King's day

27th April is a public holiday here. The birthday of King Willem-Alexander is one of the greatest events in the Netherlands. There are festivals all over the country. People wear orange clothing and everyone goes a little crazy.

Fortunately, it was pretty sunny in Amsterdam. The center was full of people. There were concerts at several points of the city. In front of the Royal palace, a fan-fair has been set up.

Most of the city was locked up. However, we saw traffic jams. Not in the streets, but in the canals. They were full of boats. Bridges has slown down the traffic a lot, but it  did not bother the passengers. They just partied on and on...

Other specialities of this day are street markets. Many people use this event to make some money. Kids sell their homemade lemonade, musicians play their instruments. Others collect their unused and unwanted stuffs (clothes, toys), and offer them for sale.

This day was interesting. It is great that we get to know more and more about this country, its culture, and habits.  Now, we have our own orange stuffs for next Dutch event. :) 

Krakow: sightseeing & ice hockey

Last weekend we flow to Poland. We spent Saturday with sightseeing. On Sunday we went to an ice hockey game, because this year world championship Divison I, Group A. is taking place in Krakow. Hungary plays in this group with the host, Poland, Japan, Italy, Kazahstan and Ukraine. Countries with the gold and silver medal will step up to the elit group, and get a chance to play against the best hockey nations (Canada, USA, Finland, Russia...) next year. The country with the less points will fall out to Division I. Group B. But this is not an option. :) We are really crossing fingers for our guys to make a miracle.

We had to wake up really really early to catch the plane at 7 a.m. Since there is no direct flight to Krakow, we transferred in Warsaw. After arriving, we headed to our accommodation, and then went for some sightseeing. We walked a loooot. My legs hurt in the evening. The city is really nice, especially the old town. Some parts of the city look a lot like Budapest.

The streets are mostly cobblestoned. At the old town tourist can travel by carts. The terracotta appears in most of the building in Krakow. 

The building of Wawel Cathedral seemed a little crowded for me with the many colours, shapes and materials. But it is really unique.

The Royal Castle was highly renovated due to the destruction of WWII. It is not a tipical castle buliding.

We visited the Shindler's factory (Schindler's list)  where Shindler employed jewish people, and this way could save many of them from being sent to concentration camp. You can learn more about it on website: http://www.mhk.pl/branches/oskar-schindlers-factory

The Renaissance Cloth Hall provides a variable range of gifts and souvenirs to tourists.

My favourite buliding of all was the St. Josephs's church. It is so huge and majestic. 

The weather was really changeable and crazy. We got wind, icy rain and sun in a couple of hours, but it did not keep us from exploring the city.

For dinner, we had lángos, or as they wrote it: langosz. It is a traditional hungarian meal, made of flour, yeast, milk,  salt, water and a little bit of sugar. It is fried in hot oil, and topped with garlic, sour cream and cheese. It was almost as yummy as the ones at home.

On gameday we left the hotel after having breakfast, and headed to Tauron Arena. On our way there we met many Hungarians with red-white-green jerseys and scarfs, No surprise, I knew a lot of people will come to support the team. It was nice too see this many people from my country after 2 month. Somehow it was like being at home. I was really happy about finally meeting my little sister again, who is also a hockey-lover. 

During the game, the atmosphere was fantastic. The voices of the Hungarian fans (about 2000..., unbelievable) filled the place. We defeated Japan in a really exciting game. We were really happy. The players were really glad and thankful as well.

After the game we had to go to the airport. Too bad, we could watch only one game on the spot. Many fans are spending the whole week in Krakow. I am cheering our guys in front of the tv. Go Hungarians! Hajrá magyarok!!! :) <3

Muiden

We love exploring. We try not to spent the weekends within the 4 walls, and always search for destinations. Fortunately, in the Netherlands there is a lot to see. I spend a lot of time surfing in the internet. 

The other day, I have bumped into this article:http://www.netherlandstourism.com/the-8-most-impressive-castles-in-the-netherlands/

All of them look gorgeous, right? :) We started with the first one right off. Of course by bike. :)

The route would be normally about 10 kms, but due to road closures, we had to cycle a couple of kms more. Anyway, there are quite a lot of road maintenances in the country recently, even for bike routes.

The castle was so beautiful, like in a Disney movie. It also had a big garden, but unfortunately it was rather in winter mood.

Inside the castle was a little cold. They could light up at least one of  the many fireplaces. :D We walked up and down on narrow spiral staircases to reach all the rooms. 

In one of the rooms visitors can put on medieval clothes. There are costumes for both adults, and kids. The souvenir shop offers many books, maps, ornaments, toys. Hot mint tea warmed us up at the cafe, that also located at the castle. The strawberry pie was absolutely delicious. :)

There are a lot of bridges in the Netherlands (about 1200 only in Amsterdam). That is not a surprise, since a lot of areas are covered with water.  We have already passed opening bridges, but while cycling home, we saw a weird one. Instead of opening up, it turned 90 degrees to let the ship go through. It was interesting to watch, but really slow, and caused a little traffic jam.

All in all, this was a great adventure again. Don't worry, we have some other destinations in mind too, we never run out of ideas. :)

Brussels

We spent our last weekend at Brussels, the capital of the European Union. We travelled by Eurolines, and arrived there at about 12 a.m. on Saturday. We decided to buy tickets for Hop on-hop off tourist bus. In this way, we could see every famous attractions of the city, get off, if we were interested in a closer look, and get on again to continue the route. Just an advice: always check the maps available in hotels and in tourist buses. They can include great discounts in restaurants and museums.

