1 year on...

Just got back tonight from our weekend away to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. We went to a beautiful city called Leuven in Belgium about 2omins drive from Brussels. It's a university city that has beautiful squares, architecture, and some great restaurants. We celebrated our anniversary with a bowl of Vietnamese noodles (pho) at a restaurant in Leuven. For both of us, we haven't found a place serving pho since we moved overseas, so this delicious bowl of slippery rice noodles, a tasty broth and sliced beef was better than eating at any fancy restaurant. We stayed at a beautiful convent that was converted to a hotel....In about 3 weeks' time it will be the one year mark since we moved to the Netherlands.

Crazy Carnival

Last weekend was Carnival in Oeteldonk (otherwise known as Den Bosch but during Carnival the city changes its name to the fictional city of Oeteldonk). It's the same as Mardi Gras celebrated elsewhere. The whole city and an influx of visitors flocked to our hometown dressed in crazy costumes to celebrate Carnival. Our friends had a party so we could watch the parade of floats go past their apartment. We found some last minute costumes and accessories and joined in the fun. Both kids and adults dressed up for the occasion. It was quite funny to see toddlers and parents in matching costumes cruising around the street. Pictures say a thousand words, so enough blah blah blah.... from me, I think the photos pretty much sum up the experience. It's such a big event in the south of Holland that Paul's company had compulsory leave days on the Monday and Tuesday during Carnival.

Got a camera again....so we're back in action

We've finally got a digital camera again...just in time to capture the carnival festivities in our hometown. Haven't figured out how to upload photos yet, but Ces said he'll read the manual soon. So last weekend was Carnival (Mardi Gras), and it's a massive event in the south of Holland. Some people put aside money from their monthly wages into a carnival kitty so they can spend it all during the few days of festivities. We went to a party last Friday night hosted by Paul's company which was a lot of fun...many weird and wonderful costumes, incredibly packed, some daggy Dutch music and a lot of dancing. I felt like the shortest person in the room...this is a very TALL country. Anyway, we're off to Belgium this weekend to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it's already been a year. So much has happened since, but yet it also just feels like yesterday that we tied the knot...