A bit of this and that

Tokyo

2018-04-25T14:15:00.000+03:00

Still alive you guys!

I haven't posted anything in a loooong time ( one year and six months to be exact ), but here I am once again wether you like it or not!

It is refreshing to be writing again and this time I will be sharing my experience about Japan! Planning a trip to Japan wasn't an easy task, but I will share some information that was useful for me before I went, in case you are planning to go. Also this trip was mostly sponsored by my grandfather who was so kind to give me such a wonderful gift!

To plan for our trip I watched a loooot of youtube videos and I must say it helped a lot, since I knew nothing about Japan. I went with my mom and we stayed for 9 days in total, which isn't a lot, so I really wanted to see as many things as possible. We stayed mainly in airbnb apartments and one night in a capsule hotel which ended up costing us 350 euros per person for the nine days. Out of those nine days we spent five days in Tokyo and four days in Kyoto. We also did two daytrips from Kyoto to Hiroshima and Nara.

Hint 1: If you are planning to travel mainly by train in Japan like we did, consider getting the JR pass. It cost us about 220 euros each for seven days and you can take as many trains as you like ( except nozomi trains and some other bullet trains ). You can also use it to take some specific metro lines in Tokyo! Be careful though because you will need to get a stamp in your passport at the airport when you get to Japan otherwise you can't use the JR pass...or you could, but I wouldn't take the risk. We bought ours when we got to Japan from Shibuya Station, but I read online that you used to be able to buy it only online so please read carefully about it if you want to get one!

Hint 2: Also you might notice that the metro lines in Tokyo are craaaaazy! Make your life easier by getting a pasmo or a suica card. You won't need to get a ticket for each trip you do and it will save you time and energy. We got our pasmo cards at the airport and we paid 3000 yen ( about 23 euros ) of which the 500 yen was a deposit that we got back when we returned the cards at the airport. You can recharge your pasmo card at any station if it runs out of money. On the plus side you can also pay with your pasmo card on many vending machines and I even saw some restaurants accepting pasmo cards!
Also, use google maps! I always checked the routes on google maps before going anywhere because the metro map was super confusing for my brain.

Day 1 in Tokyo

So on our first day in Tokyo we went to the Tsukiji fish market, Ginza area, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Takeshita Street and Shibuya crossing! We stayed all day out and went back to our apartment around 10 pm with swollen feet. This was definitely not a relaxing holiday, so be prepared to have good shoes with you!

Tsukiji Market

Saw a huge line by this place and we had to try this strange yellow thing everybody was eating on a stick. I turned out to be a sweetened omelette that they made in these square pans to give them the shape!

You could find vending machines in every corner! What a great invention! I have never been so hydrated in my life!

More street food!

I know you will get sick of the food pictures, but that is part of the whole experience! Matcha green tea ice cream, I wish I could say it was as delicious as it looks in the picture, but I was highly disappointed. I am not used to this kind of flavours so for me it had a very fishy and grassy ( is that even a word?? ) taste. You can't go to Japan though without trying something with green tea in it at least once! I am very open to new flavours so I decided to give green tea another chance so I tried green tea as a drink and once again couldn't stand it. I gave green tea 3 chances to wow me but nope! I am sorry for you green tea lovers out there, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

We headed to the Ginza area after the fish market, which is a commercial district and has also great buildings if you are interested in architecture.

Am I the only one who finds this strange?

Of course you can't miss great architecture like this, designed by one of the most famous architects in Japan, Toyo Ito.

Or this, a couple blocks down from the previous building by Jun Mitsui and Associates Architects

Tokyu Plaza is close to Takeshita street and it has a very nice rooftop where you can sit and relax!

Audi Forum by Creative Designers International ( CDI )

Shinto Shrine

Some fancy stuff!

Shibafu Park

Takeshita Street! Absolute chaos!

Dior store by SANAA

Obviously you would put fur in a glass brick, the obvious choice! You don't really notice it when you look from afar.

