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Race Preview: XTERRA World Championship 2025

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 13:21:35 GMT

It’s Friday, the day before the race, and I’m currently chilling in bed while writing this piece about tomorrow and the past few days.

Right now, the weather is dreadful, and it’s not looking much better for race day: lots of rain, and there’s even a chance the swim will be shortened — or that it could turn into a duathlon ��. Honestly, a shorter swim would be better for me since I’m still coming back from my broken collarbone.

The last few days have been amazing though. We had good weather and lots of fun during the course recons with the Dutchies. On Monday, I went out with my dad on the bike course in pouring rain and also dipped into the lake — surprisingly nice water at 19°C. Today it’s closer to 16°C. The bike course was super slippery in the rain, especially with the new downhill section near the end of the 16 km loop.

On Tuesday, we went out with a big group for a two-lap ride in the sun, and later in the day we did an easy swim in the pool just to keep the shoulders loose. We wrapped it up with a pizza party with all the Dutchies in Molveno ��.

On Wednesday, I only did two laps on the run course with some speed work. The run feels fast, but there’s one slippery section in the middle of the 5 km loop that could get tricky.

Thursday was all about the bike: I took the cable car to the top of the climb and did the descent five times — with the last one freaking fast. It felt so good that it really got me hyped for race day. In the afternoon I chilled a bit, then went to watch the short track race that I narrowly missed qualifying for. Still, watching Romy Spoelder, Hugo Bosscher, and Bart Cooymans tear up the track was awesome. Both the men’s and women’s races had some epic battles at the front. And now, here we are: one day before the race. I went for an easy jog this morning with some speed — legs are feeling amazing.

Later today I’ll do a short swim in the pool, then it’s dinner, bike check, and straight to bed. Tomorrow morning it’s game on: race day!

�� You can follow the race live on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VK9o1GcyBE
�� Or check the live tracking: https://www.endu.net/en/events/xterra-world-championships/results

My race tips for tomorrow:

Swim: Survive it ! Just kidding �� — it’s going to be a mental game in the cold water. The most important part: even though it will be cold, try to get in the water before the start so your body adjusts properly and it won’t be such a big shock.
Bike: Push hard uphill, stay careful on the downhills, and take corners high to keep speed and find easier lines. On the rock section: DON’T brake on rocks ��. If you’re scared, just hop off the bike — better safe than crashing.
Run: Full gas to the finish. Enjoy every second, because this is the LAST TIME in Molveno for the XTERRA World Champs!

Have fun out there and race fast!
— Q out ✌️

Restart after a rough period

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 19:05:23 GMT

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since my last update. My time in Australia ended with a crash and a recovery period — but now I can finally say: I’m fully recovered!

Coming back to life in the Netherlands wasn’t easy at first. It took me a few weeks to adjust again, but then something clicked. I went to XTERRA Zittau as a spectator, cheering for my dad and some friends. Being on the sidelines lit a fire in me. Not long after, I jumped back into a solid training block and lined up for two races — mostly just for fun.

The first was the National Championships. I finished 11th, with a strong swim and run, but the bike was tough and I definitely lacked power there. Still, I almost matched my time from last year, so I walked away satisfied. A week later, I raced a new Cross Triathlon in Voorden (almost a local race for me). I managed to grab 3rd place! Again, I had an amazing swim, the bike was okay — though racing on a gravel bike was a bit of a disadvantage — and I finished it off with a really good run.

Those back-to-back weekends gave me confidence, and they helped me decide: I’m racing the XTERRA World Championship in Molveno. This year is special, since it will be the last time the Worlds are held here. The past weeks I’ve kept training steady — nothing crazy, just consistent work.

Yesterday we arrived in Molveno. This morning I tested out the lake in my new wetsuit, the DeBoer Fjord 3.0. The rest of the week will be course recons, coffee with friends, and keeping it chill before the big day.

I’ll try to get another blog out right before the race (and of course one after). It’s going to be a fun week!

Q out ✌️

Museums Weekend, a Hot Monday at the Zoo, and Finished University

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 06:32:24 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm writing my last blog about my time at Victoria University! The next few will just be about what I’m up to during my final days in Australia — for now.

In the last blog, we talked about an upcoming exam (which was already a week ago now). This exam was exactly what you’d expect from a Law exam. I don’t know if anyone has seen the series Suits — a favorite of mine! — but in the opening episode, we see Mike taking the LSAT/BAR exam for someone else and getting paid for it. Well, my exam had the same layout: a big auditorium, tiny chairs with folding tables, and a grumpy professor at the front picking his nose (I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the picture).

It was three hours long, and it felt really good when I walked out and went straight to the gym for a run. I had a rough time during this unit — I learned a lot, but it was all so new and completely unfamiliar to me. Finally getting the hang of it after four weeks felt a bit strange. So, I didn’t expect amazing results this time. While I’ve gotten High Distinctions in my other units, this one was different — I just passed. I'm happy with that, though I would’ve loved a higher grade to round things out ��. That was my Wednesday!

Thursday was more relaxed — planning for Friday and recovering from the exam. I think I did some indoor cycling, as I still can’t ride outside.

Now on to Friday — the first big day out in a while! I went to the National Gallery of Victoria. It’s an art museum with European, Japanese, Chinese, Egyptian, and Australian sections. A typical museum setup with a timeline, mostly paintings and sculptures. I enjoyed walking through it and taking it all in.

But after that, I went to ACMI — and that one stood out more. It had an exhibition about the rise of TV, music, and sound: how it’s made and how we use it today. There was a powerful video featuring different people and how social media has impacted their lives. After that, I headed home and did my first outdoor jog — finally running outside again! LET’S GO!

Saturday started easy. Later in the day, I went to the Melbourne Museum, which had a Star Wars LEGO exhibition I'd been wanting to see since I found out about it — and it did not disappoint. It started with a behind-the-scenes video about the exhibition’s creation. At the end of the video, the ceiling opened, and a giant Star Destroyer was floating above with two moving TIE Fighters.

Then came the robot Hall of Fame — of course, my favorites were R2-D2 and C-3PO. The biggest LEGO build was the Death Star, with one half opened up and fully detailed. It was awesome. And yes — I saw some Ewoks ��.

After the Star Wars part, I checked out the regular exhibits, but they weren’t that special. After a while, I could feel my energy dropping, so I went home.

