Budapest in the rain!

20/05/15 How fast can one day go ???

As usual, my alarm clock went off at 6.30 AM, just like it does on every normal working day, but today, I left my home with a big smile on my face coz the final hours were ticking away for my trip to begin towards the Hungarian capital and nothing, not even our nagging and complaining drivers were going to ruin this day.

The day started just as it always does, slow and relax, but as the hours passed, it got all hectic again, something which is sadly enough not entirely unknown to me. One of our school buses suddenly didn’t want to start again and another one, which is equipped with a lift, decided that no wheelchairs were going on his body today but hey … not on my watch!!!

It took a while to get it all fixed, but in the nick of time, they did just what they were expected to do … drive and bring disabled kids back home safely!

With just a few hours left and everything running as smoothly as it should be, I resorted to cleaning up my desk for a bit and getting through loads and loads of invoices. Needless to say, I was glad to see the clock turning towards 5 PM and after making sure that everyone knew what to do over the next few days, I said goodbye and quickly drove home where my mum awaited me.

Our flight towards Budapest was leaving early tomorrow morning and just to be on the save sight, I booked an overnight hotel close to the airport.

Since I didn’t had time anymore to pack before our train ride towards the airport, I wisely enough did this last night, but still … I wasn’t going to leave without one last check to make sure that I had everything important with me. Not that we needed much, but still … money check, passport check and most important of all, camera check!

Just to be sure, I brought along an umbrella as well, because they expected some rain the upcoming days … you can never be prepared enough, can you!

That all being sorted out, my brother brought us to the train station and from there, it was about a 2 hours ride towards the airport ... Budapest here we come, or more correctly, Zaventem here we come!

Everything surprisingly enough went very smooth and when we arrived at the airport it was almost 8 PM in the evening. I am used to seeing the airport being one very busy place but not this evening, it was rather slow and I secretly hoped that everything would stay the same till it was our time to leave early in the morning. One can only hope of course!

We quickly made our way towards the transfer zone for taxi’s and buses, but looking at the transfer schedule, it seemed that we missed out on our earlier transfer by mere minutes. Bummer!!!

This meant that we had to wait for another half an hour. Lucky enough, the weather was nice and the sun was still shining! Before we knew it, our driver arrived and even 5 minutes earlier than the appointed hour. He could have easily left, but instead he waited the full 5 minutes, which was a nice thing coz this meant that we could leave, taking 2 extra passengers with us. As we left, we were with 8 people for a 50 seater bus. Talking about luxury!

Half an hour later we arrived at our hotel, the Ibis budget hotel. Although there is also another Ibis hotel a few meters to the right, it seems that all us 6 persons, except for the two latecomers, booked a room at the budget hotel, quite popular to say the least.

We needed to wait a while before our room was assigned to us, but this had nothing to do with the friendly guy behind the reception. In front of us was a very large group of Chinese tourists and they were bugging the poor guy with loads of impossible questions and demands. I must say, if it happened to me, I don’t know if I would behave so friendly, but he did!

Once we dropped of our stuff, we walked outside again and enjoyed the last sun rays of the day. We walked for a while into the street but besides concrete buildings on one side and meadows on the other side there was not much to see, so we just took a look at the other hotel and found a bar, which was more than good enough for one last nightcap of the day.

As it was getting darker and darker, we slowly walked the 30 meters or so back to our hotel and went back to our room to have a well deserved shower which was surprisingly hot and afterwards we went to sleep coz tomorrow morning at 6 AM my alarm clock goes off again.

21/05/15 wet, wetter, wettest!

An early rise and shine is not always nice, but when it means that you can go on a trip abroad, it is the best thing there is!

Opening my eyes wasn't the most easiest task at this early hour, but as soon as I did, I quickly showered, got all of our stuff together and checked out. Although the hotel itself provided a breakfast for only 7 euro, at the time it opened, we needed to take our ride back to the airport.

This meant no breakfast at the hotel, but luckily the airport isn’t that far away. As soon as the transfer bus arrived, us and 2 other early birds could finally leave and just like yesterday, we arrived at our destination half an hour later.

