Realia

Hi bloggers I want to introduce you to the Italian rock group whose one of the members used to be my flatmate, Roberto Conti in Dublin 7, in a neighbourhood called phisborough. He even burned a couple of songs from their cd in our laptop and this is their first video, i love this song "al di lá dil celo" and I wish you Roberto and your group the best of luck! you deserve it!

your biggest fans: Belén and Andrés



if you want to know more about the group ,you can find them under:

http://www.realia.name/

A great video of the way the people look like in the Metro

A good friend of mine,Tati sent me this video that reminds me of my times in Munich when I used to take the underground ( U-bahn) and it was in silence, no talking and people looked very serious. I used to smile on my first days in the metro but then after years living there,in the end you look serious, as well!! and i you talk to your friend people look at you because in a way you broke the silence and quietness. The worst thing is to get used to that silence, as we did, because then you travel around the world and it´s very hard to find such a civilized and silence community!

This video is very original and shows what happens when someone breaks the normality on a metro trip! dont miss it!

Terminator 4 " Salvation"

A bit violent, video game-like movie but I have to say that I was gladly surprised (i thought it was gonna be much worse lol). Spite of being the 4th movie of the terminator series, the movie keeps you entertained and Christian Bale played an excellent role along with Sam Worthington (they are both very hot, as well by the way!). The special effects are unbeliavable if you compare them with the first 2 movies of the series! There is even also a short scene with Arnold Schwarzeneger in it lol , to me that was the best part. Terminators fans do not miss this movie even though some critics didn´t give it a good score, ignore them!! for the rest if you are not into very violent and action movies..do not go!and if you are, go to the cinema and watch it there,if you watch it from your laptop it´s not gonna be the same!

Some songs that bring me some memories from England in the 90ies

The Tamperer feat. Maya - Feel it

This 90'ies dance song reminds me of my frist summers in England 11 years ago where I was learning English, starting to taking planes and I haven´t stopped since then! This song may not be good for some but it brings memories back to me and I like it!



This song from Mouse T also brings me memories from England ,specially because I sang it loud without knowing the meaning of "horny" and I was on the streets from Poole (little town in the South coast of England) singing "i´m horny,horny,horny tonight"!


As I only knew the songs from the radio or the discos, I had to sing any song I liked to the music shop assistant , that was the only way to try to get the right single in the old tapes and take it home with me!

The last example of the single tape I took with me from England to Córdoba is this song by Tina Cousins "misterious times"

Air france flight, it could have been us..

I wanted to share with you what happened to us on our 11-hour flight from Bogotá to Paris with the company air-france. I have to say that I found translantic flights with air-france very comfi with a excellent service, a wide range of movies,games and tv shows to see on your private screen (each passanger has one) and you can always have a good French wine or anything to eat if you are hungry throughout the flight. This was my good and fair opinion of it until last time.., as you know i´m not very fond of flying specially since i became fan of the discovery channel reportage series: "air-crash investigation". Mea culpa,anyway (you learn a lot with them though!).

