Grief

Hello world,

So as some of you might have noticed I have been absent from this blog for over a month, and despite what people may think I have a very good (or at least in my opinion) reason for it. So a little over a month ago I got the news that my granddad had passed away. Losing a loved one is always tough (even those who don't have a good relationship with said family member). As was the case for me, I am one of the few lucky people whose grandparents where all still alive, until recently that is. I have never been very close with my dad's parents and generally only saw them 2 or 3 times a year when we still lived in the Netherlands. When we moved to Spain, three times a year changed to once in 6 years, which is a very long time to go without seeing family. The last time I saw my granddad was almost 2 years ago, and the worst thing is I didn't really miss them that much. As we where never really close not seeing them was an easy thing to deal with for me. This didn't mean however that losing him didn't hurt me or the family around me. The day we heard the news I was meant to go to work and hang out with friends later on, that however quickly changed to packing and getting on the first plain to Germany (no planes to the Netherlands on that day). My sister was away on holiday when it happened so apart from comforting my dad I had to lie to my sister and pretend everything was okay, which was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done. Being in the Netherlands with just my dad and my grandmother was a strange thing, and it opened my eyes to a lot of things that had gone on in my family that I didn't even know about. My grandmother has always been a bit cold and detached, not really one for showing emotions, when I was younger I didn't really notice it much but as I got older I noticed she was very different to other grandmothers and sometimes resented her for not being nicer to us. I know realize these emotions where stupid and that she did care for me and my sister but she just has trouble expressing said feelings. One of the "good" things that came out of my granddad passing away was that I got to see my aunt and uncle again. They live in Greece and I hadn't seen my aunt in about 9 years and my uncle in 14 years, which is very strange as I was 6 the last year I saw him so I didn't really know him anymore. We used these days together to bond bit and are know planning on visiting them in Greece hopefully sometime next summer.

As my granddad was the first close family member that I lost, I got my first experience of what goes in to arranging a funeral and all the other things that need to be done, which, let me tell you, is a LOT! My granddad was a very popular and loved men in the town he lived in, he did a lot for the community and worked for a lot of sport clubs, such as the local football (soccer) club that he practically prevented from turning bankrupt and having to close. He was also an avid ice skater and would have loved to compete in the "elfstedentocht" which is a 200 km ice skating course through 11 cities in the north of the Netherlands all on natural ice. It has to be very cold to be able to do the course which is why you never know when the next one will be (the last one was in 1997). he never got to compete because in 1963 his wife (my grandma) forbade him from going, which ended up being a good thing because the weather was terrible, so bad they even made a film called "the hell of '63. After that he was part of the organization managing a part of the course meaning he wasn't allowed to compete, he was responsible for a bit of ice that he had to check every day to see if the ice was thick enough etc. The response and support we got from all the people in the village was astounding, from a phone call or a card to a message on a website or in the newspaper, it was more then we expected. the first few days we didn't get to many messages but when the announcement we put in the newspaper was published tons of cards arrived, sometimes even 20 or 30 at once, which is a surreal experience to be fairly honest. As I had never really been through something like this I wasn't sure how to act or react but in the end I did what my granddad would have wanted, I kept going and remembered all the good memories I had with him. Because my granddad was one of the happiest people in the world and he, just as anybody else that loves you, would want me to continue loving life and making new even better memories.

I know I'm rambling but I really needed to explain why I had been absent and because I wanted this blog to be more personal I thought I should just explain it indent. it has been hard to write/talk about this which is why it took me so long to actually write it all down and upload it. I probably wrote and rewrote this post about 10 times and was never happy with it, but I think this is acceptable. If you don't like these kind of posts I apologize and I promise the next few will be much happier and easier to read and write. As it is summer here know and I have finished my exams I want to try and upload once every two weeks. I will probably do some film/ book reviews and talks some more about places I have visited. I will talk about some more serious stuff that I think should be discussed and continue talking about my experiences with moving to another country.
But for now, this is it for today. I hope this cleared things up and maybe even helped someone who is dealing with personal stuff.