Despite the early hours, checking in went really smooth and like the day before, not all that busy either. Loved it!

As soon as we got through customs, the search for a nice „brekkie” was on. Normally you can find all sorts of food at the airport, but this time instead of loads of eateries, we saw nothing else but scaffolds and commercials like … sorry, we are renovating this place … what the heck??? See if I care!!

If you are hungry, you are destined to find something and so we did at Panos, which serves all kind of sandwiches and pastries, but they do have some healthy food as well. I can highly recommend the yoghurt with fresh fruit and granola!

We still had lots of free time on our hands before we had to catch our flight, so in a slow pace we walked towards our designated gate and upon our arrival, there was still half an hour of waiting ahead of us or maybe more since our plane hadn’t arrived yet! Not a good thing of course, but I guess it must have been 15 minutes later or so when it finally did arrive so, no more excuses … after another half an hour of waiting we could finally board. 

The flight itself didn’t take all that long, little less than 2 hours and just enough for me to get through a couple of travel guides, but as soon as we landed, I noticed that we left the sunshine behind. Although it was almost noon, it was just so dark outside that it looked like it was 10 PM in the evening, this can’t be good!!??

Since most of the people went on board with just their carry on luggage, getting of the plane was a long and slow process as well. At a given moment, I thought that I had to fake an anxiety attack, just to get out of the plane, but at long last we finally made it to the door of the plane, just to notice that it was raining outside … can I go back to Brussels please ????

Maybe it was just a fluke and in the back of my mind I hoped and more importantly wished that all the weather forecasts were wrong, we were going to have a marvelous time here in Budapest, after all it is called the Pearl of the Danube, what can possibly go wrong!?

As we got through customs, I was on the lookout for a taxi. Just a few weeks earlier to our departure, my mum saw a documentary on taxis in the city of Budapest with all the things that could go wrong and now she was a bit hazardous of taking one, but it was either that or taking the bus and the metro and to be honest, I wasn’t up for it, so she just had to tag along. Her „fear” if you can call it that, was soon gone when she met up with our senior driver, who was very talkative as well. It really was a nice older gentleman, but as we almost reached our hotel, I knew he was never going to be my friend. How on earth can you prefer rain above sunshine … please tell me how this is possible????

During our trip towards the city, which took about 45 minutes and can even go up to over an hour if there is loads of traffic, he was telling about all the hot weather of the past few days and now the rain had finally come and they predicted loads of showers in the upcoming days … his prayers were answered and the only thing I could think of … my God, I have landed in hell (without the heat that is!!) and I just wanted to back. When he saw my face, he was still very friendly and gave us some pointers of what to do during such lovely weather … go inside and have a great pint of beer!
Yeah right!!???

As soon as he dropped us off at the hotel, he smiled and wished us a pleasant trip and the only thing I could do was look at the back of the taxi with open mouth and getting wet in the process because it was still raining cats and dogs outside.

We quickly went inside to check into our room but since it wasn’t ready for another half an hour, we just decided to wait in the lobby. It still rained outside and since we were still a bit lightheaded from the flight, we just wanted to take things slow but as soon as we got seated, another lady came along and told us the room was ready … that’s quick!!!

Our room was located on the second floor of the hotel, which was great for my mum because just like me she has a thing with heights, only her fear is 10 times worse than mine! She was over the moon to notice that we had a room on this floor instead of the 8th one, where she wouldn’t be able to look through the window. As long as we are all happy, that’s the main thing!

We dropped of all of our stuff into the room and while I was looking through the window, I noticed that instead of the rain pouring down on us, it was just a light drizzle and a good time as any to go and have a look around the Pest area.

Armed with an umbrella and a guide map, we tried to find the centre of Pest, as well as a place to have something to eat, but for some reason the only restaurants we found were either closed, or no one was sitting inside. That’s not a good sign and maybe the hour had something to do with that, it was already after 2 PM, but I was hungry and needed a bit of food in my system. After walking up and down some streets, we ended up in the 6th of October street and found a local burger joint called Burgers and Love.

