My mother arrived yesterday, everybody is happy, everything is fine.
I have to make the luggage and bags until Friday evening. Saturday morning we are off to the seaside. We rented an apartment for two weeks, so I won't be around until the middle of July. There I don't have Internet access.
I intend to take my computer with me and try to write some things in the evenings, hoping to post them when I am back home.
Anybody wondering where we will be? Around here.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Berlin, last days
Yesterday morning after writing my post here I went out and went to the Turkish jewellery shop walking but taking a different route this time. I got the bracelet for my son and chose a pair of earrings for my daughter. She doesn't have her ears pierced yet, and I am sure on receiving this gift she will insist on piercing them soon, but I don't intend to do it for some years.
The Turkish shop owner was not there yesterday morning and I had to speak German with the two ladies. It was fun because I managed to make myself understood. I should create more occasions like this to practice my one-and-only non-practiced language. The day before, at the reception, I spoke some Norwegian and I was happy to see that I haven't forgotten that either. I should note down in my to-do list: a trip to Norway, soon, just to practice my language, what else?? :-P
After the jewellery shop I went into one of the Turkish grocery shops. They had practically everything from Turkey. Meat, cheese, salami, butter, yufka, canned vegetables, everything you can think of. I thought I was in heaven :-) But I didn't buy that much, only 4 packages of yufka (to freeze), a big can of feta cheese, a package of kasar cheese, two packages of olives (green and black), a package of thin bulgur (my mother makes delicious kisir with that) and a jar of hot paprika paste to be eaten with fresh bread, mmmmm... :-)
My hands were full with the heavy bags so I took a taxi and went back to my hotel to leave the stuff before going out again. It was fun to get out of the taxi in front of this fancy hotel with two plastic bags full of food ;-) The hotel was surrounded by a lot of policemen and men in black suits yesterday. Since we arrived there has been a EU conference in our hotel. Everyday we met people representing different countries of the EU, some at secretary some at Ministry level and yesterday was even more hectic with all the black BMWs and AUDIs with special plates parked all around the hotel area. Just when I was leaving two guys with professional film cameras in their hands were entering the hotel. I wonder what happened after I left.....
I walked to the Philharmonic Hall where the conference was, then down to Potzdamer Platz to meet Gabriele and Andrea. We had some lively discussion about the Italian husbands and their Mediterranean wives, and the problems that these wives have in Italy and how the husbands should deal with those problems, without any conclusion, as usual ;-) We ate our lunch in the few seconds during which we were listening to each other during the discussion. Afterwards Andrea went back to the conference and I took Gabriele for a tour. We visited the Sony center, admired the huge High Definition LCD and Plasma TVs, the new High Definition photo cameras and camcorders. Then we went to the Legoshop and got some Lego bricks for Iris (or for us?).
I made him walk for over an hour and took him to KaDeWe, the shopping center. Not that I wanted to do more shopping, but I wanted also him to see and enjoy this beautiful place. We first visited the floor where they have all types of delicacies from around Europe.. Chocolates, salamis and prosciuttos, pastries, wine, beer... We had to stop at the Lindt corner, our favorite chocolate. We took bitter chocolate with different flavors, with chili, sour cherry, lime, guava... I can hardly wait to try them all. By the way, the one with sour cherry and chilly (together) is Delicious!
After the travel into food land we went up to the top floor, the Wintergarten, with a ceiling of glass.. Watching the view of Berlin we sipped our huge glasses of weiss bier, and met our friend from Macedonia. Later, leaving her there in the chocolate corner, we went out and continued window shopping until we both became dizzy with all the colors, clothes and people around us. We ran back to our hotel to relax.. We finished the day (and our stay in Berlin) with a light dinner at a Greek restaurant which is right in front of our hotel.
This morning after then breakfast Gabriele went to the conference and I am here writing this post.. I began making our luggage in the morning. Now I will go up and finish packing. We will check out of the hotel at 14 and will be off to the airport. Tonight we will arrive Florence late in the evening and tomorrow we will get our children. God, we missed them!
