Lausanne, continued.

Two of the days of the conference were half-days (one midway through, and the other the last day). The midway day we had an 'excursion', which was mainly taking a short train (15-30 min) and then walking 4 hrs along the lake and through vineyards. I thought it might involve some wine tasting, but the grapes are still small, and all of the shops in the towns we passed through (say, 3pm mid-week) were closed.

Album from that trip:

Walk Lausanne to Vevey

View from train:

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

View in the train:

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

Near start of walk:

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

As we walked, people settled into groups based on speed or preference. There was a nice lookout not too far in that was quite lovely. Nice breeze, random guy playing guitar.


View looking back from the overlook:

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

Small white boat, blue water, blue mountains:

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

Looking akin to Norway:

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

As we continued walking, we could see the forecasted rain moving over the
mountains and then the lake, towards us.

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

It overtook us close to our destination, which felt great after a sweaty hike (lots of up and down hills).

For some reason, I was discussing the funicular in Bergen, and how it'd be nice if there were one around where we were. The boys didn't believe me that it was a real word/thing. Funnily enough, the road we were walking along took us by a wall with hand-painted lettering saying "FUNICULAIRE -->", and there was an actual specimen. It was unclear if it was running currently, since there *were* ticketing machines, but no funicular operators. Also, a trip up to the first stop and back would have been 20 CHF.

Rather than put the fun in funicular, the group I was in decided to buy a few bottles of Swiss wine (~ 5-8 CHF/bottle, not the cheapest nor the most
expensive) at the grocery store and then find some place to eat. The most
reasonable place we saw was a restaurant which sold pizzas in the 20 CHF
price range (and bottles of water for 4.5 CHF :P ). We swapped slices so that everyone tried at least 3 or 4 kinds of pizza, then moved on to a sort of town square area, where we drank our wine and watched the rain really settle in to pour. It was very nice.

From Walk Lausanne to Vevey

Misc:
The only other 'touristing' I did was to attempt to seek out a cafe, which turned into a quest for iced coffee, and discover the/a Starbucks next to a McDonald's. We had our iced coffee, for a staggering 6.60 CHF.

Sebastien (or Sebastian) was the most common name at both conferences, with three people (not the exact same three) with that name at each conference (Norway, now Lausanne). Prior to this, I'd never known someone with that name.

Things I would have liked to have seen:

1. The Roman ruins along the beach
   
2. The beach, up close (although descriptions of loose metal lying around underwater was discouraging; I really wanted to go wading, to counteract the 'scorching' (rel Norway) weather -- temperatures around 26 C and up).
   
3. The Musee Brut
   

Next installment: Paris.

Norway --> Switzerland, some Lausanne touristing

A true sign of having gotten used to Norway (in my two weeks there) was the strange disorienting feeling I got looking out the window of the train to see darkness at 22hr. Thick, black, night. Incredible.

On the plane to Frankfurt, I sat next to a nice Belgian girl who spent most of the time reading. The Lufthansa flight came with a complimentary half sandwhich with some kind of qwark-like cheese (and dill) and in addition to the normal (rel US standards) beverage options, we also had complimentary wine. I had two small glasses of a generic red as well as some sparkling water. It was heavenly. There's something about 'forced' depravation that adds more delight to the thing you live without. I normally don't drink much, or often, but feeling forced to not drink while in Norway was different. I was asked, prefaced with a disclaimer that she'd never been to the States, if it was like what they see on soaps. I started with "Well, not everyone owns a gun" and said that each region was very different, walking through characterizations of the northeast, south, midwest, southwest, west, pacific northwest, and california. I talked about the (relatively) tightly-packed northeast, and Massachusetts leftist ways (+ universal healthcare), the strong mix of cultures in the southwest, wide open spaces of the west. How the midwest still caries some of the traces of having been settled by germans, with its meat-and-potatoes fare. It was fun to talk about.

