Hello everyone! As usual, the past 2 weeks have been crazy but very fun!
Let’s start with 2 weekends ago. Every other year in Brussels in August, an enormous "flower carpet" is set up in the Grand Place for a few days. Using nearly 1 million colorful begonias, the ground in front of the Grand Place is covered in flowers that are set up in patterns, and the display covers around 19,000 square feet. The first flower carpet was made in 1971, and due to its popularity, the tradition continues, with the flower carpet attracting a large number of tourists. On Thursday (August 12th), Jackie and I and her boys ventured down to watch them place the flowers – it was really cool and amazing how quickly they work! On Friday, Brent only worked a half-day so we could go see the Flower Carpet and pack for Paris. We have a habit of always being super stressed before any type of trip, so we’re trying to minimize that now. :-) We went down about 16:30 and even met up briefly with a friend named Bekah from a church we have been to. The flower carpet was really neat! We went up to the 3rd floor of a building in the Grand Place for a better view as well. See pictures at right – it’s hard to explain the Flower Carpet, but it was beautiful! That night, we tried a new Indian restaurant near our apartment (Spicy Grill) that Brent’s co-worker had suggested and it was delicious. After dinner, we went back down to the Grand Place to see the evening light and sound show with the Flower Carpet – again, very beautiful. It’s things like that that make us just love living in Europe – we have had so many cool experiences!
The next morning, we got up early and left for Paris by 9:00 am. The drive took about 3 hours and unfortunately is a very boring drive. The French countryside is beautiful, but there are no cities between Brussels and Paris, just flat land. We arrived at our hotel, checked in, and headed out to a French café to enjoy some amazing French onion soup. We had a gorgeous view of Notre Dame and our café was right on the river Seine. Almost as soon as we sat down, it started to rain, but we didn’t mind because we were sitting at a lovely café in Paris. After we finished eating, the rain had let up a bit, so we walked over to the flower market. A year and a half ago, I had bought a purple flowerpot from “La Maison de l'Orchidée.” I almost always had orchids in it in San Diego and we also brought it to Brussels. I had wanted to buy a French orchid to finally put into it, but the rain picked up again and neither of us felt like lugging an orchid back to the car. Instead, I bought another lime green flowerpot to match our purple/lime green theme at our apartment. :-) Next time though, I’m definitely buying an orchid!
After the flower market, we dropped the flowerpot off at the hotel, dried off for a few minutes, and luckily by then it had stopped raining. We walked from Notre Dame all the way over to the Eiffel Tower. We stopped along the way in the Jardin des Tuileries and rode on the huge Ferris wheel (La Grande Roue) that is only in Paris during the summer. What fantastic views we had from up there – and it was way cheaper than hiking up Notre Dame or going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe! It was really fun! On the way to the Eiffel Tower, we stopped and got a baguette, some cheese, and a small bottle of wine to enjoy in “our spot” in the Parc du Champs de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, where Brent proposed. Upon returning to the bench where Brent proposed, we learned that during the summer when the trees are all in full bloom, you can’t see the Eiffel Tower at all – he proposed in the winter when there were no leaves on the tree. Nevertheless, we still celebrated 11 months of marriage with some cheap French wine and delicious baguette/French cheese.
After our little picnic, we went back to the hotel, and got ready for dinner. We had picked out a few restaurants, but upon our arrival in Paris, we learned they were closed for summer holidays. We picked out a highly rated seafood place (Le Bar à Huîtres) instead, which was right next to our hotel. We enjoyed crab, lobster, shrimp, and French wine of course. After dinner, we were exhausted, but we decided to go look at Notre Dame at night. You know how much I love old churches! Notre Dame is my absolute favorite church too – it is just stunning. I love how it looks all lit up at night as well! As we got closer to the church, we noticed lots of people standing around and heard some noise. We joined the people lined up on the rail overlooking the river Seine, and noticed a parade of priests making it’s way towards us. We then remembered that the following day was Assumption Day. Since we’re not Catholic, we didn’t know tons about Assumption Day, but from what I understand, it is a Catholic holiday commemorating the death of Mary and her assumption into Heaven. There were tons of police offices guarding the priests as they marched into the church around 23:30. There was also a parade of people following the priests, some holding candles, and most of them praying. We saw that they were headed into the church, so I instructed Brent to get in line, keep a solemn face, and follow them! I wasn’t about to miss a midnight mass in my favorite church in the world – not that I had ever been to a Catholic mass in my life anyways though. ;-) We filed into the church and took a seat in the back, not knowing what to expect. Notre Dame is amazing at night – it was a bit eerie but also so cool to look up at the ceiling and into the stained glass windows in the dark. We stayed for part of the service, which was more of a prayer and worship time. There was a huge sheet/screen set up in the front of the church and they played a story mixed with a song – all in French of course. It was still amazing to be there though, worshipping with all of those people. Afterwards, we watched some late-night street performers in front of Notre Dame and headed back to the hotel well after midnight for some much needed rest.