Sunday was a stay-at-home day. I did a longer indoor bike ride followed by a short run, then relaxed and made a plan for Monday.

I knew Monday was going to be one of the warmest days so far — usually it’s around 14°C, but this time it was going up to 19°C. A winter day with 19 degrees? Sign me up. I decided to do something fun and went to the Melbourne Zoo. I’d heard great things about it, and it lived up to the hype. I enjoyed walking around and seeing animals I hadn’t seen before.

Highlights: a snow leopard, two types of tigers, a koala, red panda, Tasmanian devil, and the biggest snake I’ve ever seen — it looked at least 5+ meters — and the smallest one, barely 12 cm. Later that afternoon, I headed back home and got some food.

Tuesday and today were both training days indoors — yesterday because of strong winds, and today because it hasn’t stopped raining. I did go out last night to join the local running group. I didn’t do the full program — just the warm-up and cool-down — but during the cooldown, Tom randomly started pushing the pace to around 4:20/km. Surprisingly, that went alright, even after I’d already done over 10km earlier. Starting to really get back into rhythm!

Today I went to the gym and did a hilly ride for over an hour.

I’ve really enjoyed my time at the university here, and I’ll definitely come back to Australia someday. If anyone is thinking about studying abroad, feel free to message me on Instagram @quirijnwaaijnberg — I’d love to share more about my experience.

See you all later —
Q out!

University is almost over

Sun, 15 Jun 2025 06:18:54 GMT

My time since the last blog and the recovering from a fracture

In the last blog I mentioned something about trying to be a bit more consistent with my writing... This didn’t happen, as for those who check back weekly. I don’t have a good reason for it, only that writing at the time just felt like a burden, not something I enjoyed anymore. And that is a big part of why I do certain things! I do things because I enjoy doing them, not because I must or when it’s forced on me.

Today I just felt like opening my laptop and writing away.

So, let’s start where we left things — my collarbone is for the most part healed. There’s still some mild discomfort when doing a wrong movement, and my shoulder is really stiff or something. I have a hard time lifting my arm without help, and when I do it still hurts quite a bit.

There is some good in this as well, since I’m able to run and bike again (not outside yet), but it’s progress — so I’m happy with that. My body is less happy with me, because it’s protesting even after just running for 25 minutes or biking for 45 minutes. I think if I just continue taking it easy and build back up, in no time I’ll be back riding and running more and longer.

For now, that’s enough about sport, since it’s not where I want to be and I’m obviously not happy to be thrown back after it went so well before the crash.

Let’s do some university talk.

Last week I had my final few classes here at the university in Australia. I really enjoyed this last unit: Law and Business. It was super interesting and something new. I had to do an essay about a legal question, which was actually really interesting, and I think I did quite well on it. I also think it’s a good thing to know in the field I’m studying — a good tool to have in my backpack.

I had an oral presentation too, all in the last week or almost last week. Next Wednesday is officially the last day — a final exam and my first actual written exam. It will be across the street, so just a short walk this time (no travelling to the city tower where my classes normally are). Usually I had some type of quiz in my units, but never a 3-hour exam.

This weekend I made a summary — luckily I can use it during the exam because it’s an open book exam, and we’re allowed to access our notes. That’s really good for me since it’s based on Australian law.

After that exam I’ll start to plan some travelling around Australia and hopefully do some outdoor cycling again. I want to go to Sydney and maybe another city. I want to hang out with some people here before I leave, and I’ll need a nice place to crash — because as of July 1st, I’ll be leaving my dorm room. Which is interesting, because I have a lot of stuff… I have to figure out how to take everything with me lol.

That’s it for now, and I still hope that if you read my blogs, you still enjoy them. I’ll always try to write if I enjoy writing at that time, or if I have big news to share. Like finishing university, or leaving Australia — maybe even travelling belongs to that category.

See you next time!
Q

PS: I hope to have some picture next time!

Wordfeud, Movies, and My Last Unit

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 08:19:51 GMT

Putting words on paper isn’t always easy.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been recovering in the most boring way possible. In my dorm room, alone with just a laptop, I’ve started playing Wordfeud because of my mom—just to do something different from watching movies and listening to podcasts.

That’s what I’ve mostly been up to. But last week, I finally went back to uni for my new unit—my last one in Australia! It’s Law and Business, which is super interesting, but really tough because it’s all about the Australian legal system. It’s a bit crazy to think that my last month in Australia started like this—definitely not how I expected to begin, with a broken collarbone.

I hope I can finish my unit and still recover in time to do some fun stuff in the few weeks after uni ends. I really hope to see Sydney before I leave here.

Sometimes a blog can be short and sweet—it doesn’t always have to be long or complicated. I just wanted to share a quick update, since I have been a bit quiet these few weeks. It’s really hard to type long texts with one hand. ��

I’ll be back soon with a more detailed insight into what I’ve been up to and how I’ve tackled the new challenges in my path.

I hope you still like this update! Thanks for reading—I’ll see you next time.

– Q

Consistent Training, Good Grades, and Bad Luck

Sat, 17 May 2025 08:55:50 GMT

Consistent Training, Good Grades, and Bad Luck?

It’s been a while since I last posted—my road trip feels like ages ago now. Truth be told, there just wasn’t much to write about. Life settled into a steady rhythm: lectures, training, and a new unit on ethics and sustainability, which I’ve found surprisingly fascinating. It dives deep into philosophical questions and explores the role of ethics in the business world—challenging, but interesting stuff.

Training had been going really well these past weeks. I couldn’t run due to a minor hip injury, but swimming, biking, and strength training were all on the up. I felt strong.

Last weekend, though, I was unusually tired and decided to listen to my body and take it easy. That turned out to be a good call—I started Monday feeling refreshed. After a light brekkie, I headed out for a long swim, then biked to school on my trusty single-speed.

On the way home, I made a quick stop for groceries, then pedaled on. Just one last little uphill before home. I stood on my pedals to power through it. A couple of strong pushes—and then, snap. My chain came off. The sudden shift threw my balance off completely, and I was launched over the handlebars. Mid-air, I knew something was wrong. The moment I hit the ground, I felt it: my collarbone was toast.

I managed to get off the road and lay back in the grass. Pulled out my phone and called an ambulance. While I was on the call, a man stopped to ask if I’d been hit by a car. I explained what happened. Then, another man—an older, friendly guy—pulled over on his way to clean up plastic waste. The first guy had to dash (his daughter had basketball practice), but kindly gave me his number—he worked with the police.

