It’s the end of my vacation and I am now going home.  So how did this past week go? It went really good.  As previously indicated the wedding was last week Saturday and on Sunday, I took the train to Vienna to meet up with Sondre. I was very tired from the wedding preparation so I slept for two days. Well not really, but I was unproductive in terms of doing touristy things.  We basically walked around town, not going anywhere specifically; however we managed to see a lot of the famous sights as we later found out.



The days after was followed by walking more around town and going to the museum quarter.  In this area there is a kebab stand that sells good raps. Maaaan was the food good there.  Just talking about it makes my mouth water. 









On Thursday and Friday, efforts were made to do some sightseeing, which we did not discover during our first couple of days of walking around the city. We went to the Austrian historical museum and Schönbrunn Palace where Maria Antoinette grew up. At the Historical museum, I was very disappointed; for a country with such great history, the museum was not set up properly to present the tales.  It appears that historical items were put on display without and description to indicate their importance.  This was a bit irritating. 

The the second place we went to was the Schönbrunn Palace. The palace was almost as extravagant as the Château de Versailles in France. The colours of the fall leaf made the grounds of the place looked even more amazing.   

                                    

On Friday we went to the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, to see some of Gustav Klimt artwork.  I was impressed by his work.  I was very very happy to see his artwork. Also I was impressed by the actual size of the panting themselves.  They were huge.  I mean if you have ever seen the Mona Lisa, it is pretty small compare to how one imagines before they see the original panting.  Oh and I also managed to see Jacques-Louis David's painting of “Napoleon Crossing the Alps”.  It is a very impressive painting as well. 

     

Because we were very tired, we went back to the hotel after attending the gallery.  Later in the evening, we went to see a classical concert.  Coming to Austria, I had my heart set on seeing an opera as I had never seen one before; however I must say I was very happy that I went to see a classical concert.  The concert included an opera piece as well as a ballet piece.

                  

This vacation was by far one of my best ones.  

The Wedding

Today is Sunday and I arrived in Vienna on Wednesday. Last blog I indicated that I would be travelling to Austria to attend my friend Maya’s wedding.  Well the wedding finished yesterday and today I am travelling to Vienna to go meet up with Sondre. 

 

How was the wedding you ask?  The wedding was very very good, but it started off as if the bride was not going to get a dress to wear.  But knowing my good friend Maya, and I think she will kill me once she reads this blog that it was a classic case of Maya.  She bought her dress online in the United States, according to her, the person whom she bought the dress from was much thinner than her if you look at Maya, and it is difficult to find someone that is much thinner than her. Additionally the person had no shape what so ever.

The dress therefore had to be altered to fit her. The dress was altered in Indonesia when she went there for her brother’s wedding.  They did not do it correctly so when her mother came last week for the wedding; she decided to fix the dress.  This meant that her mother spent endless hour trying to fix it.  In the mean time Maya and her fiancé Ben were busy organizing the wedding and getting things ready. 

I arrived in Austria on Wednesday like I said; I stayed in Vienna the first night and took a train the next morning to Brixlegg, which is like 30 minutes away from Innsbruck (5 hours away from Vienna).  As soon as they picked me up from the train station we went to Ben’s house and I was put to work. Work I worked the whole time while I was there. This meant from Thursday to Saturday I was going to bed like 12am and me waking up 5am as I is still jet legged from Vietnam. But we would all be up and ready to go by 9am to do some work for the wedding. 

 

On the day of her wedding I did her hair along with the hair of a few of my friends. And like I said classic Maya, she finished the dress less than two hours before the wedding started. In the wedding speech, I indicated that this was an example of Maya, no matter how bad things may seem to be, she always come through and makes this work at the last minute.

The wedding was great, the day before the wedding I got to see a lot of my friends from Norway, including little Liam.  He is so cute.  He does not cry at all. This is very very good. 

   

I am currently on my way to Vienna, I should be sleeping as I am so exhausted, I got home at around 3h30 am last night and because I am still jet legged I woke up at 7am.  There is something seriously wrong with me. 

I thought I might write this first before the next leg of my trip. 

Peace !!!

Can you believe this fool?!!!

Oh before I forget.  On Sunday, before I left for Austria I wanted to go and buy some gifts for my friends.  Also it was one of those days where I really really wanted to spend time by myself. So I spent the morning reading and later on in the afternoon when the weather was better and not blazing hot, I took a trip to the Old Quarters in Hanoi to find some gifts. 

While walking around John (the Nigerian) called me and wanted to know if I wanted to have dinner with him.  (Oh John the Irish is in Ireland right now so no funny stories for you).  I was a bit annoyed as he has been asking me to hang out with him for a while and I had been refusing.  Why you ask?  Because when we first met he told me he was interested in me and I told him I was not. He keeps pushing it and now I am at point where it is blatantly annoying as F#@K. So last week he told me he was interested in me and his feeling was developing more and what was “I going to do about it”? Can you imagine this fool?  I told him I had no interest in him at all. I told him it would be best if we are not friends if he does not understand that I was not interested in him.  This fool had the audacity to ask me if I thought “him keeping away from him would let the feelings go away?” can you believe that?   He does not understand No means No, I had to tell him off. 

