Amsterdam

Since my sister had never been there, and we had never been somewhere together, we decided to spend a weekend in Amsterdam. It was a long time for me, too. For some reasons, the recently city trips, I enjoyed much more and had more fun.

We did a couple of museums visits like the Rijkmuseum (although we were quite disappointed not to see the diamond head) and saw the "Nightwatch" of Rembrant and "The Girl with the Pearl earing" of Vermeer, most of the collections there are really dark arts, a bit depressive otherwise. Afterwards, we went around, window shoppings, I have to say that the people in Amsterdam really make effort in dressing up. Here, in Belgium, sometimes, you go out and you see people wearing night gowns on the streets, I mean it is too casual that sometimes you forget to dress up when you go out, and I think it is always better to overdress than underdress. In the evening, my sister and I went to eat Indonesian rijstafel, and set to visit the sex museum. The sex museum? yeah, it is very informative, and of course, most of the men who visited pretending very focused ;-). We were a bit shocked in some parts but had a lot of fun.

The next day, I wanted to see Anne Frank Huis, how could I escape that? especially when I have heard so much about her diary (I am reading it at the moment). Also I want my sister to know these things. I am reading the Anne Frank's diary, and I think every one of us could eventually find some parts of our teenage years in it. The upset and frustation that parents don't understand us, the questions about sex, boys, girls, the opinions about the surrounding...etc. But I don't think we could think as deep as she was. Maybe because she was living in the war, had to hide, and the constant fear of being discovered, taken away to concentrations camps...It made us feel a bit sad, especially me, always being so sensitive about things happen around. How can we understand the dream of being free, running in daylight, playing with your friends if we can do that easily?

I and my baby sister decided to change the mood, so we went to Madame Taussaud, which is silly, but well, it is a fun thing to do. So, sister got a picture with Brad Pitt though she was complaining why there must be Angelina Jolie so close ;-), having pictures with the Dalai Lama, Robbie Williams, the new James Bond ;-). They looked very real those wax figures!

We ended our trip in China town, had a heavy cheap lunch there!

Well, today I decide to organise a party at my place, it has been a long time since all my friends last gather, catch up...I want to do that before starting my full time job, I can sense that I am going to be very busy, and that is very nice for a super nervous person like me!

In LOVE city ;-)

Don't know how to start this new post but at least I have a tremendous motivation to write today ;-). I guess it is because I just came back from the city of light, Paris.

When I was in VN, I loved listening to Vanessa Paradis even though I couldn't understand any of the words she sang but French is such a beautiful language that none can resist, and I completely understand that French people are so proud of their language. Some of the old artists (poets, compositors, singers....) of Vietnam who studied in France also got most of their songs/poems written from the beauty of Paris. Recently, I read a romance that described its beauty, so of all reasons, I decided to visit Paris for four days!

Luckily, the weather was warm and sunny. I have been to Paris four times, but I really fall in love with it in this last visit. The air, the fast pace of the metropolitans, from the elegant quartier to the crowded, cheap, diry ones, Paris is packed with theaters and artists. I arrived in Monmartre on Friday morning, climbed the stairs to the top, sat down with the other toursists and listen to a street singers singing old songs in English, together with his cousin performing with a ball (whom he called the "Zidane of Senegal" ;-)). Afterwards, strolling slowly to the small streets at the bottom, looking at people selling stuffs, exchanging conversations, and went to a cafe, enjoying pancakes ;-). Then, came two bikers, they got off from the bikes, took off the protection hats, looking gorgeous with a big smile, looking at me (who was at the time looking serious at the map to figure out where to go next), then came forward asking "Mademoiselle, vous avez l'air perdue, vous allez ou?". It's so French that I accepted a drink from them later, and enjoyed our conversation in French ;-) (realised my French was pretty good ;-))

After that, I walked down to Moulin Rouge, going around, and then took the metro to go to the 13rd district where I can find my people ;-), and waited to meet up with friends. Yes, I can't escape going to Porte d'Italie where I can eat and talk Vietnamese as if I was in Vietnam, my minimum treat and cure from homesick! There you can be rude, even the French who live in that quartier are rude! It's a rule ;-). You make noise when you eat, talking and chewing, drinking cafe glace au lait a la vietnamien while eating a big bowl of PHO, I could not finish my PHO, btw. You can listen to Vietnamese on the street, reading the banners in Vietnamese...It's super cool!

Of course, the whole time I was there was mostly visiting one place to another, the last day I was even late to catch my bus because I spent time in a cafe ;-), obviously didn't want to go back. Everything is so great and beautiful in Paris, plenty of things to do and see, the public transportation is convenient, the draw back is that it's not so clean. but it is always like that when it come to big, crowded cities, I guess.

Happy Birthday to me! ;-)

Well, now I am officially 30 years ;-)