Soon after, the hospital called back asking if I had another way to get there without an ambulance. I turned to the older man, and he kindly offered to drive me. At the hospital, I started feeling dizzy and lightheaded while standing at reception. They quickly got me lying down and found me a bed in the ER lobby. And then... the waiting game.

After three hours, I finally got an X-ray—yep, broken collarbone. Another hour later, I was discharged and headed home, shoulder aching and spirits slightly deflated.

These past few days have been a mix of pain, movies, and not much else. I'm doing my best to stay patient, rest up, and recover. Hoping to bounce back soon and make the most of the time I still have left Down Under.

I am going to try and give weekly updates about my recovery.

Q Out

Last day at the Great Ocean Road, for now!

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 09:50:12 GMT

Last day before University starts again!

The first day of this road trip where I finally slept in — wow, it felt good. I was really tired from all the previous days and traveling, so staying in the same place for the last day was definitely the right choice. I had a nice breakfast at my place and then decided it was time to head out for a swim, only to find that my coach had changed the plan: the swim was moved to Monday.

This meant that today I only had to ride — a 6x9-minute session below race pace. I went out on the road and immediately got hit by a hard headwind, yikes. I warmed up for 30 minutes along the Great Ocean Road, and then started the first 9-minute block. Jeez, nine minutes is actually quite long.

Across all six intervals, I averaged 260 watts, which I was happy with. For the cooldown, I took a longer route through a beautiful forest with some MTB trails. After that, I had lunch, a shower, and some time to plan my next steps for the day.

The options: go surfing, visit the pro surfing contest at Bells Beach, or explore town.
I decided to start with the Surf Museum. I really enjoyed walking around there — it felt like I was back in Nazaré where I visited another surf museum. After that, I headed into town, grabbed an ice cream, and wandered a bit without much of a plan. Eventually, I decided to drive to Bells Beach to watch the pro surfers... or so I thought.
Unfortunately, I was too late. When I arrived at the parking lot, the men’s finals had just finished. So, I drove back towards my place, with a quick stop at the grocery store to grab some things for tomorrow.

To end the day, I went for an easy run. Obviously, I chose the beach. I wanted one last stroll over the sand and through the dunes. It was a short run, but I really enjoyed it — and that’s what mattered most to me: just enjoying it.

For dinner, I had no plans, but I decided to check out a busy place I noticed earlier. I ended up having Pho and popcorn cauliflower — I’m really full now! I’m also happy that I went out by myself and enjoyed my last meal of this little trip.

What’s next?
The road trip has ended, and it’s back to university tomorrow. I’ll drive to Melbourne in the morning, drop off the car, and head straight to class. After that, it’s swim training again and the routine picks back up in the city.
I’m looking forward to starting my new unit and enjoying my last two units here!

Until next time Quirijn Out.

A Morning Swim, an Unusual Breakfast, and a Hike-Run

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 10:14:30 GMT

Road Trip day 3

This morning started with packing the car and heading straight to the pool for a 2600m sprint session. It went by pretty fast, and afterward, I decided on an unusual breakfast: a quick stop at Coles, a few wraps, and a solid layer of Nutella and peanut butter.

Fueled up, I hit the road towards the famous 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. I knew it would be popular, but wow — it felt like every tourist in Australia showed up at the exact same time. Absolute chaos.

After a quick lunch, I laced up for a hike-run (which honestly turned into more of a run than a hike). I avoided the super touristy Insta-crowd lookout and instead headed down to the beach. Way better. Running along the sand, climbing up the stairs, looping through the dunes — it was epic. The sound of huge waves crashing on the rocks kept me company the whole way.

Mid-run, I regretted wearing long sleeves... Big mistake. By the time I finished, I was drenched in sweat. I poured a full bottle of water over myself to cool down, changed into fresh clothes, and felt like a new person.

Then came dinner plans — and a little booking disaster. I accidentally booked a place in the UK... in a town with the same name as the one I was actually trying to stay in here in Australia. �� Needless to say, no flight was booked. Instead, I quickly found a nice spot in Torquay (the Australian one this time).

Now I’m chilling, making some loose plans for tomorrow.
But for the rest of this road trip blog — NO SPOILERS.
Catch you tomorrow.

Until then, Quirijn Out.

A rainy day 2 for me

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 10:10:31 GMT

I’m currently making small vlogs during the road trip — you can watch them on my Instagram @quirijnwaaijenberg. I’m learning the art of shameless self-promotion, let me know if I’m doing it right, lol.

Friday morning started later than I hoped. I woke up at 7:45 and drove to breakfast around 8:15. Had a nice drive to Apollo Bay — this morning there was a huge swell, nice rolling waves, and already a lot of surfers in the water. I almost watched that more than the road... kidding, of course.
I had a big breakfast with muesli, a croissant, and a flat white. After that, I checked Komoot to see where I could go for my long ride and found a bike park a bit more into the mountains but still close by. The town was called Forrest — crazy, right?

When I arrived, it had just started raining. I really thought about not getting out of the car, but I checked the radar and saw it would only get worse. So, I finally stepped out, assembled my bike, packed food, drinks, and the rest... almost forgot the GoPro, oh well.
I was on my way to do a 60 km bike loop. Luckily, the rain stopped shortly after I started and didn’t come back. It was a really nice, mostly singletrack loop with some tough climbs — I even had to walk once because of slippery mud.
Finished the loop in 3 hours and 45 minutes, then cleaned my bike at the nicest little bike shop you can imagine.

After that, I packed everything, cleaned myself up as best as I could with just a towel, and went into town for a big burger at the only restaurant there.

Later, I decided to drive a bit further into the mountains to Colac, which is next to a big lake. I had hoped to swim at the local aquatic centre, but unfortunately, it was closed because of the Anzac Day holiday — it had closed at 4 PM and I arrived at 4:50. Not my fault, Google Maps didn’t say anything about it!
I sulked a bit but then headed to my accommodation for the night.

I'm currently here planning for tomorrow — but you'll have to hear about Saturday’s adventures after I live them.
Hope you found today’s story interesting! I would definitely recommend visiting Forrest if you’re ever in Australia.

Until tomorrow — Quirijn out.

