Amsterdam

This weekend I went to Amsterdam. I was very excited, because it was our first meet with my boyfriend after 4 months. Finally...
I left Maastricht in the morning and firstly enjoyed the city alone. It was too sunny and warm. I was very excited, was looking in the mirror and becoming nervous. Then he came with her sister to the hotel.. And we had a night walk together around Dam square, red light District. I said that it was a center, they were shocked because it was too small and crowded with lots of drunk people around. They were celebrating free Friday, lol!
Saturday morning we had a good breakfast with him near to our hotel and then went to the hotel to wake up his sister. Together we walked to the Museumplein. We bought a ticket to the boat cruise and then visited Van Gogh museum. It was a great museum. The first floor was full of his own pictures,whereas the second and the third were mixed with his own and impressionists' works. I learned much information about his life, works and saw his first pictures that were drawn with pencil. Mostly they were descriptions of Amsterdam Bridges.
Boat cruise was also very nice, we saw different places; passed through the large and small bridges. I became pink during this tour by boat, the sun was really too warm and shinny!
Then we took some photos in front of the sign I AMSTERDAM. In the evening I was in dilemma between watching Eurovision or to walk. Then I decided to go out, because I missed him a lot, and it would be stupid to stay in the hotel because of song contest, though it happened in Azerbaijan. We had a good ice cream. I still remember the taste of ice-cream. Then we watched the end of Eurovision. I was tired.
Sunday morning we took the tourist bus and had a tour around the city, while the guide was explaining about the history of the city. We visited Rijksmuseum and then walked in the Voldenpark.The Museum was good. But the park was better, too big and green park, bikes everywhere!  This time I saw Amsterdam from another perspective. In winter it was cold and snowy. But this time it was shiny and lovely! The other part(not center) of Amsterdam was also nice, with higher and modern buildings.
When I came back in Maastricht I was disappointed, everything at home was the same...But the happiness turned to be sadness. During my way back to Maastricht, I was watching our pictures in my phone over and over. Fortunately we will meet again in 3 weeks in Baku.

After 4 different cities, finally will meet in Baku :) :)

Weekend in Paris

Paris memories

I can call this weekend the best and the most excited that I remember. I went to Paris from Maastricht, but made a transfer in Brussels. From Brussels I took highspeed train to get to Paris Nord. Narmina and her friend Bajat came to another train station that is called Gare de Lyon. So, from the station where I arrived, I took metro to get to their station. Metro system in Paris is too complicated. That is why before going there I checked it up in different sites on the internet, took notes on my blank book. Thus, it was not hard to get there. Together we went to the apartment, where we were planning to stay those two days. It was an apartment of Narmina`s mom's close friend, who is from Paris itself. First of all the location was very close to the Notre Dame. Secondly, it was very large: only one apartment in each floor. It has 6 rooms. In the dinner room there was a balcony. It was a great pleasure to sit there at night, eat or drink something talk with friends. 

The day when we arrived- Friday we decided to have a night walk in Paris and have a Seine boat tour. It was windy, but I enjoyed it a lot. Eiffel Tower seemed beautiful and shiny at night. Paris has lots of bridges, which makes the city hilarious. Next day,on Saturday we had a very nice breakfast and then went to the Champs de Eyslee. The weather was sunny. The avenue starts with the Arc de Triomphe and the end is Louvre. Paris is large and green. I didn`t know that it is such a big city. We had a long walk until we got to Louvre, we could enjoy morning sunshine. 

In Louvre I had an accident. Still can not understand how it happened. Inside the museum I suddenly realized that my bag is open and it is not as heavy as it was. I could not find my wallet in a small bag. I was lost at first, then I looked around and at the end of the hall, I saw a girl who was trying to hide my purse under her cardigan. I started to run and I realized that I`m trembling. I said to the girl `give it to me`, then she showed me the knife. it was scary, but somehow, in a second I became brave and took the wallet from her hands. Still can`t understand how I could behave so, why I looked around when I could not find my wallet in my bag and how I could see her at the end of the corridor. And money was in it. Lucky me! Otherwise, whole the holiday would be sheety. Also, purse itself is very valuable for me. It is my boyfriend`s present. Whatever, I was shocked whole day.. the thing I cant really understand, is how people can pay 10 euros for the museum in order to steal tourists money? seems illogical. My boyfriend said , I am HERO! :)

Louvre is a huge museum. It has some parts: Italian art floor, Islamic historian art, Spanish artists floor etc.