Prada store by architects Herzog and de Meuron

Hachiko Memorial Statue at Shibuya crossing

Last but not least, our first dinner in Tokyo! Don't ask me what it is, I just picked something out of the menu and this is what they brought me. Everybody was telling me that the prices in Japan are really expensive, especially if you go out to eat but we paid 1200 yen each ( 9 euros ) for that whole thing you see in the picture, which is about the same price you would pay in Greece if you went to a proper restaurant. Also this place was in the super touristy area so you would think that the prices would be even higher.

So that was our first day in Tokyo! I was planning to post all the things we did in the five days we stayed in Tokyo, but I think this is enough for now!

Stay tuned for more!

Karoliina

The office part 1

2016-10-23T22:06:00.000+03:00

Hi there!

I am not going to comment on how long it's been since I last posted something because you have probably noticed that I am not very good at keeping things updated around here. At least I am quite good at updating my house so once again that is the reason why I am here with you today!

Here are some before pictures of the room that we turned into an office/guest room(when needed):

Unfortunately, the room isn't 100% finished, but I will share a short video of how we made the desk (everything is from IKEA by the way).
(Also, the video has no sound, so in case you start wondering 1. You are not deaf and 2. Your computer works just fine!)

And the final result...

Stay tuned, because there is a lot more to this room!

Karoliina

Our Balcony Update

2016-06-14T20:29:00.000+03:00

Hello there!

How exciting to be back on the blog! I have been living a busy and fun life which is why you haven't seen too much of me here, but that's only a good thing, at least for me! :)

Probably many of you are wondering: Another home update?? Well, to answer your question...yes, this is another home update and it's not going to be the last one! This time we did some changes on our balcony which needed something extra now that the weather is getting hotter and hotter in Greece. This was a simple project that took about 2-3 hours to finish, but it really made a big difference! Unfortunately, the balcony is quite narrow so there weren't many things we could really do, but I think it looks better than before at least :)

So here are some before pictures!

Some pictures of the process...

Weird arm...

We added another wood surface on top of the two tables to make it a bit longer and also more practical. It is removable so when it rains in winter I will take it inside so that the wood doesn't get damaged.

We also planted some herbs and the little Jamie Oliver in me is very happy now that I can cook with fresh herbs!

We got some mint as well for our mojito nights!

I love flowers so much! They add so much color and look so pretty :) I took these pictures a while back so some of these flowers are long gone, but lesson learned...don't water your plants too much! In Greece we say that when you love someone you drown them with your love...I guess I did that to my flowers, like literally! Oops :/

I still need to add something on that glass wall that shows my neighbors mop...any ideas?

We like having lunch on the balcony at daytime, but what I love the most about the balcony is sitting outside at night! I got these lights from IKEA and they give such a fancy look at night! What else do you need really? Mojito nights have really become a thing lately!

That's all for now folks!

Enjoy your summer and maybe I will post something soon again or maybe not!

Until then grazie e arrivederci!

Karoliina

New Home: Bedroom

2016-01-24T17:27:00.000+02:00

Hello people! Here comes the last room of the house, the bedroom! Even though there are still things to do in this room, I thought to give you a peak of what it looks like at the moment. One of the things I want to add is some artwork on the walls and maybe change lazaros's office because it is about to fall apart.

I must say that this is my favorite room in the house and I just love the big windows! My first plan was to paint it a really dark blue like in this picture, but then we went for something lighter and it looks really good too (at least in my opinion). Hope you like it! :)

Look! We even have a sea view and some mountains! haha

One of the reasons I wanted to paint two of the walls dark blue was to make the furniture pop out!

Lazaros's pirate flag that flutters when the radiator is on. He is really proud of his flag!

That's all for now! Thank you for being so patient with my home tour and I hope you have liked all the crazy colors and new changes we have made!

Karoliina

New home: Kitchen

2016-01-06T13:23:00.000+02:00

Happy New Year everybody! I know this post comes a bit late, but I was too busy getting fat during the Christmas holidays...as I tend to do every year during Christmas. My New Year's resolution is always about me getting fit, but I am never going to have a six pack so why torture myself?

