Doing your laundry

Dear Erasmus students,

The Vives residence is equipped with a washing machine and a dryer. It costs around 3 euros for a load and 50cents for drying. You need to have coins of 1euro for the washing machine and 50 cents for the dryer, and your own detergent.

There are also other Laundry places (Wasserij) where you can wash and dry your clothes. The costs are approximately the same. The closest laundry to the Vives residence is about 5 minutes walking and there they have 4 normal washing machines and two big ones and 6 dryers.

There you have a machine where you insert money (banknotes) and receive jetons to insert into the washing machine. It costs 4 euros for a load. For the dryer you have to use 50 cents coins that you can also get from the machine, if you insert coins of 1 or 2 euros.

You need to bring your own detergent or you can buy small bags of detergent in the machine inside the laundry.

Going by bicycle in Kortrijk

Dear Erasmus students,

In Kortrijk it is very common to go by bicyle.
Luckily for you it is also very cheap and easy to rent one as a student.
The place for rentiong bicycle is just on the other side of the train station, address: Minister Tacklaan 57, 8500 Kortrijk

You can find a lot of information on their website but unfortunately it is all in Dutch:  http://www.mobiel.be/nl/fietsverhuur/studentenfietsen

On the short you have the following costs:

• 5 euros a month renting cost
• 50 euros warranty - that you will get back when you return the bicycle
• 5 euros if you prolong your contract
• 7,5 euros if you miss the maintainance/check up 
• 7,5 euros if you bring the late (1 to 7 days)
• 15 euros if you bring it back later (7 days to one month) 

You can also choose to take a theft inssurance that costs 15 euros (1 to 3 months) and 20 euros (from 4 months onwards) but it work like this: if you bicycle gets stolen you have to be able to show the key (to prove you locked it) and you will only pay 125 euros instead of the total price of the bicycle. So it is not fully covered. Pay attention and lock it every time :)

If you need more info you can ask at the shop.

Another important thing is if the bicyle gets damaged and it is your fault you have to pay for it.

If you have any accident with a car don't leave without exchanging phone numbers, taking the license plate etc. If he refuses call the police. Sometimes you don't see the damage right on the spot and you might have pain after a few hours or days.

I had an accident with a car and because I was in a hurry and thought everything is ok with me and the bicyle I left without exchanging anything. It turned out the bicyle was totally ruined and even if the accident was not my fault, but the driver's, I had to pay the reparations.

Most drivers here are really nice and give priority to the cyclists so I can say it is safe to bike here, but it does not hurt for you to pay extra attention. Safety comes first!

Also, if you do not know how to ride a bicyle this is the perfect moment to learn. It would be really a shame not to, because you will waste a lot of time and miss a lot of beautiful places.
If you want to learn how to ride a bicycle let us know before hand so we can organize some courses for you.

I just learnt to ride a bicycle here and I can honestly say that I can't live without it anymore :)

Buses in Kortrijk

Dear Erasmus students,

The buses here have a fixed schedule, which you can see in every bus stop. Most of the time they respect the exact timetable but that is not always the case.

My advice is to take pictures on your phone of the schedules in the bus stops that interest you the most so you can quickly see when you should be there.

Keep in mind that the bus only stops if somebody pushes the button when she/he is inside or if the person in the bus stop waves at the driver.
(in my country they stop anyway in every bus stop but here they don't)

The end station in Kortrijk is located next to the train station.
To get to VIVES you will have to take bus 13 and it will take you just in front of the University.

If you are a student at VIVES you will receive a bus pass for the whole academic year for which you will have to pay only 10 EUR. You will only receive the bus pass after your registration at VIVES.
If you need to take the bus before you receive your card you will have to pay 3 euros for one trip, but there are also other types of tickets that you can find here on their website:
https://www.delijn.be/en/vervoerbewijzen/ritkaarten-dagpassen/