Friday, June 22, 2007
Berlin, the 1st and 2nd days
On our first day in Berlin (Wednesday) the sun was shining and it was quite hot. Gabriele went to the conference early in the morning and I got a map from the reception and began walking. My aim was to go to the Turkish area and see what they have to offer :-)
For the ones that are familiar with Berlin, our hotel is in Budapester strasse. I began walking towards the south east from our hotel, towards Kreuzberg, the Turkish part. Not after long I began seeing the first ladies with the headscarves and the first Turkish cafe shops (kahvehane) with men sitting inside drinking tea and playing cards! Just like in Turkey! Then the number of the shops that had Turkish names increased and the Turkish jewellery shops appeared, then came the Turkish groceries with all the colorful and fresh vegetables placed outside, and the salesmen shouting as they do in the Turkish markets, only this time in German. I entered in one of the Turkish jewellery shops and chose a bracelet for my little one, I ordered them to engrave his name on the bracelet, paid and left. Today I am supposed to go and get the bracelet.
After the Turkish area I decided to go back to civilization and began walking up towards Potzdamer Platz, the area with the postmodern glass buildings. I didn't stop there either. After a few phone calls I found out that the wife of a Turkish friend is in Alexanderplatz and she is waiting for me. Not listening to the painful cries coming from my poor feet I changed my direction towards east, target: Alexanderplatz. I went all the way up Leipziger strasse, then turned left to Friedrich strasse (one of my favorite streets here in Berlin), but then decided not to lose a lot of time there and changed direction again towards the east. Three hours after leaving the hotel I was in Alexanderplatz, all tired, melted under the extreme sun, my clothes all wet with sweat, my feet bleeding in some places, my brain cooked, my face red.... and with an urgent need to go to the bathroom!
I said 'hello' to our friend's wife (we met for the first time then and there), and said that I had to find a toilet! What a first impression I must have made ;-) We entered C&A and went straight up to the floor where they had the bathrooms. It is so strange in this country that you have to pay for the toilets that are in the shops, in McDonalds etc. Anyway, I was more relaxed ;-) We bought some shorts and T-shirts for our little sons (she has a son that is born around the same time that our daughter is born, and a younger son that is born around the time our son is born, what a coincidence!). After a light lunch right there in Alexanderplatz (under the hotel Park Inn, which we remember always with a smile on our faces from the time we stayed there in the summer of 2003; I will tell you another time why that smile) she left with some other Turkish friends and I decided that it was time for me to go back to our hotel now that I was kilometers away, it would take me quite a while to walk back.. But I really didn't have the force in me to walk back... I decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. The only problem was that I didn't have any cash on me! Then I remembered having seen a little sticker on the window of the taxi that we had taken from the airport to our hotel that said that we could pay with our credit cards. God save the credit cards and the guy who invented them!
I didn't know where I could get a taxi so I began walking towards the museum area, in the direction of our hotel. After a while I got lost! I had the map in my hand but the tiny streets that I was walking through were not marked on that map! I just had to continue my walk with the gut feeling, trying to remember the times that I had walked through those streets 4 years ago. Finally I came out to the main street in Unter Den Linden (the linden trees do not leave me alone in Berlin, neither. It smells of linden everywhere also here.) I checked the map and found out a taxi stop was pretty near. When I entered in the taxi I gave out a huge breath. I was literally exhausted. It was around 14:45 and I had been walking since 9:30, sitting only for 20 minutes during lunch. Walking under the sun, over 30 degrees centigrade...
I arrived at the hotel, refreshed myself with some cold water and went out again, almost immediately, this time to meet my best friend from Norway who is also here for the conference. We met in Kurfürstendamm and went to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee and a good chat.. Afterwards we did some windows shopping and some real shopping ;-) I went back to the hotel around 18:30, took a fast shower, changed and got out again with Gabriele to attend the opening ceremony. It turned out that they didn't have enough spaces in the hall for the ceremony and we couldn't enter. It was no loss, was even better, so we had more time left to be spent with our friends. We went out with our Turkish dentist friends and went to a cafe/restaurant at the Sony center at Potzdamer Plazt. We finished the day there....
Yesterday when I woke up I couldn't walk! No wonder.... The day before I had walked so much that all the muscles in my legs were hurting. But of course this didn't stop me from going out and hitting the streets again ;-) I was out with two Turkish friends the whole morning on Kurfürstendamm, the shopping street. Our main target was KaDeWe, the biggest shopping center of Berlin, so they say... It is quite an elegant shopping center. I mainly did window shopping but had to buy some presents for my daughter otherwise she will be very angry seeing the things I have already bought for the boy.. I bought her a small bag to carry her snack everyday to school. I also bought the matching snack box and a little thermos to put her milk or juice. When we were in the toys department I couldn't stop myself and bought also a construction set for her. When I was little I loved playing with construction sets, making pulleys, constructing strange vehicles etc. I hope she also enjoys this new toy. And I had to get a miniature bus for my son, he loves playing with his miniature cars..