We saw the portrait of Mono Lisa. 

That day in the evening we were looking for the place Maison du Chocolade. Chocolate there is amazing there as far as we know. But when we came there, the place was closed, because it was too late. (Sure, late for Europe 9 is too late to find open shop). Even if it is a megapolis like Paris) And on sundays it was not working as well. We became disappointed.

Paris is too luxury. It has lots of brand stores, special boutiques, expensive restaurants and hotels, cars.  

We went to the Hotel Four Seasons. The entrance was very nice, smelled fresh and designed with flowers. Everyone was dressed up chic. That was nice to be a part of Parisian Hotel life, although for one or two hours. We sat on the big, comfortable coaches, and garcon brought a small chair for each of us, where we  put our bags :D I ate ice-cream while enjoying a live music on the piano. 

Paris is awesome, but it is too dangerous. That day when we came home, black people surrounded us and it was annoying: we were hurrying to  get home as soon as possible. Lots of drunk people at night, lots of maniacs. I`ve heard in suburban areas it is much worse. That is why I would not like to live there for a long time or whole my life.

Sunday was sunny and we went to the Eiffel Tower. The view from the top was great. The height of the tower is 300 meters. and it seemed like people are points or houses are boxes :)

Again I realized how big is Paris! the view was great from different perspectives, it was amazing to see Paris from 360 degrees angle. 

I didn`t want come back. 2 days in Paris is nothing. I know that I will return there again, to see some other sides of Paris an enjoy every moment spending there.

My sister advised to watch the movie "Midnight in Paris". Last night I watched it and again became craze about Paris. Could feel the atmosphere from the movie, pictures seemed familiar, and I wanted to feel it there over again!!!

Random building wall .While walking in the narrow street of Paris

Seine boat tour beauty!

Louvre

Mono Lisa

Arc de Triomphe

Sunset in Paris

Notre Dame de Paris

view from Eiffel

Back to Maastricht. On train. Sunday around 9pm.

Stranger at Home?

         

On wednesday I came home and saw how the door of the other room suddenly opened. I was shocked, but then I realized that this is my new flatmate arrived. It was wonderful to meet her. It was too boring to stay alone whole this time, and she brought happiness to my home. Sabrina is from Germany- Cologne. She is doing her phd on psychology. It is interesting to talk about her experiments about analysis of human brain, about her studies and interesting articles that she is reading in order to write her thesis. 
The next day we went out to drink something. I met her friends. It was so nice to know them!  We were talking about psychological experiments that they are doing( really interesting), laughing, singing, chatting about anything! cool evening together... Although all of them are in their 27 years, I couldn`t feel the difference in age. It is a myth that German people are cold and very serious. Maybe a bit serious, but interesting and not cold at all.
Hehe she is a coffee addict. Her student gave to her two boxes, where there are 10 cups in each. Amazing thing to use when you do not have time to prepare coffee in machine. We are enjoying it:)

Yeah, she does not know, but her arrival brought brightness into my life!  :)

Our mini tour around Netherlands.

