Possibly the Best Terrace in Amsterdam

I have no idea what the name of the place is. It might be Sound Garden Café. It might be something else. But I was there yesterday and Sailorboy said this is the best terrace in Amsterdam. I thought there might be others. He insisted this is the one. It’s perfect. The entrance is on Marnixstraat, so at the street, you don’t even see it. But you get through the bar to the terrace just on the water. You can look at the boats passing by, the motor riders on the street and just enjoy your huge beer. Shouldn’t this be like a try-out at all the terraces in Amsterdam, so then you can say, yeah, true – this is the best?!

Well, I might go on trying terraces, so let me know when you’re around, if the weather’s nice, we can have a go…

We've Got a Marriage Situation

It's marketing.

It's marketing life, all you women need to marry and you've got to drag men into it. You've got to do it right, it's got to be perfect, it's the most important day of your life!

Men, you need to drink lots of beer, be happy when you cheer your team at a football game, have doubts about marriage and wish you have the best car ever to attract young chicks.

We had dinner the other night with a .ro friend and her .nl boyfriend. They're having serious discussions around this topic. It seems in .ro it's still so popular to get married, while in .nl it's more popular to get children and move on with your life.. cut wedding and honeymoon costs, be more efficient.. It seems like they're having an army of arguments one for the one thing and the other for the other.. I'm wondering who will win this fight?!

Discutii de job - continuare

Ca de obicei - lunch cu colegii mei anormali.

Zice unu (1) - am citit un sondaj cum ca oamenii se imbata mai mult din cauza crizei, unii sunt toata ziua betzi chiar.

Io sar repede cu opinia ca pai cum, frate, daca nu-s bani - cum te-mbeti asa.. toata ziua?!

Zice 1 - ah, pai nu-ti trebuie bani!!

Ah, nu?! pe gratis am vazut mai putini betzi.. ma afirm din nou.

1 continua - dar poti sa te imbeti foarte ieftin! iei un pahar de vodka, un tampon, inmoi tamponu in ghb a.k.a date rape drug si apoi in vodka si ti-l bagi in fund. Se absoarbe superrepede si e f eficient. Cu un pahar de vodka esti rupt!! Iar mai ales aia care o sa fie dati afara beau de se fac prashtie..

Stai!! zice al doilea (2). Stai asa, ca nu inteleg. Deci ce e drogu ala?

Al treilea (3) se ofera sa explice: ghb sau date rape drug se foloseste ca un tip sa i-l puna unei tipe la o petrecere in bautura si ea isi pierde constiinta. Pe urma el purcede la actul sexual, iar a doua zi tipa nu mai stie nimic din ce a facut o seara inainte.. deci iti dai seama cand il pui n vodka si ti-l bagi in fund ce efect are!

Lui 2 nu-i vine sa creada!! zice - pai si cum? chiar nu-si aduce nimic aminte??

Da, zice 1. Are dintr-o data apetit sexual crescut, si-o trage, iar a doua zi tot ce poti sa-ti dai seama e ca ai o durere..

Da, zice 3 - o durere intre picioare, ca si cum ai fi facut sex.. si inca altceva... depinde, prin care femeia poate sa-si dea seama ce s-a intamplat.. dar nu mai stie altceva..

Io zic - pai da, stii ca daca te duci in club trebuie sa fii atent, sa tii mana deasupra paharului sau sticlei sa nu-ti toarne cineva ceva.

Zice 3, da, si daca te-ai dus sa dansezi si ti-ai lasat sticla de bere pe bar, nu mai trebuie sa bei din ea, ca nu se stie niciodata ce prafuri ti-au bagat acolo..

1 este indignat - vezi ca nu stii despre ce vorbesti?! Ghb este lichid, se toarna..

Da, bine, zic io. Asta stiu. Da drogu asta nu te costa mai mult decat alcoolul??

Zice 1 - ah, nu, deloc. Poti sa-l faci si acasa, nu e greu de facut. Numai ca nu prea stii doza exacta.. s-ar putea sa faci o dozare ushor incorecta, da oricum scopu tau e sa te faci manga, asa ca nu mai conteaza..

Ah, zic io, deci cum astia de la noi de la It stiu ca o sa fie dati afara, se apuca cu totii de tampoane cu vodka si ghb, nu??

Zice 1 - normal, daca vedem ca le atarna o sforicica, stim de ce!!

Al doilea este total shokat. Nuuu pooot sa creeed.. pleaca.

Noi radem ca de obicei de conversatia noastra inteligenta si de care e cu sforicele prin fund.. LOL

Good Ideas Come Under the Shower

I was taking a shower.. then this song comes into my mind - every one is gay.. every one is gay, almost obsessively.

So I'm thinking: wait, this was a kind of a theory about every one loving himself or herself so much that you might as well be gay. I'm also true to the Freud concepts that your childhood determines your future life (except to his sexual theories, which can also be good, but were just too limited on the poor rich mans' wives who had nothing better to do than dream about sex).

But anyhow, if the two would come together then you'd say a child who loves himself too much would at a certain point see that his mate whom he plays with is the same as himself. The little girl playing along is somehow different and scary.

So he goes gay.

My theory from under the shower would be - there are no specific before-birth pre-determined genes for gay people. There are also no points in time when a person gets stoke by gayness. Every one is gay and depending on your inner ego and childhood you might discover yourself as one or get attracted by the opposite and just be considered normal.

2 Weekends and Lots of Films

After the "There Will Be Blood", you only want to see "Apocalypto" - even more brutality, so then we chilled with "Citizen Kane" and I discovered where the White Stripes lyrics for "The Union Forever" come from.. arrhh! suck an idiot, never to have known this! "Stranger than Fiction" and some oher Will Farell Bush show are deadly hilarious..

I'm having a girlfriend over and talk about old stories, new stories, traveling and jobs, thn we take a walk to this brilliant coffeshop = the one you buy coffee from!! I've seen a new small espresso machine, just looks genius and spreads out espresso.. I've been trying to find some pictures, but I guess it's not that famous.. oh well, maybe in few years..

Next day we're getting sailorboy's family over - they get convinced about the I've-had-too-much-to-eat power of .ro food, we enjoy our talks and brother G. getting crazy on A'dam Klezmer Band, so we're careful about bringing Balkan Beat Box on the stereo..

After more monopolistic stories with IT-guru and his Dr.FeelGood girlfriend, we come to the horse-penis medical instrument story and other anal consultations - just disgusting enough to put on a table during/after dinner. Ask me on private and if I'm in a good mood, I'll tell you all about it ;)

Remember how much I like the circular stories? It comes back to Balkan Beat Box which the RacecarSultan has put as background on his and Sailorboy's Dakar film - looking good! and after beer, wine and the more traditional vishinata and palinca we start grooving on the beats.. next morning all we can do is chill with orange juice and good coffee.

Murphy’s Law

If you’re trying to open a wine bottle, the phone will ring at the moment you’ll be trying to use the corkscrew.

Attempt 1 – I go to the kitchen, take the wine bottle, try to find the corkscrew, my phone rings. I talk to my mother.

Attempt 2 – I take the corkscrew, try to open the wine bottle, my phone rings. It’s some one doing a survey on closing time of the terraces in the Jordaan. I talk to the survey guy.

Attempt 3 – I take the corkscrew again. My thirst grows proportionally to the number of phone calls I need to take in my attempt to open the wine. I try to open the bottle, my phone rings. It’s a sort of a friend.

Attempt 4 – I say to myself, this time I’m not picking up no damn phone! I successfully open the wine bottle. The wine tastes even better now.

Sfatul zilei

Sa nu beti vin prost, ca va doare capul ziua urmatoare!!

Fringe in Amsterdam

Mada, na ca e si aici!!

