AMSTERDAM ATTRACTIONS

Amsterdam is a lively city, with many museums, canals that go all across the  town, very friendly people and plenty of cafes and restaurants.

Centraal Station

We arrived quickly from the airport, taking the train to the Central Station (Centraal Station) and then the tram for three stops until the city center, where we had accommodation. We have visited tourist attractions such as Rijskmuseum Vincent Van Gogh Museum, Municipal Museum (Stedelijk Museum), Diamond Centre (one of the diamond processing centers), we saw Rembrandt’s house, I lost many hours on Dam Square – here is the Royal Palace, Nieuwe Kerk (new church) and the largest department store in town, The Bijenkorf.

African Dancers

Everything starts from Dam Square, pedestrian street Kalverstraat always lively and where, besides large and elegant stores, I could see the organ-grinder, souvenir shops and even African dancers promoting their country.
In the evenings we went to Red Light District (district of the red lights), where the “sellers of pleasure” were displayed in shop windows, and next to this cafes were the smell of cannabis is strongly felt (soft drugs are legal here, just for people over 18 years) .

Moulin Rouge Red District Atraction

A very interesting street is Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, where there are many antique shops and where I found a great restaurant: “Pasta e Basta. Besides the delicious Italian preparations, the atmosphere is  level 10, the waiters have a great contribution, that sings and invites you to dance! A boat ride on the canals or a bike ride through the city, will be unforgettable experiences … In other words, Amsterdam is a truly charming city … !

PERU TRIP CUCZO – TOURISM DAY

My husband participated to a promotion of a firm that distributes fuel, there were 7 big wins with the 7 new wonders of the world, obviously the winner would receive a journey in one of those places and could bring one more person along, provided with all starting with: transportation, food, tickets to the tourist attractions, car with driver, personal guide , English speaking, culminating with…spending money (50 euro for person per day).

An impressive palette of coulours and one single peruvian flower

Arrived on the Cuzco airport we were welcomed by people in festive outfits and not only this…we were welcomed also by aboriginals who started to sing and dance for us, offered us different souvenirs, CD’s, pencils, cocaine leaves… We politely refuse, telling them that we don’t want to buy anything…thinking that it is the same purchase style like in Egypt: when they insist to buy from them…No way, they were celebrating Tourism Day!

At the shadow of the old cactus

And so we drank our first cocaine tea in the airport, when we understood that all was for free and it will do us good when fighting the altitude sickness. We received this all this information from our personal guide, Juan Carlos, who was expecting us with a driver and a car at the airport.

In the courtyard of the hotel

The guide disembarked us in Cuzco at a 4 star hotel ( Casa Andina Private Collection) where we received an apartment as our residence. Everything was at its best!!!

In marching steps for Tourism Day

In the evening we went out to see the city and being Tourism Day, everything was very organized: the parade of different hotels and restaurants personnel, pageants, the fanfare, folk dancers, all inclusive. The truth is that despite poverty or maybe because of it, Peruvians give great attention especially to foreign tourists (except the custom- house officers…you will see why I say this… I mean write) because they know that this is where their currency comes from…not how it works in other countries (I wonder which country is really about?). It is certain that we watched the show and after that we went to sleep…we were like zombies,  time difference: 8 hours. Next day we went to Sacred Valley… but I will write about this some other time.

VISIT SANTO DOMINGO – CARAIBE

The stop to Santo Domingo was part of a longer journey. The city is extremely coloured.  A great mixture of races but which came out like the perfect mixture for some women of extraordinary beauty! I have not yet seen another place with such beautiful women!

Visit Santo Domingo

The town is mixed – a beautiful side but with the doors and windows with iron bars and another one ( inside a barbed wire fence) of extreme poverty. The city is dominated by Cristofor Columb,just  like the whole area. A huge monument dedicated to him but also old fortresses in which descendants used to live. One over another is a place to be seen! To see Boca Chica beach – it is half hour from the city but interesting…

Christopher Columbus Monument

We stayed at the 4 star hotel Sol Melia- excellent, situated near the beach but far enough from the center. First sensation is exactly the Caribbean one – sun, heat, palm trees, crystal sea… Especially as we were coming from Chile( by the way, how do I open a new country? I have many countries that I cannot find here!)

