My new Galaxy

My Sony Ericsson k750i has been with me for almost 5 years. But even for that age, it was still in pretty solid shape. Ok, the speakers were low on volume, and it had lost its looks. But the music player was outstanding as always and so I would turn a deaf ear to anyone who would ask me to get a new phone. But lately, the earphone socket also got loose which meant it was a pain to even listen to music. So I advanced my smartphone purchase and now I am a proud owner of a very beautiful Samsung Galaxy S. It is so much sexier than I thought. I even fell in love with the box it came in. 

I decided not to go for the Iphone 4 with it's closed ecosystem, and double price for only slightly better looks. I have already installed some cool apps, like synthesizers, puzzles and a few games. The file transfer system is a breeze, just like a USB drive, and video any format no problem. And the blog looks fantastic too, with the compressed pixels.

 

Since I get attached to anything under the sky, I had a hard time letting my ex-phone go. In fact, I removed the sim card a day after I got the galaxy. After all, your phone is the only thing that is around you all the time. And in spite of lots of (unintentional) abuse, it never complained, never got stuck, never disintegrated. Anyone looking for a non-smartphone should pick the k750i, for its sturdiness in build and outstanding audio quality and battery life. No, I wont give you mine.

Moving on, I am hooked to my new baby. Nothing like a new gadget to pump excitement levels up.

And then I headed north

Benelux without the 'lux' was the final part of my planned summer travel series. We were to spend a day in Brussels, then Bruges overnight and then off to Netherlands.

I didnt expect much from Brussels, but what we saw was pretty nice - a centre resembling Munich's Marienplatz, the Atomium and some nice palace buildings.

Bruges was a quiet little town with the canals, and old houses. We were dead tired thanks to Eurolines dumping us in Brussels at 6am. The first thing we did in Bruges was take a good afternoon nap after checking in. For the comfortable beds, perfect pillows - which make a lot of difference - and full course breakfast in the bar all for 13€, St Christopher's Inn is the best hostel I have stayed in. One incident that marred proceedings was when we were (or rather, I was) refused to be served in a Bruges restaurant. I wanted to try out the mussels and fries dish - which was suposed to be a Belgian speciality - but my friends had to be taught that you do not sit at a table for four and order nothing. Anyway I went to the next place, but obviously the Belgians dont know what we mallus do with 'kallumakaya'.

Next stop was Kinderdjik near Rotterdam, to see the windmills Netherlands is known for. We had to change trains at Antwerp Centraal station, which was an architectural beauty. Never seen a station so pretty.

Only one of the 15 or so windmills at Kinderdjik was functional. Anyway, the windmills along the stream complemented by the brilliant sky that afternoon, meant both camera and cameraman were happy.

Amsterdam - wild, crazy party place - lived up to its name, with the crowded streets where people-cycle-tram move together, the party centres, the 'coffeeshops' and the redlight district. Mischief was in the air, and we joined in some of the fun too (wink wink). But since 'What happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam', no details will appear here. And of course, the city was unlike any other in terms of all the beautiful canals running through it.

It was a fun trip with plenty of diversity in sights and craziness in activity. Amsterdam should definitely be 'high' on the list of destinations for any party-lover.