We ate our lunch at a Chinese corner in KaDeWe. When we got out the rain was pouring, so we decided to go back to our hotels. After two days of intense walking (and shopping) I was quite tired. I found myself in bed.. I slept for about 2 hours, then took my shower, Gabriele arrived, we got prepared and went out to attend the President's reception at the concert hall of Berlin. Since it was raining very heavily it was impossible to find a taxi. We waited over 15 minutes in front of the hotel in a queue before we got our taxi.
The concert hall is a very huge building, very stylish. The problem was that the reception was extremely crowded. We had to wait in line over half an hour to get a plate of food and finally when it was our turn to food was finished!!! At least there was a lot to drink, though we still had to stay in line for that, too. I met many old friends from Norway, Norwegian and non. We had great laughs, lot to drink, pain in the feet because of standing son our feet all the time, but it was worth it. When we came back to our hotel it was after 23, and being the lazy people we are, we went straight to bed instead of sitting at the bar or going somewhere else to enjoy our child-free time..
This morning we woke up to cloudy skies, but now that I have been siting here over an hour writing this post it has changed. There is sun shining and I think I should use this opportunity to go out and enjoy Berlin. This is the last full day I have here. Tomorrow evening we will be travelling back home.
For the ones that are familiar with Berlin, our hotel is in Budapester strasse. I began walking towards the south east from our hotel, towards Kreuzberg, the Turkish part. Not after long I began seeing the first ladies with the headscarves and the first Turkish cafe shops (kahvehane) with men sitting inside drinking tea and playing cards! Just like in Turkey! Then the number of the shops that had Turkish names increased and the Turkish jewellery shops appeared, then came the Turkish groceries with all the colorful and fresh vegetables placed outside, and the salesmen shouting as they do in the Turkish markets, only this time in German. I entered in one of the Turkish jewellery shops and chose a bracelet for my little one, I ordered them to engrave his name on the bracelet, paid and left. Today I am supposed to go and get the bracelet.
After the Turkish area I decided to go back to civilization and began walking up towards Potzdamer Platz, the area with the postmodern glass buildings. I didn't stop there either. After a few phone calls I found out that the wife of a Turkish friend is in Alexanderplatz and she is waiting for me. Not listening to the painful cries coming from my poor feet I changed my direction towards east, target: Alexanderplatz. I went all the way up Leipziger strasse, then turned left to Friedrich strasse (one of my favorite streets here in Berlin), but then decided not to lose a lot of time there and changed direction again towards the east. Three hours after leaving the hotel I was in Alexanderplatz, all tired, melted under the extreme sun, my clothes all wet with sweat, my feet bleeding in some places, my brain cooked, my face red.... and with an urgent need to go to the bathroom!
I said 'hello' to our friend's wife (we met for the first time then and there), and said that I had to find a toilet! What a first impression I must have made ;-) We entered C&A and went straight up to the floor where they had the bathrooms. It is so strange in this country that you have to pay for the toilets that are in the shops, in McDonalds etc. Anyway, I was more relaxed ;-) We bought some shorts and T-shirts for our little sons (she has a son that is born around the same time that our daughter is born, and a younger son that is born around the time our son is born, what a coincidence!). After a light lunch right there in Alexanderplatz (under the hotel Park Inn, which we remember always with a smile on our faces from the time we stayed there in the summer of 2003; I will tell you another time why that smile) she left with some other Turkish friends and I decided that it was time for me to go back to our hotel now that I was kilometers away, it would take me quite a while to walk back.. But I really didn't have the force in me to walk back... I decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. The only problem was that I didn't have any cash on me! Then I remembered having seen a little sticker on the window of the taxi that we had taken from the airport to our hotel that said that we could pay with our credit cards. God save the credit cards and the guy who invented them!
I didn't know where I could get a taxi so I began walking towards the museum area, in the direction of our hotel. After a while I got lost! I had the map in my hand but the tiny streets that I was walking through were not marked on that map! I just had to continue my walk with the gut feeling, trying to remember the times that I had walked through those streets 4 years ago. Finally I came out to the main street in Unter Den Linden (the linden trees do not leave me alone in Berlin, neither. It smells of linden everywhere also here.) I checked the map and found out a taxi stop was pretty near. When I entered in the taxi I gave out a huge breath. I was literally exhausted. It was around 14:45 and I had been walking since 9:30, sitting only for 20 minutes during lunch. Walking under the sun, over 30 degrees centigrade...
