Cate's blog

Easter in Schiermonnikoog

2008-03-25T21:01:00.007+01:00

Making the most of a 4 day weekend due to Easter, me and some of my closest friends here in the Netherlands rented a house in Schiermonnikoog, Friesland. Schiermonnikoog is the smallest island in the Netherlands, it's located all the way in the north of the country and it's only 12kms long, it's also the less densely populated in the Netherlands- quite something considering that this is a rather highly densely populated country- having had to reclaim land to the sea!

In order to get to Schiermonnikoog we had to drive a little over 2 hours all the way to the north, passing through the "Afsluitdijk" and there we left the cars in a parking just next to the Ferry station. Then we took a 45 minute ride in the Ferry to the island. Once there we took a 5 minute bus ride to the centre of the town.

We arrived to one of the main hotels where we got our hotel keys...and guess what we had to wak about 2 minutes to get to our house! We were "down town"- if you want to call it that way. The town is so tiny and so cute...I felt like being in some kind of fairy tale... it brought me back to my childhood when I used to read tales and they had some pictures...because the houses looked all like that. It was so hard to think that people lived like that, as you will see in the photos.

The first evening we had a little surprise party for Eline as she had had her birthday only 2 days earlier while being on a business trip in India. So we brought a cake, some decorations and a gift. We had a very nice dinner and we spent most of the evening playing the "name game"- which is a combination of charades and some other game that involved guessing famous people. We had a really nice time.

On Saturday we decided to discover the island so after a a nice brunch we headed into town where we bought some local pastries in the bakery and then we had a really nice and VERY fresh walk towards the beach. It was SO windy!!!! When we got to the shore it was almost impossible to hear anything else but the wind...and it was so cold! Lets say that when we went back home a couple of hours later we all discover the real use of a hot chocolate.

That evening we decided to try the Schiermonnikoog cuisine and we headed to a really nice restaurante where we had some delicious dinner. Then we went back home to proceed with our "name game" and some drinking....at about 11pm we decided to "hit the town". We went to THE pub which was really funny because it appeared like the whole town was there....the spread of ages was rather big and funny enough we found out that our waiter from earlier that day was dating the girl that sold us postcards earlier that morning ;-) After a drink in the pub we decided to go to the "disco"...which was literally 2 houses away from ours. We were the first ones there and an hour later the music was in full swing and we had really quite some fun dancing around with the locals. Of course towards 3am, when everybody had already gone back home and it was only Joost and me being the die hards and we heard the DJ congratulating a guy who had just turned 16....we kind of felt a little old and we decided to call it a night. Not without first buying "from the wall" (that's a typical Dutch thing where they place very greasy snacks in some kind of wall vending machine) a kroket and a "Kaas souffle"- actually I just found this in You Tube and it might give you a better understanding.

The next morning it was Easter Sunday and we woke up to the surprise that the heating was not working...it was snowing outside so as you can imagine, it was FREEZING!!! And you can see that we had our Easter brunch with our jackets and even hats, while someone came over to fix it- because that also meant we didn' thave hot water. Thank God that was fixed afterwards. We shared a really nice brunch full of nice delicious things and lots of chocolate eggs and bunnies...you see the Easter bunny came to visit us the night before and we even had an egg hunt in the living room. It was all rather festive ;-)

Later that day we split into 2 groups: Laurent, Nayeli, Eline and Joost decided to go for a walk and Geert Jan, Fee, Italo and me decided to rent bikes and explore the island. For this we rented Tandem bikes and we did cycle quite a lot and went to different parts of the island. Unfortunately after about an hour it started snowing and we decided to stop until the snow would stop (click here for a video)...however after over 20 mins waiting, the snow was only getting heavier, so we decided to cycle back. Trust me, cycling with a snow storm and lots of wind is not fun. The snow was coming from our left and it kept poking my left eye, so I ended up closing my left eye and looking only through the right....the snow turned into hale and we were almost turning into ice cubes. We only had to do about 4.5kms...but God were they hard. When we got back home I had a really hot shower...but it was unbelievable how cold I was, my legs were just red and still cold. Afterwards we had hot chocolate and we sat in the living room with the heating to the max, with lots of clothes and just waiting for our bodies to warm. It took a couple of hours but we managed. Now looking back...it was kind of fun.

Later that night we had a really nice dinner and then we continues with our Name Game. We really became addicted...we played guys against girls, Latins against Europeans, singles against couples, random teams. Whatever the teams we just had a blast and a big laugh.

On Monday after clearning the house we went for a last walk in which the weather changed about every 5 minutes from snow, hale to sun...but it was still nice. At 4pm we headed towards the Ferry and then we drove back to Amsterdam.

All in all a really great weekend, with a great bunch of people (I have wonderful friends here, thank you guys for being how you are!), in a really nice place. Always nice to discover new places!

And as usual, below the photos. If you click on them you will launch Picasa for a bigger version of them!

Carnival in Oosterhout

2008-02-11T22:42:00.000+01:00

During the first weekend of February I had the chance to experience my second carnival while living in the Netherlands: Carnival in Oosterhout. Oosterhout is a small town in the South of the Netherlands that is close to Breda. And it is the home town of my friend Joost.

For the ones who don’t know, carnival is a festivity linked to Christianity. It finished with “Mardi Gras”or Fat Tuesday, which was the last day where meat was allowed to be eaten before Lent. Lent is the 40 day period where traditionally Christians were not allowed to held parties and were not allowed to have meat; the forty days of Lent serve to commemorate the Passion of Jesus.

Several of you might think that because I come from Latin America we must have some kind of carnival like in Brazil (I have been asked that several times)…let me disappoint you but no, we don’t have such tradition. There are some carnivals within Peru, that date back several centuries, but I'm not familiar with them. However, in Lima we do have a “particular” tradition: every Sunday during the month of February water fights are allowed between men and women. It’s usually among younger people and normally you should agree with your friends to”play carnival” and you can have waterballoon fights, watergun fights….then it’s quite nice. Then again…that’s what it’s meant to happen but there are unfortunate incidents when guys you don’t know decide they can suddenly throw water to you when you are nicely dressed up during the week on your way to work…and you have to be thankful if the water is clean :-s
So it’s definitely something totally different. And of course also bare in mind that February is the warmest month over there!

I have celebrated carnival in 2 other countries: Italy (back in 96 in a beautiful town in Sicily named Taormina where I watched a really beautiful parade) and also in the USA (back in 05 when I went to visit Antonella and went to the “infamous” Mardi Gras party…where guys are supposed to give you bead necklaces in exchange for kisses…over there there’s not flashing of tits as in New Orleans!). Back in 2001 when I was living in Brussels I went to the south of the Netherlands, in Maastricht for their famous carnival…and that’s about it for me and carnivals.
Then 2 years ago, Joost invited me to Oosterhout and I had the time of my life dressed as a lioness ;-) and then this year Italo and me were invited.

We were told that the town had been partying since Friday evening and the celebrations would go on until Wednesday. So all shops are closed and in general the town is all festive. What I found nice about this is the “tradition” feeling. For a start EVERYBODY was wearing a costume…and not just a mask or a cape…people had some serious outfits on regardless of age. You could see kids and over 80 year old grannies all dressed up and partying.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and after a nice dinner at Joost’s place with his parents, his sister (Inge) and some friends we got ready and off we went into town. Italo, Joost and me had spent about an hour that morning in a costume store in Amsterdam trying to decide what costume to get…and we decided to wear matching costumes: so we were the Devils for this carnival ;-) We bought some nice horns that had batteries and that lit up, a nice trident and a very interesting tail. The guys went for the red shirt and jeans approach…I tried to go for the “sexy devil” look and added a red boa, net stalkings and some long black gloves which lasted about half an hour… We definitely were not wearing the most elaborate costumes, but after our make up (nice devil beard for the guys and some serious sparkly eye shadow and a passion red lipstick for me) we definitely blended in with the crowd!

That night was the busiest one I was told…and indeed the bars were really crowded. We left our coats in the first bar and then we did some bar hoping…which on a temperature of below 0 degrees, net stalkings and bare arms was not good for my health. Once in the bars the music was unbelievable. The music was really festive, and some had really nonesense lyrics…but it was carnival music, funny and it had some kind of tradition so it was just perfect. You can listen to what I mean by actually viewing a video by clicking here.

On Sunday at 1pm we went to one of Joost’s friends’ b’day. Her parents live in a house right in the centre of the town where the parade was going to make its way through. When we arrived the party was already in full mode: people were already seriously drinking beer and dancing all around the house. We joined the party, watched the parade and at around 4pm we joined Joost’s parents, sister, neighbors and friends in a bar…that place was UNBELIEVABLY crowded…music was loud, beers were drunk at a really fast pace…and themost amazing: teenagers, toddlers, young people, parents and grand parents were all partying together...

We partied until about 6pm when we went back to Joost’s parents place, we changed, had dinner and made our way back to Amsterdam.

It was a really really nice weekend, it was very good for my Dutch language skills and something that I definitely want to do again.

Thank you very much Joostje for the invitation and thanks to you and your family for being such great hosts ;-)

Mancora and New Year's

2008-01-20T18:25:00.001+01:00

Mancora is a small town by the sea which is about 1200kms north of Lima, rather close to Ecuador. Back in October of 2006 Antonella, my sister and Gus (her now husband) got married there. A little over 100 guests experienced an amazing ceremony and an amazing celebration afterwards. Several of us stayed in Las Arenas, a really nice, cozy hotel over there.

Earlier last year Anto and me decided that since we were both going to be spending new year's together in Peru we should do it "in style"...so after some chats we agreed that we should do it in Las Arenas. We both talked with our friends and somehow some initial plans were put together. We talked with Las Arena's manager and we booked 15 out of the 19 bungalows in the hotel.

Towards the last 3 months of 2007 Anto and me were rather busy with this organisation. All done virtually...after all, that's how we had organised her wedding too. Anto from the States, me from the Netherlands...we exchanged several back and forth e-mails with our friends in Peru, our friends abroad, Lima, Mancora...It was quite some organiation and logistics, but we LOVED every single moment of it. Negotiating rates, tax free deals, new year's party, food, tickets... However all our efforts were totally worth it: New Year's 08 has been one of the best celebrations I've ever been to.

We were 30 persons, we flew from 7 different countries (US, Netherlands, Austria, UK, Argentina, Spain and Peru)and we had a blast. Not everybody knew everybody but once there....just spending all the time together: in the pool, at the beach, by the fire at night, having dinner in town, playing games, dancing, drinking...we just had so much fun together. I'm not sure if it's Mancora, or the holiday atmosphere or we were just the right combination of people, but the whole time there felt a little magical.

There's so many things to talk about...but of course I would bore you with all the details...I'll just choose some of the most memorables:

Our second night when we borrowed some iPOD speakers and somehow we were all in total party mood and we danced and danced and danced. Peruvians teaching foreigners...not only dancing the current dance hits, but us remembering the songs that were popular when we were little kids. Oh it was so much fun!

Or how my European friends, Italo, Javi, Moni and me celebrated the European new year's at 18:00. At that time, which was 12:00 CET we all jumped into the pool and wished each other a happy new year, we danced, we had some cocktails, we fooled around. It was just so nice!!!

Or going into town to surf ;-) ok some did I just got rather tired and worked on my tan. And going into town to buy beautiful beachy souvenirs (nice jewellery), buying booze for the evenings...having dinner.

Or just the chilling out by the fire in the evenings. How everybody was with "la chispa". How we chatted and laughed and laughed and teased and just had fun with each other. It's somehow very hard to put into words those 5 days. So you can check out the embedded photos just below (you can click on them and the Picasa window will be launched).

And of course finally New Year's eve. The decoration and the set up was unbelievable beautiful. Several round tables with yellow, red and orange table clothes. All decoreated with beautiful candles and grapes. A nice round bar, a beautiful fire and overseeing the sea and the swimming pool. A great sound system...what else could we ask for?

There must have been around 70 persons in the party...which meant that we were almost 50% of the party people...and of course it was us who totally ruled the dance floor ;-) We had organised some party hats that we took with us in a big suitcase and definitely brought some extra colour to the party.

We had a really yummy buffet at around 11pm and then following the Peruvian tradition we had some "aguadito" (some veggie soup which is great when having had alcohol) at 3:30am and then at 5:00am we had some cebiche (another Peruvian tradition- spicy marinated fish in lime).

We danced and danced and danced...some people were thrown into the swimming pool, other people voluntarily jumped into the pool naked ;-)...some people were carrying each other...there was some strip tease, some lap dancing.

Do I need to go on or you get it that the party was amazing? By 7am when only some of us were still up we decided to finish the party in the pool. All fully clothed and just having fun...so you see, I started partying at 6pm to celebrate the European new year's and then I ended up in the swimming pool at 7am...not bad, I was partying for about 14 hours...I hope this is an indication of the amount of energy I'll have for the new year! ;-)

Right now, Anto and me have already been approached by different people for the coming new year...they want to make it an annual event. What can we say...we are definitely thinking about it! And it will involve warmth and beach...so stay tuned!