Well, on our flight back on the 25th of MAy 2009 we had to wait for one hour and a half until we finally took off. First, we had to wait until all passengers took their seats ,fair enough, but then, when we had our seatbealts on and the plane was moving very slowly (still on earth) the pilot said " there are some technichal issues and that we have to go back to our rest-point". At that time I thought, o.k.,they will fix whatever and then we will leave. Time started to pass vey slowly and i couldn´t be seated for longer. The black obese woman on my left-handside hardly left me space for my skinny left arm and leg. She was actually very nice and I dont have anything against obese people,dont get my wrong. The woman started to be nervous and noticed that I wasn´t feeling well either, she looked at me and said: "Hey, I´m claustrofobic and i dont like flying and now this.., are you scared? i know how you feel,if you want you can have some drops,they are very good" she said.I looked at her with a worrying look and I said "no, thank you,you are very kind". I stood up to get close to the stweardess to try to find out what was going on and I did..to some extent. The stweardess was looking through the emergency window and said to another passenger that it seemed that there were some problems with the petrol ,he went on and said that the pilot should have seen something going on before taking off since pilots calculate exactly the amout of petrol needed for the journey. At that point, I asked for water to try to digest what I heard. I explained to my husband the situation. Then, the stweardess went on and confirmed that he had not seen something like that in a very long time ..,he was supposed to calm the tripulation down but i was getting anxious. At that moment, I decided to go back to my seat with my claustrophobic neighbour and remain ignorant of what was happening,after all ignorant people suffer less in some situations. After a long time without any news, the pilot talked and said that in 20 mins we will be taking off so i tried to fall asleep with no luck,of course. The 20 minutes passed and then the security instructions were given and we fasten our seatbealts again. The plane was going very slowly to take off so i knew they were testing something..that wasn´t normal, the speed was not increasing. Once again, i was right and the pilot said that we couldn´t take off yet and further security checks would be needed. Then, passengers started to call their families to communicate that there were some tech issues etc and I thought to myself " In Spain it´s 1 a.m., i can´t even say bye to my family if i´m gonna die! ". My claustrophobic neighbour fall asleep with the magical drops (i still dont know the content of them ,i didn´t want to ask lol but she slept all the way!) finally,after 90 minutes inside that airbus we managed to take off. It was the worst flight i have ever been on because i knew that if we ran out of petrol, there was only the ocean to land for miles and miles. There was a small storm and mild turbulence throughout the flight..oh God, I hardly slept thinking of the worse could happen. We got to Paris alive! yes! and guess what? one of the plane´s doors was out of order and we couldn´t get out of it up to 15 minutes had passed.

But this is not the end of it, when We got to DUblin, My husband told a work colleague our troubled flight and guess what? she came on a flight from Bogotá the week before on another air-france flight and they also had technical issues before taking off although they were not waiting for such a long time.

This morning at work, I have read that there was one airfrance airbus flight gone from the radar with around 228 passengers,they were going to Brazil. Another transanlatic flight.., would it be the same plane on which we were?I got goose pimple! I´m ver thankful to be here today and I´m really sorry for all the passengers on the crashed air-france flight , i do hope that they have not suffered so much.. my thoughts are with the families..

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ed0588a4-4e98-11de-8c10-00144feabdc0.html

Festival de los hombre semi-desnudos en Japón

Ayer vi un documental en la BBC sobre uno de los festivales mundiales que más me han impactado, el festival de los hombres semi-desnudos en Japón. Miles de hombres vestidos tan sólo con una especie de pañal de tela blanca, como los sumos, llamada fundoshis. Los hombres semidesnudos se reunen para liberarse de la mala fortuna acumulada. Para ello al principio de cada año se elige a un "Shin-otoko" u hombre desnudo que será honrado con dicho rol esperitual unos dias antes del festival a través de rituales purificadores. Al día siguiente a eso del medio dia, una docena de hombres semidesnudos con sus fundoshis van recorriendo la ciudad con un palo de bambú de unos 10 metros de altura donde van atando en las hojas trozos de tela con deseos de cada hombre,van recorriendo la ciudad y por el camino la gente le va dejando deseos atados y se van uniendo más y más hombres semidesnudos. Los hombres van hasta arriba de sake y se les ve muy emocionados en la carrera. Su fin será encontrar al "Shin-otoko" (hombre desnudo elegido el dia anterior) y tocarle la cabeza afeitada para poder librarse de su mala suerte. El Shi-otoko deberá llegar al templo con vida y para ello un grupo de 4 hombres intentan protegerle de la multitud. Es impresionante ver como sale la gente con cardenales,ojos morados o hasta inclusos algunos pierden la vida en la multitud descontrolada. El inglés periodista que se metió en el festival con los hombres semi-desnudos estaba muy impresionado y con síntomas de sofoco y rojeces de el contacto y golpes de los otros hombres semidesnudos.

Aquí tenéis un video para que veáis una pequeña parte:

Isla coralina de San Andres, Colombia

La isla colombiana de San Andres junto con Providencia y Santa Catalina fue declarado por las Naciones Unidas reserva mundial de la Biosfera. Isla considerada com puerto libre ideal para comprar a más bajo precio ya que las tiendas de la isla son "duty free",no puedes dejar la isla sin comprarte tu perfume favorito (cuidado con las imitaciones,también!)! A tan sólo 1 hora y 30 minutos de Bogotá en Avión se puede llegar a la isla.

