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Vacation in Thassos Island, Greece

2009-07-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

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The 7-day vacation in Thassos Island (Marble Island - my way of calling it) was over, I don't really feel like coming back from the heaven... The entire island is so beautiful, and of course, fresh sea food!! Darn, I miss it so much! I ordered seafood like there was no tomorrow... it wasn't cheap though, one plate of sea food spaghetti cost €8, that was the only time I could enjoy fresh sea food!

We did so many things: parachute, jet ski, scuba diving, snorkelling, swimming, hiking, boat trip, mainland trip, sight seeing, visiting monastery, monuments & historical sites (Hercules & Alexander The Great etc) and so on and so forth!

The biggest challenge was scuba diving - shoot, I was not a good swimmer and I didn't know how to control the buoyancy and breathing techniques. It was a torture to wear a metal belt weighted 9kg around my waist and the oxygen tanks on my back... I had to be careful of not to drown myself and at the same time control my buoyancy and breathing... It wasn't that easy as I thought! I managed to finish the whole thing in the end with courage, though I intended to give up when I got panicky under the sea (poor instructor... I'm sorry for being such a pain). How envy I was to watch Daniel could swim like a fish...or a frog. Anyway, I've got my Try Scuba license now!

Another challenge - going to Giola the natural swimming pool on a drizzly day. This was the day we went down to Paradise Beach by foot and then hiked the steep mountain full of marble stones, tens of thousands of olive trees and sheep (yes you can imagine the smell) to reach the pool. We reached the top of the mountain, the view was spectacular, it was worth my effort. As I didn't know how to swim, I didn't go down. Neither did Daniel - he forgot to bring his swimming wear and he didn't want to swim nakedly in front of other tourists... aw..

Zara was cheap there, like 10-20% cheaper than here. Unfortunately this trip was not for shopping so I didn't buy any clothes and dresses. Perhaps next time!

The only thing I didn't like was the noisy and thoughtless neighbours next room, who were being warned 2 times (first time by myself then by Daniel another night) but still brainless enough to make noise while everyone was deeply asleep after all the extreme sports!

Oh yeah, and the 20-hour bus travel from Romania - Bulgaria - Greece, total 40 hours back and forth!

Beaches that I like: Golden Beach (1-km long and sandy beach but a little bit dirty on shore), Paradise Beach (crystal clear greenish-blue water and very sandy, too bad we needed to go up and down the hill by foot and there was only one expensive restaurant), Marble Beach (extraordinarily smooth and fine white sand, a place only reachable by boat, no restaurant) and of course Pefkari Beach (pebbly beach, where we did all the extreme sports).

We rented a Kia Picanto (we won't be renting this car again next time, pathetically low horse power, going uphill is out of the question) for 3 days, cost €28 per day, and we "did" Thassos Island exactly in 3 days!

It was scorching hot during the daytime, our room didn't include the air-cond service, anyway we didn't need it because it was quite chilly at night. Luckily we didn't choose to go in Aug, we will be toasted alive outdoor!

We came back when the peak season just about to start. Imagine everything would be more expensive (food, car, hotel, other fees).

One thing I have to say is, the local people in Thassos Island especially in Limenas (where our base was) were amazingly friendly, helpful, warm and welcoming! We saw big smiles wherever we went, they welcomed us with their wide-spread arms! Not to mention, 70% of the tourists were Romanian (including the irritable neighbours)!

It was a wonderful vacation, we plan to go there again, but by car. We already miss the beautiful island surrounded by the crystal-clear turquoise sea water and fine sand, as well as the fresh sea food and the warmth of the whole island!

Bega Festival

2009-06-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

Bega Festival started from 19th to 21st June, it is a yearly summer event. That was why I kept bugging Daniel to bring me there, and he did eventually!

We parked our car in the city center, as usual. It was a 10 minutes walk to the Bega River.

