Mommy & Me

About halfway through May, just as my ISA program in Sevilla ended, my mom's own flight to Europe landed in Brussels, Belgium.  She had seen my pictures, read my blog (some of them, anyway), and decided that all that plus Skype was just not enough Courtney time for her.  Thus began the best mother-daughter duo to hit Europe since the time we visited Belgium when I was six.  As it turned out, Mom and I are so popular that we were able to spend our days hopping around Europe and our nights with friends and family.  

Because of The-Event-That-Should-Not-Be-Named, during which time my camera would never be seen by my eyes again (blog post: Don't Mention the War), Dad was nice enough to send his camera with Mom so I could continue to illustrate my memories abroad with words and photos.  

Forewarning: My mom is a babe, but taken.  Sorry, boyz.

First Stop: Brussels, Belgium

Housing: The De Michelis Fam!

Activities: Talking, walking, resting, and eating.

Aunt Carrie and me :)

Aunt Carrie and I greeted my mom at the Brussels (not Charleroi--Mom flew by way of a real airline) with an obnoxiously bright WELCOME sign and lots of hugs.  My mom had some jet lag to recover from, so our first few days were rather restful.  It was wonderful to see Carrie, Nicola, and Julie again (Hey Julie! Next time don't be sick, huh?), enjoy more bomb pasta, and walk around their beautiful neighborhood. Our time was unfortunately too short with family, but we did manage to talk plenty over some excellent red wine.

Second Stop: Sevilla, Spain

Housing: Mama Rosa

Activities: All the touristy stuff, which can mainly be summed up by the following pictures...

Atop "The Mushroom," enjoying the view. 

Some things we discovered whilst strolling throughout the beautiful streets of Sevilla:

Plaza de España--look familiar? Then you've seen Star Wars Episode II.

a. Mom's ultra-cute wedges are completely inappropriate when walking constantly for seven hours every day.
b. The betchy Spanish shoe store ladies thought my mother's shoe size was amusing.  Every time I asked for a larger size (damn those American-European shoe size conversions!), we were met with a round of snickers and smirks.  So she did not invest in a pair of more comfortable shoes.
c. We share the same style of travel: walk around, have a drink. Look at stuff, have another drink. And so on.
d. Because Mom's feet hurt so much, this eventually turned into sitting, looking at stuff, and having several drinks at a time.

Cruzcampo with bendy straws in Matalascañas

The legendary heat of Sevilla really got cranking by our second day in Spain. This brought me back to the first few weeks in Sevilla, when Sarah and I nearly froze to death in Rosa's marble home. Then, I had thought that the heat-rejecting marble would keep out the heat in the hotter months.

No such luck.



Thankfully, Rosa handed us the A/C remote to our room (with very specific instructions for when and how to use it), so we were able to survive the 100°F nights.

Even so, after sweating profusely for three days, we were more than ready to board a Vueling flight to Gent and fall into the comforting arms of Nathalie.

Everyone's gotta see the cathedral.

Third (and final) stop: Gent, Belgium
Housing: Nathalie's house!
Activities: Copious amounts of catching up, eating, and touring the cities of Gent and Brugge.

Look at how attractive my international family is.

Nathalie and my neefs.

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of knowing who Nathalie is, she stayed with my family as a Rotary exchange student when she was 18 years old.  Now, she lives in Gent with her two wonderful children Berend and Lowie, my neefs (cousins).  Now that I'm not two years old anymore, and my mom is no longer her mother figure, we are all besties.

Yeah, that's a medium.

Brugge is beautiful!  But, not as good as Gent.

Of course, all good things must come to an end sometime.  So at 5am we said a tired but very sad "See ya later," to Nathalie, hauled my mother and all her things off to the airport, and played Gin Rummy with Idaho potato cards until it was her time to go back to America.

Happy Mother's Day to the best mom I know!