Vive la Belgique! :D

Just returned home from a little trip to our little cottage in Belgium. I was somewhat afraid of the very dutch rainy weather lately, but I'm happy to say we got quite lucky these days! Enough possibilities for some good belgium beers in the hot sun!! :) Furthermore.. a bit of relaxing in the woods, some driving and walking through the countryside au direction des Hautes Fagnes, "teaching" B&T how to play Catan properly hehe, my very first burger @ Happy Days!, meeting the newborn neighbour deers, and above all, for the first time in 28 years I finally visited the city of Louvain/Leuven which is, ofcourse, named after me.. ;) hehe I felt at home immediately :P

Viva Italia!

A hot day on the beach @ Lignano Pineta!!

I'm back from my short visit to Gemmy! A waaaaay too short visit!! I've had the most incredible time with her in Pordenone and surroundings.. :D I flew from Amsterdam to Treviso on saturday. The airport of Treviso is a very small one; perfect for me: you can't get lost there hehe and you walk through customs in just a wink ;) A slight disadvantage is you'll have to take the bus to reach the railway station but I was so damn lucky I only had to wait for a few mins. (All that luck..wished I got some on my way back home as well.. :S ) At the railway station I bought my ticket in my best Italian>> parla inglese?? no?? owww shit.. :S uhh.. Pordenone? viaggio.. uhh.. solo?? :S Pffff why can't or won't those italians just speak english? It would make life so easy! ;) I arrived in Pordenone around 3.30 pm. I "textmessaged" Gem awake hehe (sorry about that!) and she hurried to the railway station. At "famous" bar Posta I had my first caffe' freddo shakerato..oww that tasted so yummy!

After a quick fresh-up at the apartment we headed back to the center for a few more drinks :) and some slices of delicious PIZZAAAAA!! It was my first encounter with the Spritz con Aperol... ohhh I do love that drink so much!! We met with Katharina, Gabriele and ohh I feel so stupid..I can't come up with his name.. :# I'll probably remember later on.. ;) We drove to Mestre and left the car there to take the train to Venezia s.Lucia. That was a good decision cause it was sooo crowded in the city... It was that day the start of the Festa del Redentore and it looked like all Italians headed for Venice :) The city was so beautiful with all those lights!! It's way too bad my camera is not working properly by night.. Perhaps I shouldn't have thrown it in the river in the US hehe ;) Anyway..not that great pics from this night.. so I decided to return to Venice on monday when Gemmy has to work anyway.. to get me some pics from this beautiful city after all! This saturday night we walked..and we walked.. soo happy the boys knew so many shortcuts..amazing!! Venice is like a huge labyrinth..I would get lost soo easily!! I just loved all of it; the atmosphere was amazing this night! And the boys had so much to tell and to show of the city! After drinking a bottle of vino bianco @ beautiful piazza San Marco we searched for the best place to watch the fireworks. So mooore walking.. our feet really hurt this night.. a slight disadvantage that there are only 3 bridges crossing the Grand Canal! In the enormous crowd we lost sight of Katharina and Gabriele... they got stuck on the wrong side of a bridge and so couldn't see much of the fireworks. That's really so sad.. We on the other hand had the best view ever!! It was a pity that the crowd in this area was quite noisy so the music got pushed to the background but it was a special atmosphere as well ;) All those decorated boats on the water, the music, the fireworks.. I've never seen something like this before.. So huge and so impressive! It reminded me somewhat of the watershow in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas! After the fireworks, we had still a loooong walk back to the s.Lucia railway station but walking through this beautiful city is such a joy! Even when your feet hurt like hell :P Back to Venezia Mestre where the car was still waiting for us hehe.. and back to Pordenone! A short night's sleep cause we would be picked up by Daniela @ hotel Santini around 10am the next morning for a visit to the beach of Lignano Pineta. The water was so nice, so warm, so clean.. you could swim for miles in this sea! Just so lovely! After a relaxing day we met with Roberto and Enrique for some spritzes and beers. It's been so much fun! Actually Daniela was to be expected for dinner for her own birthday.. but she didn't want to leave as well.. and arrived at her own party quite some hours late...ooops! 0:) The ride back through the countryside was beautiful with the sunset that day. But all those quick turns and dips in de road... Ohhh I wished for a toilet so badly!! It was hilarious..I just couldn't control myself any longer.. I HAD to get out of that car, no matter WHERE..and I did heheh..finally..such a relief!! oh it hurt so much!! Just like my back and shoulders now.. I got sunburnt that day so much! I can't sleep normally for 3 days now..

On monday I left the apartment with Gemmy who had to work unfortunately. I took the train to Venezia s.Lucia again and enjoyed myself perfectly that day in romantic Venice. Again, it was a very hot day so I forced myself to take lots of rests and drinks ;) I was back in Pordenone around 6.15pm and met Gemmy at cafe Nuevo for another caffe' freddo shakerato! :) From there we moved to Bianco&Rosso for some spritz and chips :) and a few hours later we were still sitting there hehe. Watched the whole live performance of Lorenzo and his band. Decided to skip dinner after all..it was way past dinner time anyway hehe. Then Claudio "Porsche" wanted to take us for a drink and we "drove" (150+ km/h! and NOT on the freeway hehe) to the very special Pinocchio-bar for a delicous cocktail "poco alcolico" ;) We "flew" back to Pordenone with the crazy (but nice) Claudio and his fancy car. Too bad, I forgot to take any pics from this little trip! On Tuesday I flew back to Amsterdam. But I neeeearly missed that flight!! Ohh I was really freaking out! The damn trains from the north were delayed..and not some minutes, but HOURS!!! I remembered again the Mika-song that we thought was appropriate as the Italian national anthem..you might recognize it: Relax..Take it eeee-heeeeasy!!! Well, my patience was really tested that day! I ran, ran and ran whenever I could trying to make up for some lost time..and OHHHH I was just in time for check-in!! I had only 2(!!!) minutes left.. I was soo lucky! Sweating like hell and totally DEAD I arrived at the gate..during the flight I closed my eyes and can't remember anything more from it ;) I've enjoyed these days so much.. it was such a short visit but we've done so much and had so much fun! Simply loved it! Still a week and a half of my vacation days left now... I really want to get out of here for some more days!! Any tips for a nice (not too expensive!!!!) city trip?! :D

March of the Penguin

Time to say goodbye! RIP lovely shoe! On the very first day of the new soccer season I officially had to give up shoe pair # stopped counting.. "Walked" like a penguin all day long.. How charming

Today wasn't much better.. (No) Thnx 2 heavy showers I arrived pretty much soaked wet at the stadium and my feet each had a private swimming pool in their shoes.. Very soon that started to irritate and it felt quite uncomfortable and again the penguin-walk introduced itself! Quelle joie!

Can't wait for my holidays to come.. only 9 days to go!! Last night I've finally booked my ticket for Venice. Yay for that! It's only for a few days but I SOOO need to get out of here!!