Leiden

         Last Thursday my friend Melike came to me to Maastricht from Groningen(the most northern part of Netherlands) and we decided to travel around the country and see the differences and similarities between cities of the country. It was very interesting to have a trip by train every morning and came home late night. Actually it was also cheaper to do so. We bought one day ticket(dagcard) that provided us a chance to travel 24 hours wherever we want. It is only 16 euros round trip.First day we went to Rotterdam, did some shopping there. It is a modern city, because it has been destroyed during the Second World War and then has been rebuilt. The city is covered with beautiful bridges; the longest one is Erasmus bridge. Next to the river you can see harbors and flags of different countries that make the total population of Rotterdam. It was little bit rainy, but fun to walk around and enjoy the sunshine that was flowing through the clouds. I really really enjoyed time there, while we were sitting in the terrace of LA PLACE cafe and having our mint tea with cakes. The view from there was great, i was lost between huge buildings, which is too far from the buildings that are in Maastricht.Next morning we decided to go to The Hague. We went to The museum of Panorama Mesdag. It was a cool place; round pictre in 3-4-5 dimensions. I think that was the best huge, long image, which could explain the beauty of whatever, in this case, the Hague`s panorama. Then we had visited Madurodam, where we saw a mini model of the Netherlands` cities, rivers etc. It was very interesting , too real and too small at the same time.We was taking pictures and was trying to find our cities- Groningen and Maastricht. We missed Turkish food so much! That's why, we had some "simits" in SIMIT SARAYI and tasty turkish food for dinner. It is easy to find Tukish food both in Rotterdam and The Hague. Unfortunately, it is not like this in Maastricht.  My impressions about The Hague or its another name-Den Haag  are very good. Because it is a city which has a sea, rivers, it is modern that make it so beautiful. The Hague is the city where the ministry and presidency of the country are.Very important city, by the way :)We had a free time in the evening, so we decided to see Leiden as well. It is too close to the Hague; only 16 minutes by train. I can not say that is was a city; it was a typical Holland village, with tulips, windmill in the center with small beer pubs and bars, bridges and lakes. I think it was the best place I have ever been in Netherlands that could really indicate the natural life and symbols of Netherlands. Maybe it seemed to me like this, because I stood there only 1 and a half hours. But maybe not..Return to Maastricht was late. But we also had fun at night partying in my dorm.... it was relaxing with good music and our drinks.  On Sunday we went to Utrecht, it is 2 hours away from Maastricht. The city is something between with Amsterdam and Maastricht. It is not modern, it is not so ancient. It has lots of small and large bridges over the canals. Boat tour, cafes around the bridges and Dome in the center. Because it was Sunday, everywhere was closed. We could not do any shopping, but we could walk around the city and feel the smell of the nature after the rain. Although walking in the city was adorable, the pictures that I took there were not the same with the atmosphere of the city in reality. That is strange... But I think sometimes it happen. You can enjoy the city, but pictures that remain after, are not giving you the same energy. By the way, the ice-cream that we ate in the center of the city was awful. To be honest, I am trying to forget the taste of that ice-cream, it is hard :) We had the last dinner of our trip together in the restaurant; it was a chicken with peanut sauce and vegetables. From there we went back to our homes. As the Utrecht is in the center of  Holland, it took 2 hours for both of us to get home. She went to the North part, I went to South...

Ermus Brigde-Rotterdam

Rotterdam-Harbor

Rotterdam

Mdurodam- little Netherlands

Madurodam- The Hague

Utrecht

One day in Liege

                                                           A Random weekend day !


    We decided to go to Liege yesterday in the evening with Irem while we were having a dinner together. It is only 30 minutes by train, but another country, totally different city with french speaker citizens! That is really strange to feel the differences between two cities which are so close in location, but too different inside. In Holland I used to talk to people in english, and all of them know English well... But in Belgium however, their language -french is too different from English that makes a real trouble to switch their accent into english.. whatever. It was a wonderful day...
We went by 10am train and enjoyed the warm morning sun. It is the third largest city in Belgium. We have been in some shops and tried some clothes, but still I couldn`t find what I want! it was nice to see different brands while walking in the city center. The best thing there was stairs that were taking you to the top of the hills. Actually before I was thinking that Belgium does not have hills, because in Holland there is nothing even looking like a hill. Liege surprised me with it`s houses located in the top of hills. The Panorama from there was awesome!!  
We had a waffle with cream, good coffee, ice-cream and Pizza for dinner, I guess I got not less than 2 kilos! ooo, the scary thing was that we were close to missing the last train tonight.But  thanks to the young family, they took us to the station in Liege. They were too kind, even if we couldn`t communicate with them in English they was trying to understand us. They asked, `are you from London?` haha, they really made our day, with their kindness and with their biggest help. We said more than twice `merci beaucoup` to them! 
Today is my best friend`s birthday! I wish I were with her, but unfortunately.... Some friends are parts of us, we rarely realize it, but they have a big impact on us,on our lives and sure we have on theirs.. :)
Thanks for your existence Nemkam! Thanks for being my closest and for making my life so meaningful! Happiest to have YOU in my life! I know she loves tulips as well, so took a few pictures of tulips thinking about her :)

Stairs

Central Station

Prague during Easter

                                       My trip to Praha

        My first period in Maastricht ended up, and for the Easter break I went to Prague. One of the exams was not so well, so there is a fear to fail the course, whatever! Holiday was short, but really nice!

