It’s about lunchtime and crowds of photo snapping tourists are sprawled throughout the square, photographing the golden lining buildings that blend multiple styles of architecture and art together. Within the hustle and bustle, a Chinese tour group take turns posing in front of the Gothic styled Hotel de Ville. A painter stands next to his small stall, eagerly waiting to make a sale as customers browse through his impressive art pieces. Children are joyfully playing, screaming and running, oblivious to the fact that they are in Europe’s most beautiful public square – Brussels’ Grand Place.

However, I’m not here to visit the impressive public square. In fact, I eagerly want to escape. I’m actually just passing through Grand Place, in search for a renowned bar called Delirium Café – a beer café which at a ridiculous total of two thousand and four, won the 2004 Guinness Book of World Records for having the most commercially available beers.

It was last night over beers that I heard about this beer cafe when my Franco-Belgian friend, Axel, casually mentioned it.

‘You know, beer is a way in life in Belgium.’ My friend told me with his nasally French accent.

‘It’s like what the French have with wine. But at this place, I think it perfectly summarises Belgian’s passion for beer.’

I was immediately hooked. Two thousand and four is a lot of beer.

To escape the bustling crowd, I immediately wander through the back alleys of Brussels city centre, passing through restaurants enticing customers for bowls of Moules Frites, mussels and fries – the Belgium national dish. Following my trusty tourist information map, I follow the maze of lefts, rights and straights until I finally stumble upon a blue painted bar with a sign that has a pink elephant and reads ‘Delirium Cafe’.

I enter inside, descend down the stairs and arrive at a dimly lit bar with wooden barrel tables, wooden furnishings and plate sized beer caps and other nostalgic items decorated throughout the ceiling and walls of the drinking hall.

I approach the bar where a crowd of customers are vying for the attention of the bartender. I look beyond the bartenders and see a wooden framed certificate proudly hanging on the wall. It’s the Guinness World Book of Records certificate.

It’s now my turn to order, and still unsure what beer I fancy, I ask the bartender for a menu. He pops over to his side and hands me a magazine as thick as a small phone book. I flick through the pages of the somewhat heavy phonebook of a menu and glance through their stock. Milky smooth brune beers, crisp and refreshing blondes, Trappist beer produced by monks in monasteries, sweet cherry flavoured Lambic beers, potent Tripel beers, subtly bitter and aromatic pale lagers; every beer imaginable was on this menu.

This made it all the more difficult to choose.

The previous crowd that had been awaiting their orders were now gone. The stylishly bald bartender stands there waiting patiently for my order. I look up to the man and ask for his opinion.

‘What type of beer do you like? Dark, Amber, blonde?’ he asks.

Previously, my knowledge of Belgium beer only extended to Stella Artois, a beer which I later found out to be the Belgian equivalent to American’s Budweiser.

Vaguely, I tell him ‘something brown and smooth.’

Instinctively, he grasps a bottle from the fridge below, whisks a glass goblet out of nowhere and flings it in the air. He skilfully catches it by the handle and pours the dark brew from the bottle into the goblet.

‘This one is Affligem brown. It’s a nice brown beer, a bit sweet but with lots of dark fruits and malt, but nice and smooth.’

I reach for my wallet and unfold it to realise that I only had enough money for one beer. I hesitantly pull out the note and give it to the bartender.

The change was handed to me and I sit myself at the bar on an awkwardly tall stool.

I look up above the bar, and all the wooden panels are decorated with monetary notes from all over the world, each written with a message and signature.

‘Best bar ever! – Steve’ the Australian $5 note read.

I sip my dark beer and taste its complexity. It’s exactly what the bartender described: subtly sweet dark fruits, roasted malts, and reasonably strong but very smooth. I slowly savour the dark brew while looking through the bulky magazine of a menu. I examine the bartenders and their work. The same stylishly bald bartender who had just served me pours the amber beer from the bottle into the cup until a few drops were left trapped inside. With the remaining beer in the bottle, he then furiously plays with the bottle; rapidly rolling forwards and backwards on the table, shaking it and swirling it with his thumb concealing the bottle hole. The remaining beer, now a thick cloudy foam, returns to its family as it was poured into the glass goblet. Never had I seen so much effort and skill put into a simple act of pouring beer from a bottle into a cup.

Intrigued, I ask the bartender the logic behind his special pouring method.

‘It’s a way to break down the yeast extracts and the acidity of the beer’

I then ask him if he’s tried all 2004 beers in the bar.