Either way, I am over explaining myself again so let's get back to business! This is the fourth part of our home tour with our kitchen, yey! To be honest when I first saw the kitchen I wasn't a big fan, but since we put the shelves in, it became more cozy and practical. If I could change one thing in the kitchen, it would be the color of the wooden cabinet (white would be more my thing) and the tiles on the wall...I guess that's two things I would change then! Enough of my mumbling though, I will let the pictures speak for themselves, enjoy! :)

Lazaros loves collecting spices! We will probably need to add more shelves at some point!

My mom made these shelves for us and I must say that they are super practical! Thank you mama!

That's all for now! I hope you like our "new" kitchen and see you next time!

Karoliina

New home: Bathroom and Corridor

2015-12-11T12:19:00.000+02:00

Hello! Here comes the third part of our home tour! Our bathroom isn't the most interesting room in the house, since there wasn't much we could change in there, but to be honest I don't mind it the way it is! When I was searching for an apartment all the bathrooms had the most horrible tiles with really weird patterns from the seventies. Gladly this house, even though it is built in the seventies, it has really simple white and red tiles which aren't that bad really. Maybe it has been renovated which is why it has more simple tiles...I don't know. Either way, here is our bathroom in case you were wondering what it looked like :)

The only problem we had in the bathroom was the lack of storage space. Also that weird corner there wasn't very functional so we covered it with a bathroom furniture we found in Ikea and voila! Now we have space to put towels and other bathroom stuff and we no longer have that weird corner sitting there empty.

This is our corridor that leads to the bathroom, the kitchen and the two bedrooms. I know you will be laughing with my editing skills, but my computer has been having some difficulties with photoshop, so I put the arrows on the drawing program...hups!

This is what our corridor looks like now! We are planning to put a carpet when we get the money. We are also planning to do a painting in that black frame, but we are still on the thinking process (or in other words, waiting for the inspiration to come!).

My mom's old mirror she didn't want to keep anymore.

Two little paintings I bought last summer on our trip to Tallinn:)

That's all for now people! Stay tuned for our kitchen tour!

Karoliina

New home: Living/dining room

2015-12-03T16:02:00.001+02:00

Hello! Here comes the second part of our home tour! I have to say that I had some difficulties photographing this space, so some pictures have been taken in a different time which affected the lighting in the room. Also on my before pictures, I made the mistake to not take the pictures before we brought all our stuff in...sorry about that!

So as you might be able to tell most of our stuff is from Ikea (nice and cheap),but I did buy the chairs from a local store here and I am really happy with them! The table once again is handmade by me and my mom, inspired from this table and the couch and the coffee table were Lazaros's old furniture that we changed up a bit. Anyway, I hope you like our colorful space!

The credit goes to my mom who made the cover and the pillows for the couch!

I guess you have noticed that I love yellow! At first, we were supposed to get a green armchair so that it wouldn't feel too yellow with the walls and everything. For some people it might be too yellow still, but I like the way it looks :)

The coffee table before we painted it

Last but not least, our umbrella lamp. This was 100% my moms idea that I wasn't really excited about in the beginning, but it doesn't look that bad after all! (and yes, it is a real umbrella!)

That's all for now people :) Three more rooms to go!

Have a nice day!

Karoliina

New home: Entrance hall

2015-12-01T14:13:00.000+02:00

As promised, here come the before and after pictures of our new home! Don't hurry though...I will take it one room at a time, buahaha!

Before you go down to see the pictures (which you probably have done already...sneaky, sneaky), let me share the story of how we ended up renting this house. To begin with, finding an apartment in my hometown was extremely difficult since most houses were really old and the new ones were quite expensive for us. I had been looking for a house for three weeks and had gone to many apartments to see them, but none of them really felt like it could be our home. At some point we had found a nice apartment, but something went wrong with the owner and he didn't want to rent it to us anymore (I still don't know what changed his mind). Either way, I continued searching and called for an apartment through an agency. Unfortunately, that apartment had been taken, but the guy on the phone told me that they had another apartment if I wanted to have a look. I hang up and went straight to see the apartment which I instantly fell in love with. I took pictures to show Lazaros, but when I showed them to him he didn't like what he saw (ugh!). Couple of days had passed and I wanted to give that apartment one last chance before I continued with my search. This time my mom had come with me (since Lazaros was working) and she loved the house too, but the problem was still Lazaros. I tried to convince him through the phone and gladly he agreed to rent this apartment. What can I say...sometimes a woman knows best ;) Even though I understand why Lazaros wasn't excited with the apartment at first, since it is a bit old and not in the best shape, but now he is very happy with the changes I have made and we are both happy with the result (yey!). Gladly all that is over now and we have a lovely home that is both in our budget and close to my university and Lazaros's work!

