New Year, and New Apartment

So, unlike past years when I've flown back to Europe for New Year's arriving on the morning of the 31st, I planned it a little better and arrived the morning of the 30th -- doing that definitely gave me time to get over some jet lag! Arno, three of his guy friends, and myself headed to a bar/club in the center of Amsterdam that had a Las Vegas themed party. They bought fun suits for the occasion, as you can see ;o) Happy 2007 to everyone!



















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Below are photos of the apartment and surrounding area from where I am now living in Amsterdam. (Hint: name of the street is pronounced similar to 'rows-strat').















We are the 2nd floor up from the street level, the balcony with the green thing on it...

Christmas in the U.S. 19-29 December 2006

The Christmas season always seems to come and go so quickly...below are some photos (mostly of my baby brother, Jared because he is so adorable). Hope all of you enjoyed the unseasonably warm holidays!

Feeding Jared - we got along quite nicely!


My younger bro and my youngest bro








Amy, Jared and I















Jared playing and us with Vicki (stepmom's sister and her son, Matthew) looking at a world map!









Below is with my friend Ida (from my course in Leiden) who came down to DC from NJ with her boyfriend for a night to hang out!














The power girls of Bethesda/DC - Andrea, Kathleen, Maria, Sophia, myself, and Charlotte

Barcelona, Spain 15-17 December 2006

Barcelona, Barcelona....I've been around much of Spain but not to this infamous Spanish city. It was fabulous. I went with Arno and his colleagues (kindof a reward for some help I've provided his company lately). Anyhow, we visited some great restaurants, bars, and sights. The architecture in Barcelona is renown. I absolutely loved the Park Guell which was designed by Gaudi, artist/architect. (see photos below)

The weather was warm and perfect for walking around (which we did quite a lot). We also took one of those corny tourist buses with that has the top floor open so we could see more of the city. The most significant highlight of the weekend was jumping into the Mediterranean Sea with Arno and one of his colleagues! It wasn't even that cold, very refreshing :o)

Here are some photos, but as usual the rest are on Kodak! Click here for those.

Left: Arno, Gerco, and Aart (business partners)

Below: View within Park Guell





















View onto the beach and in Plaza Real
Lots of palm trees!!!

Oslo, Norway 7-10 December 2006

Dear Family, friends, and whoever else might view this blog, It's been a while since I last posted something, but it has been a very busy past few weeks. I finished classes, have some papers to write, celebrated Arno's 26th birthday, Sinterklaas, traveled to Oslo and Barcelona, and am preparing to travel to the U.S. before coming back to Amsterdam for New Year's and writing my thesis!!! Whew....

Highlights of Oslo include: sitting on fur in the bars and restaurants, visiting Statue park (see photos below), going to Drobak (a small town on a fjord an hour away from Oslo), seeing the Nobel Peace Prize winner (Muhammad Yunas of Grameen Bank) and being interviewed by a Bangladeshi TV station on the winner and his work in microcredit (if you don't know what that is, read about it--very interesting).

It was freezing in Oslo, the sun set at about 3:30pm which was strange, and prices were the highest I've seen in any country. Regardless, it was a good time. It felt like an American New England city for the most part. I'd like to go back to the North where you can see the Northern Lights and even get a trip to the North Pole!!

I hope you enjoy these photos! For the whole lot, go to my kodakgallery website!
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Some images from Statue Park

Luxembourg City, Luxembourg!

The weekend before Halloween, Arno and I trekked (drove) down to Luxembourg City in Luxembourg...a country between Belgium, Germany and France. It's a rich city, as it is a country, well known for banking. The people there speak both French and German, and even some dialect called Luxembourgish, or something along those lines...pretty impressive anyway. The city is absolutely beautiful and so pristine. We had excellent weather and all of the fall colors were in full effect. I also ran into a guy I knew from Leiden, lol!
For more picturesque photos like this one, go here!

Michelle, Jess, Arno and me at the Virginia Wine Festival -
we are undoubtedly drunk at this point, hahah ;)

To the U.S. with Arno, 22 September - 4 October

Well, it was a very good trip and most people were able to meet my wonderful boyfriend, Arno. We took many photos of our travels and will share them with you below. More photos will be added as I receive them from others, so stay tuned! I had a great time and am just happy Arno was there to experience it with me :o)

Below: Harper's Ferry, where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers converge and Arno and I when we went hiking on the Appalacian Trail in Virginia.

Arno and Jared bonding.

For lots more photos, go to this photo gallery.

A trip to the South...

This week has been a really good week weather-wise so some friends of mine and I decided to take a day trip to the south (near the Belgium border). We visited two castles (made of brick by the way!) and a trappist brewery (beer brewed by monks). This trappist brewery which brews "La Trappe" beer is one of the few still in existence where the monks are the ones still brewing it. Here's the link to view all of my photos. Below is me hanging in some hops, the plant which is used to make beer!

