June 2, 2002 - Paris and Barcelona

Another Sunday night...we are absolutely exhausted after a very busy few weeks.  Our visitors have now come and gone, but left us with some wonderful memories and stories!  Grandma and Grandpa Gustafson were here with Lynn visiting for a week and we all went away for a weekend to Paris which was very nice.  The rest of the time they spent exploring various locations around the Netherlands and the Hague.  They walked some pretty serious kilometers while they were here and seemed to enjoy the exercise.

Curt and Carrie arrived just after the first guests left so we off again on a weekend trip - this time to Barcelona, Spain.  We all got a good dose of sunshine and Spanish culture including some nice seafood meals and a long, long session at a great tapas bar which we nearly cleared out.  Toddy joined us for that one as well so we had a nice chance to catch up.

I'm afraid the eyes are getting droopy...so this will have to be a short one for now!

Kris

May 5, 2002 - Scheveningen, Canada's East Coast, England, Norway

It is a windy and rainy Sunday in Scheveningen.  Our friend Carmen Demelo arrived last week to work on our project!  So we had a big movie night here at our place last night and Carmen stayed over.  We just finished a big breakfast and are planning on spending the day doing lots of nothing.

We had a trip back to Canada during Easter which was great.  We spent half the time in Brantford and the other half on a vacation through the east coast of Canada where we finally got to see the provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.   We flew first to Moncton then picked up a rental car and started driving.  Since we were there before the beginning of the tourist season, things were very quiet, including the bed and breakfasts we stayed at - often we were the only ones there.

Since returning, we have been quite busy at work, but have also had some weekends away.  We caught up with Steve, Abby, Mike, and Toddy on a recent trip to Cambridge in England.  It was a very tranquilo weekend and a great chance to catch up with some good friends we haven't seen for a while.  I also had the pleasure of a ride in Stevie's sports car!

Last weekend we did a KLM "click and go" to Bergen, Norway!  The weather was not superb, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  I bought myself a brand new Norwegian sweater to replace the one which seems to have found a new home with my brother...

Ana and I are looking forward to a very busy month.  Grandma, Grandpa, and Lynn arrive next Sunday, which also happens to be my 30th birthday!  They will be staying with us here until May 23rd when they depart for Sweden to visit our cousins Birgit and Stig.  On May 24th, Curtis and Carrie arrive and will be here with us for a week.  We are taking them on a "surprise" weekend trip....destination unknown to them, but which is sure to be a blast!  Unfortunately Ana and I have to work during the week but I'm sure our visitors will enjoy exploring the Netherlands on their own while we are slaving away!

Of course, the next big event coming up will be the Olson Family Reunion this summer!  We are counting the days...

Take care,

Kris

March 22, 2002 - Brussels, Belgium and Atyrau, Bautino, Kazakhstan

Hello everyone,

Can you believe it is almost Easter??? Things here in The Hague have been great. We have been busy traveling and working and are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Canada.

In the last 2 weekends we have been to Brussels, Belgium and Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Both places on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

We hadn't planned to go to Brussels, but a we thought why not. Brussels is a 2 hour trip on train, from where we live, so it was a easy place to get to. Well.... we loved it!! It is a very typical European city with lots of little cobblestone streets and restaurants and cafes for miles and miles. They also have a very impressive square with gold covered buildings and a most impressive city hall.  We enjoyed a great evening out with our friends James and Lisa and kids Cassandra and Ainsley.  We especially liked a great jazz bar we found which featured a live band and a good crowd.  Chocolate, waffles and beer were the staples of the weekend.  We plan to return to Belgium soon to explore Bruges.

Well now Kazakhstan....it was quite an experience.  We went there on a business trip as our company's other office is located there.  From there they support the rigs that are drilling for oil in the Caspian Sea.  So we left Friday and spent most of the day traveling to Atyrau (where the main office is).  Saturday morning we had to travel to another town called Bautino where the materials base is.   So another 1 hour plane ride and 2 hour drive got us to Bautino. The drive was extremely dull as the place looks like a lunar landscape - no trees and everything covered in dust. Apparently nothing grows because of the salt content in the earth but we suspect that all the nuclear testing the Russians did in Kazakhstan doesn't help either.