La simpátia y hospitalidad de los nativos de la isla,la hacen todavia un sitio más agradable. Acogen al turista con los brazos abiertos y le hacen sentir a uno como en su casa.

Sus playas de arena blanca debido a los corales,la transparecia y los 7 colores del mar del caribe y la cálida temperatura del agua,invita a disfrutar la isla. Se ofrecen clases de buceo,snorkel,vela,motos aquáticas,windsurf,canoas,excursiones en barcas submarinaspara explorar la variedad marina de la isla etc hacen que uno se mantenga entretenido durante sus vacaciones.

La isla ofrece un contraste de la parte más turística con complejos hoteleros donde se puede tener todo incluido en el precio: alojamiento,pensión completa y cocktails durante todo el dia (un poco fastidioso la pulserita que te ponen al entrar al hotel que se debe llevar puesta todos los dias de la estancia )hasta alojamientos más humildes donde se puede compartir la forma de vida de los nativos de la isla.

En temporada alta ,El número de días de la estancia en la isla está controlada debido al pequeño tamaño de la misma y a la cantidad de turistas que la visitan que debe ser controlado al sólo tener 12 km de largo y un ancho máximo de 3 kms. Una vez en la isla se puede alquilar un cochecito llamado : boogie y con él se puede recorrer San Andrés por un módico precio (todo dependerá de tu habilidad al regatear!).

Cosas a tener en cuenta:

Hay que cuidarse de los mosquitos y llevar siempre un buen protector solar anti insectos, sobre todo cuando empieza a bajar más el sol que es cuando más pueden picar.

El agua de la isla no es potable y se debe beber siempre agua mineral,tampoco se debe lavar uno los dientes con agua del grifo y hay que tener mucho cuidado con lo que se come en los bares o cafeterias de la isla,sobre todo si son más humildes,debido al agua que utilicen ya que puede causar diahrrea o el denominado "mal del viajero". Nosotros ,la verdad es que al tenerlo todo incluido en el hotel no comiamos fuera,ni siquiera un helado (ya que se hacen con agua) y no tuvimos ningún problema.

San Andrés es una isla muy segura con escasa o nula delicuencia nuestra experiencia fue muy positiva y quedé enamorada de la isla y de sus gentes.

Era curioso ver como la gente pobre vivia en casitas justo en la orilla de la playa, gente que se sentaban en las puertas de sus casa a conversar y ver gente. Una actitud muy isleña,sin ningún tipo de estrés. La mayoria de los isleños se trasladan por la isla en moto,a veces hasta 4 personas van montados!

A movie not to be missed: "Let the right one in"

This is the first Swedish movie I have ever seen in my life and I was positively surprised. The filmmaker Thomas Alfredson takes you through a story mixed with true feelings such us: being rejected by society, being bullied, tenderness viewed through the eyes of 2 kids. One being a 12-year old vampire girl,Eli and the other, Oskar being a common kid that starts a magic relationship with his new and lonely neighbour: Eli who only comes out at nights in a very cold suburb in Stocklohm.

I´m not going to tell you more of the story but even the violent bits of it that reflects Elis´need of eating blood are made in such a way that you really understand the necessity of it. This is not a movie for everybody, though. My husband and I loved it and I found it very aesthetic. We loved the ending, it was great to get a break from the predictable American movies and see something different.

I truly recommend it if you are not scared of seeing some blood combined with the feelings I have described above. We even had some fun reading the subtitles and trying to learn some Swedish! "ah" means yes! (that´s the only thing we could get really lol. Run to the cinemas since it´s not a very commercial movie and I dont´ know how much longer it will last!

the trailer can be seen at:

http://www.lettherightoneinmovie.com/

My favourite cities: Viena

I was in Viena last year with my mother for 4 days and we really enjoyed the city´s cultural life. We took the city bus tour departing from the Opera but to be honest, i don´t recommend it because you lose a lot of time (one you get off the bus you have to wait for a long time to get a new one) and Viena has good means of transport : tram, bus and underground and you can get to all places easily.

My recommendations:

Dont miss the Museumsquartier, it´s a square full of different museums and each museum has a beautiful cafeteria.