Little side note: Anzac Day is the annual official day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand for all citizens who have participated in wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping missions. The day of remembrance takes place every year on April 25, marking the anniversary of the landing of the Anzacs during the Gallipoli campaign in the First World War.

Road Trip Kick off

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 09:38:18 GMT

I’ll start off by saying: Cheers. I’m currently at the end of my first day on the road, sipping a cold 0% Australian beer.

Thursday morning kicked off with an early breakfast and a bit of packing before heading to the airport to pick up the rental car. That all went really smoothly—big shoutout to my mom for helping out with the reservation. The drive back to my place to grab my bike and the rest of my stuff took longer than expected, so I decided to have lunch first and then properly hit the road.

My first ride was around 2 hours away, just under Geelong on the Great Ocean Road. I originally planned a stop in Torquay, but ended up finding a better spot to ride about 20 minutes further down the road in Anglesea. I had a super chill ride in an actual bike park—really fun and relaxing.

After that, I booked a super cheap place in Lorne, but turns out it was 28 km away from where I actually wanted to be—to eat and maybe surf tomorrow. So yeah, that plan kinda sailed away from me or as I should say: drove away from me. Still, I grabbed a nice pizza and made my way to the accommodation for the night. It’s small but friendly, and I’m writing this blog under the stars—which is honestly something new for me.

I’ve decided I’m going to write a short blog every night on this 4-day road trip. Just taking a bit of a study break, getting out of my usual routine of training and always going to the same places. It’s time to explore a bit more of Australia.

Hope you enjoy reading these little blog posts as much as I enjoy sharing them.

Until tomorrow—Quirijn out.

Cleaning day is here

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 04:37:34 GMT

For everyone wondering why it's been a while—first off, I'm sorry I haven’t written anything sooner. The second reason is... I was busy wasting time.
I had a difficult time settling into university life and training after the race. I had to do everything myself again, which isn’t great when you're tired and feeling a bit alone.

It took me four days to start training again, and during that time, I went to uni—only to find out it was a boring unit. Ugh.

The next week went better. I had my first training session with someone here in Melbourne—Tom Fisher, who I met during race week in Dunsborough. We did a Zone 2 run. It felt a bit hard for me, but it was fun to do something with someone. Schoolwork went well, and training was back on the menu.

That’s pretty much everything from the last two weeks. Feels weird to summarise it in so few words, but sometimes there just isn’t much to tell.

Big day today—Monday, 14 April—the reason I’m back writing again.

Started the day early and felt pretty good. Had a nice breakfast, and then something just clicked. For the first time in a while, I felt like cleaning the place. So, after breakfast, I started dusting everything. Then I vacuumed the room—really thoroughly. Moved everything out of one spot, vacuumed there, and so on.

Now it was desk-cleaning time. That was annoying. Even the shelves above my desk were getting really unorganised—receipts everywhere, cables, bike stuff, and more.
But I actually enjoyed cleaning it all out—mostly because it felt so good seeing how much better the room looked afterwards.

Well... not quite done yet. On my way to the swimming pool, I stopped by the laundromat in our building and dumped my clothes and bedding in the machine. I used that time to get my swim in for the day.

The Swim:

It was a short warm-up followed by 20x100m at the most consistent pace you could manage, with a start time of 1:40. That means if you swim in 1:30, you get 10 seconds rest. Swim faster, you get more rest—but you also exhaust yourself more.
The goal was to hit the same time every 100m. I think I paced it really well—did 1:28 for most of them. Sometimes a bit faster, but never slower.

After that, I had lunch and decided to write a blog—because it’s been a while.

I’ll try to be more consistent, especially since this week is going to be interesting with final assessments and a presentation. Maybe even some socialising—who knows. If you want to know, I suggest reading the next blog.

Hope you didn’t wait too long for this one, and enjoy the read.
Till next time—ciao.

Xterra Asia-Pacific Championship in Dunsborough

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 01:12:06 GMT

My first Short-Track race in Xterra and the opening of the season

Last time, I wrote about my travel to Dunsborough and my first day in Western Australia. This time, I will talk about my race prep on Wednesday for the short track on Thursday, and my recovery on Friday to be ready for the big one on Saturday.

If anyone is interested, I can tell you more about the food I eat. I am not doing it in this blog, but if you want to know what I eat during race week, message me on Instagram: @quirijnwaaijenberg.

On Tuesday evening, all the pro athletes were invited to check out the short-track course. The whole group rode together. It was a 1.8 km loop, and most of us did a 30-minute ride to check it out. The run loop was the same as the bike loop, but we would cut off 400m. After that, I went home and had a good night's sleep.

On Wednesday morning, I checked the run course for the race on Saturday before the Elite briefing. The run felt quite easy for the first 3 km, but after that, there was a 1 km beach section with a lot of rocks we had to climb over and navigate. After the beach, it was back to transition area 2, where you could pick up your pace again. When I finished the run course, I immediately went to the briefing. The briefing was not special and a bit boring, with no real info other than the course layout and the transition areas.

After the briefing, we could pick up our race packages. We had to use the same bike plate for the short track and the full-distance race, which made prepping the bike super easy. After the briefing, I went home, got on my bike, and did one lap of the full course once again. I felt like I needed more time on the course because it was really technical and windy. There were no big climbs, but some fire roads that went up slightly. After that, I cleaned the bike and put the number on the front. I was number 27; the women's field started at 1, and the men's field started at 20.

On Thursday, Short-Track Day, the start was at 16:30, so we had all day to chill and get ready. I was staying with Scott, and in the morning, we went out for coffee like we did most days and did groceries for a big barbeque with a few other athletes as our dinner plan. After that, we went home and packed our bags. I did some legs-up chilling while Scott went out for an hour ride. We had to be in the transition area before the women's start, which was an hour earlier, at 15:30.

At 14:00, we rode to T2, where we had to put our running gear. Sebastian Neef and I did two loops of the bike course as a warm-up and to check it out one more time. I should mention this was the hottest day that week, with temperatures hitting 35+ degrees. After I left my shoes and a cap in T2, we rode to the beach where T1 was. In T1, you must leave your bike and normally a lot more, but this time it was only a bike, helmet, and shoes. I will tell you later what I left in T1 for the longer race on Saturday.

