preparations can sometimes be a bit stressful. After deciding a place to go, taking the time to determine where to stay can be difficult if you don’t know what the offer is. Some people leave that work to a travel agency, as I often did in the past, to be honest. However, leaving to…