East, South, West and a new House!

I don’t even remember the last time I blogged, it sure feels like a long time ago. Let me tell you though of what I have been up to and I hope that I don’t miss anything out.

April 21st, Catherine, the kids and I drove to Belgium. Catherine’s parents live in a town called Tournai on the French border so we planned to stay there for a week. We arrived on the Friday after 8 hours in the car and some border crossing through Luxembourg and France.

While everyone stayed in Tournai for the weekend though I decided to do some exploring of my own and early Saturday morning I caught a train to Brugge. Not the capital city, it reminded me a lot of Prague. Beautiful canals, ornate buildings and really friendly people. I was only there for a day so in my short time I went on a canal ride, climbed to the top of the bell tower (in thongs – not recommended), went to the church that held Michelangelo’s ‘Madonna and Child’ and got to sample the famous Belgian fries and some delicious waffles!

That night I stayed in an awesome hostel and hung out with two American girls that were in my room. We drank beer and enjoyed a good night getting to know each other. One of the girls Lizzie is living in nearby Karlsruhe so hopefully some time during my stay here I will get to meet her again because she was really nice and keen to travel like myself.

Another early start Sunday I caught the train to Brussels! This city is huge and is home to the European Union. So much to see and do I decided to do a bus tour for the day as the city was quite spread out. The tour was great and after a few hours on the bus I got off and went to find the most famous little boy in Belgium…. ‘Manekin Pis’ this little boy is a statue on one of the man streets and has his pants down and is pissing!!! Every day he gets dressed in new clothes and he attracts huge crowds! When I saw him he was dressed as an army boy. I then wandered over to the Grand Markt. The main square is really pretty and also very popular! A busy weekend I headed back to Tournai at about 6pm. Catherine picked me up from the station at 7 and then I had a big sleep ready for the week ahead.

During my stay in Tournai though I had the chance to go 1 hour west to the coast and stick my toes in the North Sea! Across the ocean is England and I could see the boats crossing over to Europe. Nicolas and I had a ball collecting shells.

We also went for a wander through the main city centre of Tournai and turns out it is a really nice city.

Kimmys birthday was on the Tuesday so it was also really great to talk to her on Skype. She had a great party and Katey and I got her a Tiffany bracelet and I think she liked that. It was a shame I missed her party, which sounds like it was great fun.

Thennnnn Thursday morning before the sun was up we drove back to Zurich. By 2pm we were back in town and began our move down to Meilen. Luckily the kids stayed at their other grandparents house for the next three days while Catherine and I cleaned, vacuumed and transported our belongings to our new house.

It was a pretty scary site when we first got to the house. We thought that it would be ready for us to move into after our stint in Belgium but we were sadly mistaken.


No bathrooms, no doors, no floors, no kitchen sink, no showers with curtains and basically just our bedrooms with beds in them we are currently living in a hole! I had black feet for days, had to get up at 6am to have showers so the workmen weren’t seeing my white butt and we have to attach the front door nightly so we don’t wake up to strangers in oour house….. but it is all worth it and once completed I can see that it is going to be a beautiful home.


Seeing though that the house was such a nightmare I decided to escape and spend the weekend at Laceys. On Saturday night we met up with my friend Jenny for drinks and dinner and she bought along Jodie who worked for my family before me. It was great to see her and get to catch up. She had got a new job in Milan so she stopped over in Zurich before she began.

Two other special people to me also arrived in Europe that weekend and that was my parents!!!!! I was so happy to know they were near me the whole weekend and couldn’t stop ringing them and seeing how they were going!

On the Sunday Lacey, Manda and I randomly decided to go to Appenzell (cheese town) we got to go on an important weekend also as the ‘lansgemeide’ was taking place. This is a traditional day where voting takes place and the whole town comes out and participates. Interesting to watch but Manda and I quickly got bored as we slowly friend in the sun!! We were much more interested in getting ice cream and sitting in the park to drink wine!

The last day of April then arrived on Monday and we were all invited to Svetlanas house for a BBQ.. May 1st in Zurich is a public holiday so we had a good night and then Lacey came back to mine to witness the gutted house I am living in!

