A quick message from Odessa. Bucharest was pretty nice and the train journey from there to Chisinau was very relaxing. Chisinau itself was suprisingly lovely. Very green, very calm, lovely people (lots of Italian speakers, that was convenient). But today we went to Odessa and it wasnt fun... Our bus got cancelled, so we had to transfer to a different bus. Not only was this bus 2 hours later, but it also went through Transdnistria, which I really would have preferred to avoid. So, as expected, we were searched completely and they found some of our money at the "border". After taking 50, we could go on (euros that is). However, at the other end of transdnistria, we werent allowed to leave. At least, not until we gave them another 50 euros for all their troubles. Then the Ukrainian border officials also had a bad day and decided to put us in an unnecessary queue for another hour (all of this in the scorching heat. Its BLOODY HOT HERE).
Finally, we did make it out but by the time we got to Odessa, we werent happy (Also, Fedor has stomach problems.....). And here of course, all hotels are full... It never ends, does it?
Finally, we found something (not cheap, but comfy) and now we are finally ready to enjoy a little bit of Odessa...
Ciao,
OJ
Friday, August 24, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
holidaaaaaaaaaaaaay
After last weekend's visit to La Bella Toscana, this week consisted of more work. Not very intensively, I admit, but work nonetheless. By now, I was actually the only person still left in the office, with the exception of Lin Lin who comes in occassionally, so it was very quiet. Like the rest of Milan. Because everything is currently closed. Thankfully, there are some supermarkets still opened, but it is generally very quiet. You can safely cross the road without paying attention, because cars are very few as well.
On Thursday, I locked up my office and went home: My Holiday Has Commenced! On Friday, we took the train to go to Monate (near Lago Maggiore), to stay with our friends Enrico and Belinda. They showed us their house and after a bit of lunch, we spent the rest of the day at Lago Monate, a small chrystal-clear lake about 60kms away from Milano. It was incredibly enjoyable
In the evening, we had pizza and then met up with Enrico's cousin and her husband (who were also staying in the same town, of course: they're Italians after all!) to go to a local Festival. It was interesting, to say the least.....
Imagine the following: A stage where a blond girl (Valentina) stands mumbling, with the rest of her band (Orchestra Valentina) around her. The music they are playing is mostly Bavarian-sounding Humpapa music, in Italian. In fron of the stage, there is a large dancefloor where the entire village is swirling round-and-round. Around the dancefloor, there are long tables where people drink beer and wine (very cheap, I must say). If you are now thinking of the Oktoberfesten in Munich: that is pretty much the picture I was indeed trying to paint. Quite a shock, I must say. Of course, this did not stop me and Belinda from participating and dancing our little legs off! The moment where the entire village started line dancing, however, was our cue to get off the dancefloor. But much fun was had, nonetheless!!!
Yesterday, we came back to Milano and went our for dinner with my ex-flatmate Meghan and her most recent (Dutch) conquest: An interesting guy, whose mother was born in the same village where I grew up.... It's a small world, after all, don't you think?
Today we cleaned the house and prepared for leaving. Because tomorrow morning (REALLY early), we will fly to Bucharest, from where we are going to be enjoying our holidays (general itinerary: Bucharest-Chisinau-Odessa-Kiev-KamianetsPodilsky-Lviv-Cracow-Holland (where we want to see people: let me know whether we will see you and where.....)
Ciao,
OJ
On Thursday, I locked up my office and went home: My Holiday Has Commenced! On Friday, we took the train to go to Monate (near Lago Maggiore), to stay with our friends Enrico and Belinda. They showed us their house and after a bit of lunch, we spent the rest of the day at Lago Monate, a small chrystal-clear lake about 60kms away from Milano. It was incredibly enjoyable
In the evening, we had pizza and then met up with Enrico's cousin and her husband (who were also staying in the same town, of course: they're Italians after all!) to go to a local Festival. It was interesting, to say the least.....
Imagine the following: A stage where a blond girl (Valentina) stands mumbling, with the rest of her band (Orchestra Valentina) around her. The music they are playing is mostly Bavarian-sounding Humpapa music, in Italian. In fron of the stage, there is a large dancefloor where the entire village is swirling round-and-round. Around the dancefloor, there are long tables where people drink beer and wine (very cheap, I must say). If you are now thinking of the Oktoberfesten in Munich: that is pretty much the picture I was indeed trying to paint. Quite a shock, I must say. Of course, this did not stop me and Belinda from participating and dancing our little legs off! The moment where the entire village started line dancing, however, was our cue to get off the dancefloor. But much fun was had, nonetheless!!!
