Category: Uncategorized

On the road again!

The time has passed since our last city trip. After Czech Republic, I jumped to Paris and Gerona for some meetings while Denisa made it to her family, and, willing to continue discovering Europe together, we have decided to enjoy the Costa Brava and Barcelona, Spain, for a long lovely weekend.

The journey all started by a multi-transport party, walking from home to station, by train to Charleroi, by bus to the airport, by plane to Gerona, by bus to Barcelona and walking to the accommodation located at 200m from Plaza de Cataluña, the central spot of the city.

We were not yet arrived but already enjoying the place, the sculpted facades, the fountains, and the atmosphere.
The first evening was synonym of a restaurant hunt; trying to find out, without success, a place informed by a friend, it gave us the opportunity to discover Barcelona’s cathedral from all side 🙂

On Saturday morning, a meeting was organised with Laure, my cousin living in the region, for a city walk and a girl wedding dress’s party.
Indeed, I left the ladies in wedding dress shops while I was going on my own. (You know, I can’t and don’t want to see the dress before the wedding day :-), it’s bad luck! )

What a great surprise when, jumping around like a young goat, Denisa ran into the room shining like thousand suns and announced me she had found THE dress of her life in an incredible combination of luck and hazard!!!

It didn’t take long time to make the decision, to return to the shop and to organise the transport 🙂 (being sure I won’t see the dress before the wedding).

Joyful of this achievement, we enjoyed the walk through the old part of Barcelona to the coast till the arrival of Laure’s boyfriend with who we shared an improvised a friendly table game dinner time 🙂

Every end of day was dedicated to the wedding invitation. We have been through thousands and thousands samples on the web, two dozen websites to find the one we both like (NB: that’s a very tricky job).

Sunday was dedicated to tourism, at first sight with Bruno, a Spanish friend, going around the Sagrada Familia and the city centre, saying goodbye front of Monjuic. The afternoon gave us the time to discover the Parc Guell and its famous terrace made of ceramic and to enjoy always more the city.

Monday morning was synonym of packing and the pickup of the dress, packed in a suitcase kindly lent by Laure :-)… and came the time of our bus to Gerona.

We flew back to Belgium, the head full of souvenirs and happy to have finalised two of the most difficult part of the wedding preparation: the wedding dress and the invitations 🙂

Nos vemos,

Antoine

Following the visit of Denisa’s relatives last Spring, it was the tour of Antoine’s parents to make it to Czech Republic for a weeklong friendly visit.

After 1500km, a night stop to Osek, foreseen at first sight to host our wedding, and the time requested for the visit of this nice cultural spot, we have reached our final destination: Dolní Benesov, hometown of Denisa.

The programme was well prepared giving a large place for the discovery of the area and the preparation of the wedding.

It is nice to know that, at the end of the week, the schedule was locked, the places were defined and booked, the caterer was found, the guests list was completed, the decorations were on their ways and the wedding cake was under reflexion 🙂 what an improvement!

Just pressing us to move forward quickly to the W-day 🙂

The touristic part, next to Hlucin, Ludgerovice, etc. (the neighbourhood of Dolni Benesov), leaded us at the discovery of Opava and the Mendel Grammar School, Ostrava and some wedding dresses shops (for the ladies), Hukvaldy where we spent a few days visiting the Tatra museum, the castle and discovering the Tartars’ ears 🙂

However, the key part of this visit was the times spent around enjoying the exchanges, the good food and the drinks 🙂

The week flew away and the time to drive back to Belgium (and start diet) came all looking forward to meeting soon again.

Antoine & Denisa

Tomorrow, Denisa is turning 21! In Belgium, we are use to call it the “age of reason” 🙂 (but who knows what it really means)

At this occasion, I’ve prepared her a weekend at the coast, inaugurating our new ridge tent (kindly received for my birthday) and enjoying some sun at the sandy Belgian beaches 🙂

The hazard of the calendar made Frédéric, Sabine, Corentin & Nicolas being in Sabine’s mother flat for the weekend… at a couple of kilometres of our place 🙂 Therefore, we’ve shared a part of this nice time with them.

All started Saturday morning, bag packed, sun shinning and trains late 🙂
After a 2 hours train journey playing and chatting, we arrived at Duinbergen station, welcomed by Frederic.
A light lunch later, came the moment for Denisa to discover the Belgian beaches, enjoying the sand, walking into the -cold- water, hunting seashells with/for Coco, relaxing of work, studies, every days rush under a blue sky and a big sun without forgetting the traditional ice cream in the wind 🙂
To complete the discovering, a visit of the Zwin was planned, enjoying the wildlife of the area.

Came the time to leave the other and to get some privacy 😉 Setting our tent before a lovely dinner in Heist and an evening romantic walk at the beach 🙂

A few hours later (next time, we’ll take with us some matrices lol), breakfast, shower, packing and back on the road again to join the others for a bit more of beach games and a mini golf 🙂

After the lunch, came the time for the return journey and a landing back home to head full of sun and the body partly burned 🙂

For now, it’s time to sleep, tomorrow we will be back to reality. Enjoy the pictures in the gallery 🙂

Antoine

May it be for Antoine’s thirtieth anniversary, may it be to boost Denisa before her exam, we’ve both welcome this head-to-head city trip with pleasure foreseeing a nice relaxing time together :-
)

And, despite the covered weather, we fully fulfill our expectations 🙂

Aachen is peaceful small city, counting with a few historical spots such as the Cathedral and the City Hall, surrounded by an old neighborhood and counting with a large number of restaurants and bars. It request a few hours to visit.