But enough of the talking and back to the house itself! First of all, I am going to show you our entrance hall (if you can really call it a hall)! I love the fact that it even has a little entrance space because most houses I had seen didn't have that. I decided to paint the walls a bright red to cheer up the space a bit and added some furniture to make it more functional.

The shoe cabinet is made by me and my mom :)

Here is a little sneak peak of our living/dining room, but more on that on the next post!

Before I finish I must say a special thank you to my mother who helped me with pretty much everything in the apartment and my boyfriend who has been supporting most of my crazy ideas :)

Karoliina

A little update...

2015-11-26T17:20:00.000+02:00

Aloha!

I know it's been a while, but here is a little update on what has been happening in my life for the past five or six (?) months!

Let's start from the summer (which went by really fast)! I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work in Finland and earn some money (that we all know is well needed these days), plus I was studying for my entrance exam for University!

In the end of August, I came back to Greece and soon after that I had my entrance exams in Thessaloniki (yuks!). I have no idea how I managed to survive from those exams, but I guess I did pretty well since I am studying Architecture in the University of my hometown now( which was the University I wanted from the beginning, yey!)!

Long story short, now I live in a cozy apartment in one of my favorite cities and I am super excited about my new life here with my boyfriend!

Stay tuned because I am going to share before and after pictures of my new home and yes, I am really excited about that too! :)

Karoliina

2015-06-09T20:46:00.001+03:00

Hello, hello! It's me again and I'm still very alive, even though I have kind of disappeared from the blog! Studying and drawing were keeping me busy and now that I have a job it's been even more busy! Gladly I had the opportunity to stay in Greece till the end of May and get some professional help on my drawing!Thanks to my teacher's advice I believe that I have improved a lot the last month and I hope that I am going to rock on the entrance exams in September! Wuapaaa! Now I am in Finland working and studying and continuing this drawing stuff by myself which isn't as easy as I thought it would be...but I am not giving up! I am so happy that I have found something that I enjoy doing and either I am going to become an architect or not, I still see this as a good extra skill to have! To be honest I didn't even think that I could draw this kind of stuff so personally I am happy with the result no matter what other people think!

BUT enough of the talking and let the pictures speak for themselves! I took the pictures before I left for the airport so I didn't have much time to make them look perfect. (note my fantastic editing skills heh)

Of course there is always space for improvement, but so far so good!

To end this post here is a weird video I found of myself in my camera today. You know the feeling when you find something that you have made or done and you think ''what the hell was I thinking?'' (or is it just me?), well I had one of those moments after watching this.

I am sure you will appreciate it very much :P

Have a nice evening!

Karoliina

Sister time part 3

2015-04-24T13:20:00.001+03:00

Here comes the last part of our sister time in Amsterdam! It's a bit weird to be writing about this two weeks after I left Amsterdam...oh well!

4.4.2015:

We didn't do much on that day since we were really tired watching the tulips the previous day. We were planning to go to Anna Frank, but the line was so huge that we gave up on that thought. Instead we went to see the pillow fight on Dam square and headed back home to watch Maleficent.

5.4.2015:

On my sister's last day in Amsterdam we decided to go see the one windmill we could find close by in Amstelpark. This time it was a real windmill, not like the fake one in keukenhof.

Happy Friday! Time to head back to my studying -_-

Karoliina

Sister time part 2

2015-04-17T12:52:00.000+03:00

Aloha! Here comes the second part of our sister time in Amsterdam! A bit late I know, but I was too busy eating lam and tzatziki. Χριστός Ανέστη by the way!

