Simple blue.

it’s raining or she’s crying?
she’s crying or it’s raining?

it’s raining…

Get a piece of Nature!

Not too far from Kortijk, there is wonderful place called Harelbeke. My friend Steven invited me to his place and he showed me a real piece of nature. Thank you, Steven!

 

 

Gelsenkirchen. Düsseldorf. Köln

In my trip in Germany I visited 3 big cities: Gelsenkirchen, Dusseldorf and Koln. In each city the weather wasn’t so friendly. We didn’t pay to much attention on this bad weather and we tried to enjoy every moment in each place.

Gelsenkirchen is looking for a new image.

In this place I came back to rest and sleep. I had the chance to stay to some friends of mine. In the past, Gelsenkirchen used to be known “city of a thousand fires” for the flames of mine gasses. It was the most important coal mining town in Europe. Today in Gelsenkirchen there are no mines any more and Gelsenkirchen is searching for a new image. There no many things to see in Gelsenkirchen, but it’s a very nice place to stay and live. Is has all the ingredients: clean, peacefull place, nice pubs and restaurants, etc.

Dusseldorf, the best place for shopping and tasting a beer.

Düsseldorf is a city where everything is close together: just near the well known shopping street, the „ Altstadt” the old quarter of the city, you can also find more than 260 pubs and home-brew taverns, a place witch is well known as “the longest bar in the world”.If you want to see a great view of the city, you can you in the top of the light house.

Köln – Dom is an important World Heritage Site.

It is one of the oldest cities in Germany. Köln is known as an important media centre. Several radio and television stations are based in the city. Köln is well-known for its beer, called Kolsch . Was it is incredible is that at the end of the Second War World, 90% of the city was complete destroyed. It took some time to rebuild the city, but I have to admit that I really admire what they have done with the city. It’s a complete new city. The most important place to visit, it’s of course, the famous Dom. Construction of the Gothic church began in 1248 and took, with interruptions, until 1880 to complete – a period of over six hundred years. This famous cathedral described by UNESCO as an “exceptional work of human creative genius”. This building is one of the most important World Heritage Site.

Back home from Germany

I just come back from Germany and even that I am tired and sleepy I don’t have sleep if I don’t share to you some short opinions about my trip in Germany. You will see that in all my opinions I coming back to my Belgium experience trying to find out some differences between Belgium and Germany. Maybe you will ask yourself, why I don’t compare my experience from Germany with Romania and why I prefer Belgium? I don’t have something with my country and believe me that I would like to write about Romania, but unfortunately, there is nothing to compare with Romania. Romania is not Germany and it won’t be.

You need just 6 hours from Kortijk to Gelsenkirchen. In Gelsenkirchen I met my Romanian friends, they are studying there and that’s way I had a place to stay over the night. Nowadays is very hard to meet people like them.

In the next post, I will tell you more about the places I visited, but for now some short and general thoughts about Germany:

Trains. If you are coming for the first time in Germany, you will be surprised how big there are the railways stations, how clean, fast and comfortable can be. I think that every station has at least 11 or 12 platforms. And of course, all the trains are coming in time. It’s incredible how discipline, organize, punctual can be these people. It’s hard to admit, but these words like “punctual”, “organize” and “discipline” doesn’t have any meaning for Romanian people.

English. I couldn’t find so many people speaking English like in Belgium. If you are going in a supermarket or you are in a tram and you lost your way, I’m afraid that you won’t find so many people who can give you a piece of advice in English.

Weather. The weather wasn’t so friendly with us. It’s still winter there. Most of the time, it was raining and from time to time it was snowing. That’s way we couldn’t do so many things and we preferred to run from a pub to another.

Music. I am not very good in music but in the place where I stayed I had the chance to listen some german songs. I don’t understand all the lyrics, but from my point of view is more noise than music.

Beers. You will be very surprised to see people drinking beer in the street or in the tram. It’s not forbidden to take your beer and drinking it outside. In America, Belgium or Romania this habit is punished. They don’t have so many kinds of beers like in Belgium but they drink as much beer like them. Their famous beer is Beck’s, but is not the best beer from Germany.