have a great day/night wherever you are and I will write very very soon.

xx Simone

Changes

Hello world,

This post is going to be a lot different from the others and I am sorry for that but I think it is necessary for the continuation of this blog. I haven't posted anything in over a month and the true reason is that I have lost interest in the post I made. I have not for any reason lost interest in this blog but for me to continue I want to make some changes. first of I changed the name, it just seemed nicer and more personal then the previous name. I am in no way going to delete my previous posts or am I going to change the main purpose of this blog. The only reason I made it was so I had a place where I could write and by doing so be of help to people all around the world going to similar situations as mine. As of now I promise more regular post, which might be shorter but are more personal and closer to what I wanted to achieve on this blog. There might also be some post in other languages (Dutch & Spanish) but I am not entirely sure yet. From this day forward this will not only be a traveling and lifestyle blog but a place where I can empty my mind and speak freely without the fear of being judged (Although not really). I want to adress things that other people do not want to talk about because it is not right or not a popular theme. I have also been quite busy writing stories lately, both a longer story I intend to make into a novel as short stories I wrote just for fun. I intend to from now on use this blog as well to publish some of these stories to see what people think so I can continue to improve my writing style.

If you have ignored this entire rant about this blog I won't judge you to hard, (who am I kidding, I totally will). Or just ignored this entire post that is fine, it really just explains the changes I have made and will make to this blog to hopefully enjoy it more myself and so you guys ( & girls) reading it will enjoy it more. Anyway I think I should just stop rambling and let the new posts and new layout of the blog speak for itself.

I will also change the amount of times I upload a post, once a week was to hard to do and it caused me to lack a lot, so I will try and upload once every two weeks. this way I can make post with better content and quality instead of rushing to upload something, reducing the quality drastically. Wow and I am rambling again...

Anyway, I will write again soon!

Simone

Going to Hogwarts!!

Hello world!

About 2 weeks ago I was in the Netherlands and while I was there I went to the Harry Potter Expo in Utrecht. No I am a BIG potter head and have read all the books (about 5 times) and seen all the films (about 20 times). So to say I was excited is an understatement although the same can be said for my sister who is an equally big fan as me. Our dad got us into Harry Potter years ago when he got a box set with the first 4 films as a gift from somewhere ( Honestly can't remember where from).

The day started great with an hour long drive to Utrecht where the expo was in a big cinema called Cinemec. Getting inside was a bit of a struggle as I was walking with crutches (Still am) and there where a lot of stairs and no lift... But as soon as we where inside and gave our tickets to the lady it was worth it! we had to wait a little while bit where soon let inside and towards the sorting hat. All the things we saw in the expo are real props used in the film that where transported from the Warner bros studios in England.

We started the tour with the sorting hat and a few kids where sorted into different houses which was pretty cool to see. After the hat we went to a different room where all the trailers had ben mixed together to form a short film which was beautiful and of course my sister and I quoted all of the lines of the films ( we have annual Harry Potter marathons).

Now I am not going to describe the entire tour because if any of you are going it would ruin it all but I will state my opinion and show some pictures I took. The pictures aren't the best quality as it was dark and we couldn't use flash. Anyway on to explaining and getting all excited.

After the short film we saw the Hogwarts express or atlas part of it. It was just as magnificent as I imagined but very dark so we couldn't see it that good. After the train you enter the real expo and take a walk around different sets and learning more about the making of the films. There where a few interactive things you can do as well as pull out a mandrake root or throw a quaffle. Overall the experience was great but it was quite busy as it was a Saturday so a tip for anyone who wants to go: go early like we did or go during a weekday when there are less people. It didn't bother us to much as we where still able to see everything and we where lucky as when we left there where a lot of people waiting in line to be able to enter. After you finish the expo you enter a gift shop that is completely in Harry Potter style which makes you more inclined to buy something. After much debating I decided to buy a wand as that was something I really wanted, they weren't cheap but the quality is AMAZING! I got Sirius Black's wand as he has always been one of my favorite characters allthough I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly why. My sister bought a big poster and a luggage tag and for our dad we bought a mug which we will give him for his birthday. There where a lot of the typical sweets but we didn't buy any as it was very busy there and they where actually quite expensive.
Anyway enough writing as this post is getting quite long and possibly boring. I will add a couple of photos (definitely not all) of the Expo and I will see(?) you soon with another blog!