Try to see as many paintings from Klimt as possible, his paintings are in different museums around the city. Our firs visit was to Leopold Museum where you can also see interesting paintings from an Austrian artists called Schiele, a bit tetric but we liked it. You can spend one day in the quartier if you are a museum´s lover.

The most famous klimt´s painting: "the kiss" can be found at the glorious Belvedere Palace in the "oberessaal" , it is one of the most beautiful paintings I have seen. The palace is huge but we only went to see the room where Klimmt´s paintings were as you can also spend one day only inside the palace! To go to the palace you need time since it´s a bit far from the city centre, we went by underground and then we had to walk for aorund 15 minutes.

Don´t miss: The city centre with the opera,walk along the "Käntnerstrasse" (commercial street)get to the the Cathedral, the parliament, the Rathaus,a very beautiful "Votvitkirche","Hofburg", the university, the "Stadt park", Albertina´s museum,"Hundertwasser Haus" (modernist neighbourhood where you can find some small interesting shops) the Donau Insel it´s great to walk along if it´s sunny and of course dont leave Vienna without going to:

the Sissi´s palace : "Schönbrunn Schloss" its garden´s are huge and you need many hours to walk along them. We went there to attend a concert and see some Bals dancing. You can book this on the internet and then you collect the tickets once you are in Vienna. It´s beautiful because they play the most known balls and they also dance.

Viena is full of cafeterias with delicious cakes and it also have many good restaurants where you should order a " wiener Schnitzel". A good place to have lunch or dinner is the market " linke wienzeile" ,it´s full of different places to have a good meal according to your taste. By the way,just in front of the opera you can have a typcial "wiener Frühstuck ( breakfast from Viena)" for only 5 euros! we went there every day!

The hotel where we stayed was : http://www.austria-trend.at/hotel-ananas/en/ it was very clean and close to the centre, very expensive to have lunch or breakfast there so we found a good place just close to the opera.

If you are going to be for 3 days at least, i´d recommend you to buy the ticket for 72 hours where you can use all transports and form the airport you can use the CAT train that it´s quick and takes you straight to the city.

I found Viena a very romantic city, full of art,beautiful buildings many with "cariatides", with great restaurants and cafeterias! There are many more beutiful sights to see in Viena, I only put the most important ones

To me Viena is one of the most European beautiful cities and I´d recommend you to go if you haven´t been there yet! I was very happy to have been able to bring my mother to such a beautiful city and as she is a fan of classical music ,Viena was the perfect city!

Las bragas más horteras que he visto en mi vida!The tackiest knickers I have ever seen!

Spanish version:
Está claro que mi blog es un cocktail de pensamientos y opiniones, este "post" no va a ser muy profundo porque sólo es para mostraros las bragas más horteras y fosforescentes que se han fabricado jamás!!¿véis lo que brillan?!! sólo podían estar en el pennys!! la tienda favorita de todo turista que se precie y no por las bragas en sí,sino por los precios!

English version:

It´s a fact that my blog is a cocktail of thoughts and opinions. This post is not going to be very "deep" because I only wanted to show you the tackiest knickers ever produced! Can you see how shinny they are? They could only be sold at the shop pennys! The favourite shop of every tourist but not due to the knickers but to the prices!(only locals could actually wear those knickers lol)

Paddington Bear

The most international bear " paddington bear", a dark immigrant bear originally from Perú that arrived in London in 1956 with his iconic suitcase and hat. I felt very close to this cute little bear who was sent by her peruvian aunt, Lucy to the Paddignton train station in London with a sign " please look after this bear, thank you"! Our train got to that old ,classic station in London. The name of the renowed station rang a bell to me but I did not realize it was linked to the famous bear until I saw souvenirs of him everywhere!Paddy, bear whose favourite meal is sandwiches with marmalades. After so many years he is still part of the children British literature, having his books being transalated into around 30 languages. What does this bear have that so many people around the world like him? If you have kids and want them to get to know him ,he has a official page with free activities for them!he even has a cookery corner!

http://www.paddingtonbear.co.uk/en/1/home.mxs

you see , i also have a sweet kid inside me and of course i brought with me a little paddington bear from London and im´taking care of him!