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Definitely used some of your corrections. Thank you very much for your time and effort!

You are right. Good idea! I have to hand it in in like 30 hours, so I still have some time left. So here's the paragraph I wrote (keep in in the facts are not correct, just cause the content isn't important): Local governments do as much as possible to restore the true meaning of Christmas. This is why all Belgian catholic schools are now obliged to organise a 2-week project on Christmas, which aims to make the children aware of the story behind the Catholic holiday. Even though the schools are free to handle this project in the way they feel most fitting, the government provides so called starter kits for each age group. By doing that, they make sure that students get the correct information according to their age. Another action the government has taken limits Christmas advertising to between December 1 and December 20. By that, the government tries to avoid customers being heavily influenced by the advertising, thus leading them away from the initial meaning of Christmas. And the main focus of this paragraph is on * register & point of view * combination of clauses (choppy sentences, use of linking words, foregrounding/backgrounding...) * the order of information in the clause (theme/focus, thematic patterning...) * general proficiency (spelling and grammar). --> So if anyone discovers any mistakes regarding this, please let me know. This is for my university studies, so it's important that it's in academic English. Thanks in advance

Quick introduction: I study business communication at a Belgian university and am looking for some help with my English task. We had to write a 100-150 word paragraph and pay attention to the following things: * register & point of view * combination of clauses (choppy sentences, use of linking words, foregrounding/backgrounding...) * the order of information in the clause (theme/focus, thematic patterning...) * general proficiency (spelling and grammar). I wrote something, but would like to correct it by someone who is used to academic English and is aware of clause combining/foregrounding/backgrounding/structure in sentences. I have to hand it in in like 30 hours from now, so I'd appreciate a quick response. Just send a mail to maarten_swijsen @ hotmail . com. It's only 130 words which is nog even a fifth of a page so you probably won't spend more than 10 minutes on it.

Rode it last year, and it IS as good as it seems. Even better I guess. I rode it frontseat and though the slight roughness made it even better, cause the whole ride is just insane.

It's always funny to see how seriously Belgians take their fries! Yeah, I've had the real Flemish fries. They are better than what I got in Amsterdam. Yeah, they probably are the best fries I've had. But, then again, some of the worst fries I ever had were in Belgium as well. Some really nasty fast food place called Quick. YUCK! But that wasn't in Flanders. Political instability, child rapists/murderes (Marc Dutroux), family killings, pollution, the country with the most light in the world, a national soccer team that sucks big time... French fries (and chocolate and beer) are the only thing we van be proud of. Hehe, but you're right, we take it very seriously! And Quick indeed is awful. There used to be a lot of Quick restaurants in Belgium, but now they're are only a handful I guess, cause there A LOT worse than McDonalds (which is quite average). Making your own fries in the deep fryer is actually a pretty good idea and they taste delicious. However, different than the ones you can buy in a 'frituur' (fries restaurant/shop/take-away). One of the key points to make them is to bake them twice. That Pulp Fiction scene is so funny, hehe. I prefer ketchup though. Back on topic now, haha .

^ Loved the angel comment! Seriously, I definitely would love travel to Belgium on my next adventure...the food in Europe is simply amazing and I know I would love it! I am trying my hand at making Belgian fries right now from a recipe I got off the internet. They are cooling now before the 2nd dip in the deep fryer...can't wait! You won't But good luck!

^And Manneken Pis is indeed a very small statue in Brussels, but very famous as well. Strangely enough, when other countries put the Dutch word above a fries-shop, they always say 'frites', but in fact the word we use is 'frieten'. (as you can see the sign in Amsterdam says Vlaamse frites)

Being Belgian, I'm practically obliged to respond to your post . The bitterballen are indeed amazing. You can buy them everywhere in Belgium too, but I guess they're even more popular in The Netherlands. You can even get them at McDonalds. And if you by a 'kroket' out of the wall, it's the same, but just longer. In Belgium 'kroketten' are long round potatos with a crust. We call the Dutch 'kroketten' 'vleeskroketten (meat kroketten)'. For a bag of 50 brand-bitterballen in the grocery store you pay 2,50 euro, which is a VERY low price. And everyone here owns a deepfry here btw. But the main reason I'm posting is the fries. I'm pretty sure these french fries from Manneken Pis tasted like an angel pissing sweet liquor on your tongue, but seriously, they're nowhere near as good as the most mediocre portion of french fries in Belgium. Next time, take the 2 hour drive to Belgium and go eat some REAL french fries. I guarantee you, you won't regret it!. I don't now how come, but the ONLY place with the real Belgian french fries is North Belgium (Flanders). Germany, Spain, Holland, South Belgium... You can find places saying they sell Belgian fries in all those countries, but often they're a disgrace to the real french fries! But well, I'm happy that you got the taste of semi-real french fries, hehe. See you in Belgium next year . Oh, and I love TR's that show some culture as well.

