What a Great October !

I’ve been thinking about last few weeks while listening a melancholic album by a Swedish artist that was introduced to me over a year ago. Despite the sad music in the background I have to say it was a very nice month!

In the beginning of the month I spent an excellent weekend in Amsterdam with a friend that I had bit problems to locate at the Amsterdam airport. The "locating issues" were due to non-functioning phones and the fact that I was standing buy the exit 1 and he was by the exit 2. But not to worry, we finally found each other and got to spend two days in sunny/rainy/sunny/rainy Amsterdam. There we got to watch funny rowing contest in the endless canals and do bit of shopping; not to forget sightseeing on a canal boat and a lot of walking. In addition I found the cutest and funniest winter cap to myself there, now just waiting for a cold weather so that I can shock people here with that funny cap. ;)

Then last two weekends I’ve had visitors from the north. Week ago a friend from Finland visited me, and we finally made a visit to Luxembourg. We’ve basically been planning to visit the city of Luxembourg almost ever since I’ve moved to Belgium, as one should visit ALL the Benelux countries if one lives here. Well now I’ve done it and it was cute and pretty little town, once you got out of the train station area though. Then on the following day we visited caves in the town of Han-sur-Lesse, that was interesting as well since I’ve never been in any kind of cave in my life. Although have to say that the guide was bit slow, so we, three Finns decided to speed up a little and walked ahead.. Eventually leaving the group far behind. Once we got out of the the cave we were stopped by a locked gate. After waiting for some minutes a man came to us and asked where have we left our guide, well we advised him that the guide is still inside. Then we got a bit of lecture about the fact that there are about 14 km of caves in and we could have got lost. Well, why on earth anyone would leave the lighted bath?

In addition to my visitors at home, there even were visitors in the office this week. It’s always nice to meet up with colleagues from other locations, and socialise with them. This time we did enjoy a couple after work drinks as well in the city of Mechelen. Have to say the town was quite dead on Wednesday night. Luckily German, Finn, Swede and Belgian were willing to bring some life there.  

My (home) visitor number two, from Sweden, arrived on Thursday evening. I had to leave her to explore Brussels alone on Friday as I had to go to work. But she survived very well, even found Manneken Pis by her self, and it is not an easy task to find that tiny statue in the historical center of Brussels. Once I got off from work on Friday we spent the night drinking beer and socialising in one of the most famous pubs in Brussels. Funnily enough we ended up spending few hours of the night with two Norwegians. Well, somehow Nordic people always seem to find each other, and what is nicer company than Norwegians? They are always so damn friendly and happy!

On Saturday it was time to visit Atomium and Little Europe. When it comes to Atomium I have to use a Swedish word to describe myself, which is fegis. As I didn’t dare to go up the top ball, the restaurant. I am afraid of heights and truly felt uncomfortable to go to a lift that is in a tube.. What if it gets stuck somewhere in the middle..? But I did go to the other steel balls that were open, despite the uncomfortable feeling that I experience when I am exposed to heights. After Atomium, we went to see the wonders of Europe in the Little Europe. It was cute, hilarious and interesting all the same time.

Now it is Sunday afternoon, I left my visitor to the Ryan Air bus almost seven hours ago, since then I’ve been being just a lazy ass on the sofa. But it has been very very busy week, so I am allowed to have a lazy Sunday!!! Although, I have to say that I wouldn’t mind having more months like this.

  

Luckily my life doesn’t slow down much now, as in two weeks I’ll spend a long weekend at my parents in Finland. In the end of November or beginning of December I may make a weekend visit to Stockholm and naturally I’ll go to Finland for the Christmas period. Flying there already in the mid December. Time’ll just fly; like me in the northern European sky ;))