I arrived at the hotel, refreshed myself with some cold water and went out again, almost immediately, this time to meet my best friend from Norway who is also here for the conference. We met in Kurfürstendamm and went to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee and a good chat.. Afterwards we did some windows shopping and some real shopping ;-) I went back to the hotel around 18:30, took a fast shower, changed and got out again with Gabriele to attend the opening ceremony. It turned out that they didn't have enough spaces in the hall for the ceremony and we couldn't enter. It was no loss, was even better, so we had more time left to be spent with our friends. We went out with our Turkish dentist friends and went to a cafe/restaurant at the Sony center at Potzdamer Plazt. We finished the day there....
Yesterday when I woke up I couldn't walk! No wonder.... The day before I had walked so much that all the muscles in my legs were hurting. But of course this didn't stop me from going out and hitting the streets again ;-) I was out with two Turkish friends the whole morning on Kurfürstendamm, the shopping street. Our main target was KaDeWe, the biggest shopping center of Berlin, so they say... It is quite an elegant shopping center. I mainly did window shopping but had to buy some presents for my daughter otherwise she will be very angry seeing the things I have already bought for the boy.. I bought her a small bag to carry her snack everyday to school. I also bought the matching snack box and a little thermos to put her milk or juice. When we were in the toys department I couldn't stop myself and bought also a construction set for her. When I was little I loved playing with construction sets, making pulleys, constructing strange vehicles etc. I hope she also enjoys this new toy. And I had to get a miniature bus for my son, he loves playing with his miniature cars..
We ate our lunch at a Chinese corner in KaDeWe. When we got out the rain was pouring, so we decided to go back to our hotels. After two days of intense walking (and shopping) I was quite tired. I found myself in bed.. I slept for about 2 hours, then took my shower, Gabriele arrived, we got prepared and went out to attend the President's reception at the concert hall of Berlin. Since it was raining very heavily it was impossible to find a taxi. We waited over 15 minutes in front of the hotel in a queue before we got our taxi.
The concert hall is a very huge building, very stylish. The problem was that the reception was extremely crowded. We had to wait in line over half an hour to get a plate of food and finally when it was our turn to food was finished!!! At least there was a lot to drink, though we still had to stay in line for that, too. I met many old friends from Norway, Norwegian and non. We had great laughs, lot to drink, pain in the feet because of standing son our feet all the time, but it was worth it. When we came back to our hotel it was after 23, and being the lazy people we are, we went straight to bed instead of sitting at the bar or going somewhere else to enjoy our child-free time..
This morning we woke up to cloudy skies, but now that I have been siting here over an hour writing this post it has changed. There is sun shining and I think I should use this opportunity to go out and enjoy Berlin. This is the last full day I have here. Tomorrow evening we will be travelling back home.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Berlin, arrival day
Tuesday afternoon we were quite stressed at the little airport of Florence. Our plane for Munich was 35 minutes delayed and this meant that we would have difficulty in catching the next plane from Munich to Berlin. Luckily when we arrived at Munich there was a minibus waiting for us outside to take us directly to our next plane without going through the terminal. We found all the other passengers seated and waiting impatiently for our arrival to the plane. When we entered everybody was looking at us with that look in their eyes: 'Who are these idiots that arrive so late, making us lose time waiting?'. Well, it was not our fault guys, our plane was delayed!
We arrived at Berlin on time, took a taxi to our hotel, changed and rushed out to go to a party that we were invited to. The party was organized at the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum (Berlin Medical History Museum). It was a very strange building that was destroyed during the war and not quite renovated afterwards. They even said that it didn't have a ceiling until recently. Anyway, they had made it look very nice with candle light, a bar in a corner, some live music, round tables with white table clothes over, waiters going around with round trays in their hands with colorful cocktails first, wine and beer glasses afterwards... They told us that we were free to enter the museum's hall during the dinner and we decided to go and see the museum before eating. That was a clever decision because, frankly, if we did that tour after eating we would risk vomiting out everything we ate right there in the middle of the museum. Why, you would ask... You should just go and see that museum to understand why. They had tissue samples from sick people. There were skeletons of babies (from a few months old to 1,5 years of age) that had problems like microcephaly, or hydrochephalis, or skeletons and skulls of people that had various problems. There were bottles with lungs of cancer patients, patients with tuberculosis.. There were other organs (you name it, they had it!) that had different types of failures/sicknesses. I didn't manage to look at them all. I just had to run out of the museum hall. My goodness.. What kind of a museum was that????
