Olympics, here we come!

The -21 European Championship of football in the Netherlands are taking a turn I wasn't expecting. The last couple of years "Belgium" and "good news" weren't two words that combined very well when talking about football. But things change, and sometimes even for the better! We actually managed to qualify for the semi finals, where we probably will team up against Serbia. Besides that we qualified for the Olympics in China next year! For the very first time since 1928. If that isn't good news, I don't know what is...

Of course, I couldn't miss this event. So me and some friends teamed up to head over to Heerenveen in the Netherlands, way up north in Friesland. It's been a couple of years since I last went there so I was really looking forward to this road trip. Not only is Friesland a really nice region if you like peace and quiet and a lot of nature, but Heerenveen is a nice and charming town as well.
We wandered about in town and came across a "skutsje sielen" event. The people in Friesland are mad about two things: ice skating and "skutsje sielen", which is basically sailing old ships.
Besides that we made peace with the local population and shared many beers, regretfully the beers were Dutch.

As the stadium was turning orange we sang and laughed and were pleased to see a lot of Belgian flags everywhere. The atmosphere was great and I'm still euphoric about the result. All we needed was a draw and the end result of 2 goals each and an exciting game was more than satisfying. More than 25.000 people agreed with me and I'm sure all of the Netherlands and Belgium are looking forward to the semi finals and perhaps we can meet again in the finals...

The only thing that bothered me was the fact that all the Dutch supporters sang their national anthem at heart and most of the Belgians have no clue how the lyrics go. Therefor (in all official languages) our national anthem:

(all rise!)

O Belgique, ô mère chérie,
A toi nos cœurs, à toi nos bras,
A toi notre sang, ô Patrie !
Nous le jurons tous, tu vivras !
Tu vivras toujours grande et belle
Et ton invincible unité
Aura pour devise immortelle :
le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté !
le Roi, la Loi, la Liberté !

O dierbaar België, O heilig land der Vad'ren,
Onze ziel en ons hart zijn u gewijd.
Aanvaard ons kracht en bloed van ons ad'ren,
Wees ons doel in arbeid en in strijd.
Bloei, o land, in eendracht niet te breken;
Wees immer uzelf en ongeknecht,
Het woord getrouw, dat g' onbevreesd moogt spreken,
Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht!
Voor Vorst, voor Vrijheid en voor Recht!

O liebes Land, o Belgiens Erde,
Dir unser Herz, Dir unsere Hand,
Dir unser Blut, dem Heimatherde,
wir schworen's Dir, o Vaterland!
So blühe froh in voller Schöne,
zu der die Freiheit Dich erzog,
und fortan singen Deine Söhne:
Gesetz und König und die Freiheit hoch!