Hi there!

I can't believe it's been a week and I am still sick! I probably shouldn't complain about it but seriously! Is this ever going to get better!?!? I have run out of ideas of what to do anymore. I have become this old granny who sits all day long knitting and reading. Sigh...I'm depressed.

Besides the being sick part I have been trying to figure out what I am going to do this year. The time is just ticking so I better come up with a good plan. I am not going to allow myself be lazy this year! I must admit that I have been having some difficulties with my change of plans but everything is under control...I think.

Either way now my priority is to get better which doesn't seem to be happening any day soon! Feeling homesick isn't helping either but things could be a lot worse than this so I will have to be patient.

Now that I have had all this free time I found these pictures that I took ages ago in Greece. It's always nice to find old pictures that you don't remember you even had.

Also as I said I have been reading a lot lately so here are a few books that I liked and recommend.

 

 "Αννέ σημαίνει μάνα" was my favourite so far. It was one of those books that had been sitting there on my mom's bookshelves for ages and I never really noticed it. I must say that I am the kind of person who judges books from their cover ( hate to admit it but it's true ) and this just didn't really appeal to me by the looks of it, but I'm glad I was wrong. I couldn't stop reading it and that's a fact that I love about a book! It has a lot to do with Greek history and Cyprus so if you are not interested in that kind of thing then it might not be for you. Besides I think that it hasn't been translated to English so you Greek readers out there give it a try ;)

 

 

"One Hundred Names" was also nice but it's one of those girly novels if you know what I mean. It has a happy ending which I appreciate as I can't stand books with bad endings and be like " Noooo...that was not supposed to go like that!". Either way...you won't be dissapointed. If you are looking for a girly novel this will be good for you ;)

 

I found "El árbol de la Diana" on the library mostly just to practise my Spanish. I didn't think I was going to like it but it wasn't too bad. I am probably more excited of the fact that I understood 90% of what was going on in the book, but it surely had some mysterious things going on which made it interesting.

It is one of those books that is all about drama, mystery and romance...some people might find that overwhelming but I quite liked it.

 

I wish you all a good weekend!

 

Karoliina

Fifty Shades of Grey

Hello there!

In about five days I will be heading to Spain and I haven't done any kind of preparation for my trip! Maybe some laundry would be good to be done before leaving, heh. Oh well, one thing at a time! I don't want to stress too much, besides I am going there for holidays!

But enough about that...let's talk about books! I must admit that I have been really bad on reading books lately. Maybe it's because I haven't found a good book to read and then I end up reading some trashy novels...ugh! This time as well I ended up reading something that I would never ever ever read!

Well, from the picture it's pretty obvious what I have been reading lately...Fifty Shades of Grey. Everybody has been making such a big fuss about that book and so many women have absolutely loved it and others have hated it. So as you can guess my curiosity hit and after a lot of thinking I decided to give it a try. I wanted to have my own opinion about the book.

So...to be honest I haven't finished reading it yet and I am not quite sure if I really want to keep on reading it. I was laughing so hard when one of my Greek friends told me " Stop reading it! It's a book straight from hell!". Of course she had read it and she knew what she was talking about. Maybe being too curious can harm you sometimes? Egh...I don't know!

I knew it was a sex book so I wasn't too shocked about that, BUT who would ever want to write a book like that? And even worse...why would the author write not just one book but a series of three!?? Oh wait...they are even thinking to make a movie as well if they haven't done so already!!

This book just gives the wrong picture to people. A story of a young, handsome, always-good-smelling, billionare guy (Mr Grey) who meets a normal girl (Ana) and wants to make a contract with her so that she would become his sex slave for three months. I mean come on! First of all there is no such thing as good looking, young and billionare...those three words just don't match. Old, ugly and billionare yes.
I know this is a book and it's not even trying to be realistic otherwise it wouldn't be able to sell all these millions of copies. I guess what I worry about is the effect this does to human mind. I don't know how the book ends so maybe there is some kind of surprise in the end but ugh...I have had enough of it already.

I am glad I didn't need to spend money on that! Obviously there are people who have liked it otherwise it wouldn't be a bestseller but for my taste it is just going too far with the details. But that's just my opinion!

If you have read it I woul be glad to know your opinion about it!

 

Karoliina

Bergamo

Ciao ragazzi!

Here comes the end of my trip in Italy! I hope you have enjoyed my posts so far :) I surely had a fun time remembering and writing about the things I got to experience. It was a fun journey and I got to see so so many new things and eat so so great food and meet even greater people! I overcame my fear of traveling on my own and I must say that I enjoyed it more than I imagined :)

But still one last stop left: Bergamo! Also one of my favourite cities in Italy after Florence ;)
It was a small city but I could easily imagine myself living there! It wasn't magnificent like Rome but it was cute :) me liked it very very much and it was so colourful compared to the other cities!

