Paramaribo - a walk around the city centre

I decided to publish some of the posts from my private blog here, just general stuff, nothing personal. If you want to read some more - go to the other blog. :)

It's soooo hot! I am not sure how long I will be able to put up with it... It reminds me - once I got a few week scholarship - a language course in Serbia, it was sooo hot there that I couldn't stand it and I went back home after two weeks. I couldn't do anything there - it was too hot and humid to go and see the city of Belgrade, to go to museums, pubs etc. Even to the beach. Too hot. So, we'll see how long I will stay in Suriname :P

Nevertheless, it was terribly hot the other day - what a surprise!! - but even though we went - walked!! - to the city centre.

We walked for more less half an hour, stopping every few meters so I could take a picture ;)

The Palmen Tuin - the Palm Garden, apparently a place we should avoid if we don't want to be robbed or even killed, pity, seems like a very nice place.

It wasn't a typical city centre you can imagine. People everywhere, not many side walks, rubbish on the streets and not the best smell, to use a euphemism. But it wasn't so bad, comparing to stories about India. We walked to the river bank,

...walked through a market (you really have to know what you want to buy - I couldn't recognize most of the food there!!)

...and a shopping centre,

I loved the colours

Look at the door posters :)))

It was very difficult to cross the street, we just followed the crowd, in the middle of the street, among the cars...

People are nice to you, and so are shops :D

I didn't get to the mosque yet, just took a pic from a distance, but I liked the truck with the two looking-like-towers bottles.

I've seen a few of those, it must be in fashion now :)

Some kids coming back from school

Found in a shop ;)

...we exchanged money, risked to eat out

The place where we ate, pretty decent food, no stomach ache ;)

Rice with vegetables and super hyper hot peppers, which I didn't even smell!

...and went back home by taxi.

I must say that I quite liked what I saw - the buildings, the river, the shops, even if it wasn't the most pleasant view sometimes.

There were quite a few buildings like this...

And the most important - the people. They are so nice. Smile a lot, wave to Aga, want to hold her - she didn't share their excitement - she waved and smiled, but didn't let them pick her up. Such a smart girl! The only person who gained her trust is a very nice lady who cleans at our hotel. She's 45, has 4 kids - the oldest is 25. She was VERY surprised that we only have one child. But she is very nice, she does our dishes :D And she gave Aga a baloon. :)

Well, the last days passed very quickly and quite unproductively - it rained for the last two - three days, and rain + heat = disaster! Btw, I haven't seen such a heavy rain for a while!

It rained like this for a few hours, apparently the rainy season hasn't finished yet.

A sample of the rain

Oh no, there was one productive thing - we went to check out the swimming pool I learnt about from the Internet. I didn't even expect something so nice. The pool itself is not big, but with my swimming 'skills' it's really good enough, but there is also a tennis court and other sport places, which I saw from a distance, so I am not sure what they exactly were. But we got a nice tour around the premises with the janitor ;) The tickets are 15 SRD (~3,50 Euro) so we may visit it more often :)

A path through Rainville, Paramaribo, Suriname

It was just a walk around the block...

There are a lot of small streets around here, where the actual street in between the house rows is not even paved, it's just dirt path. The houses may differ one from another a lot. There are nice, big, nicely painted houses, with colourful, flowery bushes around, as well as old, wooden, surrounded by dry sticks, that used to be nice plants or trees. People have so many things in their gardens, from old cars, half-eaten by rust to huge satellite dishes, that look to me as some kind of UFOs. There is so much contrast here - beautiful things right next to ugly ones, road signs hidden in bushes, a beautiful mosque next to an terrible storage building... It's really hard to take a decent picture...

Beautiful garden plants

Also nice wall art, maybe not very artistic, but colourful and optimistic :)

Palm trees are everywhere, really tall, distinctive and distinguished, look like tailor made

Some old playground, pity, because there aren't many parks or places where you can sit and relax

A weird pipe ending in the air. And the dog was looking at me all the time,

apart from the split second when I pressed the shutter ;)

That's one of the satellite dishes. On the left you can see a trash stand,

they put their rubbish up high so the animal didn't tear the bags apart

A pretty nice - from my arty point of view - house, very old and neglected,

but somehow cute, especially the curtain

Just a picture that I think is funny

And another one, interestingly very similar

A cat, one of few that I saw here. People have many dogs though, very noisy, barking all the time...

A street, one of the 'main' streets here. Quite peaceful and quiet. It's getting dark, 7 pm.

And one of the American 'traditions' came to Suriname too... The shops are well prepared ;)

A really nice mosque, I didn't know there was one in the neighbourhood, I have to go there again,

when we remember to switch off the rice cooker before we leave for a walk ;)

One of the few traffic lights around here

That would be it for today, I hope I have demonstrated at least a little bit of the district spirit to you.

oh oh oh...

There's been over a year since I posted something in my blog. Well, the time was a bit rough sometimes and I didn't really feel like sharing anything with anyone. But I promise that I will keep posting stuff here from now on. Don't know how often though as I am a bit busy now ;) I have also created a new blog - about a little person who appeared in my and Bob's life ;) but this one won't be open for everyone, you'll have to email me so I put you on the 'yes' list ;) But it's not ready yet anyway.

So, see you later!

Leiden's cultural path

I decided to write a separate post about two events we took (passive) part in. It was a cultural festival organized by the international student network and a theater play with our friend Pim in the main part.

The festival was a bit short for us because we arrived late from Nijmegen, but still we managed to see quite a few things. There were people from all over the world representing their country on the stage - there were singing, playing, dancing, presenting traditional clothes. They were also some stalls with all sorts of foods and drinks but we didn't luck upon it... (Thanks to you Fannie!!)

