In Hasselt

Once in Hasselt, I was feeling awfully disconnected. No phone, no map, no money, no internet, no where to stay that night. I drove into town, to scout things out. Hasselt has this awesome old district with a tangle of streets that are way too tight to drive. I mean you could, but only at 4 am because there were tons of people out shopping for stuff. I guess xmas season is on. There was a one way ring around the old part that I just got swept up in, but that wasn't a problem. As I headed back to where I got on, it became apparent that having a car was the problem. What would I do with it as I got my act together?


The first plan of attack was getting money. None of the banks appeared to be open. Cash machines don't just jump out either. Hmm. The backup plan was getting a phone so I could get in touch with David. He lives nearby in a town called Limburg, but I didn't have the map resources to figure out where it was. If we got in touch, it would be simple to hook up at the race, and then I'd have a place to stay, people to see, etc.

So - a phone. On my initial lap of the stad zentrum, I noted a cellphone store with parking. I went in, asked for help and they checked my phone and found it was sim-locked. Dang. I then had to buy a phone and a prepaid plan for it. That knocked me back 55 euros. Double Dang. I was hoping that I could take care of my cash needs at the same time, but no such luck. They directed me to a cash machine in the stad zentrum. It was much farther than I thought it would be, but banks and cash machines weren't jumping out at me. I found one next to a big Parisian-style sidewalk cafe. The ATM card didn't work, but my visa card did. Phone, money - I'm in business.

I headed back to the venue, parked my car, and headed off for the race.






















It was a GVA Trofee race, which is kind of big, and there was an image of Sven Nys on the promo stuff, but I wasn't sure if there was going to be any of the top stars there. Gavere was the next day, so I was wondering if they would rather be taking it easy.