tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88208412646113839202024-03-17T02:06:23.669+08:00Olvr'sTrvlsOlivrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01933968260335421541noreply@blogger.comBlogger14113tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820841264611383920.post-49588298922388819062024-01-12T06:05:00.067+08:002024-03-11T07:25:40.198+08:00The Hague<p> </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;">My last
stop for this Christmas 2023 holiday trip was this Dutch city called The Hague (Den Haag, if you may). There were no heavy reasons I came up with this stop aside from: (1) this was Royal Dutch Shell’s headquarters, which I used to dream of visiting as a former Shell employee,
and (2) the ongoing ICC thing involving our former president along with his clown of a
court, which I really hope would turn out in favor of truth. I did not expect anything out of this travel because I was too
tired to think about anything anymore being on the last stretch so to say. Besides,</span><span style="font-family: Corbel;"> all I wanted was to go home already. But tickets already booked and all,
I just opted to go with the initial plan, for practical reasons.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Corbel",sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Corbel;">Admittedly, emotions were still a bit heightened
after <a href="https://oliver125.blogspot.com/2023/12/merry-christmas.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0c343d;">spending Christmas on the road and alone,</span></a><span style="color: #0c343d;"> knowing
that I’m missing the Christmas warmth back home. Add to that, I recently
failed at something I deem important, which dragged down a lot along with it, read: broken trust, faithless faith, shattered dreams. I know there comes a time in our lives when we fall short of
our goals and face disappointments, but my main issue here is on the timing. It was just so unfortunate that it happened last week, hours
before I embarked on this trip. Specific details, I can only share over a bottle of beer 🍺 </span></span><span style="color: #0c343d;"><o:p style="font-size: 10pt;"></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Corbel",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm97NS0ikJnn4i-ArNIyfkM1BpVLhpZzjUb8PhK6bnfAk-RBFasz0mvoYC-PSDY1fWe_RaLLEmeV-nf85NKgyMh3mEQmzfVLenFy8ssq1iZLkBWUqiUe3mQposn1oMZ9DF_1xG1sBydJhBweffIQP0cHKmnPzq0XpB-cyji-GgwOb_1mgD1UByDaBh/s6000/DSC05095.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3376" data-original-width="6000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm97NS0ikJnn4i-ArNIyfkM1BpVLhpZzjUb8PhK6bnfAk-RBFasz0mvoYC-PSDY1fWe_RaLLEmeV-nf85NKgyMh3mEQmzfVLenFy8ssq1iZLkBWUqiUe3mQposn1oMZ9DF_1xG1sBydJhBweffIQP0cHKmnPzq0XpB-cyji-GgwOb_1mgD1UByDaBh/s16000/DSC05095.JPG" /></a></div><span face=""Corbel",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;">Anyhow, failures are not the end, but an opportunity for renewal, as optimistic people always say. Embracing failure
displays bravery, not weakness; confronting our shortcomings requires strength
and the ability to glean lessons from them. So, in the name of the holiday
spirit, one of the things that would probably console me for this sadness is
justice. Hence, I wish no less than jail time for those scumbags who committed crimes against humanity. Let’s
do this ICC!<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Olivrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01933968260335421541noreply@blogger.comThe Hague, Netherlands52.0704978 4.300699923.760263963821153 -30.855550100000002 80.380731636178837 39.4569499tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820841264611383920.post-36657844302002237492024-01-10T07:39:00.001+08:002024-03-11T06:19:55.401+08:00Amster-damn<p> </p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Corbel",sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Corbel;">Moving forward with my
Christmas 2023 solo travel, my next destination was the daring and turbulent
city of Amsterdam. Despite the anticipated absence of tulips and the sun, I still had my hopes up because quite frankly, I have heard a lot of nice things about this
city. Honest to goodness, it delivered the goods. My only regret was over-tightening it out on the accommodation budget side of things, directly exposing
me AMS’ dirty laundry I hoped I never found out. Sleeping in a filthy
overpopulated hostel room was not an ideal way to spend such wonderful days
after Christmas. In a nutshell, I made a careless choice, and I paid a hefty
price. Other than that, the rest of it all was no less than amazing, at least at
the surface level (for now). I was able to walk around and along most of the busy
canals from the Prinsengracht & Herengracht to the famously <s>sin</s> scenic district aka<span> </span><span style="background-color: #444444; color: #df1919;">Red Light</span>.
