Straattheater Festival in Tongeren

Sundays around here are really slow, which I love!! We get to sleep in; well, as much as the kids will let us. Adam started a tradition back in the hotel of making pancakes every Sunday. He only had a frying pan use back at Malpertuus. At least now he has his big griddle so he can make more than one at a time =) We lounge about, eating pancakes, and get ready to leave for church around 10:30 so we can be at St. Francis of Assissi at Brunssum in plenty of time for the 11:30 mass.

This week, we plan on going to church and leaving immediately afterward. Tongeren is having its Strattheater festival from 1-5pm! Mass ends and we head to the car as fast as we can, trying to end our conversations with other church members as politely as possible (I usually like to stick around a chat much longer, so this is especially challenging =). So, we get going, and then.....

Adam takes us to the Brunssum library. (What?! We're supposed to be going to Tongeren!!). Well, we check out the library for the first time. I like it. It has a great deal of traveling media, language learning systems, books on CD, books for kids, and much more. We have to set up an account. And we run into some of our friends from church. Apparently, many from the English Catholic mass community come here afterwards. They're probably wondering "What's up with these folks? They rushed out of church just to get to the library?" Well, anyways... We get our books, and then we finally make our way to Tongeren.

As we're entering the city, we notice many people walking, all towards the city center, lots of families with kids in strollers. This doesn't bode well. Parking is going to be awful! We find a space available in a residential area about a kilometer away from the town center. Good thing we brought both strollers! Rachael wouldn't have been able to do all that walking. So, we're walking. More and more people join us as we make our way to the party. We reach one of the open areas. There's a clown in the middle waiting with a flock of grey geese, just standing there. We wait around and see if they're going to do something. Nothing happens for a while. Just down the street is a little carousel. We decide to let Rachael ride that. The cost is 2 Euro for one ride, or 4 rides for 5 Euro. Of course we take the better deal! Rachael rides once, then we leave, wanting to see if anything else is going on. (Guess what, we never came back to the carousel! That guy made some money off of us =)

We walk back to the geese. They're still not doing anything, so we decide to walk up the blocked off street where the crowds are. All of a sudden we hear this loud Italian music coming toward us. Then we see a cute little bus driving through the throng of people. Leave it to Adam to notice the pictures of naked ladies on the back of it (sorry, I didn't get a picture of that!! =). The little bus drove down the street. I assume it dropped some folks off and picked other up because it came back through the opposite way. What a fun introduction to the street theater =)

So, we're walking up the street. We see this little table with three waffles makers and a sign advertising "Luikse Waffles/Belgian Waffles" for a few Euro. Of course we have to have some! Adam go the one that you see in the picture. I had to wait for mine to be made. The guy lifted up a flour-sack cloth that was covering these little balls of risen waffle dough. He places two on the waffle maker, and we waited. I'm so glad we did. The waffle came off so Hot that I had to let it cool down a little. But, oh my goodness! It was so good! So sweet, and chewy, and dense. Perfect for taking on the go. What a delicious treat!!!

As we continue up the street, we catch sight of something, something very odd indeed. I'm not even going to describe it. Just check out these pics!

Odd, huh?! =)

Further up the street, we see some commotion. Figuring out what this was, and then actually getting a picture of it, was quite difficult. A performance group had a huge puppet. It was made of white wire(?) and over a story high. There was one guy running each arm/leg, another 1 or two running the body, which was sitting on a wheel. I don't know if there was another guy telling them what to do. I never heard any instructions (but it could have been too noise). The last guy walked behind, playing some haunting music on a very interesting musical instrument with an electronic amp. The 'man' was moving around, spinning circles, walking, shaking hands, looking around. It was quite the performance.

 

The musician. If anyone knows what this instrument is, please let me know. I'm curious.

We also saw him later on as well.

After that, the entertainment just kept coming.

The clown was actually a one-man-band who walked the geese down the street.

This guy was pretty bad. He had a whole group of people, kids included, and waffled around and didn't really do anything. He kept talking, like he was waiting for something to happen. He wanted the kids to come by him. Then he said he didn't like kids and told one, laughingly, to "Shut the f*** up!" And the adults laughed. We got bored and moved on. However, he was one of the few who did his act in English, though.

 We're not really sure what these were, but they were cute:

A bee, he played a bit on his Kazoo, too!

Rachael really like the giraffes, especially the 'baby' giraffe =)

The 'baby' giraffe

Then, there were the chickens. Oh, how I loved the chickens!!! There were three chickens, playing musical instruments, making chicken noises with them or playing songs, acting out a story. One was a female, and she laid and egg and sat on it. One of the other chickens tried to steal it. The whole thing was riotous. Rachael and I snuck down low to get a peak. I had my camera out recording it. One chicken saw us and got down low with us as they were playing the Muppets song. He was playing right 'to' us. Oh, I just laughed and laughed and smiled. They were a hoot!!!!!

One of the last acts we saw was two people, one 'riding' a horse, the other with clackers to make hoof-clomping noises. They were pretty cute, too.

Then, around 4 o'clock, the rain started. Just lightly, at first. I was glad I thought to bring the umbrellas and pack them in the strollers. Rachael was so happy she got to actually use her Dora umbrella!!!

Well, the rain just got heavier and heavier. Soon, the street got very empty. The rain was almost a deluge! We strapped the kids in the strollers and high-tailed it to the car, a kilometer away. I was wearing flip-flops and slip-sliding all over in them. What an adventure! We finally made it to the car. We crawled in, dripping wet. I think the rain and the mad dash to the car made the whole day just that much more entertaining =) I'm not sure if Adam or Rachael agree with me, though =) Zach was pretty zen about it all, just chilaxing in the stroller and not minding getting put back in his car seat. It was definitely an experience we'll remember forever! =)  And, advertised on the same programme as the Straattheater is the Stadsmuzikanten Festival 3Juli. I wonder what we'll see then! Ta ta!