Belgium Jan. 26-29 - Brussels

WHAT AN AMAZING COUNTRY!!!

Brian and I went to Belgium for a weekend in January with some of our friends. Belgium is just gorgeous and very unique. We went to Brussels and then took a day trip to Brugge. Brugge was really neat because most of the buildings are made of brick and the streets are cobble stone. Brussels was nice too just not as authentic; a lot of cool buildings, especially in the city square.

Jan, Brian, Pat, Brian C. and Guilherme

Also on this trip was Darren and Andy but I don't have a photo of them.

BRUSSELS

On the first evening we explored the city, getting some nice night photos of the Grand Place (market square). We also made sure we got fries with mayo (European mayo, not Canadian); which is so super good! Then a few of the guys hit up a pub so we didn't see them the rest of the night.


The next day we all went for breakfast at a Belgium waffle joint. The waffles were so delicious, I wanted to try them all. This is what I got though:

Wow...I know!


Then the rest of the day Darren went off exploring on his own with his agenda and the rest of us went sightseeing together. We walked around a lot of the city seeing most of the buildings and areas that we planned. Along the way we came across nice parks and streets as well.



Of course we went back to the Grand Place to get more pictures. This is considered one of the most beautiful medieval squares in Europe, full of baroque and gothic architecture. It was pretty sweet. The square included the King's house and City hall, located below:



We saw a lot of popular cathedrals and basilicas: St. Micheal & St. Gudula Cathedral, Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame Church of Laken and the Sablon Church.

Basilica









The monuments and areas we went to consisted of the Atonium, Sablon Square, and the Royal Palace and park. I know there was more that we saw but I don't know the names of much more. The Manneken Pis (a weird statue of a little boy peeing - it seemed strange to us that it was a main attraction but whatever) was one of the monuments we saw.

Atonium Model (you can go inside all of the "atoms" where there are different activities in each one, ex. restaurant, children's play area, ect.)

Other than that we spent our time at night in getting fries with mayo and sampling different Belgian beer at a local pub. We were able to try a couple different beers that are in the top 10 in the world, so that was cool.


On the following post you will find out all about Brugge - check it out!

Snowboarding in Flumserburg

For our second snowboarding trip we went to a smaller hill called Flumserburg. It was just a one day event and Brian and I just went on our own. This meant that I would get a whole day of entirely 1 on 1 instruction and guidance by Brian! Awesome!

Overall the weekend turned out really well in my opinion....

Even though the snow conditions weren't the greatest, there wasn't much snow altogether and after lunch it was getting pretty icy, I still had a lot of fun and learned more than I thought I would. Brian taught me how to turn both ways, from my heel edge to my toe edge and vice versa, right in the morning when we first started! It was a great accomplishment for me; I was, and still am, pretty proud! haha I also worked on going down the hill on my toe edge - which is actually quite difficult considering you basically have your back to the bottom of the hill. I got better the more I practiced of course but am still way better at snowboarding down on my heel edge for sure!


So all in all this was a successful weekend for me actually. I worked on the things that I was unable to do before and am definitely getting better at the whole thing in general. I had a really good time with Brian all day too so that is always great! I think this day was a lot less stressful on him as well compared to our last snowboarding experience in Disentis....


This coming weekend (Feb. 17 & 18) we will be snowboarding in ZERMATT!!! We are very excited about going to this popular place just to see never mind snowboarding there! It will be such an awesome adventure!

Our next blog post will be about our Belgium trip...

Perogyland Jan. 19 - 21

So we made the trek to Poland, the land where perogies where invented; or at least, readily consumed. Being in eastern Europe, Poland provides cheap and really nice hostels, relatively cheaper food, perogies, and nice people. Poland also has some beautiful places to visit, older parts of cities that date back hundreds of years and are full of history.

We had a fairly large travel team, including fellow praktikants Pat, Andy, Brian Cox, and Jan Owoc. Jan was actually born and raised in Poland so he also served as our Polish guide, Polish translator, and shared some Polish trivia along the way. This made the trip really easy as communication was no longer a barrier and we could just enjoy our time.





Our travel plans included flying into Warsaw on Friday night and staying the night at a hostel. In the morning, we got up fairly early and took a train to Krakow. Warsaw is the capital of Poland, but during WWII the city was levelled to the ground; and even though most of it was rebuilt, it still does not have the history or beauty the Krakow does.


Also, very close to Krakow are the Wieliczka Salt Mines, which was our first stop before Krakow. The mines are 100's of meters below ground and stretch for kilometers. It is full of statues carved out of the salt-rock, churches, and now a restaurant, gift shop ballroom and so on. It was very impressive. Apparently you can lick the salt right off the walls; we never tried though....well maybe Brian C. did. Unfortunately we would only bring one camera into the salt mine between all of us and it didn't happen to be ours.

If we get those pictures any time soon we will post them on here for you all to see because it was pretty cool!

After the salt mines we wondered around the old town of Krakow which held many cobblestone streets, churches, clock towers, McDonald's, and our hostel. It was a very impressive old town with a lot of character. We had a great time enjoying the atmosphere and strolling the streets.











On Sunday we took the train back to Warsaw where our flight left in the afternoon. It was a great trip; we really enjoyed Krakow!

Up next: Belgium!!!

Tobogganing

We finally got a bunch of snow here a couple weeks ago so that was wonderful. It really started to actually feel like winter here in Switzerland. This also gave me a chance to go tobogganing with the children. I took Emma and Leo once and also I was able to take the other children that I help out with as well. (More to come about the Larkin boys soon!)

Leo - supposed to be getting ready to go.....

Unfortunately I did not bring my camera to the Larkin's house the day we went snowing so I was unable to take pictures of them tobogganing. But here are some great ones of Emma and Leo:



















There is not much else to say about this fun day - but the pictures speak for themselves!

Christmas With "Family" Away From Family!

Christmas with the Kohler's

Before we left for our big Christmas adventure in Eastern Europe we had three Christmas celebrations here in Switzerland.

Our first celebration was at our church here that we attend pretty regularly (whenever we're here and not traveling). Christmas masses are always nice and comforting; even when you're not at home with your family for holidays!

The second one was with the Kohler family and the Larkin family. I work for Janie and Herald Larkin on Wednesdays now, looking after their children and cleaning as well. They have 3 young boys: Kyle - age 5 and the twins Scott and Dylan - age 3. They are a lot of fun and I definitely have my hands full with them!

Emma, Leo, and I decorated the tree together:


We all got together at Murielle and Robert's for a nice dinner celebration; it was very chaotic, but a lot of fun!

Here are all the children: Kyle and Leo in the back;
Scotty, Dylan, and Emma in the front

The third Christmas party was again at the Kohler's house with just their family and Brian and I. This was very nice; we had dinner and exchanged gifts with one another.

Here are some of the photos from this night:


For Christmas Emma got a jump rope and a hoola hoop and Leo got a bowling game from Brian and I. Brian and I got Swatches (Swiss Watches) from the Kohler family. We gave Robert a Circa hat and wrist bands for tennis and Murielle a bath and lotion basket.

Christmas was very different this year but still a lot of fun!