On Sunday morning when we woke up, it was raining. We ate breakfast and thought maybe it would stop raining like the day before…but it didn’t. We decided to go see the Catacombs (a famous underground ossuary), since it is underground and away from the rain. We drove up to the Catacombs and discovered it was closed for Assumption Day. Ooops. I’ve been to Paris six times now and have never seen the Catacombs! We then decided to just take a driving tour of Paris since it was a Sunday and there weren’t a lot of people out on the roads. We drove over to the Eiffel Tower, over by the Louvre, and then headed back to Notre Dame for some lunch. We ate one of my favorite things, which sounds very simple, but I swear it’s good: a hot dog smothered in cheese, served in a baguette. Brent can vouch for these hot dogs – they are yummy! I think it’s mostly the French cheese and baguette though. By then, it was 15:00 and still raining, so we decided to just head back up to Brussels and come back again some time when the weather was nicer. Unfortunately it rained the entire drive back, but we made it back safely and were thrilled to put on some warm clothes and just curl up on the couch with some Thai soup. I think we were both a little disappointed that the weather wasn’t a bit nicer in Paris, but that’s the wonderful thing about living so close – we can always go back!
During the week last week, I mostly just hung out at the apartment and ran errands. I met up with Jackie a few times as well, which is always nice. Our weeks really aren’t super exciting – Brent works and I cook and plan our adventures. :-) I still am enjoying being “retired” as well – but I keep busy during the day! My pet-sitting business keeps me busy, as does trying to navigate grocery stores and research fun vacations and day trips.
Last weekend, we decided to head to the Belgian coast on Saturday to enjoy what was likely the last weekend of sunny and somewhat warm weather. We only live about 100 kms (~60 miles) from the beach on the North Sea…it’s just a very different beach from San Diego. We left around 11:00 am and what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour drive turned into a 2.5 hour drive. When the weather is nice, the entire country heads to the beach! We eventually got there though and parked ourselves on the beach. The water was probably only in the 60°’s, but we still hopped in the ocean. We definitely did not get in higher than our waist, but there were people out there swimming and surfing! We really enjoyed just laying on the beach, relaxing, and listening to the waves crash. We did do a bit of beach hopping as well. The Belgian coast is about 65 kms (~40 miles) long, so we decided to try out a few beach towns. We started in Blankenberge, then went to Zeebrugge, Knokke-Heist, and finally drove back down to Oostende. We really liked Knokke-Heist and Oostende in case any of you ever decide to take a trip to the Belgian coast. We ate dinner at a lovely new restaurant in Oostende. We stepped in because it looked decent, and it turned out to be amazing! We headed back to Brussels around 21:30 and again, enjoyed just curling up on the couch and watching some TV before bed. It’s really nice to finally be mostly settled in, in our own apartment and not live out of a suitcase.
On Sunday, we tried another new church and unfortunately, it also just wasn’t for us. Trying to find a church here has been exhausting and stressful to say the least. We know we won’t find anything as wonderful as what we had in San Diego, but we’re just looking for something we both feel comfortable with. As always, the people were very nice, but it just wasn’t the church for us. I think we’ll try 1-2 more, and then just make a decision. We have met some incredibly nice people though at various churches, which is encouraging. We spent the rest of Sunday running errands and preparing for the week.
This week, Brent is in the city of Leiden, Nederland. This wasn’t exactly a planned trip – he actually found out he’d be going while on a client call last Friday. Unfortunately, I was already committed to pet-sitting a cat, so I couldn’t go with him the entire week. I did spend Monday-Tuesday with him though. Leiden is actually a very cute city in the Netherlands, in between The Hague and Amsterdam. On Monday night, we discovered an amazing sushi restaurant (Oni) in The Hague – quite possibly the best sushi we’ve had in Europe! We didn’t really get to see much of The Hague because Brent worked a bit late. On Tuesday, I walked around Leiden during the day – see pictures at right. It’s a university town, so it’s quite fun with lots of people milling about. I wish I could’ve stayed with Brent all week (we’re still newlyweds and hate being away from each other!) but I had to return to Brussels to check in on the cat. I’m actually writing this on the train back from Leiden to Brussels!
This weekend, we’re hoping to drive to Luxembourg for the day on Saturday. It’s about a 2-hour drive – we’ll see how the weather is. The weekend after that, we have a dinner to attend in Antwerp hosted by the tax team from Brent’s office. And the weekend after that, we head to Croatia for our one-year anniversary!!! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since we got married – it seems like just yesterday! A few days after we return from our trip to Croatia, I fly to Atlanta to finish my clinical hours for graduate school. I finally booked my ticket to Atlanta and will be there September 17th-October 14th. It’s going to be a very busy 4 weeks as I just found out my big culminating project is due October 4th! My classes start this Saturday, August 28th – and while I am so excited this is my last semester, I am not quite ready to start up again. Just a few months though and I’ll be all done – and this semester should be a bit easier since I won’t be working full time!
Ok, that’s all for now. I will try to keep my blog updated at least 2-3 times/month while I am in grad school! :-)