It’s all in the name, isn’t it!!?

The inside of the place was very basic and it was packed with youngsters and strangely enough, also working class people so, instead of wondering about it, I let my belly do the talking and ordered a burger with fries, which tasted more than delicious. Hiding from the rain made us order a cup of coffee as well and as soon as we saw a little bit more light in the sky, we pursued our discovery of the city, only to end up at the Chain bridge half an hour later.

It really is one of the most beautiful bridges I have ever seen, but taking pictures of it in the rain is something entirely different. I must say that I tried a few times but as soon as we crossed the river Danube, it started to rain even harder, so I resorted to putting away my camera and tried to hold on to my umbrella which wasn’t an easy task as well with all the nordic wind … was this really springtime???

Since we were already wet from going back and forth at the bridge, we didn’t care anymore in finding a suitable hiding place and wandered through a few streets in search for the city centre, which we found a few minutes later. Strangely enough we were walking for quite a while and didn’t came across many tourists, but now it seemed they were all hiding out at the local shops.

Going through the streets ourselves, we ended up at the market square and decided to have a rest at the biggest place in town, Bistro Gerbeaud!

More than an hour later, the rain was finally gone and for us this was a good enough sign as ever to leave the joint and in a slow pace we walked back towards the hotel. This time I had a better look at the Opera, but not for long coz it started to rain again. Having to undergo one rain shower too many, I called it quits and we just walked back to the hotel for a well deserved bath!

We weren’t up for it anymore to go outside and have diner in the centre, so instead we opted to stay in the hotel and although it was only 8 PM, it seemed we weren’t the only ones, lots of guests had the same idea and we were lucky to have the last table at the end of the room!

Bring on the food!!!

After dinner, we stayed a while to have a few more drinks. A few youngsters passed us by, ready for a fun night in town I guess, but after 15 minutes or so, they walked right pass us again soaking wet … I guess they forgot their umbrellas! We waited a while to see if they were up for a second round, but we never saw them again. I guess they had changed their minds and stayed indoors as well!

When it was almost 11 PM, we decided we had enough „excitement” for a day and called it a night. I was completely knackered and just wished that tomorrow would bring us a better day!

22/05/15 dark clouds are here again!

I must have been really tired coz I slept till it was already past 8 AM, not to worry though, one look through the window of our room and we noticed it was still raining, so in a way, we really weren’t in a hurry and instead we just enjoyed a good breakfast, after all, this is the most important start of the day.

About an hour later, we were ready for another day in the city and this time I was more than prepared with my trusty rain jacket, a big umbrella wit the courtesy of the hotel and an extra pair of dry socks coz my walking shoes were still wet from the day before! Budapest, I come prepared!!!

One of our goals of today was to cross the beautiful Chain Bridge again and discover all the major sights on the other side of the river Danube. Yesterday, we walked through some of the streets of Pest, so today we wanted to know what was lying in store for us on the other side of the river, the Buda area.

Although the river looked quite dirty because of the rain of the last day, I was thanking the weather gods for not sending anymore rain down on us and instead we had to make do with grey and dark clouds, so be it, at least it was dry, I wasn’t complaining at all!

The walk towards the bridge was easy and after just being in the city for half a day now, I was surprised to see how easy it was to find certain places.

Upon our arrival at the Buda area, we wanted to go uphill to have a look around and being the tourists that we are, we just took the Budavari Siklo or funicular for getting us up there. The ride itself was quite short, but the views along the way were amazing to say the least. Pest is really a beautiful place and seeing it from under an umbrella doesn’t really give it all the credit it deserves.

Maybe the bad weather had something to do with it, I don’t really know, but besides a few Asian groups, there weren’t hardly any other people walking around the Royal Palace area. Maybe they were all inside the museums, something we didn’t check coz we were just too busy admiring all the statues and fountains located near the Palace when all of a sudden it started to rain and instead of hanging outside like yesterday, we just went to the nearest coffee place and enjoyed a hot cup of chocolate while gazing at more groups coming along while hiding under their umbrellas from the rain and getting all the latest details from their guide. It seems that in the end we weren’t going to be alone here on Castle hill.

