We arrived home safe and sound on Tuesday night.

On Monday, as we had to catch the bus from Jen’s house to the train station, I made poor Adrian leave about five hours early to ensure that we wouldn’t be stuck in some sort of horrendous Roman traffic jam. Roma Termini was full of people – queueing, waiting, sleeping, and complaining. All tickets had been sold out for the rest of the week:

No seats were available in the train station, so we wedged ourselves and our luggage against a wall and waited for the minutes to tick past. We caught the train from Rome to Milan slowly north without incidence, and we were able to check into our hotel around 11:30pm. Our next train was set to depart at 7:10am. Adrian begged me not to make him get to the station five hours early again, and I agreed. I set both phones on to wake us up at 6:00am, and we even had time to grab a panini at the station before boarding our train to Zurich.

This was my favourite part of the route – what a difference between Italy and Switzerland, suddenly we were surrounded by snowy peaks, brightly washed houses, and crystal lakes. At lunch time we were in Zurich, grabbed some pizza and giant pretzels, then found our next train. I was so happy to finally see some sign of our progress:

As all the high-speed trains had been booked out, we had the rare chance of catching the INT90 from beginning to end, stopping at:

Zurich (Switzerland)
Baden (Switzerland)
Brugg (Switzerland)
Frick (Switzerland)
Stein-S (Switzerland)
Rheinfelden (Switzerland)
Basel (Switzerland)
St Louis Haut Rhin (France)
Mulhouse (France)
Colmar (France)
Selestat (France)
Strasbourg (France)
Metz (France)
Thionville (France)
Luxembourg (Luxembourg)
Arlon (Belgium)
Libramont (Belgium)
Jemelle (Belgium)
Marloie (Belgium)
Namur (Belgium)
Bruxelles-Luxembourg (Belgium)
Bruxelles-Schuman (Belgium)
Bruxelles-Nord (Belgium)
Bruxelles-Central (Belgium)
Bruxelles-Midi (Belgium)

At one stage, I thought that the train announcer said “Nous n’arrivons jamais.” (We are never arriving), but quickly realised he was saying “Nous arrivons Jemelle (We are arriving in Jemelle), which was much better news. Later, when we first heard “Dames en heren” (Ladies and Gentlemen), all the Belgians cheered, because Flemish announcements meant that we were getting very close to home.

At 8pm that evening, we got off the train at the very last stop, pointed the way to the Eurostar for some stranded Brits, and then a short walk later were finally home with our kittens.

Even though Adrian would love a couple of Saint Bernards or Dachshunds he has compromised by giving me exactly what I want – two little kittens. I am super excited. I now have four large boxes from the ever-generous Internet that contain all the food and equipment to make our house cat friendly, including a kitty back-pack to bring them home on the train. As they will be living on the 11th floor, they will not have access to any actual trees, but I hope that this structure will suffice:

Image from zooplus

I am in contact with a Chartreux breeder near Charleroi using Google Translate as my intermediary. If Google is correct, the breeder has two female kittens who are currently nine weeks old, and we can go and pick them up in three weeks and bring them home. I may be visiting them this weekend to make my reservation. So now Adrian and I are currently working on potential cat names. He has vetoed names derived from television or movies, and technically Chartreux kittens born in 2009 should start their names with ‘E’. The naming of cats is a difficult matter. This is my current list:

Blauwe Kat and Kattebelletje
Pepper and Mint
Socks and Mittens
Misha-Penguin and Misha-non-Penguin
Hopscotch and Peppermint Whiskers
Moppet and Mittens
Smudge and Sage
Pickles and Pattycakes
Dot and Dash
Hocus and Pocus
Buttercup and Daisy
Midge and Middles
Medley and Mopsy
Bubbles and Buttons
Puddles and Pumpkin
Stardust and Teapot

We haven’t seen our little ones yet, but they should look something like this:

Images from annonces-animalieres

Today is our two year wedding anniversary. We met in Australia, were engaged in Croatia, moved in together in the USA, and eloped in Canada. We flew up to Banff National Park for the weekend, staying at Banff Springs Hotel. I felt like the princess of the castle.

Over the past 732 days, Adrian has been the most wonderful husband. He has worked tirelessly to ensure my days are filled with delight. He shares with me his understanding and his insights into the world. He is my best friend and my greatest support. He is constantly reminding me that the point of life is to be happy, and the dangers of using other goals as proxies if this means sacrificing ones own joy in the process.

We begin the third year of our marriage as homeowners and immigrants, adjusting to life in Europe. Adrian is now running his own lab at a major university, conducting novel and elegant experiments in medical research. I have an enjoyable job that teaches me about the pharmaceutical industry. We have time to travel and explore, to watch the city move around us, and to walk hand-in-hand down historic paths and cobblestone streets. It is a very happy anniversary.

Yesterday was a big day. We met in Ghent to sign the final deeds on our mortgage and the deeds for our apartment. We were there with our notary, the seller was there with his notary, there was a representative from the bank, and a legal secretary. They really like conducting business in person here in Belgium. The documents were in French, but verbally translated to us by our notary. The seller and his notary could read French but held their discussions in Flemish. It took two hours for the notary to go through every article and ensure that we understood and agreed to what we were signing. They were very thorough. He even gave us the document that we would need to submit to the government to protect €900/month of our income if the rest was seized by the bank for non-payment of the loan. Each page had a lovely big red stamp that read “Belgische Notaris – Notaire belgique – Belgische Notar”, and was initialed by all parties present. Finally, with a handshake an exchange of the keys, the home was ours.

After that we went to Ikea to order a dining table, chairs, bed, mattress, sofas, desk, and coffee table. It is a big deal to get things delivered to our apartment. The elevator is too small for most items. Thus, we need to register with the police to block off part of the road, and then hire a 15th floor external crane/lift to move everything through the windows. So we need to get everything delivered from our old place and from Ikea on the same day – July 10th.

Finally, it was time to walk through our very own apartment. Adrian hadn’t seen the place for four months, so I hoped that he still liked it. You can see the entrance to the metro from the front door of the apartment complex:

Eleven stories later, we saw our front door:

And our entrance, with a bucket of paint to redo the outside windowsills, if we wish:

The guest bedroom:

The day was glorious, we opened up the windows, and Adrian discovered that we can see six of the Atomium atoms from the lounge-room if we stick our heads out. We could also see people picnicking in the park below: