Thoughts about Holland vol.12.
2006.08.29.
Boldog névnapot Beácska ;-)

Here we go again. Again super busy and not even a single minute to sit down and write.... should dedicate my time to CEMS and all the projects..
Haha, this picture I took once when the weather was still really nice (seems like ages ago by now.....), so you may see I didn't wear too many layers of clothes... not like now... it is cold!!! AND I am wearing boots quite often. But for God's sake it is August!! Never mind...righ these days the seasons of the days I have been talking about became more and more exaggerated. Just today the sun was shining all day (although had no power at all thus still leaving me freezing) and then in the evening all of a sudden a monsoon like storm came with horrible strong rain, and thunders, lightning, really frightening, and then after 15 minutes sunshine again. Is this normal? Who knows.. now I start to doubt everything about the dutch weather... :-)

Oh I am really good mood today, I am listening to Texas Best of... genuine feelgood music, even the slow ones as well. They just perfectly match my mood and emotions right now. Especially the single Say what you want.... Bea Te úgyis érted miről beszélek..... ;-)
Ahh this is also Den Haag this time when it is not raining.... I borrowed this pic from Chris, because when I was there for 2 times now it was both times raining, and somehow Chris the lucky one succeeded to do a perfect picture of the Grote Kerk inside the Binnenhof.
Sooo as I mentioned this weekend Chris came over to visit me from Budapest. I had a great time Chris, so thanks for coming, and especially for teaching me how to cook gulyás ;-) (i hope you appreciated the cake though.... :)))
We went to Amsterdam and walked around through the canals, even went for a boat trip, now that was just soooo cool. My first impressions of A'dam were not that good if you may remember, but I have to own up, that this time I was completely overwhelmed by the city!!!! Fun place to live!!!! Be have been to the red light district as well... just to have a glimpse of the atmosphere.. well how should I put it.. we did not see it as an attraction and especially not looking for entertainment over there, but of course it would have been stupid not drop by if we were there anyways. By the way we had some of shocking experience and debate in front of some sex shops seeing really weird things which he had to argue what could they be used for (if they could at all.... :))
We have also been to Rotterdam once during the evening and once during the day. As I told you before the overall atmosphere of Rotterdam is completely different from all the other cities in Holland, but I still like it a lot. Here we are if front of the Erasmusbrug, which crosses the inner port of the city.
Yesterday for last dinner we went to eat unlimited amount of spareribs... and I have to tell that we screwed up... no real Hungarian mentality of eating them out of their fortune.. :))) nevertheless we still had enough of deliciously seasoned ribs... and then watched a movie at home. We wanted to prepare popcorn (gepofte mad's), just to create the real cinema feeling.... when we had to experience that the popcorn has a sugary taste..... YUKKKKK niet goed. Popcorn is salty, or cheesy, or with butter. But that's it!!!! Of course Matthijs a flatmate of mine thinks the other way round... Cultural difference? Dunno but strange for sure.

Sadly Chris left today... :-( Thanks again for the supplies and for your company. I hope you enjoyed it here, and Adri I hope you as well!!!!!
Mum, Dad I know 100% you had a goed time here ;-)

Bro, it is you whom I miss the most, d'ya know that?????? Wish you could drop by...or I would glady take on with the organization of beach bbqs..or other culinary get togethers ;-)

Alright have to get back to work,
kusjes to all of you!!

Oh have to share this what Klas taught to me today:
pussar och kramar :) (hugz 'n kisses in swedish..)

J 

Thoughts about Holland vol.11.
2006.08.24.
Mama, Gefeliciteerd!!

Oh wow I have a lot to catch up....I have busy and lively weeks behind me and now I would just shortly try to summarize, because Chris is on his way, and soon he will arrive. How about showing some pics and maybe if I would have a bit more time and willingness I would write more? Sounds like a deal. :)

Last weekend Adri dropped by from Düsseldorf, and we had a wery rhapsodic weather here... Saturday sunny and nice, Sunday we got all the rain in our necks... on the photo we are in Den Haag (yes I know it could be anywhere....) and we are wating for the rain to stop or at least become bearable to walk. Was so funny we were standing near the Binnenhof under our umbrellas and just watching the rain. Not the ideal tourist weather but unforgetable experience!! That's Delft, the Oostport, this was the first time I walked there... (ok look I live there I am not a tourist... :-) )
Den Haag: Binnenhof. The parliament building. Unbelievable isn't it? It used to be a castle for the grav (magyarok: GRÓF!!!) where he organized huntings and stuff like these.