3.4.2015:

As you might know already, tulips are one of the most important things in Holland! Dutch people take their flowers seriously and in my host family we had always fresh flowers in the house to bring some color. I love flowers and it was definitely the best decision to visit keukenhof with my sister. Get ready to see some seriously crazy tulips! If you suffer from allergies you are probably not going to like this post that much...

a fake windmill

Unfortunately the flowers hadn't bloomed yet, but I am sure that it would have been spectacular!

Visit keukenhof if you ever get the chance! You won't regret it, trust me ;)

Have a beautiful day! :)

Karoliina

Sister time part 1

2015-04-09T16:17:00.000+03:00

Hallo! Today is my last day in Amsterdam and tomorrow I am going back to Greece to eat lam and celebrate the craziness of Easter! It's hard to believe that my time in Amsterdam is over, but I am sure I will be coming back some day! I will also miss these three little munchkins and it's going to be so strange not to see them in who knows how long! Either way, I will always remember this experience as a good one no matter how hard it was at times.

BUT I am still not over with my posts about Amsterdam! I had my sister visiting last week and we did some touristy things that I wouldn't have done otherwise. I finally went on that damn boat tour that I have been wanting to go to since I came in August. Good thing she came and I even got to see Keukenhof and the windmills (or one at least). I am separating the posts in three because I don't want to make my posts too long.

Day one: 2.4.2015

Exploring Amsterdam by boat! We almost melted in the boat because it was so sunny, on the other hand at least it wasn't raining!

Me and my nephew :) (my skills on editing are ridiculous, but it is what it is)

Dam square

Fries with mayo! What were we thinking when we got the big one? We were eating and eating, but they never seemed to end! -_-

We went home feeling sick from the fries and I had the great idea to have chocolate...my stomach officially hates me now!

I have to continue packing now! I have no idea how I am going to squeeze everything into one suitcase. Somebody help me?

Doei doei!

Karoliina

Girly time

2015-03-29T17:02:00.000+03:00

Hallo! My boyfriend started complaining that I don't write as often as I used to so here we go! It's been a busy month for me and going back home for a week in February was the break I needed. I have also some news to share since I won't be staying for very long in Amsterdam. I have actually 12 days left here and after this I am going back to Greece for a couple of months to study for my entrance exam to University (yes, I finally made up my mind!). So hopefully I will be able to focus on my studying more than I do here. It's been an interesting 8 months in Amsterdam but now it's time to move on with life and do something else!

But since I am still in Amsterdam I am going to share some pictures of when my friends Katerina and Nadja came to see me for a couple of days! Credits to Katerina for the nice pictures! :) It was a fun time with lot's of exploring, sushi, birthday cocktails, chocolate and food in general!

So classy!

Salsaaaa!

Birthday cocktail for Katerina!

In three days my sister and her baby son are coming to Amsterdam and I am super excited to see them!

Hopefully it doesn't rain all week, fingers crossed!

Have a nice Sunday even though the Sun is missing today! :)

Karoliina

Surviving with bougatsa

2015-02-17T21:41:00.000+02:00

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

2015-01-13T14:42:00.000+02:00

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

2015-01-04T11:53:00.000+02:00

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!

2014-12-17T21:51:00.000+02:00

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!

2014-11-26T20:51:00.000+02:00

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

Coffee and well...more coffee!

2014-11-18T01:42:00.000+02:00

Here comes another exciting post of my life in Amsterdam! When I come to think about it though I haven't really done that much, but I still enjoy my life the way it is. Besides I don't need much to be happy! During the week I don't have much time (or energy) to do anything so I try to take advantage of my weekends. Also I have been trying to dance salsa as much as possible but this stupid flu has been pissing me off!

Despite the little cold I have been constantly having, me and Laura have been just going crazy discovering different cool places to have coffee...mmmmm coffee! I just love cool and artsy places where you can just sit down and relax! One of the things that I love here in Amsterdam is that there are just so so so many cafes you can go to...sometimes it's a bit overwhelming!

FINOP (Finnish oven pancake). Made this a couple of weeks ago with the kids and they absolutely loved it!