Honestly, I was not able to fully maximize the trip due to poor planning OR the
lack thereof, hopelessly and miserably failing to book in advance the Rijksmuseum,
Anne Frank’s House, and even the van Gogh’s museum (with limited edition
pokemon features at that time). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So that’s
pretty much how my first ever Amsterdam went – an unfinished business warranting
a second look soon.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfkyyM4rUklNafiwbO2iDiXqVuWrgeBBMC3pBQjlvCXwxELD4YQmmHtir4Yp2bKc05lOvJEbjIZIp3v3durUBkhNPNO80lM_xjDxIQHtkd4iuCFd3pT1QfRXL76Kf_qURAtxQ1XyA8mo5J37fHOmOP72d6AniE3qkoLf_UlHQte7MQoQnhNXEtXuE/s5709/amsterdam%20oliver.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3213" data-original-width="5709" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFfkyyM4rUklNafiwbO2iDiXqVuWrgeBBMC3pBQjlvCXwxELD4YQmmHtir4Yp2bKc05lOvJEbjIZIp3v3durUBkhNPNO80lM_xjDxIQHtkd4iuCFd3pT1QfRXL76Kf_qURAtxQ1XyA8mo5J37fHOmOP72d6AniE3qkoLf_UlHQte7MQoQnhNXEtXuE/s16000/amsterdam%20oliver.JPG" /></a></div><br />Olivrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01933968260335421541noreply@blogger.comAmsterdam, Netherlands52.3675734 4.904138924.057339563821152 -30.2521111 80.677807236178836 40.0603889tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8820841264611383920.post-15526266654809192442024-01-10T06:24:00.016+08:002024-02-12T06:04:31.896+08:00Düsseldorf’s plane trees: plein de beauté in plain mode<p><span style="font-family: Corbel;"> </span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;">Hitting up the holidays fully in solo travel mode has amplified the deafening silence during the last few
weeks, more so addressed the elephant in the room: that I am (in more ways than one) on my own now and
that I need to come to terms with this fact sooner than later. I have been trying to cope and slowly getting there, I suppose. But overall, things are
evidently much harder compared to how they were in the last 2 years (and
all the years prior). The art of adapting is always hard to master despite my rich portfolio and long track record of frequent moving-out<i>s</i>. It takes a lot of patience and determination to be constantly and consistently motivated amidst the compounding effects of various factors from the weather & language barrier to the impending disaster posed by the phd challenge itself. And for that, I envy these <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C1vDrnbs8Ow/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTYzOWQzNmJjMA==" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0c343d;">Düsseldorf plane trees</span> </a>for a good reason, as they easily and effortlessly adapts through changing seasons, in style and poise, not to mention.</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggNa4EQohC_CD-AMVN8-gMfZLKVJQLLrK2rZAMY8Jx2JxrUWuT2hwXWt4b5b1IjShpO_drBha6xf5MAUKtMKJaQC7O1T_SKyeQ7BKKKlmoUCGOWBgMEqCAXpOPf-NjB0gmuc-cXxojeIH8bnNa95durEQkaVWMBkWAhJR90ZuniY-W8F3btMI14Mpj/s6000/DSC04871.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3376" data-original-width="6000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggNa4EQohC_CD-AMVN8-gMfZLKVJQLLrK2rZAMY8Jx2JxrUWuT2hwXWt4b5b1IjShpO_drBha6xf5MAUKtMKJaQC7O1T_SKyeQ7BKKKlmoUCGOWBgMEqCAXpOPf-NjB0gmuc-cXxojeIH8bnNa95durEQkaVWMBkWAhJR90ZuniY-W8F3btMI14Mpj/s16000/DSC04871.JPG" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;">But if anything, this has further reaffirmed my independence; proving that I could indeed function, decide, and stand-by & accept the consequences of my choices. I guess being pulled out of that two-year old comfort zone is sad but is also freeing in some ways. So, cheers to moving forward! I wish we all achieve that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/tabula-rasa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="color: #274e13;"><i>tabula rasa</i></span></a> of sorts that most of us aspire this new year!</span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Corbel;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 11pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;"><span face="Corbel, sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p></p>Olivrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01933968260335421541noreply@blogger.com40 Düsseldorf, Germany51.2277411 6.773455622.917507263821157 -28.3827944 79.537974936178841 41.9297056