Tot mi-am dorit sa merg cu Mada la Fringe in Scotia... da l-au adus la Amsterdam.. bine e altfel decat cum mi-am imaginat io. Credeam ca e gen un festival unde platesti intrarea gen o data si te plimbi de la locatie la locatie sa vezi spectacole.. pai nu - asta e ca te duci la diverse teatre si locatii, da platesti la fiecare show...

In fine, din tot festivalul, am sjuns si noi la Blue Shade, o piesa despre un mafiot care se uita la eality show-uri de la tv, un fel de Oprah. Si el are o nevasta care i-a facut un copil negru cu stripperu de la petrecerea ei de dinaintea nuntii. Si e cam pampalau mafiotu asta si are probleme cu aialalti, da vede la tv cum s-a descoperit un drog care iti pune in ordine viata si te face fericit... asta e plotu si piesa e actuala, iar mie mi-a placut foarte tare..

Data viitoare cred k merg cu Mada in Scotia :)

The Swine Flu and The Sleep

I wake up one Monday morning with bad symptoms. I might even call in sick. I do that and get an e-mail as in beware of the Swine flu. Yes, I do! Next day, being able to stand, even walk, I go to the office. I'm immediately sent home with the verdict - you might have the swine flu. I'm feeling bad at the minute. It really gets worse by the time I get home. I sleep for about 4 hours in a perfect coma. My doctor says it can be anything - normal flu, swine flu, season's flu. I never really trusted these doctors! They don't even want me around.. I feel like some leper contagious outcast. No one wants to see me, talk to me, be around me. Only sailorboy, but he's also got some kind of a flu. I stay home the entire week and sleep between 14 and 16 hours per day. These must be the sleepiest days of my life!!

I'm fine!!

Week 35

Tuesday

We're going to do it! we're actually going to have a reunion at the uni with the class. I'm wondering how many people will continue to come at these meetings and how many really give a damn. I'm thinking to myself - who's really there for the fun ad who just wants to network? but that's irrelevant compared to our thoughts of outsourcing our dissertation to 10 Indian students who will work it out for us and all we'll have to do is streamline them and get the results.. the laughs, the restlessness! we're still in an after-holiday mood.. no one can think properly, that's why our supervisors get funny names, as well as our papers. Oh well, enough fun done, we move on for the day.

Wednesday

We get a delicious dinner at the RacecarSultan's place. He's having it all prepared for us. Wit a good talk on perspectives and odds, we're getting there. At the end we listen to Andre Hazes and drink some palinca.. sounds like a weird combination.. RacecarSultan goes out to buy cigarets which makes him drive us to the bus stop. So perfect curves.. he makes the car jump right on the right way, this is fantastic!! I'm already fancying that off-road in Romania..

Friday

It seems I get the opportunity to have a .ro dinner at my colleague's place. Bucuresteanca mea gasteste ca la carte. Se apuca paa si sa faca tapenada in casa.. wow! si in rest, casa ei din Utract e foarte dragutza. Primesc o cina excelenta, ma uit la pozele lor di nPeru, foarte frumoase.. si dupa care ma duc la gara.. sunt impresionata - asa oameni mai rar!!

Saturday

I get to see my Latino diva again. She's such a wonderful person and we really have good times together.. she's supposed to come at 4 or smth and in the meanwhile it gets 7. I should be getting used to this. I didn't know though the Latino watch is worse than the African... oh well, it differs.. only Ada can break records.. After dinner and wine we go south. We meet the Sailorboy and his gang. Every one's amazingly enough drinking cola, it seems it's the effect of Ozzy football with only men drinking beer the entire afternoon. We then get some real drinks, chat and think of how we can extend our fun. It gets Latino, but they party late, as we know it.. so we're waiting and waiting till we're too tired to party any more. We retire to sleep.

Sunday

Inglorious bastards is really a cool film! every one should at least see it. My evening was terrible due to ingloriously trying to bike next to sailorboy and not 5m behind, it just goes wrong and I leave my bike behind hoping for some better nights.. oh well, you cannot have it all!

At the Beach

I believe this is the most sunny wonderful day of end of August.. this must mean something! This cannot just be! So we're going to take advantage of it! definitely!! had some jogging done, very proactive attitude I might say.. then hit it off to the beach. I read some Remco Campert to my Sailorboy till the time the RacecarSultan was there.

Had some fresh beers, laid in the sun, had some good talks, had some more beers and as you know it - time flies when you're having fun! sun was down in a minute. We grabbed a bite at the Mango where the mojito's were real mojito's. And took the train back talking about the people in the caravan just across the train station in Zaandfort. Such a un-nice place to live. I can bearly think of a worst one..

Now I'm really tanned!!

Excuse my Finnish

Ashea, iar din seria – iubitorii limbilor straine – astazi finlandeza. Am descoperit ce remindere trimit ei pe collections, voi mentiona titlurile:

- Reminderul 1: MUISTUTUS (gen bee m…, da-mi banii!)

- Reminderul 2 - TOINEN MUISTUTUS (gen foarte nashpa din partea ta!) si

- Reminderul 3 - KOLMAS MUISTUTUS MAKSAMATTA OLEVISTA VAKUUTUSMAKSUISTA (gen acum ai dat de dreacuuu!!) LOL

p.s. – nu stiu dak doar pt mine e asa hilar sau kiar e distractiv.. daca nu, excuse my Finnish!

On the road – Biking!! (2nd series)

I'm new with this biking thing.. some people have done it for all their life.. as a matter of fact they cannot even imagine it how it is not to have a bike. No to jump on a bike (in the morning) and get to your job, uni, musical, date, concert, circus, pub, whatever! They've been biking for as long as they can remember.

Now as I'm new to this, I take pleasure in doing it. I like the wind in my hair, the fantastic moves I make, the motion, the street, the people, the kids in front and back.. I still cannot imagine it how people talk on the phone, hold children still, a umbrella and groceries. I still think they must be some sort of spider-men and women to be able to do so.

But anyhow, Salilorboy's teaching me tricks and making me practice. In this direction, we bikes to Haarlem. I don't even know how many kilometers there are up to there. Something between 15 and 30. We anyhow took one long and one short route, so we might as well had done around 40-50km, that's not something you'd do every day. At the same time, I felt good, no shade of exhaust.

I guess my going off to work by bike every day paid off. In our way there we encountered the most peculiar garden I've ever seen. Besides the tractors or used instruments and devices planted artishly around the garden, there were real animals, including a lama or two.. very strange indeed. Do you just import them from Peru?!

Well anyhow, we got there, sat at a terrace... it was fabulous weather out there!! did some walking around. We surprisingly saw that there was a jazz festival we didn't know about,

but also decided not to stay there, 'cause it'd take us to long to get home afterwards.. we biked back after a relaxing time to an even more lazy time at home.. watching a film, doing nothing.. just perfect!!

Expirat

V-am spus ca am mancat multe lucruri expirate la viata mea?! Iaurt, oua, bomboane, paine, salata, cascaval, salam, cred ca de fapt tot cam ce se poate manca, io am mancat si expirat. Da gen expirat de cateva zile si nemucegait. Ok, recunosc, am mancat si pesto expirat dupa ce am inlaturat mucegaiala. Da asta din economie J da am auzit de la o buna prietena ca prietenul ei olandez mananca lucruri expirate.. iar eu i-am spus ca nu e grav, ca aia e o indicatie. Se pot strica mai inainte, si le arunci. Sau mai tarziu, atunci le mananci, gen. Asa fac si eu.. si cand imi zice – bine, Oana, dar si Nutella expirata anul trecut?! WTF?! E cineva care mananca asa ceva?! Iata ca un amic olandez.. ii dorim pe aceasta cale – Sanatate!!