One of the coolest cafes I have been to in the Albert Cuyp street. Mara had taken me there for the first time and it's kind of funny how they work. Basically, you just go there and you can order whatever you want and you pay as much as you want. That's probably why it's called Trust! If they had something like this in Greece everybody would go there just to have "free" coffee.

I also loved this wall and the whole decoration inside! Felt so cozy :)

Marble's vintage

Another cool cafe we went to with Laura. Felt really vintage with lot's of old armchairs and fun atmosphere. Definitely going there again!

Laura enjoying her mint tea for a change!

Albert Cuyp market by night!

I also went to my friends hat exhibition yesterday and I got to try some of them on!

The crazy hatmaker!

I loved them all but that was one of my favourites!

As I was coming back from my Dutch class today I saw this on the way and of course I had to take a picture! I guess they were having a Ancient Greece theme going on...or at least I hope they did! haha

Now my head is full of new Dutch words and I really need to start putting more effort into learning this weird language! Ugh!

Time for bed now!

Hasta la vista!

Karoliina

My life

2014-11-02T16:02:00.001+02:00

Hallo! Once again I have no idea how this week went by so fast! On the other hand I was sick all week almost so I was more like sitting in bed and being miserable most of the time...nah.

Last Saturday I had to stay in to babysit and since I had put all the kids in bed, I decided to learn how to crochet watching videos on youtube. I must admit that it wasn't a big success but at least I tried! I always get very enthusiastic about knitting and other handwork, but always when I try something for the first time (I guess that's how it is when you try something for the first time in general) they turn out to look like crap and then my enthusiasm fades away for a little while, till I start again and for some reason then things tend to work out somehow...or at least that's what I think happens.

That was supposed to be square...maybe it will work out next time.

Other than the very exciting fact that I learned how to crochet this week I took things easy...maybe too easy now that I think about it. Whenever I'm sick I tend to sleep a lot and this week wasn't any different. I tried to rest, but sometimes it's hard to do that when you have a huge pile of laundry that needs to be done.

Either way I did go out on Wednesday which is supposed to be my salsa night, but as I was kind of sick I just went out with my salsa buddies and watched them dance. You can't imagine how difficult it was for a salsa lover not to dance. Never doing that again! It's either stay home or dance salsa.

Before salsa we tend to go out for a drink and this time we went to this really nice cafe/bar that had an amazing view to the canal. Unfortunately you can't really tell from the picture, it was great anyway!

Thursday I went to the Albert Cuyp market close to my house and it's something that I usually do once a week. It has lot's of fun and silly things you can spend your money on. Unfortunately I was pretty broke since it was the end of the month so I just went for a fast walk through and went back home to rest...ugh, for the millionth time I hate being sick!

On Friday it was Mara's birthday so with the magic of make
up I turned myself into a human being again (I should have taken a before picture). We went to this nice oriental restaurant Mara had chosen and we had a lovely dinner with the other aupairs :)

Yesterday at last I was feeling better and as the weather was super warm and nice, I went out to the park with Mara and two other aupairs to have a picnic. It felt like a miracle to have so good weather in Amsterdam in November!

Last night it was also museum night which means that all the museums were open till 2:00 in the morning and they had parties and different events. We started visiting museums at 7 pm with Laura and did as much as we could till the museums closed. I must say that going to museums is quite tiring and there is always soooo much stuff to see, it was overwhelming! We started in Anna Frank huis, then we went to Rijks museum, Van Gogh and Nemo. For one night we did quite good and imagine that there were more than 50 museums on the list that we could visit.

Finally I did it! No people standing in front of the Iamsterdam sign!

Party, party in Rijks museum

Rembrandt

This was actually the most fun thing in Rijks museum. There was just something so magical about it I couldn't stop staring at it.

A break before continuing with the museums

Last but not least Nemo! They had so many cool things in there. Could have stayed longer if we had had time.

You could say we are literally HOT!

And that was my week ladies and gentleman! It was a fun and exciting and now my feet hurt from all the walking.

Tonight is salsa night and tomorrow back to my busy schedule with the kiddos! Bring on the challenge again!