Our favourite stall - Hungarian, abandoned but still with a bottle of Tokay on the table ;)

Indian fashion show

Belly dance, oh I miss it!

Russian kids - they danced and sung, really nice.

The last performers were Dutch as you may guess ;) The clog dance, finally I saw it after two years of living in the Netherlands...

A few days later, we went to the Pim's play. It was Shakespeare in a very inventive arrangement. And the actors played so professionally, even if they were 'only' students. The play was 3 hours long, but we didn't feel it because of it's lively plot and witty dialogues, moreover, we left with the unsatisfied hunger... I wish there was a second part.

You can see the crazy, colourful clothes, weird and very simple scenography, completely not Shakespearey one might say, but it really didn't matter, it was actually the thing that made the whole play more interesting. There were so many tiny details, difficult to notice (not for me of course) but adding so much to the story... Amazing experience!

Soap bubbles in the last scene, it wasn't tacky at all!

And this is Pim, our up-and-coming star :)

Leiden's path

You value a thing/person/place when you lose them. That's an old truth. I would never think I will miss Leiden so much. Leiden not only as a city I know well but also as people, my friends...

We (me and Bob) went to Leiden a few times recently, for a toga party - which was really nice, for a summer linguistic school and for the graduation of a few people I studied with.

Moments like those make me realize how everything changes... Irretrievably. Well, I don't want to sound melancholic here. I was very happy to see those places and those people!

One of the lovely canals and bridges of Leiden

The view from the V&D cafe

The toga party - we were invited be the people we used to live with - it was very sweet of them. The party was really nice, almost everybody wore a Roman toga, there was wine, grapes and not quite Roman tzatziki with crisps ;)

We didn't bring our own togas all the way from Nijmegen, but thanks to Saskia we got some of hers. Seems like she has a whole collection ;) Bob above.

Saskia, Rebecca and a guy.

More people joined after midnight...

Gadaris, a Roman god ;)

We went to good old Katwijk - a little town at the seaside, on the way to which I talked to Bob for the first time in May 2008 :) We went there quite a few times, mostly to skate, well, Bob skated, I was taking pictures ;)

Then we went to the beach. The weather was really nice, you could tell by the number of people lying in the sun...

...including us ;)

...and some of us had secret admirers ;) (I hope they don't discover the photo of the girl here) This beautiful girl was looking and smiling at Bob all the time and said 'Doei' when was leaving ;) She was so cute!

I liked looking at the boy, he was so determined building the dam... A real Dutchman ;)

clouds... and Hitchcock-like birds...

Graduation day for Anna, Beata, Boris and Marjoleine. It was also a nice experience, although I managed to see only two presentations, but I attended four 'parties' ;) I hope I'll be graduating soon myself...

Congratulations Anna! You managed against all odds!

The very-interested-looking-guy on the right is Anna's supervisor :)

There is a tradition to put your signature on the wall at the university when you graduate.

And this is the first page of Anna's thesis and I AM mentioned there too!! That was a very nice surprise! Thanks Anna (you!)!

Congratulations Marjoleine! A thesis cum laude!

And the party, well, one of them. Congrats Boris!

Yeah, right...

Anna and Despoina - our love-birds ;) It was sooooo nice to see you guys! Next time we'll see each other in Chania :)

Michael Jackson's path

I still cannot believe he died... I remember celebrating his 34rd birthday - I was playing his music all day long, in a room where the biggest wall was all covered with posters of him... There were a few of us, teenagers, adoring the guy and his masterpieces... Almost every single song was great which made it easier to listen - we didn't have to forward the tapes to skip a crappy song (there were no CDs then).

I kept liking him and his music later too... It was usually kind of 'uncool' to admit that someone liked him, but I always did, and I never let people talk silly things about him (skin whitening etc.). I stayed pretty unemotional hearing the news about his supposed pedophilia, I thought that noone ever caught him, they even dropped charges against him (and I bet it would be a nice piece of news for tabloids if he actually was a pedophile), his weird behaviour regarding his children (masks on their faces, showing off the baby out of the balcony)...

I've read a few interviews with people who met him personally, including our former president AK, and he seemed to be a very, nice, shy, a bit lost man... Trying to get over all the bad things he experienced during his short childhood. He was probably trying to get it back during his life, but he didn't quite realize it was not possible, even if you surround yourself with children, even if you buy carousels... He lived this dream till the end.

I felt sorry for him. But he did so much good, for children, for black people, for the world really... There are as many people loving him as hating... But one thing is clear for everyone - he was a great artist. I feel really strange knowing that he's not with us here... I really wanted to see him live. I always envied Żaba, a friend, who saw him in Warsaw... The only live thing about him I saw was a rocky band playing his covers, really good event, in Leipzig, Germany in 2008 - thanks Rebecca! :)

This is the song that always makes me veeery emotional... It's got such a simple but powerful message... Like himself.

"Man In The Mirror"

I'm Gonna Make A Change,

For Once In My Life

It's Gonna Feel Real Good,

Gonna Make A Difference

Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The Collar On My

Favourite Winter Coat

This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind

I See The Kids In The Street,

With Not Enough To Eat

Who Am I, To Be Blind?

Pretending Not To See

Their Needs

A Summer's Disregard,

A Broken Bottle Top

And A One Man's Soul

They Follow Each Other On

The Wind Ya' Know

'Cause They Got Nowhere

To Go

That's Why I Want You To

Know

I'm Starting With The Man In

The Mirror

I'm Asking Him To Change

His Ways

And No Message Could Have

Been Any Clearer

If You Wanna Make The World

A Better Place

Take A Look At Yourself, And

Then Make A Change...