With just a light drizzle and more dark clouds, we were ready to have a more closer inspection of the hill and slowly walked through the streets of Buda ending up at the main square with the most amazing church I have ever seen! Matthias Church is more than beautiful and I am not really a person who goes wild on architecture, but I was mesmerized by the roof tiles. Believe it or not, I just sat down on a bench in the freaking rain looking at the roof and enjoyed every minute of it!!!

Sadly enough I can’t say that I did this in peace and quiet because since it was already noon, loads of tourist buses and cruise boat people had arrived as well, so it was probably the busiest place on the hill, but still …. it is a beautiful church!

While the Fisherman’s Bastion is nice to look at as well, it was just too overcrowded with people walking on it and to me it lost all it’s beauty just because of this. Not all the towers are free by the way, if you wanted to have a closer look, you had to pay a certain fee, but in the rain, it really wasn’t that appealing to me as it seems to do to loads of other people.

From all the rain, I got hungry again and while we were hiding from it on a terrace in a small eatery, we decided to try the local delicacies as well and I went for the typical Hungarian sausage which didn’t taste all that bad I might add and in the mean time I had a nice view on my favorite part of the city, the roof tiles of the Matthias Church.

Early in the afternoon, we slowly walked all the way back downhill and instead of using the Chain Bridge again, we walked alongside the river Danube trying to reach the next bridge which is called the Elizabeth bridge and is named after Elisabeth „Sissi” of Bavaria, queen and empress of Austria-Hungary who lived during the late 1800’s.

Not far into our walk, the rain came pouring down on us again. Not even our umbrella could take all the water, so we had to hide in one of the abandoned terrace houses near the boulevard, only to found out that we weren’t the only visitors. A few homeless people were sleeping at the porch as well and since we didn’t want to wake them up, we tried to keep our voices as low as possible, after all, we all deserve a good rest once in a while.

15 minutes later, it still rained cats and dogs, but we decided to persevere and walked further into the rain while getting totally wet in the process.

As the Elizabeth bridge came closer and closer, the wetter we got and I was more than glad to notice a small pub alongside the huge suspension bridge which gave us an opportunity to hide from the rain and at the same time made sure we got an amazing view on the Gellert Hill as well.

It must have been more than half an hour later when the rain finally stopped and just like a few other people, we dared to leave the save environment of our pub's covered terrace and crossed the bridge to the other side.

With the rain gone, we walked further alongside the river, this time on the Pest side, till we reached the Liberty Bridge, which is a public road bridge and also a fine piece of art work I might add. Instead of crossing this bridge again, we slowly walked into the opposite direction and walked right inside the Central Market Hall where you can find all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as fresh meat and fish and of course local peppers in all variations as well as other stuff to bring home again after a visit to the city.

Since we weren’t really in the mood for souvenir hunting, we left the place about half an hour later and instead we walked into the shopping street and looked up a nice pastry shop to indulge the best that Hungary has to offer ... cake!!!

I have to admit that city tripping isn’t always fun when it rains, but when visiting a pastry shop abroad, everything automatically falls into place, sometimes we do live in a beautiful world that’s for sure and this is not the sugar talking!

Now that my belly was satisfied again, we decided to go and visit the Parliament on foot. It was a bit of a walk from the city centre, but since we faced all kinds of weather conditions today, I was more than sure that we could do this as well and the start of our walk on the „boulevard” of the Pest area was very pleasant. Sadly enough, along the way the weather changed on us again and by the time we reached the Parliament, it rained cats and dogs again and just like a few hours before, we needed to hide from a torrential rain shower. It seems that we weren’t going to see this beautiful building without getting wet in the process! So be it, if this is faith, we got to take it!!

It was still raining by the time the guards were taking away the Hungarian flag and this was a good as sign as ever to tell us we had to move on as well, after all … most of the gigantic square was abandoned and besides us, only a handful of other people were present. In a way I was glad, coz this meant we weren’t the only „morons” so to speak. It was nice to know that there are still other crazy people out there!

