The Kermis (Carnival)

Belgian towns all have the fair or carnival come to town at least once a year. Our little town of Kessel-lo outside Leuven even has one. I think there have been about 8 different cities we have run into some version of the carnival at. In Flemmish this is called the Kermis, because Carnival is reserved for the mardi gras type fesitivies.

In any case, each Kermis has snacks, rides, and games to suck your money away. Most are pretty ghetto and the idea of eating escargot from the back of a trailer is pretty disgusting to me. But then again, I love me a good ballpark frank out of a greasy street side vendor in Chicago, so what's the difference?

The Kermis (carnival) moved into the park right across the street from us, literally 50 feet from our door step. They moved in about 2:30 in the morning and took about 2 days to set-up. Mia insisted we go over every night and check the progress. On Friday night they opened and were there for 4 nights. We of course went every night to watch. Mia is not big on the rides, unless her friend William is there with her and rides with her. When she is by herself, she just loves to watch the people.


Mia and William on the Cars ride. I'm pretty sure there were no royalties being paid to Pixar for this ride.


Mia also discovered a love for bounce houses. It took her about 20 minutes to warm up to the idea and after that she loved it and did it everyday for about an hour. Although she never ventured in very far, she is pretty shy and apprehensive overall. (Like her dad)

So all in all the kermis was fun. Much nicer than the one in Leuven as this one is smaller and more spread out in the park. And they had Smoutebollen there, the Belgian equivalent of the American funnel cake. Only here, they are just fried balls of dough with loads of powdered sugar. Also known as oliebollen (oil balls).