Amsterdam..!! Legally free!!!...

The day before going to Germany I spent a whole day walking around Amsterdam with my best friend the Hungarian. His family visited him in Belgium for like a week, so they decided to go up to Amsterdam for a day. They picked me up really early in the morning because we all wanted to have enough time to walk around the city and visit museums and interesting stuff that tourists always tend to do.

It took us like 2 to 3 hours to get to Amsterdam; it’s definitively not so far from Brussels. I was so happy to be in another country, especially in a famous city like Amsterdam, that I was just walking around with my friend smiling and making fun of everything. We took a tour in a bote that showed us the city and its surrounds; it was really interesting.

Then, later on instead of going to the museum of Vincent Van Gogh we went to the wax museum. I had already gone to the one in London before, but my friend, the Hungarian, insisted to go to the one there, so we all went to the wax museum for him. We had a great time, we took pictures all around with famous people such as the Queen Elizabeth, The Beatles, Bob Marley, etc. and we even ended up singing karaoke and everything in one part almost at the end of the museum. We have videos and photos of that moment; it was just wonderful.

We walked a lot around the city as well. We saw, of course, Marihuana all around us. In all the shapes and ways to consume it. Lollies of Marihuana, drinks with marihuana, normal cigarettes, brownies, etc. and of course the smell all around us was just MARIHUANA as well. It was really interesting, but at the end of the day I was having a horrible headache as a result of the Marihuana’ smell surround us, apparently I wasn’t the only one having it, because the mom of my friend and his dad were complaining about it as well. But anyway, we saw tulips in every colour ever thinkable; BEAUTIFUL all of those. My mom LOVEEEEES tulips, so I couldn’t stop thinking about her all the way walking around the markets and parks. I ended up buying a bag full of tulip’s seeds just for her, waiting for my return to Venezuela two month after.

We went back to Belgium around 8pm. I was really pleased with the time that I spent with my friend and his family in Amsterdam. Once in Brussels I met up straight away with the Venezuelan guy and the Colombian to go to sleep and get ready to our trip around Germany for 15days. Definitively my exchange student year was the best year EVER!!..

BERLIN, GERMANY!!! best city EVER!!...

I went to Germany in spring 2005 with two really REALLY good friends, one Venezuelan and another one Colombian. We found this big promotion with train tickets that we couldn’t let go, 9.95euros (to go and return) from Brussels to a little town in the frontier between Germany and Belgium.

We left the house really early; around 6am we were already catching the metro to go to central station in Brussels. Around 7am we were already boarding the train, completely exited, it was going to be the first time that we were going to have a ’backpacker’ experience, or kind of. From the little town in Germany, ‘Aachen’, to Berlin we did 18hrs of trip. The thing was that in Germany they have this ticket, that I’m pretty sure is called ‘Niedersachsen-Ticket’ that you can buy with another 5people that cost you 30euros and can take you to where ever you want to go in Germany, the only condition is that you can only use slow and old trains, not the fast and new ones.

We got to Berlin at 10pm, completely tired of changing trains all day long, and looking forward to go to sleep. Almost all my best friends, including my cousin, from Venezuela were doing their exchange student year in Germany, so they putted us in contact with a friend of them that lived in Berlin and that did an exchange student year in Venezuela. We called him and he, Manolis, explained us how to get to his place. He gave us some dinner and then we went to bed.

We spent 4days in Berlin, and I really have to say that I have traveled around many countries and I have seen many cities, but Berlin definitively is one of my favorites.

The contrast between the east and the west part of the city is amazing and at the same time ridiculous. The ‘Branderburger Tor’ was AWESOME, especially when you see all around postcards with old pictures of the city when they had all the Nazi problems and the wall, and you compare to what it is now there.

It is amazing the way Germany overcame all the problems that they had in the past in such a short time. It’s like if nothing ever happened, but at the same time you can find museums, concentration camps, part of the wall, monuments, etc. that remind us that even though everything seems to be perfect and beautiful now, it was hard for them to overcome the Nazi experience, and that they won’t try to forget it, they just seemed to have learned the consequences of it.

LUXEMBURG!! a PEACEFUL City!!

I went to Luxemburg 2years ago with my two best friends while I was living in Belgium.
My friends, one Hungarian and one Colombian, went to my house to sleep over and watch some DVDs, we woke up the they after around 8am. The weather was just BEAUTIFUL, it was spring, not to hot, not to cold. We were talking about going to Luxemburg and travel around during the weekends, but we never sat out a date and a specific time to do it. Not because we weren’t organized enough to do it, but because the weather in Belgium is COMPLETELY unpredictable, and as a result we never knew when was going to be raining or simply sunny.

That morning that we saw such a beautiful blue sky and the weather was so perfect that we only needed a sweater to leave the house, we took all our stuff and ran to the train station to catch a train to Brussels, and than change to another one that was going to take us straight away to Luxemburg the capital city.

When we first got there we wasn’t really sure if we were actually in Luxemburg, we could read the word ‘LUXEMBURG’ all around us, but when we left the train station the city seemed so quite and small that we actually thought that we were in a little town in Belgium that probably was called ‘Luxemburg’ and we didn’t know, you know, Capital cities always tend to be messy and noisy, and this one was just the opposite. But anyway, we were already there, so we took a map and started walking around, heading centre of the city.

We spent a whole day walking around, no museums or anything that tourists will normally do. We were just happy to be there, traveling and having fun between us. It was a completely relaxed and unusual day for us. We saw gardens full of Tulips, path and rivers that led us to beautiful parks, and bridges all around with magical views. We just walked, laughed and enjoy the time together in this peaceful city. We went back to Belgium a few hours later more relaxed, happy and calmed than ever.

WE WOOOON!!! GANAAAAAMOS!!!!...

We had this really important referendum last monday in Venezuela, the Government wanted to change the constitution and became a Socialist-Communist country, but the Venezuelan population said NO to the dictatorship and YES to democracy!!...

I just wish I was there to celebrate this weekend properly, with my friends and family over there, I really need to keep working to have enough money to go back there at least for holidays next year...

One friend told me today, after I told her almost crying how happy I was with the way we defeated the Venezuelan government, "it most feel awful to feel so happy and just see people all around normally walking without knowing anything about the Venezuelan situation", i just nod when she said it... what else could i have said??... it feels empty sometimes..!! But I was just so happy with our victory that I really didn't care about the people that didn't know and that still don't know about the situation back in my country, I was just happy enough to enjoy the victory from far away.

We deserved that victory, that defeated to Chavez and his government!!...

CUBA...!!! a weird experience...!!

Cuba was a weird experience. A country full or contradictions, where so many things are forbidden and yet the country seems beautiful.

I already knew the ugly reality that that country has ‘cause I had had the opportunity to talk to some Cubans overseas and hear stories from them, and because since the moment Chavez started to use Cuba as an example to follow I definitively sat and read as much as I could to understand Chavez’s psycho socialist-communist principles. But anyway, it is different to hear something than to experience it..

I went last year with some European friends. On our first night there, they –my friends- realised why an Italian friend back home wanted us to bring back a Cuban woman for him, the guys and girls are tall and good looking, although some are a little skinny, this is probably due to the ration tickets system still in place and the very very very low salary they are on.

We were shocked to find out that tourists are treated differently, the country relies on tourism as a major income and yet forbid us to talk with Cubains, that is except for those who have a job related to tourism. Internet access is illegal so there are very few cyber cafes and they cost way too much; phone calls abroad cost 8€/min so contact with the outside world is nearly impossible. Contacting my brother while I was there for his birthday was an expensive challenge!.. Everything is controlled by the state and the huge amount of propaganda all over the country makes it difficult for them to see how "unfree" they are. Most of the people we talked to told us they had a socialist system and not a communist one and that they were very free. However they are not allowed to sell or buy a house so are stuck in the same town for their entire life and have such a small salary (on average 15€ per month) that they are unable to travel outside of the country. The people were nice but seemed to lie a lot or at least tell stories, maybe to make their life sound more interesting. I know what is like anyway, it is easier to see the problems from an outside point of view, but when you are there in the middle of the struggle it is easy to become blind and pretend that nothing is going on, it is something that people tend to do unconsciously.

