Latvia has new President...

Today the Saeima (Latvian parliament) by a count of 58 votes elected Dr Valdis Zatlers, Director of the Hospital of Traumatology and Orthopaedics, as the next President of the Republic of Latvia. The other candidate, a lawyer and former Chairman of the Constitutional Court, Aivars Endzins, received 39 votes. At the press conference, President-elect Zatlers answered questions by journalists and indicated his support for unity among the Baltic states. (Source here.)
The presidential elections, being just around the corner was still a black horse race. Most of the politicking was taking place behind the scenes and the latest candidates were not known until the last moment.
This is why the presidential elections in Latvia resembled this caricature from V-Diena:

Now, both, Latvian and foreign media are speculating on this issue a lot, due to the fact that Valdis Zatlers has admitted receiving undeclared income for which he paid no taxes ('expressions of thanks', a gifts). Then, probably on July 8th or 9th when he is sworn into office ("I solemnly will uphold Latvia’s Satversme /constitution/ and its laws”) residents will wake up in a country where it is not necessary to abide by the laws. At least, if following the example set by the highest national official, taxes can be left unpaid with as clear a conscience, as he himself has. Public servants will be able to accept bribes without shame or concealment, only they’ll have to be called ‘expressions of thanks.’ If the nation’s president is allowed to do this, then who isn’t? I think the world is getting crazy...

This afternoon...

... to disperse our thoughts about "Belgian weather" (= rain), we went to our favourite coffeehouse "Krokantino" for a chat, coffee, <--- and... :)
C'était une après midi agréable avec de bons amis, des crêpes, des fraises, de la crème glacée !
J'ai aimé !
Merci, Estelle!
Gracias, Laura!

Check out what I've been doin' lately!

Avec Niko, Laura et Roxanne

Laura and me were fed up with sitting home alone, so we met at Voruit for a coffee, took our laptops with us and were spending time there chatting, surfing in internet, updating our blogs and fotologs (to excuse ourselves-we called it working):)
We ended up with Niko joining us having some nice pizza evening. We came up with idea that Laura should run for President office. WHY NOT???
Anyhow, this was nice evening and since tonight I just love this song! French Star Academy...

J'ai passé de tres beaux moments a Paris

My friend Niko took me and Mireia to Paris. Paris and french language have always sounded to me sooo romantic, that is why I probably started to study French. I am really putting a lot of effort trying to pronounce it, but so far my most successful pronounced french words sound like I was drunk or smth.:) Anyways this was a great opportunity to see Paris from non-ordinary-touristic point of view. We had so cheerful trip to Paris, it was warm weather and in the first evening we went to park Monceau. I had my Starbucks coffee finallllllly!!! I really liked Monmartre avec le Sacré Coeur, where Niko met this celebrity:), La Tour Eiffel and le Moulin Rouge. We had really cool evening (or better to say "night") at Banana Cafe until 6 a.m. in the morning... so next day we were just wasted, but it was worth that :) During these days we came up with different new expressions to add to our "everyday vocabulary" including there
MariAntoinete and "Why Not?" as well as crazy ideas such as "Let' s call Pope!!!" :)

Merci, Niko pour tout ce qu'on vécu a Paris!

Milan; Flashback...

My couple of last days in Italy I spent in Milan. I visited other my friend Ieva who is studying and living there. We haven' t seen each other for a long time and it was a bit weird to meet in Italy rather than in Latvia. We had a lot to talk about and we had aperitivo (of course :)) and later in the evening we went to Bond together with her friends. Other days we spent in the city, having coffee at D&G "Gold" (check the interior once u get there-I would also prefer tv in my toilet doors), walking in the parks and squares. I had a chance to see Melanie C singing live for TRL event there, eat chocolate cheese, meet lot of swedish and norvegian people, try home-made margharita with nice company on the terrace in the candle lights and be in the party of Ieva' s coursemates. I finally had a chance to watch at least 2-3 "Sex&The City" seasons in a row, because the last day my friend didn' t feel well, and so we stayed at home. But these were nice days as well. I left Italy early morning and had some trouble back in Belgium, because of people striking there, but, well, that is already another story...

Bologna; Flashback...

Sooo... my holidays in Italy - something to remember! Lots of fun, lots of sun, really nice people I've met and really cool places I've been! I arrived in Italy, Milan late friday evening, but my friend Ilze came from Bologna to pick me up there, so then we went back to Bologna the same evening and around 2 p.m. we were already dancing and having fun in Kasamatta with couple of her friends.

Next day it was Ilze' s birthday and we started our day with a walk in the city, then some late afternoon aperitivo (coctail, snacks, nice friends' company) and continued on in BoaVista coctail bar. I just love the interior there! We ended up at club Matis. Here You can see some pics from that evening.


What about the Easter? In Latvia we have this tradition to color eggs, but we just couldn' t find anything to color the eggs with, and probably we were too lazy as well, so we came up with original, abstract and creative idea how to decorate them. Ilze was master of pancakes that morning and we had nice Easter breakfast on the terrace. I know that my friends from Latvia were jelous because we were sitting there on terrace with t-shirts, while it was snowing in Latvia! So here You can see the result of our creative Easter morning :)

Ilze showed me around the city and as the weather was so warm, we went to park - Margarita Garden and just lied there in the grass - well I can' t really remember precisely all those names in Italian :) I also tried Italian ice-cream. I have never eaten better pistachio ice-cream than in Bologna! So during my stay in Bologna I had lots of great evenings, aperitivo' s and also some red Daiquiri coctail on my white trousers, but it all fits to great holidays!

One evening Ilze, Matteo and me-we went up the hill with a car. This will seem strange, but we went to a hospital. Just climbed up onto the roof and there we had really nice view to the city at night! We had wine evenings and Italian pizza evenings, so I really can' t wait to go to Italy again!