We slowly walked back towards the city centre crossing a few other streets which had temporarily war memorials and when crossing such things, you don’t think of the shitty weather you are in at that moment. The only thing that went through my mind was the same question over and over again … how could this have been possible ??? Is our world really such a beautiful place coz many people still undergo terrible things ????

I don’t really have a clear answer on all of this, but it makes you wonder sometimes.

By the time we reached „civilization” again and therefore seeing back loads of other people, we went in search for an eatery for a small bite to eat. It seemed that all day long we did nothing else but eat and drink and instead of going back to the hotel and have a nice end of the day, we still kept continuing this pace and went inside a small eatery near Vörösmarty Square and ordered another local Hungarian specialty, a schnitzel this time, but unlike the German version which I like very much, this one wasn’t all that overwhelming.

I guess I had eaten enough for one day coz by the time we walked back to the hotel, we wanted to have one more night cap, but all of a sudden I felt a bit weird. My belly ached and I wasn’t really in the mood for anything else but a hot bath and a bed and by the time it was 10 PM, I said goodnight and closed my eyes, hoping that the stomach pains would go away during the night!

23/05/15 Oh sun, sun where Art Thou ???

After a crazy night of tossing and turning and even at a given moment thinking "how on earth am I going to survive this night", I somehow did manage to sleep a couple of hours, but by the time it was a bit after 8 AM, I decided to toughen myself up and went to breakfast.

My stomach ache was gone, but still not totally sure about things, I just ate a few light stuff … better safe than sorry I always say!

Just like yesterday, the weather was not all that bad when we left the hotel. It wasn’t raining, but dark clouds were still hovering above our heads and just like the day before, we made sure we were „weaponed" with enough gear to keep us dry.

Today we wanted to make sure we saw the last of the main sights of the city, after all, it was our last full day and we wanted to make the most of it.
Our first goal of the day was Heroes Square, which was only a few metro stops away from the Opera. Whenever I am in a city I love to take the metro, I don’t know why, but it is just a thing that I like to do. Even with all the rain we had the last past days, I still managed to avoid taking the metro so to speak, but today this was also a thing on my agenda and I wasn’t exactly sorry for taking it coz although there aren’t that many metro lines in Budapest, the stations we came across when taking metro line 1 or the Millennium Underground like it is also called, it seemed like they could have come straight out of a history book. I am sure they have recently renovated everything, but the brick work is really amazing and gives it that "more than one century old" feeling.

It couldn’t have been more than 15 minutes, traveling from the Opera to Heroes Square and as soon as we had risen out of the ground so to speak, we noticed that gigantic Square. The moment we arrived at the Square, it was still quite empty and I really got some sort of majestic feeling when looking at all the sculptures … most of the time I do nothing else but talk, talk and more talk, but now for even a split moment I was speechless. Needless to say, a few minutes later that changed again and with all the tour groups coming our way, it became a really busy place, almost the entire Square was filled with nationalities from all over the world, loads of colorful flags and not to mention the hundreds of opened umbrellas coz indeed, it started to rain again.

Crosschecking my guidebooks, I found out a little bit more about the square and the Millennium Monument standing proud in the middle of it, telling more about the 1000 year old history of the Magyars with Archangel Gabriel on top of the center pillar symbolizing Christianity as well as the 7 chieftains who led the Magyars to Hungary and the one thing that strikes me the most, was the fact that although they fought a lot, they were darn good looking men for that period of time as well … I am just telling you as it is! 

As we were walking away from Heroes’ Square in the direction of the City Park, I also noticed a big yellow building I also saw in a few guidebooks. One look in my trusty guide learned us that we were looking at the Széchenyi thermal baths. The building itself has a lovely yellow colors and attracts you immediately but sadly enough, a part of the building needs some restoring works as well coz it certain places it wasn’t all that yellow anymore!

Since we weren’t equipped with swimmers, we just had a quick peek at the entrance hall, which is very overwhelming by the way and we also had a chance to see a bit of the thermal baths and I know the water is nice and hot and everything, but with the raindrops falling from the sky above, it still didn’t made it all that appealing to me.