It was really funny to watch this bird walking around and trying to impress many other birds. Look at his puffy head, it shrunk when he didn't have any bird near him. In fact we noticed that many birds were like this. Well, summer time is the perfect period to breed, I guess.

No more tulips, now we have another impressive garden art.

On our way to the river, we passed by the graffiti wall. Here are some nice ones.

We were on the river bridge, the festival was started early. Many booths were set up already.

At another end of the bridge, looking down. The beautiful bride and the handsome groom were taking pictures with people.

We arrived the river side. People were preparing the fireworks which would start at 11pm.

There were 3 different bands playing on the stage. The concert started from 8:30pm - 11pm. The duck was the superstar during the 3-day festival. Why duck? Because there'll be a duck race on the 3rd day, which is the main highlight for tomorrow's program. We bought a duck at €1 in the hope that we'll be running away with €1.000 if our duck reaches the ending point at the first place.

The cute man-in-duck.

Me with the puffy man-in-duck.

These were the little ducks-in-sun-glasses which will be racing on the river. There'll be 20.000 ducks participate in this race.

This was the booth from carturesti, the book store where I purchase "Twilight Saga" from. They were selling tea, the way they wrote 茶道 was funny. I didn't buy tea from them, I liked the books better.

Kids were painting and drawing.

A piece of art at the river side to raise the public awareness of recycling the plastic bottles.

A painter.

This guy was from National Geography!

The songs that the 2nd band played were quite boring, so we went to other place for some light meals. It was only 8:30pm, still a long time to go until the fireworks got started. At 10:15pm we came back to the same spot where we sat to continue watching the concert.

The last song before the fireworks began! Although it started to rain, a few small drops... we quickly got up and found a place for shelter.

Yay, fireworks!!

This vid is better. Daniel didn't film nicely for the 1st one because it was so amazing to watch the striking fireworks with our own eyes.

The rain got heavier, we had to rush back home. Might as well took a picture with the beautiful fountain at night.

Twilight Saga Box

2009-06-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

I just added these to my collection of vampire books.

I bought the Twilight Saga Box after I watched the Twilight movie 2 weeks ago. It was quite difficult for me to search for the English version here, I thought I would have to order it through Amazon.com but eventually Daniel found it online at carturesti.ro - they have a branch in Timisoara city center, surprisingly near and convenient! They didn't have stock though, in fact they helped us to get it from the HQ in Bucharest! The entire series cost about €45, quite expensive but definitely worth every penny!

Now I can bring one of these books along with me for a holiday in Greece next month!

I am anticipating the movie sequel "New Moon" to be released this fall, can't wait!

Historical Place

2009-06-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

We went on picnic today, grilled and chilled outside. We thought we should enter this historical place to check things out after the picnic.

Cherry tree near the entrance, full of irresistible red cherries...

This is the Romanian traditional dance and costumes.

I would have to climb this stuff...

This tall... not sure what it is.

No idea too, perhaps the ancient Romanian used this to prepare food...

This cute little house is empty, abandoned, but is kept remained like this for years. Nobody is living inside. I like the green garden and the bench. Why not sell it to us at a cheap price, don't waste it, you know...

This is a 263-year-old church from Topla, it was built date back to 1746. Totally amazing!

Here's the description of the church.

The Old Summer Palace - Yuan Ming Yuan

2009-05-28T13:59:00.000-07:00

A lesson that we will never forget... Should watch every part of this documentary to know what was going on in The Old Summer Palace. It is kind of sad though... those people who stole the treasures should return them.

Weekend Outing

2009-05-10T11:46:00.001-07:00

Saturday - an open air orchestra with some shows. Free entry but it was only 50 minutes.

In a park.

I think this is a Catholic church.

Timisoreana beer factory, built in 1718 and it is the oldest beer factory in Romania.

We went inside the factory, of course it was closed. But we could drink fresh beer and eat something in their exclusive terrace.

Say cheese..

The cool guy.

Near a dam.

Then we went to a park nearby. It's a very clean and beautiful park.