Hahahaha seeing as it was a holiday Tuesday I wasn’t required to work but Beat was taking out his boat and he invited Lacey and I to join the family for lunch up the lake. We got to go with Jodie and ride up the lake at full speed. It was heaps of fun and great to be on the water as it was really hot. We then all had a really nice lunch and then had a walk around Rapperswil after my family went home.

Once again it was great to see Jodie and hang out with Lacey. It was a really nice day off. We farewelled Jodie and then I took Lacey home.

5.15am Friday morning I then woke up to go and catch the train to Venice! After 7 hours on the train, I finally got to see my parents after nearly 8 months. Venice was gloomy but I could see my mum up the other end on the station and I was running towards her like I was in a movie. I couldn’t breathe properly when I saw her and was balling my eyes out. I was so happy to see her and then once we had let go of each other we went to find Dad. He was taking photos of us and it was also so good to see him and be wrapped up in his hug.

I can’t explain the happiness I felt to see my parents after so long. It felt like it was only yesterday since I had seen them and I just had so much to tell them. No matter what happens in my life now I will never ever take my parents for granted as it was so hard to be away from them and to face the world alone as I had been under their care for the past 22 years. I only wish that could have seen my sisters too but as long as I know they are happy then I am happy for them too.


Back to Venice….

It was raining and pouring as we came into Venice but thankfully our hotel was really nice and we were right next to St Marco’s Square, so we were also in a great location. We spent a lot of time wandering Venice but the definite highlights of our trip was jumping on the boats and going to the islands. On our first day we went to Murano, which is renowned for its glass. It is absolutely beautiful and we spent ages wandering into all the shops and buying some really nice jewellery, plates, bon bons and photo frames. After our arrival into Venice it was fantastic weather. Even though it seemed like half the world was in Venice though it wasn’t too hot. On our second full day we then went to Burano. A bit further north and about 40 minutes on the boat Burano is much different from Murano. Every single house is painted a different colour and Mum tells me it is because when the fishermen used to come home in the fog the wives painted their house in a different colour so their husbands would know which house is theirs. Nowadays it is illegal to repaint your house a different colour and you have to follow your original colour.
Both islands were special in their own way but I think I like Burano better as it was really different and pretty.

On Monday (our last day) we quickly went down to the square to go into the church but the crowds were insane so we had one last wander and then went off to get our hire car. After finally shoving all our luggage into the car we set of for Salzburg. The original plan was to take the quickest way to Austria but thanks to my poor direction skills we did a few loops around Venice before actually getting on to the right highway!! At least we got to see some Italian villages. It was also great to drive through the mountains and catch up on the way. Mum and I had a charming experience in the toilets that I wont go into but made us feel sick for half the trip and there were times when I thought Dad was going to have a heart attack while driving, but we finally made it into Salzburg and got into a cute hotel. Sadly they obviously didn’t believe in air con and we pretty much roasted the first night but during our stay in Salzburg we ate great food, drank fantastic Radler and got to go on the Sound of Music Tour, which was really good. The tour took us through some of the countryside and also gave us a history of the true story.

Wednesday morning (today!!!) we got up early so we could go to the surf shop Roxy and buy me some board shorts for my stay on the French Riviera next week… Ummmm no they were $130 aussie dollars so I ran across the road to the C&A which I reckon is like maybe K- Mart but better and got 3 pairs and a cossie for like 70 bucks (thanks Dad!!!) So after that was sorted we drove to Munich through torrential rain. I am so glad we made it and got Mum and Dad into a nice hotel in the city centre.

After a nice lunch it was nearly 4pm and time for me to leave so we headed to the train station to say goodbye. Mum and Dad booked into do the same tours I did while in Munich (the Dachau Concentration Camp Tour and the Neachanswestein Castle tour) and we then said our goodbyes. I got all teary having to say goodbye to them but thankfully they meet me in France next Thursday so we can spend more time together while sunbaking in St Tropez!

Now I am just on the 5 hour train ride home and hoping to God that my house is a bit more completed and that the cute construction guy that was there last week is still there (hehehe)!!!!!


Well I will be in in Zurich soon so better log off! Hope everyone is happy and well back home and remember to tell your parents how much you love them. Xoxo

Ciao!