‘Oh yeah’ he says to me reassuringly. ‘…and more!’

Shortly after, a tanned man with olive black hair appears next to me. He asks the bartender for a certain beer. The bartender doesn’t understand the man. The tanned fellow reaches for the menu and determinedly browses through it in search of his beer.

The man finds his beer under the menu section of Saison – the pale ales brewed seasonally at farmhouses in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium.

The bartender nods his head as if approving the customer’s choice of beer. He heads towards the back of the bar, opens the cellars door and walks inside the vast room filled with 2004 varieties of beer. He shortly comes back with what looks like a small champagne bottle and presents it to the tanned man. He approves and the bartender unscrews the cork; a subtle pop sounds erupts and he then pours the silky yellow brew into a glass goblet.

After the man pays for his drink, he sits next to me and takes his first sip of the beer.

‘It’s a good beer’ he informs me in his seductive Latin accent, filled with passion.

‘It’s called Saison D’Epeautre. It’s the best beer in the world.’

That’s a huge claim, but the bartender seems to agree as he overhears our conversation.

‘Yeah it’s a pretty good beer. The brewery is run only by a father and son team, out in a farm in the country side. They only make like a few batches a year.’

The tanned man, again sips his drink, and displays emotions of pure happiness and ecstasy.

He asks where I’m from.

‘Oh, Australia? Are there any good beers in Australia? I hear Fosters is a good one.’

‘Yeah no one actually drinks that in Australia. It’s only sold outside the country, I think. But a good Australian beer?’

I struggle to answer his question. Ever since I arrived in Belgium, nothing seems remotely comparable to Belgian beers. All the beers in Australia seem so inferior now.

I give the man a weak answer.

‘There’s one called Coopers, that’s an interesting one. It’s got this white powdery thing on the bottom, so you need to shake it around before you drink it.’

The powdery thing, I later find out from this gentlemen, is actually the yeast extracts. We continue talking about beers and other chit chat. I discover that the man confirmed my speculation as he was indeed from the Canary Islands in Spain.

He spent the previous year, learning beer brewing in Germany and was now was looking for a brewery job in Belgium.

‘The Germans only have one way of making beer. They are very straightforward with their brewing. Belgians are flexible, they like to experiment. Do this and that. Add this and something else. It’s very interesting.’

I ask him what makes a good beer.

Without any hesitation, he instantly proclaims

‘Freshness. Good beer needs to have freshness’

Later on, my newly formed Spanish drinking buddy looks at his watch and notices the time. He has to catch a plane in the two hours. He then packs his things, shakes my hand and wishes me good travels.

Now all alone, I take my glass goblet and in one gulp finish my beer. Still eager for one more drink, I look over next to me where the Spaniard had been drinking and notice the champagne shaped beer bottle still was still half full.

It’s a crime for beer to be wasted, I justified.

I ask the bartender for a small glass. While the bartender fetched my cup, I quickly search inside the menu to find that Saison D’Epeautre was definitely out of my price range; $25EU for the small champagne sized bottle.

The bartender returns with the small glass cup. I clutch the still cool bottle and pour the remaining beer into the cup.

Delighted that I just scored a free beer, I take my first sip and tasted the dry beer with its light body and wheaty texture. I’m right in my suspicions, it’s not the world’s best beer but it definitely passes the Spaniard’s criteria; it has freshness.

The Freshness of Belgian Beer is a post from Art of Backpacking

As always, email me if you have any questions at all about backpacking. My email is contact(at)artofbackpacking(dot)com. You could also find me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+.

From the email inbox:

Hi Michael,

My name is Kimi, and I wanted to write in & tell you how much I love your site. I spend hours every day looking through all of your articles and features, and it has been a huge help in planning my own long-term travel plans.

I do have a couple of questions for you. First of all, I’m about to turn 23, and while I am working two jobs, I only have about $15K to my name (all school loans paid off). There are certainly things I could sell for extra money like my car, but I just wanted to get your opinion about whether or not you think that’s enough to get me started on my long-term travel plans. I plan to build a blog around my travels, but I don’t want to go bankrupt trying to build a name for myself which is the biggest fear holding me back from traveling. Any advice / tips you can provide me would be extremely appreciated.

Miscellaneous Questions:
Do most airports have signs in English?
How do you cope with the language barrier?
I know traveling is a learning process, but what would you say is the biggest mistake people make when they first set out on their adventures?

