Moving In...

Between our house hunting trip in June and our time here since we arrived in late August, Jen and I viewed over 25 different apartments around the city. There were a handful that we liked, but only one that we really fell in love with. The Belgians describe it as a house "with character." It's a traditional old art nouveau style house built in 1907. It was a bit of a pain to actually get in here, but now that we're here we love it. After three days of moving in, we're finally starting to get settled. We still have some pictures to hang, personal touches to add, and definitely need to hit up some furniture shopping (IKEA here we come!) but we've got all the necessities and we're not in a hotel anymore!

Oktoberfest!

Before we'd even left San Diego we'd planned a trip to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany with a few of our friends from SD and Portland. Chris was leaving the states first and he was planning to spend 2 weeks traveling through eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Ryan and Andy headed to Greece for a little island hopping. Chris wrapped up his solo touring a bit early and met us in Brussels a few days ahead of schedule. Once Ryan and Andy completed their tanning, we assembled the crew in Brussels, where we saw the sights for a few days before departing for Munich and Oktoberfest.



Let me just say up front that Oktoberfest was an absolute blast. Chris and I were the only ones in the group who had never been, but we definitely all enjoyed ourselves. If you haven't been, imagine an American town fair with carnival rides, games, and food vendors, then add gigantic beer "tents" that hold hundreds of people and serve food and beer in 1 liter steins. Amazing. We met people from all over the world: a trio from Munich who were nice enough to share their table (and suggested some awesome white sausages); a Swiss family who we hope to see again real soon; a wasted Australian guy who eventually got thrown out of the tent; even a few Americans. One of the most interesting things was that everyone, including the locals, seemed to be getting into the spirit by wearing their lederhosen. We were jealous, so we've decided to head back soon to get some outfits on sale after the Oktoberfest leaves town.