Just across the thermal baths, there is also a real live circus and of course that other attraction that children love so much, the city zoo. We still had loads of time, so instead of walking through the enormous City Park, of which I am sure is amazing as well, we opted for a short trip to the zoo where in just a couple of hours we tried to look up as many exotic animals we could think of.

The zoo itself has a nice range of animals from all over the world, but since we had to hide from the rain from time to time, it was a bit of a task trying to find them as well.

As we left the zoo, it all of a sudden started to rain much harder and we tried to reach the metro M1 again as soon as we possibly could. In this attempt, we had to skip from one puddle to the next, so by the time we reached the underground, needless to say of course, we were soaking wet.

Our initial idea was to walk from the Opera all the way to the centre, but with this rainy weather we lost all our interest and we just stayed inside till we reached the terminal station, Vörösmarty Square. Once above ground again, we were in luck coz the rain had stopped, which was kind of a good thing coz my shoes were still soaking wet and I don’t know if they could handle another downpour like that again.

From all that running, we really got a bit hungry as well and since my mum wanted to visit that other renowned baker, Augustz Coffee House, also known for its pies and cakes, we took our chances and looked up the address in my guide book. It was almost lunch time anyway so … after a bit of searching, we found this old looking establishment and just in the nick of time as well coz as we entered the place, only one free table was left and it came with a nice enough view on the street as well.

It was a difficult task in choosing between all those yummy things, but needless to say of course … we did manage and it was really worth the detour, that’s for sure.

With our tummies filled again and the rain gone, we weren’t sure we were going to do this, but the clouds looked a bit lighter than this morning, so we dared the challenge and crossed the Elizabeth bridge for the start of our walk up hill towards the Gellért monument and the citadel a bit higher up.

Not sure which direction to go, we just followed the pathway that seemed to go higher and higher and after every bend, we were like … are we there yet ??? … and although it took a while, with a few deep breaths (yes, I am out of shape) and the help of some amazing views on the Pest area, we made it to the top in a bit over an hour and guess what … all the dark clouds where suddenly gone and even the first rays of sun showed up. We had to wait more than 2.5 days for something like that, so it goes without saying that we took a nice long rest and enjoyed every sunbeam that touched our face!

Sadly enough the sun was gone as quick as it appeared but on the other hand, it didn’t started to rain either so … in a leisurely pace we walked downhill again, said one more quick hallo and goodbye to the Gellért monument and went on our merit way again towards the Elizabeth bridge where we arrived about half an hour later.

Now that the weather cleared up, we even found a nice little coffee shop near the bridge which also served delicious wraps and with a nice hot drink and a bit of food in our system, we were up again for a bit more sight seeing.

The last past days we walked quite a distance near the river Danube and since we were also interested in tram 2, we decided to take this old looking tram all the way towards the last bridge we wanted to visit, the Margaret Bridge and with it attached, Margaret Island.

Good weather brings a lot of people up and about and that’s just the thing on Margaret Island. Traffic is prohibited so you can walk at ease on this small island, but most people wanted a bit more excitement and they resorted to running and jogging. I myself, really wanted to give it a try as well, but since I stopped jogging almost 3 months ago due to a foot injury, I felt so out of shape that I promised to myself that once the busy work period is over, I will start again … now I only hope I can keep my promise!

On the island you can not only participate in lots of sports activities, you can also rent bikes and other strange vehicles like a small car that runs on electricity and although many old people and families used such a thing, for once I wanted to do something crazy as well and even we rented such a vehicle to get along the island. It was quite fun riding such a thing and try to avoid all the people walking in the park and I am sure that we saw lots more when we just walked along the island, but hey … I was feeling like a kid in a candy store and I loved every minute of it … who says girls don’t have fun!

After a few hours of fun on Margaret Island, we decided it was time to go back towards the city centre and found ourselves a place to eat, but not before I had one more glance at the beautiful Parliament. For days I wished I could see it with a bit of good weather and now that the moment was finally there, I wasn’t going to waste it. Okay, I have to admit, maybe it is more beautiful under a clear blue sky and with lots of sun but for me this was good enough … I got my wish and to be honest, seeing this, it was worth all the hassle from the last few days. A perfect ending for a city trip I am sure we are never going to forget!