====================

Here is the album from the first bit of Lausanne touristing:

Lausanne Switzerland

The conference went from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm every day. The evenings were a blur of figuring out dinner plans, hanging out, and a small amount of
touristing. The mountains are amazingly beautiful, a postcard backdrop to the more industrial/spaceship-like campus. The public transit system is (of course) amazing, a network of trains and trams (bus-like things powered by powerlines hanging above their routes).

First night in, I was greeted by a caucophonous din in the guesthouse common area, as well as a dinner of pasta, pesto, and pizza. Here is (someone else's) pic of the guesthouse, and this is what the rooms are like, except the picture is deceptive. They are not as large as they look.

The next day, after the conference, we went touristing a bit. There was a
cathedral on top of a large hill in the city which we headed to for the view.

From Lausanne Switzerland

View from cathedral:

From Lausanne Switzerland

While touristing, we passed a protest, full of women

From Lausanne Switzerland

They were asking for 4000 CHF/mo minimum pay. It wasn't clear how this
related to complaints of unequal pay among men and women, unless perhaps the national minimum pay for men in Switzerland was something like that.

Oh, right. CHF. The domain names here are ".ch". This is harkening back to
the Roman/Latin name for the federation of Swiss states. Confederation
Helveticae, roughly.

Math tourists:

From Lausanne Switzerland

We discovered that the grocery stores closed by 19:00, which was strange
after the ones in Nordfjordeid (a much smaller town) closing at 23:00. The group splintered into the grocery-shoppers and the restaurant-seekers. I banded together with three of the guys from the conference to make dinner. I saw a 'Ratatouille' kit (a tray with onions, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini) on it, and suggested throwing together a stew. We also got some more zucchini, some broccoli, a bag of pasta, and two large coils of sausage (not the pre-cooked kind). This totaled to about 28 CHF (~1.2 USD per 1 CHF), so 7 CHF each, which was a steal. Labor was divied amoung us, with me doing the main stew cooking, two of the guys cutting, and the other helping me with the cooking (sauteeing garlic & meat, washing veggies, etc). There was even enough that two of the guys ate leftovers from it for dinner the next night.

My meal that night was a salad(lettuce, cherry tomatoes and avocado) as well as some cheese soft brie-like cheese and bread (5 CHF total, for my share), and also made my lunch for several of the days of the conference (6 CHF for 3 sandwiches, in the end).

When I brought up the prices of restaurants (11 CHF for a 'special' at the
kebab place ---kebab + soda), I was reminded that the waitstaff in
switzerland are paid a living wage (no tips necessary).

I ate at the campus cafeterias twice (first day and second-to-last day of the conference). The first time I had salat with lardons and oef (bacon and egg), which was delicious (also, 8.5 CHF) and included an apple. The other time, the mean was a delicious fish, atop which might have been curried turnip (it was curried, the vegetable was under debate) and accompanied by gnocchi with pesto, for 12 CHF.

Rolex learning center (+cafeteria), view from math dept:

From Lausanne Switzerland

Another afternoon/night (sun setting between 9 and 10pm) of 'touristing' was mainly wandering around hoping for some kind of cold drink. We had nostalgic iced coffee at starbucks (since non-american places wouldn't pollute their coffee with ice), which was a staggering 6.60 CHF.

Our hostel (which everyone stayed in) was a stone's throw from the main train station, Lausanne-Gare, and around the corner from a very blatant porn movie theater, as well as a fancy thing called 'L'atelier couture'. Some of the boys kept making jokes about catching a late showing or stopping in
before the conference. Adjacent to this was where our conference dinner was held, a pizzera called Le
Milan. Very very thin-crust pizza, plenty of cheese, and delicious. We
ended up (accidentally, since we didn't know the toppings foreach pizza name (Margherita, Napoli, etc)) ordering two anchovy pizzas, out of the 6 for the table.

Next installment -- our trip to Vevey.

Norway, the last bit and piece.

• Pub (Friday night)
  
  We assembled an impromptu 'women in math' gathering at the suggestion of one of the speakers at the conference/workshop.
  
