Moving on...

I’ve been thinking about this step for a long-long-long time now. I am/was quite pleased with my Blogger account. But... the main word here is “quite”. Something was missing. I didn’t have the freedom to design it “my way” or just didn’t know how.  So I decided to move my blog to WordPress. I will still harass you on a weekly bases but from another platform: http://barbaraphotoart.wordpress.com/.    

See you there! 

Road tripping - Amsterdam

Since I was pretending to be GPS on our road trip (with printed directions from ViaMichelin), I have to compliment myself – I only scre*** up once; upon arrival to our last destination – Amsterdam. Buuut, it wasn’t entirely my fault; roadwork’s were in progress so we had to take a different route. When we finally arrived to our hotel, we were completely exhausted and all we wanted to do is rest. Then things started to go wrong...

First we were told that parking is not included in room price (and that would mean 17 Euro per day*5  days... you do the math). Then we were told breakfast wasn’t included in room price as well (so we decided we´ll survive without it). At that point we were quite irritated... And then, as icing on the cake, the metro ticket machine ate our 20 Euros bill while we were trying to buy a weekly ticket. There was nothing we could do about it but to complaint. In written form. That was on Dutch. Great way for “first impressions” about the city, don’t you think? 

Luckily for us, our “bad-luck-chain” stopped the next morning when we found the greatest restaurant ever just across the street. We ate there every morning (and sometimes in the evening) cause everything was so d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s and prices were more than reasonable.

Most common means of transportation in Amsterdam are bicycles. People on bicycles are at the top of “transport-food-chain”: you just have to let them pass. Or get killed. Your choice. I’ve seen some amazing bicycle scenes but the one that “got stuck” in my mind was: woman in high-heels, holding an open umbrella (cause it was pouring rain), talking on a cell-phone while trying  to balance a little dog in a basket at the back of the bike...

Since we were thrilled with free walking tours via SANDEMANs New Europe in Berlin, we decided to take the same tour in Amsterdam: 

One more common mean of transportation are boats. Imagine this: you wanna go to dinner, you dress up, leave your place, sit in your boat and arrive with your boat to restaurant... you tie your boat to a restaurant pier (cause, it’s a normal thing that restaurants have piers there) and enjoy your meal... Dutch really know how to enjoy life...

Cool Globes Amsterdam exhibition:

Every Friday, a huge book market is held in Spui part of city – of course we had to go... I am a proud owner of 5 new books as a result of 2-hours-browsing through stands! Can’t wait to read them... 

Since we were in Amsterdam the longest (6 days), we chilled...a lot...“Let’s sit down and have lunch/smoothie/bear”... We found an excellent  café right next to canal – we had to be very careful not to fall in canal while walking to our table... especially after couple of beers :)

I L.O.V.E. cheese. All types of cheese: swiss cheese, feta cheese, cream cheese, semi-hard cheeses, hard cheeses... Imagine me on a cheese tasting (which is a MUST in Amsterdam, trust me) – my sensory tongue buds have died and gone to heaven...

One of the best things about Amsterdam (if you ask me) are street markets. You can find literally EVERYTHING there: chains for your bicycle, wigs, home decorations, food (ah...glorious food). And everyone are willing to bargain. 

House of Bols:

Notorious coffee shops:

There are days when I feel like Don Quihote fighting against windmill – logical thing was to go and see the real thing in Zaanse Schans (45 minutes of driving distance from Amsterdam). My dearest Sancho Panza accompanied me :)

While there, we could smell chocolate all the time. Really intense smell. At first we thought it was cause we were hungry, then we thought we were hallucinating... Until a very kind lady who we stopped on the street explained to us the “source” of divine smell – cacao factory not even 500 meter away...

All in all, we totally and utterly fell in love with Amsterdam. Every aspect of the city. The people. The pace of life. The food. The wines. The fact they brutally know how to enjoy life. Our infatuation with the city went so far that we actually talked about moving there. What would we do and how could we pull it off. Where would we live (on a house boat, of course...Duh.). What kind of bicycle would we buy and how would we decorate it (just to be able to recognise it in a sea of other bicycles). You know, the important things :)   

Payback time

They met when she was 17 at a summer garden party. 

