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Summer holiday in Gran Canaria

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For this summer holiday I wished for a location that is far enough to feel I am in a new place, but still not far enough for high costs and long travelling. Plus, I don’t really have a passion for applying for visa so going to a place that is part of the European Union looked rather appealing.

Research was short, the Canary Islands are part of Spain, and so they must be speaking Spanish there – big plus for them cause I was already seeing not being able to speak Turkish or Greece as a downside for the holiday. Don’t get me wrong, to most countries I been, don’t even have basic knowledge of their language (and I basic I mean ten – twenty words only), but this time I felt it should be easy to get around and not need to start every conversation with “Sorry, do you speak English?”

Anyhow, so after 30 minutes o research on the key words “European Union holiday destination”, Gran Canaria seemed like a vey good option: many flight connections from Germany and very affordable accommodation options.

Same day, together with Alina we booked the tickets and promised to research and see how we can best pass time in Gran Canaria. A thing that we never did. Work and fun were always more important so we decided to go with the flow and see on the spot what is to do.

Anyhow, the time came and we flew from Dusseldorf to Gran Canaria with a Condor flight. I hoped for a nice movie during the flight, but damn it – they had exactly one of the two movies I’ve seen at the cinema this year. Never mind! We landed. Google car was there. Right there when we were exiting the airport. So cool, I have only seen it once before. Anyhow Ocean, Ocean everywhere.

Bus to La Playa del Ingles. GPS. GPS sucked, every time pointing us to almost opposite direction. Anyhow we had the photo of the apartment we were supposed to stay in. Apparently Google was wrong; our apartment was a block away and much nicer that what we expected from the pictures. GPS failed also when searching the office from where we wanted to rent a car. So we decided to do it the old fashion way – with a map and intuition.

First day we went for live music and swimming in the Ocean. I think it was also the moment when we realized that this is how we want to spend the holiday. So for the rest of the holiday did what most people that are 70 years old do: wake up, enjoy breakfast, go to the beach, come back and enjoy lunch, have a nap, go to the beach again, come back and enjoy dinner and then go for a walk next to the Ocean. It was freaking one of the best things ever.

Every day we put tonnes of sun protection lotion on our bodies. Alina even twice as much as me and for me was more than in entire life combined. Not to get burned, we have sensitive skin since we live in a country with almost no sun for two years. Hope you see the irony. Cause I love sun and I love to get burned and I love to get tanned.

Anyhow, except that we rented a car for a couple of days visited the northern part of the island and some good parts of the south and south west. I was just very happy to be alive when we returned the car. Main roads are great, excellent, but in a moment of craziness we decided to take only the ones where cars are going both ways, but there is space for only one car and on you right its just free fall – either into the rocks next to the Ocean, either just into to rocks.

We were in Las Palmas for a day and went to “the mall” searching for stuff to buy for friends. However “the mall” (something, something with a wale) was in quite a bad neighborhood, with curios people on the streets (and by curios I mean – did not feel safe at all, it was extremely dirty and looked freaking poor). Finally, a police car passed and I felt safer. Feeling went way went they started weaseling and smiling at us. All in all, we kindav had no direction when we were in Las Palmas cause we wanted to see everything. Good part is that some areas we decided to see only from the car. North of the island looked very different then the south: weather, water, beaches, rocks – everything more extreme, so we decided to stay in the south. Seemed all English people moved from Playa del Ingles to Puerto Rico, a city in the south west of the island. It was very nice exactly as I like the water to be: clean, green, a bit pool. However since it had not one single wave and Alina loves waves we decided to spend only one day in Porto Rico.

The highlight of the trip was the day we spend on a boat. Some guy approached us in Playa del Ingles and presented us the trip that was starting in the port of Puerto Rico. We booked a place on the boat and two days later went searching for dolphins and whales and we found them!!! In the freaking deep ocean water! Dolphins are either really friendly creatures, either attention whores, cause they started jumping around the boat, driving everyday crazy with happiness. Latino music, Spanish food, internationals throwing up, swimming with the fishes in the little gold that had the cleanest water in the world and some rides with “the banana” and a speed boat were also included in the tour. Very nice and very affordable, they even arranged transportation in between the two towns.

Did some other stuff around there: went to several clubs and restaurants (nothing special – at least for me) and had really long walks on the beach, freaking 15 km long walks, but what I loved the most were the waves and beach of Playa del Ingles, the afternoon naps and the view from our balcony.

Surprise of the day: going to sauna

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As mentioned before, I have recently switched homes. The new flat has a gym right next door, so of course I signed up for it.

Second time at this gym, I was ready to test the sauna. All ready, all set … one, two, three … oh my, oh my – I am going to be in a very hot room with naked ladies. I consider myself an extrovert person, however I have some reserves regarding nudity in public.

So, I am walking to the sauna and convincing myself I can do this, I can enter, I can chill, I can, yes I can…

To reach the sauna one has to pass through a “chilling area”. I sow 3 men sitting on comfortable chairs, listening to music and reading books. I found it quite weird that they are so close to the women locker room and sauna. Anyways, I continued my way having the “Yes, I can” thought.