  There were about 10-12 of us who went along. We went to the one bar in town, Strandstryken (beach something?). There was a choice of two beers, the ever-present local beer (Hansa), for 69 NOK (~$13.5 USD) or an irish red for 72 NOK. I opted to splurge for the slightly more expensive one for a little variety.
  
  Conversation included making a list of full professors in homotopy theory who are women, in the US and in Europe. The French from Nice came in to the bar, one 'hiding' in his leather jacket and exageratedly sneaking past us to the back of the bar.
  
  
  
• Hiking at night (Tuesday night)
  
  I ended up going on a hike with a professor who was going to leave the
  conference early. There was plenty of light at 21:00 when we started, and I finally got back to the 'bungalow' at midnight.
  
  Brightly lit nighttime hike:
  

  From Hike at night

  
  
  It was the mountain that I had missed the hike for, or the one adjacent. The thick coniferous forest blocked some of the light, which was already a bit less plentiful than normal due to clouds and fog. The path was very wet, muddy and slippery. We crossed a creek and a point where the path had become a little stream itself (which thankfully didn't persist). We spent the time talking about applications of my thesis results, which was challenging while also looking for sure footing.
  
  The lake (Osvatnet) atop the mountain was mainly obscured by fog:
  

  From Hike at night

  
  Most of the way back to the start of the trail, I mis-stepped and slid down the trail a bit, getting my pantleg coated in mud. That was the point I decided that I had to do some laundry, which was rather straightforward once someone explained the settings. The dryer was a 'condensation' dryer. This meant that you had to empty out this giant container of water before every usage. There was also ample space to hang up clothes to line dry and a blower/fan to help aid in this.
  
  
  
• Nordfjordeid to Bergen I have a small album of pictures of the bus/ferry ride back to Bergen, here.
  
  The bus left at way-too-early o'clock. Bright and sunny already, 6:15am.
  
  The mountains and fjord as we bussed along:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  We stopped several times because of various people getting motion sick. I sat in the front of the bus, and stared straight ahead, and was fine.
  
  Because pictures were hard to take on the bus, I took a small movie:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  Views from the second ferry:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

  
  
• Bergen and on
  We got to town early, so I hung around in Bergen again, this time with some Belgian group-theory PhD students, and one of the speakers from the conference who was full of infectious optimism and good cheer. There were stops for espresso, a meandering walk through town, and a visit to the Bergen Kunstmuseum (art museum), which was kind of 'eh', at least the part of it that we saw.
  
  I really enjoyed the toilet signs at the Bergen airport:
  

  From Travel from Nordfjordeid

Norway -- Briksdalbreen glacier

Glacier

On Tuesday, we had the option to go on a trip to a nearby Glacier,
Briksdalbreen. I had actually been thinking before the trip that I should try to see a glacier before they all melt, so it was quite fortuitous.

Entire album of glacier pics:

Briksdalbreen Glacier

It was raining, and continued convincingly enough that people bought ponchos at the guest shoppe before starting the walk/hike. They were 20-40 USD. Definitely knew they had a captive audience. I was wearing a borrowed
raincoat (hoodless) and my floppy hiking hat, which did a decent job of
keeping off the rain. En route to the glacier, it stopped raining. The rain clouds made a beautiful setting for our hike, complemented by the rushing waterfalls and low-lying mists.

From Briksdalbreen Glacier

From Briksdalbreen Glacier

From Briksdalbreen Glacier

The signage as we approached made it clear that the glacier had shrunk significantly since 1920:

From Briksdalbreen Glacier

We stopped as close to the glacier as possible, which was still pretty far, due to some fences. I'm guessing they've had problems with people climbing on/under/in the ice, based off the pre-trip warnings we were given.

The kitchen crew had given us the materials to pack sandwiches for lunch,
which we made into a picnic. While eating, a very small piece of the glacier dislodged and rolled down a bit, surprisingly loudly.

The glacier is blue. Honestly blue. You can kind of see it in the pictures.

From Briksdalbreen Glacier

It's also wayyyyy bigger thgan it looks. I should've had a person in the picture for scale. You can kind of get an idea by comparing the picture of the glacier and the glacier melt (with people),

The glacier melt is this eerie cerulean blue that does not inspire one to
drink of it.

