So Brussels. After one of my longest and best friends had asked me to come see her in her “new” home for two and a half years, I finally booked my tickets this Christmas. Two reasons: I kind of do value our friendship and didn’t want her to end it over the fact that I never came to see her. The other one: Why not go when you have a place to stay at for free? (Kidding, I love you, Eva!)

To be honest I wasn’t really excited about Brussels itself, given the fact that most people I talked to didn’t like the city that much. My question to all of them after my trip: Have we been to the same place?

Now, keep in mind that I have only seen a tiny bit of the city and I am obviously not an expert but the bits and pieces I saw had me in awe. That might be due to the fact that I had two excellent tour guides. Up until they wouldn’t wake up Sunday morning and I had to set off on my own. Which led to getting lost. And cold. And discovering really cool places.

Even though the weather was more than annoying – after all I didn’t leave -25° C cold Estonia to deal with snow in Belgium – I tried to think of a reason to move there only one day into the trip. I might or might not do that in pretty much every city. But still, Brussels got me. For several reasons:

  • Dutch is the funniest language ever. 

    How is this even a language? I feel like somebody had it with German sounding so harsh and just tried to create a cute version of it. It is hilarious and I want to hear more of it.

  • The street art is incredible.

    Murals wherever you go. Is there anything better? I only stopped taking pictures  of them because my hands were about to freeze off.

  • Now to the important part: Food! Their fries are out of this world.

    If you haven’t tried them yet, don’t do it. It will ruin you for life. There is no chance I’ll see fries the same way after trying Belgian ones. I wouldn’t believe it until the girls took me on a trip JUST to get some from a booth somewhere in the depths of Brussels, but they are truly amazing and way  better than any I have ever tried before.
    The freezing cold and the crazy rain didn’t stop us from having Belgian frites on a bus stop bench. Oh the classiness. But you know what? It was the best damn meal I had on that trip.
    Great, now I can't stop thinking about it. Getting upset because I can’t have any right now.

    (Just in case you were wondering what the secret behind this golden deliciousness is: Belgians fry them twice at two different temperatures. Such geniuses. Somebody give them a medal!)
  • Random balconies pop up wherever you go,
    It makes getting lost in the city so much more enjoyable. You unexpectedly turn a corner and all  of a sudden face the nicest view over a part of the city. It really is great. And dangerous, if you try to climb the stairs descending from the balconies in winter. Just saying. Not that I fell or anything.

  • Beer!
    Do I need to say more? I don’t even like beer but I did drink it there. Because there is no other way. It is cheap. And surprisingly good. Not as good as the fries though…
  • Because best friends and stuff.

    That trip once again reminded me that some friends really do become your family. And wherever they are, it feels like home. I could go on with the cheesiness but I think you get the point.

I hope one of these reasons made you want to go to Brussels. Mostly the fries, I guess.  But you’ve been warned. Either you need to learn how to make them yourself or you’ll lead a frie-less life after trying them. In any case, I’ll stop rambling. 

Thanks for the great days, Eva, Naddy & all you amazing VeCo-people. You're the best!

xxx Kathi

Photos taken in: Brussels, Belgium

A couple of you have already seen some of my annoying posts about this Challenge I want to participate in. If my team manages to get into the challenge we will travel Europe for seven days in April. The catch is that we will do it without money or phones – just with cans of a very popular energy drink.


I am not going to tell you how badly we want to be part of it, how this would be the biggest adventure any of us has ever been on, blabla. You get the point – it would be amazing. But in true flying floordrobe style, I want to tell you the stories of how I met these two people crazy enough to go on a trip like that with me.

I met Kiran last semester at my university here in Tallinn. The whole Student Council went out together for the first time and I was pretty excited. Kiran on the other hand was not in the best mood of all times and I made it my mission to make him a bit happier. Well. Let’s just say things did not go exactly as planned and that I wasn’t his favorite person that night. But I truly believe that this set the base for our friendship. This and the 10 bars of chocolate I bribed him into liking me again with.

And only three weeks ago Victoria talked her way into our crew. An Estonian who does not shut up – ever – how can anybody not like that? She had just returned from her exchange semester in Madrid and was ready to take over the world. And when she realized that this was not possible in a couple of days she focused on our school. She loves to write to-do lists – for other people – and constantly freaks out about her tight schedule.