I opened the door of the sauna, entered and noticed that there were 4 fully naked men inside. Quite a surprise. I didn’t see anything, especially because I was coming from a room full of light into one with almost no light, but the situation was not comfortable to me. I exited the room like a 12 years old, returned to the women looker room (of course passing the men that were in the relaxation area), dressed up very fast and went to reception to ask for details.

It turned out, the gym has a mixed sauna and the situation will change only in 5 months from now. So, I guess no sauna for me in the near future :)

Comparing apples to apple trees

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Everything starts when you are a child. You are compared to the best, to the pretties, to the smartest, to the fasted, to the luckiest, to the most charismatic, to the bravest, to the first.

All these make a young person aim high and invest a lot of time and energy in getting to a higher position in a group.

Problems appear when you try to be better than everybody on everything. Your friend is a good volley player. Another one has the upper hand with mathematics. Another one is more into creative fields. And you try and try to be better than all of them.

I struggled because I was comparing myself to very talented people. I remember that most of my childhood I did not understand how some children have all these beautiful artistic skills and I can’t sing, draw or dance. The struggle continued when I’ve got my fist job … and the second and the third and the forth… every time my boss and some of my colleagues were way better than me. It hurt and it kept me awake at night. Literary! But,  one day I will be as good.

Comparing yourself to people that are older and smarter than you awakes the need of continuous improvement … even though in the same time it might bring frustration and low self esteem.

On the other hand, I think is very lame to compare yourself to people that are 10 years younger than you. To be proud of the fact that you have more knowledge in your field than others when they are interacting with your area just at a superficial level. To be cocky and ironical with people that are one generation too young to be your peers.

Darmstadt, Germany

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Very recently I have been to Darmstadt, Germany for an AIESEC Reception Weekend.

Darmstadt is a town that was almost totally destroyed during the second world war. It was impressive for this point of view. There is almost no prove that this town exists for centuries. My best cultural experience there was chocolate with strawberries or … was it strawberries with chocolate?

AIESEC people were great. Remembers me that small LCs are wonderful LCs :)  They have invited us especially in that weekend because also their biggest festival was happening in the same time. The weekend was very relaxing and chill.

Budapest – way different than expected

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When I touched ground in Budapest it felt like home. When my sister picked me up by car, she felt like being in a foreign country. For all the Japanese people (I was in Budapest before the earthquake) who were visiting the city center… probably it was Europe.

Died and went to Heaven

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Actually I was pretty much alive and went to Knock, a Belgium town at the North Sea.

This year, I decided to spend Easter with my friends in Belgium. Luck made the temperature outside 26 degrees. The Sun was up, the beach was nice, the sand was perfect, and the water was cold and clean. Courage and the cheering of a friend made me take a bath and a short swim into the North Sea. I’ve also got the first marks of my 2011 tan.

However, the impressive part, started when we wanted something to eat because we need to leave the beach and to dive deep into the town. I will try to express with words something that left me speechless.

It looked like everybody was incredibly beautiful and rich. All ladies on the street (from 12 years old to 70) looked perfect, elegant, healthy, and slim. Girls had the most perfect legs I have ever seen before. Everybody was dressed in light colors and looked like cut out from fashion magazines… royal fashion magazines. They were moving around, shopping in the Easter Saturday, riding their bicycles or their Ferrari and just being perfect. The predominant color of the town was white and the only colored color was the green of nature.

Unfortunately, I have pictures only from the sea side. Gladly, the memories will hunt me forever.

Bruges, Belgium

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Belgium it’s putting on her jewelries and Bruges is part of the ones she treasures most.

Bruges is a very touristic town, with carriages and horses at every step, with tour guides and their at least perfect English, French, Dutch and German skills

, with cannels and boats, with chocolateries and souvenir shops everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I literary mean that you go out of the chocolaterie only to get in another one. Most of them offer you free samples, so, yes! I did behave like Hagi Tudose, moving from one shop to another and trying out all kind of sweets.

They also have some buildings and beautiful museums, but I did not noticed most of them because I was in a continues search of something else than chocolateries and souvenir shops. I needed a jacket because I was cold and even though the effects of chocolate are wonderful, it doesn’t keep me warm in cold weather.

Later, I have found out that Bruges was designated ‘European Capital of Culture’ in 2002 and that’s why international tourism has flourished so much. That explains also all the medieval flavor of the town, all the horses, the swans and the ducks.

Carnival 2011 in Germany, both Bonn and Cologne

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The Carnival starts in November and ends in March. Of course, people do not wear costumes all this time, the things get really busy in the last weeks of the Carnival. Best period

of this year started in 3 of March and ends today. Since I only experienced two party days of The German Carnival, I’ve asked my friend, Alina-Marina, to describe what happened in Bonn and Cologne during the last week of the Carnival 2011. So, here it goes, guest post:

Before the carnival everybody prevent me that people are different these days. They go wild. I had a misconception that this is impossible…there are German people, so I didn’t believe it. Everything started with a party at the office on Thursday in which everybody had crazy costumes, important guys dressed in girls, a Facebook costume, green alien, more than you can imagine. Everybody was dancing and singing traditional German carnival songs. I said…It’s not crazy! This is nothing.