After that, it became really hot, and most of the guys were chatting with each other while being a bit jealous of the girls who were already doing their swim warm-up and being in the ocean. We now had to wait for a bit more than an hour. After the women's start and watching them ride away towards the bike loop, we stayed at the beach and started our own warm-up. With 50 minutes left, we went for a 15-minute run with some strides to warm up the legs and get ready for the most intense 40 minutes I have experienced since racing Xterra. After the run, I got ready for a swim warm-up and went into the water. During our swim, we had to jump off a pontoon, so I did this already in my warm-up. I did a 5–10-minute swim with two jumps off the pontoon.

At 16:30, we finally started. After the call-up, we went into the water for 2x200m laps. I did okay in the swim, hoping for more, but felt quite comfortable and came out of the water with a Slovakian athlete. I rode with him to T2, where I overtook him and tried to ride away. I had no time to close my shoes, but I thought, "Forget that, I am not slowing down now." He kept up with me on the climbs, but I lost him on the descent and rode away quite hard. On most of the climbs, he came back to my wheel but never overtook me, and we rode towards a Japanese guy whom I overtook on the third lap on the uphill right before going down.

In the last bike lap, I still tried to push a bit more because they were not far behind me. I made a big enough gap to enter the transition first, but with them close behind me, I had no time to sit back. I went all out on the first run lap and built the gap a bit more. I had no idea about my pace; it felt like I was not going fast. On the second run lap, I looked behind me and did not see them in sight, so I slowed down a little bit to save energy. I finished my first short track in 11th place and was happy I wasn’t lapped by the first guys. The hardest part was not drying out completely; the salt from the swim and the sweating on my lips made me feel completely dried out near the end of the race.

On Thursday evening, I had a fun day out during the race and did a 40-minute cooldown on the bike. I was calling my coach for the first 20+ minutes of the ride before I decided I had to turn back and go home. We had a nice barbeque and ate a lot of food. That night, I slept poorly; the adrenaline and effort made my sleep restless and short.

The next morning, we had a ride planned with a few other elite athletes to check out the bike course one last time. I took it easy and had my GoPro with me, so I did a bit of filming. After that, I went home and stayed there for the rest of the day. Scott went out for lunch to a nice winery. Unfortunately, I had to stay home and work on my first assessment for a new unit, which had to be done by Friday night. I finished it by 15:30, luckily. Maybe not the best preparation for Saturday, but at least I took it easy.

On Saturday, I woke up at 4:45 AM. Jeez, that is early. I had my bike and bag ready to go and went to have breakfast. We left at 5:40 from our place to Transition 2, which is a 10-minute bike ride. In transition, this time, I left not only my running shoes and cap but also 1 gel, 1 caffeine shot, and my watch. Okay, I might not be completely honest; I forgot to leave my watch, so I went back to T2 after being in T1 and during my run warm-up. In the end, my watch was in T2. It was a nice ride down the hill to T1, where you prep your bike. This time, I left my helmet, goggles, 2 gels on the bike, 2 bottles, my shoes, and my gloves (in the end, I chose not to ride with gloves, but I left them just in case I wanted to). After that, I did my swim warm-up and tried to stay warm before the start.

The race started at 7:00. We were all in the water, and I was on the left side with two other guys. We had a great start, but when we came close to the last buoy, I lost the feet and swam solo for the remaining 1.5 laps. I almost caught up to some feet because a few guys made a wrong turn, but I got left behind quite quickly again.

In transition, I already knew it was going to be a long day. I tried to ride as fast as I could for the first part of the race, but my legs felt heavy and full of lactate after the first 5 km. I also had an unfamiliar pain in my back during the race. This was the first time I had such a hard time on the bike. I tried to keep pushing and ride as hard as I could but lost a lot of time. Coming into transition was a bit of a relief, finally moving to the last part of the triathlon: the run. I tried to go hard out of transition, which worked quite well. I think I ran under the 4:00/km mark, which felt good. Normally, I have a hard time pacing that well. After 3 km, I turned onto the beach, where I slowed down more than I would have liked. You could see the difference with other elites; I was slower than them on the beach but not on other parts. Going into the second lap, I still wanted to push. I knew I wasn’t doing it for anybody but myself, and I didn’t want to slow down and just finish. I wanted to leave it all out on the course. During that second loop, I twisted my ankle just before reaching the beach because I was tired and went a bit too fast on a descent. This made the beach even worse, but it felt like I knew where I was going that time, and it felt faster than before. Maybe it wasn’t; I can’t really remember it that well. I was just running.

After that, it was back to the finish, where I arrived with Chun calling out my new nickname, "The Dutch Seagull." It felt good giving it my all, even though the result sucked. I know now what I need to work on to get stronger when I come back to Europe.

Quick Sunday recap, went out for a coffee ride with Scott and Sebi Neef. During the Coffee we met up with Solenne Billouin, Kieran the Kiwi and the Italians Michele and Frederico. Did a really nice coast ride with Kieran, Scott and Sebi, after we returned I packed everything and we went to the beach around 16:00 to meet up with the same galls and Tom Fisher joined aswel. Went for a swim in a Huge swell. I had a really good time meeting new people and making new friends. After that we went to see a sunset with each other and went home to eat and get ready for a trip to the airport on Monday. I'll hope to see everybody again at a race or just for a coffee. Thanks for the great week in Western Australia.

What is next? Back to training and Uni in Melbourne. I hope you all liked this long read about the two races I did in Australia. For anybody that wants to race the Xterra APAC next year, reach out to me. I’d love to tell you even more about this absolutely amazing course and beautiful place. And i'll be ready for next race so watch out.

This one will go down in my history books as a place I want to race again.

Next blog will be about back to university and training, but first, I need a recovery week.

The pictures are made by Xterra's photographer Carel Du Plessis!

Race week ahead

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 04:57:49 GMT

Let me take you on a journey through my last week of training and what race week will bring me

Last week was a bit hectic with a big final assessment presentation on Wednesday. I had to work together with my group, who didn’t want to work or only did so at the last minute. On Monday, we had a chat about who would do what subject, and I took the hardest ones. I regretted it way too fast, but I got the work done. On the day of the presentation, I finalized some missing parts but missed a complete section about the second objective because somebody didn’t do their job. Unfortunately, I had no time to add it, even though I had told them about it and even gave a hint how to do it.

