I don’t have that much time for posting these days, because this vacation is really messing up my blogging schedule. But I really wanted to share a few photos with you, the first ones taken in Alkmaar.

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Dear friends,

After a 2 and a half hours WizzAir flight, we arrived in Dortmund (two days ago). We then headed to the Central Station to get our tickets for our train ride to Alkmaar. It took us about an hour to get there, with some help from a Turkish guy who had also traveled from Bucharest.

At the station, we got our tickets (round trip) and got into the first train which left in 10 minutes. We changed trains three times and about five hours later we were in Alkmaar, greeted by Trisi and Gokhan. And our adventure in Alkmaar has started. With plans to also see Amsterdam, Hoorn and Haga.

Day one of visiting Alkmaar has also turned me into a crazy-for-shopping type of woman. I found a lot of stuff that fit me perfectly and I also bought a few things for D. Oh, and did I mention I love Dutch cheese, and Danish blue, and the bread here. And most importantly, Trisi is an amazing cook.

We’ve seen the Cheese Market (but we need to also see the show on Friday morning), the Big Church (which is indeed huge), a lot of boats and bicycles, wonderful terraces and houses with a really interesting architecture.

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We all know and enjoy the days when all goes smoothly and we cherish (or forget to) each second for its beauty and fulfilling feeling. But there are also other days. When life becomes one blurry question, when we loose control over situations and facts are simply forced on us. When people are less than willing to act in friendly way besides our best efforts to make them feel welcome and at ease. When those we work with act unprofessionally, proving to be narrow minded and shallow.

Yes, getting what we wish for is not always easy. Sometimes dreams are crushed and we are down on our knees, wondering why on earth such things happen to us. Is it well deserved? Should we have seen it coming? What should we do then?

The first thing would be to finally understand there is no one best suited then ourselves to drag us out from unwanted situations, to dream and fight for what we dream of. Then, we should turn to the warm souls willing to help us share our desires and maybe put their minds to finding a way to make it all possible.

Turning to the magical things that happen around us will also turn out to be useful in making us stop obsessing about ultimately unimportant issues. And if you are not doing enough to keep your mind busy and to try making yourself feel better again, then accept a writing challenge and try putting into words everything you feel trapped inside your soul and mind. Now, would you like to retry? I know I would.

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You know how we sometimes postpone life changing choices until they become a priority? We all do it at times. But fate has its way of forcing us to focus and think about the issues we were trying to postpone in the first place. With that in mind, you can have a clearer view of how my day went. Although life has always proven me it’s all for the better, I can’t help not feeling sad…

Hope your day went better…

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Has any of you seen any movie from the “Saw” series? Or at least heard of them? I have only been told about parts of the movie and have seen a trailer for soon to come “Saw IV”. These movies features such a violence, cruelty and everything bad you can imagine that I am pretty sure they should be forbidden. The 4 minute trailer that I saw managed to bring out everything that was worse in humans.

We went and prohibited cigarette ads on TV. But aren’t we using double standards here? I believe the right approach would be to either ban everything harming people at any level or just stop pretending we care about what is broadcasted. Do you thing having a sign stating cigarette ads should not be watched by minors would help?

I have seen my share of movies with brutal serial criminals. I’d mention Seven and the Millennium series here. But at least there are sane conclusions there! And most of all, the criminal is caught. What happens in Saw? I wouldn’t know, but thinking that Jigsaw kidnaps and tortures people in all movies of the series might get you to my conclusions. There is no real punishment or consequence if he keeps doing it without being caught.

Yes, serial killers are a reality. But is taking such a close look to violence they bear inside and occasionally let out a smart approach? If one person only watches the movies and thinks doing something similar is fun, wouldn’t that be too much to pay for a bad movie? And have you seen the ratings these movies have on IMDB?

I for one believe a person who could think of such a sick script and go ahead and turn it into a movie is not in their right mind. Don’t we care anymore about who sees the movie? About the impact it has? About consequences? With everything available online, do we actually kid ourselves with false illusions of no-minor access to it?

If it were my choice, I would prohibit such movies from general TV channels. They should only be allowed on special channels with secure access. And in the cinemas…well, long after midnight. That would decrease profits enough to decrease interest in making up and producing such sick movies. Till then, do not waste your money on seeing any of these movies. And if you are a fan of downloads, it is really not worth your bandwidth.

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