I've used the regular Flash Pass in July and was very happy with it and it seemed to work fine and accurate. The only negative thing we experienced was the fact that you still have to wait in the station for most rides. Mainly Riddler's was a problem cause the station wait took us over 20 minutes obviously. Like we experienced it, it's useless for most rides at SFMM, but you need it in order to do everything on one day in my opinion. For example Deja Vu is a very good score with the flashpass. If we would have to wait in line for DV, we would have missed other rides.

Thanks for all the new information everyone! To answer to some remarks: -We will probably stay in our Philly hotel, after SFGadv -We're just planning on making a picture-stop at the Niagara Falls, let's say 30 minutes or so, so we won't pass the Canadian side. Also cause I've heard there's always a huge traffic delay. -I definitely want to do a stop in Shenandoah National Park to go hiking for a day or a couple of hours, but I'll have to discuss it with my travel buddies first. Thanks for the advise though! - The Charlottesville-Pittsburgh is a long drive (about 6 hours), but we scheduled the whole day for that, cause we want to take pics and stuff. We know we'll be in the car most of the day, so it's that big of a problem cause i'm sure we'll have several stops. In fact, I'm actually thinking about picking a place to sleep closer to Richmond/Busch Gardens, cause the 2 hour drive after Kings D and BGW will be a pain in the ass! So far, the schedule looks like this: DAY 1 : New York Flight DAY 2 : New York city DAY 3 : New York city DAY 4 : Jersey city Noon: go to Jersey city and pick up car at Newark (cause it's a LOT cheaper than at JFK, esp when you're <25. Sleep in SFGAdv area DAY 5 : Six Flags Great Adventure Sleep in Philly DAY 6 : Philadelphia City DAY 7 : Philadelphia stad 4 PM: drive to Baltimore to grab diner and check the harbor 8 PM: drive to Washington DAY 8: Washington City DAY 9 zo 18: Washington City DAY 10 ma 19: Washington City + Six Flags America Drive to Kings Dominion area to sleep DAY 11 di 20: Kings Dominion/ Busch Gardens Williamsburg 9.30-2.30: Kings Dominion. 4.30-10.00: Busch Gardens Williamsburgh 10.00 Drive to Richmond to sleep DAY 12 : Richmond - Pittsburgh 9 am departure 10 pm arrival Several photostops along the way, maybe some hitchhiking DAY 13 : Pittsburgh City 8 PM: drive from Pittsburgh to Cedar Point hotel DAY 14: Cedar Point Cedar Point 10 pm: drive to Mentor to spend the night DAY 15: Niagara Falls Menor - Niagara Falls Niagara Falls - Springfield DAY 16: Six Flags New England Six Flags New England (couple of hours) Drive to Boston + evening in Boston DAY 17: Boston City Boston 6 pm: Boston – Newark: DAY 18 : flight home Drop off car at newark Flight home from JFK

Don't want to make a new topic for this: Is the waterpark any good? How much hours could we spend there without being bored? Cause I know the other HH's are good for a whole day, but this one is included in the price, so it might be less interesting?

Thanks! According to Google maps we're practically passing by Six Flags New England, when we're driving from Cedar Point/Niagara Falls to Boston, so we will prolly stop there for a couple of hours just to ride Bizarro and the other coasters. We probably won't add any other parks though cause 2 of my friends like themeparks but aren't really crazy about them. (A quick ride on Ravine FLyer might be an option though) The thing about tolls is interesting. Is there any website where I can check all the toll roads in this area? If it's only going to be about 20 USD for such a long drive, it's not really a problem, cause there will be 4 of us in the car. So far, I've updated the schedule like this: DAY 14: Niagara Falls 8 AM: Mentor – Niagara Falls noon: Niagara Falls 3 PM: Departure Niagara Falls 10 PM: arrival Springfield DAY 15: Six Flags New England 10 AM-2 PM: Six Flags New England 2 PM-4PM: drive to Boston 5 PM checking in hotel Boston + evening in Boston DAY 16: Boston Sightseeing Boston DAY 17: Flight home Boston – JFK

We'll be doing this trip in July 2010 btw! Is Baltimore worth a stop?

Where can we expect the best weather for sunbathing? Cause my girlfriend might want to get a tan, so we can book a hotel with a nice swimming pool and stuff...