I loved the royal palace. Unfortunately, it is opened to the visitors only in summer. The good thing is that there is no admission fee. It is not the place, where the royal family live, it is only like an "office" for the king.

We visited St. Michael's Cathedral. It was beautiful both outside and inside.

There was a huge crowd by the famous Manneken Pis statue. No surprise, it is one of the most popular symbols of the city. At the time of our visit he was not dressed up, but he sometimes "wears" different costumes. Here you can find a couple of examples: http://www.manneken-pis.be/galerie/

Other famous attraction of Brussels is the Atomium. It is rather far from the city centre, but definetely worth a visit. Reaching it was no problem with the Line 1 of Hop on-Hop off buses. This thing is huge, much taller than I have expected. It is 102 m.

Not so far from Atomium you can find Mini-Europe. Due to lack of time, we did not go in. By the way, it shows the famous features of each european country, just in a much smaller size: Mini Eiffel-tower, mini Big Ben, mini Berlin Wall, mini Vezuvius volcano and so on. Hungary is represented by Széchenyi Thermal Bath.

Parlamentarium was really interesting. There in no admission fee, however they pay attention to security a lot.  You have to put your jacket, jewellery and bag into a plastic case and walk through a security gate, just like in an airport. Visitors get a media guide, which is available with all of the official EU languages, including Hungarian.

The first room describes the  EU buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg. After that, you can learn a lot about the history of EU, its establishment and broadening.

                    

In an other room there are several voting-machines. You get a chance to answer to important social and political questions.You can check the results as well, and see how other visitors voted. You can also sit in a courtroom with high-tech displays.

Beside the above, Parlamentarium provides a lot of fan activities. We could easily spent a couple of hours there.

To sum up, 2 days is definitely not enough to explore every single attractions of this wonderful city, but at least, we got an insight into a little slice of Belgium. 

Madame Tussauds & Heineken Experience

For last Friday we planned 2 activities. Madame Tussauds for the girls and Heineken Brewery for the boys.

First of all, I would recommend everyone to buy museum tickets online, if it is possible. This way you don't have to wait for your turn in a long queue, and sometimes it is also cheaper. Since both attractions are really popular with tourists, we could save a lot of time.

The well-known Madame Tussauds museums can be found at many famous cities all over the world (Berlin, London, Vienna, Prague, Tokio, Bangkok, Shanghai, Sydney, New York, Washington, Hollywood...). It is a great opportunity to "meet" your favourite celebrities, and to take an awesome photo with their wax replicas. Every Madame Tussauds has its own local celebrities, and beside them also many worldwide known actors, actresses, singers, historical and fictional characters. 

You can take E.T. for a  ride, and see how tall Barack Obama is.

You can also be a part of Hannibal Lecter's mad world. You can have a Nespresso (what else?!) with George Clooney, or clink glasses with Sir Sean Connery. By the way, 2 other James Bonds also show up at the museum: Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.                                                                                    

If you are into sports, then the last rooms are for you. Doing some situps with David Beckham, or grabbing a racket with Rafael Nadal are both achievable.

For all of the celebrities, visit the website:
https://www.madametussauds.com/Amsterdam/en/Default.aspx

Our visit at the Heineken Brewery left both good and bad feelings. If you want to learn about the whole production process of this well-known beer, this is your place.

For the beer-lovers: the ticket includes 3*0,25 l Heineken beer, but if you can answer some tricky questions or you are brave enough to try to pour a glass of perfect draft beer, you can get even more. Visitors get the first glass of Heineken at the tasting room, where the crew shows how to drink the beer expertly. You do it right, when the foam stays at the bottom of the glass. So you have to take big sips while drinking.

The "brew you" part of this adventure was so fun, but waiting for it about 45 mins was not at all. We went to a little movie room in little groups, and watched a short film about how Heineken beer is made.  The tricky part was that the place, where we stood, was moving. It followed the movements of the film, as in a 4D cinema. It was like we were transformed into beers. We were dropped in a huge boiler, heated up, stirred, and poured into bottles. Then we got caps, were sorted out into crates and finally delivered to a party. It was hilarious ! :D

The museum lines up many old bottles and coasters too. Since Heineken is one of the greatest sponsors of football, fans can play FIFA, and see some  football shoes and jerseys of famous sportsmen.















As a closure of Heineken experience there was a huge room, where we got our 2 other free Heineken beers. With the music, and the cool lights, this place looked like a pub.

Despite all the waiting, I would recommend everyone to visit this place. This museum uses the technical achievements of the modern world perfectly, and this makes this so interesting and popular. And you know... the beer.

Nederland-Spanje 2:0

Yesterday we went to a friendly football game against Spain with some other Hungarians. One hour before beginning, the surrounding of the arena  was full of people with orange hats, jackets, scrafs, and even suits. Unfortunately, we had not got any orange stuffs, but apparently must buy something just to be more Dutch. :)
The arena was so huge, it was the biggest I have ever seen. Its capacity is about 50.000 and it was nearly full. Dutch people are obviously crazy for football.

At break time there was kiss camera, which you can often see in American movies. It was so sweet to see the couples spotting themselves on the screen and kissing each other :) Too bad the camera did not find us.

I would not say I have significat knowledge of this sport,and its rules, (I am a hockey-lover girl) but at least I knew some players, among others Pique (Shakira's husband). :D
Anway, it was my first real football game ever, (yepp, it was  a suprise for me too) and I was fun, but this sport won't be my No1 favourite. That place has already been sold out. :)