Din aceeasi serie, la job mergem la automatul de dulciuri. Io imi iau un Kinder Bueno. Un coleg isi ia o prajiturica. Se uita pe ambalaj – zice – frate, asta e expirata, de 4 zile!! La care o colega zice – eh na?! Baga banii in automat si isi ia acelasi lucru(!!). Zice, da ma, si a mea chiar e expirata, tot acum 4 zile. Amandoi purced la ingurgitarea prajituricii. Expirata! Fata zice – bai, da e cam uscata.. deh, fata, ce te astepti de la o amarata prajitura expirata?!

Episodul bicla

Wwwwvvvrrraaaa!!! Shi Oana taie Surinameplein cu toate stopurile pe roshu! Eat dust! Io s mai rapida ca stopu!

Merg in fiecare zi cu bicileta la serviciu – 7,5km. Si e foarte tare! Cred ca am inceput sa fiu Amsterdameza.. maine se va fi facut o saptamana de cand tot merg cu bicicleta.. La inceput ma panicam la fiecare intersectie, acum sunt in stare sa traversez in mare viteza, cateodata stau si la stop. Unde e aglomerat. E si asta un sport, da e si asa frumos sa mergi cu bicicleta prin Amsterdam cu o vreme asa buna! Soare si caldutz.. banuiesc ca nu o sa mai dureze mult, dar inca se poate, asa ca let’d do it! ;)

One Week of Hosting

Just got back from the trip, so need to see friends and family, me and sailorboy we'd be playing hosting all week long.

So it starts with a traditional .ro meal and my infamous uncle coming up here. He's so crazy about the boats he can see from the window. I suppose he'd watch them all day long.

Then the Latino jewelfish is around. We have such a good laugh about all the trabajo gossips, friends, papi chulos, jobs and all other hot topics around.. we finnish the fiesta with fine wine. Hasta al luego, seniorita bonita!

Next's delight with sailorboy's music. I love it when he plays guitar and I have some other

things to do and then I pause, 'cause his music is too good.. and then it goes on.. this defines quality in time.

Leave from work with the WorldtravellingPolka and bike to the YumYum resto. We take a

longer route to her apart. Gee, I remember some lights on the street and crazy sounds, it almost seems like a dream, so long ago.. well, we move on to the road and we need to do a lot of talking, just perfect girl talk. I'd be making jokes from time to time while on the roller-coaster of the street too close to the water. Damn, I still have the water-phobia!!

Carry on, meet Sailorboy and RacecarSultan just in front of Yummy place, nothing to retrieve. We proceed to the Ethiopian venue. It's nice and warm, so terrace facilities will be used. We're all eating from a big pancake-plated mixed menu and share long-

gone stories. Like motor-and car-trips, love stories and insane people, masturbators and parks, Asia and Eastern Europe and it strikes me to hear that the exam to join the medical uni is based on lottery.

Rather than that, drinking's done till no one's there to bring us another glass. We move on to our house, accompanied by bikes and good spirit. We're having some palinca with a taste of .ro salami just in case hunger strikes. We're telling stories that have never been told and enjoy

some wine and beer. The party splits when the night's young, we'll meet each other again, my brain-muscled animalito's!

Next's the Cappucinobeauty with her parents along. It seems she's a superstar, a music prodigy, so Sailorboy needs to take a pic of her next to the guitars. Some day she'll be a prodigy music star. We're catching up and looking forward to a longer time together..

I'm so much into circularities. It begins with family, it ends with family. That's how the week ended - with Sailorboy's father dropping by and looking forward to .ro stories of life and culture, I guess some of us still need to practice.

Lekker Roemenie

Day 1

We get ourselves at Schiphol, we have too much cash on us, damn the .ro currency!

Can’t wait for the brilliant Eurozone! Get scared on the plane when some drunkard of a pilot announces the route and all. Sailorboy gets panicked at his foreign language capabilities, me at his Romanian with a taste of vodka. I pray. We land precisely on time. Gee!! The only time the plane’s on time, my parents are late with their pick-up. No wonder they’re late. The traffic’s a mess!! Such a nightmare!! Well, when in Rome.. luckily we get home, I see my big-fur cat and we have good .ro food and drinks. We drag ourselves to sleep.

Day 2

Enthusiastically launched into an exploration of the 2nd biggest building in the world – the House of People. This thing is humongous! Only sailorboy gets to see it, I’m banned to solve issues bank- and uni diploma-related. Bank’s are in the system. Issue solved. Another Kafka scenes rolls under my eyes when I figure it out that at my former uni they only work between 11.00 and 2.30. Lazy bastards! I re-visit them at the appropriate hours and get to stand in a line for more than one hour. I silently congratulate myself for my choice of moving to a different country.

We’re lunching with the extended family, grandma and grandpa. Grandpa manages to talk about grapes and weather with Sailorboy just by using hand-language. Pretty cool! We hit it off to La Motoare – the place to be! It’s a real gather-up with Gigi, Geamy, Kiki, Simona, Ioana, Adriana, Raluca, Corina, Maria, Vico, Boris. Later we move on to the creepy Cafenea, where we’re not allowed to sit outside on the terrace, we only can be given a drink if we’re in. Inside it’s a public sauna. Delia, a mother to be, her man, Razvan, another mother Alice and Edi join us. We keep up the good short stories and I’m happy to see all. Till our next gather up, ta-tar!!

Day 3

My agenda definitely includes Vulcanii Noroiosi, a.k.a. the Muddy Volcano’s.

The desire to climb up on a mountain is crawling up in the back of my head.

Sailorboy discovered the plopping concept. He’s just playing the

bubblegum and then breaking sound as a plop for a good illustration of the volcanos. We’re just picturing it, stopping at a dam to admire the view then getting to the real thing. It’s indeed a plopping feeling. Next to that, it’s always good to see the Mars-like scene. I play a new-born coming out of Mother Earth.

We hit it off to Sinaia, the mountain touristy resort where lately bears have been coming up from the mountains.. I suppose the bears discovered the economic principles of scarcity in the woods, as well as “no lunch for free”. Now they need to attack city and village population to convince people to get food placed in the forests. Damn economic bears!!

Day 4
We’re having museum/castle visits on our travel agenda. We get some ridiculous shoes for the Pelisor visit. We get in and come to some long-forgotten places of kings and queens in .ro.

Later on we get to see the Peles, castle which value’s estimated of weight in gold.

That should be pretty cool. I’m wondering what’s my value?!Had dinner at the Serbian place where too much food invaded my plate. Needed to taste my father’s food, so he’d take something from my plate. So overwhelming!

Day 5
Woke up early in the morning to go see the Dracula’s castle. They made some sort of medieval castle out of it, so only the fame and glory stays. I took the most popular photo’s whom every one who visited must have took. I’m so ordinary!

We carry on our road trip to Brasov. We get a magazine to choose from, we’ll be staying at Samurai. The owner looks like he’s going to split us in two with a sword, but he’s too kind. He speaks the slow language of the west .ro, he couldn’t be more funny.We’re advised to check out the Coliba Haiducilor at the Poiana Brasov.

We get very traditional food and music. Together with that, a rip-off bill to pay. No mood for fights with waiters, we leave.We take a tour of the big square, have some cold drinks and enjoy the evening – chill-out time.

Day 6

In our quest to see more Dracula places (we are in Dracula’s land, so we need blood), we get to the man’s house in Sighisoara. I really enjoy the medieval city and revival style. We step in the house which is now a restaurant and we have some Transilvanian food. Soup in bread included.

Funky bite!

We stuck around enough for one day, we needed to move on. We

expected Medias to be something of a city, we could only pee there, so we’ve named it PeeCity.