Just a week before Adri my parents were here to visit me, that was just so very nice. Gezellig. Really I was so happy to see them and to host them here and guide them around. Was a very special feeling!! The weather after Friday's exceptional monsoonike rain on Saturday turned nice so we could even go to the beach for a walk.

Hmm so far that's it I am sorry, after the visitors and finally finishing and submiting my CEMS project I am going to write....Oh and just don't forget about the motivation letters for the career forum.... :)

seeya
un beso

J 

Thoughts about Holland vol.10.
2006.08.05
Utrecht - De Kerkenstad




Hello, as you see I became a real pro of publishing pictures, Picasa is a smart program I can only recommend ;)

Yesterday I was going to Utrecht, fourth biggest city in NL. Here for the first time I really felt that this is a big city despite the old small traditional houses. Somehow the canals and the streets are wider, therefore you have some space and of course more light is able to reach through the narrowly built houses.
Amazing, because Utrecht also was within an hour reach by train, so by this time you get the picture that everything is REALLY close to each other.
The train station (rather ugly I would say.... it could catch up with some nice Hungarian mature socialist design..) is just connected to an enourmous shopping mall. Wow that is a big one! Imagine something like Shopping City Süd in Vienna, but in the center of the city. I almost felt like at Schiphol....tall lounges, huge stores..
After a long walk I could get out of the mall, and saw the shopping streets and the usual saturday market, here really saturday is shopping day. The streets were crowded, everyone was out to do shopping or just to have lunch or a coffee at the canal, since the weather today was really nice, not rainy at all. I really fancy the crowd, for this moment I was so grateful to see people. Suddenly I felt alive, just like at the carneval. By this time I think I really start to miss the big city which I am used to. The busy city inspires me a lot.

The canals in Utrecht are very special because they have two levels. In the past when they built the big dykes the level of the water suddenly dropped and the embankments of the river were too high. So they started to build an additional embankment just right under the other one. Imagine the same as in Budapest but in a really small and narrow edition. (see everything is realative...Utrecht is huge compared to Delft, but a small twon compered to Budapest) So the lower embankment is full of nice restaurants and cafés, and there were all busy!! There are also some specialty coffee or tea stores downstairs, even hairdresser and others. And what is more, what I really really liked is that the inner city is full with trees!!! Their shadow was refreshing in the sun. (although have to admit that this probably doesn't happen too often...so I guess they protect from the rain)

They call Utrecht Kerkenstad, which means the city of churches. Certainly as walking through the inner city once in a while I bumped into a church, and could not even follow which one is which. I took a closer look at the Janskerk, the biggest one, with the tall bell tower (Domtoren). I wanted to go up the tower but they were a lot of people the and I wa not sure if it was so extremely special and different from other church towers, so I skipped that. (I think I saw and climbed quite a few church towers ...)

Instead I was really curious to see the Rietveld Schröder Huis. Gerrit Rietveld was a dutch architect, and he is famous for the red-blue chair, and the zig-zag chair. He designed this house for a friend of his, a rich widow at the edge of the city in the 20s. Apart from the extremely simplistic appearance of the house there are sooo many small details which make the house livable. It was always altered whenever the lady had a new wish to make it more comfortable. The basic idea is somewhere the same as at the Casa Battló in Barcelona. But what a difference the appearance! Here you can always be busy with transforming the house, which is definitely good, always adjust it to your needs. Otherwise it was surprising how small the house was. I have always thought is as somehow bigger. This was a really exciting tour! ANd besides that I was more than pleased about the service I got for my 13euro ticket. (Casa Battló price.. :) ) Here there was a student reduction!!! The ticket was actually a combi ticket for the Centraal Museum (which keeps the biggest collection of Rietveld furniture in the world) and the Rietveld house. Moreover I was invited to have a cup of coffee in the bar of the museum. (luckily an Italian one..) AND there was a shuttle bus with tour guide to the Rietveld house, because it is located in the outer districts.

Nice day... and for a while this was my last weekend alone :)))) next weekend my parents are coming, after that Adri is going to drop by from Düsseldorf, and in the end of August Kristóf is also coming over!! Really cool, I am sooo much looking forward to speed up my life here! Already planning what to do and where to go:))
But that's it for now, I have a lot to do.

Take care, the best.
puszi
J