Stonehenge? Nah... just some rocks imported from Greece.

Labour's Day

2009-05-01T12:12:00.001-07:00

Today is the Labour's Day. I just decided to drag myself and Daniel out for a walk. Although we always hang around in the city, it's better than staying home for 24/7. When I stay at home, I'll just stick my ass on the chair and glue my eyes on the computer screen... It's Labour's Day, take a break!

Daniel asked me to go in there, so I did :D

Oh how nice the ground was! I just wanted to lay down and enjoy the weather! There's a Jazz Club right next to the river.

Love this pic very much! Blue sky and the beautiful river!

Another side, with the cathedral.

Posing, posing, posing...

Graffiti! Look at the face, it looks so real!

OK, this is our boat, it has been parked here for very long. Today we paid a visit to our beloved boat again because we missed it so much!

Of course, perfect seat and perfect scenery!

Love the surroundings!

Haha, I'm just kidding. That's not our boat :D According to Daniel, we can travel to Vienna, Serbia and even Germany through this river! Well, we can rent this boat though but it costs 200 Euro only for 1.5 hours... too expensive!

We went to the Camelot Restaurant for something to eat at the end of the day. This is the dessert called "Dragon's Droppings".

Rice with veggie and fried minced soya. Not bad ^^ the portion was quite big, enough to stuff 2 stomachs.

My man was preparing the appetiser for me.

Complimentary appetiser, toasts with onion and lard. This is real good!!

Rice (main course, for 2 persons) + 2 "Dragon's Droppings" desserts + 1 fruit tea + 1 peach juice, only for 10 Euro. Plus we got complimentary appertiser. Very inexpensive and the food was good!

Easter & Spring Time!

2009-04-23T08:11:00.000-07:00

在河边。。。

窗外。。。七彩郁金香在享受太阳浴。

这是餐厅的独家熱香餅，不错。有点酒的味道。

偶的老公。

春天带来凉意，但在太阳下还是满享受的。看着四周的花草树木在迎接春天的到来，我再也不留念冬天了！春天是最棒的！

玫瑰花迟些会开，现在是郁金香大大炫耀的时候！

和兔子先生拍拍照，它竟然一眼也不望望我。。。

I Am An Orthodox!

2009-03-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

I am baptised today ^^ Now I am officially an Orthodox Christian! It's also Mărţişor today, I got my presents from Daniel yesterday!

Instead of the traditional pin or brooch, this time I got a red-and-white wrist charm.

A flower from Daniel, it's called "Zambilă" in Romanian and "Lady Derby" in English. It has a mild and very pleasant aroma, I love it very much! I want to plant all these flowers in my garden in the future!

And a silver necklace but I didn't take the picture ^^

Here are a few pictures taken from the baptise ceremony, I was nervous during the process because I had to read the prayer. Boy, my Romanian is not very good... however the church members said I did it very well... phew :D

Listening to the priest...

"Yes, I want to be free from Satan".

Now I am reading the prayer, I accept Jesus Christ as my saviour.

Holy oil is lighyly put on my forehead, two sides of my head, nose, chin, ears, neck, my back and my legs as well.

The historical moment, wetting my hair...

Then cut a small chunk of my hair before completing the ceremony. The whole thing took about 45 minutes. The choir team was chanting during the ceremony and I felt calm and peaceful.

And now, I am a Christian and I am His follower :)

Happy 2009!

2009-01-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

The ducks are swimming in the plate! Oh so cute ~

First round of food!

Happy New Year!!

Too late to go to the city center after the celebration so we watched the fireworks on the TV. Then, fireworks in Germany, and last fireworks in UK. All on TV.

Bucharest, Romania. The fireworks with music and laser lights that lasted nearly 30 minutes.

Timisoara, Romaina.

London, UK.

Berlin, Germany.

