Easter was to be spent together in Belgium, resting and having fun together and so on. Full recollection ahead!
The flight between Madrid and Brussels, 31st March, 17:45, started with a small delay due to the plane arriving slightly late at Barajas airport. However, this twenty minutes’ delay ended being nearly two hours. What happened? The flight was not on the computers. We were a ghost flight, it seems. An a non-existing flight can not lift off. There was a long discussion back and forth between the pilot, Brussels Airlines offices in Brussels (duh!) and Barajas control tower. In the end, I don’t know if they managed to get our flight into the computer, but we did get permission to fly! The flight itself was uneventful, nice and smooth. I talked with a girl whose boyfriend is studying in Leuven via Erasmus, a colombian who now lives in Madrid and studies law who was going to visit some friends, and a brit guy that works in London but whose girlfriend and her son live in Brussels. I loaded on candy and crisps, cause those were the only munchies I had to keep me “alive”.
Jan picked me at Brussels airport like always (lets all praise the luggage gods who did not lose my suitcase *bows head*), and we headed to Aalst to get our grub. Late as it was, and since I had been craving pizza for over a week, we got garlic bread and a curry pizza from Pizza Milano. Then we drove home, ate, unpacked, and crashed in bed. I love flying, yes I do, but being twice the time required for a flight inside a plane kills me.
On Sunday, 1st April, we went to Hollywood Video Store and rented a Wii to check it out. We also rented Sonic and the Secret Rings, Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Rayman: Raving Rabbids. We hid all day in our living room playing games and surfing online, hiding from the kids and the rest of the family, antisocial us. Dinner was chinese take away from China Garden, that left enough leftovers for my lunch on monday.
Monday, we went for some grocery shopping before Jan had to head to work. He had the late shift, and I spent most of the day being lazy around, reading online, knitting a bit, and taking care of our critters. For dinner, I cooked a veggie mix with falafel, served with flat swedish bread from Ikea. I made Jan pass by on the way home to get me a new pillow, and if he saw some of this bread, too.
Tuesday, Jan had the early shift and got out early trying not to wake me up. Morning was spent in the same fashion, because heck, it was vacation and I was going to be a lazy ass anyway. He also picked up lunch for me at The Green Kitchen (see the lazy part). After eating, we went candy hunting for a parcel I had to send. We also bought some pasta for dinner, and played more with the Wii. Dinner was pasta with spinach, courgette, onions, ricotta and parmesan. We watched something.
On Wednesday, we met up with newly-short-haired Chris for lunch (at The Green Kitchen, near work). Afterwards, we went to see the exhibition “L’Homme Neanderthal et les Mammouts” at Tour & Taxis. We thought it’d be a nice one, but sadly we were mistaken. If you were thinking of going, do not go. Repeat: do not go! The rest of the evening was quietly spent back at home, playing a bit more with the Wii, and cooking dinner: the rest of the pasta, this time with fresh spinach and some cheese. We watched The Devil Wears Prada, what a fun movie.
Thursday was errands’ day. We went to the post office to finally send the parcel I had to send all the way to Chicago (US), and a postcard. And we also bought a mini fridge for all our stuff. We carried it home and cleaned it and plugged it in, and filled it with some drinks and munchies and veggies. We also returned the Wii, and decided it’s not worth buying it for the use we’d give it, and so, we may rent it when the gaming feeling strikes back. We went to the movies, in Kinepolis Ghent, and watched Mr Bean’s Holiday, a good practice for my French (and English). We laughed so much and had so much fun over all! Afterwards, we went to the usual frituur in Ghent for dinner: Jan opted for the double cheese burger, which was tiny and fatty, and I chose the veggie cheese burger, that was huge and you could actually see the vegetable chunks in it, and fries to share, with mayo and curry ketchup (mjumm!). According to Jan, who tried both burgers, the veggie one was way better than the regular one.
Friday was a lazy day again. We went to Ghent to take some pictures and walk around a bit. It was so warm and sunny that icecream was mandatory. Shopping was a failed adventure today, I could not find anything I was looking for. We discovered and tried out a new restaurant for dinner: Port’a. The owners are from the Balkans, and very very nice. The don’t have a fixed menu, it changes every day depending on what the cook finds in the market. Jan tried the Balkan Stew, made with sheep and loads of veggies, and served with spiced potato mash and a salad. I went for the vegetarian pie with goat’s cheese, that was served with fresh salad, rice, herbed fried potatoes and boiled fennel. We shared some white wine of the house, and a tray of desserts that included an incredible yogurt, fresh fruit, and witch’s cake (bitter cocoa cake!). We’re surely going back, now that we know where it is (a bit hidden from mainstream Ghent).
On Saturday we made the effort of getting up early *cough* to be able to go to the Farmer’s Market in Aalst. We walked around a lot, and bought two boxes of delicious strawberries. After a quick lunch, we headed to Ikea to buy some things, of course half the things I wanted were sold out, but I surprisingly found garden shoes in my size, for a nice price. Dinner was at home, prepared by Jan’s mum: a mix of beans, boiled potatoes and sausages cooked in onion, tho I got some soy burger (she’s so nice). Then we watched some Firefly episodes while munching on crisps and olives from the Spanish shop in Aalst.
Sunday was leaving day. Ate some breakfast, packed and said goodbye. Jan and I headed to the airport, I checked in (no probs this time *phew*), had some coffee and then got me a sandwich for lunch. Goodbye was hard, like always… Flight was uneventful and boring, in an icky Boeing 737. Back to routine once in Madrid again.