 You should always have a good book with you when you are traveling! I got one in Rome "A Passionate Love Affair With a Total Stranger" which was quite funny, but still a silly romantic novel for girls only. The second one I bought in Bergamo but it was so boring that I couldn't even finish it...blaaaah! I just hate leaving books without finishing them but it was too boring for me.

And the next morning surprise surprise...RAIN! I was extremely pissed off because 1) I had woken up early early in the morning (and I am not a morning person) to start my day by exploring the city and 2) I realized that I had to stay in the hotel till the rain would stop argh!

In the end I decided to wait and fortunately after a couple of hours the rain stopped just a bit. Wohooo!

I walked all the way up to Citta alta, with the rain hitting on my face and my shoes getting wet on every single step...that was a good day for me. The view though was absolutely stunning. If the weather had been better I would have enjoyed it even more :)

 Later on I decided to have my last Italian meal! I don't know if this is just a creepy thing I have but for a long time now I have always avoided going to restaurants on my own. To be exact it is one of the things that I am afraid of...I admit it! I don't simply hate it, I am afraid of going to restaurants on my own. But once I was forced to do it because I was hungry I decided to go for it and it wasn't that bad after all. I had the best carbonara ever and for desert tiramisuuuu...yummyyy! In one day I ate the amount of calories I need for a week but who cares! :D

 

In the end I found myself talking a bit in Italian with the owner of the restaurant. Probably normal things like grazie mille, molto bene and arrivederci haha. I could understand so many thing but I couldn't speak italian...what a strange feeling! Anyway maybe italian will be my number five on my list of languages...who knows! Right now I have to focus on improving my Spanish which has been going very bad lately iiiih ¡¡que mal!!

 

Anyhow...the next day I had to catch my flight and be at the airport at 4 o'clock in the morning. Actually, I almost lost my flight because I was daydreaming ( I don't know what the hell I was thinking ) but in the end I ran to the last call for my flight and everything was good again! I just got a small heart attack at that point but nothing too serious heh :)

 

Without realizing it I was back home again. It felt good but strange at the same time. Going back to the old routine takes some adapting but I won't need to adapt for too long. In one week exactly I will be heading toooooo SPAIN! I know I am obsessed with Spain but I have missed it so much that I have to go back again. This time I will be going to Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Seville and maybe Cordoba, but we will see. YEAH I AM EXCITED!

 

I'm leaving you with a song ;)

 

 

Karoliina

Hislop mania

Hey there!

I haven't written a post about books for a while now. Mainly because I haven't read many books this summer! Lately I have been crazy about Victoria Hislop's novels. I have read three so far and all of them were really good in my opinion. Here are two of them The Return and The Thread (click here for The Island).

The Return                                                                                         It starts with the story of Sonia Cameron who goes to Granada with her friend for dance lessons. Through her short visit there one day she starts a conversation with the owner of a small cafe. When she returns to England after her trip she decides to go back to visit the owner of the cafe and learn a bit more about the history of Granada. The owner takes her back 70 years ago when the Civil War of Spain started and Franco with his army shattered the country's peace. As it turns out there are many things that Sonia didn't know and she is close on finding the truth about her mother's past.

 

The  Thread                                                                  The story takes place in Thessaloniki, Greece where Dimitris Komninos was born in 1917. Five years later the author takes us to the story of young Katerina who is forced to escape from Smyrna in Asia Minor with her mom after the Turkish army destroys the place they used to call home. After losing her mother in the chaos Katerina is sent to Thessaloniki with Eugenia who decides to take care of her and treat her like her own daughter. After her arrival in Thessaloniki Katerina and Dimitris get to experience many ups and downs but nothing can make them leave from Thessaloniki, a place they both love very much. I finished reading this a few days ago and I must say that the first 50 pages were quite boring but the rest 550 pages are full of action so don't give up reading! :)

 

I have no idea why Victoria Hislop decided to give these short titles to her books but who cares! I totally recommend you read her novels :)

 

(hups...somebody forgot to iron the sheet hehe )

Karoliina

Blueberries and Books

Hello!

I don't have anything exciting to share with you to be honest. Lately I have been obsessed with this book that I haven't been able to focus on anything else. I just love books that make you want to read more and more. They might not be good for your eyebags ( yeah I was reading till two o'clock in the morning again), but who cares!