Paris, France.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T14:11:00.001-08:00

Yay, I had a white Christmas! It was snowing and so cold outside, everywhere was just covered with snow, although it was not very thick but it looked very beautiful! I almost slipped on the icy roads when we were on the way to the church.. The parents-in-law were in the church choir so we had to go there to listen to the carols, I didn't understand at all but it was wonderful.

外面的确是好冷啊 >< "

We went to aunt Claudia's and uncle Verner's house for a celebration in the afternoon, it was so nice that I really had to take a picture in front of their house!

Alright, 人齐啦！

屋外花园变的白茫茫一片！

漂亮的Christmas Tree!

巴不得快点上菜！偶等了好久。。。

和你说，这两个小鬼的爸爸是意大利人，妈妈是罗马尼亚人，都在德国出身。两个小鬼懂得意大利语，德语，法语和罗马尼亚语，人小小头脑大大！汗！！

偶的家婆和家公。

他已经返老还童了。。。要不, 喝醉了！

点心，不过没人能够把它给塞进肚里了。

Wish you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Iulius Mall

2008-12-19T16:00:00.001-08:00

Just went to Iulius Mall to see how it is decorated! Came back home with nothing in the hands! It was very easy to find a parking place, perhaps it was raining thus not many people wanted to go out. It's been raining 3 days non-stop, feel so much like in UK!!

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas!

2008-12-18T16:27:00.001-08:00

Wow.. it's been so long I didn't update my blog! I was so busy for the past few months! As the work slows down recently, I think it's time for me to rest, recharge, and be prepared for the bigger challenge in 2009.

December, it's a month that we celebrate Christmas, and of course, my birthday! Daniel brought all of us to a Chinese restaurant - Restaurant Chinezesc Marele, it was the second time we went there!

The outside look of the restaurant.

A table for 4, with the magnificent dragon too!

Some nice traditional Chinese drawings on the mirrors.

Taking picture with the "Happy Buddha" or "Laughing Buddha", so that I'll be happy throughout the year of 2009!
The statue stands facing at the main entrance - Feng Shui tactic!

This is a man-made fountain with some cute little turtles swimming inside, it is placed right in the middle of the restaurant, facing the main entrance too. The restaurant is a U shape. I guess you can imagine that. Yeah, I know, Feng Shui tactic too!

Side door, I really like the Chinese decoration and the atmosphere!

Well, I didn't take the pictures of the food that we ordered. Daniel and I ordered shrimp fried rice and the parents ordered fried noodles with meats (actually they didn't want to eat meat but they discovered that the noodle contained meats when they were about to finish... oops!). We also ordered some additional dishes like crunchy duck and vegetarian tou fu to eat with the rice and noodle.

After the dinner, Daniel dropped his mom to the Iulius Mall because she had to continue working - Christmas season, very busy!! Father went back home by tram as he didn't want to follow us to the city center.

Yeh... La Mult Ani!

Yeah it was raining, and we walked in the rain with an umbrella while taking pictures - so romantic huh ^^ Actually the city looked nicer after being "washed": the air was fresh and the view was clear.

There will be an open air concert on the Christmas eve. The stage is up.

The child is born! Same as last year's :D

The city is decorated much nicer than last year. I still have many pictures but I can't just show all here.

Romania is beautiful, but I miss Malaysia very much too!!

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

2008-11-09T03:29:00.001-08:00

Yes we can... Not just American, everyone in the world - Yes We Can!

Something To Share - Olympic Songs

2008-08-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

I know the Olympic is over but hey, ain't the feeling still there? The spectacular fireworks and breathtaking performaces, not to mention the beautiful and touching songs! Such world-class performance, I wonder if there will be any that can compete the recent Beijing Olympic in the near future...

Here are some songs that I like:

Happy 1st Year Anniversary!

2008-08-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

30th Aug, today is the first year anniversary of our marriage! ^^ Time really flies!! What more, it's my father-in-law's birthday too!

I wish our love will continue until we grow old and still be together when we go to the heaven!

