Lauwers lake, lauwers meer .lauwer oog, esonstad

Yesterday in the morning we woke up and made plan to see Wijbren’s grand parents who are staying in the nursery house. Obviously they couldn’t speak English and it was kind of weird stay there ,but I liked it and shortly we pass by another part of the village and visited his aunt as well.

As far as I can say they all liked me and enjoyed being there too.






Then we drove towards the Esonstad which is a very old city in medieval time and that time by flood washed away and they rebuilt it.

The city was too small and basically no one lives there and if you want to stay there you need to pay a couple of hundreds Euro to stay .The structure is quite nice and lovely ,all houses one or maximum two

storey and chimneys on the top and some duplexes.
In most narrow brick made streets you could see flea market every where ,selling stuffs and buying some second hands things as well.

After that we went towards Lauwer lake, which is one of the North see lake that one side is with seet water and another side is salty water This province is famous for wind and the lake on the North further was so windy and in fact a lot of sign the border between Groningen and Friesland along the Waddenzee shore lies the Lauwersmeer. The nature reserve accommodates unique plant species and has been a National Park since 2003.




Round the water of the lake the Lauwersmeer with its bicycle and aquatic sports facilities has everything to offer to people looking for recreation.People were there for Wind surfing and sailing, which gave the nice view to the lake.






We had nice fish and chips there for a couple of Euro and then we moved towards Lauder meer, which was nice lake that you could get ferries go to the Islands on the North. which are few Islands good for swimming and beaches are nice in fact.

We are planning to go there in one day tour as the Hotels there are really expensive for nights to stay.
Today is Sunday and Family together and parents went to the church and we stayed home and relaxed a bit and I have got a terrible cold with this Dutch weather, as I didn’t bring warm clothes…

I am hoping get better for tomorrow as we go to another city by train for Wijbren’s documents and shopping.

Trip to Holland and Hagge

Trip to Holland
Our trip started on July 22end ,after staying one night in Beijing and rest a bit we woke up 6.30 A.M and took the Metro to the airport and got ready for flight at11.45 which had half an hour delayed.
The flight was great and majority of airhostess were Dutch, not Chinese which made our life a bit easier. Wijbren’s parents were waiting for us at the Amsterdam airport and we went to his province on the north and it took around 2 hours to get there.


The Netherlands has a rich vein of artists running through its history including the Dutch masters of the 17th century such as Rembrandt and Vermeer and of course the famous painters of the 19th century such as Vincent Van Gogh. These painters to this day are considered to be of enourmous importance to the history and development of Art as we know it today.

We finally finished our trip in China after around 3 weeks and Tuesday 21st of July flew to Beijing for the third time as it s as been already in this summer .

Me and Wijbren both were so tired and after 2 hours trip inside the Beijing got our dorm, but we were so lucky and got a nice dorm and watched some movies and nerd around. Today 22end of July we had such a night mare. Beijing weather is incredibly terrible .

Well to me it is the reason to be chosen as the capital in fact. Anyhow sometimes no offence to Chinese nation life is so hard in China and live with these people as they don’t follow some simple social behavior.
Anyway passing Metro in Beijng is solving some problems and causing it’s own problems as well.

Our flight had delay to Amsterdam and before getting on board, another clever idea came on Wijbren’s mind and that was abut exchanging his currency. As cod guess what happened. The exchanging machine kept the money and we had to wait 20 minutes till airport staff come and sort out the problem.

Then I faced with another ridiculous problem and my Chinese Visa was damaged somehow and I don’t know ,maybe poor quality of Chinese print and now I am praying the way back to China I don’t face with another stupid case. Well I am carrying the original letter which proves I have a job in China for this year and copy of my visa. Hope our trip will be safe so far. As We had so much stress these couple of days.

Our summer trip to Beijing and Mongolia,Third part

There is a street in Beijing which is called walking street” Wang fu ji men”. In fact we one of our evenings, as were looking for night market and it is not so far from Tiananmen square. We were planning to buy some cheap and local souvenir for Wijbren’s parents there so we were walking and in less than 15 minutes we stumbled in the middle of crowd in Walking street which is basically one of those big street ,a mixture of old and modern Chinese cultural things, full of small and big malls ,brands ,souvenir shops all at the same place. Before than reach there we discovered plenty of flea food market which are located in Dong Hua Men ,were covered part of a street back to the Walking street with strong food’s aroma ,tempting people change the way and have a look there, at least.

You could find plenty of different type of food there ,include sea food ,weird dishes grass hopper, lizard, snakes, noodles, dumplings and so on.
Which was amazing to try them and prices were reasonable.

IN THE WALKING AS WE EXPECTED WE MET COUPLE OF BEGGERS HOOKED ON US AND AS SOON AS WE PUT OUR FEET INSIDE OF ANY SHOPS NO MATTER WHAT WE WANTED ,THEY HANGED ON US TO SELL SOMETHING,ANYTHING,ANY PRICE THAT YOU WOULD PAY.