Yesterday, we came back to Milano and went our for dinner with my ex-flatmate Meghan and her most recent (Dutch) conquest: An interesting guy, whose mother was born in the same village where I grew up.... It's a small world, after all, don't you think?
Today we cleaned the house and prepared for leaving. Because tomorrow morning (REALLY early), we will fly to Bucharest, from where we are going to be enjoying our holidays (general itinerary: Bucharest-Chisinau-Odessa-Kiev-KamianetsPodilsky-Lviv-Cracow-Holland (where we want to see people: let me know whether we will see you and where.....)
Ciao,
OJ
Sunday, August 12, 2007
La Bella Toscana
While Marike and Rosie were still here, I received an email from my friend Bart, whom I hadn't seen for ages. It turned out that he had fallen ill and he and his girlfriend had to cancel their intended trip to Morocco. Instead: Italy.
They emailed on Sunday to inform me that they were arriving on Tuesday. Well, isn't that a surprise? A pleasant surprise, of course! For Tineke, it was her first time in Italy and she was excited about the prospect of spending two weeks in Tuscany. But, obviously, they started in Milano. So I did a bit of a tour with them (the weather wasn't so great, so it became a small tour. Also because Bart wasn't up for walking for long times, anyway). Of course the Cimitero Monumentale was part of the tour, and I spent quite some time with Tineke in the Pinacoteca di Brera, trying to repeat all the things Fedor had told me on a previous visit...
Of course, we also ate well... But I guess that is a given!
They stayed until Thursday morning, when they were going to continue their journey to Toscana (well actually, at our advice, they were going to go to Liguria first). And coincendentally, so were we! We caught the 8 AM train to Castagneto-Carducci (just south of Livorno), where friends of us are staying for the Summer. It's a fairly long train journey, and I enjoyed having the time to read the final Harry Potter (seriously: who'd have expected?). With Stefano and Elke, we had a great time. Our first beach sample was on the first day, but unfortunately we were not allowed to swim because of the size of the waves.
After a visit to Bolgheri, we had dinner at home.
The following day, we drove all the way to Follonica, to see Beach Nr. 2 ! This was a nice beach in a secluded area, but unfortunately the weather turned really nasty, really quickly and we got huddled up with a lot of people under the cover of a small cafe...
After it seemed dry, we decided to go back to the car and try another the beach. The horribly black clouds followed us up the coast though, but we managed to have a swim at the next beach before all hell broke loose (again).
(and yes, you can indeed see the lightning in the photo: how cool is that?)
After we got drenched there, we made another runner for it to the next beach, close to Castagneto-Carducci. This was pleasant, although the wind was strong and the menacing clouds didn't make us feel much better! But at least we got out dry from that beach.
At night, we were supposed to go to a local wine festival under the stars in the streets of Castaneto-Carducci, but when we got to this charming village, it turned out that it had been cancelled due to the bad weather. But in fact, the weather was completely fine during the night, so that was unfortunate. On Saturday, we returned to the first beach we went to to relax and get some more sun (ouch, sunburn: not cool), before taking the train to Pisa, from where we went back to Milano. All in all, it was a relaxing little piccolo holiday. A good preparation for our Real Holiday to start next week!
Today, despite the fact that we were both really exhausted, we had to go to a BBQ with a student of Fedor's. A lunch-BBQ that is, which meant getting up kinda early again, but at least we got home at about 17.00, so we have some time to relax...
Tomorrow: back to work for a few more days, before visiting friends in the mountains and then: on holiday for real!!!
Which reminds me: We will be in Groningen on September 5, if you want to meet up, let me know. And we will be in Utrecht (in a sofar unspecified bar) during the Afternoon of Sunday September 9. I would like to see those people who live in the Randstad, but we really won't be able to plan it all in. So this way: we'll come to Utrecht and we'd like to see YOU. Let me know....
Ciao,
OJ
They emailed on Sunday to inform me that they were arriving on Tuesday. Well, isn't that a surprise? A pleasant surprise, of course! For Tineke, it was her first time in Italy and she was excited about the prospect of spending two weeks in Tuscany. But, obviously, they started in Milano. So I did a bit of a tour with them (the weather wasn't so great, so it became a small tour. Also because Bart wasn't up for walking for long times, anyway). Of course the Cimitero Monumentale was part of the tour, and I spent quite some time with Tineke in the Pinacoteca di Brera, trying to repeat all the things Fedor had told me on a previous visit...
Of course, we also ate well... But I guess that is a given!