Karoliina

Here and there

2014-10-22T13:47:00.000+03:00

Ahoyyy! It's been a long time since the last time I posted anything on here and I have so many things to write about that I don't know where to start!

I guess I will start with the fact that my very good friend Fotinh surprised me by coming to Amsterdam to see me with her sister and her friend two weeks ago. A couple days before she came she just messaged me saying "Are you going to be in Amsterdam from Monday to Thursday?" and of course the next thing she told me was that she was booking a ticket to come see me. With Fotinh we have been doing a lot of traveling and every time we see each other it is in a different place. We met a year and a half ago in Florence, then we did a trip to Sevilla, after that we met in Athens and now in Amsterdam! Our next destination hopefully is going to be Morocco or who knows where!

My first and my last time in a coffee shop and I can't say I enjoyed it that much. I don't smoke and in a way I don't understand why people would spend money on things like that, but oh well! I guess it's one thing you "have" to see in Amsterdam.

Going to Utrecht! Once we got there we randomly saw a Spanish guy Elias we had met the previous night in the bar of the picture above. He was there doing some paperwork so we took him with us and we explored Utrecht together :) such a small world!

Elias and the girls

Walking around beautiful Utrecht! I must say I liked it more than Amsterdam because it wasn't so touristic and it felt more cozy in a way. The weather wasn't the best but still I think I will visit Utrecht again to have a better look of the city.

Me and Fotinh

Posing the Asian way

You can see also a Finnish design shop in the back. Iittala is getting quite famous here!

After hours of walking in the rain it was time to stop for a coffee! The wet look is something that I need to get used to here in Holland. That's why I never really put too much effort on doing my hair because it's going to look like shit once I get out of the house.

Still posing! After a rainy, but wonderful day in Utrecht it was time to say goodbye to my Greek chicas and the Spanish chico.

Before I left though Fotinh and Elias kept making scenes like this in the street of Mexican telenovelas and we had a good laugh! (if you can't see the video please leave a comment...I'm trying to fix it)

Last week I had the week off so I decided to go to Greece to have some rest and see my boyfriend of course ! Unlike Utrecht the weather in Greece was so nice and warm the whole time I was there...I deeply regret that I didn't go swimming. As for the food...I am not even going to mention how much food I ate again.

The happy face of a guy who has to go back to the army after having four days off.

It's always hard leaving home and of course the people you love, but now I am back to my old routine and keeping myself busy helps from not thinking too much of other things.

Now I need to get back to my Dutch homework!

Tot snel

Karoliina

Waar is de chocolade?

2014-10-05T20:55:00.000+03:00

Hello people! I know I am supposed to be writing about my exciting life in Amsterdam but sometimes life is not so exciting and adventurous all the time. I guess I have fallen into a routine and to be honest I kind of like having a routine even if that sounds strange to some of you. Obviously, I don't like waking up early every day and Mondays have become again my least favorite day of the week, but on the other hand that's life. Also my Dutch has been improving in one way or another and I finally can understand a bit what is going on around me...until of course they start talking really fast and then I am lost again.

Gladly I have the six year old at home telling me how to improve my pronunciation in Dutch. He is a pretty good teacher actually. I truly believe that learning a language from children can happen a lot faster than normally. Also the two year old has been saying lately "Ik ben superman" (I am superman) so now I also know how to say "Ik ben niet Karoliina, Ik ben superman!". Useful phrases you need to know in everyday life!

Talking about everyday life, it has become some sort of routine for my hostfather to buy chocolate once the kids are in bed. Then he ends up buying three different kinds and we compare which one is the best. Now he keeps giving me chocolate and I don't know what to do with it! No wonder why my clothes feel tighter lately...damn!

As when it comes to chocolate this weekend we had more than enough! We celebrated Joppe's sixth birthday and of course I made a Donald Duck themed chocolate cake...yes, more chocolate!

All the kids where so hyper after eating all this sweet stuff but we had them under control...or at least we tried. As long as all the kids went back home alive and tired that's a good sign of a good party.

