Sweden

I have a Dutch friend who lives in Sweden and earlier this year I agreed to come over to Sweden for a week to teach her some of my scrapbooking techniques. While we were making plans, in July her husband suddenly passed away when he was walking the dog and our plans had to be adjusted a little bit. I flew from Amsterdam to Stockholm on October 13 and took a local flight to Nora, where I got a rental car to drive up to Hällefors. I stayed at her place for a week and we talked, laughed, cried and had fun together. And we did some scrapbooking as well. I hoped to cheer her up a bit with my visit, because she was feeling down in this period, Because she always had to depend on her husband to take her out to go shopping or sightseeing (she isn't able to move around easily), my visit did her some good. We took the car to go to the shopping mall in Nora and did some sightseeing around Hällefors and visited another Dutch friend, that lives nearby.

Josephine's friend, Cecilia is also Dutch and she invited us to come over for dinner one night during my stay. We had Swedish skinkgräting and it tasted so good that she got me the recipe. When I got home again, I made this Swedish dish and my family loved it as well!!

Antwerp, Belgium

My DH celebrates his birthday in September and he always comes up with nothing when asked what he wants for a gift. Since we both love to travel, I decided to get him a weekend in Antwerp (Belgium) for his birthday. We went there by car (because it is only a short distance) and booked a hotel for the night. Antwerp is a great place for shopping and has some old buildings in the centre.

We took a trip in the horse tram and visited the Antwerp Zoo as well.

Costa Rica

Yep, it's time for another vacation! In 2008 we had made plans to go to Costa Rica, but friends of ours discouraged us to go in September/October because of the hurricane season. So we postponed this vacation until now and May 31st we flew to Costa Rica to stay for 17 days. This trip was also booked at Fox.nl, a great travel agency that has become our favourite.

We started our trip in the capital, San José and made our way to Fortuna, to see the Volcán Arenal. It is too bad that our friends did not warn us that May/June is the rain season in CR, so most of the time that we were staying here, it rained. At night we made a trip by boat to the vulcan, hoping to see some lava outburst, but because of the bad weather, it was almost impossible to see anything. In the gardens of our hotel in Fortuma, we found some little frogs, jeans legged frog (or in Dutch: aardbeikikkertje), I think it is only 3 cm tall. Nature in Costa Rica is overwhelming, lots of wild animals to spot, frogs, sloths, honey birds and toucans, and different kinds of monkeys.

We did a canopy walk and tried the zipline through the forest, a great experience!!

Also we went horseback riding (never sat on a horse before), which was fun. Except for the mosquitos that bite right through my jeans! Both my legs became swollen, felt sore and itchy for the rest of the vacation. I got some relief by rubbing a local anti histamic gel, but when we visited the local Indians they gave me the perfect remedy for mosquito bites: Rub the fruit of a cacao bean over it, and it will give you instant relief, and that worked!!
All together: if you love nature, go to Costa Rica, but pick the right season. Our choice has been the wrong one. We did have a great time, but it could have been even greater if the weather had been great.

Costa Rica werd onze keuze voor een vakantie op aanraden van kennissen, die totaal/ helemaal/compleet gek zijn van dit land. Er werd afgeraden om in oktober te gaan vanwege het "hurricane"-seizoen, dus kozen wij voor de eerste 18 dagen van juni. Nou dat hebben we geweten, geen stormen inderdaad, maar dit bleek het regenseizoen te zijn. Wat kan een vakantie dan letterlijk in het water vallen zeg! We hebben een rondreis gedaan door een deel van Costa Rica, uiteraard Volcán Arenál gezien (in een regenbui 's avonds op een bootje in de hoop lava-uitbarstingen te zien, helaas niet dus). Wat mij het meest is bijgebleven, is de overvloedige regenval. Als je dus overweegt om dit land te bezoeken, bereid je dan goed voor en kies een goede reisperiode uit. Het land is erg groen, heeft veel verschillende kleurrijke vogels, leguanen en hagedissoorten, apen, luiaards en gifkikkertjes. Voor de actieve vakantieganger: je kunt er goed paardrijden of bijvoorbeeld ziplinen. Vlakbij La Fortuna kun je de Hanging Bridge Tour lopen, een mooie tocht ook voor beginnende wandelaars. De nationale parken (bijv. Nacional parc de Manuel Antonio zijn een bezoek zeker waard, want de natuur is er prachtig. Breng ook eens een bezoek aan de Bri-bri indianen, zij weten veel van natuurlijke geneeswijzen (hebben mij bijv. van mijn intense muggenbultenjeuk afgeholpen) of ga een stuk varen over de Cano Negro en zoek naar krokodillen.
Kortom, ongetwijfeld een mooi land, mits je in het goede seizoen zit. Ons is het erg tegengevallen door de hoeveelheid regen.