First of all, I saw my friend Narmina, she came to Prague from Switzerland with her friend, and we stood there at her friend`s,  Nargiz`s place. So we were 4 girls. Although it was the first time I met two of them, I felt myself too relaxed with them. It seemed like we know each other for years... weird! I realized how much I missed Nara! it was a great opportunity -to travel a new country and meet with your best friend. This was enough to make the holiday colorful and happyy. Obviously, I didn`t want to come back at the end. 
I went to Prague from Rotterdam and I had an hour there to walk around. Rotterdam is a nice city to visit, it is different from Amterdam and Maastricht. I`m planning actually during these two weeks to make a tour in Holland... and feel differences between cities. We`ll see. 

The flight was only one hour, cheap and comfortable. They was waiting for me in the airport. It was surprising because they came to take me with car. It was so cool! we experienced an adrenaline when we jumped to the wide and  crowded street, from the narrow road across. We went to the city center, meet with some friends there, eat and drink something. Next day we went to Palladium- shopping center located in the center: we had a yummy chocolate fountain with some fruits, then we went to the Clock tower, the view from the tower was awesome, i took some pictures of the Clock square and the city.  I liked Charles Bridge, it seemed like the Bridge is the most important place of entertainment for tourists; painters were drawing caricatures, panoramic pictures, selling them and some other souvenirs. 

"Praha" is a cheap city, money currency is Czech Koruna. Average price for the good dinner is approximately 150-200 korunas, which is equal to 6-8 euros ( the mystery is that is seems more when you see hundreds, but it is only some euros) 

The language sounds close to Russian, but different enough.  But colors for ex, are almost the same (zenely, cherny-green, black).The funniest word was `pozor`, which means `attention` in Czech and `disgrace` in Russian.

I loved our walking around the city, joking and chatting with guys, singing karaoke whole night, spending time freely and entertaining. I really had fun these few days. Nara and her friend moved back a day before me, and we went with Nargiz to the Zoo-great place to visit in Prague, actually it is the best in the whole Europe, haven`t known it before. Very big territory and variety of animals! The weather was great so we could have a chance to enjoy the sun, see animals while walking in the park. Angelina Jolie has been there, we saw some of her photos with children.

The last night in Prague I tried `trdelnik` with Nargiz. It is typically Czech bakery food. I have seen it in one of the Turkish series, Kuzey Guney as if they became rich after bringing this thing into the Turkish market. In Prague they also put nutella inside and it tastes so good!

Coming back after the great holiday, staying home alone was too boring and sad. However, then I just tried to do something in order to destroy my bad mood. I went out to run around. I love jogging, it blows off steam and makes me energetic. 

Today we meet with one of my friends from Maastricht, and talked about our trips. She spent it in Italy. It was nice to listen to her story and adventures. I somehow refresh my lovely memories about my Italy trip 3 years ago...

Happy to be where I am now!

Clock Tower

The view from the Clock Tower to the square

Clock square

 Dancing house (why dancing don`t know)

  Zoo

Trdelnik

The view from the Charles Bridge

Erasmus destination- Maastricht

                                            Maastricht through my eyes

   I decided to come to Maastricht after the advice of my sister(she has been here before for one day) and after seeing a few pictures of beautiful bridges over the Maas river. Despite the fact that Maastricht University was my third choice in my preference list, I put a picture of one of the best views of Maastricht on my desktop and became imagining my long walks around the river and pictures taken there by myself. And this actually happened. 

January was too cold and windy that made the city to seem grey and boring. It destroys the beautiful image of the city in my brain; everything seemed simply here, even difficult; harder than I have imagined. 

First days I was thinking about the stereotype model of Erasmus student. Do you know, that there is a real social pressure on Erasmus students? Everyone expected you to have fun- hangover, to take party pictures and put them on Facebook, tagging some foreign `friends` after the first week of arrival??! That is what people expected you to do and you try to meet their expectations. Otherwise, you turn to be disappointed. Maybe people are happy without partying; but the social pressure forces you to go to parties, because it is `obligatory` if you are an erasmus student, sorry dude!  The stupid questions of my friends living home were annoying sometimes; `did you get some new friends?`  `are you going out tonight?`  if the answer is no, the respond was worse. -`Ohhh do not be such an anti-social person and find some cool friends` and long laugh afterwards.