They stayed until Thursday morning, when they were going to continue their journey to Toscana (well actually, at our advice, they were going to go to Liguria first). And coincendentally, so were we! We caught the 8 AM train to Castagneto-Carducci (just south of Livorno), where friends of us are staying for the Summer. It's a fairly long train journey, and I enjoyed having the time to read the final Harry Potter (seriously: who'd have expected?). With Stefano and Elke, we had a great time. Our first beach sample was on the first day, but unfortunately we were not allowed to swim because of the size of the waves.
After a visit to Bolgheri, we had dinner at home.
The following day, we drove all the way to Follonica, to see Beach Nr. 2 ! This was a nice beach in a secluded area, but unfortunately the weather turned really nasty, really quickly and we got huddled up with a lot of people under the cover of a small cafe...
After it seemed dry, we decided to go back to the car and try another the beach. The horribly black clouds followed us up the coast though, but we managed to have a swim at the next beach before all hell broke loose (again).
(and yes, you can indeed see the lightning in the photo: how cool is that?)
After we got drenched there, we made another runner for it to the next beach, close to Castagneto-Carducci. This was pleasant, although the wind was strong and the menacing clouds didn't make us feel much better! But at least we got out dry from that beach.
At night, we were supposed to go to a local wine festival under the stars in the streets of Castaneto-Carducci, but when we got to this charming village, it turned out that it had been cancelled due to the bad weather. But in fact, the weather was completely fine during the night, so that was unfortunate. On Saturday, we returned to the first beach we went to to relax and get some more sun (ouch, sunburn: not cool), before taking the train to Pisa, from where we went back to Milano. All in all, it was a relaxing little piccolo holiday. A good preparation for our Real Holiday to start next week!
Today, despite the fact that we were both really exhausted, we had to go to a BBQ with a student of Fedor's. A lunch-BBQ that is, which meant getting up kinda early again, but at least we got home at about 17.00, so we have some time to relax...
Tomorrow: back to work for a few more days, before visiting friends in the mountains and then: on holiday for real!!!
Which reminds me: We will be in Groningen on September 5, if you want to meet up, let me know. And we will be in Utrecht (in a sofar unspecified bar) during the Afternoon of Sunday September 9. I would like to see those people who live in the Randstad, but we really won't be able to plan it all in. So this way: we'll come to Utrecht and we'd like to see YOU. Let me know....
Ciao,
OJ
Sunday, August 05, 2007
All's well, and Banca Intesa is crazy as ever
The temperature has gone down!!! It's really been lovely in Milan the past week or so: only about 30° and an actual cooldown at night: simply perfect! It probably also helps that the city is becoming like a ghost town (it's August: everyone's leaving), which I find very calming. It's a bit of a hassle that all shops et cetera are also closing up for the rest of the month, but I guess we'll be able to get over that. So, what has been happening here? Not much actually, to be honest. We are currently having two friends over. Fedor's friend Marike, who lives in London and her friend Rosie. It is quite enjoyable having them here: they are lovely.
Last week, I had a little funny spat with my Banca Intesa: they really are idiots. I received an e-mail on Tuesday, with the following message (summarised) "dear sir, we have decided that we will close your account, so please take note you will no longer be able to use it. Best, Banca Intesa". Well, you can imagine that I certainly did freak out and I went to the other side of the city the following morning (I can only go to one specific branch office, which is on the other side of town). After waiting for half an hour it was finally my turn, so I asked the sweet lady what the fck was going on. She carefully reads my email and says "oh well, just ignore. It's not true. We did send that email, but you should just throw it out. And you really are stupid for believing this message, aren't you?". I was stupified. Happy of course, but stupified nonetheless. But my repeated asking for confirmation that this really was ignorable only resulted in more confirmations. So I did indeed decide to ignore the message and pass it off as a "Banca Intesa people are insane"-thing.
Ciao,
OJ
Last week, I had a little funny spat with my Banca Intesa: they really are idiots. I received an e-mail on Tuesday, with the following message (summarised) "dear sir, we have decided that we will close your account, so please take note you will no longer be able to use it. Best, Banca Intesa". Well, you can imagine that I certainly did freak out and I went to the other side of the city the following morning (I can only go to one specific branch office, which is on the other side of town). After waiting for half an hour it was finally my turn, so I asked the sweet lady what the fck was going on. She carefully reads my email and says "oh well, just ignore. It's not true. We did send that email, but you should just throw it out. And you really are stupid for believing this message, aren't you?". I was stupified. Happy of course, but stupified nonetheless. But my repeated asking for confirmation that this really was ignorable only resulted in more confirmations. So I did indeed decide to ignore the message and pass it off as a "Banca Intesa people are insane"-thing.
Ciao,
OJ
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