From Briksdalbreen Glacier

We were warned that drinking glacier water doesn't go well -- as in, the runs :P. Something about the sediment.

Travelogue Norway -- Hike 2

[Technical note -- the images are hyperlinks, so if you'd like to see bigger versions, just click on them. The whole (as it stands) Nordfjordeid album is here: Nordfjordeid! ]

This view of the fjord reminds me of Vancouver B.C.:

From Nordfjordeid

On Sunday (day after hike 1), there was a more organized hike, since it was sunny and the following days were fixing to rain. I managed to just miss the 'real'/serious hike and instead wandered around with some nice French grad students from Nice.

View from our ramble:

From Nordfjordeid

Another sod-roof house:

From Nordfjordeid

From our walk, we can see the mountain I hiked (3/4 or 2/3 of the way) up before:

From Nordfjordeid

We eventually found a (rarely used) path and started walking up it. Most land in Norway is public use, so you can just start walking 'at' a mountain and eventually find a path. They're all roughly equally treacherous, crossing streams and steeply inclined. Also, quite pretty. This side of the fjord was less crowded with houses; less sunlight. This may've lead to it being wetter, since there were some mosquitos.

A nice view from our ramble:

From Nordfjordeid

We turned back before getting that far.

That night, or maybe the night after, it was rainy/foggy and therefore actually a little dark around 23:30, so I was able to take this picture:

From Nordfjordeid

Next installment -- Briskdalbreen glacier, and hitting the pub with the women of the conferennce.

To Nordfjordeid, first few days + a hike

We took a very winding road from Bergen to Nordfjordeid (don't say any of the d's, except the last one slightly. Nur-fyur-eye(d)). That is, we followed the road we could, and it was winding, nauseating so. I think that's most of them, wending through mountains and around fjords. I'm told it's hard to get your drivers' license because you'll spend most of your time driving in the dark, in the rain, along winding/bad roads.

View from the bus:

From Nordfjordeid

The place our conference has been held is the Fjordane Folkhøgskule. It's a boarding school for girls, quite expensive, (~50,000 euros). It's something to do post-highschool, pre-college, and counts towards your highschool GPA. They learn...(wait for it)...horseback riding/racing and circus stuff. It was explained to me as the Norwegians being 'very fair' and giving the girls something to do like the boys (who get 1 yr military service or...something else? Unsure what their 'opt out' option is).

Conference started with some great research-related chats and it's been something of a blur since then. Too much to take in. It's been punctuated by a few hikes. The first one was the second day of the conference. I asked around and gathered a small group to climb up one of the paths in the mountains to the "right" of us (assuming you're looking straight out at the fjord). The grade was very steep, and I think our hike was a total of 2.5 or so hours. The sun was solidly 'up' the whole time.

From that hike:

From Nordfjordeid

Awesome waterfalls as we walked up:

From Nordfjordeid

Turns out, water is plentiful here, as evidenced by the many beautiful and forceful waterfalls around. That also leads to plentiful electricity. The whole country is hydroelectric.

I was egged on on this first hike, which I was feeling very out of shape on, and ill-dressed for. It was worth it when we hit the vantage point we turned around at:

From Nordfjordeid

Yeah, I know. I was waiting for Julie Andrews to run by singing, followed by a collection of Norwegian children.

Here's what the sun looked like when we got back down:

From Nordfjordeid

Also, there are a good number of houses roofed like so:

From Nordfjordeid

This is supposed to be the most expensive option, but the best thermal properties. I'm told that in some 'protected' areas of the country, people are required to have such roofs.


Misc trivia: Norway was ruled by the Danes, prior to the time when the vikings ruled Russia. There is, in fact, a shared border between Norway and Russia. I'm told that the Norwegians there blame their pollution on the nearby Russian city, which is quite smoggy.

Answering a question in the comments of the last post: In Bergen at least, there are *some* cyclists. I honestly saw more runners and walkers and dog-walkers than cyclists. Cobbles aren't so fun with bikes and I'm not sure if there are any paths.

