Wow, that were some holidays! First I went hiking with Aga in Norway in Jotunheimen. It took forever to get there (2.5hrs to Brussels Charleroi, fly to Oslo Rygge, 1hr bus to Oslo, 5hr bus to Fagernes, sleep, 2hr bus to Gjendesheim). It was wet, soggy, long routes, and quite difficult (slippery rocks due to wetness). I mean, the first day there was a rather insanely difficult stretch down. Turns out that just about everyone does that route the other way around… and yes, that helps.
Nevertheless, it was also quite awesome :) Mountain huts in Norway are different from those elsewhere. For starters, we had to go to reception every time to check in (yes, you read that right). We usually opted for a smaller (sometimes even a private) room instead of a dormitory. (Yes, you read that right too). We also opted for the 3 course dinner (uh-uh) and the breakfast buffet.
Following a wonderful and active holiday in Norway, I immediately went to Bobby (Oslo -> Rygge -> Brussels Charleroi -> Antwerp, where Bobby picked me up). The next morning, the second holiday started, and we went to Venice. In some respects, Venice is very touristy. But: the tourism fits. It’s normal that there’s all sorts of tourist stalls and street vendors in Venice. So, weird though it sounds, the tourism in Venice was a relief from having to check in at reception in a mountain hut.
Venice was great fun, thanks to Bobby. I shan’t tell all tales here, but do ask me about acquiring a small bottle of Venice water for Bobby’s sister, or how our plane was not leaving on the 29th, or how the opening night of the film festival could be skipped according to film fan Bobby (he was wrong).
From Venice we went to Vienna. Funnily enough, our original flight had a stopover in… Berlin. I kid you not. At the airport, they found that this was somewhat inefficient, so they rebooked us to fly via…. Dusseldorf main airport. Rather funny, seeing that we began the holidays from Dusseldorf Weeze airport. The weather in Vienna was rather different from Venice, the planetarium was no success, the permanent fun fair (Prater) closes around 23.00 on Saturdays (seriously, Vienna, what’s up with that??), and in front of the Opera house they sell you tickets for classical concerts that are not in the Opera house.
The last one was actually kind of funny to me :)
The concert we went to was Mozart and Strauss, and hearing them side by side it was obvious why Mozart is the better-known of the two. It was less obvious why the concert leader was racing through the performances – until the encore. Turns out he’s a big fan of showing off how fast he can play technically challenging pieces.
On Sunday, we visited Bratislava in Slovakia, just because we could (and just to add another notch on our world maps of visited places ;-). That day was quite an adventure in itself, and while the inner city of Bratislava radiates “17th century centre of culture and commerce”, the outskirts near the train station radiate a more “East block / Iron curtain” look – at least to our western eyes.
In a nutshell:
– Norway is wet. Wet rocks are slippery, and wet ground is soggy.
– Venice’s wetness is concentrated in the canals. Standing at a red carpet is better than you’d expect.
– Vienna is surprisingly mediocre after the exuberance of Venice.
– Bratislava, though nearby, is quite a look beyond the western world.
– It was all great!
Sjouke and I have been actively updating and improving the 
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Thanks to Filipe Ferreira, we have tested 
Arnout de Mooij and I are proud to announce the first official release of 