Honey I LOVE YOU FOREVER ^^

and yeah

Happy Birthday Ion!! La Mult Ani!!

Franklin Graham

2008-07-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

We participated in his talk yesterday, it was held at the Timisoara Football Stadium. Of course, the last time his father came here to preach, there were huge crowd gathered to listen to him. This time, the son, Franklin Graham who follows his father's footsteps, did it in the stadium. So you can imagine how many people were there. I could even count the empty seats (coz most of the seats were taken)!

Guess what, we got special treatment from the officer who organised this. We were seated right inside the air-cond room where we could see the whole field from top! What else, the translators were just one seat away from me... hehe Cooooool...

I'd taken some pictures but haven't uploaded yet, will do it when I have free time.

China Please Don't Cry

2008-05-22T02:53:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows about what happened in China, so I don't have to repeat myself here. Because if I do that, I will surely cry.

Please donate to the victims, if you can, and help them to pull through.

To those who have gone to the heaven, wish the Lord will protect you in His arms. To those who have survived, please be strong and move on your journey in life. When there's Love, there's Hope.

China please don't cry. Because tomorrow will be a better day.

Diego Bauducco - The Man Behind PictoBrowser

2008-05-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

After communicating with Diego personally, finally I HAVE MY PICTOBROWSER CREATED! Check out the Zoo post!

Oh my Lord, I appreciate his help very much. He is very fast in replying and solving all the problems.

And he is a very nice guy too ^^

I realised what my problem was: In the ScreenName area, I typed my Yahoo ID instead of the Flickr username! Without his help I would never realise about this. If you are also facing some problems when using PictoBrowser, you could contact him at diego@db798.com.

Once again, thank you very much, Diego! Will continue to use pictobrowser, and will look forward to see some other additional kick-ass features in the near future from you.

Good work!

Pictobrowser

2008-05-01T14:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know it's late night.

BUT I WANT TO RANT ABOUT THIS!!!!! COZ IT MADE ME LOST MY MIND! I WASTED MORE THAN HALF OF THE TIME I SPENT FOR THE POST WRITING!

That's why I am still staying up late at night!

First, I was thinking to add all the pics into the pictobrowser which is said to be a very easy way to group your pics for blogging use with your flickr account. So, i created my flickr account, uploaded the pics, set them private, then tried to use the pictobuilder.

I entered my screen name....FAILED! Error message some sort of "unselect hide my profile from searches preference".

So I went to check what was wrong *considering I am a new user of flickr, it had taken me some precious time to figure it out*.

I unselected, and tried...

FAILED!

Duh???!!!

OK, I tried to search for some "Help" or at least a "Q&A" in pictobrowser website... NOTHING!! Just some simple steps guiding you how to use, without details.

Fine, I googled and looked for some helpful tips. I found one, saying that do not select private when upload the pics. So, I deleted all the pics, and re-uploaded the same pics, and left them public.

Tried again....

FAILED!! Error message "Flickr does not have public sets for this user".

WHAT?!!! SHIT, HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!!??

I tried and tried and tried many times, it just didn't work for me! I cleared the cache, tried different browsers, but to no avail. It looks soooooo easy to the people out there, NOT ME!

I'm really tired of trying, and frustrating... what is wrong?

Please, anybody out there, could you please HELP ME!?

The Small Zoo

2008-05-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

It was a small zoo near where we had our picnic, no entrance fee required. So I didn't expect much to see.

These are the animals we saw.

These reddish tree branches are really funny-looking!
Daniel & I.

It looks like a man... no, an alien!

Arghhhhh!! Attack of the 'clone'!! (Looks like I'm very happy to be attacked...hey it does look really funny!)

I'm feeding the 'elephant'!

Didn't see lion, tiger, and some other wild lifes too. Well, perhaps they can't survive here, too cold for them? Hmmm... but why no penguin also...?

After the visit, we were very exhausted already *oh my legs...!*. We reached home at about 6pm.