Norway: Day 3-Rain rain rain rain rain.

[[EDIT]]: I now have pictures up of the room in the hostel I stayed in. They're in the album you can reach by clicking the following:

From BERGEN, NORWAY

I stayed up pretty late (my brain fog cleared around 11pm or so, which was
helpful for writing a talk) and got up around 7:30am local time (CEST). The sunlight I got upon opening the blackout shade was very bright, and really helped my mood and general ability to wake up. Walked to the department and got in ~15 minutes before my talk. Plenty of time for more delicious coffee. Again, ate some grab & go yogurt for breakfast. Talk went well.

Lunch was at another student cafeteria. Fish stew, salad, fresh bread and an apple. Again, 90 NOK. Some other people managed 45, so maybe if I had gotten the thinner soup or more salad. Eh.

The afternoon was a blur of chatting. It started raining quite heavily and hasn't stopped at all since. Like their shades, Norwegans take their rain seriously. They dress sensibly for the weather, some people walking around in rain pants, even, all in gortex (or similar) rain jackets. I was told that there's a Norwegian saying that there's no bad weather, just lack of preparedness. They do have a good point. If I added a rain-proof bag, pants, coat and galoshes to my inventory, I would be just fine here. I've borrowed an umbrella, and still ended up with pants soaked from hip to ankle. Thank goodness my sneakers are waterproof.

Dinner was pizza at the student cafeteria annex/afterhours cafe. Flatbread, cheese wasn't mozerella. Also had the local beer, Hansa. The alcohol here is priced by the government, based on alcohol content (increasing as the %alc/volume increases). The cheapest beer is the local beer, which was definitely a light beer.

After sloshing through the rain some more, I discovered my new room-mate, who is a Seattle-area native and current Portland resident. Her first trip to Europe. She works at a brewery, and has had a hard time adjusting to the cost of beer here. I suggested she try Belgium some time. We talked for a while about Norway and travel.

Thoughts/comments on Norwegians and their government:
I learned recently that nutella is fixing to be banned in the EU because it's too sweet. This is keeping with Norwegian views. The cost of alcohol is so much, and scales the way it does, because it's considered a drug and they don't want their citizens to become alcoholics. Similar idea with cigarettes; not many Norwegians smoke. They *do* however use snuff, which is banned in the rest of the EU.

I'm told that any time a person's labor is added to a product, the cost goes considerably up, which is what causes bakery sandwiches to not be as cheap as they were in Amsterdam or Brussels.

Cars/gas: Despite being an oil-producing country, Norway heavily taxes gasoline. I think it's 3 or 4 euro/liter, but I wouldn't swear by it. In the long run, this makes sense, since they don't anticipate their supply to last longer than 50 years. The price should discourage use and make it last longer. They also make it very hard to get a driver's license. Also makes sense -- most of the driving will be done in the dark, the rain, and on bad roads. Cars are horrifically expensive. I was told that 2 professors' salaries combined is not enough to afford a new car here.

Norway: Day 2--Sightseeing.

Photos:

BERGEN, NORWAY (the album)

I woke up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, with some whimsical notion of subsisting on bread and cheese since (clearly) these must be affordable (not true, unless you get the subsidized bread, which costs about 1 USD). I ended up at the math department at the university here, after checking my email. I walked in past the train station, where I stopped for breakfast -- a grab & go fruit-flavored yogurt with muesli to mix in, which came with an awesome foldable spoon. Maybe I'll snap a picture later. The department here is very nice, as are the people, a few of whom showed me around at various parts of the day. We had lunch at the student cafeteria. An apple, salad, and half sandwich ran me 90 NOK, which is about 15 USD. Pricey, but I also am willing to suffer a little cost-wise to make sure I get some vegetables.

We palled around the department a bit, and I agreed to give a talk on (surprise!) Wednesday, since Thursday is a holiday and the day I leave Bergen. There's a really nice coffee machine here in their department, and I spent some time chatting with the grad students here and drinking coffee. Then the sun came out, blue skies. I was sort of ordered out of the office I'm co-squatting in, and one of the grad students showed me around. He's from Chile.