 My sister and I next to the Weasley's flying car.

Sirius Wand in a beautiful box!

Have a great day/night wherever you are!

xxSimonee

Getting lost in Riga.

Hello world!

Firstly sorry for the long time between post but my laptop died and my phone was to uncomfortable to write on but I've got a new laptop now so I am back to posting every week!
Secondly I had a important hockey tournament about a month ago and I hurt my knee so for the past month I have been to several doctors had multiple tests done and have been walking on crutches ever since. All photos I have taken where taken with my phone as taking pictures and walking with crutches proved impossible, so I apologize if the quality isn't the best.
Today's post is going to be about my recent trip to Riga the capital of Latvia. I only got back a few days ago and am still in awe at all I saw, so sit back relax and enjoy this new post.

Now many people when I spoke to them and I told them I was traveling to Riga were surprised that I chose to go to one of the baltic states as it is not a very popular tourist destination. My sister however, saw an offer to go to Riga on a website an fell in love instantly. As we do nearly everything together it was only natural we would go to Riga together. On the 28th of February the day had finally come that we would go to Riga, as the offer was from a dutch website, we flew to the Netherlands first and spend a few days there before flying to Riga. we where only in Riga for 4 days but saw a lot of things in that period. Alltough not nearly enough and I'm sure we will be back soon.

DAY 1:
Our flight was quite early in the morning but as Riga is an hour ahead of the Netherlands we still lost half the day. After we arrived at the airport and took a taxi to the hotel  we where staying at the hotel city teather we unpacked our stuff (both of us hate to live out of a suitcase even if it is just a few days) and rested a bit as we where tired. we didn't have to worry about dinner as the offer came with a three course meal in the hotel's restaurant the first night. we went to dinner not expecting much but hoping it was good judging the hotel and the looks of the restaurant. the food was good but the portions were very small due to it being so fancy. The dessert was especially dissapointing tasting nothing like we where promised, but overall it was very nice.

                                           Starter: goats cheese mouse with beet puree and arugula.

                                       Main: corn fed chicken with parsnip puree and green beans.

Dessert: ?? suposed to be milk chocolate mouse cake with raspberry sauce and caramel sponge.

DAY 2:

On our first full day in Riga we got up not to early and went to breakfast which was great, although a bit strange as they had salads for breakfast (A typical Latvian thing we found out later). unfortunately for us it was raining so we didn't get to enjoy the day as much as we liked but still we made the best  of it. We had some Riga Live cards which gave us free access to public transport and a hop on hop off bus with a audio tour. We used that bus to drive around the city and walked around the old town for a few hours before taking the bus back to the hotel. As it was raining and already around 4 PM and we where tired we just watched netflix until we went to dinner. For dinner we went to a place called B Burgers that had amazing cheap burgers. My sister and I both chose a chicken burger with mozarella and pesto and it was one of the nicest combinations ever. Together with chips, sauce and a drink it was only 6,50 euros!  

One of the best burgers ever!

DAY 3:

When we woke up on the second day we where happy to discover it was not raining and the sun was even trying to peak trough the crowds. Feeling hopeful we went up to breakfast and then got ready to go to the city centre. We where planning to take a train and go to the beach but when we arrived at the station there where no more trains going to the beach as it was winter and cold ( 1 degree Celsius).  So we decided to go to a few more museums such as the Latvian occupation museum and the national museum of art. After that we went back home and watched some more Netflix (we are not obsessed we just had good wifi). For dinner we went to a cute pizza place that looked quite expensive but was really cheap ( 10 euros for 2 pizzas and 2 soft drinks). I had a margarita pizza ( My al time favourite) and it was amazing!