Santo Domingo Park

Pretty dirty beach and nobody was lying at the sun! That is why you go to resorts- Punta Cana. Anyways there is a safety feeling and everybody is extremely friendly. You can slightly walk through the city by day and nights. Cabs are very cheap. The only thing that hits you is the city of the poor that is surrounded by barbed wire fence! We passed by (the guide said that we should see all of it) and they are just like our gypsies that sleep at the entrance door in the summer. Otherwise, very beautiful girls, crafted tobacco factories, shopping…

TRAVEL IN KUWAIT

This summer I had the pleasure to make two trips to Kuwait – Shuaiba, a small but stylish little town, rebuild almost entirely after the Iraqui invasion from the 90’s. It is located on the shore of the Persian Gulf, with three harbors and a large oil terminal. The smallest one, the touristic harbor, stretches on several hundred meters on the town’s sea wall.

In a mall parking

You can find many 4 or 5 star hotels, which shelter offices at the lower floors, many of them house american corporations too. Actually, wherever you look, you find plenty americans and many american cars. If you had not known where you are, you could have thought that you find yourself in an american town. Many imposing malls with an architecture which combines oriental and occidental elements. I tried to take more photos, but the security personnel warned us that we can be fined. It is forbidden to take photos in malls, administrative buildings, because of a better security.

5 stars hotel Shuaiba

The streets are bounded by tall sidewalks, fifteen foot high palm trees can be seen along the boulevards and the cliffs. You can’t find stalls, shaworma stands, or other boutiques like you see in Europe. There you can see only big stores, many of them with fabrics or rugs. The clothing stores are branded and pretty expensive. There you cannot negotiate. The listed price is the last price. There are two bazaars, one with fruits and vegetables and the second one with fabrics, where you can negotiate, but also the merchandise is of poor quality.
In the city you can drive with about  40 km/h, but outside town the speed can go up to 150 km/h, because of the 3 or 4 lane highways. The gas is very cheap about 5 liters per dollar.

Touristic harbour Shuaiba

There is a stifling temperature, especially in the summer when I went, high humidity, mostly in the morning. The temperature can get to 40 Celsius degrees in the shade and 50 in the sun. Because of that, in the daytime stores are closed, it is known that arabs do not go out during lunch time. After 5 o’clock in the evening stores are open and they close somewhere around 1 o’clock in the morning.
It was wonderful, we went out after dark, in daytime was almost impossible to walk.

ALPINE LAKES AUSTRIA

I spent the New Year near Salzburg, but on the 1^st of January I visited some of the alpine lakes from Austria (it was one of my objectives). The alpine lakes are pretty close one to each other. We have seen four of them, we left in the morning from Koppl, near Salzburg and went to Graz, but not on the highway, but on a national road, towards Bad Ischl.

FuschlSee

We arrived to FuschlSee in 15 minutes and we stopped on the lake coast. I loved the fog that was rising from the surface of the lake. Then we went towards Wolfgangsee, a little bit larger than Fulschsee, at 10 minutes by car…clear water, a landscape with the Alps covered by snow.

Mondsee Lakes

After that we went towards Mondsee, behind the lake and we passed through Atteresee, a big lake, where in summer time you can bathe and cruise. From Atteresee we returned on the lake’s Mondsee shore to the Mondsee station, from MondseeLand. Actually the Mondsee station we have seen and did by step.

Lake Mondsee

A stylish station, very quiet. It has a nice park on the shore of the lake, an imposing dome In the center of the station and a very nice candle store right near the dome. I stood about 30 minutes on a bench, in front of the lake, to admire the Alps. Swans walking and ducks. Relaxing moment!

MondSee Resort

I wish to come in summer too. The alpine lakes really deserve to be seen, for the landscape and for the calm and coquette stations over the shores.

SANTA MARIA DEL SAL – CAPE VERDE

Ok…from 12-15 Celsius degrees in Bucharest at the departure, at the destination was present a beautiful sun, plus 30 degrees ready for tanning. The guide was waiting at the airport, he was to ensure the transfer to the pile of buildings reserved in Ponto Antigo, and to assure a small visit to Santa Maria ( a fisherman’s town chosen as a refuge for the next two weeks). Although there are all inclusive, 4 star resorts, in the area there are many hotel-apartments, the self catering concept being very developed. Now, honestly, if you go there to lay in the sun it is preferable to take the all inclusive offers, if you go to do water sports, to visit, it is recommended a hotel-apartment, in which you aren’t kept by the food schedule.

Santa Maria

The booking for an hotel-apartment has been made in the country and it cost 500 pounds for 2 weeks. Conditions? Well, it wasn’t Atlantis Dubai, but it was clean, with everything that it takes, on the beach, and the first thing that you could see in the morning were the sleepy palm tree leaves, over the roof and the blue ocean.
The flat was for two, the resort complex was very restful, with a pool, bar, private beach, and a little bay arrangement.
This destination is recommended for the November-March season for the kitesurf and windsurf lovers,  because of the wind…in summer time, the place is ideal for surfing.
The area’s “Patients” are divided in two categories: the ones who come to all inclusive and don’t leave the resort and the water sport enthusiasts which are entirely spoiled by the nature.
For kitesurfing enthusiasts there is Kite Beach, for windsurfing Angulo’s spot, and for surfing Shark Bay.