One week into knowing Vic she suggested signing up for the challenge together. And we all got too excited to think this through properly. Let’s face it, we don’t know if it’s a great idea to go on such an intense trip with people we’ve only just met. But judging from everything we’ve been through in the last couple of days I’m pretty damn sure we can make it together. All through filming our application video to the voting process that’s going on right now we’ve managed to stay friends even though we’ve been annoying each other to death. Some people question our sanity level, though. We have heard “Is this a comedy show?” more than once when I threaten to slap Vic because she won’t calm down or when we all yell at each other because we all want to get attention at the same time.

With our amazing help Birgit who shot the whole video.
So I’m pretty sure we would have an insanely fun week together. With focus on the insane part. And I think that it would be pretty entertaining for everybody watching our video updates throughout that week. So if you love adventures, crazy things or just want to watch our team – Adventure Preneurs –get horribly lost in Europe and blame it on each other then we would really appreciate your like on our video – which we poured our hearts and souls into. And our health. I fell on my head so many times while shooting, it’s ridiculous. I am really starting to think that I have a talent for falling in the weirdest ways humanly possible. But that’s another story.

In case you voted for us - you just won my eternal love. And if you didn't - I still love you for reading this. But you should really consider voting.


xx Kathi
Photos taken in: Tallinn, Estonia

Hey there. Remember us? The two Austrians who were sooooo excited about starting a blog together and then stopped posting two weeks in? We are back! Kind of. At least I hope so.

Lena is currently traveling Thailand, having the time of her life while I am sitting in grey Estonia taking on too many responsibilities to handle and kind of freaking out. (Let's face it, I need the drama. And freaking out is worth it since I am super excited about all the projects I am working on.) In any case, Lena probably won’t be able to write anything until she is back from her travels - she has jungles to explore and beaches to lie on. I think we can forgive her. 

But I am in good old Tallinn and have a couple of stories to share from last month’s trips to Brussels and Lapland. Besides that I might have spent quite some time in the coolest coffee shops, bars and restaurants Tallinn has to offer – would explain why I am already broke at the beginning of the month – that I have to tell you about.
So I’m pretty sure we’re back for good this time. One half for now, at least. But before I start posting about all the great places to go in Tallinn I figured I should tell you how I ended up here in the first place.

Back in New Hampshire, shortly before I met Lena, I heard about another new Au Pair that just moved in with a family I knew. My host kids liked playing with this family’s children and I liked meeting new people, so we invited them over for a playdate. Because I was obsessed with baking back in the US and because sweet stuff is always a good bribe when working with kids, I made a batch of cupcakes before their visit. I remember that I was late to the playdate at my own house and that she was already in our backyard, super confused because nobody was there. Her name was Tiana. She was from Estonia. And she ate ALL the cupcakes that day.

That was probably the reason I liked her instantly. A couple of weeks later Lena and Tiana met at an Au Pair meeting. Right after the meeting Lena called me and told me that the person she liked most was “this one girl from Estonia”. And two minutes after our phone call Tiana texted me “I pretty much only liked one girl. Lena. She is from Austria as well, isn’t that funny?” Now, I don't believe in destiny, but this was a really, really cool coincidence.

Back to why I ended up in Estonia: When I first met Tiana I asked her the typical questions people up here get all the time. Which one of the Baltic countries is Estonia? Is there anything special up there? Tiana patiently answered all of them and changed my perception of the Baltic countries completely. When I had to decide on where to do my Erasmus semester two years later I really wanted to go to Australia. But since Australia didn’t want me, I had to choose a city in Europe. And Estonia was the only place that got me excited enough to apply. Almost the same thing as Australia, right?

So here I am now. In a country that has a total population of 1.3 million and that is so flat that people get excited about a 318 meters high “mountain”. It is grey, it is cold most of the time but for some reason I fell in love with it. And I’m sure you will do too over the course of the next couple of months. (Just for the record, right after I moved here, Tiana left to study in England. Not sure if it was me or the cold...)

xx Kathi

Photos taken in: Tallinn, Estonia
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