Thank you in advance if you choose to answer my questions.

Hope you’re doing well,
Kimi

Hi Kimi,

I’m so glad you enjoy reading the articles on Art of Backpacking.

$15,000 is a good chunk of change. It really depends on you how long that will last but just to give you an idea, I spent $19,568.73 for 11 months of travel. We had a guest post with a couple that spent $33,605 on 9 months of travel.

Starting a blog does not cost any money at all. It only costs as much as you want it to cost. You could start with WordPress.com or go straight into self-hosting by purchasing Hostgator and using their services to host your own wordpress site (more freedom with this option.)

The one thing travel blogs do cost is time. How much time do you want to spend on your blog? What goals do you have for the blog? Do you want to be a travel writer, photographer, or videographer? What exactly are you branding? Travel blogging takes more time than you think. You’ll have to consider that sometimes you’ll have to stop traveling to write a blog post or two. And if monetizing your blog is one of your missions, I think for at least the first year depending on your blog niche and how much time you spent on it – you may not earn a single dollar.

1. I’m pretty sure most (if not all) airports have English signs and even English speakers at the airport. It’s the international language of the world and it’s usually used to talk to people from different nationalities even when neither side is from an English speaking country.

2. Since English is the international language of the world, it only makes sense it would also be the language of tourism. If you’re staying in hostels or hotels, you’ll likely find that the staff also speaks English. Of course it also depends where you travel to and it would be helpful to at least carry a phrase book or a translation app on your iTouch. In China, I use to ask the hostel receptionist to write down a few foods that I liked so I could ask for them when I went out to eat.

3. Mistakes are bound to happen and I think that’s just part of travel. Everyone travels differently but I think one of the most common mistakes some people have is not having things backed up like photos, not keeping copies of their cards or passport, and not having backup money somewhere. I’m clumsy with my stuff and I keep making the mistake of not having a backup method for taking out money. Always have a backup of everything that is important to you.

Image: Graeme Weatherston / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Answering Questions on RTW Planning, Budgeting, and Travel Blogging is a post from Art of Backpacking

Art of Backpacking turns two years old!

The first post went out on December 4th, 2008 with a simple picture of Grinnell Glacier Moraine. I was just testing the waters. I had no idea what I was getting into and it started with really simple and lame articles. The site was hosted for free from a friend and we didn’t even have SEO friendly URL’s because the host didn’t have that functionality.  The first theme we used was the Church Child Theme by StudioPress. There was absolutely no flow to it and the colors used were horrible for a backpacking travel site. The big leap was when I bought a years worth of hosting on Bluehost and later changed to our current theme.

The first design (Only picture we have of it) and the computer it was made with.

Why did AOB start?

During the process of planning my RTW trip, I realized how little my family and friends knew about backpacking and extended travel. To be honest, I knew very little about it as well but I was open to the idea of learning and doing it. I kept sending blog links to my family to prove I wasn’t crazy and other people were doing it. I didn’t have a single friend that had ever backpacked either. After I got back from a short trip to Montreal, I came home feeling motivated to share what backpacking is all about in hopes to inspire family and friends to travel. I’ve been making websites for years but never a self hosted blog.

Where is AOB at now?

Art of Backpacking is designed using the wonderful and powerful theme of Thesis on WordPress. I’m against using too many plugins therefor most of what you see has been designed and made by me. I’m not an expert in coding neither design but I’ve learned as I went along in the last two years. These last few days I’ve spent hours with new designs, functionality, and code. The new header, navigation bar, and the tab feature on the right are three new changes. I’m in love with simplicity in a website and always aiming for it on here. The website is constantly growing and changing.

• 500+ RSS Readers
• 800+ E-mail Subscribers
• 5000+ Twitter Followers
• 3,600+ Facebook Likes
• 300+ Articles

The Daily Life of a Travel Blogger in Buenos Aires, Argentina

What has this website done for me?

Countless things. For one, I found love. Sounds nerdy but it’s the truth. Art of Backpacking has completely changed my life’s direction. It has changed where I travel, my philosophy, and my future. I am grateful for everything it has done for me. I am of course even more grateful for all the income it has drawn to continue my travels. If someone were to tell me all this could happen after two years consistently blogging, I would have thought they were out of their mind. Art of Backpacking has grown into something I’ve never expected.

