Parkpop, 2011

This weekend turned out to be full to the brim with fun activities.

Every year in Zuiderpark in The Hague there is an open air free festival called Parkpop. Every year this festival is on a day that is worth calling a perfect summer day. This is rare in the Netherlands, other festivals have been nicknamed for the bad luck with the weather, but not this one!

Early afternoon we cycled on the extremely busy bike lanes to the park to spend a relaxed afternoon listening to music. The park was full with all types of people, people that would not generally go to a festival if there was an entrance fee.

The only down side of this event was that there were no ATMs inside and the nearest one was pretty far away. Luckily being the foreigner I didn't know where the ATM was located and it was the job of my boyfriend to walk all the way, outside of the park grounds, to get us some more cash! In this plastic oriented world I had expected a cash machine inside the grounds.

What Greek islands should you visit?

This summer we're planning to visit Greece, specifically a couple of its islands. I love planning holidays and deciding which places to visit in a country but with Greece and it's tons of islands it gets harder to make a decision which works out well. So I compiled a list to ease my decision.

What do you need to keep in mind when choosing your island/s:

• Do you want to fly directly to the island from your home country? In that case it has to be one of the bigger islands that has an international airport. Many of the islands which do have an airport cater only for internal flights. Remember also that some eastern islands are very close to Turkey and can be reached via ferries from Turkey.

•  If you're visiting only for a week stick to a small amount of islands. Visiting an island every 3 days seems good enough. Island hopping can then be done by very short plane rides, ferries or catamarans (faster than ferries). You could also rent a boat with skippers and sail from one island to another.

• Do you want to party? Then chose one of the party islands in which you can lie on the beach till 5pm and then start partying directly at the beach since the music will be too loud for you to sleep anyway! I think islands like Mykonos, Kos and Crete (quite popular with the Dutch) are great for partying hard.

• Do you want the authentic feel of Greece in the Mediterranean setting? Then visit those islands which are not yet too popular with the tourists and haven't lost their authentic touch due to commercialism and tourism. A few years ago I had visited the island of Ios early in summer and it was such a lovely place with few people on the white sandy beaches. 

•  Do you want some history and archaeology? Then make sure to fly to Athens before heading to your island and try and visit Delos. Remember though that visitors in Delos cannot stay overnight.  

• Do you wish fantastic views? Most islands offer fantastic views however Santorini is a must see with lovely, albeit extremely crowdy sunsets and breath taking views of it's cliffs. I believe I had the best view ever from a restaurant while eating at Santorini. Beaches though were black and even though impressive to see there were horrible to swim at.

Now, after writing this maybe I can make a decision on which islands to visit this summer!

[Image Credits: I Help Greece]

Why Kindle is great

Last Christmas I got a Kindle for Christmas. I have now read a few books on it and I just love it.

Why is it such a good buy:

• It is light weight and can easily be carried around if you plan to read while commuting to work

• Reading from it doesn't strain your eyes. The technology used is different from that used on computers and mobiles. There is no backlight and it literally feels that you're reading from paper.

• There are so many cute covers you can accesorise it with. Mine has a pink leather cover. It's very durable and doesn't bulk it up. You can also buy covers that come with a small light source so that you can also read in the dark without having to put extra light on.

• Buying books is very easy and quick. It takes less than a minute to have it downloaded on your Kindle.

• You'll stop losing the location that you stopped reading at

• You can mark parts of your book and jot down notes. You can share these notes with other Kindle users or even share them on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter.

• There is a dicitonary and thesaurus for the words you cannot understand.

What I miss from the normal book experience:

• The smell of books, both old and new

• Going to a shop or second hand book market and flip through books. Although I think I can still do this and then download the books at home. I still plan to buy some paper books anyway especially if they are technical or cooking books.

• Not being able to lend my books to friends and family when I have finished reading a book.

• If I'm at the beach it might be slightly unsafe to leave your Kindle unattended plus what if it gets water on it?!

Is the Kindle causing me to read more? In the end I doubt that since my love of reading is just that; a love of reading and it doesn't really matter on what medium I read from

Here's Kle's opinions about the Kindle.

Design Corner

This week we've been looking at dozens of paint samples to come up with ideas for the colours of all the rooms in the new house. This process ignited my designing mood. Finally I can use some ideas obtained from some of the design sites I follow.


Apartment Therapy a great site for design ideas for your home.It helps connecting people to the resources they need to improve their homes, while reducing their reliance on stuff.


Design Milk is an online magazine dedicated to modern design. This site is perfect to show you what’s fresh and new in art, architecture, interior design, furniture and decor, fashion, and technology.

[Image Credits: Cottage Home Decorating]

Restaurant Corner: Sa Seada

This week together with my colleagues we went to the Italian restaurant Sa Seada in Amsterdam. The owners are from Napoli, so most dishes offered were traditional dishes from the locality. I have a soft spot for Italian food and I'm always on the lookout for good Italian restaurants.

Throughout the evening I got to brush up my Italian, something I love doing when I have the opportunity.

Dinner consisted of a 4 course set menu. There was large quantities of food and all of us got full before the main course reached our table. Thus if you plan to go there make sure to have a light lunch.

The mixed starters we got were abundant and with a great selection. The vogole were lovely as well as the parmigiana. The rest of the food was also very good, mostly presented in a slightly non-traditional way, such as a Dorade fillet wrapped around a king prawn.

All food was served at the same time, even though we were a large table. The only downside was that we had a very long waiting time between each serving.

Unluckily the restaurant doesn't have it's own site which I think at this day and age every restaurant should have even if it is a rudimentary one.

[Image Credits: Accademia Del Giglio]

Starting the corner

I decided to add a section to this blog. It will be a corner of sorts in which I put the spotlight on certain blogs, restaurants, links and websites that I find interesting.

You can view the first restaurant corner here.