In desparate need to sleep somewhere, we asked at a hotel in Alba Iulia.

Man, what do you think this is?! Paris?! Watch it out for ridiculous prices while you’re out there!! The bastards would try anything!! We got in a park where oddly enough you could use internet for free. We tried to connect the minicomputer, failed and asked some guy with a computer what the trick is. Poor park guy couldn’t figure it out, so gave us a number of a hotel.

We got in there, we finally got air conditioning. It’s a God-given gift at 39 degrees..At the valuable indications of the hotel personnel, we could walk for 20 minutes to the old centre. After no less than one freaking hour and a half, we got there.

After walking in spooky neighbourhoods where I was really watching my bag and asking people if it’s a long way till there. They diplomatically and politely offered to show the direction, without precise information of the hour it would take us to get there.

Damn stupid hotel personnel!!We made it to the old city center. Apparently the pride of the city is a music fountain where half the city walks around, even at 10 in the evening. The massive ancient city walls are impressive. They amazingly made it so long. They even had some parade guard watching, I suppose it’s for the fun of it. Otherwise the huge cathedral had no guards whatsoever. I’ve never been alone in a church at 10 in the evening. Most of the time you cannot get in there that late.

I felt scared, good thing Sailorboy was there. Felt quite unique.

Day 7

Driving to Deva we decide there’s too much to walk to the castle, we were going to see the one in Hunedoara anyhow. The Corvins castle looked like an old fortress, but had some Dutch caravans around. Sailorboy discovered the hyper Dutch complaining to his

pregnant wife and regretfully and unrecognizably shut up. At the entrance I bump into this guy I’ve known for ages. We used to do a lot of partying.. Wtf?! What are the odds?! Castle looks nice for what it’s meant for. No glamour, except for the ladies working at its restoration. Only women at work! What’s that of a crazy club?!

Sailorboy drives on to some amazing racing routes backed up by fabulous scenery. We’re up to

Paltinis, next to Sibiu. We get no gps signal at the moment and get on some muddy side road, I get down in the paddles to ask how the road is going, and we proceed to Paltinis. We’ll have

some quiet relaxing time in here.

Day 8

My wish comes true – we climb up the mountain. We do an easy tour, as it’s a rainy weather. We have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, there’s not much happening there. Even the waiter’s so old his feet hurt.. he seems he’s been on them for ages. He’s

tempting sailorboy with palinca and I have the usual beer of the

mountains, Ursus. We’re getting more .ro food and chill.

Day 9

We travel the same wonderful route on the steep curves to

Sinaia, we have a pick-up for my mom and dad, who were just enjoying their own private time in there since we left Sinaia. My dad drives to Buchi and we have dinner by the park. We’re on some covered-up terrace, but by the time we’re in the middle of our delicious dinner, a storm stops by. It’s so ravaging that in 5 minutes it manages to wet half of the terrace territory and all guests need to retreat inside. We continue eating, till Gigi calls. It seems half the Bucharest’s underwater. My father gets to the car and faces water till his knees, he brings the car to the door of the restaurant and for 20meters distance, Sailorboy gets shower wet. Ridiculous!

We need to get from our car to Gigi’s by letting them park next to each other. We had a set-up meeting, so we could get to see Gigi’s new house. Great place, I also need that kind of a kitchen! I suppose I need to earn it first.. I’ll do my homework on Cooking princess. We part with promises to see each other in the Netherlands again – soon, hopefully!

Day 10

Spent the morning at Sorina’s new hairstyling place. Got a good hairdo. Then hit off to the Green Hours, such a pleasant place to be at. Especially with Aida.

She’s telling me stories I somehow know and we catch up with our lives. I think this is the most one-to-one I’ve had so far in this trip.. but I don’t get many chances, what can I say.. I love you all!! Sailorboy joins us after unsuccessful attempts to see some museums in Bucharest and walking for half the day. Aida drives us to granma and grandpa where we say hello-good-by and talk about all we’ve done. We have a night out in Club A. My usual Club A friends are there – Alina, Andra and the gang! Geamy, Kiki, Alex and Maria on top. Sailorboy scores some extra points on social skills, niceness and rhythm. (can't believe I have no pics of that!!)

Day 11

We’re definitely not leaving the country till we see Cerna, the countryside. So we’re again the happy family on board. Damn we must have spent half of our days in the car starting day 2!! Oh well, all for a good cause!! My grandma’s so happy to see us, my uncle as well.He’s so happy he needs to prove he’s magnetism with all cutlery and remote control. I can also do this with one spoon – are we freaky or?! Sailorboy gets his first taste of goose heart – what do you mean you haven’t had that before?! I had a lot of brains in my good times! – It’s always such a pleasure to say that – I mean brains as food..

Day 12

We have the final generous breakfast in Buchi. Man we got so much food all the way.. drinks and food.. we’ll need to get ourselves on some diet when we get back. We’re happy to have a modest dinner at our place in Amsterdam. This was definitely a good one! Sailorboy’s

convinced we need to get back for some KTM motor off-road. I hope I was convincing enough with his friend, the RacecarSultan who agreed we’re going to see it all from an off-road jeep through the woods. That should be fun!!

What Women Want

Every woman wants presents. Nice things, funny things, rich things, flowers, gifts, a car, tickets to the theatre, a book, diamonds. It's all about the "getting" and the "things".

Here's a brilliant idea I found in the Red Light District. I'm not sure you're aware of it, but some of the old places for the hookers have been transformed in art galleries. Well one of this place is turned into this:

In The Netherlands you can "take food out of a wall" which means you want a burger, you put some coins in, you get it out. Just like any other vending machine. The one for food looks like the picture on the left. But actually the concept is, instead of burgers, you can put rings or jewelry in. Look on the right side picture: "be nice to a girl, buy her a ring". Just brilliant!

Nijntje

11:30 – Zeker en vast I’ll tell you where Albert Heijn is, woman of the Flemish people. And I’ll go on trying to find something suitable for a present for mom.

12:15 – Unsuccessfully I return home just to think of a coffee and move on to the next stop – Utrecht, for the meeting with Fronkie.

13:15 – I get on the train to Utrecht and 2 mermaids step in. One is wearing a pink t-shirt with light pink shorts and again pink panties. It looks not yet like a pinkish blur, so she puts on a light pink wig. The other wears the same, but in blue and black to match her eyes. They ask me if I’m also going to the festival. Which festival?! I ask. This answers their question. They keep on arranging their purses – one has a big wine bottle that she needs to cover in her own clothes so you wouldn’t notice it’s a bottle. The other has a 10cm purse which can basically only hold her vodka bottle and maybe some squeezed in coins. She says – don’t you think this vodka bottle is too little?! I think - Well, then you’d need a different purse, sister!

13:35 – Happy sisters put back all bottles and make-up in their purses, I go off the train. After missing some exits, I return to the main screen in the Central station, Utrecht. I meet Fronkie.

14:00 – We’re walking around in Utrecht. We get a look at 2 churches. It’s the day when all churches are open – you can check them out. I think a perfect day for grandma to visit, too bad she’s not here. We walk further.

14:30 – We’re here: Nijntje Museum!! You can call the little genius rabbit Miffy in English. It has loads of translations in almost all languages of the world and every one recognizes the shapes of Nijntje. We used to play games from Nijntje site when working at HP – het wordt lachen!

15:00 – I get to draw my own Nijntje after running up the stairs of Nijntje’s house. Then I get down with an elevator where you need to keep the button pressed to go down. If you take your finger away, it stops! This is soo cool! I want a house with this elevator!

15:15 – We get to the Nijntje shop. Adrenaline rising – I get to buy my own Nijntje t-shirt. This is fantastic! Living in a dream!