Cuba was an expensive country to visit as life for tourists costs the same as in Europe, but worthwhile as a mind opening experience.

PERU...!!!... another world!!

Like 3 years ago I went to Cusco, a town situated at an altitude of 3200m. We experienced Cusco's night life where we were nearly attacked by people trying to convince us to go to their bar for free drinks. The guys had fun going round the bars drinking for free.
At the market, people were offering us San Pedro, a cactus extract. It turns out the it's a sort of medecin that purifies the body but also has hallucinating and/or vision effects. After lowering the price, we arranged an appointment with the Chaman for a San Pedro ritual the next morning. He was late as we had expected but made up for it during the day. The taste was pretty awful but we got used to it after having made our "healing request" to Pachamama. The walk in the mountain was really interesting and beautiful. We spent a really nice day all together with weird hallucinations and visions. The only problem is that I wasn't tired and couldn't sleep until 6h30 to then wake up at 8h, but the day was well worth it.
The next day was slow and in the evening we started our long trip to the Machupichu archeological site. Rather than taking the really expensive train to the Machupichu village, we took several buses and walked for 10km, a real adventure! Visiting the site started with a 1h30 walk up steps and with the altitude, it wasn't easy at all. At the top, after a few problems, we managed to get in on the student price even though we didn't have our student cards (I strongly advise K to get a student card to get into all the sites half price!) and luckily as the price is amazingly high! It was an amazing view, a really interesting and enormous site. I understood why the site had such a reputation, we walked through it all day and took loads of pictures. The walk down was easier that walking up but we could still feel the lack of oxygen.
Getting back to Cusco was just as long with the 10km walk, the buses and then the long hours in the back of a lorry completely loaded with merchandise and people. Some of the guys were really complaining but I thought it was really funny…
It took us 2 days rest to get over it and regain energy while visiting the town and it's suroundings, including several really yummy meals in an amazing vegetarian restaurant and drinks in the Km 0 bar with live music and an atmosphere like the ones I love.
It was a really nice and interesting experience….

VENEZUELA....!! just a reality..!!

My oldest sister in Belgium went to Venezuela quite a few months ago... I was already here in Sydney, so I didn't have the opportunity to meet her. However my family did, she went to Caracas (which is the city where I come from) with two friends. They were staying @ my house over there, pretty cool!!...

One of those days while she was there I called her to talk to her and see how her trip was going. After a few minutes talking about beaches, parties and food she decided to give me her opinion about Venezuela, about my country... I remember it so clear, 'cause it was sooooo realistic and hard to hear, even though I know she was right with everything she was saying...

I didn’t want to take this blog into politics, ‘cause I know that it is a really complicated thing to talk about in public.. but I just feel that I HAVE TO!!...

We’ve been having classes this semester about Marxism and socialism.. and I have heard many different opinions about it..
I’m just gonna say the reason I’ve been getting so angry & I have been complaining so much about the things that we’ve been tought. I’m doing this NOT because I have to excuse myself for my behaviour, but because I want maybe some of the ppl in my class to understand part of the reality that now we are having back in my country with Chavez’s government, which principles are socialists- communist→ TOTALITARIUM.

Chavez is definitively crazy.

- So that the children don’t get up before sunrise to go to school, he wants to change the entire country’s time by 1/2h. Changing the time school starts at is apparently not an option. His decision is causing problems for airline companies etc, but he’s playing the deaf card and won’t listen (he probably wants to show everyone he’s got the power!).

- To have a stronger currency, he’s decided to change all the bills and to “delete” 3 zeros from everything, an empanada will therefore cost BF.2.00 instead of Bs.2000.

- It is impossible to get dollars from the banks. This has created a black market as the people who want to travel outside the country need them because the Bolivares (Venezuelan currency) aren’t really exchangeable abroad.

- He’s offered Great Britain money so that all old people can travel for free in London. It’s all very nice but all the people dying of hunger in his country and the places where violence is getting worse everyday, what’s he doing about that??

- He rewrote the constitution, therefore granting himself more power and assuring his position in power possibly until 2020.