In case you thought that I haven't been doing anything else besides reading...I went to pick up some blueberries yesterday wohoo! My intention was to make a blueberry cheesecake today, but it started raining and I didn't feel like cycling in the rain so my plans changed and I am going to make it tomorrow yey! :)

 I just started reading this book and I love it! The name of the book in English is The Return. I haven't read that much, but the plot is mostly about the Spanish civil war. When I have read the whole thing I will write about it more specifically.

That was about it of my interesting life so far!  

¡Adiós amigos!

Karoliina

Paulooo..

¡Hola a todos!

 Lately I have been reading this book called Maktub by Paulo Coelho in SPANISH! I have put my best efford to understand everything written in this book and I have to say that I understand 70% of what I am reading which is a huge deal for me! That means that I have actually learned something at my Spanish lessons :) Cool! (as our exchange student from Arizona used to say)

This book contains small stories about important things in life and the author's thoughts. It is really easy to read and some of the stories have really good meanings. I usually don't like to read books that I have to think their meanings, but this one is pretty interesting....let's put it that way :P









As I was reading it yesterday there was one story that for some strange reason made me think about it twice. So I thought I would share it with you. This is the spanish version.

 La vida no es pedir ni dar consejos. Si necesitamos ayuda, es

 mejor ver cómo los demás resuelven, o no, sus problemas. Nuestro ángel

 está siempre presente, y muchas veces usa los labios de alguien para

 decirnos algo. Pero esta respuesta nos viene de manera casual, generalmente

 cuando, a pesar de estar atentos, no dejamos que nuestras preocupaciones

 turben en milagro de la vida. Dejemos que nuestro ángel hable de la manera

 en que está acostumbrado, cuando crea que es necesario.

 Dice el maestro:

Los consejos son la teoría de la vida; la práctica, en general, es muy diferente.

This is my translation of the previous story...so I don't know if it is exactly correct, but I will give it a try! :) If you speak better Spanish than I do please be understanding...

Life is not about asking or giving advices. If we need help, it is better to

 see how others solve, or not, their problems. Our angel is always present and many

 times it uses someone else's lips to tell us something. But the answer comes

 to us by chance, usually when, despite of being aware, we don't let our worries 

confuse the miracle of life. We let our angel

 to speak in a costumary way, when we think it is necessary.

The teacher says:

Advices are the theory of life; practice, in general, is very different.

One part was hard to translate...anyway hope you got an idea of the whole text. Some things I understand about it and others not so much. I guess what it tries to say is that giving advices is the easy part, but putting them into action is a whole different story...something like that??

Anyway...too much thinking for tonight! Here is a song for you! I haven't seen the movie midnight in Paris, but I think I might do that soon. :)

Karoliina

The joy of reading :D

Hello!

As I have said many times earlier I'm a bit of a book freak. So I thought I would write about my favourite books today! Wohoo! :D If you don't like reading...please try at least one of these books, I am sure you are going to love them as much as I do! :)

One of my favourite books this year was The Island by Victoria Hislop. My sister recommended it to me and it is a really good book. I read it in greek, but I am sure you can find it in many other languages as well. It is about a girl who wants to find out about her mother's past so she decides to go to Crete where her mother was raised. It's a mysterious book and I couldn't stop reading it! I am not going to say what happens :P hehe, but trust me this is good stuff!

Okay the next two books that I recommend are true stories. The first one is the Desert flower by Waris Dirie which is about the life of Waris Dirie who was born in Somalia. When she was twelve she was forced to get married with an old man. To escape she walked all the way to Mogadishu from where she was sent to England. There she was found by a photographer and that's how she became a model. I have to admit that it has been a long time since I read it, but it was really good! There is also a movie about it, but read the book first and then watch the movie.

The second true story is The hiding place by Corrie Ten Boom. It is a really old book, but it is very interesting. The story takes place in Holland in 1940 when the Nazis invaded Holland. Corrie Ten Boom and her family used to hide Jewish people in their house during the holocaust. It's amazing what these people did and I have no words to describe it, I got goose bumps reading it!

Last year I had this thing with Cecelia Ahern's novels and I read them all. I can't say that all of them were extremely good, but I loved these three.

By Sophie Kinsella I recommend these two books. When I want to relax, I prefer reading something that is going to make me laugh and these two were really something! :) I haven't read all Kinsella's books yet, but I want to.

Last but not least, these are the books that I am reading at the moment. I can't tell you yet whether they are good or not, but as soon as I read them all I am going to give you a full review! :)

Hope I didn't bore you to death! hehe 

Tomorrow is my first examination and the fact that I didn't sleep at all last night didn't help much :P

Anyway, have a good day everybody! :)

Karpalo <3