Holidays

For the last two weeks I was on holidays, interrupted by some days of work, namely during the weekends for meetings.

Not only because of this particularity, these holidays were quite unique.

The main reason is that I had one of my best friends, M, here during the first week and my family on the next.

With M these holidays were different. Though it was not the first time we spent holidays together, this time we were the two alone, what is even more relevant considering that he is now divorcing.

I enjoyed a lot these days we spent, giving him a glance of my life in Brussels and introducing him to my old and new friends here but also travelling around. Highlights: my birthday party, where we had a great time (though I still missed some friends that were abroad on holidays) and the days in Amsterdam…

With my family, it was the first time we spent holidays all together abroad. I cannot express how happy I was to see them again, jointly with the fact of having them over my place and sharing this holiday experience. I was dead tired when they left but I had this bitter/sweet feeling of having enjoyed a lot these days but also of wishing they could have staid longer.

But the holidays were unique for another reason: Benelux.

Living in Brussels, having holidays around seemed a bit weird, especially considering that I already knew most of the places we went to.

But it was a most pleasant surprise. On the first place doing tourism in Brussels, like taking the tour in the sight-seeing busses or visiting monuments were I was never before. Besides that, going to cities I think I will not be tired of visiting, like Amsterdam (and even Bruges or Gent). And last but not least, visiting the small towns on the north of Amsterdam, by the dikes, or on the Ardennes, sunk in beautiful valleys.

All this combined, these holidays surpassed by far by best expectations. And though I’m not rested, I’m surely more relaxed and motivated to get back to the hard work…