DAY 4:

This was our last day in Riga as our flight was at 7 AM the next day. we started the day with breakfast and then went on a tour through an old apartment called "the corner house". This house was used by the KGB (Russian secret service) during the soviet time when Latvia was ovulated ( from 1940 to 1991). It was the most impressive and terrible thing I have ever seen, not even the concentration camps compare. We learn a lot about WW 2 in history but very little about the soviets and the countries they occupied. After that we went back to the old centre and took some more pictures as It was raining the first day we where there. To end the afternoon we had a late lunch at the Big Bad Bagel a cute small cafe that sells all kinds of bagels, juices, smoothies, soups and salads. I had an amazing bagel called "Bacon in Mexico" it had bacon (DUH), fried egg, cream cheese and fresh spicy guacemole (that actually was fresh). I ordered a hot chocolate with my bagel as it was very cold and a smoothie to take with me afterwards. All the things I had where very nice and the atmosphere in the cafe was very nice as well. After lunch we headed back to our hotel packed our bags and just relaxed as we had to get up at 3:30 AM the next morning to be at the airport on time. For dinner we went to self-service restaurant where they had typical Latvian food but I don't have a picture of that but it was quite good.

So this concludes an amazing trip to Riga below I will put a couple of pictures of the architecture of Riga as so far the only pictures have been of food ( Sorry not sorry). I hope you enjoyed this blog post and I will write again very very soon!!

Enjoy the rest of your day/night wherever you are 

xx Simonee

Baywatch & boat barbecues.

Hello world!
I am back with another blog post!
Today I will be talking about the lovely town that is Torre del mar.
It is a small, typicall spanish village, that is right next to the beach. It is very beautiful and a lot less touristic then other places like Marbella or Torremolinos. My grandparents live here so I come here quite often and really enjoy it. The last time I went I decided to take some pictures and talk about it on my blog.
So with out further ado, let's get to explaining all about this old fishermans town turned tourist atraction.
Like I mentioned before it is a typicall spanish fishermans town with a bunch of lovely beaches that have become famous with tourists. Providing the main income of most of it's citizens. It has a lovely promenade with several "Chiringuitos" which are typicall spanish fish restaurants, partly or entirely on the beach. They bake their fish on a barbeque, made out of an old boat, which is then filled up with sand and logs producing an amazing smell and perfeclty cooked and smoked fish. My tip if you go there? just order the fish of the day, an entire fish ( most times), which has been caught that same day in the morning. It generally comes with chips (fries) and sometimes a side of salad, alltough vegetables are rarely found in spanish restaurants. This can be resolved easily by ordering a salad, these are generally the same in all restaurants, unless you order a specific one.
Apart from great fish you can also eat in many other restaurant off the beach. There is a great american style restaurant called yankiees. They have great American food, for great prices. The place looks like a diner but more modern I guess. They are very american sizes tough, so be carefull you don't buy to much (happened to me the first time). I personally love there peperoni & cheese pizza, aswell as the garlic bread and the nachos. There are also a lot of great ice cream shops, of course.
But that is enough now I will let the photos convince you. If you are ever close, you should check it out, if not for the beaches and food, for the amazing atmosphere.

My sister and I on the beach for an evening stroll.

                                                                 An old fishers boat.


                                                                                          

                 The ligefuard tower á la Baywatch( without hot lifeguards unfortunately)

                                                The view of the coastline, and the other coast towns.

  Really getting those baywatch vibes, just waiting for a hot lifeguard to run past in slow motion...

                                         One of the famous "Chiringuitos with it's boat barbecue.

                                          A look at the promenade in the evening.

                                         The terras of the Yankiees, an american style restaurant.

                             Another look at the promenade and one of it's many fountains.

                                                               Entrance of Yankiees

                                                    Another themed bar/ cafe.