The hotel room we had was fantastic...with a kitchen and VCR and even movies. It was a busy trip but ended up being a better a place then we had anticipated.

So that is the latest.  We are now gearing up for a hard work week and then our Easter trip to Canada.  The plan is to spend the first 4 days with my mom and dad and then leave for Moncton for an east coast Canada holiday.

I hope everyone has a great Easter....and we'll write more soon.

Ana

March 6, 2002 - Athens, Greece

It's been a while since I've contributed to the journal so I suppose this better be a good one.  As Kris has said we are well settled into The Hague.  We are really enjoying our apartment, even though we seem to spend very little time here.  One of our goals for this year is to see Europe and we have already accomplished a little of that goal.  Our friend Nancy from work has got us hooked onto this "last minute" area on the KLM Airlines site called "Click and Go".  So every Thursday at 1:00 pm they publish cheap flights for going away that coming weekend.  So at promptly 1:01 pm Kris and I logged on and Athens, Greece was at the top of the list.  To be quite honest, we had never really thought about going to Greece.  There are many other spots on out list, but it was cheap and available....so off to Athens we went.

We really didn't know much about Greece, but after a little surfing on the web we found there were plenty  of things to see in Athens, such as historic monuments and the old city.  So we arrived late on Friday night, took a bus to the city centre then got ripped off by a taxi driver before reaching the hotel and checking in for a good night sleep.

The morning brought sun and warm weather, which we have been craving since our departure from the Caribbean.  So we spent the morning climbing Acropolis, which was beautiful, but as expected full of tourists.  We also went to the Temple of Zeus and saw from a distance Attica.  By that point we had reach our threshold of touristy spots so we headed to Plaka (the Old Town) for lunch.  We found a cozy spot and proceeded to get our suntan/burns back as we ate.  We spent the rest of the afternoon moving from outdoor cafe to outdoor cafe contemplating how to spend the rest of the weekend.

We both agreed that we would enjoy seeing more than just the city, so we thought we would inquire about a boat tour or country tour.  Much to our delight there was a boat tour the following day which stopped at 3 of the Greek islands.  So we spent our Sunday in Poros, Hydra and Aegina.  They were all quite beautiful, although Hydra was the nicest.  On board we met a couple from Lisbon, Portugal and I had some nice conversations with them, as Kris tried to fill in the blanks with his broken Portuguese (which is improving dramatically, I must say).  Soon the cruise was over and we came to the quick realization that work was only hours away.  But we loved it and now are considering doing this "Click and Go" thing more often.  The weeks are flying by and we are enjoying every moment.  Even the work is challenging and rewarding....10 hour days don't even bother us anymore.

So I guess that is all the news for now.  We'll update you on our future travels to Atyrau, Kazakhstan in a week and our Easter trip to the Borges Residence and the east coast of Canada.  

Much love,

Ana

February 17, 2002 - The Hague and Apeldorn, Netherlands

Greetings to all from Den Haag!

We are settled into our apartment which is a two bedroom unit with a beautiful view overlooking Scheveningen beach.  In fact, the view is quite similar to the view from our apartment in Puerto Rico.  The only difference being that the temperature is about 20 degrees lower...

It is great to be living in Europe.  We took a trip to Paris last weekend, which was a very easy 3.5 hour train ride from here.  Saw a few of the tourist spots such as Arc du Triumph, Notre Dame, La Louvre and the Eiffel Tower.  We also did some shopping, much to Ana's delight.

The weekend before that we met our Danish friends Martin, Marianne, and their little boy Benjamin in a Dutch town called Apeldorn.  They were visiting their friends Roy and Anka, who are absolutely wonderful people.  They invited us to stay with them so we all had a very nice weekend together.  I was surprised to find that another Danish friend named Lars was visiting as well and I hadn't seen him for a long time.  Roy and Anka have a beautiful home and treated us just like family so we really enjoyed the weekend.  Little Benjamin is growing fast and already trying to steal the old man's beer!