Then I saw the real face of the carnival in Cologne, where all the people were funny dressed, drinking, dancing and singing on the streets the same carnival songs. The atmosphere is different, encourage you to do the same thing, to shout out loud VIVA COLOGNIA while dancing waiting for the green light! It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, the music is on, people are costumed, shouting and dancing on the streets. All the pubs and clubs are full, so you start partying in the streets . Drunk people are doing crazy things all over the city. The trams and trains are always full, you can barely enter, and when you enter you wish to go out in the next seconds, because you cannot breathe. I saw hot girls vomiting in the trams, drunk people destroying the doors of the train. But in the end, everything is normal, because it’s the carnival. You start to sing and dance and enjoy the crazy time. The parades are the best part of the carnival. You really change.

All the people sitting along the streets waiting candies and flower, they go really mad and selfish. You start fighting with a kid for a
cheap chocolate; you grab the candy from someone’s face…who does that?? Everybody!!!! You shout Kamele and Alaf until you have no voice, you wave all day hoping to get something nice. You see people jumping on the ground for one candy, grabbing as much as they can.

Until you realize it, you do exactly the same thing and you end up with a bag full of Harribo, chocolates, sponges, toys and also a hand full of flowers. What? Was that me???

The euphoria of the carnival it’s amazing. You cannot do anything else but enjoy and live at the maximum every second of it.


Best trip to the Netherlands – Energy 2011

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A couple of months ago I bought my ticket for Energy 2011. I was in a big-big mood for a big-big party and this one was in Utrecht which is only 3 hours away from Bonn.

The tickets for online canadian pharmacy/www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOL6zawuxdM&feature=player_embedded”>Energy 2011 were sold out and it was an interesting experience to see 30.000 people dancing under one roof. Like small town, with tree big dancing rooms. A small town with people that were wearing I love Techno t-Shits. Young people, slim girls, down people, dressed people, sober people ;)

Really friendly people from all Europe and further come to Utrecht to experience being part of the network. I met Indian people, French people, Africans and of course: Dutch.

Another thing: I believe, there where 2 girls at every 10 guys. I am not sure that this is the official statistics, but that was my feeling. And it’s hard to believe that girls are not into Tiesto… but was even harder to see that nobody was fighting nobody.

What, what, what? 30.000 drunk people in a party and no fights? Another Western European cultural encounter for me.

Every single time when I was changing the dancing floor, I was searching for the nearest emergency exit. Call it paranoia, but it made me feel safer. I can only imagine what would had happen if a firehave started and all those people were fighting for their life.

It was a great experience, however … I do not want to repeat it in the following months :D It took away all my energy!

Colored weekend for a grey winter

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Last weekend I had a fast visit to Frankfurt. It was my second time in this German town and my expectations were pretty low.

If I would have take the train alone, it would have cost me something between 34 and 72 euros. We were a group of 5 ladies

and so we paid only 8 euros each for the train ticket because Germany has this cool system that encourages travelling in groups of 5. Another friend got there a night before by bus and paid 12 euros (still a really good deal for Germany).

So, 4 hours later we were already in our host house (another nice Romanian guy from Botosani) and got ready to explore the city.

First stop:
City Center (Obviously). We took pictures with the bear and the bull and of course with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange building. Next important stop: top of the Main building (we went up 200 m and saw the entire city). It was windy, impressive, but most important: beautiful. All in all, we spent more than 5 hours in the city center so there are a lot of things to see and a lot of pictures to take.

Second Stop:
McKinsey party. Once a month, at the 25th floor of the McKinsey Business Building in Frankfurt there is a party that is opened to everyone. Most of the clubs are underground, but from this one you can see the entire town. Good music, good drinks, good people, good atmosphere.

Last and Best Stop:
Second day. Palmengarten, the Botanic Garden. Beautiful colored flowers everywhere in an immense park of plants. Because its winter most of the plants that grow outside were not awake yet, but the building of the continents its one thing to remember. So, imagine: you pass from one room to another and see and feel different atmosphere, air and vegetation. My favorite: Asia.

We had one small incident: we forgot the group ticket at our host house and got a fine in the tram when the controller? (guy that asks for you ticket) came. This is how I discovered a big difference between Bonn and Frankfurt. I live in Bonn for 4 months now and only once I have met these guys. They were wearing read coats on which it was written: Bus and Tram Controller. The ones in Frankfurt reminded me of our Romanian special agents that hunt you down. So, the fine is 40 euros and I am not sure yet if I need to pay it and where. The group ticket has only has one of our 5 names on it and the other 4 people cannot prove that we own the ticket before the fee or … we just bought it from some random person in the train station.