A photo of me and Arno

Arno and I went to a marketing party a couple of nights ago and had this photo taken.


Anyhow, see you guys when I return to the States in a week!!!

A weekend in Sarajevo and then to Experience the Wild Beauty of Montenegro!

Since we seem to travel almost every weekend when together here, Arno and I decided to stick around in Sarajevo for the weekend. After taking in some of the nightlife, we travelled with others to a town just an hour from the city to go...rafting! The story of how we actually got to Konjic, the town where we were meeting up with one of my colleagues and his friends, is an interesting one. Me, Arno, Parish, his girlfriend Mira, Kanako, and one of Mira's friends were at dinner the previous night. We had to meet my Bosnian colleague, Ahmed, the next morning at 9 and still had not decided the means by which we were going to get there--bus, train, taxi?! Well, this topic came up with one of our waiters at the restaurant and he offered us to use his car! After agreeing on a price, we met him the next morning (he was a little late, but hey, at least we got the car in the end) and headed to Konjic. Can you imagine this happening in the U.S. or some other place? Someone just offering and entrusting you, a bunch of randoms, with his car? I was shocked really.

>Heading to Konjic, Parish is driving and Mira is in the passenger seat.

The rafting was good fun...some of the people wanted more rapids but we did have some pretty big ones. Overall, it was relaxing and something different to do. A thunderstorm in the middle of the trip was obviously a high point ;) Another high point was grilling fish for lunch...the entire fish, scales and all just without the guts. I've never eaten an entire fish with my fingers in such a barbaric manner, but I did it and it was tasty! After our trip, there was a huge feast of a meal waiting for us. Just what we needed after being so cold and tired from rafting in the rain. Here are some more rafting photos...it took about 50 minutes to get to the starting point so there are lots of photos of the scenery. Also, sorry, but no good action shots because it was too wet and risky to take photos during the rafting!
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Montenegro
The following weekend, 4-8 August, Arno and I drove to Montenegro (which is really called Crne Gora, like Greece is actually named Hellas, etc.) The country's marketing slogan for tourism is "Come and experience Montenegro's Wild Beauty". Well that is exactly what we did--we first went to the mountains in the north to Durmitor National Park and a town within the park called Zabljak. The mountain range here is very, very high with some snow still sitting on them in places. The area's beauty is really breathtaking. A highlight of the trip to Zabljak was driving on gravel roads which on the map appeared as a normal route. In my experience, gravel roads are NOT even shown on maps, but here this road was--we expected an average country paved road, but got gravel instead...small things like this keep you smiling. :o)

With no place to stay in the town's main hotel, we stayed in a room in a family's house--something which you can do almost anywhere here. We just enjoyed a walk in the national park and an interesting meal with a faithful follower of Law of Time. I leave researching that to you...but if you do, do the research I am a yellow, resonant warrior...hahaha....
We had enough of the quiet, serene wilderness after one evening and night, so we travelled the next morning to the coast. It was just that morning that our trip took a turn for the worse...as I've come to find out since, I had contracted some kind of stomach infection which gave me an extremely sharp pain in the left side of my stomach.

After almost fainting, having a high fever, and being in constant pain, and looking on the coast for a hotel for SIX HOURS, we rested and went to the doctor the next morning. Of all the things to do on the beautiful, wild coast of Montenegro, visiting a doctor and getting pumped with medicine through an IV is not what I imagined we'd be doing. A second day came, still pain, and another IV...we were really enjoying ourselves! Arno was at my beckon call every second and took wonderful care of me.

The pain has gradually subsided and I am doing well today. We saw a lot of Montenegro, but unfortunately didn't have the best trip we could've had. After getting a speeding ticket and essentially bribing the cops by paying the fine on the spot so we wouldn´t have to go to court, we made it back to good ole Sarajevo.


For photos of Montenegro (mostly the mountains because I was too sick to stay outside that much while on the coast), visit this site! Enjoy!

Just one more week here in Sarajevo!!!!!

Croatia again: Zagreb, Podstrana, and Split

For my 25th birthday, Arno returned to visit me in the Balkans meeting in Zagreb, Croatia. We stayed only a night and part of an afternoon in Zagreb before heading to the beautiful coast yet again. This time we were more north than before staying in a small town called Podstrana which is just south of the main city, Split.

The very nice family run hotel in which we stayed is located directly on the beach which remains relatively uncrowded throughout the day. We had a wonderfully large balcony with just a gorgeous view over the sea. We relaxed all weekend, played frisbee, and on an inflatable raft.

Zagreb does seem like a great city--it is the biggest in Croatia after all, but we (especially myself) wanted to get some sun time.