Plus, I dedicated the rest of my day for the posting up of this blogs!!! Now, it's 0050, time to sleep... really really exhausted, physically and mentally.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZzzzz

Picnic

2008-05-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

We just came back from the picnic in the woods! Yoo-hoo that was a nice outing!

Daniel came out with this idea few days ago, as today is the labour's day, so we the family of four, went to join the crowd.

We hit the road at around 12:30pm, it took us about 10 mintues to arrive the destination. When we arrived the area, it was so jam-packed! The Romanian do enjoy picnic and picnic seems to be top outing activity for the families in the holidays, in spring and summer, of course. Searching for a parking and a perfect shady place were no easy job.

Finally, we found a nice place, less people, less pollution and was in the woods!

Under the shady grass, blue sky, white clouds... hmmm perfect!

"OK, start to work now!"

"Ahhhh... so nice! This time got my hubby taken in the pic!"

"Oh, the little bug also wants to join us!"

We decided to explore the woods. There was a way leading us into the mysterious woods. Surrounded by the tall trees, we exposed ourselves in chilly winds and unseen animals. It wasn't spookey anyway, also the air was really refreshing! In fact, I quite liked it!

Spent about 15 minutes of walk in the woods, then we came out safe and sound. To my horror, I felt some tiny raindrops on my face! Darn!

"I thought you told me about the weather report for today was sunny!? Today is the only sunny day in this week! Right?" I exclaimed with a little confusion and disappointment.

"Uh...yeah, but I dunno why it rains. Maybe the weather forecast was wrong. Oh maybe the aeroplane is spraying the mosquito repellent, might not be the rain..." Daniel replied.

"Hopefully!" I said. But in my heart I knew it was raining.

"Oh God, please don't ruin the outing and my mood." I prayed.

We walked to the parents, they were preparing the grill tools and going to start the grill at any time. While waiting for the food, the raindrops began larger and larger, so did my eyes! Looking at the rain, my heart broke into pieces...

"No... it will stop, can't treat us like that!"

"Well, if it really rains heavily then we finish the mici and go back home OK?" Daniel said.

"Whatever...OK." I replied with a big disappointment.

To my surprise, the rain only carried on for 10 minutes and stopped. The sun appeared again and starting to shine to its best!

"YAY!!" My mood was back!

"Food are ready! Let's see what are the specialities for today..."
"The mici !! One of my favourtie food!"

"And the grilled chicken drumsticks!" *Drooling*

The chefs behind the finger-licking food.

After savoured everything, we rested for a while. Lying down on the grass, relaxing a little bit. It was 4:30pm, the place was getting crowded and noisier (many children playing), we decided to pack everything and continue to hit our next destination - the zoo.

- to be continued

It's Up!

2008-04-28T12:34:00.001-07:00

Finally, new look for my blog is up!

*Yawn~

Dear Daniel - A Message For You

2008-04-27T04:33:00.001-07:00

Dear Daniel,

I have a message for you...

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

2008-04-26T12:06:00.000-07:00

We are celebrating Easter this weekend!

Orthodox Christian (Eastern Christianity) are celebrating the Easter in April 27 this year. Since the majority is Orthodox here, Friday and next Monday will be the public holidays!

We guessed the city was rather empty because of this, so we planned to go sightseeing in the city *again. I'm glad we did, coz the city was so flowery that we had to take some pictures.

A big chess board in the Union Square! Checkmate!!

The Easter Eggs.

And the cute rabbits!

Me with the Mr. Rabbit.

The Victory Square, full of colourful tulips!

Taking pictures with the fountain.

Fountain, fountain, please make my wish comes true...

We went to the Bega River after the Victory Square, the water flows towards the Danube River in another end of Romania. We sat on a bench for a couple of minutes enjoying the moment. I wish we could have a house here, near the river, surrounded by the green and the chirping birds. Everything seems peaceful and relaxing. Oh yeah, that's not a house in the picture, it's a restaurant.