There are 2 places which are very attracted by tourists and pretty well-known ,decent places to get drunk or feel Beijing atmosphere.

When mentioned the night life of Beijing people, Houhai Bar Street and Sanlitun Bar Street should be the top two attractions to the trendy people. “Hou” means “back” while “hai” means “sea” in Chinese. Sitting to the north of the Forbidden City, Houhai gets its name from the location. Actually it is a man-made lake. Known as Back Lake, houhai and adjoining lakes Xihai and Qianhai— collectively known as the Shi Cha Sea were dug in 14th century (Yuan Dynasty) to berth barges from the Grand Canal, bringing goods from around China.But San Li Tun compare to Hou hai Bar Street is more crowded and crazier and full of tourist, cause offering a bit more modern style of bars and music.
Half day of our trip to Beijing we spent to find the Beijing West train station and in that hub luckily I could find somebody to help us sort out our train ticket to Mongolia, as it is summer peak time, getting train ticket to anywhere ,especially Tibet and Mongolia is pretty hard. We were lucky could get our first class ticket for the next day and it took us 12 hours to get from Beijing to Hohhot( capital of inner Mongolia).
In our last day of a week as staying in Bejing we wated to see Olympic Park an Forest Park in Bejing.as we were hanging on the metor most of the time.Cuase being cheap ,handy and fast,we found out in ess than half an hour can hit the forest park.
The park was designed to accommodate tennis, archery and hockey events during the 2008 Olympic Games and a great public park, in which only electric vehicles are allowed, after the Games. An expressway which crosses the park has been designed as a ‘green bridge’ ecological corridor over Beijing's Fifth Ring Road. It links the southern and northern parts of the forest park and is intended to be a landmark. The Olympic Forest Park has subway stations, an open air theatre, a lake, and a sophisticated system for bubbling air into the water for purification.

Our summer trip to Beijing and Mongolia,seond part

Tuesday was nice tough we planed to go to Great Wall and for me was the first time after Being in Beijing for couple of times and every time being kind of busy with business things to sort out.

We got the tour from our hostel to the Great Wall. There are different parts of Great Wall which are available for tourist to visit and hag around and we chose the one without shopping and more hiking. It was around 30 towers we had to pass and some parts were pretty steep in fact.

The Great Wall of China, one of the greatest wonders of the world, was enlisted in the World Heritage by UNESCO in 1987. Just like a gigantic dragon, the Great Wall winds up and down across deserts, grasslands, mountains and plateaus, stretching approximately 8,851.8 kilometers (5,500 miles) from east to west of China. With a history of more than 2000 years, some of the sections of the great wall are now in ruins or even entirely disappeared. However, it is still one of the most appealing attractions all around the world owing to its architectural grandeur and historical significance.

The most beautiful of several legends is about the collapse of a section of the Great Wall caused by Meng Jiangnu, who cried bitterly over the death of her husband in the construction of the Great Wall. This legend has been spread widely through textbooks, folk songs and traditional operas. It is well-known in China.
That day was one of the hottest day as I could feel ,sharp sun and blue sky which hardly can find in Beijing .
We started our trip in the pretty early morning around 6.30 and it took 3 hours to reach there. It was such a trip to another city in fact.

Anyhow we were 2 tourist buses from our hostel around 26 people. The our guide recommend s to get the cable car for the starting and pass 3 towers to reach the fourth one, but as me and Wijbren were so determine and self-confident we started climbing and meanwhile some of those street sellers hooked on us for instance to sell a small bottle of water for 5 RMB and so on. .It was not too bad cause we could practice ort Chinese a bit though.

It took us 4 hours climbing and it was tough some part even for me, as I am good mountain climber .we had our sandwiches and we ended up our trip around 2 in the afternoon and we both were the first couple who arrived down which was amazing ,cause every one else.The interesting part is we had to wait for 20 minutes for just another couple to show up and just say:”sorry”. Well basically they knew what time we were supposed to leave but beautiful scenery stopped them from moving.

By the time we reached to our hostel was almost 6int he afternoon but it was such a great time though.

We went on Wednesday to the Jin Shen Park this park is located on the North part of Forbidden city and it is 50 meter higher than other parts of the city.

Jingshan Park, the highest point in Beijing City was built in 1179 during the Jin Dynasty and has a history of more than 800 years. This Park is located directly to the north of the Forbidden City's Shenwu Gate. Visitors will discover that Beihai Park is located directly to the west of Jingshan Park.

”Jinshan” means” longevity hill”.It was named after, Forbidden city was built for the emperor and it is kind of keeping the bad spirits away from the palace in fact.


If you get there you can have a great bird’s-eye-view of the entire city. You can se the whole forbidden city in the South and Beihai park on the West and Drum Tower and bell Tower on the East part. the day w were there ,we had been showered by rain the entire time we stayed and nice breeze was bringing the fragrance of flowers around which was tremendously memorable.

