Halloween with the girls

My lovely friends from Tours came to visit me for the Halloween long weekend (well, I had a long weekend, I don't think they did in France because the 1st was a Saturday). I threw a small party in my apartment, we ate raclette, drank a lot of wine and some Jagermeister and Red Bull and the neighbours didn't complain. Success!

This was the first year I really made an effort with a costume, and even so, it wasn't super elaborate. Jules went all out, however! We actually got the idea for his costume back when I first moved to Brussels and purchased a red rubber oven mitt from IKEA that kind of looks like a claw. He thought it looked like the claw of a certain someone and I set myself the challenge of working out a costume that sort of matched. Can you guess who we were???

Excited to see my friends coming up the stairs

Elaborate cobweb decorations in the background

Is that a fish in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet. On Saturday, we just mosied about the city centre seeing what there is to see (Mannekin Pis, the Grand Place etc.) and had dinner at a pretty average place in Sainte-Catherine. Jules, Mel and I headed back to bed like good boys and girls, but Caro and Liz stayed out partying to the wee hours (oh, how I have changed that I wasn't with them - although I probably would have stayed up longer the night before if people had let me) and were subsequently "indisposed" the next day.

The girls in Grande Place

Cheers! (It looks like I'm drinking milk but it was one of those fancy hot chocolates where you stir it in. It wasn't great)

Having a post-dinner rum in Place Sainte-Catherine

Although, again, we were lucky with the weather, it was a bit cold on the Sunday and I confess I was a bit jealous when we headed out leaving the girls to order pizza and watch a movie snuggled up on the coach. Mel, Jules and I had a lovely morning though, with champagne and fishy delights at Nordzee followed by a hot chocolate AND dessert at Frederic Blondeel. Spoiled!

Mel and I tuck into champagne and fish soup at Nordzee

Brussels traffic (there's always traffic, even on a Sunday) almost made the girls miss their train, but they got out of the car and ran for it and made it home after way too short a trip. We've got to start planning the next one!