I've made a thread about this before, but here I am again, calling for your help. I'm from Belgium and will be making an overseas trip with my friends next summer. We want to combine sightseeing with some themeparks. Right now I still have a couple of problems: 1) We love some beautiful nature, that's why we included the Skyline Drive on day 11. We were wondering if there's any place where we can spend the day hiking around and seeing some really nice nature. Any recommendations? We'll gladly add an extra day to the trip for that, if it's along the way. Doesn't have to be in the skyline drive or anything. Just any kind of nice hiking spot on our traject. 2) I've included a couple of short drives on my schedule, with the indicated times. Can the locals please check if I should schedule more time for certain drives? 3) Day 14 we're driving from Cedar Point area to Boston, which is quite a long drive. (We need to drop off our car in New York eventually, cause that's A LOT cheaper). What are the cool things that we can see along the way? is there any major tourist attraction on the way? So we can maybe split this drive into two days? For example, should we stop at the Niagara Falls? How much time will we need and what can we expect of it? Cause apparantly it's kind of a let down, according to a lot of people! ANY other advise is always welcome. We're open to almost anything, as long as out budget is okay with it And to return the favor, if anyone need any info about Belgium, just hit me up! Here's the trip schedule: DAY 1: flight, arrive in the afternoon/evening DAY 2: New York City sightseeing DAY 3: New York City sightseeing DAY 4: New York City sightseeing + pickup car DAY 5: Six Flags Great Adventure 7 AM-9 AM: Drive to Six Flags Great Adventure 10 AM: enter SFGAdv 10 PM: leave SFGAdv + drive to hotel in the area DAY 6: Philadelphia 8 AM: drive from SFGAdv to hotel in Philadelphia 10 AM: arrival hotel City sightseeing DAY 7: Philadelphia City sightseeing 6 PM drive from Philly to hotel in Washington DC area sleep in hotel Washington DC DAY 8: Washington City sightseeing DAY 9: Washington City sightseeing 9 PM: Departure to hotel near Kings Dominion. DAY 10: Kings Dominion/ Busch Gardens Williamsburg 9 AM: Kings Dominion 3.30 PM: Departure from Kings Dominion to Busch Gardens Williamsburg 6 PM: Busch Gardens Europe 10 PM: drive to Charlottesville (or area) to spend the night DAY 11: Drive from Charlottesville naar Pittsburgh 8 AM: Departure Shenandoah National Park/Skyline Drive. Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater house 10 PM: arrival Pittsburgh DAY 12: Pittsburgh City sightseeing Pittsburgh 8 PM: Drive from Pittsburgh to hotel near Cedar Point midnight: arrival hotel near Cedar Point DAY 13: Cedar Point 9 AM: Cedar Point 10 PM: Heading towards Boston by car. Midnight: spend the night in a hotel along the way DAY 14: Drive to Boston DAY 15: Boston Sightseeing Boston Drive from Boston to JFK New York DAY 16: Flight home from JFK

Love the German traditional girls... And the rest as well This one is probably THE cutest girl in traditional outfit, ever! You can find it typing Oktoberfest in Google images. It's the picture that our newspapers always use when reporting about Oktoberfest!

To OP: I'm wondering why you integrated that question about the polls. Makes me curious!

Name: Maarten Swijsen Age: 21 What is your roller coaster count? 83 What is your home park? Walibi Belgium What is the nearest big city? Brussels What is your occupation? Student business communication and journalism About how many times a year do you visit a park (including your home park)? 6 About how many times a year do you travel to a park that is not your home park? 6 When you travel do you go primarily to amusement parks or do you also try and hit other sites? both What is the farthest you’ve traveled to go to an amusement park? 5 hour drive 500 km Does roller coaster time get in the way of family time? (Do you choose to miss your children’s or family’s sporting events, holidays, birthdays, etc…) Rollercoasters are more important than most family time and it's often harder to replace a trip than to celebrate a birthday on another day. Do you have any other major hobbies? Tennis Do you get feelings of sadness in the offseason? Do you even have an offseason? Do you travel during the offseason? No. There's a bigger desire to ride coasters though. Do you consider yourself friends with someone you met who works at an amusement park? (Or reverse it, if you work or worked and an amusement park have you made friends with enthusiasts?) No Would it bother you to go to an amusement park by yourself? No Have you gone to an amusement park by yourself? If so have you ever ran into another enthusiast and tagged along with them? No Do you find it easy to make friends with other enthusiasts? No How do you get your coaster news? Themeparkreview.com themeparkvision.net How many different forum sites do you regularly post on? See above If there was a poll that asked a large pool of enthusiasts what their favorite roller coaster is, what do you think would be the top 3 responses be for wood? And for steel? El Toro Terminator Tonnere De Zeus X2 Kingda ka Millennium Force Same scenario but for amusement parks, what would be the top 3? Disney Orlando Universal Orlando Cedar Point Have you ever “stole a kid” to get a credit on a kiddie coaster? Not yet Do you cut other categories out of your budget to make trips to parks? (Entertainment, fast food, holidays, tobacco or alcohol, etc…) Yes Before you visit a new park do you research the park finding the best way to navigate the park, get the best deals, or what days to go? Yes, definitely. I try to get the most out of it. Do you feel the roller coaster enthusiast community is a warm and accepting community, or a negative and discouraging community? Not more or less than any other community Do you like to talk about your hobby with people who are not roller coaster enthusiasts? Definitely. It's always nice to talk about a passion if someone doesn't share it, but is interested in it.