Berlin is full of extremely beautiful museums to visit, you should see them all. But please, don't even bother to go and see the Museum of Medical History, if you don't thrust your stomach!
We arrived at Berlin on time, took a taxi to our hotel, changed and rushed out to go to a party that we were invited to. The party was organized at the Berliner Medizinhistorisches Museum (Berlin Medical History Museum). It was a very strange building that was destroyed during the war and not quite renovated afterwards. They even said that it didn't have a ceiling until recently. Anyway, they had made it look very nice with candle light, a bar in a corner, some live music, round tables with white table clothes over, waiters going around with round trays in their hands with colorful cocktails first, wine and beer glasses afterwards... They told us that we were free to enter the museum's hall during the dinner and we decided to go and see the museum before eating. That was a clever decision because, frankly, if we did that tour after eating we would risk vomiting out everything we ate right there in the middle of the museum. Why, you would ask... You should just go and see that museum to understand why. They had tissue samples from sick people. There were skeletons of babies (from a few months old to 1,5 years of age) that had problems like microcephaly, or hydrochephalis, or skeletons and skulls of people that had various problems. There were bottles with lungs of cancer patients, patients with tuberculosis.. There were other organs (you name it, they had it!) that had different types of failures/sicknesses. I didn't manage to look at them all. I just had to run out of the museum hall. My goodness.. What kind of a museum was that????
Berlin is full of extremely beautiful museums to visit, you should see them all. But please, don't even bother to go and see the Museum of Medical History, if you don't thrust your stomach!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
1987-2007
Just finished looking through around 130 photos of my classmates from high-school. This year it is our 20th anniversary of graduation. Hence, my friends, most of whom are still living in Istanbul, organized a dinner last Saturday. I couldn't be there, of course. Today I saw the photos they had placed at our mailing group's site at Yahoo. It took me back many years. Many memories came before my eyes after each photo. Most of the people have changed, and there are some that have changed so much that I had difficulty in recognizing them. The guys have lost hair and had gotten fatter.. The girls have a few wrinkles here and there and they also seem to be 'bigger'.. There are some, though, that look exactly the same as they did 20 years ago, impressive!
When I look in the mirror I don't think that I have changed that much. I am sure everybody could recognize me easily. I still have the curly/wavy hair that I had. I am still wearing glasses. I am neither too thin nor fat, as I was then (I cannot say 'as always' because during the years in Norway I was Thin, also too much for my taste now) and what is more I am still wearing braces on my teeth ;-)
Looking at those photos made me recognize once more that time is passing.. too fast. And I have no time to do anything that I want to or have to do! Help!
When I look in the mirror I don't think that I have changed that much. I am sure everybody could recognize me easily. I still have the curly/wavy hair that I had. I am still wearing glasses. I am neither too thin nor fat, as I was then (I cannot say 'as always' because during the years in Norway I was Thin, also too much for my taste now) and what is more I am still wearing braces on my teeth ;-)
Looking at those photos made me recognize once more that time is passing.. too fast. And I have no time to do anything that I want to or have to do! Help!
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
A comment about the comments
There are some people out there that have nothing to do but visit blogs and pour out their venom in the comments area. I wonder what is passing in their little sick minds when they are leaving their comments anonymously, writing about things they have no idea of, about people they don't know and will never get the chance to know, pretending to be something and somebody but only proving to be just the opposite of what they claim to be, writing comments without reading the whole post and getting the message/topic of the post, and most probably are not even capable of understanding what actually is written.. I guess that something or things are missing in their lives and this is the way they try to compensate that 'missed' whatever...