Also I noticed that I haven't taken so many pictures while I have been here, so me and Laura went around Amsterdam to take some pictures of the city, which turned out to be a bit of a disaster since there were people everywhere blocking the view. I kind of hate walking in the city center during the weekend because you can barely walk through the crowd...ugh, what a difficult life I have! :P

My salsa buddy Laura :)

I just can't get enough of the canals!

I have been trying to take a picture of Iamsterdam without people for a while now but it's pretty hopeless.

You realize that you have been in a place for a while when you start to see people you know on the street...what a strange feeling! I had that happening a couple of times and I never really thought that would happen in such a big city like Amsterdam.

I have also been starting to feel that autumn is getting closer and closer. To be honest I love autumn, but when I was cycling in the rain yesterday, I realized what I should be expecting for the months to come! Thanks rain for ruining my Saturday night by the way... -_-

Hopefully I will get some sun in Greece next week! Looking forward to go back home and eat some Greek food again :D

Tot snel!

Karoliina

Sun, party, classes

2014-09-22T17:32:00.000+03:00

Hallo! Here I am once again after a small break of blogging. I have been so busy with all this exploring and cycling, plus the weather has been really good so I needed to take advantage of that now that I still can.

Last week was full of new and interesting things! Last Sunday my friend invited me to a techno festival and I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to totally fit in...those of you who know me in real life techno and me just don't really get along that well. To my surprise though I had a good time and most of it was thanks to my awesome company! Now I can check out "Going to a techno party" off my list.

Talking with my super tall Dutch friend, Geert and getting blind with the sun in my eyes

Some happy faces!

I also had my first Dutch lesson last Monday (which means that today is my second class) and I must say that my pronunciation is quite crappy. The whole week I have been trying to learn all these new words and I still feel like I forget them immediately! It's so different from the languages I already speak that it's going to be quite a challenge, but what the hell, I will learn it eventually! At least my life might get a bit easier with my communication with the kids at home.

I also had my first art class on Saturday at the Rietveld Academie. I had the interview on Friday where they selected people and I was one of the lucky ones. The interviewer kind of disliked my drawings but she liked me so she let me in. I must say that showing my art for the first time to someone with a lot more experience in the field, was a very vulnerable moment for me and getting kind of harshly criticized, wasn't my best moment of the week. I guess it's something that I need to get used to.

I am also lucky to have found another salsa lover Laura and we have been going dancing together the last couple of times. My body is now complaining because of all the dancing and my feet are definitely suffering a bit, but it's good to be back on the dance floor showing off my super sexy moves again.

exploring the city with Laura

The family is now coming back from their trip in Oslo and I need to be creative and cook something...I'm out of ideas! D:

ps. One of the many strange things I discovered in Holland: Why do they sell only carbonated ice tea? Real ice tea has no bubbles!

And with that last strange fact I end my post. Have a nice evening and greetings from Amsterdam!

Karoliina

Weekend fun and apple mousse

2014-09-08T23:21:00.002+03:00

Ahoy! Here we are once again in beautiful Amsterdam! After a splendid weekend I started my week with a cold and chicken soup...yey!
The weekend included sitting in vondelpark with the other aupair girls, walking around the city, eating, eating, eating, drinking beer and listening to jazz. The weather wasn't the best on Saturday but that didn't stop us from having a good time.

Sitting in museumplein

Some enthusiastic street musicians

Sitting by the canal! Another one of my shoe selfies...

I know that everytime you people wonder what I always take with me and my bags are so big all the time. First of all my camera takes a lot of space and second I'm a woman. I guess I don't need to explain myself further.

It would be cool to try that sometime!

Last but not least Jazzz!

Today I tried to impress the family with my baking skills and as it always happens the one time that you want things to go right everything goes wrong. I decided to make an apple pie and everything was going well until the pie got into the oven and the whole thing just turned into a strange apple mess. In the end we had to sieve the extra butter from the "pie" and ate it as apple mousse. The kids seemed to love it, but for me it was a total failure...

Funny fact is that I forgot to write on the recepy the flour and of course the whole thing fell apart without it! Maybe next time I remember that tiny little detail...

Time to rest!

Groetjes

Karoliina