Girls. From all the young girls I’ve seen in Germany most of them have at least one “piercing”: in the nose, in the eyebrow or in the tongue. It must be very painful. For those who have “piercing” in the tongue, I’m wondering how they could eat a chocolate bar full of nuts. A girl with a piercing in the tongue told me that most of the boys are really happy when they kiss (french kiss) a girl with a piercing. Can be a reason, why not?

Prices. The prices are really good compared with the Belgium prices. I dare say that the prices are really close to Romanian prices. That’s one of the reasons to believe that they have a strong economy.

I’m going to sleep.

Good night, Germany!

I passed my first exam! Intensive Dutch

“Here we certifity that

Costin Oane

Erasmus student from SNSPA, “College of communication and Public Relations”, Bucharest

Followed the EILC course between 28/01/08 and 15/02/08 totalising 60 hours of language tuition and including cultural activities, sat an oral and written exam and passed the test successfully.”

My mark is: B

Here I come Germany !

Tomorrow afternoon I will be in the train, on the way to Gelsenkirchen. I hardly wait to meat my Erasmus friends from Germany.

The people of Amsterdam are Amsterdam.

If someone asks me to make a sum up of Amsterdam, I will say that, Amsterdam is by far, the true city of tolerance and diversity. And I think that you must have some background, some training to understand this kind of freedom. The people of Amsterdam are Amsterdam.

Maybe you will say: millions of tourists can’t be wrong! Amsterdam. Can be true. But this place is not my type. People look very strange; you can smell marijuana from the street. Amsterdam is very very crowded and gives you anxiety feeling.

Amsterdam is one of the greatest cities in the world, a city which still receives millions of tourists every year. Is one of the most visited places in the world, after London, Paris and Barcelona. There are not to many things to visit (maybe I’m wrong) in Amsterdam, the main attractions for most visitors are:

Red Light District

You might be surprised to discover that this sex-for-sale zone occupies a handsome area of 16^th century canals and the “ordinary” people still leave here and go on with the daily business of life. If you are a boy, I am sure that your eyes will be for a moment focus on women behind the red windows. The whole area of town called Red Light District is always invaded by large groups of tourists walking in the streets and looking at the windows with the girls. I don’t recommend you to visit the Red Light section after dark. It’s more sinister and can be dangerous. According to statistics there are now over 25,000 prostitutes in the Netherlands. Prostitution has been legal in the Netherlands from 1815 and in 1996 the Dutch government started to tax it. By the way, no cameras in red light distict!

Coffee shops.
Here you can buy small amounts of cannabis. Coffee shops must not sell to anyone under 18 and they must not sell more than 5g to any customer. Hard drugs are strictly prohibited. Walking around the city I’ve seen a social campaign, that more and more kids under 10 years old, started to smoke and not everthing they started to smoke marijuana. In the midnight, we will find people asking you if you want some „ecstasy”.

Sex Museum. Erotic Museum
You will find a great collection of erotic art. The Erotic museum reflects what it is all about in the Red Light District.

You can be sure that Amsterdam is more than this, and you can get a most authentic experience from it. It was nice experience. It’s totally different from everything I’ve seen by now.

If you are in relationship, take your girlfriend and go in Amsterdam. Nobody will disturb you.

I can bet for this.

Happy birthday, Can !!

A nice and friendly person like you deserves the best that each day can bring. Happy Birthday!

After beer tasting

One day you discover these exceptional beers. After that, on each new occasion, all the meetings will be a pleasure. All the beers have made a big impression on me.

Another 10 mark for Katho University. They prepared a short presentation of the most famous Belgium beers. And then, we supposed to taste 3 different kinds of beers.

The first one was “Kriek” a light beer, and the taste was like a cherry juice. The name is derived from the Dutch word for this type of cherry. If you ask me, I can’t say that Kriek is a beer. But it was nice to try.

The second beer “Chimay”was a strong one, 9% alcohol. Very nice battle, interesting taste. Good to try it next time.

The last one was “Duvel”, another strong beer again, 8.5% alcohol. If you are new with this beer you can have some problems how to pronounce “Duvel”. The flemish pronunciation is “Doov’l”.

Beer tasting with our teachers!!

Yes is true. Beer tasting with our teachers. And it will be tonight. First time when I heard I thought that it’s a joke, but in fact is not. In my country it’s quite impolite to go to a pub and drink with one of your teachers at the same table.

P.S. By the way, the invitation came from them. And all the drinks are free.

Drinks for everyone! From the house..