Friday was March 3, Liberation Day in Bulgaria. After work we went to a celebration organized by the Bulgarian Embassy.

We arrived just in time to hear a live performance of the Bulgarian and American National Anthems, followed by a speech by the Ambassador of Bulgaria, Mrs. Elena Poptodorova.

The celebration was held in the building of the Organization of American States, a very beautiful location, with a large indoor garden with tropical plants.

We met Bella and Ramiro just after we arrived, and later met many other Bulgarians and it was a very pleasant company.

Around 9.00 pm the party was ending, and we went with our group to Bistro Bulgari, a Bulgarian restaurant in Crystal City. We had a really nice evening there; we were with about 15 people, most of them Bulgarian -- one Dutch, one American. It was the first time Sasha and I were in this restaurant and it was a nice discovery -- great lukanka, rakia and an excellent shopska. And yes, they had my favorite... sirene po shopski. We went home late, after a fun evening.

The inside of the building of the Organization of American States (from their website).

After a long, warm day in the mountains we celebrated Sasha's birthday on the beach!

We went for our first snorkeling trip ever in the Caribbean, and it was magnificient.

Only a few meters from the coast there was so much life, so much beauty under water, it was incredible. Especially near the rocks in the bay there were thousands of colorful fishes, corals and plants. The beauty started from about 1 meter depth -- very near the shore, and even where the water wasn't very deep there was some much life under water.

We got our snorkels at the Blue Bay diving shop, and spent many, many hours in the water.

My favorite place was just outside the bay, where the real deep sea started; the deep sea had a beautiful, deep glow and an even large variety of life.

A frequent reader sent me an interesting fragment of a Dutch TV show, where they were investigating the myth about secret tunnels under the city of Haarlem.

See the fragment on-line (Windows streaming media), or visit their website for more options.

On Monday, the third day of our stay, we made a trip to the other side of the island, to "Westpunt". I thought that Westpunt was something like a small village, so when we asked for a bus to that village in the hotel that caused some confusion: there is no village, it's just the name of the west-side of the island.

We wanted to visit the national park on the island, the Christoffel park, named after the highest mountain on the island, Christoffelberg.

At 9.30 am there was a bus from our hotel, a small mini-van, and we were the only passengers. Although the park was not the official destination the driver dropped us of at the entrance of the park. It was warm and sunny, so we had brought water, some snacks and a very good sunblock -- which we would need badly later that day.

There were a number of trails to walk in the park, and we decided to climb the Christoffelberg itself. It was a beautiful hike, but we had underestimated the effort a little bit, and it turned out to be a four hour trip under the warm Curacao sun. It was good we brought our supplies, especially the sunblock.

We made some nice pictures of our hike.

We were back around 3.15 pm, and our van came to pick us up. We were glad to be back in the civilized world and I'm proud to say that I have climbed the second-highest mountain in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the highest being the mountain on Saba).

Last week we went on vacation to Curacao, an island in the Netherlands Antilles. It's located just north of Venezuela, in the Caribbean Sea.

We were looking for a place with good weather and good beaches, but also for culture and cities -- not an average beach-resort destination where all you can do is lie on the beach. And we found it!

Curacao was the perfect destination for us: excellent weather, beautiful nature and beaches and in Willemstad a very interesting mix of cultures. We booked our trip on Expedia, where we found a very nice hotel, Kura Hulanda in the heart of Willemstad, that added to the whole experience of the vacation.

After we arrived in Curacao on Saturday afternoon, we checked in the hotel and went for a walk through the harbor and the city. It has such a similarity to Amsterdam! Of course, it's a Caribbean city, and a cruise-ship port, but there is something distinctively Dutch in the architecture and the city layout with its squares, narrow streets and terrasjes.

The next morning we took the hotel's shuttle to the beach. The beach is called Blauwbaai, or Blue Bay, and it is absolutely gorgeous. It's a small, protected bay, with a sand beach and many palm trees that serve as naturals parasols. It was very sunny and the water was great, so we were swimming a lot.

Our first trip on the ferry across the harbor.

Blauwbaai, Curacao.

Saturday morning we woke up very early, after a short night we took a cab to the airport at 5.30. I routinely told the driver "Dulles airport, please" but luckely Sasha corrected me and told the driver to go the Reagan instead -- I was still asleep.

Check-in was smooth, I am very glad we were flying American Airlines so we could use the priority line, it was busy at the airport.

We flew to Miami first, and after an hour on the airport there we went into our plane to Curacao.

When we landed on the island we had to close the shutters of the plane because of the heat -- it was so warm outside! Wonderful weather.

We walked from the plane to the terminal, where we filled in the customs papers. It was a nice surprise: the lady spoke to me in Dutch. It is a very small airport; the only people going through customs when we arrived where people from our plane. Immigrations wasn't very formal, we got a stamp in our passport and we could walk through.

We quickly got our luggage and got a cab to the hotel.

Tomorrow morning early we are leaving for Curacao!

It will be the first real vacation since our trip to San Antonio, and we're really looking forward to it.

The flight is at 7.15 am, and it's midnight now, so it's gonna be a short night.

Today I am in Puerto Rico again. I arrived this morning, after spending a few days in Arlington, where it was snowing this Sunday and it was pretty cold.

I am not sure if it's the temperature difference or not, but Sunday evening my throat started hurting and sure enough I have a cold now. Feeling better than on Monday though, and at least I won't be cold in Puerto Rico.

It's high season here, something I didn't really take into account so it was a bit difficult to get a room in our hotel and all rental cars at the airport were taken.

I really enjoy being here, and the work that we're doing right now, but I am much more looking forward to next week... Sasha and I are going on vacation!

Since a few weeks Metro is running an experiment with longer trains on the Orange line.

The usual maximum length of a train is six cars, but their are experimenting with running longer trains to alleviate the problems during rush hour when trains are often overly crowded.

More on Metro Opens Doors.

When we I left the office in Puerto Rico I thought it it will be my usual routine.

First put the luggage through agricultural control, check the suitcase in and get my electronic boarding pass printed. With a little bit of luck the lines for security are not too long and I have some time to get dinner, followed of course by a visit to Starbucks for an espresso.

The flight to DC used to be at 5:40 last year, but it was moved to 7.10 pm and we left the office around 5. Rather late, and the traffic was very bad. At one point I was rather sure we wouldn't make it, but we arrived at the airport about 45 minutes for take-off. We were running for the the check in counter.

It turned out that our plane had a delay, so the rush was not necessary at all and we had plenty of time for dinner & Starbucks. We were told that the aircraft we were taking had a mechanical problem on its original departure point, St. Thomas, and it was not until 10.40 pm that we left Puerto Rico. I was home around 2.00 am.