15:20 – How come Dick Bruna is so rich and he doesn’t have a Ferrari?! What kind of person is that?! Besides, he’s still working.. absurd!

15:30 – We’re done with Nijntje museum and shopping, we can still enter the central museum. Our tickets are ok for that one as well. But why?! So we go on to a record shop. I find another good looking plate for Leon, hope he likes the music..

16:00 – Fronkie asks where do I want to sit at a terrace – I say the terrace next to the canal. You don’t have that in Amsterdam – the stairs that go down so you can sit by the water. I also saw at Madurodam – The Netherlands in miniature – a guy who was pissing in the river from the exact place where we were supposed to sit at. Fronkie said it must be one of his friends.

17:30 – We get to Fronkie’s place, we listen to some oh-key old music, I try to shake the apple tree of the neighbours. No damn fruit will fall. I sorrowful sip on the apple juice. We have a look at some old pictures. Funny to see friends in the same places you were at – like Hover Dam.

19:00 – We arrive at the oriental tapas resto. The friendly mermaid at the entrance has a rip-off on the side, you can quietly admire her bra and white skin. Good lipstick though. She takes the order and some Moroccan brings some tapas. We say thank you. After a long debate on who ordered what we discover we’ve eaten some one else’s food. Almost nothing’s ours. We say – bring us another Casablanca beer and we’ll forget about it. Fronkie then tells me his experiences with Hungarian palinca involving nakedness and stories of the bike and the bench after long nights out. We have a good laugh and decide to leave the rest voor volgende keer.

22:45 – Fronkie gives me change for the bus and I say I want to go to Centraal. The driver says it’s ok, I’m going there.

RacecarSultan’s Birthday Party

Another day, another attempt for shopping – in our preparations for Romania. Fortunately, we get the flower bulbs for some people and then something for mom. This should save the day!

Sailorboy and I get the tram to Olympiastadion and proceed to the boat. We retrieve the other guests of the RacecarSultan and himself on water swimming away. Small crowd, but very in the mood, shinny and enthusiastic. Seems like this day was made for tripping on water. Such sunny nice summer day for lovely Amsterdam. Surprising and fresh!

We’re hitting it off, first silently, then getting in some latino grove and ending up in screaming loud singing-along Andre Hazes. My mumblings try to imitate the Dutch speakers, as I lack the lyrics knowledge, but shouting along seems to be working fine!

We’re on small canals, big ones, need to take a left and a right and look ahead, traffic’s hot on water this day.. go along with the others, slow down, increase rhythm. The boating experience includes getting on the floor for avoiding a very low bridge. Serenading under bridges seems to work perfectly for acoustics.. or rather echo-sounds. Tirol yahooing included.

Anything works! Even dancing with high danger of falling. Sailorboy figured it out he needs to be in my way for falling in the water. My high heals and drinking attitude won’t help. From time to time we stop by a coffeeshop or just a bar to try the toilet. The lively people in the places looked like a scared zoo. The framework was twisted. We proceed.

The end of the ride is somewhere south. I lost track of places as soon as we get away from recognizable south. Anyhow, sounds like south! We retire on wooden benches after an attempt to ease inventory count by one fine bottle of wine. RacecarSultan just thinks it’s funny scoring one in our way to the toilet, I do magic and the bottle ends up in my bag. At the end the lost bottle returns to the righteous owners, no dismay, just laughs. I’m hyper with dance-mood increasing, where Sailorboy decides to take me home for private entertainment. We surf the city to the other side back home. My deep sleep’s followed by a 4 o’clock perfectly awake remorse shot. I toss and turn to my coma sleep.

Hola fetili - Corespondentza mea cu 3L's

LC, am fost la lunch si abia acum am vazut ca solicitai ajutor la boli.. e bine si asa.. da naspa k trebuie sa justifici, ceea ce inseamna k nu ti se termina contractul amiabil..

imi pare rau de LJ, take care!! :( sorry k nu mai veniti la Amsterdam, atunci poate la toamna, in formula obisnuita LP+LJ :) sunt convinsa k nu exista varsta pt A’dam. ;)

Da si io abia astept evenimentu ;)

LP, vad k esti f activa! Mentionez k febra dak nu ai pus termometrul e posibil sa ti se para k ai de la prea multa bautura, iar frisoane ai de la oboseala. Pun pariu k erai si ieri obosita si n-ai mancat nimic toata ziua… na, se mai intampla, da te dregi cu o bericica LoL

V-am spus k am vishinata? Si palinca? Deci Leon vrea sa exerseze pt RO si bea palinca in fiecare seara – aseara a varsat un mare pahar pe fata de masa, scaun jos si pe el, frate deci candea aseara in toata casa a palinca frate, m-a luat somnu instant.. oricum eram si io cu vishinata la bord si beri si alte d-astea..deci e f distractiv la noi acasa LOL

Cam astea, pups

Ce mai trotuare, frate!!

Sa ridice mana sus cine nu poate sa mearga pe tocuri in lumea civilizata! Toate femeile care traiesc in Europa de vest!! Nu a vazut picior de romanca un trotoar mai varza! E cu piatra cubica, sa-ti intre tocu mereu intre pietre.

Azi am stat vreo 3 minute: prima data, vad ca mi-a ramas tocu intre 2 pietre. Zic – eh, asta e normal! Trag, nu iese, trag din nou, vad ca incepe sa mi se desprinda flecu. Asha nu se procedeaza! Imi scot piciorul gol din pantof, mi-l pun pe trotoar. Trag tocu cu pantof dintre pietre cu mana mea. Il scutur, scutur piciorul, mi-l bag din nou in pantof. Naspa, frate!! Pai unde ajungem asa?!

Lua-mi-as masina!! Ca alta solutie nu vad..

p.s. bicla!!

Hai cu bicla

V-am spus ca mai nou sunt mai rapida ca autobuzu?! Da, Mada, merg cu bicla la serviciu! Si imi place!

Zice Leon ca tre sa fii atent doar la linia de tramvai. In care am intrat o data, da am iesit cu bine. Yes!

Iar ieri doar ce-am fost mai rapida decat ploaia! Yes yes yo! :)

Manca-mi-ati pedala!!

Uni Celebration

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. The moment for which we counted down, the triumph, fame and glory!! One year and a half of pain, sweat, suffering, sleepless night, much study done, sooo many projects, one huge life-sucking research, simple to complex assignments, just the right number of exams plus some extra accounting and some good presentations and group discussions. This resumes one and a half year of my life spent on my MBA and the reason for my presence in The Netherlands. Well, also that I just love this country.. but main reason was my study.

The count down was done end July and me and my colleagues started asking each other what the hell are we going to do with all that extra time?! We’re not used to having a life with lots of time to enjoy, relax, rest, think about anything and even – mind you!! – watch films!! What are our friends, families, boyfriends think of us when coming home early.. the utility and sense of purpose for ourselves decreased significantly towards the time we were done.. though the sound of celebration is so sweet!!

For the last class we haunted down our teacher to let us leave early supremely promising to have a short tiny break. I suppose he wanted to ditch us as well. Joy joy everywhere, we were able to settle at the café across the street and continue our feast. Oh, just slipped my mind, there was so much partying done.. before the class as well, had dinner, good talks, good jokes and enjoyed our pre-party. The one to follow included drinking. No glamour, just bliss.

To go along with the party fever, I jolly hopped around sailorboy and then we also went out. It’s supposed to be something, but apart from some dancing at this Latino place, all we did was wandering around in Amsterdam. Oh well, us with the Latino jewelfish and the Indian hairdiva at least had a good time!

O zi banala

6:45 – Ma trezesc brusc fara sa pun ceasul – dubios.

8:20 – Imi iau umbrela ca ploua de rupe – ies afara, dupa 5 pasi, iese soarele. Huh?!