It was the first garden party her parents let her on (accompanied by her older sisters of course). She wore her best dress and her mother braided her hair. He, on the other hand, was a young 22-year old man who finished four grades of primary school and had been working for 10 years already in order to help his parents feed and raise the rest of his siblings.

They eyes met across the dance floor and he liked what he saw. He asked her to dance with him and she said yes. After a couple of dances, she had to go home. She though that she will never see him again. But, she was mistaken... A month after that, he appeared at her doorstep asking her parents’ permission to court her. And then their love story began...

They lived in neighbouring villages; 30 minutes walking distance. During first winter of their courting, high snow has fallen and he wasn’t able to come and see her in months. There were no phones of mobile phones or Skype to communicate. After couple of months, the snow has finally melted and he could go see her. As a sign of “apology”, he single-handedly carved her a wooden box and was nervous about her reaction. She played cool “Ohhh, it’s you! Haven’t seen you in a while...How’ve you been?” while being angry at him but not willing to show him her true feelings (“If he had liked me enough, 2 meters of snow wouldn’t stop him from seeing me...”).

Next year, he decided to continue his education and to be able to go to college one day. In order to do that, he had to move to Pula, a city 200 kilometres away. He wrote her letters every week, but there was no reply. For months. At the end, he decided to go home and to see what happened. When he arrived at her home and asked why she didn’t reply to any of his letters, she looked him in the eyes and lied. She said she didn’t receive any of his letters when in fact she did. She received then, read all of them a thousand times and stored them in the same box he single-handedly carved for her. He never found out about that little white lie. Never. When I asked her why she did that – why didn’t she answer any of his letters, she just smiled. I guess that was her way of “payback“ for „not-coming-to-see-her-at-2-meters-snow-period“.

They got married on July 9^th 1955. after five years of courting.

This is only the beginning the whole-life-love story of my grandparents. On January the 5th, it will be 12 years since my granddad passed away. A day doesn’t pass by, without her remembering him... “If we only had one more year... just one more...”

After all, they spent together 50 years... so what is one more year?   

Road tripping - Berlin

When we planned our road trip, I knew exactly what I could expect from Prague (I’ve been there on a high school trip) and I knew what I wanted/expected from Amsterdam. But, I had no idea what to expect from Berlin. I asked around and everyone was thrilled with their visit to Berlin. Every.Single.One. The thing that confused me was the range of people claiming they had a blast there: families with small kids, history freaks, wild party animals, art lovers... 

How could one city satisfy all those different needs?! You know what – Berlin can. I don’t have the words to describe to you exactly how fast and with what intensity Berlin swept me of my feet. Until know, London was my No.1 and all other cities were way-way-way below him on my rank list. But after Berlin... my dearest London, watch out, you have a serious competition...  

First I would like to share two magnificent things we discovered in Berlin: 

• finding a place to stay via airbnb (you can check out here how it works),  
• free walking tours via SANDEMANs New Europe (they operate strictly on tip-bases).   

Here is my list of things that are a must-see/must-do while in Berlin: 

1. Brandenburg Gate

2. Potsdamer Platz

3. Best hamburgers I ever ate at Andy's Diner & Bar at Potsdamer Platz 1

4. Various street markets

Berlin U-Bahn is the best and the quickest way to get from one part of the city to another. And they are punctual to millisecond. 

5. Party hard

6. Alexanderplatz and TV tower

7. Checkpoint Charlie

8. Deutsches Historisches Museum

9. Berliner Dom

10. East Side Gallery

11. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

12. Topographie des Terrors

13. Climb somewhere high to see the city from another perspective; I how this photo of us is not the best possible (it’s out of focus and not the sharpest in the bunch) but it perfectly captures our mood/joy on this vacation...

 

14. Eat out - there are so many different restaurants with affordable prices that it’s a shame not to try as many possible

Berlin is a MUST see city that will leave you wanting for more... can’t wait to go there again :)