Monday, April 23, 2007
U Pylos
Hello everybody!
Here I am back from my trip to Greece... and as I can see there is a PLENTY of people who have written some text, that wanted to share their ideas, it is SO cool to have all these friends around the world but feeling them so close coming in this blog....
.....
.....
Ok, I needed it.
Anyway, here I am back from Greece. As always, Greece it is always a great country to me, and greeks people are very nice. I mainly spend the whole week with the greeks, working on my program, and they have surprised me (I have to admit) for how well organised and well prepared they are. They offered me to go in Greece after the phd, and I will seriously think about that. Unfortunately the weather was not so good, it was probably the only week in which the weather was nicer in the Netherlands then in Greece, but still I manage to have a swim, although I really freeze.
What I will surely remember from this week was:
1) The roasted pig night
2) the octopus, ouzo and friutra mista night!
Something nobody wants to miss....
Please, visit here to check out the pictures!!
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
"That African island that Italians keep calling Sicily"
Good Morning, Italy!As promised, here we are again...
It seems that lately we are visiting more and more continents... before America, now Sicily...!!
Well, fist of all, check out the pictures in the usual website http://picasaweb.google.com/ellyon17
Then, some description....
It's a bit hard, I don't know where to start. What I think it is important to say before starting is that Sicily is surely seen differently from people who come from abroad and people from Italy. For people coming from abroad (I got some impression from Guus & others) it is exaclty the stereotype of Italy. For people from Italy it is exaclty the stereotype we think others have of Italy and we want to fight with.
What I want to say is that everything is very nice and very folkloristic to visit and to live, but if you come from the same country, you are under the same laws and you live in the same society, you are a bit disappointed and you start to think about all the fines and the taxes you have paid, and that there are not existing... But, after you overpass this first feeling of injustice, you can start to enjoy the sun and the life there. All the good & the bad things you can find everywhere in Italy, there are to the hundreds.... the weather is extremely good, the food is extremely good, the cars traffic is extremely caotic and dangerous, the tendence of ignoring the rules has become a sort rule to ignore the rules, the disorganization has reach the highest levels, but the people is very friendly, after they have understood you are friendly too. From this point of view, it is maybe the opposite then in the Netherlands. Here people are always friendly and kind with everyone, without knowing, but then, to increase the level of the relationship is maybe harder. In Italy, and moreover in Sicliy, people are always diffident at the first sight, but then they are very friendly. I think that the reason is because the society makes you untrustful in respect of other people, because there is no a real society, there is only the rule that you have to think about your own good by yourself, and other may eventually risk your good, so be ready to fight! But then, when you realise that they don't want to damage you, then everybody is your friend. It may seem a good option, but I can tell you that living all your life like this is pretty stressful. And this kind of behaving is quite clear when they are driving: they don't know who's driving the other cars, so they are very much aggressive. But then, of course, there are also quite funny sides of this! One evening (but it was late afternoon more then evening) we were walking arount the very center of Siracusa and we have seen four (four!! 4!! FOUR!) smiling and joyful girls on one scooter.... FOUR ON ONE SMALL TINY SCOOTER!!! Of course none of them had the helmet, but come on, who notice the helmet in such cases?!?!?!?!
In the end, I can say it was a great holiday, I enjoyed it very much, I was maybe too much conditioned by the tendency of comparing it with Trieste (that most of them will keep calling Austria...), but without thinking of it, it was really great!! And, by the way... after 5 days we were there most of the people still didn't believe that me and Ermes were Italians!! They were always trying to speak in English, although their English was most of the time just Italian, but spoken slower... and the fact we were understanding what they were talking about didn't help them in believing we are Italians..... Maybe it's because of our Dutch accent!!
Friday, April 06, 2007
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