During the presentation, I felt really nervous as it was my first time speaking publicly in English. It took me some time to realize this, and I started to ramble and speak fast. In the middle, I took a small break to reset and just talk slower. This worked a bit but made me pronounce some words wrong. For the next time, I will need more time to get used to my part of the text and start off a bit more relaxed. Just be the chill guy.

Training felt rough last week, still shaken up by the Formula 1 weekend. Not enough rest, feeling tired, and a bit of pain everywhere. I tried to take more time off and just get back into a rhythm. This went better as the week went on; swimming actually felt great, but the bike and run were worse than other weeks.

On Sunday evening, I flew to Perth to get to Western Australia. It was a 4-hour flight with a 3-hour time difference. So, I arrived at 21:00 in Perth, having departed from Melbourne at 20:00. When I arrived, I got the car at the rental company and drove to a hotel nearby. On Monday morning, I went for breakfast in Perth just before driving to R&D Cycles. BEST bike shop I have been to so far in Australia. I bought my race tires and was able to change them in the store's workplace. It was super nice of them to let me use their workspace myself. After that, my 3-hour drive to Dunsborough started. I arrived around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I met up with Scott Anderson at the house where I am staying this week. We went out for a coffee, and then I went out to check the bike course.

The bike course is super technical with a lot of rocks and loose sand, and 90% of it is single tracks. It has more turns than most books I read and a lot of jumps that you can fully send because the landings are quite soft.

Let’s look ahead. This morning, I went for a swim in the ocean, which is warm when you swim but cold when you get out. While you swim, you can see everything, so you’re more snorkelling and looking at the wildlife than actually swimming. This afternoon, I will go and check the short track course. Oh yeah, I am going to race the Short Track. LET'S GO! Tomorrow, I will check the run course and do the bike course a few more times and have the elite race briefing for the short track and full distance. Then, Thursday evening is short track race day and an easy 30-minute ride to recover a bit. Friday is a recovery day for the big one on Saturday. In the next blog, I will tell you all about the races and how they went. This was a short one, but I have nothing more to tell. I hope you liked this one too and see you after the race.

Ballance life with sport is hard

Wed, 19 Mar 2025 02:04:28 GMT

Why this was a really hard week form me mentally and physically an in-depth blog about my life.

This week started with two assessments that had to be finished: one on Monday and another on Thursday. This meant a lot of my rest time was spent behind the laptop. Can you even call that resting?

This week was one of the hottest ones yet, with temperatures of 30+°C every day and not dropping below 22°C even at night. This made sleeping a horror. I fell asleep between 11:45 PM and 1:00 AM because I couldn’t sleep earlier due to the heat. This meant poorer recovery than one would have liked, with sleep still between 6-8 hours. It didn’t help that there was stress from delivering good work on the assessments I had to complete. The one on Monday was easier because most of the work was already done, but this meant I had to start the one for Thursday right after finishing the first. I had to write a 2000-word report about a 13-minute interview and do a DIEP (Describe, Interpret, Evaluate, Plan) self-reflection.

I started doing the groundwork for the self-reflection on Tuesday because I had to wait at the bike shop for most of the day. My bike was in the shop for some final checks before the Xterra here in Australia. It took way longer than expected, but that only meant I got far with the reflection. After that, I still had to do a 2.5-hour bike ride and a 6x800m run at race pace. THIS was not FUN. I was already a bit tired from the whole day and started my training around 5ish.

Wednesday was school and a long swim. For everyone wondering, yes, I did train on Monday, but that was a nice and easy day. I hoped Wednesday would be easy as well, and I planned to finish the reflection paper. For some reason, I swam in the morning, went to school for a 3-hour session, and felt empty. I went home, cooked dinner, and didn’t finish writing the paper. Ouch…

So, Thursday, my training schedule said a 3-hour ride. F1, yes, F1 or better yet, the AUSGP started today, but I had to write the paper and didn’t go out for a ride before finishing it. I finished the paper around 2:30 PM and went straight out for the ride. No rest, just straight to training. Let me tell you, writing 2000 words and checking it for mistakes and stuff might sound like just sitting behind a laptop with no effort, but it is a big ask for your cognitive muscles and can exhaust you. The first hour on the bike was lovely, but the last 40 minutes were a pain.

Friday meant no more thinking about assessments and school projects, but here's where it got tricky. I had a 4-day park pass for the F1 and really wanted to enjoy it, but with more intensive training sessions peeking around the corner, it was taking its toll. I rushed the session a bit too much.

Also, Friday started with an early wake-up, breakfast, and then jumping into the pool for a 3200m swim, followed by a 1-hour run with some big 5x1km efforts and 5x200m sprints. I came home around 12:30, had lunch, and ate everything already. By 1:30 PM, I was out the door and heading to Albert Park to watch Formula 1 Practice 2 and some supercars racing around. It was quite a journey getting there, taking more than an hour with no rest after training.

Finally we go to the track! When you get there, you walk around a lot to see the track from different locations. The first thing I felt when I arrived was goosebumps, or as we call it in the Netherlands, "kippenvel." THE SOUND from the CARS was really something I had never experienced before. Around 6:30 PM, I left Albert Park. All the trams were packed, so I walked back a good 2.5km to the train station. Luckily, I got myself some dinner leftovers.

Saturday was another crazy day, maybe even worse, with the hottest day of the week hitting 38 degrees. I started with a 4.2km swim with a lot of fast 100m intervals. After that, I felt empty, but I knew I had to get home quickly and get on the bike for a 1.5-hour ride with 8x5-minute race pace efforts. I felt terrible during the ride, the whole time just feeling empty, but I had to get it done. After that, I had lunch and rushed out to see the qualifiers, with no time to rest, just like the day before. I wanted to be at Albert Park around 1:00 PM but got there at 2:50 PM, maybe a bit earlier—I can’t really remember.

Nieuwe alinea

Grades and more

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 07:13:06 GMT

Looking Back and ahead

Hey everyone,

This week I’ll start by saying thanks for the messages about the choice I had to make. For everyone wondering, it’s
still not made, but I am making good progress and talking about it with various people has helped a lot.

So, back to this week—I have some exciting news! I got my first grade in Australia from a quiz I did, and I scored 80 points out of 100. Yay, me! Also, my report from my internship came back with a 7. That is what we call a good week!