More news soon,

Kris

January 12, 2002 - The Azores, Ottawa, Brantford

Welcome to the new year!  After more than three weeks of glorious vacation, Ana and I are leaving for Holland today to begin work on Monday.  We are both extremely excited about it and ready for what will surely be an interesting year.

For our Christmas holidays we spent two superb weeks in the Azores!  We were joined by Toddy Van Hees for the first ten days then by Ana's parents for the second week.  We stayed with Ana's aunt who is also named Ana and lives in a town called Santa Cruz which is in the Lagoa area of the island of San Miguel.  Ana, Toddy and I also traveled to the other islands of Faial and Pico and spent a few days exploring.  The weather was very rainy for the first part of the trip, but the temperature never fell below 15 C so it was actually very pleasant.

Some of the highlights include seeing the natural ocean pools in Pico and Lagoa, a scary plane ride from Ponta Delgado to Horta, the harbour in Horta, the view from Scrimshaw's house in Faial, the volcano blasted landscape on the west of Faial, the Furnas hot springs in San Miguel, a tea factory, the delicious red wine from Pico, fresh local bread and cheese with Tia Ana every morning, every meal we ate at Tia Ana's house, picking fresh bananas and oranges in the backyard, seeing a dog riding on top of a trotting horse, New Year's Eve on the Avenida, and the beautiful view from Lagua do Fogo!

I also had the chance to meet the rest of Ana's family who live in the Azores and they were all exceptionally nice people!  In fact, all the people living there were very friendly and helpful, making it a great place to visit!

After returning to Brantford from the Azores, we decided to take a trip to see Marty and Jen in Ottawa.  So we rented a PT Cruiser (groovy little car) and made the trip.  It was so nice to see where they were living and how things were going.  They are both doing very well in school and enjoying Carleton University.  They gave us a great tour of downtown Ottawa including the parliament buildings which were spectacular.

On the way back from Ottawa we stopped in at Mark & Linda's in Kingston where they treated us to a delicious lunch.  We had a good, but very short visit, before we were on our way to Toronto.  We stayed with Ana's brother Mark in Toronto and that night we met up with Carmen, Diane, and Lena and had a nice dinner out.

To finish off the vacation, we had a couple days in Brantford to sort things out and get all our things packed.

So now it is on to a brand new year and a brand new adventure!!  We really hope to see lots of you as visitors so don't be shy!

Kris

November 7, 2001 - Wedding, Las Terranas

We have just spent several minutes trying to figure out why all our journal entries since May 13 are gone.  It turn out that we haven't updated this page since then!  How embarrassing...

Our wedding has come and gone and here we are back at work and back in the Dominican Republic.  It is unbelievable how that long year of waiting, planning, and stressing finally paid off with a beautiful wedding day surrounded by all of our wonderful family and friends.  Have a look at the wedding page to see some pictures.

So what's new?  Since we returned back here we have been keeping a pretty low profile and doing lots of relaxing.  This past weekend was a long one so we made a trip up to the northern coastal town of Las Terrenas and met up with our Canadian friends Mark, Terri, and Carolyn Haugen.  Besides being eaten alive by mosquitoes we had a great time!  We found a superb little Vietnamese restaurant in the town which we visited a couple times.  On the Sunday we took a horseback ride to a waterfall called Salto de Limon.  The horses were quite good and the ride was very scenic.  By the time we returned three hours later we were filthy, tired, and extremely hungry so we devoured a delicious Dominican lunch of rice, beans, and chicken.

This coming weekend Ana's friend Julie, who lives in Puerto Plata, is planning to visit us here in Santo Domingo.  We haven't seen her for a while so that will be nice.

Not much else to report.  The Presidentes here are still icy cold!

Kris