Anyway, my blog is not here to be the outlet for your anger/hatred/envy or whatever it is that you are missing. I will still keep the comments area open to everybody without moderation, but whenever one of you sends a comment that I don't like I will simply delete it. Hey, this is my blog, I decide. And I decided that I will not come down to your level to answer you. You are also free to open a blog to write down all your sick comments as posts if you want ;-)
Anyway, my blog is not here to be the outlet for your anger/hatred/envy or whatever it is that you are missing. I will still keep the comments area open to everybody without moderation, but whenever one of you sends a comment that I don't like I will simply delete it. Hey, this is my blog, I decide. And I decided that I will not come down to your level to answer you. You are also free to open a blog to write down all your sick comments as posts if you want ;-)
Busy bee soon to fly away :-)
I just don't have the time to write here nowadays.... There is so much to do. I have been washing all the curtains of the house this weekend and since yesterday I am ironing them. I hate ironing, by the way, but I couldn't let the cleaning lady iron these, because I know that she would wrap them in two-three folds before ironing and I would hate to see the folds on my curtains. Hence, I decided to roll up my sleeves and get it done myself... under this heat.... I carried the ironing table downstairs since it is cooking upstairs under the roof. I placed it in the living-room strategically between two open windows right in front of the TV so that I can at least watch some shows/soaps while taking care of this 'heavy' job ;-)
Next Tuesday me and my husband are off to Berlin and the kids will be staying with their grandparents. This means that this weekend I should wash and iron (again!) the necessary clothes for them and for us. Then I should prepare our and their luggage. We also have a dinner to attend on Saturday, so I should get my hair fixed and decide what to wear, for me and the kids, since we decided to take them along.
On 26th of this month my mother is coming! We are all excited and can hardly wait. But, of course, this also means some preparations. I should get her room and bathroom cleaned and prepared, get out her towels and some clothes that she has left with us, go and buy the food that she loves, get the things that she prefers eating for breakfast etc. Luckily we are going to Germany, a country which is a paradise for me after Italy since there it is possible to find all the Turkish food that I miss and that I would love to get for my mother so she doesn't miss anything for her breakfasts here. I should make a list of things to be bought in Germany: Turkish feta cheese, yufka, some spices, some canned food, maybe some Turkish olives....
In fact I look forward to going to Berlin for another reason. We were there in the summer of 2003, spent three nights and yet we didn't manage to see everything we wanted since Iris was only 2 years old and visits to the museums with her was not that easy. This time we are alone, though Gabriele will be attending a conference I will be free during the days to visit all the museums that I had left out last time. I will also meet some dear friends from the good old days in Norway, and I am really looking forward to that.
I should just hang on, finish everything that is to be done before Tuesday and then relax and enjoy our 4 days alone with my husband... a long deserved get away for both of us...
Next Tuesday me and my husband are off to Berlin and the kids will be staying with their grandparents. This means that this weekend I should wash and iron (again!) the necessary clothes for them and for us. Then I should prepare our and their luggage. We also have a dinner to attend on Saturday, so I should get my hair fixed and decide what to wear, for me and the kids, since we decided to take them along.
On 26th of this month my mother is coming! We are all excited and can hardly wait. But, of course, this also means some preparations. I should get her room and bathroom cleaned and prepared, get out her towels and some clothes that she has left with us, go and buy the food that she loves, get the things that she prefers eating for breakfast etc. Luckily we are going to Germany, a country which is a paradise for me after Italy since there it is possible to find all the Turkish food that I miss and that I would love to get for my mother so she doesn't miss anything for her breakfasts here. I should make a list of things to be bought in Germany: Turkish feta cheese, yufka, some spices, some canned food, maybe some Turkish olives....
In fact I look forward to going to Berlin for another reason. We were there in the summer of 2003, spent three nights and yet we didn't manage to see everything we wanted since Iris was only 2 years old and visits to the museums with her was not that easy. This time we are alone, though Gabriele will be attending a conference I will be free during the days to visit all the museums that I had left out last time. I will also meet some dear friends from the good old days in Norway, and I am really looking forward to that.
I should just hang on, finish everything that is to be done before Tuesday and then relax and enjoy our 4 days alone with my husband... a long deserved get away for both of us...
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Getting drunk...
with the strong smell coming from the linden trees that are everywhere in Florence! The last two-three weeks while traveling in my car I had the windows closed either because it was too hot and I had the A/C on in the car, or it was raining cats and dogs and I didn't even dare to slide them down a little bit.. Two days ago it was a mild day with some sunshine, but not extremely hot to force me to turn on the A/C, so I took down the window on my side of the car and got hit with a wall of strong smell: the linden tree flowers. My God, what a nice smell that is....