Below...New Year's party photos...enjoy.

My holidays in Peru

2008-01-20T13:11:00.000+01:00

First of all Happy New Year to everybody! I hope you all had a great celebration and that 2008 is already bringing you several good things ;-)
As I promised on my last post, this year I want to make sure that I keep updating my blog so you know a little more of what I've been doing. And sticking to my promise I need to tell you about my 3 and a half holidays back in Peru.

I arrived back to Amsterdam last Monday afternoon after a very short, direct and uneventful KLM flight...so it felt weird that after such a short flight I was suddenly away from Lima and back into my daily reality.

However the next morning, cycling to the bus stop to get to work: the cold, the bike, the darkness and the rain brought me totally back to reality. The several layers of clothes and the boots after having been wearing very light stuff and sandals....were an even bigger reminder.

Usually, I get a little depressed on my first week when I get back to the Netherlands after having been "home". However I think that this time it really helped that Italo arrived only the next day (for the ones that don't know Italo is one of my best friends from university who moved to Europe a year ago and he is currently my flatmate). Having someone who was feeling the same as me, someone who had been in the same places that I had been, someone with whom to talk and remember...did me the world of good! That, and also the THOUSANDS (I'm not kidding) of photos from those 3 and a half weeks. Antonella (my youngest sister who was also there) and me are both photo freaks...so each one of us with our cameras took so many photos. And of course...so many of our friends did the same and we managed to compile several of them. So since I've arrived I've been looking over and over again to all the fun and the amazing things we did during our holidays. And actually that's what's taken me so long to write this post: sorting out the photos and choosing just SOME is not an easy job.

Let me summarise my holidays for you (I'll write down with more details the different activities in later posts).

I one sentence: It was AMAZING! This has been the longest time that I haven't been back in Peru (1 year and 2 months) so towards the end I was counting the days and the hours! And it has been a mixture of family time, time with friends, visiting my own country and also being a host. Why's that? Because besides me, Antonella and her husband (Gus) getting there we had some friends joining us!

All the way from Amsterdam, Eline and Joost joined us on the 24th and 27th respectively. And Martin a German friend of mine who used to live in Amsterdam and who now lives in Vienna also joined. As you can imagine having friends over is an amazing experience. You can show them a little about your own countries, your own traditions...it was just so great to have them. Besides them we also had 2 more guests: Murphy and Jason from Aspen. If you have read my early posts on this blog (about March and April last year) you must remember the names. Both of them had come to Peru for Anto and Gus' wedding and then they were really great hosts during my holidays in Aspen. So they decided to come again and join us for the fun!

And when I say FUN...I'm really not kidding! It appears that we had the right combination of people...but between all the activities I think this has been the month when I have slept the least in my life (without counting exam time at university!) and also the month when I have seen dawn more often (also without counting me seeing dawn from my desk at work during the winter!).

The first days were dedicated to the family. I arrived on Thursday 20th of Dec and Antonella and Gus on the 21st. After a wild party in "Gotica" in Larco Mar on Saturday we spent most of our time until Christmas with the family. We had a really amazing Sunday BBQ, a great Christmas eve and Christmas day. We have eaten a lot, enjoyed each other and true to our tradition we have sang SOOOO many Christmas (and not so Christmasy) songs. This has been the first Christmas after 9 years that gathers all of us...so we totally enjoyed it.

Right after Christmas (already on the 25th in the evening) a group of us went to the airport to pick up Murphy...and we made our way straight to the Marriott casino...where Gus, Anto and me remembered our Roulette addiction in Vegas back in March last year ;-). It was a very good evening for the women (we all won something)...not so much for the men who lost. But all this to tell you that from then onwards the serious fun began.

On the 28 at 4 in the morning a large group of us made our way to Piura and from there we drove 3 hours to our beautiful location for new year's: Mancora. Antonella and me had been organising this trip for about 9 months and I have to say that we have been SO happy with the results. We combined a total of 30 of our friends: Peruvians living in Peru, Peruvians living abroad, Americans and Europeans. We had 15 of the 19 bungalows of Las Arenas de Mancora so you can imagine how much fun we had. On the 31st we had an unbelievable fun New Year's party. I think one of the bests I've ever had. The setting was so beautiful, the people were just in the party mood, the food was delicious, music was great, warm weather, people dressed up and ready to party...it was just wonderful!

I'm going to leave this post here and I will make use of the saying: "one image says more than thousands words" and I will have you look at the slide show below. I have managed to condense those thousands of photos in only 158...that summarise a little all my holidays in Peru (as they are done in Picasa you can double click on it and it will take you to a bigger page).

I will try to write different "chapters" with the different events, activities, people and anecdotes of my holidays to give you a better understanding of these AMAZING past days. Enjoy the photos :)

Merry X-mas and a Wonderful 2008!

2007-12-14T22:38:00.000+01:00

Almost half a year went through and I haven't updated my blog...shame on me. I guess that as a new year resolution I'll have to ensure that that doesn't happen anymore.

I promise that I'll have plenty to write (not that I didn't have to the past months, it just happen...or actually, it just didn't happen) :-s

On Thursday 20th I'll be going to my beautiful country, Peru. I'll be going back after over a year (I have broken a record!). Where I'll be spending Christmas with my WHOLE family after 9 years (whenever I was back, Antonella was in Aspen)! And we even have an extra member this year, my brother in law: Gus :) I'm really looking forward to it.

Plus, 2 Dutch friends will also be coming to Peru: Joost and Eline. And also my good German friend Martin. And as if this wasn't already good enough we'll be spending 5 beautiful days in Mancora, 1200kms to the north of Lima in the coast, in this beautiful beach where Antonella and Gus got married last year. There will be 33 of us...between Antonella's and my friends: this includes Peruvians living abroad, Peruvians living in Lima and foreigners (besides my friends, Murphy and Jason will be coming back to Peru directly from Aspen).

I can HARDLY wait to be there!

I'm going to leave it here though...and I will tell you all about it next year. And I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful X-mas and a GREAT 2008! Thank you for your friendship during 2007. I hope that we keep it in the year to come and if geographical distance have kept us apart I hope we can meet soon.

All the very best to you and your family.

Much much love and best wishes! Cate

Earthquake in Peru

2007-08-17T17:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday very early in the morning I got a call: in the evening, Peruvian time (while I was sleeping in Europe) there had been a 7.9 Earthquake in my country, in MY home city. You can't imagine the feeling. I was told immediately that it hadn't been very big in Lima, that everything was under control and that my friends had communicated with my parents over Internet and that they were ok. However, the pressure I felt in my heart, the punch I felt in my stomach...I cannot explain it.

I immediately ran towards the phone and dialled my parent's home number and my dad answered the phone. The moment I heard his voice I started crying, tears rolling down my eyes. Everything was ok. And over that phone line I felt the physical distance, the huge ocean that divides me from my family and my Peruvian friends. I also immediately felt relief. However, I'm not sure if you can actually understand this but instead of feeling good about the fact that I didn't have to be there in such a tough time, I actually felt that I wanted to be there. In fact, I still want to be there. At the moment the after shocks are still going on, and over 300 small tremours have been taking place, a couple of them reaching almost 6 degrees intensity this morning.

Lima, the capital city has been lucky and it's been plenty of chaos and people are still scared. However in Ica, 250 kms south of Lima the disaster is massive. So far there there have been 510 deaths and 1500 injured. With over 17,000 destroyed houses, complete families are now homeless resulting in a staggering 85,000 people that have been affected by this disaster. The towns of Pisco and Chincha in Ica have been severely effected with devastation to more that 70% of the area.

As usual, the ones who suffer the most are the poorest people. This is that even though I'm far away I wanted to let you know that there are several initiatives to help out the victims of the earthquake and you can help out. I found out that the "Asociacion Peru-Holanda" is currently receiving monetary donations in their account:

Asociacion Peru-Holanda (http://www.peru-holanda.org/)
ABN Amro
4269.05.482
Spijkenisse
Mention: For victims of Earthquake

If you wish to contribute please do so, if you are in another country contact the Peruvian consulate in your country and they should have a bank account where you can make a contribution. For a list of all the Peruvian consulates in the world click here.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank to all the ones that have phoned, e-mailed or SMS me since yesterday asking about my family. You can't imagine what that means to me. Thank God my family and friends are all doing good, even though they are still very scared. Several of my friends work in the business area and you can imagine that having to go down by the stairs on a shaking building from the floor 19 is not funny. Fortunatly most of Lima buildings are built for this kind of situations so they stay put, but it's obviously not a nice experience to be there.

Lets hope that things calm down and that the support can reach the victims in Ica soon.

......................................................................................................................................

For the people in Peru, please read below how can you help:

Las guias scouts tienen otra alternativa:

Pueden donar bolsas ya hechas para los niños damnificados pues no sólo no tienen casas, ahora no tienen nada.
¿qué meter en esas bolsas?

. 1 cartita escrita por sus hijos/sobrinos o por ustedes mismos, dándoles ánimo
. 1 cuento
. 1 polo
. 1 juguete
. 1 peluche
. golosinas empacadas
. y todo lo que se les ocurra.

Estaremos recibiendo además de esto, todo tipo de donaciones (ropa, frazadas, comida no perecible, agua, medicinas), inclusive apoyo para el transporte de las mismas... si las empresas en las que trabajan quieren apoyar y no saben a través de quien enviar la ayuda llámennos.

Todo esto lo entregaremos un grupo de Guías y estará bajo nuestra supervisión para evitar la viveza de gente inescrupulosa.
La idea es congregar a los niños por intermedio de las Guías de las localidades más afectadas y nosotras personalmente entregarle a cada niño la bolsa y a sus familias el resto de donaciones.

Si alguien puede hacer de nexo entre varias personas y quiere que se recojan las cosas de sus oficinas o de sus casas avísenme.

El centro de acopio es:

LOCAL DE LAS GUIAS SCOUTS DEL PERU
Calle Zaragoza 131, Urb. La Castellana Surco (paralela cdra 2 Av. Paseo la Castellana a 2 cuadras del óvalo de Higuereta)
Telf: 271-0334

Mil gracias a todos.

Mariana Arias-Ponce Sparrow
Jefa de Recaudación de Fondos del Consejo de Lima
Guías Scouts
cel: 9963-4713

Back to Brussels

2007-07-16T18:45:00.000+01:00

The 25th of this month it will be 7 years that I'm living in Europe. It has gone by so fast that sometimes is really weird to believe, but then I remember 7 different summers, winters, birthdays...and so many trips back home....that then it's a little more obvious to believe.

And who would believe it all started in Brussels. I went there to work for a year fulltime for AIESEC, a student organisation that I belonged to when I was at university. I lived in Brussels for a whole year...in a mixture of student and early job life. Looking back now, it was an amazing year! After I left Brussels I used to visit it rather often as I still had some friends living there and also due to the convenient fact that it takes less than 3 hours by train and that it's really unexpensive.

However, you know how things are, eventually the trips started to be more spaced between each other and eventually I realised that the last time I had been there was in June 2004 when I went to Canon Belgium for a business meeting. Luckily earlier this year I found in MSN a really good friend of mine, Queenie, and we decided we had to change that. So we planned for me to come over and to visit her.

I arrived on Friday 6th of July to Brussels north station a little over 20:00 as I took a train straight after work and Queenie went to pick me up. We drove into town and went for some dinner. First reminder: Belgian cuisine is exquisite and the value for money it's so good compared to Amsterdam! So we had a delicious meal with some wine in a nice terrace and by the time we were done we walked to the Grande Place.

The Grande Place is the main square of Brussels. No matter how many times I've been to that square- which is almost impossible to count as I've been there many many times- that place always takes my breath away! The richness of the architecture, the composition of the different buildings, the townhall....it's just so beautiful. We went there because while we were having dinner I remembered that during the summer just before dark they have a beautiful light who with music, which we went to see and that I filmed a little bit and you can see here.

A trip down Memory Lane

On Saturday morning Queenie and Roel (her boyfriend) had to go to a funeral so I decided that I would use my morning to go into town. I didn't realise that this would be an AMAZING opportunity. All the times when I've been back to Brussels I always did it visiting friends, or actually bringing friends over so they could see Brussels. I had never gone back on my own, after I left on July 2001, to go around the places where I used to go during the year I lived there.

I went to most of the touristic places where tourists would walk...but I actually made an effort to take the same route that I used to do while I was living there. You see, while I was living in Brussels I almost never left the centre. I lived in the centre, I worked in the centre, I hanged out in the centre....to be honest with you, I really didn't need to use public transport because I could walk anywhere!

