Sunday 1st November 2009 - My holiday began on the 1st of November when I boarded a plane in Adelaide, which then took me for a short stop in Kuala Lumpur before heading on to Heathrow London. This was my first ever time going overseas, also the first time I had even been on a plane. It was a long flight to the UK. 7 hours to Kuala Lumpur, 3-4 hours wait before a 13 and a half hour flight to London. But I arrived in the UK early on the Monday 2nd November 2009 morning to be greeted by a relative who I stayed with in Luton during the week leading up to the trip over to Belgium. I visited London on both the Wednesday & Thursday of that week. Taking the train from Luton into London and travelling on the Underground. I went for a 'flight' on the London Eye, saw Big Ben, Parliament House, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, London Bridge, Toy store Hamley's and many other sights around London. Large & amazing city. I even brought a Brainy Smurf beanie from the "Forbidden Planet" collectors store in London.

Friday 6th November 2009 - On the Friday I left Luton and travelled by coach down to Southampton to meet with Smurf collector Cathy & partner Andy who I would be riding across to Belgium with. The first of many other smurf collections I would see while I was away. Cathy had a wonderful room setup full of smurfs. And I was lucky to be able to sleep the night in this room surrounded by smurfs! We visited a shopping centre and I saw the book store where an actor from my favourite Tv series, The Bill (Graham Cole) would be doing a book signing in a few weeks time, which I missed out on due to other plans. But I took a photo of the promotional flyer in the window. We visited a collectors store called "Forbidden Planet" and the local Toys R Us. We ended the night with an english pub meal and quiz. Saturday 7th November 2009 - The next day it was up early, packed and ready to head off to the Euro Tunnel at Folkestone and across to Belgium where we booked into a hotel in Aalst before heading out for a gathering of Smurf Collectors from the Blue Cavern Community. We all met at Veroniques house, which was amazing & over whelming meeting everyone squished into the room that housed Veroniques AMAZINGLY HUGE smurf collection. WOW. It was great to meet everyone in person like Michelle! & Veronique, Dom, Hilary, Alan & Laura, Simon, Ron & Aly, Manni, Ingo etc etc... felt right at home amongst all the smurfs and the collectors with all the smurf talk going on around me. Never seen or experienced anything like it before. It was very interesting and very exciting to be standing there with everyone. We all went for dinner afterwards as the excitement was building for the next day, the smurf fair!

Sunday 8th November 2009 - The day of the Smurf fair! We arrived in Evergem, Ghent that morning and wow! Walking into the fair for the first time was so amazing. Just to see so many smurfs every where. It was a dream to actually be there and experience it. I was happy to finally be there in person rather than drooling over photos year after year online. And the fair met & exceeded my expectations. The fair really is a smurf collectors dream fair to attend. It was a huge fair. Everything you are looking for you're likely to find it here. From pvcs, plush, sockels, books, toys, rare smurfs, houses, supers, fakes, promotional, new items, vintage, everything you can think of. There was so many smurfs I just didn't know where to start. I really had no idea what I was going to look for and had no real wanted list for the fair. So I think I spent the first hour walking around all the stalls just looking at everything before I finally brought my first smurf. It was very hard to decide what I wanted to buy. But once I started buying pvcs it became easier. I brought mostly figures I still needed for my collection as well as the cheaper & common variations (colour & mold variations) that I saw & liked. There was so much more I could have brought but really at the end of the day it felt more important to me that I was actually there & meeting other smurf collectors than buying smurfs. I was able to meet even more smurf collectors (forum members) that weren't at the dinner the previous night. Meeting TinTin, Christy, Martina, Karyne & Nance! Once I finished buying my smurfs it was time for a break with a drink and some French fries smothered in mayonnaise??? can't say I'd ever tried mayonnaise on my French fries before. Something different. After a break I did some more buying for some Australian collectors with their wish lists. And then in the afternoon I got out some smurf hats that I had brought along for the fair to hand out to collectors for a bit of fun and photo taking. Such a hilarious sight to see all of us wearing the hats. Fun end to the day. It really was such an amazing day. I can't wait to go back again someday. Everyone I met were all wonderful & so kind. Really great! I went into Ghent for dinner with Hilary & Shirley while the big task of packing up went on. I returned back on the tram later that night & spent a few days with one half of the lovely Smurfy sisters, Michelle. I was able to see yet another AMAZING smurf collection. The ultimate smurf collection room.

Monday 9th November 2009 - As we found out, the Comic Museum is actually closed on Monday's so our plans of the day changed. Instead we had a day out sight seeing in the beautiful city of Brugee. Michelle showed us (Hilary, Shirley, TinTin, his father & Mama Leyseele) around walking the streets of buildings with stunning architecture like I'd never seen before. Also every second shop in Brugee seemed to either be selling lace or chocolate - what Belgium is known for. We had a nice lunch and it rained but that didn't ruin the day. It was still an amazingly beautiful city. And for dinner, some Oliebollen, which were dough balls deep fried & coated with icing sugar. Very nice. Especially the ones with apple inside. Definitely something different that I had never tasted before. Also at this point something else I was trying to get used to, which at times was overwhelming was the different languages being spoken around me. I had never experienced this before & it is hard when I only speak English. So it was tiring on the ears & mind but it was exciting and all part of the experience.