Our summer trip to Beijing and Mongolia,first part,July & August 2009

Our trip to Beijing and then Mongolia has been started and I could reach to my Blog site after 10 days due to no access to the site.so now I am not going to write our stories and our trip life,but so far Beijing for a week was nice and I have got my visa for Europe and these few days in mongolia has been terrific and expensive due to tour rto different places ..but we are planning further for our trip to Europe ,first back to Xian and then again Beijing...till a while I will be back here hopefully access to wirte the whole stories of trip.




I am back home to Xian now and after 2 days holiday got electricity back and can sit behind lab top and wirte about our unfinished 2 weeks holiday,thank god!

With more explanation"

Our trip started finally on the 5th of July and we got our flight with so much discount to Beijing ,trip was not too bad besides Wijbren always have difficulties sitting on the buses orwhen we are on board. Anyhow it takes 1 hour at least to reach from the airport to the city by metro and luckily we were familiar with the hostel which I went there in my first trip to Beijing .Peking hotel is located in the center of town and on the East side of Tinamen square in fact.


After getting out of Metro it takes 15 minutes walk to reach there we spend the whole Sunday evening resting and hanging out in the neighborhood .
There are plenty of succulent Dumpling shops and palatable noodle shops which are pretty famous in Beijing.

Monday morning we went to the Bahai Park which I honesty can’t count how many times I have been there. It sounds boring ,hideous to be in a place couple of time, but to me it is nice always to be in Parks and we both love gardens and nature ,specifically parks.

It is located half Kilometer far from the North gate of Forbidden city and used to be part of pleasure of Emperor to be there in summer time in dynasties periods .

Wijbren was amazed with natural beauty there and we walked around 3 hours around. The main scenery of Beihai park is composed of :

Beihai lake, Jade Islet, Jinxinhai, Nine Dragon Screen, Round City, White Pagoda, Suhavatigarden, Yong'an Temple and many other interesting ones.
Baihai park has temple, pagoda, artificial hills and a big lake which is so refreshing for getting out of the town in summer and start paddling around an hour on the lake and enjoy the scenery of surrounding.
After all Monday after was good though and I deliver my passport for visa issued on it and the rest of the day we hanged out eating and drinking.

My last article at least for a while

Today is our last day ,hopefully here in Xian and if everything works we are planning to leave tomorrow to Beijing. In fact it is my second trip to Beijing in this month.

Actually today was a bit relief of doing nothing and just packing , playing computer games ,cleaning before leaving and sending emails and so on.
The bizarre thing was that when I asked Wijbren and his idea about places to go in Beijing and Mongolia he was so relaxed. I was a bit frustrated as I am great at planning and iI think it is gene in my body which is not necessarily nice and could be annoying sometimes. I have copied all information we need and booked everywhere and things in my head, well Wijb s so calm and when I mentioned I made him in mess. Anyhow it will be fun though( our trip).

The first trip ended in mess and terrible ,due to bad weather and flight cancelation ,but the result was great( the aim of my trip) and this one I am not going alone .In fact me and Wijbren have started our summer holiday and it is our first summer holiday and our first big vacation.
I am not sure for how long but possibly I won’t be able to write on my blog for a while which is pity.

how to look smart

How to make yourself stylish ,even if you are pregnant or your are a Mum.

Don’t worry if you have some bulky clothes that you don’t know what to do with them.
These days easily you can achieve style and comfort together equally.

Take them out of wardrobe and check the color and materials especially for summer you just need to get some cheap ,good cotton, colorful fabric T shirt ,with colorful scarf or straw hat and a nice necklace ,What you need to remember is that several thin layers worn together always look nicer than one bulky sweatshirt. H&M has plenty of plain, thin T-shirts in good basic colors for around £8 that are easy to layer.

Some people change their job and get less formal jobs and still have difficulty finding a cheap way of wearing nice clothes.’ It is very simple, just with a little creativity and patience ,even with little budget, you can make it work. You just need to get some bulky ,dazzling accessories, a few cardigans or tunics to cover and match with your shirts and jeans. match colors with white, back and gray ad some colorful tops, cardigans and tunics on them. a full skirt, a white shirt, a pair of wide-leg trousers and some colourful knitwear should be plenty.
Remember, there’s always a more covered-up version of a summer style that doesn’t involved purdah. A spaghetti-strap vest doesn’t do much for most women over 30, but you can wear one with thicker straps and a cool-looking racer back. Again, layering vests is a great way to achieve a youthful summer look without revealing lots of flesh. Invest in thin cardigans (from Gap or American Apparel) – they’re an inexpensive way to add colour and cover arms, if they’re your issue. Wear knee length or above knee length black trouser if you would like to cover your knees, or over weight, scars are issues.