So I went back to la "Rue de L'enseignement" which is the street were I used to live in and I made my way to the office walking a little over 10 minutes in "la Rue Royale". I took my time and remembered things...the places where I used to go, the places where I used to buy the bread, where I had breakfast, lunch, where I did my laundry, where I used to buy books.

I walked through the Botanical gardens which were really close to where I used to work...I went to the Royal Palace (only a couple of blocks away from where I used to live) and just followed a nice route into town passing through monuments, museums, nice buildings. And I would stop, remember things, take photos and move on.

I guess I remembered anecdotes, stories, people that had been there with me and in general the life I had with the guys that were my family while I was there: Luz (Venezuela), Jeff (Belgian), Paulo (Portuguese) and also Marta (Colombia/Canada) and Chayo (Peru). I remembered the trainees we took care of: Marcus (New Zealand), Nairo (Colombia), Andrea (Italy), Juan Carlos (Colombia) and so many more. Below just a handful of photos from my year in Belgium (00-01)...

It was just a great weekend!

I of course remembered how delicious the Belgian waffles are, how many different types of delicious "chocolateries" can be found, the beautiful lace sold in all the souvenir shops, the different types of beers....

We even went to Antwerpt towards the end of Saturday afternoon (Queenie, Roel and me)....Queenie and me chatted the WHOLE weekend. We had so much to catch up on. We had nice walks, nice food, nice Belgian beers ;-). It was just SO nice!

If you want to see photos of my weekend (mainly me taking photos of all the places that I missed so much) click here.

On Sunday, after a really delicious brunch and a nice chat, Queenie and Roel took me to North Station where I took my train back to Amsterdam.

It was wonderful to catch up with Queenie, it was amazing to see Brussels again...but even more the whole experience of going back, remembering, reflecting....it made me think how much I've changed. It reminded me of Caterina 7 years ago, and Caterina now...

Do I miss Peru? Yes. Do I miss my family? oh YES. Do I miss my friends? Yes to that too....would I go back? Just not yet....I do like Amsterdam and my life here, for the moment....I'm in Europe to stay! ;-)

George Michael in Amsterdam

2007-07-02T19:34:00.000+01:00

It was 1989, I was a teenager and I my room reflected that: posters of New Kids on the Block (yes I'm not ashamed to admit it, my favourite was Joe), Debbie Gibson (I totally believed that I could sing REALLY good "I get lost in your eyes), Guns and Roses and of course: George Michael. I had a live poster of this gorgeous hunk: with his stoned wash jeans, his black leather jacket, his tiny little cross hanging from an ear, a grown beard, his guitar and his boots. Boy did I have a teenage crush on this man! (lets not go into the time when I was terribly crushed at finding out he was gay...I'm still on denial!)

I've always loved all his songs, back from his time at Wham! going through all his songs to the present. So imagine how excited I was when in March I heard that George Michael was coming to Amsterdam. I was first really bummed when I realised the tickets would start going on sale when I was going to be on a plane crossing the Atlantic on my way to Aspen...however when I was back from holidays I managed to find some tickets. And I was happy to find out that Aissa liked George Michael as much as me. So we got the tickets.

D day finally came last week, Tuesday 26th. Aissa and me met in the metro station close to the Amsterdam Arena. After getting some food among the large amount people forming queues everywhere, we decided to get in. We were happy to see we had quite nice seats in the South part of the stadium. That meant that we could see George right in front of us.

The opening act was done by Sophie Ellis Bexter which was rather nice as I like her quite a lot. She sang for almost an hour...so it was a good warm-up. After that we had to wait for almost one and a half hour. The tension was building up. Close to 21:00 the crowd started making the wave around the stadium (about 50,000 people)...it was fun to participate and you can view a small video of it here.

At 21:10 the music starts, the lights go off in the stage (it was not completly dark yet as it's getting completely dark in this part of the world close to 23:00) and a really nice play of lights starts. Then suddenly you can hear his voice...and suddenly he can be seen in the screens, the crowd goes wild, and he appears in the stage too and he sings "Fast Love". (Unfortunately the video is over 100mb and I can't upload it :-s)

Now...I have been to several concerts in the Netherlands, as a "grown up" and of course I love music and I love dancing and my point is that concerts should be full of people who dance and express themselves...but I would say that I went back several years and I couldn't contain myself, I was screaming!!!! ahhhhhhhh (picture current teenager screaming at Justin Timberlake or something similar). I was happy to notice though that Aissa was also part of this...so it was just easier.

The whole concert was a combination of the old and the new songs from Wham!, songs from his earlier work and the newer ones. As you will see in the photos the lighting in the stage was unbelievable, one of my favorites was when he was singing "Praying for time", it appeared that he was sitting on the sea with a beautiful sunset in the back. You can view the video by clicking here.

After one whole hour of singing and entertaining the audience he went on a 20 minute break after which it looked like a helicopter was getting into the audience, the effect was quite good and after a while he appeared wearing a policeman uniform and he looked SO hot and you must have guessed by now that he sang "Lets go outside". Obviously, Aissa, me and the rest of the crowd went wild!

After 40 more minutes of singing he made the whole crowd sang along to a Wham! hits "I'm your man" and "The Edge of Heaven" and he thanked and then left. For a moment I panicked...my experience tells me that Dutch people are rather quiet, and in all the concerts I've been to, I've NEVER heard them chorus an "encore" (except Juanes, but back then the music hall was full of Latin people so that doesn't count). However the Dutchies rose to the ocassion and not only did they screamed, whistled and shouted as if it were "Queen's day", but they even managed to improvise a little "Ole 0le" song...I was rather surprised. I have been told though afterwards by several other people that this might have had to do with the fact that half of the crowd was gay... considering that I didn't really spot many gays around me I'm not so sure about the truth of that statement.

However I was VERY happy because after about 5 minutes...George came back and did a memorable performance of "Careless Whisper". By that point I almost didn't have any voice left and I sang and sang along (don't laugh at me when you hear my voice in the background of the video) and this brought back memories of summer of 1985...when I was not even close to being a teenager how I loved that song because it was the last favourite song of my grandma.

He then left again and suddenly his band started playing "Happy Birthday" as just the day before he had turned 44. The whole crowd joined in to the song and then George clapped at us and thanked us for our beautiful singing...he then thanked his band, he thanked us and he did the last song of the evening: FREEDOM!!! Which was obviously unbelievable!!

Aissa and me left the stadium at around 11:45....in great joy, totally in George Michael mood and with a hunch of a sore throat for the next day.

It was definitely one of the best concerts ever! If you want to look at the photos click here. This guy is a great performer, entertainer and my God he has a BEAUTIFUL voice, if I ever have the chance again, I'll definitely go and see him again!! :)

................................

I normally wouldn't do this, but I have to because I was RATHER impressed by the quality, considering I was so far from him (I was south and I had the whole stadium to cross): All videos and photos have been taken with my brand new Canon Digital IXUS 75 ;-) (PowerShot SD750 in the American market) I love it already!

Papa: my hero

2007-06-17T18:54:00.000+01:00

Spanish version below/version en español debajo
A little over a month ago I dedicated my weekly blog to my mother, as it was mother's day...well this time is Father's day and I decided that I had to do the same.

How to start? Let me put it this way, have you ever had to answer the question of who is your hero? Well, I've been asked that question a couple of times and for me, my hero is my dad.

And I don't mean it in the way that little kids always see their fathers: as the big and strong guy who can make everything well...maybe that was when I was a little girl. I mean it because my dad is one of the nicest persons that I know and he has so many qualities that I value in any person: he's an honest person, true to his word, patient, charismatic, charming, he always tries to see the best in everybody, hard worker, a wonderful friend, husband, brother and of course, father.

When I remember my happy childhood memories he's always there. He came home from work and he would whistle while opening the door! I can remember our Sundays...those were the times when we had more time, he would always take us out for lunch, to the playground, to the beach, for ice-cream...and when we were small those were the days he would bathe us and we loved it! And then at the end of the day (even when I was not that small anymore) he would put Francesca and me to bed and he would tell us a story before bed time. His imagination was endless!

Growing up in a country like Peru things are not like in Europe. Education is not for free and basically the great education, all the endless list of extra lessons, everything we had was due to his hard work.

He's the sweetest person, always smiling, always calming and soothing. Such a nice and romantic person. I'll never forget my last Valentine's day in Peru back in 2000...he didn't only buy roses for my mom, he sent 4 bouquet of roses, each in a different colour...for his 4 "innamorate". (And then you wonder why I'm so picky with men :-s)

So even all grown up now, even when it's the time when we tend to realise our parent's mistakes or faults...I wouldn't change anything from my dad. He's a great guy, he's a role model and he's still my hero. I love you dad! Thanks for everything!

And I also wanted to take this opportunity to wish my grandpa a happy Father's day! I love you nonno!

Version en español (sin acentos a proposito)
Hace un poco mas de un mes le dedique mi blog semanal a mi mama, en vista que fue el dia de la madre…bueno esta vez es el dia del padre, asi que hare lo mismo.

Como empezar? Dejenme ponerlo de esta forma. Alguna vez han tenido que contestar a la pregunta “quien es tu heroe”? Bueno, a mi me la han hech oun par de veces y para mi, mi heroe es mi papa.

Y no me refiero a esto en la forma como los niños pequeños ven a sus padres: como esa persona “grande” que puede hacer que todo este bien…tal vez eso es lo que sentia cuando era una niña. Me refiero a que mi papa es una de las personas mas increibles que conozco y tiene tantas cualidades que valoro y admiro en cualquier persona: es una persona honesta, una persona de palabra, paciente, carismatico, encantador, siempre trata de ver lo mejor en los en los demas, trabajador, un excelente amigo, esposo, hermano y obviamente, padre.

Cuando pienso en los recuerdos alegres de mi infancia el esta siempre alli. Llegaba a la casa despues de trabajar y tenia un silbido particular al abrir la puerta! Recuerdo los domingos…esos eran los dias que consagraba totalmente a nosotras, nos llevaba a preciosos lugares para almorzar, a los juegos, a la playa, a tomar helados…y cuando eramos mas pequeñas ese era el dia en que nos bañaba y nosotros adorabamos eso! Y luego, al final del dia (incluso cuando ya no era tan pequeña) nos acostaba a Francesca y a mi y nos contaba cuentos. Su imaginacion nunca tenia fin!

Al crecer en un pais como Peru, las cosas no son como en Europa. La educacion no es gratis asi que la excelente educacion que tuve y la gran lista de clases extras, todo es fruto de su arduo trabajo.

El es la persona mas dulce, siempre sonriendo, siempre paciente y calmado. Una persona tan maravillosa y romantica. Nunca me olvidare el ultimo dia de San Valentin que pase en el Peru en el 2000…el no solo compro rosas para mi mama, sino que mando 4 ramos de distintos colores a la casa…para sus 4 enamoradas. (y luego se preguntan por que soy tan quisquillosa con los hombres :-s)

Asi que incluso ahora, ya de grande, incluso cuando suele ser la etapa de la vida en que tendemos a darnos cuenta de los defectos y equivocaciones de nuestros padres…no le cambiaria nada a mi papa. Es una persona excelente, un modelo a seguir y es todavia mi heroe. Ti voglio tanto bene papa! Mi manchi tanto. Grazie per tutto!

Quise aprovechar esta oportunidad tambien para desearle un buen dia del padre a mi abuelito. Te quiero mucho nin!!!

Long weekend in Valencia

2007-06-12T19:34:00.000+01:00

Already last year my friend Stephie told me that she was planning something big for her next birthday...this would include a trip. True to her word Stephie sent a mail during the first week of January where she informed us that this year she would be celebrating her b'day on June 9th in Valencia, Spain.

Of course it was several months in advance, but considering the nature of the cheap airlines, this was ideal...the earlier you book the cheaper it is! I have to admit that I only booked my flight a couple of months ago but I managed to get a pretty good deal and I was ready to join Stephie for her birthday!!!

In the end we were 22 persons flying over to Valencia from the Netherlands, Italy, London and Canada and she rented 3 houses where we all stayed. So all was ready for a really nice and fun weekend!

I took Friday off so first thing in the morning I met Aissa on Schiphol airport and we were both SUPER ready to go! All summery dressed with only summery clothes and sandals in our suitcases!

First things first: the beach!