The travel blogging community is enormous and I had no idea it existed prior to starting one. I’ve made friends all over the world, many of which I may or may not have seen in person. I tend to now talk to my travel blogger friends more so than my friends back at home that are not bloggers. There’s a general understanding among us of the traveling lifestyle and blogging thus making it easier to relate to and to have conversations with. I know more of what my travel blogger friends are doing than my own family. This is thanks to Twitter and Google Reader. Makes sense as updates are sometimes instantaneous and articles are written day-by-day of someones life.

A friend told me a few days ago after I said I’ve been working all day on the blog, she says “What’s so hard about blogging? All you do is write.” This got me thinking of all the things involved in a blog. How I could possibly explain how much it actually impacts a person? It was much simpler to say “There’s much more to it than that.” and end it at that.

I want to end with a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has supported Art of Backpacking. Thank you to all of you for the incredible journey and to all the friends I’ve made because of it. Happy Holidays and Happy New Years! Here’s to another two years and more!

Safe travels

When Blogging Changes Your Life is a post from Art of Backpacking

To celebrate the purchase of my new camcorder, I recorded a few of the panels at Travel Blog Exchange 2010. I’m currently editing another video from all the parties as well. Enjoy!

Other TBEX 2010 posts we featured here:
The top 10 things #TBEX attendees love besides TBEX (and part 2).
Film Feature: Travel Yourself – New York for #TBEX

Gary Arndt of Everything-Everywhere – “Travel Porn”

There are four parts to this panel

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Podcasting Demo – live recording of “This Week in Travel”

There are four parts to this panel

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Branding, Finding a Niche & Relevant Self-Promotion

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Working with PR

Two parts to this panel

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Last Questions

Travel Blog Exchange 2010 Panel Videos – #TBEX is a post from Art of Backpacking

The life of a travel writer is a dream job to the outsiders while travel writers themselves may not think much of it. Most travel writers may have heard people say to them “Wow, that is so cool! So which countries have you been to?” as they widen their eyes in excitement. Not that kind of excitement (yet), that comes after I talk about my (heavily dramatized) travels around the world which leads to getting creative at the hostel. What makes a travel writer different from a cubicle corporate dweller in the sense of attraction? What’s with the attention? 2nd generation porn star? I wish.

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Lac de Neuchâtel by Phil.S [FR

The Stories

While I do feel sometimes I could be talking too much and I usually try to limit my stories so it doesn’t seem like I’m showing off, they always want to hear more. Having something to talk about takes away the boredom that perhaps a person with an office job may have. I can’t imagine someone getting a kick out of talking about coffee from their office.  Depending on the story you tell, it can create the type of personality you have and lead to wanting to know more about you. Talk about your volunteer work in Africa and you may have instantly turned on the switch to more talking as oppose to talking about coffee.

Travelers are generally easier to talk to

Especially backpackers, travel writers are easy to talk to. Staying in numerous hostels, hotels, tours, guest houses, meeting hundreds of people, and going to countless parties, you start to build stronger social skills which are essential on the road. Have you ever heard of a travel writer that doesn’t talk to people? With no fear to approach anyone from locals to tourist, this gets used even at home picking up any random conversation in any given situation to just about anyone. Shyness is just out the window as a travel writer.

More laid back

Things go wrong on the road and they happen often. Most of the time, when things to go wrong – there’s nothing we can do but to just continue to move forward and make the best of it. The ‘no complaining and whining’ attitude shows and people find it much more attractive if you show a positive one. Travelers can improvise the most amazing situations due to their natural relaxed state.

Happier

Personally, I have never met a travel writer that has said “I hate my job. I’m getting paid to travel all of Europe for a year and can’t wait till it’s over.” There are much more lucrative jobs than travel writing so were certainly not in it for the money. Does it provide happiness to me? It certainly does even knowing that I will likely never be rich being a travel writer. A smile goes a long way in the laws of attraction.

Fun, Adventurous, and Exciting

Travel writers are usually naturally adventurous willing to try new things just to get something good to write about. The attraction in this is the eternal youth state of mind. No matter the age, travel writers are out seeking something fun and exciting to do and share it with the rest of the world. Who wouldn’t want to be in bed with someone adventurous?

Exotic Lifestyle

How many travel writers do you really know making a living out of it? Likely not many, that is if you’re not a travel writer yourself. It’s more then just a career for many us because its also how we live. The out of the norm lifestyle can be seen as an attraction because to many it’s like winning at the game Life. Doing what just makes us happy and nothing stopping us. It’s an easy target for someone to look up to.