- Of course he’s a big friend of Fidel Castro and very anti-USA.

Anyway, she understood why many Venezuelans don’t want to live in this country even if they adore it. This being said, other that the political stupidities, the country has a lot to offer, way more than just petrol.

s'th to say...!!

Something philosophical that just came to my mind & I wanna say..
I have always believed that our behavior and reactions in front of different situations are always linked to the environment where we were raise and where we live.
Paradigms and stereotypes can be linked to different cultures...but that doesn't mean that they are part of it..!!

FACEBOOK, the way to keep in touch with ALMOST everybody

It is amazing how technology can shortener distances.
10years ago we were just accepting Internet and its chats room as a possibility to communicate with friends and family, nowadays it is simply UNACCEPTEBLE not to have it at all.
My mum used to cry when my sister was away on her exchange student year (1999) because it wasn’t enough just to hear her on the phone, she wanted more, and now my mum cries when she sees our posted videos in Facebook. She keeps repeating “Facebook is amazing… this new technology is unbelievable”, while we laugh and record more videos for her!!..
I opened facebook under social pressure from a friend from Norway. We met in Belgium; we were both doing an exchange student year over there, we have kept in touch since. She told me that Facebook was “the future” , I have to admitted that I didn’t believe her, I didn’t use to be the type of girl that prefers to spend more time in front of a computer than hanging around, but anyway, if that was gonna make her happy I was not gonna think it twice.. I ended up opening Facebook, and not only that, finding friends “CLOSE FRIENDS” from all around the world on it.. GREAT!!.. so, since the day I opened Facebook I can't spend more than 1day without checking it.
I guess the reason is because I’m so far away from home, I mean, from my hometown, Facebook makes me feel closer to my friends and family over there, sharing pictures, videos and “drinks”, to at least celebrate that even though we are thousand miles away we talk and chat almost as frequently as we used to, and even to feel a little bit closer home.

BELGIUM

Belgium...
4 years ago I did a tour with my family around 6 different European countries; it was just wonderful to travel all around those multicultural countries full of history; I didn’t have the opportunity to go to Belgium on that trip, so I was DYING to go to that bilingual and tiny country.

I got there on August 2004 to do an exchange student year; I went there with another 6 Venezuelans, none of them had been on Europe before, so I gotta admit that I had a great time looking at their facial expressions when we got to the airport of Paris, and then when we caught the train to Brussels. We don’t have trains to travel around countries in Latin America; we only use buses, cars and airplanes to move from one country to another, so, for us it was already something unusual to be travelling on a train, and even more excited to be doing it without our parents (we were only 17yers old), it was a really nice feeling, one of my best memories from that year.

I lived with the best host family EVER, on a little town called Mont-Saint-Guibert situated not so far away from Brussels (30km to the south). I went to high school on another little town called Gembloux, situated farther from the capital city. I used to spend the whole week travelling between those little towns, and during weekends we (when I say ‘we’ I mean the exchange students) used to go partying somewhere around Belgium; due to the fact that Belgium is a tiny country, it is really REALLY easy to travel from one side to another; we were around 300-350 exchange students, and some how we all knew between each others (you know how that works→ I know you, you know him, he knows them, and so on), ‘cause of that it was really easy to find parties all around Belgium every weekend, we just needed to pick up one to go, and that was it. Those parties have been the most wildness parties I have ever been to; if someone decided to turn on the lights of the pub, house, garden, etc. where the party was, there was a HUGE possibility to find at least to random couples having sex around us, or women and men vomiting, however, in general I really have to say that I didn’t see much types of drugs around me, just the typical one ‘marihuana’, and only some groups used to smoke it all the time, in general the parties were just made to do whatever you feel like it without drugs; I reckon we spent more weekends drunk then sober that year.

Belgium, this little country can be left aside by half of the tourists 'cause of its small size, however is one the best countries I have ever been!!... even though the weather sucks & u can spend more time running under the raining than with sunny days, the mixture of cultures, the people, the FOOD, the BEER & the chocolates CANNOT be found anywhere else around the world, not even in Latin America, where we are use to party like animals. Belgium is simply a country full of good vibs!!