We were one of the first to arrive, once there we met JB (Belgian friend who lives in Amsterdam), Stephie of course and 2 Canadian friends of hers. And of course the first thing we did is get ready and head towards the beach in Malvarrosa! The weather was great (30 degrees), the water was wonderful and blue, the beach was not too crowded....it was just paradise to lay on my towel and think how great it is to hop on a plane for 2 hours and be lying on the beach in Spain ;-) (it even made me happier to know that when I had left Amsterdam I left a very big thunder storm- sorry for the Amsterdammers ;-) )

In general I was at the beach the 3 days that I was there, at different times of the day. I really enjoyed the sun and obviously the beautiful Mediterranean sea. The water was rather warm- at least for me used to the Pacific Ocean close to Lima that is rather cold- and refreshing. There were some small waves...it was just perfect! And of course now I have a wonderful tan! :)

The house
Aissa and me stayed in the house 3 blocks away from the beach! We were sharing with other 6 girls: 4 Italians, one Kiwi and one German. I have to say that even though I thought it was going to be a nightmare to share only one bathroom among 8 girls we managed beautiful and it was nice to wake up in the morning to the smell of freshly brewed Italian coffee (the Italians were from Naples and of course they brought with them their Italian coffee machine ;-) ).

America's Cup
The America's Cup is the most famous and most prestigious regatta in the sport of sailing, and the oldest active trophy in international sport predating the Modern Olympics by 45 years. The sport attracts top sailors and yacht designers because of its long history and prestige as the "Holy Grail" of yachting.

And we were lucky enough that this year it is being held in Valencia! (the first time in over 150 years that the cup is being held in Europe). The names of the teams are actually the sponsors (big EXPENSIVE brands) who "sponsor" a country. At the moment the "Emirates" team (New Zealand) won the challenger's series and will meet Alinghi (Switzerland) later this month.

The harbour in Valencia has been totally re-newed and re-designed to host the top amazing yachts and all the big sponsors had their own buildings. A really modern and beautiful pier had been also built for the occasion. After going through security you could get into this really great place that had all kinds of restaurants, bars, entertainment, discos. And that's where Stephie's b'day party was held!

The Party

Saturday evening all of us eventually managed to gather in "Estrella Damm" the hot club in the harbour. You could tell it was "the place to be" ;-) There were several Spaniards but there were also several foreigners that were in Valencia for the America's cup.

We had a really fun night, having some chats, observing the different people, dancing to the music, making people guess where we were from ;-) and drinking...Stephie got a little carried away buying Vodka bottles ;-)

The party finished at 3am so we all went to "Dockas" a really massive night club where somehow all those Italian people made us jump a queue of about 100 persons ;-) The club was really rather impressive, it was HUUUUGE....I'm sometimes really bad al calculating but there must have been about 3000 people in that place!

The Dutch people were impressed because the placed closes at 7am....if they only knew how it's in Peru ;-) In the end Aissa, JB, Sander and me were the last ones to stay and we left a little after 5am.

Valencia
I have to say that I was REALLY impressed with Valencia. It's not that I was not expecting much, I just didn't know what to expect...and I found a really beautiful city. A mixture of old with modern, a really nice centre, well kept gardens, beautiful fountains, stunning churches, pictoresque squares...I could recognise the Spanish architecture from parts in the centre of Lima. Definitely a city to put in your "to go" list...and if you live in Europe it's not that far, several carriers fly there and cheaper than the further northern cities!

The Food

The food was DELICIOUS. A mixture of really nice sea food and fish. Tasteful jamones and quesos. Tasty different kind of paellas. Really good wine...AND so much cheaper than this part of Europe. Enough said! When you'll check the photos later you'll see that I photographed some of the dishes.

Corpus Christi

Last Sunday was the Catholic celebration of the Corpus Christi and in Valencia they started celebrating last Friday evening. We were lucky enough to see some typical Valencian dances and songs that started the Christian festivity in an old traditional way, preparing themselves for the big procession on Sunday. You can view a small video of this from last Friday by clicking here.

Photos

In general as you can deduce from all this, a really fun and nice weekend. A beautiful city, some really cool people, great food, wonderful weather...and some photos for you to catch a small glimpse of my weekend!

I took an early flight on Monday morning and I was behind my desk before 12:30. In conclusion, I think I have to go to Spain more often ;-)

And a big thanks to Stephie for organising such a great weekend :) sei stata bravissima!!!

My friends: You can't find them on my "speed dial"

2007-06-05T19:19:00.000+01:00

I decided that I will write this post on my friends here in Amsterdam. Several of you have sent me some mails in the past months asking about the people that are characters in my weekly blogs ;-)

So I decided that I'd do a little summary of them, after all me being so far from home, it's in them who I rely for everything: we have fun, we have some interesting chats, we give each other advice, they are the ones that are there for the good and the bad times! They are a little like my family in Amsterdam.

And if you want to understand the title of this blog...you should keep reading until the end :)

Let me introduce you to my friends, in no particular order ;-)

Joost

Also known as Joostje (pronounced something like "youstye")- adding the "je" at the end of words in Dutch is an endearment, and it means "small"- something like the "ito" or "ita" in Spanish! As you can imagine he was not very happy when I started calling him that way...but then he realised that it was indeed an endearment and I guess he's fine with it as he doesn't say anything anymore

;-)

I met Joost through Arnaud (a Dutch friend that now lives in Peru and one of my very best friends-we met through AIESEC). Joost is a really sweet guy, he works in "Rabobank" in Utrecht and lives about a 16 mins bike ride from me ;-) He's one of my best friends here. He's the kind of friend that I speak on the phone weekly even if we don't see each other just to catch up. He loves all kinds of good music, he knows how to party and in general we have several common interests. He's the owner of "Saxy" the boat that you've seen in previous posts cruising through the Amsterdam canals.

He's also the person that I turned to last year when I almost had pneumonia and I had to go to the hospital. I will NEVER forget that!!! It's hard being ill while being far from home. Since earlier this year he's in love with a sweet Polish girl, Aleks, who is turning into a close friend of mine and I'm SO happy for both of them.

Aissa

Brazilian girl who I met about 2 and half years ago through Yamil (a Peruvian guy that I actually met in Amsterdam). We've known each other for so long but it's only been about a year since we became closer. It started for a mutual love: the BEACH!

However that's how it started and in the past months we realised that we have much more in common. Like the fact that even though we are both South American we are always on time and we do plan things ;-) We both also share a big love to classical ballet and we've been several times to see some really nice ballet shows in the Opera in Amsterdam.

In general a nice girlfriend to spend my time with, share some girlie chats, some coffees, dinner, and discuss about shoes, work, the weather or men ;-)

Petter

Also known as "Petter-cito" is my favorite Swede guy (Linda you are my favorite Swede girl!).

Petter-cito and me met at Canon. He's one of the lawyers there and we started talking more when back in 2003 we decided to organise some post-work drinks with a whole bunch of people. Afterwards we used to go out with the whole "Canon gang" to party wildly!

We became closer friends the past 2 years. He's a really nice and sweet person who is also there always ready to listen to me and also ready for some interesting gossip (who says only women like to gossip).

Petter and me share some "ciggy-breaks" at work...he smokes I just enjoy the company and some fresh air. Another thing quite common among us are our "quiet evenings". Every time we've wanted one of those we've ended up in some obscure bar in the touristy part of Amsterdam at some unGodly hour ;-) in a very high inebriated state :-s AND it wouldn't be strange if he would have lost either his mobile phone or his coat (don't ask how many phones and coats he lost last year only)!

Believe it or not my beloved friend Petter is now a married man and I was so happy to join him and his lovely Norwegian wife (Stina) on their wedding last year. They are a great couple! And Petter is a great friend!

Carmen

I met Carmen back in 2003 during her assessment centre to join the Canon Graduate Programme. I used to work in HR and I did the interview with the personality test. Since I met her I really liked her and she was my favourite among the candidates. In the end she entered Canon and ended up working as a trainee in my department.

Even though her assignement in my department only lasted 8 months we continued our friendship even when she went for a period to Brussels. She eventually came back to Amsterdam driven by love ;-) and a new job at Ricoh.

This Spanish girl and me shared some Dutch classes together and now of course she is almost fluent and I'm not :-s ...she has a Dutch boyfriend, that's a good icentive! We meet each other every other week for some girlie chats and some coffee or dinner.

Plus she's been my hairdresser for over a year. Every couple of months we have a "Chez Carmen" session actually at MY house ;-) where she dyes my hair, we have a nice meal and a good gossip.

Laurent

Laurent and me met back in 2001 during an induction day at Canon for newcomers. I was in charge for the organisation of that event and I also delivered the Cultural Awareness training. Lets say that Laurent was the most active delegate ;-)

After that day he organised some drinks with the people that joined the event and I joined them. After a month I left for 9 months to London but we kept contact and when I came back to Amsterdam we renewed our friendship.

Laurent is one of the most intuitive males I've ever met. He has a deep sensitivity and he's a great listener. I guess one of the reasons why we used to have really long and interesting chats over dinner. Then eventually by mid 2004 when Gennaro, my previous flatmate, left I asked Laurent if he wanted to live with me.

We've been flatmates since then and we've managed to get to know each other quite well. He's a really nice and caring person, a great photographer and a great friend. I also think that living with him has been a great training for whenever I'll move with a boyfriend ;-)...what is it with men not picking up the towel in the bathroom? ;-)

Geert Jan

Also known as "Geertje" ;-) Geertje was also introduced to me by Arnaud and he used to live with him and Joost for 2 years in the Saxenburgerstraat REALLY close to me.

Back then the "Saxenburgercasa" as they used to call it was my second home...so much that I kept a spare pair of slippers that I would wear whenever I was there. I used to have dinner there at least once a week...these guys used to have a REALLY nice kitchen so I used to LOVE to go and cook there. They of course loved that!

Geertje is a really nice and fun guy. He's the person who will eventually teach Dutch to me...I know it ;0) I like it when he SMSes and e-mails me in Dutch...even if I answer in English. He will also take me to one of those REALLY house parties of which he's really fond of ;-) Unfortunately he's been living "REALLY far" lately- about a 35 mins cycle ;-) reason why I still haven't been in his "not so new home anymore"still we do see each other, we've had plenty of fun and some really nice times together.

Stefania

Known as Stephie. Stephie is an Italian girl I only met about a year ago. However since the beginning there was a "click" and we bacame rather good friends. This was obviously highlighted by the fact that the Football World Cup took place last summer and both of us watched all the matches where Italy played together until that wonderful final :)

Stephie, a real entrepreneur, knows SOOOO many people and is a really lively girl. I love her spontaneity and the fact that we can make last minute plans for drinks, dinner, a nice chat or a movie...after all she goes to the cinema about 3 times a week ;-)
.................................................................................

I think I'm going to leave the list there...and on another ocassion I'll introduce you to some other friends.

Now you must be wondering, why the title of this post. I decided I would talk about my closest friends and this means that I write about the ones that live here, however there's been so many friends that used to live here but have left. Persons that I've bonded with really fast. After all being away from home means that the experiencies you through with these people are rather deep. I remembered Gennaro, Sara, Emma, Linda, Bea, Martin, Arnaud, Bastiaan...these guys used to be in the "speed dial" of my mobile phone. Even though I'm not supposed to be supersticious I somehow thought it was a little of a "curse" having my friends on my speed dial and they ended up leaving...that's why I don't put my friends there anymore ;-)

Thank you guys for always beeing there for me!

A long weekend in Austria

2007-05-29T20:06:00.000+01:00

And again we had another long weekend in the Netherlands...quite some lately huh? Well actually this is the last national holiday there is until Christmas, so stop saying that we have too many holidays!

Anyway, I decided to make the most out of it and about a month ago I managed to find a good deal with one of the cheap airlines and I decided to visit my friend Martin who lives in Vienna. However the interesting thing is that my flight was not going to Vienna but to Bratislava (Slovakia) which is a 55km drive (about 45 mins) to Martin's place.

Martin is one of my best friends in Europe. I met him back in 2001 and he lived in London while I lived there and then in Amsterdam until last year. So we've always been rather good friends and somehow he's been now away over a year and I still hadn't managed to come and visit him. So I was rather happy. As I have already been in Vienna about 1.5 years ago I suggested doing a little travelling around and Martin was very happy to go along!

I landed in Bratislava on Friday at 22:30 and Martin picked me up and we went into town to park the car. We did a very quick tour around the city centre where I saw some really beautiful buildings...it was really nice and cozy. After that we went to have some cocktails and to catch up.
We drove back to Vienna at 1am and we made it back by 2am.

Next morning Martin took me up in the mountains to this really nice place to have brunch and to enjoy a really nice view of Vienna. The weather was REALLY nice. It was over 30 degrees...and as I was coming from shitty weather I was extremely happy. So we decided to go to the Viennese beach. What is that? The old bank of the Danube river has been separated from the main flowing river and it looks like a nice lake in a small island inside the city. People go to this huge park to enjoy the weather and the water. It was rather pleasing to be there enjoying the weather and swimming in the "Blue Danube" :-)

That evening we went into the centre of Vienna for a really nice dinner and a nice walk. It is always nice to see a city in different seasons. I had seen Vienna during Christmas time and I have to say it's one of most beautiful (or the most) cities I've ever seen. So elegant, cozy and Christmasy. And during the summer...it's just stunning. All those imposing empire like buildings,w ith that magnificent lighting. It was really beautiful.