Things I learned: Norway has historically been a poor country. So, their museums are similarly poor, no grand treasures. Log books of shipping industry, that kind of thing. A great to-do to paint a vivid picture of a terribly dull life (paraphrasing my guide). We went down to Bryggen, the UNESCO world heritage site in Bergen, which is a pier/shipping era dating way back. It is falling apart, in an amazing fashion. Also, Norway has developed a reputation for granting asylum to refugees. As a result of Pinochet in Chile, Norway's 3rd largest racial group is Chilean.

Bryggen falling down, From BERGEN, NORWAY

We also went up the Fløyen Funicular (mountain elevator), which sadly did not have any kind of advertising campaign about putting the Fun in Funicular. This takes you to the top of the mountain named Fløyen The top of the mountain was very nice, and we walked around a little, and then down. The path let out at one of the most expensive place to live in Bergen. Close to the city center, at the bottom of Fløyen, and, most importantly it gets lots of sunlight. The houses, on the outside at least, look roughly like the houses everywhere else. Some have peeling paint on the siding. Interesting. Lots of runners. The town swelled with people out to enjoy the brief good weather.

view from Fløyen, From BERGEN, NORWAY

Forrest on Fløyen, From BERGEN, NORWAY

We finished up by rejoining with several other people and having dinner at an italian place. I had Rudolfsuppe (Reindeer soup), which was delicious. Had a base of a tastier version of cream of mushroom-type soup.

The night of course finished with my prepping for the talk the next morning.

Norway! To Bergen.

The first few pictures I took were just before 11 at night. I was worried it was too dark for them to take. Apparently, instead the lighting was perfect. I will have to keep this in mind.

From BERGEN, NORWAY

From BERGEN, NORWAY

From BERGEN, NORWAY

En route to Europe:
I had the good fortune of noticing that another passenger had a poster with words like hyperbolic and manifold. Turns out, he's a grad student at Utrecht (first leg was Chi->Amsterdam). We talked for about 5 or so hours on the flight, which had hardly any people on it at all. I noticed when I visited Amsterdam that Dutch people are on par with Americans in terms of loudness, and both he and I had to be shushed because people were sleeping. It really helped pass the time.

When I got off the flight and looked for my connection (Amsterdam->Oslo, then Oslo->Bergen), there were no such flights for my airline. Thus commenced some searching. The Amsterdam airport, by the way --very nice. They have these transfer stations where you can get your boarding pass. I go to one, and they say the flight's cancelled. I then have to convince the ladies at border control (there's an 'international' region of the airport for people with connecting flights, which removes the need to do customs when they land. Pretty neat) that I should be allowed through because I have to go down to the departures desk (think: place you check in for your flight when you first arrive at the airport) even though I don't have a boarding pass.

I get in line, and this was a rather amazing sight. All of these people had had this flight canceled, and they were waiting in a sensible line, leaving breaks for the foot traffic at the airport to get around them. They were calm and polite. Everyone got re-booked. I also got a voucher for 15 euros worth of lunch at the airport, which I spent on smoked salmon and toast. One of the discussions on the plane was how much better European airlines are in terms of customer relations/service, which surprised my conversational companion.

I was re-routed through Copenhagen. The airport is super swank. I think they must have renovated it in the last 3 years. I also enjoyed people-watching at there as well as Amsterdam-Schipol. Very pretty people. Lots of tall, lithe, blue-eyed and platinum haired types. Fashionably dressed people with their fashionable toddlers.

Bergen!

Bergen is this mess of mountains, hills, and inlets/fjords/mini-fjords. Lots of ever-greens. Lots of drizzle. Everything's green. I'm looking forward to hiking around their mountains. They are comparable-seeming at least to the sandias (around albuquerque), but the setting is much more similar to Vancouver, although I don't think they really have any beaches.