Of course, I have been training my ass off for the upcoming race in late March, the Xterra Asia-Pacific Champs in Dunsborough, where I’ll stay with a good mate of mine. This week’s training was a bit more race-oriented with a faster pace. For example, this Sunday I did an 8x4 min with 2 min rest race pace ride. It felt horrible, but that wasn’t because the pace was not there—the heat now is making my sleeping schedule suck. During the day, we reach 30-36 degrees with almost no wind, and it does not cool down during the early stages of the night. On Saturday, when I went to bed around 10:45 pm, it was still around 28 degrees. That doesn’t help with training and waking up early, but I managed to still do 17 hours of training with longer swimming sessions around 4km. My running distances are improving; for the past few months, I have been running between 28 and 36km a week, and that is now up to 38 and 45. Still, I want to get back to the weeks where I can easily do 50km a week, but we are getting there.

This week had 2 fast sessions: one straight off the bike with a fast 5km and 2 km easy recovery, and a session on Friday where I had to do 6x800 with 1 min rest (my time was between 3:05 and 3:00), so you can guess the pace. And 6x200 with 30 seconds rest right after the 800s. Saturday, I did a long run because I had to change my program due to a flat tire on Thursday. I had to buy new tires and sealant, then when I wanted to change it, I saw that I was riding with inner tubes—WHAT!!!! So, I had to find a store on Sunday morning to buy tubeless valves and make the changes, do my race pace ride a day later, and run a day earlier. All was fine and fixed in the end, though. The rest of the week looked like this: 2 weight sessions and long rides with a bit of pace differences.

Enough about sport, let’s look forward to what I will expect next week!

The first thing on my mind is my second assessment that is due Monday and is basically finished as I write this. Then, more school on Wednesday with another assessment—a reflection paper about a 15-minute-long interview. It must be 2000 words. After that, it slows down a bit at uni as we get ready for the final assessment the week after.

On Tuesday, I am going to a bike mechanic to check my bike and make it ready for race day, and I'll probably be working on the paper. Now, back to a bit of sport—the week will start easy with a schedule I don’t know yet! I only know that Monday is an easy swim and strength session.

Oh yes, and OF COURSE, the Formula 1 Race weekend is coming next week! I will do a full-length blog about that before and after, so you have something to look forward to as well. I will share my experiences with you and immerse you in the Melbourne Grand Prix. One last note: I will do a GoPro week. I will have a lot of pictures and videos next time.

Choices

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 10:27:41 GMT

This one is all about making choices and no we are not talking about what to wear choices or what am I going to eat today choices. These are bigger choices everybody makes in life or more often even.

I will start with what I normally do in these blogs and give a small recap of last week and then we go to the big topic.

I had my first 2 classes last week on Wednesday and Thursday, the rest of week was just training and chilling. The class on Wednesday was at the university at the Melbourne city tower campus which is just a big skyscraper in the middle of the city. I had to get to level 9 to get to the classroom, which was a bunch of round tables with screens on every wall where the PowerPoint and less material was on for that day. It started with listening to the teacher and at the beginning I needed I had some trouble following everything because of some specific terms used. Then we had a small group project where I worked together with some guys, I am going to do the final presentation with as well. We had to make a small business plan for a fruit sorbet store in Melbourne. It was fun to discuss this, but also it felt like things I already had done at Fontys. After that we had to listen for the rest of the class to the teacher talking.

On Thursday we had a class online, so I stayed at my student housing and followed the class from there. It felt like I was back in Covid times and couldn’t keep my concentration all the way through and to top that THIS time it was the same of what I already had in my first year on Fontys.

Now back to the big topic Choices. How do you make choices, why are we making certain choices and when we made those choices are they impulsive or not. My first big choice this school year was where am I going to do my Minor and I decided after a long thought that I wanted to go abroad and study in Australia. So now I am here and enjoying every new thing every day, but just as I was adjusting to live at Uni and training and my first race at the end of March. I was confronted with making a choice. The choice I had to make had to be on short terms, so a fast decision had to be made/ I still need to make in the coming days. The choice for me was do I want to race the first week of April in New Zealand, which sounds like a super cool choice to make, but just like every choice it has consequences.

So, I will make a small list with pros and cons that is the first step towards a decision in my opinion.

Pros:
1. It helps my sport career develop further
2. I am not certain if I have the chance to race there again, because it is expensive to come here only for a race. So, this might be the only time.
3. There is a chance to see Christel in New Zealand (Kind of Family)
4. Xterra, has reached out that another competitor will organize travel from the airport and back, a car available and a place to stay. So, it is cost efficient.

Cons:
1. If I race, I miss out the first 2 weeks of a new Unit and I need to achieve 4 units to fulfill my study abroad.
2. I came here to study and train and do the one race in Australia

As you can see my cons list is shorter, but that doesn't by mean that the pros outweigh the cons NO. If the cons are more important to you then the pros the choice is made easy and vice versa. For my though the pros and cons are almost equal. What do you do then? Well, the first thing what I will do is talk with the Uni and see if they can help me with a solution so I might be able to race and in that month’s Unit.

Back to choices or my BIG and one choice. I have figured out that I needed some help with this choice and have not yet reached a decision.

The one thing I still want to mention is: WHAT IS YOUR LONG-TERM GOAL and how do you reach that. I think that is the most important thing to remember when making important choices. I’ll end it here, because I can ramble on about this subject and what I need to do and what I want, but that is not really interesting to anybody but me. Because a brain can just go on and on. I’ll hope to that you liked this subject, and the next one will be a more of a journal again. Thanks for reading and going through my thoughts with me. Catch you down under in a week or less.

Orientations and more

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 11:04:30 GMT

My week of oriëntations and meeting people

Hey readers, i know my deadlines still need some work. I’ll try to do better! For now, here is what is new. I am going to start this one of by looking forward into the week. Very excited for my first lessons in marketing research. Unfortunately, the first one should have been today, but was canceled. So, I had some free time which of course I used to train. Had a slow swim or better yet it felt slow and an awesome bike ride along the beach super easy and got to enjoy some quality Australian sea.

Let’s rewind to last week. Where I mostly trained felt super strong throughout the week and finished even better in the weekend with hard swim on Friday evening and Saturday morning and then Sunday came…. Oeps forgot to mention it was like 38c the whole weekend. Sunday was though it started with a early morning brekky after that I had a 1 hour bike ride with 10 WU, 10 min build up and then 15x1min hard on/off, 10 min easy and then a brick run with 5km fast pace and 2 km easy recovery. I felt really good throughout the whole bike and the first 3k on the run, but then the head wind hit really hard and was wishing for the turn to get some wind from behind that helped a lot with the last part. After those workouts I did some chilling, showering and eating a lot of eating. After that I went into the city to escape the heat in my room. That was the end of that week, but not all now let’s dive in what I did academically or something.

