First festival of the year!

The festival season has started in the Netherlands, the land of festivals!!
As it coincides with spring and summer, I can say it's the most thrilling time of the year and I simply love it.

My list of festivals to attend is quite long this year and I'm very excited.

As a matter of fact, my first festival of this year is a fact. It was exactly one week ago.
I went to Bacchus Wine Festival with some friends. As the name already says it, it's a festival dedicated to wine...
It's quite a small festival taking place in the Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Forest)... with no less than 250 differents wines to taste!!
Of course we didn't taste all of them, but we did taste some really good wine and spent a wonderful evening with some music in the background (and a karaoke mini-van).

Next week, new festival on the planning... Keep you posted ;-) Cheers!

D-Day in France

Today feels like D-day in France. Indeed, today we are electing our new president.

It has been a tough campagne, one of the toughest so far. Living in the Netherlands, I could shut myself down from this whole mess. Being an expat, you feel that you're not as much confronted with all the problems in our home country. But on the other hand, I could not keep my eyes closed and ignore what is going on in France.

For this reason, for the first time since I've been living abroad, I went to the French consulate in Amsterdam two weeks ago to vote. It felt extremely important to have my voice heard and to honour this right we all have in a democracy.

Ironically, today, on the second and final round of this election, I'm in France. As you have to vote where you live, that would mean I wouldn't be able to vote. Even though that might not have bothered me a few years ago, I couldn't accept it this time. My voice has to be heard and I have to do my part to avoid the rise of populism and extremism in my home country.

So I arranged for a friend of mine to vote for me. I'm so thankful!

Let's hope my home country won't fall into dark times tonight. I'll already be on my way back to the Netherlands when the results will be communicated.

For now, I don't want to worry too much. My part is done. I just want to enjoy a nice lunch at home, with my parents...