Tuesday 10th November 2009 - Have always wanted to visit the Comic Museum in Brussels so on Tuesday with Michelle, Hilary, Shirley & TinTin we headed to the museum to check out the Smurfs display. First we detoured to Holland to pick TinTin up and were lucky to get a look at his astounding collection of pvcs! Wow! This is a collection with focus and dedication to only the figures covering thousands of variations. Loved the set up. Rows & rows of smurf figures! Just amazing! Then we were off to Brussels. None of us had ever been to the museum before. Walking through the door we found the large Astro Smurf figure in the foyer. I want one of these in my collection. Had a photo taken with him. Then before we entered the exhibit we couldn't resist the museum gift shop! Selling smurf items like books, comics, Plastoys, beanies, play along toys etc. I brought a Schtroumpfs 2010 Calendar & a book of smurf comic strips. We looked all around for the smurf exhibit. This was a highlight. It was a small section but a very nice set up with objects created to accompany the comics displayed behind them. My favourite display pieces were the large smurf house, the smurf village painting and the huge Astro Smurf Rocket! I took loads of photos of the exhibit. Well worth taking a look. After we left the museum we went in search of the small shop that sells smurfs. We found it! We also found the famous Brussels Manneken Pis statue (little boy peeing fountain). Smaller statue than you'd expect and embarrassingly we had our photos taken in front of him of course. After a long day it was time to say goodbye to Hilary & Shirley as they caught the Euro Star back to the UK.

Wednesday 11th, Thursday 12th, Friday 13th November 2009 - Wednesday with the help of Michelle we found a hotel in the centre of Ghent where I checked in to stay for 3 nights. I spent the days walking around the lovely city of Ghent, taking photos and eating smurf cookies you could buy in local super markets. The highlight of the stay was on the Friday morning. I headed to a couple of markets. I new market selling food, clothes and other new items. The second was an old market a little further up the street where I found a stall with a box of smurfs. I brought a Hiker pvc variation along with a small smurfette puzzle. I then followed directions to where I could find some more smurfs. A small comic shop that had a cabinet of smurfs. I brought 2 Easter pvcs. And then the best collectors shop of all called "Gadget". The amount of collectables in this store was impressive! From Star Wars to every toy you can think of. And of course there was a cabinet full of smurfs. I picked out a bunch of different smurf items. A couple of pvcs, a Gargamel wind up toy mint in package & a Smurf Christmas squeak toy amongst a few other smurf items. I was really excited about this little haul/find. Saturday 14th November 2009 - Saturday I checked out of the hotel and was picked up by the second half of the Smurfy sisters, Veronique + Danny! We went for a look around a huge department store looking at the DVDS mostly, also we stopped at a toy store to look at the range of Schleich smurfs, which surprisingly wasn't as many as you'd expect in Belgium. Then we made a stop at a massive supermarket where you could find plenty of food products with smurfs on. We ended up buying some Kangaroo meat for dinner! Once back at Veronique's I found out that the 2010 smurf photos were online so I was excited to look through them all. And again I was able to look more closely at Veronique's smurf collection. Some really amazing items and a lot of stuff I had never even seen before. It really opens your eyes up to just how many different smurf items are out there to collect. And I love both Michelle & Veronique's way of collecting. They collect smurfs that they like & there is a story behind almost every smurf in the collections. And the display setup for the rooms of both the sisters is just like being in Smurf Heaven! AMAZING! Sunday 15th November 2009 - Up early! And I mean REALLY early, Sunday morning. I felt like I'd only just gone to sleep & it was already time to get up. So I was tired but the Sisters were to be selling smurfs at the Brussels Collectors Fair today! This was an indoors market. It was massive. Held inside a shopping complex (all the shops closed) over 2 levels with stalls selling collectables, toys, comics, model trains & cars, everything. And wow the amount of smurfs you could find everywhere and for cheap as well. I love these sorts of markets where you need to hunt through all the toys to find those smurfs you're after. Luckily smurfs weren't hard to find here. So this was the ultimate collectors fair to attend. I brought a whole heap more pvcs & plenty more cheap variations. But the highlight was when Michelle pulled out the last Trudi plush I was after to complete my set! She had managed to find the Handy Smurf plush in her stock for me. So I was excited to finally have that last plush. He was on the very top of my wanted list that I had hoped to find while I was on holiday so I was very happy to finally have him. After another long day it was time to say goodbye & thankyou to Michelle and her very kind family & off to visit Christy for a delicious home cooked dinner & a peek at another amazing smurf collection!

Monday 16th November 2009 - And what another mind blowing smurf collection Christy has! So many rare & impressive smurf items in a room absolutely full. The best of all, my favourite was the huge Trudi Plush Papa Smurf, massive. I love the Trudi plush & that Papa is the ultimate! But so many other smurfs to look at & admire. We took a ride around Knokke where Christy lives. Also a surprisingly short car ride over into Holland to find smurfs (I'm still surprised at how close everything is around Europe & even the UK). We also went to Oostende, which was really nice. One of the shops selling smurfs in Oostende was closed but we did find another collectors store with some smurfs in. And thankyou to Christy for her generosity, I came home with some really nice extra smurf goodies.