I can not say that I had experienced a culture shock, but the things were working in a different manner. It was pretty far from what I had on my mind before coming here(had the same model of ERASMUS, which I explained previously); tutorials here seemed difficult than they seem now- two months later and I was lost, because I should pass these courses in order to finish school and in order to do my master degree so that to be closer to LOVE! Even these kind of tiny weird things were enough  to make me upset. It was hard to communicate  with people and adapt to the environment. 
Actually, it was harder when I moved to Ankara. You can say that, there should not be a big culture shock, because culture in Azerbaijan and Turkey  is similar; language is almost the same. However, that was a real trouble for me to make new friends there; it seemed like people around have hollow friendships and do not like or need each other indeed. People in my first class were using abusing language all the time, and I thought that is normal here and I should used to behave so, as well. Professors had a trouble in understanding my handwriting. They circled some words as a mistake, when the words were quite normal. The problem was usage of letters in a distinct way. I was totally shocked and lost. But later, things changed, I met different people from different backgrounds,  different characters. So, as I have experienced it 4 years ago in Ankara, here in Maastricht though I found everything different than I thought it will be, it was easier to adapt. Here people are more relaxed, warm and open minded. This made me feel home(personally) and encouraged me to talk to people more.

Classes in Maastricht are difficult: instructor chooses a student in order to lead the course. Moreover, every class we have a `chair`,who is responsible to lead the discussion and make a final comment on other students` interpretations about the subject. This means that, for every class we should go prepared as an instructor, and be ready to make other people to understand the topic. Instructor should `t talk much during the class. The system- PBL (Problem Based Learning) is totally different than what we have in Bilkent. We used to have long lectures and take some notes in order to study from those materials 2 weeks ,even less before the exam. In Bilkent, we can miss classes as well. What we need is to find notes from somewhere to be prepared for the exam and have a chance to  pass the course.

Life here seems easy and fun. Carnival started on February 19 was so great that I really felt myself abroad and could enjoy it a lot. I just basically stared at people`s weird costumes or make ups to understand what it is. Parade, music, dances under the rain, ohh!  I felt totally me: looking at people and smiling or taking pictures with whom you wish (that makes me happy and spread happiness around).
Colorful and small carnival city view was just stunning, after which we went for the carnival holiday to Berlin, later to Cologne. Although the weather was snowy and cold we could have an opportunity to visit a Museum Island in the center of Berlin and walk around Berlin DOM; we had been in DDR museum, Holocaust memorial, Nazi camp, in large and narrow streets of historical Berlin(even though the country has been destroyed during the Second World War). There was a smell of history on walls, especially in the Eastern part of the city. I would love to advise to visit DDR museum,  where you can witness the marks of Nazi and Communist regimes. There you will have an opportunity to become a part of the  Soviet Socialist Union even if for an hour. 

I did not like German people, they are even colder than I was expected them to be. Cologne however, seemed to me much warmer and nice. Maybe because of its location; 1) South people are always warmer. 2)the beauty of the river flowing through the center of the city made it to wear a nice cloth and seem more attractive.
I really really loved Chocolate museum, which was not only a museum, but also a chocolate factory, shop, cafe in one world my paradise! 

Changing the climate affected my heath. I was sick for a week; fly, fever, eye infection. That period after Germany,  I was staying home all the time, was not sleeping that much, was missing my mam, friends, and all that I used to love, need, have. I discovered that I have not thought about these stuff before, but sickness, sleeplessness reminded me what i have, where I am and unfortunately, emphasized my previous mistakes, failures. But I think that was a best answer to the question:  why I am ME today.
Sickness is not always bad, it is a free time giving to you for thinking about your life while you are just lying down in the bed. I was thinking about what I want to change in my life, where I want to be and sure with whom :)

Finally SPRING CAME after the longest winter of my life, with my mam`s and sister`s arrival to Maastricht. After having an hour evening talk around the table I realized how much I missed them. Family is a part of us, and we are carrying its pieces with us, wherever we go...

I realized that weather affects my mood more than songs. Can`t understand how people can be sad when the sun is shining, birds are singing and the only thing you need is to walk around, smell the caramel fragrance in the air, smile, laugh, hug, love. All the most beautiful things in life are given for free... Live your life fully.Enjoy each day, enjoy the city you are living.. even when people around spreading negative energy. Sometimes I just wanna cry as loudly as I can: People, Enjoy the the beauty of the spring!

Pictures taken by me in Maastricht