We quickly made the turn of the spots, had a talk with an horse, kick someone into the fountain, enjoyed a few concerts, played flute with boots and spent much of our time chilling around, enjoying our time, preparing our wedding, finding restaurants ,etc. taking the time to recover from our rushing daily life 🙂

And, last but not least, for the first time ever, we managed to do a full trip without meeting anyone known from coast to coast 🙂

See you soon for more adventure,

Antoine & Denisa

PS: as usual, pics are available into the gallery

End of April came together with the annual Belgian Expo-Sciences, a key event in JSB programme, where I had a large responsibility taking care of the foreign participants and a team of volunteer.

This year, Verča, Denisa’s youngest sister, took part to the expo with a friend Alice and came together with her family for their first visit to Belgium making this week really special!

And, nevertheless, we enjoyed an Icelandic volcano (pronounced Eyjafjallajökull) spreading its ashes all over Europe.

Contrarily to last year, were we spent the expo together, the programme was really different for each of us, for me, it all started by a 12 hours round-trip to Erfurt, Germany, to bring back to Belgium the Czech group and a lot of fun to adapt the collect of the delegations (flights delayed, canceled, postponed, etc.) but, except for the Spanish group, all arrived on time for the expo 🙂

They enjoyed a Brussels city tour, the presentation of their project, a cultural evening, some diner on Grand Place, even, for some, the visit of Bruges before returning home the head of souvenir 🙂
I’ve also spent a few days with my -future- family in law beside a part of the expo which they’ve attend… But let’s see it closer with Denisa’s week 🙂

Denisa’s, except for the time at the university, shared her week with her both families 🙂

This was a nice, friendly, week made of exchanges and discoveries in a well-booked programme.
Indeed, Evald, Jana, Marie, Veronika, all Denisa’s relative, and Alice, all hosted at Antoine’s parents, the Kalužovi family had no rest, discovering in order our flat, Waterloo & Braine l’Alleud, Brussels, the expo-sciences, the Rue Neuve (shopping party) and Bruges and meeting with, nearly, the complete Antoine’s direct family during his 30th Anniversary party 🙂

This was a great time, giving the opportunity to meet and know each other, discovering about another culture, another way of life, finding similarities and differences and sharing all of it with cheerfulness

… And it finished as it started with a round-trip to Erfurt postponing the first flight of half of the family for a future visit 🙂

For now, you can enjoy the pictures 🙂

Antoine

Since we are together, we’ve been travelling the world in many occasion… But never, ever, we’ve managed to make it fully alone always joining friends or relative, carrying a delegation, etc. 🙂

We’ve, therefore, decided to offer us a lovely city trip in Amsterdam for St Valentin 🙂

Everything was done to enjoy it, a journey relax by train, a room booked in an hotel counting with a swimming pool and a sauna, a list of activities and museum to enjoy our time 🙂

But, despite the weather, our main pleasure was to walk along the park and the city, discovering a see of bicycles having all shape and colors possible, discovering the architecture of the city, picnicking or sharing meals in little restaurant… Resting 🙂

We’ve also discovered but a bit disappointed by Van Gogh museum and, with much more pleasure, the diamond museum 🙂

… And, as it is written in the stars, on a journey back we’ve stopped in Rotterdam for a couple of hours to meet with Ibrahim who nicely guide us around the city!

Discover all the bicycle (and much more) in our gallery 🙂

Antoine & Denisa

Saturday, 19th September. This is it! Get ready! Our engagement party is on track 🙂

After few months being together, we’ve decided to celebrate this great occasion gathering our friends in Antoine’s parents house for a great party time.

All the ingredients were there to enjoy this day, Denisa prepared a -double sized- full dessert buffet (yum-yum), the parents, brothers & sisters gave a hand in the preparation of games and facilities and friends arrived in number (about 40). And, not the least, the sun was with us!

The day started early when all the cakes, pies, cookies and others which were fulfilling our flat were transferred to the celebration place. A last jump home for dressing and we were just on time to welcome our first guests.

All coming with a great mood, talking, sharing a drink or a piece of cake in the garden, even playing football, the time was moving on nicely with many kids running all over the place.

Came the games, a quiz about the lovers (which helped us to know who’s the one having the longest ears), a paper-mummies party, a tube mini-foot took over the time keeping all the other prepared games for a future occasion.

A nice wok party and raclette engines gifted (NB: at the time of writing, both have been enjoyed), the results of the quiz where given and a dinner was semi-improvised, the remaining ones enjoying pitas and spending a few hours around the table.

Thanks to all of you, you’ve made our day… once again 🙂

Antoine & Denisa

PS: You can discover the pictures in the gallery