Vakantie! Vakantie!

Why is it so hard to get into the swing of things post-vacation?
I've been back from France for 9 days. I have sat down to blog 4 times, but this is the first time that I actually think I have enough resolve to crank out an entire post.

4.5 weeks. 33 days. all vacation.
this was, by far, the most laid back vacation i have ever had. despite my attempts before the vacation to organize and plan and fill up the time with events that we could all look forward to, i went into this vacation with absolutely no expectations and no real clear picture of what it would be like.
we started the france/spain roadtrip of a lifetime with 4 healthy people, a box full of groceries, 4 tents, 6 chairs, and a plan to "see some of france and spain..."
we ended the roadtrip with 5 healthy people, 1 person with mono, 2 boxes of groceries (full of lovely things like stale cookies and a half-eaten stick of wurst that sat in the hot car for a week), 4 tents (minus some poles, and perhaps one that no longer can really be used...), 1 and 2 halves chairs (1 100% intact, 2 50% still usable, if sat on in just the right way), and a list of places that we had been that involve "a place near the river dhrome," "somewhere close to the ardeche," "this sweet camping spot next to st. pierre la mer," narbonne, carcassonne, "girona"(though none of us actually made it anywhere near girona, it was supposedly where our tournament was), another place near a beautiful lake and nearby girona, barcelona, halfway up the pyrenees (before we realized our car wouldn't make it up the other half), perignon, and somewhere in france where hans' uncle and aunt live.

it is really hard to blog about such a long trip. :)
there was the first place we stopped, the cheapest camping we found, with the cutest little french man who made me practice saying "croissants" correctly before he would give me morning croissants. that was the place with the beautiful waterfalls nearby that we never saw, because it started raining HARD on our 2nd day there (after a really wonderful first day of lying beside a lake doing nothing). as soon as it rained, we took off for warmth and dryness (turns out none of our 4 tents were waterproof). but we did spend one day of sitting in the rain playing board games and drinking coffee. which was actually pretty fun!
2nd camping was also really nice. i like to think of it as "eurotrash camping." I don't think i have ever been stared at as much in my life as i was while walking around that campground. but jel, hans, and joost assured me that for a lot of dutch people (since 98% of people in that campground were dutch) think that true camping is setting up camp in a campground, pulling out a chair, and just watching the other campers walk around the campground. we were right in an adorable french village with a castle and a beautiful river running through it. i have no idea waht the name of the village was, but at that point we were "somewhere near the ardeche" i think.
3rd camping was definitely our worst camping experience. i had a slight miscommunication with some friends from back in the states and showed up at a campground, expecting to find them, and then found out they wouldn't be there for a week. :( despite that, we decided to stay at the only campground nearby that we could find, which turned out to be a massive massive camping area positioned on a lot of stone. not so comfortable for sleeping, turns out. it was nice to be at the sea, and we enjoyed 2 days of laying on the beach. but only 1 night of yuckiness at that camping.
the 4th camping was maybe my favorite. we were somewhere near narbonne, france. we were next to a gorgeous lake, had a nice campground, our own bathroom, a gigantic pool, table tennis, and a field for jel and i to do sprints. plus, that is where erik met us (also a big plus). this is the camping where we pulled up to the site rather late in the evening and decided that the boys should go with the car to get groceries while jel and i set up the tents. i don't know what was funnier - watching jel and i trying to figure out how to set up the tents or watching our neighbors watch us try to set up the tents. or watching their faces when they heard that the boys had gone to get food to cook us dinner while us girls set up tents. then it was even funnier to watch their faces as we told them we had 3 tents - one for jel, one for me, and one for the 2 boys. i think in their world, this just didn't make sense...but they were really lovely and let us borrow a hammer. while we were at this camping, we spent a day in carcassonne (the most touristic castle in the entire world possibly) and a day in narbonne, which is lovely. we also participated in water aerobics the last morning we were there. pretty amazing. 15 women. 3 very tall dutch boys (joost, hans, and erik) in speedos (pool rule: all men must have speedos on). one very enthusiastic french man as our instructor.
then off to "girona" (or quite a ways outside of girona) for one very poorly organized, very hot tournament in a beautiful setting. the pool next to our hostel was definitely the highlight. losing in the finals, maybe the low point (but it's a tough call between losing in the finals, not eating anything but fat for 3 days, or the spanish dudes in our room who thought it was hilarious to make their beds squeak all night long).
recovery time was nearby (wish i knew the name of that area) with the doesburg family, marjo, henrik, gitta, oscar, roe, and sander. at this point, we had also picked up our 6th person - vera - for the remainder of the trip. beautiful lake. really nice, quiet campground. it was lovely. this was where erik started to feel sick.
then off to barcelona. we stayed outside barcelona, near the beach, at a strange but cheap-ish campground. it was a 25 minute train ride into the heart of barcelona (and was nice that we didn't have to look for parking). spent just a few days there. the architecture in barcelona is cool. and the gigantic fruit market was one of my favorite parts of the trip. it was really hot, but i am glad i got to see it, and i would love to go back there in the fall or the spring.
last campsite was nearby the pyrenees (we started into the pyrenees, but our car wouldn't make it). the campsite and our experience there deserves a whole other blogpost. plus, i have to run pick up the kids...
whewww - finally over my blogging block.