This smell takes me back to my school days in Istanbul.. In the evening, after dinner, me and my sister retreated to our room to finish our homework for the day after, and if it was winter, my mother came in after some time with a tray in her hands.. There used to be two glasses of linden flower infusion on that tray. The infusion was prepared with dried linden flowers, the peel of an apple and a lemon, a small piece of cinnamon bark and maybe one or two dried cloves. We put a spoonful of honey to sweeten the infusion and let it fill our stomach and nose with its strong aromas.
Every spring when I begin inhaling this extraordinary smell of the linden flowers I feel like going downtown with a pair of scissors in my hand and collecting these flowers to dry later and store away for the winter. These people do not know how to use these flowers that are practically everywhere! One of our neighbors had a linden tree in his garden and last year he cut it down! It was making too much shadow! What an excuse.... I loved to watch that tree from my kitchen. Oh, well, maybe I plant one in our garden in the future :-)
This smell takes me back to my school days in Istanbul.. In the evening, after dinner, me and my sister retreated to our room to finish our homework for the day after, and if it was winter, my mother came in after some time with a tray in her hands.. There used to be two glasses of linden flower infusion on that tray. The infusion was prepared with dried linden flowers, the peel of an apple and a lemon, a small piece of cinnamon bark and maybe one or two dried cloves. We put a spoonful of honey to sweeten the infusion and let it fill our stomach and nose with its strong aromas.
Every spring when I begin inhaling this extraordinary smell of the linden flowers I feel like going downtown with a pair of scissors in my hand and collecting these flowers to dry later and store away for the winter. These people do not know how to use these flowers that are practically everywhere! One of our neighbors had a linden tree in his garden and last year he cut it down! It was making too much shadow! What an excuse.... I loved to watch that tree from my kitchen. Oh, well, maybe I plant one in our garden in the future :-)
Monday, June 4, 2007
Simple joys of daily life
- My little one is walking! All of a sudden yesterday he decided that it was time to look down on things instead of lifting the head up and going on all 4. And, yes, he can talk on the phone and send faxes, too ;-)
- We spent the whole weekend at home, relaxing, doing the daily routine things.. I love cooking for my family and watching them enjoy the things that I have prepared. Saturday I made that French dish that I had given the recipe here in my blog some time ago, changing a few things. And yesterday I made açma (a type of little bread-like thing; Turkish). They loved it!
- The only 'different' thing we did this weekend was going for a walk in the forest all 5 of us, including the dog Roy that is :-) Me and Iris collected some flowers, as usual, which you can see here. The rose is from our garden.
- My one and only tomato plant in the rear balcony has small tomatoes on it. I can hardly wait to pick them up and add to our salads.
- One of my cacti (not the one that had flowers some weeks ago) is preparing a flower. I have never seen its flower before, so I am waiting impatiently, checking every day whether it has opened or not.
- Yesterday after a looong time I found myself playing Minesweeper. You know, that simple game that comes with Windows. I was addicted to that game when I was doing my PhD (and to Tetris during my MSc. studies). I remember saying to myself: 'Just three games then I will continue studying', and then playing for hours until I won the game, at least once... Last night I was playing until 1 am. I am a geek sometimes :-P
- I found that I had a very nice graphics program on my Mac. My professor needs to make some special graphs for her new book and I want to help her. She will be very happy when I show her this program :-)
- We spent the whole weekend at home, relaxing, doing the daily routine things.. I love cooking for my family and watching them enjoy the things that I have prepared. Saturday I made that French dish that I had given the recipe here in my blog some time ago, changing a few things. And yesterday I made açma (a type of little bread-like thing; Turkish). They loved it!
- The only 'different' thing we did this weekend was going for a walk in the forest all 5 of us, including the dog Roy that is :-) Me and Iris collected some flowers, as usual, which you can see here. The rose is from our garden.
- My one and only tomato plant in the rear balcony has small tomatoes on it. I can hardly wait to pick them up and add to our salads.
- One of my cacti (not the one that had flowers some weeks ago) is preparing a flower. I have never seen its flower before, so I am waiting impatiently, checking every day whether it has opened or not.
- Yesterday after a looong time I found myself playing Minesweeper. You know, that simple game that comes with Windows. I was addicted to that game when I was doing my PhD (and to Tetris during my MSc. studies). I remember saying to myself: 'Just three games then I will continue studying', and then playing for hours until I won the game, at least once... Last night I was playing until 1 am. I am a geek sometimes :-P
- I found that I had a very nice graphics program on my Mac. My professor needs to make some special graphs for her new book and I want to help her. She will be very happy when I show her this program :-)
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