Tuesday 17th November 2009 - Plans changed as I booked the Euro Star train back to the UK for today, a day earlier than my original ticket. Said goodbyes to Christy & her family and took a train ride to Brussels to catch the Euro Star back to the UK, St Pancras Station then another train out to meet up with Hilary to stay a few days! Wednesday 18th & Thursday 19th November 2009 We had a nice relaxing time, trying not to get bowled over by the mass of dogs, hehe, I played the WII games (I had never played the WII before) with the boy next door who coincidently was also named Bradley... so it was little Bradley vs. not that much bigger Bradley in WII games. You can guess who lost every single game. Hilary & I went down to Clacton Pier, very cold that day. Had a nice lunch. And of course there was the business of yet another smurf collection to see! Another amazing collection wonderfully displayed in Hilary's smurf room as well as in different parts of her home. And her hallway of smurf mirrors!. It's so interesting to see so many collections & to see just how everyone displays their collection and what different items everyone likes to collect. A lot of really nice smurfs in Hilary's collection. And on the Thursday night we were off to see even more smurfs as we went for dinner at Alan & Laura's! It was fantastic to meet up with them again as they had left early on the day of the fair & we didn't get much of a chance to chat. So we had a delicious dinner, thankyou Laura, a screening of the South Park episode "Dancing With The Smurfs" - that was hilarious! And Alan's Smurf collection... one of the most unique ways of having to enter a smurf collection room.... climbing a latter up into the loft (which was the smurf room). That is cool, ha! And once again, another amazing collection. I think we had made a mess of your smurf room by the time we left, sorry Alan, ha!

Friday 20th November 2009 - It was back to Luton with my uncle Dave on the Friday. As we then spent the weekend away visiting family in Ramsgate, Kent on Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd 2009 to see my grandpas side of the family & seeing where my grandpa grew up and the church where my grandparents were married & the local sights in Broadstairs & Margate. Then returning back to Luton on the Monday 23rd November 2009.

Tuesday 24th & Wednesday 25th 2009 - Tuesday morning I set off on the train into London with a quick stop at Tower Bridge again & then continuing on to book into a hotel in SW London to visit where they film my favourite Tv show, UK police drama called The Bill. In Merton on an industrial estate I met up with fellow smurf collector & The Bill fan, Martina as we spent the whole day on Wednesday down at the studios standing around taking photos and waiting to meet cast. Unfortunately we only saw a couple actors from a distance & didn't get to meet anyone but it was still an amazing day & very surreal to be standing outside of the Sun Hill police station exterior. This had always been a dream of mine so it was very exciting to actually be there & was a huge highlight of my whole holiday. And thanks to Martina for tagging along for the day! Braving the cold freezing weather.

Thursday 26th November 2009 - Back on the train to Luton on Thursday & off to visit more family on Friday 27th November 2009, my grandmas side of the family. Saw the Cardington Hangers where they filmed parts of the Batman movies in. Then on Saturday 28th November 2009 we had a tiring walk around Milton Keynes shopping centre. Massive complex with a huge Christmas display. I did some last minute gift shopping for family back home before my holiday came to an end on Sunday 29th November 2009.  It was time to make sure my bags were packed & all my smurfs would fit into my suitcase... I was willing to ditch clothes to make sure I got all those smurfs in. But luckily it all went in & I wasn't charged extra for being over the restricted weight. So then it was off on the long flight home out of Heathrow airport via Kuala Lumpur again & arriving back in Adelaide early morning Tuesday 1st December 2009. Back home with my family with a suitcase FULL of smurfs! I can't believe how much I actually came home with in the end. You can take a look at my holiday haul in the photo below.. this was before the big task of unpacking the suitcase. THANKYOU! I had the most wonderful holiday! Really amazing time visiting Belgium for the Smurf Fair. Thank you so much to everyone I met, all those smurf collectors from the forum for being so  kind & friendly to me & generous. It was great to meet friends in person after speaking online for years. It really felt easy to be around other like minded smurf collectors. It was definitely an awesome experience & one of the best experiences of my life. I had never been overseas before & was travelling on my own. So it was very hard & really was a huge thing for me to do but everyone made the trip so much easy for me. I really hope to travel over again in the near future. So I can't wait to see everyone again. The Smurf fair was the best. If you are a smurf collector reading this, no matter where you live in the world, you know, I travelled from Australia... to the other side of the world. If you have a passion for collecting smurfs then this trip is worth making. The experience, the smurfs, Belgium is really a beautiful place to be & the place to find smurfs. A big thankyou to Michelle & Veronique & family for organising the biggest & best smurf fair. Also for looking after me & helping me while I was away. Beautiful people with big hearts. Also a HUGE thankyou to Cathy & Andy, Christy & her family & Hilary & family. Plus hospitality of Alan & Laura. So thankyou to everyone who made my holiday truly amazing! You can see more of my holiday photos in my slideshow (below).