9:10 – Ajung la serviciu. Vreo 7 oameni stau in fata cladirii, ba fumeaza, ba isi beau cafeaua. Barbatul de serviciu e langa ei, prezent si da cu aspiratorul dupa ei, sa ia chishtoacele de tigara, ca ei oricum nu se duc la cos sa le arunce. That’s what I call service!!

9:23 – Colega a gasit un film cu fantoma lui Michael Jackson. Mama frate, ia uite.. pe CNN ce au vazut - fantoma. Ne adunam cu totii la computerul ei sa vedem ce se intampla..

9:39 – Colegul se uita pe geam si zice – ia uite – o cioara care a venit pe apa peste o gasca si se bat.. noi ne uitam unii la altii. Da, sunt pe apa – noi ne miram – Cioara pe apa??!! Colega trebuie sa vada – se duce la geam zice – da aia nu e cioara!! Pai da ce e? asa neagra? Colega constata: Daa.. si nici gasca de-i zici tu nu e gasca.. Pai da atunci daca nu e gasca, nu poate decat sa fie o barza..zice el, acum convins. Noi ne uitam unii la altii –cum adica?! Tu nu stii sa faci diferenta intre o gasca si o barza?! Pai tot cam la fel arata.. ne continuam lucrul.

9:40 – Piu trimite un mail ca e ingrijorat de gripa porcina si poate moare in Septembrie. Belgienii au anuntat ca o sa moara oameni in Septembrie. Deja imi imaginez cum se panicheaza ei in Belgia ca o sa moara cu totii in septembrie. What’s wrong with the Belgians?!

9:42 – Colega interaba – ei, si?! Colegul se uita pe geam – inca se mai bat..

10:38 – Un coleg exclama – Vive la patrie!! Un altul intreaba – ce-ai ma nene?! Alalalt insista - Vive la patrie!!, cand, isi da seama colegul si zice, o, da, quatorze de julliet! Da-ne-am seama cu totii ;)

God Please Let Me Be a Mars Volta Drummer!!

I’ve seen a great performance of Mars Volta at Paradiso one of these nights. Some weird people the voltarists. I had the impression they were just about to the point of getting in my mind. But I let them out there with the funky ‘70s magical clothes. Really big heads, even bigger than my curly hay pot when I style in a lot of Tony & Guy volume shi’. Looked like they even had the halo’s from Jackson 5 or something.. not a normal band, definitely!! Besides, the crowd on the scene was bigger than my reunited family. I mean, they could barely fit on stage – 7 people or something?! From the top location me and sailorboy were at, I could see some belly and keyboards, maybe not 2 persons at all. However, I could really notice the rocker giving a shake to some piñatas for instruments.. wtf?! I couldn’t get that sound.. luckily he was mastering a computer, so must have had a purpose in the band.

But the drummer! He’s so brilliant! I mean, I suppose the entire band is something else.. but drum was really too good for my ears.. I could just fancy it in my mind forever.. like those old fashioned video’s where you get to see the main character in a spotlight, drumming volume off and hearing some romantic tune on the background.. I don’t remember time passing by, I can only hold it still on the sounds of the drums.. No idea when we left, I just remember telling something to sailorboy about wanting to be a drummer and he suggesting there’s a good place to train it nearby the house.

Oh God pleeeaasee let me be a Mars Volta Drummer!!

Demonstrantzi dubioshi

Din capitolul dubioshenii si geamuri mari - este foarte ciudat cand te mai trezesti cu o dubioshenie in fatza casei.. o dubioshenie de demonstratie sau demonstranti care apar in randuri-randuri si trec, se duc.. mai deunazi fura niste roller-skateri, da n-am avut timp sa-i pozez.. alti dubioshi.. pur si simplu.. eh, ce voi n-ati manifestat niciodata?!

Numai dubioshenii

Mergi si tu pe strada ca omu si dai de porcarii in fata ta.. mi s-a intamplat si a trebuit sa pozez arta piz*&ii.. in sensul cel mai propriu posibil, ma scuzati!!

Cata mai dubioshenia!!.. in cartierul meu..

On the road – Biking!!

Another lovely afternoon. Such a wonderful time to kill on the bike. I guess it’s difficult for me to keep up with sailorboy just born on the bike, but I keep rolling out my .ro redpower. We take the boat to the north. We’re further and further from the city, but still in the center, somehow. I’m doing Peeping Tom into the people’s houses. I just love doing this! Take a look at how people decorate their houses, what they’re up to. It should be fun to be God up there observing all people – as I

imagine it. Maybe he has something else better to do, but that’s just my thought on it. Spend about three up and down, with a top of lounging next to the water. Had some good Amstel beer and spirits were lively. Enjoyed the view, my baby and the evening. Always a pleasure. Went back and thought: I could do this more often!

Mayisha

While partying at the Oerol, I was trying to call Lydie all the time and found out about her giving birth… sounded like some hero about to be crucified or some circus painful act waited to be performed, all interest reached maximum when Lydie couldn’t pick up the phone. Mayisha was there, the big baby girl who made her feel a lot of pain for 7 hours was so lovely you couldn’t be happier!!

Went with sailorboy to The Hague to see the famous already

brand new family reunion. The place to be! Cool mamma Lydie welcomes us, shows me the room of Mayisha and talks about embarrassing and happy moments. Mayisha couldn’t be sweeter and lovelier!

Oerol Festival

Saturday
Woke up early in the morning to get the 3 connections right at the time. Forgot my nail polish, got a promise I’d get a better one there, all were crap!, forgot my monthly public transport subscription, needed to buy bus tickets, tant pis! My fingers just felt bad! Besides that, we got the bus, we managed to catch the train and get in time to this overwhelming bus where backpacks might have at any moment landed on your head. Got down in Haarlingen all safe and had some sort of a brunch while waiting for the speed ship. Speedy there takes 1 hour, big slow mamma take 2 hours to get there. That’s TerSchelling, the 3rd Dutch Island up north. On Speedy ship I needed to read instructions more times just to figure it out that water might be cold enough to kill me, enough reading!! Upon arriving on the island, we tried to look for bikes to rent. Though a big non-welcoming sign said: NO BIKES to rent, REALLY!! We just needed to ask – that was, just as the other 6 people we saw doing the same time. Needed to take the bus again. What joy!

The camping seemed quite attractive with the big tent set up. We could only start our relaxing time. What shall we do, sailorboy?! We hit it on to the ticket camp. All people were on the bikes. The other people walking seemed idiots and doomed to their idiotness of walking for hours and hours. I was happy with walking. But soon started to sombre up at the idea of people biking around me and showing disrespect, dismay and other dis-words. It must be a 13th!!To our discontent, there were more dis-downturns of the ticketing option. All the night’s shows were sold out, so we tried to make it happen at the Shipwreck museum/bar/club next to our camping. Got tickets for other 3 shows though – Yay!

Sunday
Another day, we should be in luck! We found some bikes with the supreme promise to be able to change them when time is right and all those annoying tourists would have gone home. We got some biking done on the coast, just along the dried up water. Such a unique phenomena! The tide makes the water swollen up or the beach stay dry.. the ships on sand just look ridiculous..

So I got some other phobia and we needed to get on land again.. saw some good wind apparel though. There were all kinds of recipients or just cords lined up so they’d make magical sounds.. seemed brilliant to me!! Needed to get back to the bike shop, my ass was killing me! Fortunately, I could get a better bike, so could sailorboy! All settled! Oh, no, besides my most strange allergy!! I never get allergies!! This one was just making me sneeze and drop liquid from my eyes and nose all the time.. must have been some delayed reaction to the season.. besides that, everything was perfect. The beach and the sun and sailorboy..