The next morning we woke up at dawn (actually not really because the days are getting so long that dawn it's before 5am ;-s so it was more 7am) and we made our way to Salzburg. The plan was to eventually end there but make a couple of stops on the way. We drove all the way to the area of "Salzakammergut" which is about 50kms before from Salzburg. We had a really nice picnic by a nice lake. Everything was so beautiful...all those green mountains, all that nature, birds singing, ducks with their babies (also of course lots of annoying mosquitoes but I guess it's part of the package).

After our picnic we drove a little further and we went to this small cute little town called St Wolfgang where we found a tiny private piece of "beach" where for €4 we could get in and for €2.50 we got a parasol and some very comfortable lying chairs. We stayed there for about 4 hours and Martin and me hardly spoke to each other...we were both lost in our own thoughts, gazing the view, enjoying the sun, the fresh and transparent water of the lake and of course Martin his Newsweek and me a brand new book bought at the airport.

We liked it so much that after that we decided to look for a Bed and Breakfast in town. We found again a really cozy one ran by this sweet pensioner couple. That evening we walked into town and saw a little of the rest of the town, we had a really delicious meal by the lake and we watched a wonderful show of fireworks. We walked back when it was fully dark at about 11pm and it was such a nice feeling to walk with the sound of the crickets...I'm just not used to this me being a city girl.

The next morning after a nice breakfast we headed towards Salzburg. For me this was something VERY special. My all time most favourite movie is "The Sound of Music" I can't recall how many times I've seen it but if I say that over 300 I'm not exagerating...I know all the songs, the dances, the words in both Spanish and English...you get the point. That movie is based in Salzburg and since I was a little girl I always dreamt about going there. And I WAS there!!! Of course I was extremely disappointed that Martin had NO clue about what I was talking about (he must be one of the weird people who don't know about this movie)...I wanted a singing partner ;-) But it was still rather nice to see all those places that you can see in the movie, includding the house of the Von Trapp family (from far away) and the places where they sang the songs.

Salzburg was BEAUTIFUL It was really breathtaking. The city divided in 2 by the river Salzbach, the castle or rather fortress up on a hill, all those beautiful churches, squares, statues, the really cute streets, the picturesque alleys, the gardens, the fountains. I have to say that it is now on the top 5 of my favourite sities!!! You'll see this and more on the photos.

Right before heading back to Vienna we made a stop in the Sacher hotel so I could have the famous Sachertorte which was really yummy. And then righ after we got ourselves into the car a big storm started- so I REALLY have to thank mother nature for being so nice to me this past weekend.

This morning Martin was SO nice that he drove me ALL the way to Bratislava and then he had to drive all the way back to Vienna to catch a flight to Warsaw. Martin THANK you SO much!!! After a 3-hour flight delay, a rather "entertainining" flight with the whole Dutch Volleyball team sitting in front, behind and next to me (boy are those guys tall!) I managed to arrive safely to Amsterdam and managed to be behind my desk before 3pm.

Now you can click here for the photos. I warn you there are quite A LOT! But the places are just too beautiful not to photograph...and I tried to write some entertaining captions...

All in all a WONDERFUL weekend and one of the reasons why I love living in Europe...a flight a way, a 45 mins drive to another city to catch another flight....different culture, different language...I just love to get away for the weekend and be able to be part of that ;-)

Ascension weekend: Spring cleaning and some fun!

2007-05-21T20:56:00.000+01:00

(And some rather interesting facts and photos about my shoes- way at the bottom!) ;-)

April and May are great in the Netherlands! There are several days off due to holidays and it's always nice to have a small break from work. Of course what I still don't understand is why do we have Christian holidays considering that I still have to meet a Dutch person who is really religious...still, this is not the purpose of this entry ;-) so I'll proceed to share with you what I did during Ascension weekend.

The real day off was on Thursday and at Canon we had an extra day off...this meant a nice long weekend :) For this occasion I decided to stay in Amsterdam, take some time to relax at home, go to the gym and do something productive and maybe have some fun in the evenings.

Well I have to say that it all worked out wonderfully!

THE FUN

I managed to do something fun each of the evenings. And you will be able to see some photos with some descriptions here.

However I wanted to tell you a little more about Friday evening. Aissa and me decided to go to the 80s party in Hotel Arena. Hotel Arena is a disco in Amsterdam and the third Friday of every month they organise an 80s party with all the old songs...it's always so much fun. People dancing, singing, the 3 big screens showing the videos of the songs or old TV commercials of those years. It's always a blast! You will see some of the photos of the evening and you can also see a video of Push It from Salt n Pepa and Like a Virgin from Madonna. Something interesting for the non Amsterdammers: Hotel Arena is one of the many old churches that is now a disco. Considering that not that many people go to church anymore, they had to do something useful with those big contructions...discos or concert halls is the perfect use for these old churches, the accoustic is great! If you look close enough at some of the photos you will see a Fresco with Jesus and his disciples...just on top of the DJ. In Peru that would be considered a sacrilege...but hey, this is the Netherlands!

Spring Cleaning

I decided to be productive this weekend by doing some Spring Cleaning. Don't even think that it was in the whole house...it was just in my bedroom. And if you think that I finished...you are well mistaken...oh Lord, do I have a lot of crap!

I have realised that before settling down in Amsterdam the moving around countries and houses was not that bad...it was the perfect opportunity to get rid of useless stuff and to sort out belongings. Well, I've been living on my house for over 3.5 years now...and the amount of stuff I have managed to accumulate is unbelievable.

Ok if you know me very well (and maybe even if you don't know me that well) you know that I'm rather girly and I just LOVE accessories...the amount of jewellery, scarves, hats, gloves, hand bags, make up and such other paraphernalia was rather amazing. And of course lets not talk about the amount of bags full of clothes and shoes that will go to charity...so I entertained myself during the day doing that....and I need another long weekend to finish :-s

I don't have photos of me in the mess this weekend. However I think that you will find rather amusing (or shocking...up to each one of you) some photos that Laurent took of me last year when I was organising my shoes on a day I was rather bored as I had been ill for over 2 months...yes I was shocked! After throwing away about 10 pairs of shoes I was left with 69 pairs...and that was last September...there are some new in the collection ;-)

What can I say: I'm Caterina and I'm a "shoeaholic" ;-)

Feliz Dia Mamma!

2007-05-13T20:35:00.000+01:00

Spanish version below/Version en español debajo
Second Sunday of May it's Mother's day in several countries. I know for a fact that it is in the Netherlands. However, just like some other holidays, it's not really known, some people think it's a commercial day and it's not really celebrated. Well, let me tell you that at the time I'm writing this, being 14:30 Peruvian time on Mother's day...your call won't be able to go through at this moment if you want to call to Peru. Mother's day in Peru is almost as important as Christmas celebrations! All kids (youngs or adults) will try to do their best to celebrate that woman who brought them to this world: their mother.

As this is the case, I decided to dedicate this week's blog to my mom. Just wanted to share with you some few photos I found in a box here in Amsterdam (most photos are in Peru as you can understand) and to tell you a little about my mom :)

My mom's name is Lupe and I call her by the Italian word: Mamma. My mom, being a cancer is totally devoted to her family and her 3 girls: Francesca, Antonella and me. She's the typical "mother hen" who has always been there for us, doing her outmost for us.

I remember when the 3 of us where still at school my mom would drive us around Lima (huge, chaotic, lots of traffic) taking us to all our activities: ballet, gym, English lessons, French lessons, gymnastics, piano,swimming, dancing....you name it! She would pick us up from school and take us to our friends. When we were even younger she would dress us in matching clothes!

We are all grown up and 2 of us live abroad...but you would be amazed at how close we are. Regardless of the distance she is still there for us, ready to give us sound advice and just a phone call away with her motherly voice and concern.

Mamma, happy mother's day, I really miss you! Thank you so much for always being there!

Version en español (sin acentos a proposito)
Segundo Domingo de mayo es el dia de la madre en varios paises. Se que es definitivamente en Holanda. Sin embargo, al igual que otros feriados, no se conoce realmente, algunas personas dicen que es un dia comercial y no es realmente celebrado. Bueno, dejenme decirles que en el preciso momento donde escribo esto, las 2:30pm hora peruana en el dia de la madre…su llamada no entraria si quiesiesen llamar al Peru. El dia de la madre en Peru es casi tan importante como la Navidad. Todo los hijos (jovenes y adultos) siempre trataran de hacer todo lo posible para celebrar a la mujer que los trajo al mundo: su mama.

Como este es el caso, decidi dedicarle el blog de esta semana a mi mama. Solo quiero compartir con ustedes algunas fotos que encontre en una caja aca en Amsterdam (la mayoria de fotos estan en Peru como pueden entender) y de contarles un poquito sobre mi mama :)

El nombre de mi mama es Lupe y yo la llamo con la palabra en italiano: Mamma. My mama, al ser cancer es una persona totalmente dedicada a su familia y a sus tres hijas: Francesca, Antonella y yo. Es la tipica “mama gallina” que siempre ha estado alli para nosotras, dando siempre lo major de ella por nosotras.

Recuerdo cuando nosotras 3 estabamos todavia en el colegio, mi mama nos paseaba por toda Lima (enorme, caotica y con mucho trafico) y nos llevaba a todas nuestras actividades: ballet, gimnasio, clases de ingles, clases de frances, acrobacia, piano, natacion, baile…y muchas mas! Nos recogia del colegio, nos llevaba donde nuestras amigas. Cuando eramos incluso mas pequegnas nos vestia siempre con ropa que hacia juego!

Somos ya adultas y 2 de nosotras vivimos en el extranjero…pero se sorprenderian si supieesen lo cercanas que somos. A pesar de la distancia siempre esta alli para nosotras, lista para darnos un consejos a tan solo una llamada de distancia con su voz y preocupacion de “mama”.

Mamma, feliz dia de la madre. Realmente te extraño! Muchas gracias por estar siempre alli. Ti voglio tanto bene mammina! Caty

Weekend in London

2007-05-07T19:27:00.000+01:00

I'm currently involved on a big project at work that involves working with an English agency based in London. We needed a 2-day meeting with our Account manager and it was held in the Canon office in London. As it was on Thursday and Friday (ok, I conveniently planned them close to the weekend ;-) ) I decided to stay there to enjoy a little of London and to visit some friends.

The meeting was rather successful and packed with lots of information. Unfortunately I was getting a cold which got worse while sitting on the plane for almost for almost 3 hours on the plane on the way there. It's a joke sometimes how those annoying delays on planes make a 40 minute flight become such an long trip.

However, regardless of the bad cold, on Friday at 15:30 I bid good bye to Christiaan (my boss) in Terminal 4 at Heathrow airport and made my way to catch the Heathrow express that would take me to Paddington station in the centre of London!

Most of you know that I lived in London for 9 months in 2002 and that I absolutely love it. And of course I have been to London many times after that either for business or to visit friends (or a combination of both) and of course for shopping ;-) However I hadn't been to London since the end of 2005- I don't count the business trips to Canon UK because when I do that I even stay in the Sofitel hotel in the North Terminal of Gatwick airport!

I know my way very well in London, but was I in for some surprises! I remember that the first day I was in London back in 2002 I was in the supermarket and I was amazed to see that the prices had the same "numbers" but they were Pounds instead of Euros. Everybody knows that London is one of the most expensive cities of the world...but God it feels like inflation hit them in about 50%!!!

When I lived in London a Tube single ticket (for the ones who don't know "The tube" is the way the London underground is referred as) costed £1.90. Well, I was horrified to see that it now costs £4.00 !!!! (that is about US$ 8.00). Of course they now also have another system with the "Oyster Cards"...but I won't bother you into the details. Lets just say that just making my way from Heathrow into town I had some incidents and shocks with the prices...the 15 minute ride from Heathrow to Paddington was £15 (US$30)...anyway, I won't go on, but you get the picture.

As I had some time to kill until 17:30 when I was going to meet Carla in Liverpool Street Station, I decided to get off in Oxford Circus so I could do a little window shopping in Oxford Street where I didn't lose ANY time and bought the most beautiful pair of white sandals ;-) ...ok, I'm getting sidetracked again. By the time I was back in the Tube on the Central line going only about 5 stops from Oxford Circus to Liverpool Street...it was rush hour on a Friday. Oh MY GOD!!!! Had I forgotten how crowded the tube can get. The amount of people, all squeezed like tuna in a can, the door opening, then closing, the "mind the gap" voice in every station, everybody with their iPODs and reading their books or newspapers, nobody looking into anybody's eyes. And then when leaving the carriage walking with a pack of people, everybody looking for the long escalators: stand on the right, walk on the left, people walking and just walking and wanting to go home!!