Beach

Santa Maria Del Sal recreational activities

As recreational activities all depends on the personal budget: offshore fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving through aquatic ruins, surf, body board, stand-up pedal, cruise ship, ATV for rental, etc.
To take from home some crosswords magazines, a deck of cards, knitting kit for Sundays, when everything is closed( only some restaurants are staying “alive”, where you can always find a coffee). Except some kite/windsurfing areas, where you can rent a surfing board or a body board, there is not much to do in holy Sunday.
For those who are bored of kite/windsurf and other “mermaidian” stories, here are some details about the location itself:
Sal is a volcanic island whose “capital” is Espargos, the name comes from Portuguese, from the word “salt”, there is an impressive salt work arrangement.

Turtle Bay

The touristic destination in full ascension is Santa Maria, and a tour of the whole island it costs about 30 euro per person. There is a small bay where turtles come in September,  to lay eggs (“Turtle Bay”), there is also Shark Bay- sharks headquarters, there was none there, the salt works and the former salt mines, arranged for tourists, where you can bathe in a lake molded over salt deposits and another one with hot water and mud. To keep in mind: when getting out of the salty water, the shower costs 1 per minut.
Another place to visit for tourists is the so called “The Blue Eye” – an inner lagoon, caught in a rocky formation, with volcanic origins, 50 meters deep, in which the sun reflects in a spectacular way through an opening on the upper part. The access for tourists is made through a tunnel, the lagoon being open for diving. Near the inner lagoon there is a natural pool bordered by the rocks submerged in the ocean. Miles of beach, of barren land, resorts being built and a true bay network along the shore.

Blue Eye

The inhabitants speak a Portuguese dialect, are relaxed and friendly, although  insistent when it comes to trading. In Santa Maria there are plenty of Senegalese that own souvenir stores, and if you enter one of them,  it is impossible to leave without buying anything.
Prices are generally pretty expensive, because most of the products that are in the stores are imported and had been subject to import taxes, which are quite high. In general, the stores are “specialized”, the concept of supermarket in now developing. On the island you find in general about all kinds of product categories, but there is a complete lack of variety ( you find the same product in every store that you enter).
Temperatures were pretty high: about 30 Celsius degrees at daytime and around 22-23 degrees at night.

SUNNY BEACH BULGARIA

Do you want to go to the sea side in Bulgaria?
Are you looking for a delightful resort, reasonable prices and lots of fun?
Don’t you want not to hear “manele” , not to see garbage, to have some luxury and a mixture of tourists like you find yourself at the Tower of Babel?

Go to Sunny Beach!!!

jumping with the parachute on the beach

It is Bulgarians own Mamaia; and it is not me who said that, I’ve read over the internet- references from the tourism agencies.

Need a ride in a carriage?

Imagine a place that wherever you look you find different forms of entertainment, restaurants everywhere, one more stylish as another, lights everywhere…the whole resort is seething of life; and a very important detail: it isn’t crowed either the resort nor the beach! It is exactly how it should to feel fine: nor few people so you feel that you’re extra, nor the crowd that we have back home, we breathe one in other’s neck on the beach/in the water/on the sea wall.

electric cars…one of the means of transportation from the resort

The services are excellent, free shows everywhere in the hotels courts, transportation from little trains, electric cars, carriages, bicycles….to other weird 3 wheeled vehicles, that I don’t know how to name them.

One of the many terraces, all cozy and warm!

The window shops leave you with a wide open mouth, especially the ones with ice cream ( inghetata ), I even saw a terrace where they made spitted sheep and you could serve yourself.

Every piece of land it is valued in one way or another: green space, minigolf, park…you can see the German work!

every peace of field is valued someway…here is a wonderful garden in front of a hotel

I’ve seen the TUI headquarters- a major tourism operator!

The price of the food and beverages is like in our home towns,  not like on the beach, accessible for every pocket.

A golf course!

The resort has 7 km of beach, it is huge!
It is related to Nessebar- which is like their way of Sighisoara, an exotic ride in this medieval town will give more romance and color to your vacation.

The resort is excellent arranged and managed!
Animators everywhere, many ways of fun on the beach from paragliding, sky jet, boat rides…etc.

Their cliff is full of shops and terraces …..

We were fascinated and this year ( in 2010) we’ll come back to Sunny Beach!
I warmly recommend this resort!

Evening walk

Stores articles from the beach ….