We moved on to another beach, the Green beach – they call it like this cause the sand’s greenish!! Fantastic! There we saw this French band of some Balkan gipsy weirdo’s playing all including 2 saxophones at the same time!! It was insane, it was mad, it was energy jumping all around and the crowd getting high on it, the best zoo I’ve ever seen. The singer had a karaoke belt which said – lalalalalalalalalala, which he actually made us sing along. It was most entertaining. Such good karma! To end the show they got down to the public and sang and danced some more. We then had an amazing night at another huge tent with totally dementia music from the ‘60s I suppose.

Monday
Woke up feeling bliss. God bless the weather, there were such nice sunny days, with good kind wind. We did some more biking around the island. We biked till a point where we could only walk. We then did a lot of walking about to the end of the island, where due to time constraints, we couldn’t reach. Maybe some other time.. the endless beach with no one but us was amazing!! Then got to Verhaalboer, or the story peasant. A Belgian play of short stories said in your own headsets. The actors were making all the sounds, while about 8 of us were gathered around an output to which headsets were connected to. All in the middle of nowhere. And the stories were so damn funny and strange and hilarious and unexpected!! Most respectable.

Got to do some more biking, then we came to another side of the island. Checked out the War – another play with teenager actors. Their enthusiasm was such an upper. Too bad the play was not in their favour. With sailorboy dreaming away bored to hell, we decided to leave the premises.

Tuesday
We actually try to do something, it felt right not to. Did a lot of sleeping though, missed few concerts.. it just felt so right!! Got on our bikes again towards night time. We were about to see Liquid space 6.1 – some modern dance with some fantastic robot in the nearby forest. It all seemed overrated when few girls is white creepy costumes were making pregnant-women sounds, twisting and tossing on no music.. felt the immediate need to walk away. Retired to the nearby Shipwreck, our endless crush place, as the name indicates. No actually it was a real museum among others.

Wednesday
We decided to actually see that museum after brunch. We then packed our bags. Showtime. We got ourselves on the Green Beach with our huge backpacks. Well, at least sailorboy’s backpack was huge! Did some sing-along to Blof, climbed on a wall to see it all, ‘cause I couldn’t fancy us trying to get through a friendly crowd to let us in front with the mammoth backpacks. Had some last beers on the island, lounged on the grass and got ready to go. Skipped back to our lovely home. Our first holiday together, no incidents, all magical!!

In One Word: YUM!!

If sailorboy’s birthday is coming up, what are you going to say?! You’re so lovely great perfect lovable wonderful… in one word: YUM!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utVMxahPm24

So then it happened: my first official dinner with no less than 4 courses. Beforehand, I had talked to mum for tips, advice and valuable recipes, then I said my payers and then I just cooked some. I was so nervous, I thought my spoon was going to drop any moment. At the end of it I got thanked for and kissed for – it must have been yum ;)

Back On My Bike

Have you ever seen people biking up and down the street with moving bikes, so sporty, so fine?! Well, sailorboy needed to carry my back in his arms, drag it along for a while, then carry it. The poor bike had been sitting for 4 months in front of the house (former house), deemed to perish. Well he saved it, took it into his arms, carried it home, with having a trams’ doors close in our face. Managed to get on another tram, had it parked home in front of the new house and then worked on it to repair it. And then with brand new tires, I could ride again!! Yahoooo!!

Girl’s Day Out at the Beach

It’s such a unique weather forecast – sunny hot and just perfect! For a Sunday afternoon at the beach with the girls, of course!! We’re going to be one Russian blond, one Romanian redhead and one Peruvian brunette, couldn’t be more powerpuff!! We’re getting lazy on our chaise-longues and have the normal girl talks of hairstyle, men in our lives, contraceptives, car as opposed to public transport, working permits, drinks, holidays and sunshine. Which made us want to take a dip in the water. I didn’t really want that in particular, I’m not that fond of water. I’ve had enough cold water during the communistic regime in Buchi. Well, the expectedly just arrived as any other self-fulfilled prophecy: I hated the cold water and didn’t manage to stay longer than 2 minutes in the freezer. Got back on the beach and after one more hour in the sun, we were enjoying beer at the terrace. Chilled out and fought the traffic jams back to Amsterdam. We shall meet again on the beach!

A Shopping Mall and a Round Table

After walking up and down the fancy furniture shopping mall, we decided the hundreds tables we’ve seen weren’t good enough, small enough but at the same time big enough, nice colour enough, cheap enough but stylish enough to fit in. We needed a good table.

But what’s better than your friends’ table?! So we went to The Hague to visit my uncle. We had a good dinner, nice times at Romanian tv, where sailorboy found out that dolce vita means sweet cow if you say it in the same way in Romanian. Next to this, we had a good laugh at folk songs telly. That was a good one! Brilliant! We then came down to see the table-a Alberto, eh! Our gooda frienda, ze Itaaaliaan, eh!! He left behind this round nice table and chairs, so we rolled out the table to the train. We amazingly fit in with only few remarks from the other passengers and then installed it in the privacy of our own homes. This also completed our hunt for furniture in da house. Yes yes yo!!

Oh yeah, it only cost us another way to The Hague. First we made a stop in Abcoude for the lift-up car. Sailorboy confident driving the car, then took off with the chairs and I enjoyed some .ro quality time with my family.

Din categoria

Din categoria adunarea idiotilor, m-am intlnit cu un fost coleg si cu actualii la hotelul de peste drum.. ne-am amintit de toate glumele proaste pe care le-am facut mai bine de juma de an si am venit cu altele si mai proaste. Ne-am adus aminte de avionul voodoo si alte intmplari cu talc si cel mai adeasea fara, am degustat cu placere o bere si ne-am intretinut ca odinioara…

Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

Do you ever have such times that you don’t exactly remember what you’ve been up to?! What were you thinking then? What were you doing? What was going on in your head, in your life..

Well, I have a lot of them!! One of them was this week in May when I was having dinner at Yum Yum with delighting sailorboy. Tasted good. Then catch up with another sultan of the sunburn at ours. After some .ro palinca they needed to hit it off at some Jordaan terrace, while I was depressed finishing up some project for the uni. Life’s just not fair!!

At the end of the week got a bite of some bitterballen and beer in the center with the IT nerdies and enjoyed their out-of-earthness. They’re in a way different from the others and from themselves as well. I could always suspect one for multiple personalities as well. Got enough to make me run to my guy at home have a nice dinner and relax.

Next day the Brusselina’s are in da house. Can’t believe they brought gifts for the house! Sooo nice! They shouldn’t bring chocolate that they don’t eat, though, it only makes it worse.. got around and about the city, they got smokey downtown, met some strangers to me. We got bored in there, me and sailorboy, so hit the Schiller. The Brusselina’s showed up looking tired though energetic. Ordered some drinks and had a deja-vu. We were at the same place after New Year with friends, when a waiter spilled a glass of beer on Simona sitting next to me. I was sitting in the same place, Chicky was sitting where Simona would sit. She got a glass of beer spilled on her. This time was a German guy who fainted and just dropped there.. but the same table, same chair. This is definitely one of those “why does it always rain on me?”

Well it did. We then got on the wrong bus, needed to get off and walk through the pooring rain, damn it!! Next day we cheered ourselves up with the last day around for the Brusselina’s. Altogether with il Italiano e Colombiana, what can be more dangerous and sweet in such a combination?! So we enjoyed coffee and said good-bye, cause they’re off for Oz. We were just off for more coffee and talks. Done, enjoyed, left.. another week flies by..

One little box, two little boxes…

Honey, are you done yet?! No, I some more boxes…

Honey, are you done yet?! No, I some more boxes…
Honey, are you done yet?! No, I some more boxes…
Sounds like baby’s moving in.. with many more boxes than I expected.. at some moment I was wondering where would it all fit in..