I remember that I have always heard that some people like London but they feel overwhelmed by it. I always said that that was nonsense for me. After all I come from Lima, a massive, over 8-million-inhabitants, chaotic and noisy city...so I felt pretty much at home in London. But I guess that back in 2002 I had only been in Europe for a couple of years. After being over 4 years in a row in Amsterdam...where I cycle to go everywhere, where it takes not even one hour by bike to cross the city, where I don't have to fight with anyone to get a seat in the bus in the morning on my way to work, which is outside Amsterdam and it takes me half an hour (I guess it's also because I go to work rather early and I miss the rush hour)....I was REALLY overwhelmed by the whole chaos!!! I really missed my bike! ;-)

Of course on the other hand...London is London. And I was positively overwhelmed in the shops with the choice of things....so many nice things, so many things to choose from....too expensive though ;-)...and of course the amount of things to do: concerts, theatres, musicals, opera, ballet, museums. So as you see London and me have some kind of love-hate relationship, which is great because it's a "long distance" love affair anyway ;-)

I eventually found Carla and we made our ways to Chelmsfort, Essex just half an hour by train outside of London where she lives. We had a very nice evening the 2 of us, Julien (her husband) and Italo who joined us after work all the way from Kingston (about 1.5 hour away).

The next day we had already made our plans for the day. After breakfast Italo, Carla and me decided that the 3 of us would head into town. It was rather nice to be among Peruvian friends, speaking Peruvian slang, catching up and remembering our time at university. Of course Carla and my plan was to go shopping...Italo was happy to come along. I guess Julien was very smart as he went to play golf...and I have the feeling that Italo must have thought why on earth did he go shopping in London with 2 women!

On my defense, I did exactly what I said I wanted to do. I only went to 2 shops that I really like and that I had planned on going. Of course I won't forget Italo's shocked face when I came out of the second shop with only a tiny little carrier bag: "Over an hour for only THAT?????"...hey, doesn't he know that we women have to try everything before choosing the first thing we tried on?

After an afternoon of shopping we went for some coffee and rest in Starbucks while we waited for 19:30. We had tickets for a concert in St. Martin in the Fields, the church in Trafalgar square. While I lived in London I used to go a lot to that church on Saturday evenings as they always had lovely concerts. Just on Monday last week I received their newsletter and I saw that that the Belmont Ensemble was having a Candle night concert of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons...so I proposed Carla and Italo to get tickets.

Just as I expected it was beautiful. Nothing really fancy just this really talented musicians playing delicious music. Just some easy listening Barocque: some Vivaldi, some Mozart and some Bach...perfect 2 hours! I would have loved to take photos or to film, but it wasn't allowed. However I sneaked out my camera and covered it with my scarf just for the audio...so you can hear a little of the concert by clicking in any of the following links: Mozart - Salzburg Symphony No 2; Bach - Air on G string and Vivaldi - The 4 Seasons, Spring.

After the concert Julien joined us for dinner and eventually we headed back to Chelmsford after midnight on the last train. On the walk from the station to Carla's house I was reminded again of what surprised me back in 2002 about British people...my God why do they drink SO much? I know that I have already told this to several of you but I need to document it on my blog: First of all, I have never in my live have seen as many people being drunk at the same time in the street as in Britain- but when I say DRUNK I mean TOTALLY wasted! Second of all...British define how much fun they have according to how drunk they get...I take it as still an interesting cultural aspect. And of course, another typical characteristic: what kind of super genes do English girls have to be able to walk with tiny clothes, no jacket, no socks and sandals when it's bloody cold is entirely beyond me! Another interesting aspect ;-)

On Sunday I was positively surprised by a lunch invitation from Marco van den Berg and his girlfriend, Annette. I met Marco in a seminar in Mannheim, Germany back in 1998 just before he went to Peru for an AIESEC project. We've met some other times includding New Year's 2002 in Peru again and the last time we saw each other was in Paolo's farewell party in Zurich...I was really very happy to see him and Annette again. It was a very enjoyable lunch!

After lunch Marco drove me to Heathrow and after only about 45 mins delay I managed to land at Schiphol airport a little before 20:00. All in all, regardless of the cold (and cough I caught on Saturday) and regardless of the weather (it seems that spring is gone and rain is here to stay this week :-s...good for the plants though...) it was a really, really nice weekend. Met some old friends, did some shopping, went to an excellent concert, went down memory lane (Arnaud, Martin and David...I kept thinking of our time in London!) and as I said before, that's the way to keep the love on this long-distance relationship with London...lets see each other only every once in a while to keep the "honey-moon" period!

For a few photos of the weekend click here, can you tell that the weather is crap again? :-s ...so much for my new sandals ;-)

Queen's Day

2007-05-02T19:54:00.000+01:00

April 30th is a little like the Dutch National holiday as it is "Koninginnedag", which means Queen's day. It is the day the whole country dresses in Orange and celebrates the Queen...at least that's how it should be...if you click here and read below you will find out more about this popular festivity in the Netherlands.

This is actually my 7th Queen's day. My first was back in 98 when I did my traineeship in Mannheim Germany and that was my first time EVER in Amsterdam...little did I know then that I was going to end up living in this city.

This Queen's day has actually felt more like a Queen's week. As the day itself was on a Monday, we had a long weekend to celebrate and as the weather is still really nice to us, lets say that the anticipation of the long weekend and the wonderful weather made it all more special.

Warmondstraat 148hs' maiden 2007 BBQ

After checking the weather forecast earlier last week, Laurent (my flatmate for the ones that don't know) decided that it was about time for us to do the first BBQ of the year. We first decided to have something small but somehow we ended up being 12 persons as apparently everybody was excited about being able to have a BBQ.

We had an interesting combination of people: 3 Spaniards, 4 Dutch, 3 Peruvians, 1 French and 1 Mexican...everybody except 2 knew how to speak Spanish...so that language was widely spoken through that nice evening.

Ruben, my really good Spanish friend, decided to make Sangria for the occasion. Little did I know that he was going to get so carried away. He made about 7 liters of Sangria...but as we were all really responsible people who had to be at work the next day. We only drank half of it...without counting the wine of course.

If you keep reading, you will find the link for the photos of that really nice evening!

The Start of the weekend: Farewell, Beach and another BBQ

The long waited Friday came and it started with some nice drinks in the bar of the "Hotel Arena" where Ruben hosted his farewell drinks as he will be moving to the South of the Netherlands where he will start working in some weeks. We had a really nice time, sitting outside, having a nice chat and having some drinks.

After 1am some of the guys went to the disco but I decided I wanted to take it easy that evening as I had an important date the next morning: me and the sun in the beach ;-)

Indeed at about 9:30am Aissa sent me an SMS letting me know that she and a friend who was over for the weekend were already getting ready for the beach...so I jumped out of bed and got ready for it. This time we decided to go by train and not by bike as I had to be back not that late that day- Italo was landing about about 6pm and I had to be home to welcome him.

We had a really beautiful day in the beach. It was not as warm as the last time but it was warm enough for us to enjoy a beautiful time lying and getting tanned and just relaxing. And it was not that hot that it was too crowded. This time we went to Zandvoort which is a little closer than Bloemendaal.

What to do that evening? That was the question that everybody was making themselves...my phone kept rining the whole day. It was Saturday but everyone wanted to take it easy as we still had 2 whole days ahead of partying. So finally we decided to have a BBQ at my place. As I was at the beach Joost and Geert Jan were really nice and bought all the stuff for the evening. We spent a really enjoyable evening in my garden with Joost, Geert Jan, Aleks, Italo, Johannes (a friend that was visiting Aleks) and me of course.

The other interesting thing is that we still had the Sangria left from the previous BBQ...you can imagine that after 3 days in the fridge the fruit had absorved all the alcohol and the Pisco that Ruben added for an "extra taste" did the thing to it...otherwise ask either Geert Jan or Italo who became very healthy and finished all the fruit ;-)

For a video of that evening click here and for the photos of the 2 BBQs and some of the beach click here.

Queen's Night - DAY and NIGHT

Queen's night is the start of the Queen's day celebrations, however, as it was Sunday we started celebrating early that day. Joost invited us to go with his boat around Amsterdam once more. And we were more than happy to come along. There's not much to say as you can just see it for yourself in the photos.

I will add though that we had quite some beers and wine...and we were almost 4 hours under the sun...so you can imagine the results. By the time we were back on steady floor Italo and me actually still had to visit some people in the Vondelpark. Our first stop was by the "Picasso fish" where Petter and some friends were also enjoying the sun with some more wine and beers and finally by the exit of the Amstelveenseweg where Stephi and some friends were doing the same.

When we got back home at around 18:30 we were rather tired...even though I hadn't had as much alcohol as Italo (you must have seen his photos) ;-) haha we just had time to get ready (Italo managed to have a power nap) and we headed off in our bikes into town.

We met Joost, Aleks and Johannes in an Indian restaurant close to Nieuwmarkt for dinner and then we headed in to the stage in that area where we met some more friends. There was a really cool group playing 70s music, for a taste click here. There were 2 main singers a girl and a guy...the way was an unbelievable showman...he made us laugh with his dances, movements, the way he sang. We had a blast until after 1am. You can view the photos here.

When the music finished we had quite some discussions whether we should go ahead and keep partying. However after the confussion, the people, the beer, the bikes, the amount of people and the fact we wanted to enjoy Queen's Day...we decided to get home. Which was a good thing cause we only got to bed at about 2:30am

D Day: Queen's Day!

And we made it to the climax of the weekend!!! It was Queen's day! Queen's day is a very particular celebration and even though I'll describe it here, you will see the pictures and the videos you won't be able to get a full grasp of it unless you live it...so all the ones that have never had the chance to live this are very welcome to come and visit me on April 30th 08!

First of all there's the market. This is the only day of the year where everybody can sell whatever they want. Dutch people sometimes even sleep on the floor in the streets to make sure that they get good spots where they can sell their stuff the next day. You can find some rather interesting things, like old books or CDs, but you can also find SO much crap. And the most amazing thing is that things are sold!!! One of my Dutch colleagues even told me yesterday that the guy selling next to her sold a bike for €5 and she bought it and then sold it for €15! It's really funny to see all these things.

Then there's the amount of activities going on. Every single bar, pub, restaurant has a big party in the street. Everybody wears orange which is the national colour (as the Dutch royal family is from the House "van Oranje"). There are stages almost every block with musicians, bands, singers, DJs...it's very hard to describe that a whole city becomes like a big fair.

It is not only the streets and every single square that are really crowded. The canals are impossible. People organise parties in big boats that cruise the canals throughout the days with drinks and DJs.

I read on the news that 500,000 people attended the celebrations in Amsterdam. 215,000 of them actually got to Amsterdam by train...so you can imagine the mobilisation. However it is also unbelievable how well behaved and how peaceful Dutch people are, I also read on the news that they only arrested over 100 people which is the average in a normal weekend in Amsterdam.

I started the day by cycling to Joost's place with Italo and there we met some more people and we made our way to Westerstraat and the Nordermarkt in the Jordaan area. We then walked along the Prinsengracht following the big crowd and stopping in almost all the stages to finish in the Amstelveldt close to Rembrandtplein where there was the "Chemistry" party where about 8 different DJs played from noon until 9pm. We really had a blast!

We somehow walked all the way back to Joost's (it took us about 1.5 hours with a small stop for some food) and there we picked up our bikes and we cycled back home.

Another Queen's day, another wonderful celebration. You should definitely try it sometime!

View the photos and a video of the party!

Just a weekend in Amsterdam

2007-04-23T19:42:00.000+01:00

The heat wave left us somewhere during mid last week, however spring is still here (we actually can't believe it...I think I've never seen so many blue skies so constantly in the Netherlands!). Anyway, this means that me and my friends have taken advantage of this and we've had a really nice weekend.

I started with a "pre-weekend" activity on Thursday evening where me and some friends went for dinner to the "Blue tea house" which is located in the Vondelpark. We still managed to make it an early evening so I managed to go work on Friday and in the evening I met a friend in De Pijp to catch up.

On Saturday, my friend Aleksandra was having a housewarming party at 4pm in the north part of Amsterdam.

Now, for the ones that don't know Amsterdam let me tell you that this city has totally spoiled me. I come from Lima a VERY big city where I used to spend about one hour in a "combi" (small bus) to go from home to university every day. I did the same when I was living in London where it took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes to get from home to work (by underground and a bus).

However Amsterdam is a different story. Amsterdam is more like a village than a city...and my life is always around the same areas. After all the Netherlands is the European country with more population density...we are kind of on top of each other, and there are SO many things next to the other. I don't even live in the centre, but it takes me less than 10 minutes by bike to get to the centre (I literally have to cross the Vondelpark). When I have to go somewhere and I have to cycle over 15 minutes I already start thinking it's a little far. 20, means far...and more than 20...it's rather annoying ;-) So yes, I'm totally spoiled here.