The guesthouse I'm in is nice. Nicer than than the ones I'd been in before. Pricey rel continental europe, but the best cost here. Nice enough beds (but we're on the top floor, so the ceiling is a maze of eaves. I can't stand up straight directly adjacent to my bed.

Walked around. Ate a small tapa at Bryggen. <1 cup of fish stew cost me ~$10 USD (55 Nok). I also bought a 'pizza wrap' (flatbread pizza folded up) for the same price, much more substantial. I discovered that they do not necessarily charge for water. Also, their tap water is just fine.

I've found several grocery stores. Fruits and veggies are pretty close in price to back home, actually. $2-3 for a big head of broccoli, etc. Apples at $4/kg. There's a fish (and fruit and veggies) market daily.

Travelogue 8: Finis

[Last set of pics]

Note: Added two pics to the Amsterdam set. The weensy little car that fits 1.5 people, and it next to a 'real' car for scaling purposes. Both taken by my friend Cherie. These are apparently indigenous to amsterdam, and quite pricey.

A note on drinking water in Belgium -- the tap water is just fine, and my reach-for-my-nalgene reflex has served me in good stead, since every restaurant charges for water. I don't know how the natives stay hydrated :P

I spent today tooling around Brussels. Went to the flea market, which would have been awesome if it hadn't've been raining. As I walked up, people ran around yelling "Vite! Vite!" and grabbing tarps to cover up rain-damagable goods. I sauntered up the street towards the grand place-ish area, seeing random neat antique-y stores. One had a whole carousel inside!

Lunch was slow, a plate of four tapas and a Chimay Bleu. I spent some time writing several post-cards and enjoying the down-time.

I'm pretty much all packed at the moment. Grabbing the 5:35 am airport bus. Flight at 8 am. Arrive Chicago around 2:30pm or so central time. Hopefully customs won't be all that long.

So, I will soon be back in good ole shampoo-banana. Around fluent english speakers. Grading. Research. Good times.

Hope you all enjoyed my tales.

Au revoir

Travelogue 7: Brussels again-- Magritte, chocolate and Cantillon

"The common ordinariness of all things is a mystery" ----Magritte.

mural by Grand Place


Today we were going to go to the Brewers museum, only to walk up to a tri-lingual note telling us that it was closed specifically today and tomorrow. Nice. Oh, well.

As a back-up museum, we went to the Chocolate museum. For 4.5 euro for a student it was so-so. Poorly organized, but two free chocolate things and a cute demonstration by an old chocolatier with very limited english. Apparently Belgium became a big maker of chocolate because they improved one of the processes involved in producing chocolate, and they had a large/quick explosion of factories built for that purpose. Also, chocolate moulds didn't come into play until the 19th century.

Lunch was half a baguette sandwich and a double espresso. My experience with espresso in the states is that people tend to either drink it as part of something (cappuccino, etc), or entirely on its lonesome. Here it acts the way a cup of coffee in the states does, served with cream and sugar on the side that you can add. I have to say, I am pleased with the consistently high quality of coffee. I have yet to have a mediocre espresso here.

We checked out a few beer stores (Beer Planet and "de Bier Tempel"), looking for the elusive Delerium Tremens Noel in 75 cl bottles, or their seasonal glassware. All of the bars here serve each beer in its own distinctive glass (e.g.) and Will tells me that whenever they happen to be out of the associated glass, you are apologized to profusely.

The rain let up when Will bought his umbrella (of course) and we made our way to the Magritte museum. Magritte was, in fact, Belgian. Also, incredibly talented. Realism, impressionism, cubist stuff, sculptures, drawings, paintings, films, photos. I had no idea, past the well-known 'ceci n'est pas une pipe' and the man with the apple in front of his face. I bought a poster of 'black magic'. The museum has 3 floors. One is a cloak room and one an entrance level, but the other floors are dense with Magritte's work. He was very prolific. And got really weird when Belgium was invaded. As a side note, 2 euro entrance for students. Rock on.
 