What is wrong with him?  Nothing, he is just not my type or I guess I have dated his type and is not something I want to get back to.  He is very clingy.  As a friend he want to know where I am going and what I am doing and assume I am helpless. F@#k that.  He is not my mother or father, I don’t answer to him. He wants to come to my house all the time and just watch TV. If you know me well, I am not a home body, I have to be doing something all the time, sitting home and just watching TV is the last thing I want to do.  Also he calls too many times, calling me early on Saturday and things.  Plus he attempted to kiss me and I was like, what the ….  That is when was the first time I had to let him know. 

So back to the story, so he called me on Sunday and asked if I wanted to grab something to eat.  I hesitated as I was not really hungry and while I wanted to grab something to eat, I did not want a sit down dinner, plus I wanted to spend time by myself. But since I was leaving and I had already said my piece to him, I thought there was no harm in.  I told him sure and I would be in town; he should therefore call me once he gets into the city center. 

He called me once he got there and we met up.  He indicated that he wanted to have dinner.  Then right before we left for dinner he indicated that he does not have any money.  I was like “why?” did you forget your wallet at home? He was like no; it’s just that I have no money in my account.  Hmmm.  Being the person that I am I decided that there was no further question needed. 

Now why would this fool not eat at home if he felt that he had no money? I mean it’s about setting your priorities straight right? 

Now before you jump into conclusion, when I go out with this guy I pay for myself. I have paid for him once or twice so that he knows that we are just friend and as expressed to him, I was not interested in him what so ever.

So yes he tells me he has no money. I did not ask the obvious question of how you were going to eat; especially since he did not ask me if I had money to feed him.  So I told him he should pick a place that he wanted to go as I was not really hungry.  He decided to pick KFC.  Now, for my less travelled friends, if you are in a developing country and see fast food chains like KFC, McDonalds and such don’t go to those places as you will never get value for money. Meaning that food would be over priced, they are not as good and oh yes the menu will most likely not be the same. 

Since did not want to ask any more questions, I told him to pick place that he wanted to go and eat and we can go there. So this man decides that he wanted KFC.  Once there he chose his own selection. When the food came it was very very small. My niece Akua would be disappointed. I later had to give him more money to order food. 

Honestly I have nothing more to say about that day.  After we ate, I went to buy the rest of the gifts and I went home.

Office Retreat

Hi. 

Last week we went to our office country retreat.  It was very nice.  The retreat was held in Hoa Binh, this is two and a half hours away from Hanoi.  The ride there was very alright, however there was one time where we almost got into a car accident.  The reason being is the road was twist and turn and the bus did not slow down for this. Rather instead it speeds through the whole time.  The car tipped and well we all started screaming. 

I spent the time interacting with some of the staff from the other affiliates.  I did not realize how many people in the other office that I had not met.  There was one guy whom I swear was a photographer for the office, only to find out that he had been working for the organization for over a year.  Man was I a bit embarrassed

We spent two days at the retreat, I managed to see two snakes, and if you know me very well you will know that I am scared as hell of snakes. I could not believe it.  On our way back to Hanoi they the driver gave us a vomit bag.  I was happy to get it.  However I forced myself to sleep so that I did not had to use the bag. 

Tomorrow morning I will be fly to Austria to go to one of very close friend Maya’s wedding.  I can’t wait to see my girls and Liam, my friend Ritah and Svein’s baby boy.  Ahhh.  I can’t wait. 

I can’t wait to be part of the crowd instead of being stuck out. Also to experience the cold.  You can’t believe to understand how much I want to experience the cold.  Yes it’s hot here, but man, I realize that I am a child of four seasons. 

I will update you my experience. Until next time  

Angolan Party

6-10-2012

My last week was spent half at home, the hospital and at work.  I have to say it was mostly spend in bed.  I have been sick lately and I guess because I have been on a go for the past few weeks it finally took its toll on me.  

I have been mostly week I guess.  Now that I am writing this, hmmm, did anything interesting happen? Oh yes, bloody hell.  So I went out to get some drinks at lunch time with a few colleagues, we were walking towards a table when the table beside the empty one, a group of men started pointing at me and laughing.  I was so disturbed and caught off guard that I ruined my whole mood.  One of my colleagues just said to ignored them as we walk towards the table.  But this time I could not.  I ask that we leave the restaurant.  We walked to another restaurant.  

I am not sure why I was caught off guard. I mean I experience it every day; it’s just that this time, I don’t know. I really can’t explain it. It was very “bush” or “village” like.  I don’t know if this make sense in English but some of you would understand this.  This is the only way to describe it.  

Oh, on the weekend I went out with John, no not the Irish guy as many of you have been asking about him but the Nigerian guy.  We met other people from Angola, so you know I was a bit excited to meet other Africans. Well I guess I should not have been too excited. As many of you know Angolans peak Portuguese, and these guys spoke little English. Conversation was very very difficult.  But it was still nice to meet them.  The next day they had a birthday party and I went.  They live in a gated embassy/UN compound and it did not look like Vietnam that is all I have to say. 

The party itself was nice, I got to meet some of the other guys I had met at the club the night before, as well as the ambassador, who I met when I first got here.  I asked them to show me the Angolan dance Zouk dance. Now you know I really can’t dance; well now I know that I really can’t dance.  Note to self take some Zouk classes if I find it here.

I came home early as I was very sick and could not contain it any longer. Overall it was very nice to be out of my house and out of the crowded space of Hanoi for a few hours.

So how is Vietnam going for me now?  hmmm, I don't know, I have not had days where I wanted to come home, but sometimes the ignorance can be a bit much to deal with.  

By far one of the best pictures I have taken. Very nice kid also, he will really break hearts later on