Surviving with bougatsa

Hello people! I know it's been quite a long time, but I'm still alive (sort of). I guess this is not surprising anyone anymore, but I got sick again and it's actually my second time in a month! My head feels like a ticking bomb that is about to explode. Today I just had enough of this shit and went to the pharmacy to buy some stuff in hopes of getting better some day. 

Other than being sick my life has been pretty much the same...cycling, work, studying and salsa dancing (whenever I'm not sick obviously). I am just really looking forward for the spring to come because I can't stand wearing that heavy coat and cycling at the same time anymore. I also hope that spring is going to be more cheerful than it is now.

January in Amsterdam from the backyard.

Either way even though I make my life sound boring it  has had it's moments with good friends and laughing with funny things that the kids say. The other day I was cleaning up the kitchen and I was taking care of the two year old who came in with a set of glittery fairy wings and told me to put them on. After that we were just "flying" around both wearing our glittery wings making airplane noises. It was such a funny moment to see how much he was enjoying it. Now he loves his wings so much that he is wearing them almost everyday! 

From one thing to another I was so excited to find that there is a place in Waterlooplein that sells Greek coffee and bougatsa. I love Greek coffee but my love for bougatsa is even bigger! It felt like stepping into a small Greek community where I could just sit and relax! I must say that it took a while to find this place, but it was definitely worth the search!

Bougatsa!

 walking around with Laura

 On Friday I am going to Greece so let's hope that this cold is over by then! Time to eat some gyros and more bougatsa in a real Greek enviroment! Wohooo!

Karoliina

Food, selfies, Rotterdam

Wooops! Hello there! Last week felt so long for some strange reason. My first week in Holland needed some getting used to, but I survived. Gladly my job has been keeping me busy and the little ones seemed to be happy that I was back :)

From one trip to another me and Nicole decided to go to Rotterdam this Sunday. I hadn't heard many good things about it to be honest, but I was curious to see if it was actually that bad. In my opinion, it wasn't, but it's nothing like any other Dutch city I have been to so far. Very industrial with many harbors and extremely modern architecture.

As usual you are not going to see many pictures of the city itself because once we got in to the huge markthal were the main attraction was food, we kind of got stuck looking at the food. You will see in the pictures above what I'm talking about.

 Cube houses

 Markthal!

 That ceiling...okay, it's not michelangelo, but still.

 Jamοn serrano! Spain everywhere...

 Nicole enjoying her Italian treat, cannoli!

 Since Dutch food isn't something to brag about we decided to have sushi. First time for me eating sushi...not to mention that it was also the first time using chopsticks. Nicole had a good laugh with me whenever I was trying to grab something.

 Surfing! Don't even ask how we took this picture...so embarrassing :D

  And that was our little daytrip in Rotterdam! Sorry, if you got hungry with all those food pictures.

Have a nice week!

(had to share this)

Karoliina

Happy times

Happy new year everybody! I know I'm a bit late, but better late than never. Since I am going to be stuck in Munich for the next five hours (hooray!) it is a good opportunity to update things around here. I must say that I had such an amazing time in Greece that going back to Holland is not making me very enthusiastic. At least I have new goals for 2015 to be excited about, so I will get used to my routine in Holland eventually. 

Going back home was surely an adventure. Instead of being in Athens at 14:00 my flight was late and I ended up being in Athens at 19:00. Not to mention that I lost my bus to Volos and I ended up being home at 2 o'clock in the morning instead of 20:00 (did I confuse you enough?). At least I got to see many airports as I had to fly from Amsterdam to Munich then to Berlin and from there to Athens...just my luck. Anyway the good thing is that I met two nice girls on the plane to Athens and then my sweet love Lazaros came to pick me up from the bus station. The 22 hour travelling in the end was worth it! Now that I think about it, it would have taken me less to get to America!

At least the rest of my stay went pretty smoothly. We had a great time doing the gift exchange, baking cookies and doing the Christmas decoration. Since we didn't have a star we decided to put Lazaros instead, haha. He seemed to like that idea!

Our dough turned out to be shitty, because the plan was to make them gluten free (since I can't eat it), but then the dough was just too soft and we had some technical difficulties. In the end we just made small balls and put them in the oven. They turned out pretty good even though they didn't turn out the way they should have, but who cares! 

 The new mayor went a bit crazy with the Christmas lights this year, but they were quite amazing!

One of the rare occasions I was wearing heels...had to document it somehow!

Also my family came a bit after Christmas and I gave them chocolate letters...I think they are still struggling finishing them. Too much is too much even when it comes to chocolate! 

 To my good luck again...one day before new years eve it started snowing. Most people in Greece were happy because the last time it snowed that much it was ten years ago. To be honest after spending three years in Finland and having to struggle with the cold and the snow for months in the winter, I got so sick of the snow that now I can't even stand looking at it. The funny fact is that the previous day it was 12 degrees and we were sitting outside in the sun having coffee. Welcome to Greece!

