Yesterday I went to the Alicia Keys concert in the Gelredome and I must say. It was amazing! I loved it! Alicia Keys is one of the few artists that I have all the cd’s from. Well ok, not all of them (yet) since I don’t have her 4th cd “I Am” at the moment, but I’ll be buying it sometime soon. Yeah call me crazy but I still buy cd’s every now and then. Most of the time it’s not really worth the money imho.

The last time I went to an Alicia Keys concert was on 13th of November 2002 in the Heiniken Music Hall. It was a lot smaller and the concert was part of something called MTV 5 Night Stand. Don’t know what it was but that’s what it says on the tickets I still have. Anyway, Alicia Keys had just dropped her debut album that year “Songs in A minor” and since  I loved the album I went to her concert. I still remember the energy, vibe and ofcourse incredible performance and hoped to catch another concert of hers in the future. When I was in China she came back to the Netherlands for her “I Am” tour and I was pretty annoyed that I wasn’t able to see it. But I got another chance when I heard she was gonna to a concert this year for her latest album “The Element of Freedom”.

On 28th of January when Marco, Jooky and me were having hotpot at Marco’s place we were talking and at some point after eating the conversation went to the fact that Alicia Keys was going to do a concert here in the Netherlands (in the Gelredome in Arnhem) so we decided to check when it was and if there were still tickets left. Well, there were still tickets and in the spur of the moment we decidede to get the tickets and voila. Flash forward into time it’s 8th of May and we were off to the concert.

We left Amsterdam eraly afternoon and arrived in Arnhem at the Gelredome and parked our car there and went off to downtown Arnhem to chillax. We met up with with some other friends of mine (Pamela, Sheng, Yingying, Ying, Sammy, Xuan and a friend of Xuan) that were also going to the concert for dinner and after that we were off back to the Gelredome.

The support act was Melanie Fiona, which when I heard the was like … ehhhh who is she? O_o But when I heard her perform I was like ohhhh I know two songs of hers (“Give it to me right” and the song “It kills me”) But then again, I was there to see and hear Alicia Keys. After the Melanie and a short break the concert finally started and what a perfoemance it was. It was amazing, just like the concert I remember from 2002 and I loved the songs and energy. I am bummed that I didn’t bring my point and shoot to the conert. But I will definatly try to go to any future concerts Alicia might give because I’ve been a fan of her music since her debut album. Though I must admin that I prefer her first two albums more that the last two, but maybe that’s because I need to listen more to them. I had a blast yesterday and the concert was the icing on the cake. I’m off to listen some more Alicia Keys and see you next post. Leaving you behind with a vid someone else made at the concert yesterday. Damn I’m still bummed out that I didn’t bring my point & shoot Anyway, enjoy Empire state of mind. C ya.

It’s been a month ago but in March I went to Barcelona for a week to spend some time with my sweet gf Ana. It was the first time flying again after the my vacation to New York and it was an interesting experience to say the least. It was roughly 3 months after the dramatic and weird flight NW253 and though I was kind of nervous flying again it wasn’t too bad. But I think the following factors had to do with it. First of all it was a flight within Europe and last the other passengers were mostly Dutch. It was an early flight and I had to get up early again, hmm I have this habit of taking early flights appearantly.

Anyway, I had to be at the airport at 6am since my flight was leaving at 7am. The baggage drop off went smoothly and after passing through customs I was off to the gate. My flight left on schedule and I arrived at Barcelona airport around 9am. Ana landed at Barcelona at 8am and was waiting for me to exit at arrivals. As I said, flying wasn’t too bad. The only thing that was unpleasant was the moment of landing. The experiences of flight NW253 still came back and I was pretty anxious when we touched down at Barcelona airport. But other than that part I had no problems with flying, I guess the landings will be a bit uncomfortable for me the next few flights but that should be fine in a few more flights.

After meeting my sweetheart we were off to the bus which would take us to the city where we would have to tranfer to the subway. We got at the hotel after an hour of travelling and checked in. Since our room wasn’t ready yet we dropped our luggage and went for a stroll and some lunch at Glories. Our hotel was a 10 minute walk from here and a 15 minute walk from Sagrada Familia. After a bite to eat and a chillaxing sit at Starbucks we went back to the hotel to drop our stuff at the room and were off to downtown for dinner and a quick stroll in Passeig de Gracia.

Saturday and sunday we walked around in the Catalunya, La Rambla, Mercat de la Boqueria, Barrio Gothic and El Born area. The weather wasn’t that warm those days but it was dry and sunny. On monday we were in for a big surprise, in the morning it was raining lightly and cloudy so we decided to take it nice and easy and do indoor stuff. So we were off to La Rambla for lunch and then off to the aquarium where we walked around for a bit. After getting out of the aquarium we was it was snowing lightly so we decided to stroll around in the shopping mall next to the aquarium hoping it would stop snowing by the time we were done. Alas it didn’t and it started snowing harder. Yep we thought to have escaped the cold and snowy weather to end up in … yep snowy weather in Barcelona of all places O_o.

Luckily for us it only snowed on monday, well in Barcelona that is, because the next day it was sunny but cold and the only thing that was a reminder of the heavy snowfall on monday were the snowmen that were scattered around here and there. Tuesday was Gaudi day and we did all the touristic stuff that had to do with Gaudi. We visited Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, Casa Mila (aka La Pedrera), Casa Batllo. We had a lot of luck with the sunny weather and sunset when we were on the roof of Casa Mila. The other places we did the remainder of our vacation were Tibodabo, which was ok. The view is very nice but there’s nothing to do there. And ofcourse we did the Montjiuc area and visited Camp Nou.

It was a very nice vacation, except for that one day of snow, and I can really recommend Barcelona to all of you. I miss the fresh coconut juice at La Boqueria and nice food everywhere. Next time I visit I’ll need to do some more excursions outside of Barcelona. We didn’t manage to see the Dali village/museum and Montserrat. But there’s always a next time, and then probably also try so go to Madrid and Valencia. Anway, the flight back to Amsterdam was nice since Ana was flying to NY with a transfer in Amsterdam. So we flew back to Amsterdam together. At schiphol we had to go our seperate ways, Ana to catch her connecting flight and me to go get my luggage and go home. Can’t wait till July since Ana will be coming to Dutchland for a whole week. But in the meantime I’ll cherish the memories of our vacation in Barcelona.

If you’re curious, pictures can be found here: Barcelona vacation March 2010

See you at the next update.