So I hoped you enjoyed! If there is anything specific you would like me to write about, let me know in the comment section.

Enjoy your day/ night wherever you are!

PS: sorry for the weird stripes on some of the pictures I have no idea what happened and can't change it :(

Simoneexx

Best places to go! Spain edition Nº TRES

Hello world!

So I am back with part 3 of Best places to go! the spain edition, which will probably be the last one for a while as there are no other big cities here in Spain that I have been to.

I did a Málaga & Madrid version before these, so if you haven't read those yet, go read them now.
I have been to Valencia many times, but have only been able to actually enjoy the city twice, as all the other trips where for hockey trips. So this list of my personal hotspots will probably be a lot shorter then the Malaga  or Madrid one, but I hope it will still be usefull.

Accomodation:
 Now one of the places I have stayed where great, others not so much. My favourite place I stayed was an apartment complex called Port saplaya, it is as the name says, near the beach and if you are lucky you get an apartmemt with a view of the beach. When you walk outside it is literally a stone throw away from the beach. It's a very nice beach by the way so you can just enjoy a nice holiday on the beach and have dinner in on of the small typicall spanish bars around the area.


Food:

Now if you are staying in an apartment, chances are you are going to make your own food. Next to the apartment complex I mentioned before, is a big supermarket and there are many more scatterd around the city, so that is no problem. If you are staying in the centre of the city I wouldn't really be able to tell you much as I have never been there but I do know there are several Tommy mel's in the city (yes I went there when I found out about that little fact). Apart from that the city provides many restaurants, and I always say the best way to explore a city is to do just that. Go out and explore, with or without a map, just walk around and you will probably find you something very nice and not in any touristguide. But try not to get lost because you know apart from that that would suck big time, Valencia is big, and spanish people don't normally speak english or any other language for that matter.


Musea:
 Valencia is especially famous for it's city of arts and sciences. Which consist of about 5 different building made by the famous architect Calatrava and they each harbor a different museum. I only went to two as visiting all in 3 days was to much. I went to the Oceanografic, a big marine zoo of sorts and to the science museum. I loved both but the oceanografic was by far my favourite, dolphins have always been one of my favourite animals and I love the ocean and all it's life for ever so I really enjoyed it. The science museum has lots of experiments you can try out yourself and you can learn a lot in an interactive way. There are 3 other museums, one about the anuiverse and the stars, one full of art & another one that is about cinema, I think.
Apart from these 5 musea I don't think there are any other big important ones but there might be.

Shopping:
I haven't done much shopping but i know there are several big shopping centres (Malls) in the city, I've been to one and it was great, very big and had everything, including many restaurants. So if apart from beaches and culture you want shopping this town is perfect. apart from the shopping centres there are many small shops where you can buy small trinkets and souvenirs. And then there are the people that walk around the beach selling beachware or any other rubbish, that sometimes is actually good.

So I hope you enjoyed, and I'm sorry it is shorter then the previous one's I just don't have a lot and I only want to talk about the things I have actually visited personally. Not some I read on internet.

Let me know what you thought and if there is anything you want me to write about, let me know in the comments.

have a nice day/night wherever you are!

Simoneexx 

Let's talk: My school experiences!

Hello world!
I'm back with another let's talk! post. I think this will be a new thing on my blog where I tackle several everyday/ rare things and focus on my experience with them, as far as I can. if there are any themes you want me to talk about, just let me know in a comment and I will do my best.
Some of these toppics are going to be more lighthearted and other are going to be harder to talk about, especially for me.
This one isn't that hard though. Today I will be talking about my "high" school experiences.