Of course we enjoyed our evening as well. We found a nice pizza establishment near the park at Szabadsag Square and afterwards, after a relaxed walk back to the hotel, we had one last night cap at the Callas Cafe located just opposite the Opera. Instead of drinking a few not affordable glasses of Champaign, we just resorted to a nice hot cup of coffee and that was fine as well.

By the time I got my sore feet to rest, it was almost midnight and good enough time as ever to hit the sack, I was really knackered and I still needed to pack for our flight tomorrow afternoon!

24/05/15 flying home with the sun in our back!

After a good night’s rest, we slowly resorted to packing our stuff for our trip back home and afterwards enjoyed the struggle of the day on what to choose for breakfast. Sometimes it is better to have basic choices coz when a breakfast buffet is so extensive like the one in this hotel, it is more than difficult. Every day I had eaten something different and still I didn’t went through half of the selection … what can I say, it was a bliss staying here.

Our flight wasn’t until early in the afternoon, so as soon as we checked out at the hotel, made sure our luggage was safely stored in the luggage room and we ordered a taxi back to the airport, we slowly walked one more time to the centre of the city and had one last look at the river Danube, which looked so much better now that the weather cleared up.

For the first time in days, we left the hotel with sunshine and a clear blue sky and in a way that was great coz my walking shoes were completely ruined because of the bad weather conditions. Lucky for me, I brought an extra pair of shoes with me, but the ones that brought me „joy” over the last few days stayed behind in the rubbish bin of the hotel. I know that is not the right way to say thanks to my shoes, but I know they have gone to better places or so I hope anyway … rest in peace my trusty shoes!

Although it was still relatively early in the morning (read around 10 AM), lots of people were already up and about and this surprised me a bit since it was Sunday, a day people normally stay indoors or in bed till it is almost noon, but I guess the good weather had something to do with it coz all the terraces where filled with people eating breakfast or just enjoying a relaxing drink in the sun and of course we couldn’t stay behind.
It must have been more than an hour later when we finally left our cozy place at the terrace of Anna cafe and slowly walked back to the hotel where we had a quick lunch before our taxi driver came along to pick us up.

Unlike the older gentleman who couldn’t stop talking to us, this time the driver was much younger and also much more reserved. Besides hello and goodbye, he hardly spoke to us and I was a bit surprised to be honest, but at the same time I couldn’t think of something to talk about either since I didn’t really knew the fellow all that well.

About an hour later we arrived in the airport and check in went very smooth which mend we had more than enough time on our hands to explore the many shops of the airport, which on the other hand wasn’t all that bad.
Upon our arrival, we didn’t immediately received our designated gate for departure, so we had to wait till it was almost time to board before we knew where to go and although this seemed a bit frustrating, at the same it was a bit exciting as well.

With only 20 minutes left before boarding, I suddenly saw our plane landing and this was a nice opportunity as ever to make a picture of the entire plane and at the same time it was a fun game with my mum in guessing at which gate it was going to stop … I won!

After waiting about half an hour we could finally board and once airborne we touched ground again about 2 hours later, arriving back in Brussels.

Just like a few days earlier, it took forever to get out of the plane and sometimes I wonder what people need to be doing in a plane besides taking your stuff and get the hell out of there. Are they so in love with it, that they just can’t say goodbye to it ??? Talking about having a stress moment and my busiest month of the year, work wise that is, was still to come … not a good sign, believe me!!!!

As always, my brother awaited us at the arrival hall, ready to bring us back home again, where we arrived almost an hour later. I guess that is the bliss of traveling home on a Sunday and a saints day as well. It seems that almost everyone is still on holiday and I am not complaining at all, it was a smooth ride.

In a way I was glad to be back home again. A busy month awaits me and although weather wise it wasn’t always the most fun, I am more than glad to have seen this beautiful and intriguing city!