Career change anyone? Though I did create this for some humor, it does question if travel writers really are more interesting to talk to which in turn could be more attractive. It would be interesting if someone would perhaps do a study on this subject. Remember, if a hotel ever gives you any problems (Like when the maid knocks at your door for no apparent reason)  just say “Hey do you have any idea who I am? I’m a travel blogger.”  - well that may not actually work.

What’s your opinion? Do travel writers get the attention that leads to bed? Or are corporate well-to-do home owners getting more action? And the biggest question of the minute century, why?

As a side note: This whole thing is merely a joke. Don’t take this too serious.

Do travel writers get laid more than the average person? is a post from Art of Backpacking

Because of the recent Travel Blog Exchange conference, I thought this video was quite fitting. Filmed in over 25 countries, the life and times of travel writer Robin Esrock, the father of Modern Gonzo. Follow his journey at moderngonzo.com

Film Feature: The Life of a Travel Writer is a post from Art of Backpacking

Blogging has become ever so popular and it continues to grow. There are thousands of websites offering their services to keep your memories with them. Each site has got it’s own features unique from the others which becomes confusing which one to choose. There’s a few key elements in selecting where you want to keep your memories. Ask  yourself these questions when selecting a blog hosting service.

Reliability: Has the site been around for long? Are there down times? Do regularity backup their servers?

Efficiency: Is it easy for you to create a new entry? Does it allow pictures and videos to be embedded in an article? Will your family and friends understand it’s interface? Commenting system easy to use?

Limitations: Are there any limits? How many pictures do they allow? Is the quality of the uploaded pictures OK with you?

Popularity: How big is the community? Are blog posts search-able in Google?

Support: If their are any issues, do they have contact information? How long for a response?

© andyp uk

In no particular order, here are my picks of the best places to blog your travels.

TravelPod: A reputable site that has been around for many years. They continue to push forward on ease of use with their wonderful interface. Updates are made frequently. Their forum is very informative. And the support is outstanding. You can even see a map of where you’ve been and how many countries you’ve been to. What more could you want?

WordPress.com: Not directly linked with Travel Blogging but it’s ease of use is just too good to pass up. The community is large and the WordPress team is always working hard on the next big thing. You can customize your blog to your style and even purchase your own domain.

SoSauce: I’ve met many of the folks over at SoSauce and I completely back them up. The website is easy to navigate and the community is fantastic. A great place to get along with other travelers.

Travellerspoint: One of the most popular travel forums and easy to use travel blogging.

There are tons more out there and these are only based out of opinion and what I found to be the best.

Which blogging service do you use? What’s good about it?

Best Free Travel Hosting Blogging Sites is a post from Art of Backpacking

I know from experience that it can often be difficult to catch up with your blog while traveling. It’s tough being a travel writer. All the fun, sun, activities, drinking, socializing, and your new friends can take you away from sitting in front of a computer writing about your day. You write for memories sake and perhaps keep your friends and family at home informed that you’re doing okay. It can be difficult to remember all the details if it’s been awhile since you last wrote. Here are a few tips to help you organize yourself with your blog.

@soartsyithurts

1. Take loads of pictures and videos. You can go through them later and delete what you don’t like but take as many as you can and capture the scenery and people you meet. It’ll spark up what you did during that day if you do happen to fall behind on writing.

2. Write in a small notebook a few notes of your day. This is especially helpful if you have a few days trekking with no electricity.

3. If you happen to be carrying around a laptop, just write down a few sentences in the morning or before you go to sleep on WordPad and save it to your desktop for when you get online and can finish it up. This way you won’t have to write a weeks worth when you do have more time to be more detailed.

4. Set aside a time and day when to write. Say to yourself that you WILL catch up on your blog tomorrow at 12pm. That way you know to do whatever else you want to do during that day after 12pm when you’re done writing.

5. Sleeper trains are one of the best ways to catch up on writing. They tend to be somewhat boring anyway and depending on the train, you have some privacy and loads of time on your hands. I don’t suggest buses as its not as private and makes you stand out a bit more.

6. Internet café’s can be costly when updating a blog often. Try to write as much as you can in your notebook before sitting down on the computer. Go down memory lane before getting on the computer. It’ll all flow automatically from there.

What are some of the things you do to help you keep your blog updated frequently? How often do you update yours?

Tips On How to Keep Your Blog Updated While Traveling is a post from Art of Backpacking