Now two weeks later here I am waiting for my flight to Amsterdam in Munich. 

Time flies, but I am grateful for all the things I got to do last year and for having Lazaros in my life. As when it comes to resolutions...this is my answer

Okay, maybe the lazy part not so much since I have some goals to achieve this year!

I wish you all the best for the new year!

Karoliina

Christmas mood!

Kids are in bed, kitchen is clean and finally I have the time off to relax, turn on the christmas lights in my room and enjoy the peace and quiet! I have come to really appreciate these moments of  being by myself in my room reading a book or just listening to music. Even though I have started to enjoy this "job" even more and more, I must admit that I am exhausted afterwards! Respect to all energetic parents out there!

As for my time here in Amsterdam it seems to be flying, but I am really excited to go back home for the holidays in two days! I just really miss everything that has to do with Greece and I am so glad I have my Greek friend Nicole here and we can be the weird little Greek salsa dancing chicas (salsa is very Greek...yeah, yeah I know). I was so surprised a couple of weeks ago when I went to the park with Nicole and the little one and suddenly we heard someone playing bouzouki, which is a Greek instrument. It turned out that the guy who was playing wasn't even Greek, but it was a nice little wake up song in the early morning!

Whenever I start writing my blog I feel like I should have lot's of exciting new things to write, the truth is though that I have been enjoying having a routine again in my life . Believe it or not, but I love routines...especially after two years of just travelling around and having a not-so-stable-schedule.

My routine has been quite full with taking care of the kiddos at home, but I've also become more passionate about salsa and it's been nice to meet even more people through dancing! I haven't travelled much around Holland, but to be honest I am kind of tired of travelling. I am sure some of you are thinking "Finally, after all this time she says she is tired of travelling!". The truth is I found it really exciting and liberating in the beginning, but I really miss being in one place and having real friendships with a deep meaning. I don't regret though any of the travelling I have done so far, I have just come to realize that it's not something that I want to do for a while, besides I am pretty broke anyways. No money, no honey!

Last, but not least...I couldn't finish this post without any pictures! We made these today with the kiddos and they really loved making them! I guess you can tell from the picture bellow which are the ones I decorated...kids got too excited with the sprinkles!



That is all for now!

 

Merry Christmas to you all!

Enjoy your holidays and eat as much as you can ( I know I will)!

 

Karoliina

Sinter Klaas en mijn verjaardag!



Hello amigos!

 

In Holland we are in full christmas mood and everybody is just eating pepernoots and chocolate letters! The kids have been really excited about Sintar Klaas and his helpers whom they call here zwarte piets (black pete). Apparently it has been a huge discussion whether zwarte piet should be black or not because it's racist. In my opinion if that's the biggest issue they have here then they are doing pretty well as a country!

 

Also instead of putting the presents under the christmas tree here they put their shoes in front of the fireplace with a carrot in it and they sing christmas songs before children go to bed. I even got to put my shoe in front of the fireplace last time and the next morning I got a chocoladeletter! To be honest I am a bit confused with the whole Christmas rituals here, but I try to keep up! On the fifth of December (as they told me) they have the pakjesavond and that's when Sintar Klaas comes and brings the presents.



My chocolate letter! :)

 

A month ago I remember I had this whole conversation about Sintar Klaas with my hostmom and I just couldn't stop laughing! Our conversation was more or less like this:

 

Me: When does Santa Claus come to Holland?

Hostmom: We call him Sintar Klaas and he comes on the fifth of December from Madrid

Me: So he is Spanish?

Hostmom: No he is Turkish!

Me: What?! Does he come flying from Madrid or with something else?

Hostmom: No, he comes by boat!

Me: But Madrid has no port or water!

Hostmom: Shhh....don't tell the kids!

....

 

Yeah I still don't really get how he comes by boat from Madrid but I guess it's the same with our Santa Claus who comes flying from the north pople...doesn't make much sense now that I think about it!

 

Other than Sintar Klaas, me and Laura went last Sunday on a trip to Utrecht and gladly this time the weather was just perfect! We took many pictures and I ate lots of french fries with mayonese (the Dutch way), yum! :D

Now I know that I should never tell Laura to smile when I take a picture of her because this is more or less the result.

Me and the fat Dutch lady with her chicken

A bike next to a no bike sign, what can I say!



I think after that day I don't feel like eating french fries in a while!

 

Let's not forget though the most important thing of the week which was my birthday of course!! I wasn't really looking forward to it because it was on a Tuesday and I had to stay home all day with the little one who happened to be also sick (yey!). Can't say it was great...also my tiramisu that I made for my birthday looked like more of a tiramisoup. Either way the taste was still good so we ate it! Gladly my two chicas from salsa Nicole and Laura saved my night! We had cocktails and a very relaxing and fun time in a mexican restaurant! I also got a surprise cake and I was extremelly happy :D

Birthday card from Nicole :) 

I had a great time and thank you very very much girls for making it a fun night!! :)

 

That's all for now!

Stay tuned ;)

 

Karoliina