London drenched in sunshine is such an amazing experience! I love it! Too bad you didn't do Stealth! When we were there the frontseat was only 2 rides longer wait. What a thrill!

Turkey a couple of years ago was insane. spending millions and millions and realising it's only a couple of bucks

Right on pyro ! Strangely enough everything besides food and drinks was equally expensive or even more, than in West-Europe. But some places had insanely cheap food! On our last day we ate at Fasty's a rather new small pizza/pasta/burger restaurant at Diloua street or something like that. We paid about 15 euro for nachos, a 32 cm pizza with 2 toppings, a spaghetti bolognaise and 2 half liter coke bottles. In Belgium we'd pay about 30 euro or even more for that! The quality was obviously less than at an Italian place, but it was better than most of the pizza I had in the USA so no complaints at all! The absynth ice cream was 4 euro, so I obviously did NOT try it

Try looking into booking flights with Ryanair or Wizzair! Wizzair had some very cute airhostesses

Seriously, get there as soon as possible. There are a lot of tourists already, but some spots are still very quiet and chill! I just hope the British drunks won't ruin the atmosphere there in the next couple of years!

I didn't really plan on visiting anything themepark-related on my short citytrip to Prague, but when I took my tourist-guide and read something about 'a park with some rides that aren't maintained well', I decided to go and check it out. I'll start with some pics of Prague, which is an AMAZING city. Seriously, i LOVE it there! Your hosts: Sofie and Maarten (me) standing in front of the Carls Bridge with a maginificent view on the Prague castle! You see churches and buildings like this practically EVERYWHERE in Prague. Seriously, the Grimm-brothers are nothing compared to Prague! Pretty nice huh? We went to the Vyserad hill, which is a hill with, yes, a CHURCH and an impressive graveyard. Seriously, this was breath-taking! Not many tourists around and a super strange atmosphere! Also a VERY nice view from this hill! I definitely was speechless when I saw this. This little kid died in 1888 And this is the church that you can see from the graveyard. MORE graveyard pics! Such an impressive 'statue' Picture perfectly shows what the graveyard was like. View from the bridge-area by day view from the bridge-area by night Pork ribs MAYHEM! 1 kg of ribs for 6 euro (that's 2.2 pounds for 8 USD) The castle that you can see from practically everywhere in the city. Obligatory: ABSYNTHE. Look it up on wikipedia if you don't know what it is! This shop even had absynthe ice cream I could post a lot more pics of this fairytale-city, but you're all waiting for the themepark, right? Or are you more into sightseeing? Well, here's the 'stunning' LUNA PARK, located in the Vystaviste park, right outside of the city Apparantly it has some permanent rides, and some travelling rides. The main ride is an OLD coaster called Horska Draha. Sofie and me did NOT ride it, because it looked so sketchy! 2 local blondes were probably used to sketchyness and had the time of their life (RIP Jim Cunningham ) Luckily the park was heavily themed: And it had some up to date Intamin record-breakers: One coaster was about to be transported: To end, a picture of the 'park map'. Keep in mind there was also some kind of outside theatre with a computer-programmed fountain that dances to music. We didn't get to see it cause it costs about 8 euro. I actually loved walking around at this park, cause it had a crazy atmosphere. The little themepark was placed in the back of a rather large park and some lights were on but it looked abandoned. We decided not to ride the coaster because of its bad condition and couldn't imagine anyone riding it... until the 2 blondes came over and were looking for something in their purse. And yes, they went for a ride, haha. The coaster was shaking less than expected but still we didn't want to risk anything. The girls seemed to have a great time riding it, and well, Sofie and I just had a great time watching them, hehe. Although I often complain about how bad some parks and rides are in my area, I guess we're spoiled compared to East-Europe Hope you enjoyed reading this TR and checking the pics!

I actually was in a raft quite a couple of years when something like this happened at Radja River. One boat was sinking as well, but not as fast as the one on the video. And yes, the water IS dirty. Like all the water in Walibi Belgium! About the procedure: From what I believe it takes about a minute to empty out the river (I think I read it somewhere when a kid drowned at some European rapid river), while an evacuation of ONE raft goes a lot quicker. Especially cause there's some kind of evacuation platform right before that final rotating lift where this boat sunk. It's very easy to get off, so I think they handled everything very well.