I had two orientations for the end of the week Thursday and Friday. They were both planned around 14:00 until 16:00 for Thursday this meant a lot of sitting in a room and people talking and us listening. At the beginning we got a little book to write in, which I used throughout these talks to make a lot of little drawings.

It started with some the international student association (not that interesting I’m sorry). After that we had a talk from a Lifeguard, Police, Fire brigade and OSHC(healthcare). Most of it was talk about safety and what to do if something happened and what where the most common things that happened like fire, thievery and sorts. The healthcare was even less interesting it was just a marketing talk from Medibank that provided OSHC to most students, but not even all, because there are different providers. The only good thing I got out of that day was that there is a student health line 24/7 that anybody can use and there is a handy app for student safety that also has bus times.

Friday’s orientations were way better, didn’t even had to draw because they had my attention. There were teachers that talked about the lessons are set up and with a lot of group work and small projects. And a bit of marketing talk and some general information about Melbourne and Australia which was fun and interesting, but the real thing didn’t start until after the actual orientation. The VU had organized a bar where we all went for a drink or two, maybe even more. At first,

I didn’t know what to do I felt like the odd one out, there were a lot of people from the same Uni’s. I didn’t know anyone but after a minute or two, I was like screw this I’m just going to join this table and met new people. We started with the usual easy questions where are you from, what do you study, any hobbies, we talked big time about sport and had some laughs. It was a good day! I hope I can write the next one a bit sooner, so you don’t have to wait so long for a new post/blog/story/journal what evs you want to call it.

First week in Australia

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 09:31:09 GMT

First week in Australia

This is Catdalf the Grey he is my new in my room had to show im to you all. Now I will tell you about my first week.

First week in Australia already had some ups-and-downs. I’ll start with Monday just like how a normal week starts for most people. For me it started with a walk to the Coles (a supermarket here), where I had to get bread and a few necessities for in my room. Had my breakfast not fancy more typical Dutch, that means bread, tea/coffee and peanut butter for me. Then went on my first bike ride here. Had to figure out where I could ride without any traffic lights failed miserably, but did see the beach and rode along the coastline. And in the Afternoon, I did my first swim session here.

Tuesday, I did a long run in the morning and a long ride after that. Went the other way and found a super nice bike path, that followed a river into a nice super big park. After that I went into the city for dinner. Found an amazing Indonesian where you paid 9,50 AUD and there was only one vegetarian meal with dessert that changed every day and unlimited refills.

Wednesday was my actual birthday. At home before I left, I celebrated it with my family and friends. So, it started out as a normal day with an easy run and a long swim. After that I had lunch at home and did some chilling. Chilling mostly means playing on the switch, watching something or doing some schoolwork. Around 15:00 I went to the city and bought myself some new running shoes a bit as a present and a bit needed. Then I had some cake and coffee in a super nice place with choices I have never heard of went with a cheesecake variant. Can never go wrong with cheesecake am I right.

The day ended with dinner in a nice pizzeria and without sleep. I was having a cold during these days, but it kicked in harder that night. I think I did 2/4 hours of sleep and a lot of coughing.

The next 2 days where a bit similar in bed resting, maybe going out for some groceries and something to help the “cold”. On Friday I started to cough less over the day and a good night sleep Thursday to Friday. So, I decided to go back to training on Saturday.

Saturday I still took it easy with a short run and a short swim, but felt quite good and it didn’t get worse which was obviously a key point for me to decide if it was oke to train or not. On Sunday I started with an easy gym session and my first time in the gym at Uni. In the afternoon I want for my longest ride of 3 hours and made it off-road this time. I SAW MY FIRST few kangaroos or the smaller once I am not the expert on animals here yet.

Next time I am going to write a blog or journal here in Australia it’s not only going to be about sport. This week was a bit weird because I was not 100% and stayed in my room a lot, because I didn’t want to be the reason everyone here has my cold. So next week starts with some orientations and first impressions of what I am going to expect during my study period here. And I will keep you probably tune in after my first orientation and tell you all about it here.

My travel to Melbourne

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 01:49:37 GMT

Finally, I have been talking about writing a blog for ages here it is!

For the first time in the last year I actually have time to write a blog. This first one is going to be about my journey to Melbourne.

It started 2 years back when I wanted to study abroad for my Minor. At first I wanted to go to South Korea, but started to question myself in this choice. Why you ask? Because I love to train and sport and I didn't know how this was going to be in South Korea. So I made a safer choice and went for Australia and not just Australia the sport city Melbourne.

I had a lot of stress leading up to my departure for Melbourne, because of my internship with NGF. Which is more of a conversation for later, but I really enjoyed working there. So here we go the FINAL week leading up to my departure from home. I had to move from my student housing in the Netherlands back to my parents and my own birthday and friends over and packing in just 3 days. Ooh and by the way I make my own cake's just for those wondering so had to bake those as well.

Travel day here we go: Journey starts with an alarm on 3 February 7:10, around 7:45 in the pool until 8:45 after that nice pool session a drive home. Checking my luggage and trowing it in the car. Driving to Arnhem picking up my new laptop.. After that we (me, my dad and my brother) go with the train to Schiphol. Where I check-in my luggage and we do a final coffee together, and I go through security to my gate. Boarding the first plane at 14:15. A 15 hour flight to Jakarta, the first transfer was domestic to Bali and I needed a Visa for Indonesia (did not had that already). Leaving Jakarta at 15:55 locale time and arriving in Bali a bit more then an hour later. A quick stop with a long walk in very humid warm weather and leaving Bali for the last flight of 6 hours to Melbourne. In that flight I actually slept well and then we are on today. Did a lot already arrived at 5:00 in the morning it is now 12:30, got SIM card, fixed the last things for the student housing where I go to on the 7th, openend a Australian bank account, went for a super nice breakfast. And during writing and making this website I start to get sleepy. So this is the first blog I wrote and I am going to take you with me in my time in Australia. I hope you enjoyed it and want to know what I will do next. Quirijn Over and Out.