In travelling back to Sarajevo, we weren't able to take the afternoon bus from Split because it was full so we had several hours in the city before departing that night. Split isn't as beautiful as Dubrovnik but the 'roughness' adds to its charm. Diocletian, a Roman emperor, built a palace here. Compared to other Roman sites I have visited, this is probably one of the biggest I've seen (next to the Colosseum in Rome).

Please enjoy the rest of my Zagreb-Podstrana-Split photos by clicking here!!

A few notes...

I will be posting photos from my trips to the Croatian coast with Arno, as well as from our upcoming trip to Montenegro within the next week and a half so stay tuned!

To support one of my favorite pastimes, I've started a new blog of revieweing restaurants at rugglesreviews.blogspot.com and plan to add reviews from almost wherever I dine in the world. Right now I just have reviews for some Sarajevo restaurants but I will add some from DC and in the Netherlands within the next month or so.

In other news, I leave Sarajevo on 18 August and after a weekend on the coast, again, I will head back to the Netherlands. My classes start on 5 September and last until mid-December. I have to start thinking about my thesis too which is a bit stressful, but I'm definitely looking forward to finishing it and most likely earlier than the deadline! More on that later when I've decided what I'll be writing on...

I am also going to try and return here for a weekend to observe the elections to be held in October. It will be the last elections before the Office of the High Representative (OHR), the organization basically managing the country, closes and leaves Bosnia-Herzegovina to try and govern itself...should be interesting.

O.k., I hope all of you are doing well wherever you may be! My best to you, take care :o)

Novi Sad, Serbia 7-9 July 2006

Kanako, Parish, his British friend, Ben, and I traveled to northern Serbia for the largest music festival in Eastern Europe, called the EXIT fesitval. It started in the late 90's sometime as a protest to Milosevic. It took place inside a fortress which was pretty cool--my photos don't show it, but it became so packed with people at night (and I have been to similar festivals) that I could hardly stand it!

The trip to Novi Sad was interesting in itself with Parish's delapidated yellow volkswagen overheating. We spent some time at the festival Friday night and on Saturday relaxed in the centre of Novi Sad which is actually very pretty and civil (as opposed to where we were staying on the outskirts of town across from a big trash heap). Most of the museums were closed for some odd reason but fortunately one of the museum directors heard us complaining and let us in for a special tour of an art gallery containing works from a former Serb diplomat's personal collection. It was a unique experience since we were the only ones there and received explanations on all of the pieces as well as allowed into the archives room...of course, after such a cultural experience, you need to balance it out with some drinks at a cafe, which we did for a number of hours ;o) Some of us made it to the festival Saturday night, but it didn't include me...I know, pathetic right? Sunday afternoon, after eating some lamb and great salads at a roadside traditional restaurant, we made our way down the road. The trip turned into an ordeal with the car breaking down after exiting a pay toll. Fortunately there was a tow truck on the opposite side of the road which carried us 40 km down the road to a small Croatian town (you cross a lot of borders because of the weird shape of the countries) to a mechanic. After restarting the battery and replacing the alternator, we were ready to go. Mind you, this is my first time ever experiencing a car breakdown. You should know I stayed calm and contributed a considerable amount to evaluating and resolving the problem :o)

Of course, restarting the battery was only a temporary fix so en route to Sarajevo early Monday morning, we had to buy a new battery which I put in. We made it! Whew-hoo!

Click here for the photos!

A glimpse of Sarajevo

I have posted numerous photos of my travels since arriving here, but hardly any of Sarajevo itself. There are some of the old city (Stari Grad), pictured left, also called Baščaršija (pronounced like ba-shar-shi-ya). This part of the city is very beautiful and contrasts the old way of market life in the Turk-Ottoman Empire which lasted 400 years, with newer Western traditions and styles. You will find traditional foods in this area...it's always wonderful to walk through the small, polished stone streets to see the old merchants making and selling their crafts and also to smell the rich aromas of the lamb and beef being barbequed in the many little, family-operated restaurants.

There are some photos of my little apartment as well as of areas outside of the Sarajevo city centre. You see, Sarajevo is quite spread out with many people residing in the hills surrounding the main part of the city which lies in a valley.

Also, I recently visited the tunnel which Bosniacs used to exit the city, to transport necessities, and for soldiers to move to new fighting positions closer to the Serb lines. The Serb army held Sarajevo under siege for 4 years shelling and firing upon it almost everyday for that period, killing about 11-12,000 people and injuring many more. In my photos, there are just a few examples of the mortar, grenade, and bullet holes which litter EVERY SINGLE building in this city. Parks and what used to be open spaces were replaced with cemeteries...in this collection of photos, I have some shots of the largest such cemetery--here is one view.

To read more on the siege of Sarajevo, CLICK HERE for a BBC News Article and HERE for Wikipedia information.

To see the photo collection, please visit this website.