Good he brought some pans though, I don’t have any! I had his, now I’m having more of his.. lights, chairs, side table, this and that, guitars for the sound, more sound.. more, more!
Wow! Man, we need a new house! It definitely won’t fit in! so my sailorboy needed to move some things away to a special storing place till the time we get a bigger one ;)

Guitar is cool though...
We then realized we didn’t have anything for our books and cd’s. So we went visit the famous Ikea. On a Sunday! Fu%*&$# s((&$t!! Can you imagine the crowd! The people, the phobia, the stress, the sweat! OMG!! Killing yourself now is better! We mentally prepared for the argues we’d have, for the entire phobia’s and much more to come. Instead we were quick, I got anxious once, him once, him at the beginning, me at the end, for the rest, it was fine; we targeted our stuff and ignored the crowd. We Did Survive!! This must be the renewal of a beautiful relationship…

My Baby’s Back!!

For 2 freaking months I was counting down how many days there’re left til my baby’s back. Day in day out counting down for sailorboy to come back!! There were rough times when I could only hope days will pass by quicker. I was listening to music like days go by and still I think of you, to other tracks that made me think of him… til the time I realized everything made me think of him. Every other track it was a kiss, a tiny romantic story, a fun thing about him. Him-him-him. Sailorboy everywhere! On my mind, on the streets, on my tracks, on my paper diary which I’m going to give to him, in my pictures, on my table, in my soul.

So that’s why I’m happy, that’s why it’s a release, a joy that he’s coming. I get the most mysterious call before going to the airport – like, girl, what’s the flight number?! From his sister’s boyfriend whom I met once in my life. Ok, stop laughing, get in the dreamy mood! All the dreams and hopes and illusions are going to be scattered when I’ll be able to see him in flesh and bone again.

And it was weird. I tell you, it’s no fun being away from some one so long. Despite the calls, the online dating, the emailing… it’s still weird. You’re like sitting next to a stranger for whom you have feelings. That makes it even stranger… that you can feel something for a stranger.. too strange! :)

So the family’s there, every time I need to feel some sort of embarrassment. It was there when he left, there again. I need to smile despite I’m dead worried cause the plane is 1 hour late. Every tiny minute I stare through the gates, looking at the damn door til maybe he’ll appear. And he’s finally there! He smiles, we hug and kiss, it’s the same, but different.

I had one day off to get used to him. It’s getting better.. sailorboy’s closer.
After a week, we’re getting there…

P.S. Even the cat likes sailorboy!!

Quiet weekend and Dodensherdenking

Needed to catch up with my pregnant hot mamma girlfriend, so got to The Hague. We had traditional chips and delicious salad to go, more beers, waiting forward to the baby. Preparations were being done, from baby’s room to clothes, diapers bin, baby bath, toys and cradle. Everything’s in da house..

I move on to see my uncle and spend good family time together. We have some laughs and catch up, think about all the housy things done and what else to improve. Think about the future and the past, talk about politics and football, tv shows and popularity, news and job descriptions, uni and Dutch language. The night just passes by and I need to go back home next thing next day…

A friend’s visiting. I need to clean up the house a bit before Nicole thinks that’s a mess. I take care of it and prepare to entertain her. We go see the city, take some natural tours. Unhappily I need to be again in the Dam Square – the top of the tourism, the summit of the most famous and disgusting place in Amsterdam, the centre of the unknown-once, then it all revolves around it, so I made it my purpose to try to avoid the Dam Square for as long as I live in the Netherlands.

Except for one occasion. Next day – Dodensherdenking – remembrance of the dead, actually the people who died during the 2nd Word War. [after some normal saying good-bye to my friend, walking her to the bus, doing a jog in the park, and basically run to get there in time] The Queen was there, the Royal family was there, so I was finally able to see them live – from distance. The personal and other guards, nice people, even making fun, authorities, other known and unknown people. In the thousands of people covering all the grand surface of the Dam Square, there was one moment of silence. It gives you goose skin, it’s so damn impressive you didn’t feel nothing like it!! And I was there, holding my breath…

Koninginnedag

Yeah, so that’s what happens when you party on Koninginnenacht – you can’t wake up on Koninginnedag, to do all those wonderful activities one’s supposed to go for. This time, I was happy I missed it! I wanted to see the queen, but at the same time some one else wanted to see her dead. So a maniac just drove into the crowd gathered to say hello to the queen. No reason whatsoever, so drugs or alcohol, the man was just temporarily insane, I guess. He managed to kill himself after damaging some other.. I was sleeping very well at that time.

Booom booom booom shake the room!! Let it be trance! Let it be salsa! Let it be disco!! The boats passing up and down the canal in front of my house are soooo damn loud! I was trying to cover it up with my sound system, but it’s too damn loud!! Well I guess it won’t hurt to try and listen some of the street/water beats..

I love crowds, people and the craziness of those days!! I love to see everything getting hectic, garbage on the streets and drunk people in orange everywhere.. so I took a longer walk around.. after 20 minutes I decided I didn’t like it anymore as much as I used to.. that crowds are annoying, that people are pissing me off when they’re touching, that I need my freedom to walk normally on the street and not need to bump into another guy after 5 more steps, that the people are too loud and crazy.. am I getting older?! Well some people never liked that, so that should be a good consolation, right?! I returned to my lovely cat-guest and spent the rest of the afternoon quietly.

Koninginnenacht

Kissa stays at home like a good girl.

The Night of the Queen should be on. That’s the night/day everyone dresses up in orange and party like crazy to celebrate the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands. The Queen is born on the 31st of January, but they all party on the 30th of April, of course. It’s like me having my birthday on the 4th of December and celebrating it on the 4th of March.. no, actually that’s the wrong logic. It’s celebrated on that date as the former Queen was born on that date; it’s an act of honour for the former Queen and it’s also warmer and people can go out and party. So I should celebrate my birthday on the 8th of November, that’s my mom’s birthday. But it’s still not warm enough. I suppose I should celebrate it on the 14th of June, that’s my dad’s birthday, that’s much better!!

Anyhow, for the first time I’m living in Amsterdam, I was about to celebrate the big night in here. I remember 2 years ago, all the trouble to get in the Netherlands on time for the big day and party Geamy’s birthday altogether!! Then one year ago, all the partying in The Hague and now it’s on in here!! It should be fantastic!! It should be so great!! What am I going to do?!

I’m supposed to meet my Peruvian girlfriend in de Jordaan. That should be easy!! I live in de Jordaan!! Well, I’m only about 30 minutes late! That’s not that bad, right?! At least I have my Holland t-shirt on! Everyone in there’s in orange… a lot of my girlfriend’s friends, but seems like no Dutch. That’s a bit ironic! Celebrate this day with foreigners! In the most Dutch neighbourhood in Amsterdam! Well, after more drinks, I figured out there was still a Dutch girl amongst us.. talked about legislation and politics, then got back to more shouting and drinking, dancing and walking on the streets. Ended up in a big line at a club, just to figure out a girl was getting sick and needed to all get out of line and help her conquer the headache. By the end of it we lost our good spots, so we needed to back-party on the street. I suppose it was the same music, but didn’t last long, so we moved down to another bar. Another friend was basically lying on the pool table, while we were pouring in some more drinks, discussing music and taste.

We broke it off after too much partying on the streets and everywhere about, looking for toilets, talking too many other languages, drinking about every possible combinations of drinks, listening to too loud music, keeping up to all rhythms and getting too loud. It was a good girls’ night at Queen night!

Kissa

Kissa is such a sweetheart! She’s loving and sweet and doesn’t make a sound!
I loved to take care of it and I might want my own Kissa soon…..