Educación Secundaria Obligatoria (secondary school or high school):
The town where I did the last two years of primary school in Spain also offered the first two years of secondary school, something quite common in the countryside. So that was where my secondary school adventures began. It was not really a big change from primary school apart from the homework we got. I still had the same people in my class,and let me tell you, I was not happy with all of them but then again I guess everybody has at least one person they don't really like right? Well so did I, but I'm not going to go in detail about her, it's not worth it.
After my two first years it was time for me to leave the school I knew so well and go to a different one. It was a lot bigger and had people form various towns, that all came by bus. It took me 45 minutes to get to school. meaning I had to leave at 7 AM and came back at around 15:30, if we where lucky and the bus wasn't late. I made quite a few new friends at my new school, some with which I stilll keep in touch. of course I still had my friends from my old school, but made new once that I liked better. unfortunatly for me, this school was not perfect in any way. I had friends yes, but only about 3 or 4 I actually hung out with. Most of the people at the school of my age didn't really like me or my friends because we where foreigners. Especially some people in our class, becuase they where jealous. You see, I did my last two years of high school at a bilingual school so all my classes where in Spanish and English. As my friends and I all spoke english very good, we had an advantage, someting they didn't like. However it wasn't really fair as we had a bigger difficulty understanding Spanish, and not anybody could get into the bilingual classes you had to have a certain grade percentage, on all your subjects. So after enduring two years of being calles names and being ignored I decided that for my Bachillerato (A levels in england) I wanted to go somewhere else.
I chose to go to Malaga, the city where I played hockey, so I allready knew some girls my age, that where going to study bachillerato aswell. I decided to try and get in to the school they where in, called San Jose, it was a Catholic private school, but that wasn't the reason why I wanted to go or the fact it was the best school in the province. All I cared about was the fact my hockey friends went there, girls I got along with very good. Especially my friend Sandra (I talked about her in a previous blog post). We both wanted to do similar studies so hoped we would be placed in the same class, which we did. For two years. I recently graduated Bachillerato (2 weeks ago). And can say it where the two best years of secondary education I have had. Nobody cared I was dutch, sure they envied my english but weren't jealous as the kids at my old school where. Knowing Sandra and the other girls from my hockey team helped a lot with making friends, but even with out them I would have made new friends. I must admit I was extremly lucky with my class, there where only 21 students in our class, which allowed us to form a thight bond. The secretary of our school, just so happened to be our religion teacher (Yup we had that subject still). And we convinced him to leave all of us in one class for the following year. With only a few minor changes.

Now what you must understand about Bachillerato is, that all though it seems to be the exact same as english A-levels it is most certainly not. Instead of having only a handfull of chosen subjects, we have 11 the first year and 10 the second. These include 4 chosen subjects and 6/7 mandatory ones, these included Spanish, English, Religion,P.E,philosophy and many more. One of the mandatory subjects was a thing called Integrated Project, which is basically a project that lasts an entire year. The first year it had something to do with english and the second year it was learning tecniches in a laboratory. These projects where different for every class and the depended on the 4 subjects you chose. I chose Biology, Chemistry, Maths (yup I know). and science of the earth and the environment. After finishing these two years we had the possibility of doing Selectividad, which is a bunch of exams necesary to be admitted at university. Just your Bachillerato grades won't do, infact that is only about 60% of the final grade. So after studying our asses of for our finals, we have 2 more weeks of endless studying for our Selectividad, which consist in 6 exams of 6 different subjects. But enough about that no I will talk about my Graduation.

Graduation, It's the thing everybody dreams about from the first day of high school. Finally for me, after 6 years my true graduation arrived. I was nervous and extremly exited.
The venue was a small part of the big grounds my school has. I allready had the dress and hair and make up figured out. The only thing left was the actual act of graduating. Now in Spain we don't have a cap or robes we have to wear, we are allowed to wear whatever we want and generally this is a long dress for the girls and a suit for the boys. To prevent girls wearing the same dresses, we had made a whatsapp group trough which all photos of dresses where sent. We didn't have school on the day of graduation, just so we could prepare properly, or at least that's what my friends and I decided to do. I will include a couple of pictures from the night. Following the ceremony, a small group of my closest friends and I went to a nice restaurant in the harbor where we had a lovely dinner. Afterwards three of my friends came to my house where we watched Netflix all night.

Have a nice day/ night wherever you are.
XxSimonee