Anyway, all this explanation to tell you that Aleks' house was in the North of Amsterdam (behind central station). You have to understand that my view of Amsterdam is a little like the one that Europeans had of the world before Christopher Columbus discovered America. For me Central Station is THE NORTH...and anything behind is some land after the water ;-) haha So having to look for the address on the map and trying to figure out a cycle way...was quite a challenge ;-) However I did manage to get there, I got a little lost but after 35 minutes I got there.

We spent a nice afternoon and evening in the roof top terrace until the sun was gone and we started getting cold. We ended the party in Alek's nice livingroom, having some nice chats, drinking some wine, eating lots of yummy things and overlooking a beautiful view. You'll see it on the photos!

At about 22:30, 7 of us made our way into the centre to Zebra Lounge, a nightclub where Vitor, a good friend of mine was celebrating his 32nd party. Vitor is a real "party animal". He's the friend that whenever I feel like going out and dance or I want to know "what's on" in the Amsterdam night life agenda I call and usually he can put me on the guestlist. It was a really great party, 4 different DJs made a great combination of music, the crowd was great, several of my friends were there. I had a really nice time.

I cycled home at around 3 am...I had been partying and drinking since 4pm if you remember....

You can see a few photos of this by clicking here

On Sunday we had a GORGEOUS spring day! And so I joined Joost, Aleks, Geert jan and Daf in Saxy (the boat). We cruised around the Amsterdam canals while finishing all the remaining food from the party the day before...the people from the other boat were very jealous of our vast variety of cheeses: Brie, Camembert, Goat cheese, Blue cheese, Cheese with Dille, Cheese with Nuts...you got it right?

It was a really fun and beautiful afternoon. The sun was shining over Amsterdam and the wateer and I actually took out my camera and decided to take all the photos that normally tourists would take and that I never do (as I'm not a tourist anymore) and when I downloaded them yesterday evening, I realised what I already know...I LOVE Amsterdam. It's such a beautiful city, and no wonder I fell in love with it! :)

Look up the photos of my beautiful Amsterdam here (can you tell I love this city?)

And you can also view 2 videos: Prinsengracht and me cycling back home yesterday evening

Starved for sun and warmth: 1st hot weekend in 07

2007-04-16T16:48:00.000+01:00

I'll never forget my first summer in the northern part of Europe. It was back in 1998 when I was doing a traineeship in Mannheim, Germany. One day the sun came out and suddenly everybody was half naked, everybody had sunglasses on and going out in the streets, people were SO happy, So cheerful, everybody was sitting outside in the terraces, in the parks, they would cram themselves in tiny little balconies (that I would have never called balconies myself)....summer was here (at least for a day)...and they HAD to enjoy it.

I would have never thought, that some years later...I would join "them" and I would get SO excited as well to get some sun. I guess it's true...you always long for what you don't have, or what you are not sure if you will get. In this part of the world...the world Summer doesn't mean "heat" or the fact that you will be able to wear summer clothes or sandals. Long gone are the days back in Lima, when I would put away all the coats, jackets and anything that had long sleeves; socks and closed shoes. For the past 7 years...I've been chasing the sun and trying to get the most out of it! I now understand why the euphoria, why the need of getting half naked and joining the masses of half naked bodies in wherever part of the city we might enjoy some rays of the long longed God sun! (However, I don't think I will ever join the group of people that feel it's nice to parade around in underwear in public parks!!)

I think there's enough evidence by now to prove to the more sceptics that Global Warming is here, been reading a very interesting special about it in the latest Newskeek. And regardless of the fears and the politics behind, besides the potential scenarios that make me actually wonder if I should invest in a beach house by the Baltic sea ;-)...the fact is that since Friday not only Spring was here but with a breaking record of 28.9 degrees Celsius for the month of April in the Netherlands it felt like Summer was actually here.

On Friday evening I joined Joost, Geert Jan and some other friends for a quick drink in De Pijp...and there was some holiday feeling to people sitting in the terraces or just standing outside with beers, white beers, white wines or Mohitos in their hands.

On Saturday Aissa and me decided that we HAD to go to Bloemendaal, one of the closest beaches to Amsterdam. I have to point out that Aissa is Brazilian and we actually became quite good friends since last Summer when we would get into the train on Saturdays and Sundays ready to make the most out of the beach...we both have grown up by the beach and we definitely LOVE it! However this time we decided to cycle to Bloemendaal (for Non-Dutch pronounce "Blue-mendal"). It took us 1 hour and 40 minutes at a steady pace to ride the 30kms to Bloemendaal and 1 hour and 30mins for our way back. As the Netherlands is so flat and as we cycle almost every day, it was not hard, we didn't get soar legs or were tired, however as we have just plain city bikes...God did our asses hurt on the way back ;-) And we spent a really GREAT day laying down in the sand and feeling the gorgeous rays caressing our bodies!

On Sunday I decided to stay in Amsterdam, however the day was even warmer than Saturday so I actually spent about 8 hours lying in the sun in the Vondelpark. For the ones that don't know, the Vondelpark is a rather big park in the middle of Amsterdam and I happen to live only 5 minutes away from the south exit. Petter, Aissa, Stephie, Paul and Nema joined me....and from 2pm till almost 9pm (when it started getting dark- I LOVE the looooong days) we enjoyed copious amounts of white and rose wine and then some lovely white beer. It was only when I cycled back home that I realised that I was a little drunk and the fact was furtherly confirmed at 4am when I woke up and had a terrible urge for over a liter of water ;-)

All in all a perfect hot weekend, the perfect beginning of the warm season! I look forward to more beach days, more picnics in the Vondelpark and definitely more wine and beers in good company ;-)

For a few photos of Sat and Sun click here and for a 1 min video of my cycling through the park click here.

Easter Weekend

2007-04-10T19:49:00.000+01:00

Even though it appeared that I was only just back from holidays, the long Easter weekend was very much welcome! I was definitely happy to have 4 days off.

As I had been so busy planning my trip to Aspen I had totally forgotten to plan something for it, once I was back all flights for short breaks around Europe were already quite full and were already quite expensive so I decided that I would make the most out of the Netherlands.

Italo, one of my best friends who is currently living in Essex UK, came over for the weekend and we organised several really fun activities.

Friday: KEUKENHOF

Keukenhof is one of the world's most spectacular gardens. It's only opened about 6 weeks every year at the beginning of the spring, and it's a real delight for the senses.

Italo and me took a train to Leiden and then a beautiful bus ride among the flower fields all the way to the park.

The place is really stunning. A huge display of flowers, colours, nature. Something really worth seeing if you are ever in the Netherlands at around this time of the year...believe it or not...even though I'm over 4 years here, I had never been there before.

I think that I'll make use of the frase "one image speaks more than thousand words" and click here so you can see the photos!

You can also enjoy Keukenhof videos by clicking here and here!

Saturday: A boat tour in the A'dam canals

On Saturday we did "Saxy's 2007 maiden's tour" in the A'dam canals. Saxy is my good friend Joost's boat. He used this weekend to ensure that all was working ok, to put the engine back on after the winter and to ensure that Saxy is ready for 2007's season. Italo and me met Joost in the Princengracht prepared with wine and some snacks and we were ready for it.

Cruising Amsterdam canals is one of the nicest things to do on a sunny day. Even though I have done it numerous times, I will never get bored of it. You view the city from a total different perspective, you realise that most of the Amsterdam buildings are astonishing and that each one has a special characteristics. It's also nice to see that the other boat "captains" will always greet you when you cross their way- something totally unexpected in a busy city as Amsterdam.

Furthermore, as this was Italo's first time on a private boat...we decided to cruise around the Red Light District. Which gave us an interestinig advantage...I managed to photograph some of the "ladies on the windows" ;-) which is something that you are not allowed to do if you are wondering around the area.

Finally, at the end of the day, Italo and me were cycling back home and we passed along Museum Plein. The sun was out and it looked so pretty...we decided to sit in the field and enjoy the sunshine...and we also decided to take some nice touristy photos.

For photos of the whole day, includding the "ladies from the red light district" click here ;-)

For videos on the the canal ride click here and also here.

Saturday and Sunday: Park, Rembrandt Plein and National Park

Saturday was a really sunny day. Italo and me packed a chilled bottle of white wine and we met Stephie in the Vondelpark. We had a really nice time enjoying the sun. After 2.5 hours we decided to go to Rembrandtplein where Yamil joined us and we had some really decadent ice-creams and a beer.

On Sunday Joost, Geert Jan, Italo and me went all the way to Otterlo to the Hoge veluwe National Park. After parking the car, we walked about 2.5kms towards the centre of the park. There we decided to first visit to the "Kroller-Muller" museum which had an amazing Van Gogh collection and also some impressionists and post-impressionists (my favorites) and a rather impressive modern art from the 20th century collection. This was all in the inside, in the outside they had a quite particular exhibition of modern sculptures.

After the museum visit and after a small lunch we managed to get a hold of 4 of the white bikes which are meant to be for free for the visitors. We decided to go to St. Huber, a small castle, that used to be a lodge for hunters, we cycled about 20 kms to get there...which was rather nice to do in between the forest and the nice scenary which you'll be able to see in the photos. We reached St. Huber, we saw a little bit of it and we cycled back toward the entrance and then we drove back Amsterdam.

For photos of the visit to Hoge Veluwe click here.

For a short video of me trying to get the surroundings while cycling...click here ;-)

All in all a really nice long weekend with beautiful long and sunny days, spring is definitely here....and everybody is really happy!

Happy Easter!! Felices Pascuas! Buona Pasqua!

2007-04-05T15:08:00.000+01:00

I wish you all a nice Easter. Enjoy the short break! Chocolate greetings from Amsterdam :)

The cabin in Snowmas Mountain

2007-04-01T19:25:00.000+01:00

Up in Snowmass mountain, hidden from the "non-locals" you can find a cabin in the middle of the woods. It was taken there by helicopter about 40 years ago during the construction of one of the chair lifts by a man who used to work in Snowmass called "Mr Sneaky" and that's why it's called "Sneak's Inn". The cabin is not bigger than 20square meters and it is very rudimentary. It has 3 rather long bunk beds where a maximum of 12 people can sleep. The furniture (chairs) are made out of wood in a way that you can still see the logs. There is a small furnace where logs are burnt to produce heat.

The cabin is opened to anybody 365 days a year, there's no need to book it...Anto tells me that so far she's never met another group of people. The people who go there take care of it, they leave some non perishable food, there's some spare jackets, blankets, sleeping bags and shoes.

Anto had always talked to me about this cabin, so when I was in Aspen I definitely wanted to go there. We were 7 of us going there: Greg, Deidree, Murphy, Anto, Gus, Jason and me.

We took the last gondola of the day at 4pm from the bottom of "Fanny hill" in Snowmas mountain. After we went all the way to the top we had to ski a little and then we had to hike for some minutes until we found the cabin, hidden in between some trees.

Even though this was my second time skiing, and I took a one day lesson and I actually improved quite a lot, lets say that I still didn't feel very comfortable at having to ski with a backpack and a sleeping bag. Somehow I managed (and it is amazing if you consider that this was the same day of my previous post...thank God for Gatorade!) but I was really amazed at seeing all the other guys with really big and heavy backpacks and, very importantly, carrying 12-packs of beer :) (check Murphyto on the right)

The hike was a very short one, however the snow was "rotten", this means that every couple of steps one of us would manage to sink a whole leg in the snow. The first time this happened to me, I freaked out a little bit...cause it is very tough to pull it out, and if you are not used to it, it can be a little scary. Of course afterwards I realised that it happened to everyone and that it was just a matter of being patience and careful and eventually you could be back on your feet!

The place was amazing. The guys made a nice fire outside where we sat around while having beers, eating and chatting. Of course the guys are rather hyperactive and they had to find ways to entertain themselves and burn some energy....so they did all kinds of things such us cutting wood, small fights, invent silly little games, sled or chase each other around in the snow! By clicking on the links on the previous sentence you can view small videos!

Once it was dark, and it got a little colder we all went inside. Some of the guys cooked some food, some attempted to play the guitar, some danced ;-), we played some Jenga. We had plenty of fun.

One of the interesting experiences was going trying to pee in the dark. It reminded me of camping in the beach back in Peru...of course there is easier as it is not cold, you don't sink in the snow and somehow you can see a little better. Anto and me would go with the head lamp and some toilet paper....and everything was so still and so quiet and so surrounded by trees....it was kind of scary! However it all looked so nice. We were up in the mountain and the sky looked so big and dark and so full of stars!

The next morning we woke up rather late (at 9am) considering that we were all in bunk beds....it felt a little like being in a pyjama party because we were all talking to each other and we were laughing non stop...I was sleeping in the middle bunk so it was just funny to have someone talking to me from the top bunk and from the bottom one.

