May

In May, I had to go help my mom in Florida again. It was a fun trip other than the packing. I got to see some friends and say goodbye for now since my mom was moving and I probably won't visit anytime soon. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of this trip was getting my mom to eat chicken wings and liking them! Now to the really exciting part! Steve went on a work trip to Chicago and I flew there towards the end. We had a day in Chicago before flying out to Belgium. We got to Brussels on a Sunday and spent the next two days there. We had waffles and some really legit food and beer. On our first day, Steve spotted people holding a Bulgarian flag and dancing horo, so we checked that out. It was a national holiday in Bulgaria, so it was awesome to see the Bulgarian in Belgium representing!Two days later we headed off to Bruges which is about hour/hour and a half from Brussels by train. Bruges was BEAUTIFUL!It definitely reminded me of Amsterdam a bit. Our day in Bruges was wonderful. We walked around and bought a TON of chocolate and cookies. We really bought ALL the chocolate. We had awesome lunch with awesome...beer again. My beer was a bit strong, so I got drunk after like 4 sips. Sigh. That was embarrassing. We got a tour where you go on a small boat and a guide takes you around the main little moat/river there. Everything was really green and pretty. The following day we took to Antwerp to meet up with one of my old friends from DBCC who is originally from Holland (and now lives there again). Antwerp was probably the most happening place of all the cities we had been to so far on that trip. There were people riding bikes and walking around. It helped that the weather was really nice. I had been having really bad allergies, so that really messed me up the whole trip, but honestly, we saw so many wonderful things that it trumped the bad allergies. The train station in Antwerp looked like something right out of a Harry Potter movie. Right before meeting up with my friend Jazz, we got what was probably the best chocolate we had had so far. I still dream of it. Dinner with J was awesome and I was really happy to finally have her meet Steve and vice versa. On our way back to the hotel in Brussels, we stopped by Delirium cafe, which was the one place Steve had been asking to go to. It was our last night in Brussels, so we squeezed in a trip to the cafe where I made Steve have this awfully sweet beer (sorrry!!!). On Thursday, we took off to Bulgaria. We got there kind of late, but after somewhat of a good night's rest we met up with my old housemate Shannon from San Diego who happened to be there at the same time with her husband Brian. Her sister Sam and brother-in-law Trevor and their 2 (now 3) kids had moved to Bulgaria 3 years prior, but this was Shannon's first visit AND our trips overlapped! So awesome to see those guys and I imagine Steve was pretty happy to speak English :) The rest of Friday was mostly meeting up with family members. Now to the main reason for this trip :) One of my oldest friends from Bulgaria who lives in England was getting married! Nusha and her fiance Matthew flew out for our wedding in NYC and they got engaged during the trip! I remember finding out a couple of days before the wedding and just feeling utmost amount of joy! They kindly invited us to their wedding which took place on Saturday May 30th in Sofia. This was Bulgarian-Scottish wedding so you can imagine that it was a ton of fun! It started around 3 pm and by the time we left around midnight, it was still going! We caught up with some old friends and made some new ones. The bride and groom looked really happy together and there was really nothing else one could ask for. We got home on Sunday - exhausted but happy.