After cleaning and tidying up we all skiied down the mountain all the way to "the mall" in Snowmass where we all shared a really nice breakfast.

My visit to the cabin was definitely a really nice experience!

Peru reunion: wild night!

2007-04-01T18:32:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday 21st we decided to make a "Peru reunion" with all the people that were in Aspen and that had attended Anto's and Gus' wedding back in October last year. We decided to go to "Cantina", a Mexican restaurant downtown Aspen. I had already been there the last time I was in Aspen and I knew that the food was good and that they had some really nice Margarita Pitchers.

Anto, Gus, Greg, Murphy, Jason, Lucy and Kimmy joined us. Unfortunately Karina and "Jason 2" couldn't join us that evening, however we also had Greg's parents over who were visiting him that week. It was a nice and fun evening where we ate good, we drank quite some pitchers and and we had a nice chat.

I guess the evening started to take a different turn once someone suggested that I HAD TO HAVE the "Aspen ski shot". This Aspen ski shot is a group shot. The shot glasses are placed in a ski and then all the "drinkers" stand next to each other, hold the ski and down it (as you can see in the photo here).

We finished dinner before 10pm so some of us decided that we just couldn't go home yet...Anto and Gus were not working the next day, I was on holidays....in the end the 3 of us, Lucy, Jason and Murphy went to "Texas red" where they were having a karaoke evening.

By that time not everybody was drunk enough to sing...however I like singing so Anto and me sang a very nice interpretation of "La Isla Bonita" from Madonna. After our singing and after several Coronas, Gus picked a song for the guys. They sang a country song which was only known by Gus...however Jason and Murphy did quite good at singing certain parts of the lyrics: " but you don't have to call me darling, darling" ;-)

Gus and Anto left a little after 1am. This means that it was only 4 of us left. After some more booze, Lucy decided that she was ready to sing and she and me had the last song of the evening (before they kicked us out), we gave a memorable performance of "If I could turn back time" from Cher....not only us, Jason and Murphy were quite enthousiastic cheering for us in the dance floor!

Once we had to leave we went to the only opened bar at that point, it was "Cooper street". In it, Lucy and me were the only girls, and it was full with rather drunk guys. We befriended this guy who had lived in the Netherlands and the barman. We had a couple of shots of vodka and we tried to play a game which name I can't remember...but then it was time to leave this place as well. However, our friend the barman was very considerate and gave us plastic cups so we could pour our drinks there, BUT we had to live by the back door!

Once outside, at which point you can imagine we were quite drunk, we were in this alley. I have no idea how this happened but suddenly Murhy and Jason thought that it was a good idea to climb the walls of one of the buildings. They climbed rather effortlessly and they were up there for quite a while...meanwhile Lucy and me tried to make them come down.

Once the guys came down, I REALLY needed to pee....this is also a bit cloudy in my mind but somehow Murphy guided me along Aspen alleys where I found a nice "peeing spot"...ok you can get it that I was rather drunk huh?

The rest of the time wondering the streets of Aspen includded us hiding from a police car and hugging the statue of a bear in one of the main streets...it's all a little blurry but well documented in photos ;-)

At a certain point, by this time I had totally lost the track of time, we all ended up at Jason's place. Lucy appointed herself as DJ, Murphy did some "rapping" in the stove (??) and Jason decided we needed more alchol (as if)...so he made a very nice cocktail with some Pisco. We all had so much fun, we drank, we danced, we wore Jason's funky socks and fuzzy slippers and we did make plenty of noise for Jason's flatmates. I have no clue at what time but eventually we all collapsed into the couches.

Next morning, we had the mother of the hangovers, we drank PLENTY of water and we just tried to remember what we had done the night before. Poor Lucy had to leave "early", at 11am as she had to do some snowmobiling at 12pm. Jason, Murphy and me eventually got our asses into Jason's truck and somehow Anto and Gus came to our rescue...they prepared a very greasy brunch for us.

It was a rather fun evening. I heard something from Jason that they had to proof me that they can also party the whole night long in Aspen...just like in Peru ;-) well....it's true guys!

Building Sapo

2007-04-01T18:07:00.000+01:00

While I was in Aspen I participated in a very unusual experience...at least for me ;-)

If you know me well...you know that I'm quite useless at anything that involves being "handy". I feel already quite proud of myself every time I change a light bulb, at putting a nail on the wall or at building some uncomplicated Ikea furniture. So you can imagine that building "something" from "scratch" it's a WHOLE eye-opening experience for me.

During my last time in Peru, while a group of us was in Cuzco we played a typical Peruvian game called Sapo. This game needs a wooden structure where the "sapo" (frog) stands with the mouth open and where the players try to throw the coins from a distance. While we were there Murphy bought the sapo and the coins and he said that he was going to build it back home.

The first day I saw Murphy in Aspen I asked him about "sapo". And he had totally forgotten about it...so we decided to spend a day building it.

Tuesday 20th: Jason, Murphy and me got to work!

Ok, lets be honest it was Murphy directing and being really handy, Jason who pretty much had a very good idea of what was going on and how to use the "exotic" tools ;-) and me taking photos of the whole "operation". After one hour of me taking photos of the guys and being amazed at how things worked they managed to find a task for me: "sand dusting" with this cool machine ;-) So I took my task with real pride and I totally embraced it ;-)

It was a really great day. We were down valley at Murphy's place, the sun was shining, we were working while having some nice chilled Corona's and we just had SO much fun. As it was such an usual thing for me to do, I have to say I was having the time of my life.

It took us 6 hours to finish Sapo...and we also played it afterwards. Anto, Gus and Kimmy joined us at the end of the day and even when I was lucky enough to get the coin inside "sapo" I wasn't as excited as the time spent seeing the guys building it.

Thanks again Murphyto and Jason for that day. I had SO much fun :) We are "The Sapo team" ;-) (and after reading this you probably understand why I was so amazed, I'm rather useless at those things!)

You can see the photos of the whole process by clicking here. And you can even see a video of that day (and how handy I was) ;-) by clicking here.

Las Vegas

2007-03-31T23:00:00.000+01:00

During my stay in Aspen we went to Las Vegas for 3 days and 3 nights. We drove from Aspen to Denver (4 hours) and then we took a 1.15hr flight to Las Vegas, Nevada.

Antonella, Gus and Raegan came along with me.

What to say about Las Vegas? Well, I have to say that the city totally exceeded my expectations! I expected lots of casinos, some roller coasters and lots of lights...I didn't expect an Adult Disneyworld!!

The main entertainment is in the "strip" which is a VERY big and wide street along which the most popular hotels are situated. Each hotel has its own characteristic and it's built according to what it's supposed to represent. We stayed at the Excalibur, which looked like a castle in the middle ages, and of course the whole inside decoration had that as a theme.

So you can imagine that the New York, New York was built as a small Manhattan and it included the Empire State and the Statue of Liberty; the Paris had the Eiffel Tower, the Venetian had canals and Gondolas, The Caesars had a small replica of the Trevi Fountain....you get the picture.

Even though it appears that the hotels are next to each other, walking from the beginning of the strip to the other takes FOREVER. Each hotel is HUGE!!!! So we did quite some walking.

The cool thing is that you can walk in Las Vegas with your very big glass of beverage (I mean alcoholic one), which can be re-filled in another hotel. There's escalators and moving walks ALL over...so you can go from one hotel to the other easily.

Inside each hotel there's a whole world: restaurants, bars, theatres, shops, swimming pools, discos, chapels for the spontaneous weddings and of course, the casino! Once inside a hotel...you have NO clue whether is day or night.

During the 3 days we tried to visit most of the hotels, we had delicious meals, we enjoyed the over 30 degree weather by the swimming pool, we rode all the roller coasters, we drank very nicely, we watched the Cirque du Soleil and we obviously gambled.

Las Vegas it's a great place to go and have fun....even though money disappears SO fast...and I'm not talking about gambling money...everything is just so expensive that dollars leave your wallet way too fast.

Still, I'd definitely love to go back!

If you want to look at my photos from las vegas go to this link http://picasaweb.google.com/antonellab82/LasVegas2007?authkey=1wmtHR6xttY

My holiday destination: Aspen, Colorado

2007-03-31T22:32:00.000+01:00

I went to visit Antonella (my sis) and Gus (my brother in law) on my last holidays to Aspen. This was not my first time in Aspen, I had been there for 8 days 2 years ago...but I have to say that even though I had already been there, the same things that amazed me back then, still amazed me now. I'll share this with you below!

The first time I was there it was for a rather short time, I spent most of my time skiing during the day and going out at night, Anto didn't have a car so we were relying a lot on buses...and I was there visiting only my sister.

This time, I didn't only have a sister but also a really cool brother in law ;-), plus some really nice American friends that I had met back in October during Anto and Gus' wedding in Peru. During their stay in Peru we had some really fun times in Lima, Mancora and Cuzco...so lets say that I knew I was going to have some fun in Aspen too!

Aspen is a bubble in the US. At least that's how I view it. It's this very cute little town in Colorado where the rich and famous live...those and also young people who go there because of the great sports and life and because they can make good money by working there.

There are 4 montains to ski: Aspen, Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass. For American standards they are quite close to each other but for me, spoilt in Amsterdam, it seemed pretty far to go from Snowmass (where Anto lives) to Aspen...it's about a 25 minute drive!

Downtown Aspen is like Disneyworld. It doesn't really look like the centre of a city...it is all really cute, all the buildings look like they belong to a story...and of course all the shops are Gucci, Christian Dior, Prada and Louis Vouitton...so as you can imagine, I didn't really shop much. While walking down the streets I had a big laugh by running into this EXTREMELY rich women with beautiful Gucci stilettos with matching hand bag, designer clothes, big Channels sunglasses and big expensive furs. Of course, most of them had a matching small dog...the dog would be wearing a very expensive designer coat too ;-)

Talking about rich and famous...I have to say that the parking place of the Aspen airport is quite a site...not because of the cars parked there...no, that's quite ok. But can you imagine driving past the airport and seeing a couple of commercial planes and then a HUUUUUGE extra area with all the private jets? ;-)

As you can imagine, this is a very secure town. Lets just say that we were out of the city for 4 days while we were to Vegas and Anto and Gus didn't lock their door. This meant that ANYBODY could have just opened the door and walk in...and of course nothing happened! This habit of leaving the door open is rather weird for me, as when friends come over they usually knock the door and immediately walk in. I have to say that one day I was waiting for a friend to pick me up and I needed to pee...I don't know how many of you actually close the door when you pee at home alone! Lets say that I was VERY glad I thought this before...because indeed the moment I sat on the toilet the door opened!

The whole bus system is very well organised. During skiing time buses leave every 20 minutes and they go to any of the mountains totally free of charge. All the buses have special holders for the skis too.

One of the things that I also find rather funny is the fact that EVERYBODY knows EVERYBODY. So every time I would walk around Snowmass or Aspen with Anto, Gus or some other people, they would say hi every 2 minutes to either people passing by or to: the waiter, bartender, the police officer, the bus driver, the fireman, the ski instructur, the disco bouncer, the sales person, etc. Even funnier....the friend who one day was the ski instructor would be the bartender the second day and the bouncer on a third ocassion!

So as you can imagine everybody is really nice and friendly, everybody chit chats for a little while. Of course I don't want to imagine how are they with the gossip ;-)...I was not long enough to find that out...I guess you need to be a local for that!

As all of you know, America is very customer service oriented...ok, anywhere much more than the Netherlands! However the attention from the waiters over here is unbelievable! And I guess it had to do by the fact that you are supposed to tip them 20%- can you believe this??????? Lets just say that being a waiter brings good money, and the service is so good that I was happy to pay it.

During my whole stay the weather was really nice to me. Blue skies and beautiful sun....the snow melted around the town during the time I was there, of course there was still snow in the mountains! You'll see in other posts and photos that I was even wearing short sleeves in some occasions.

In general...a great place for holidays...only thing is that if you don't have where to stay...it's better if you wait until you make a little more money ;-)

Welcome to my BLOG

2007-03-31T21:53:00.000+01:00

I left Peru on July 25th of 2000...it's been almost 7 years now and so much has happened. Since I left, my Spanish speaking friends received for about 4 years my news through almost weekly mails.

I have saved them all and it's really nice to go through them because I can remember how I felt about going to new places, about discovering Europe, about travelling and meeting new people, about living on my own and making friends.

I guess I stopped writing often once I was more settled down, that happened when I stopped my rotating job and therefore country and when I got my permanent position at Canon and when I found my own place (no more company apartments) and when I started calling home Amsterdam.

However I do want to share with you my thoughts, my ideas, my doubts, my happiness...As I am blessed with having friends in different parts of the world, this is the ideal way to stay in touch and for you to know what is going on in my life.

I'm new at this, so I guess it will get better and better....so welcome to Cate's blog!
Cate