After that, we headed out to the Cantillon Brewery, on the edge of town:

"The Cantillon brewery is outside the Petit Ring. Most of the Brussels region is surrounded by a motorway, called the "Ring", numbered R0 in the national road numbering system. There is a smaller ring of wide, differently named boulevards, in a roughly pentagonal shape, called the Petit Ring (Kleine Ring, Small Ring), the R20. This follows the path of the city's former 14th Century city walls." [source -- the interwebs ;) ]

in the brewery:

Cantillon brews lambics and guezes. Lambic is a traditional spontaneous-fermentation beer, tasting very sour instead of the bitterness you might expect in 'normal' beer. According to German definitions of beer, it actually can't be called beer. Lambic is aged for three years, and is flat. Gueze is what happens when 3 & 1-year lambics are mixed and more yeast added before bottling, giving it some carbonation. To widen their appeal, some lambics also have macerated fruits added before bottling-- Krieck has sour cherries. `Rose' ended up meaning raspberries were added (you might also see the word 'framboise' used). We tried one with muscat grapes added and Will said he had one with rhubarb (as an 'off-one', or seasonal sort of thing).

Neat tour. There's an attic with a lot of air whooshing through where the mash picks up its yeast and starts fermenting. Two of the yeasts in particular are specific to the region, and there are on the order of 86 yeast strains involved.

Lunch had been 'traditional libanese food', their plate of the day, which was cinammoned rice with pistachios and almonds as well as some really tender chicken, then a salad with lemon juice, some oil and a lot of parsley mixed in. Washed down with European coca-cola, which *does* taste better (mmm real sugar). Also, lemon fanta is amazing.

Dinner (for the grand total of 8 euros - amazing) was made with stuff from the pseudo-grocery near the European parliament. Fresh tortellini stuffed with arugola ('rucola') and mushrooms (funghi) in a white sauce with shredded gruyere and sauteed some 'chicken sausage' (which was somewhere between sausage and bologna, but tasted pretty good on browning) as well as a nice salad of mixed greens on the side.  All cooked on two lone burners --- Will's place lacks a real stovetop or oven, and he said that was common for apartments he was looking at in the area.

One more day, then another grueling plane-ride and customs-juggling. Woo.

Travelogue 6: Ghent -- a castle, but no cannibals

Some general commentary on Belgium: The beer here is spectacular, plentiful and well-priced. The transit is also pretty awesome. Like amsterdam, there is a metro (underground), trams, buses and trains. 12.3 euro for a 10-ride pass for the metro.

-----

[Pictures of Ghent Trip]

I put off writing about my day in Ghent because it was so soggy and I was understandably a little grumpy.

Traveled to Ghent yesterday by train, took about an hour with one change inside of Brussels.  Round trip about 16 euros.  All the tourist-info webpages said basically "Hop on tram 1, it'll go to the city center, and everything's there". So I hopped on tram 1, although neither direction looked correct, and noticed after a bit that we seemed to be going the wrong way. I jumped off and tried to wait on the other side, but a local told me that due to the (stupid amounts of) construction, the tram was only moving one way down that street, and to go north I'd have to go south first. However, here the tram fights with cars in traffic, so is quite slow. :P  So, I decided to walk the roughly 30-minute trek to the city center.

Ghent 1, Rosona 0.

Somehow managed to hop a tram heading back to the station, and from there followed the walking directions I downloaded onto the ipod. While walking, the spitting-rain started up (again) -- this has been a near-constant my trip, outside of a few days here and there. I think Saturday it was quite sunny and some of the time in amsterdam.  Then this giant wind rolled in (which I'd also experienced in Amsterdam) and the rain picked up to quite serious. Eventually I gave up and sheltered in a storefront. Even if I'd had my umbrella, it wouldn't've helped at all. 

Ghent 2, Rosona 0.

I made it to the central square, to find about 5 monstrous churches in the vicinity, and no idea which was the one I was looking for. I ducked into a fancy little cafe, got an espresso (which came with a tasty truffle) and directions to St. Baafs Cathedral. It was pretty epic, honestly. I saw a smaller replica of the famous 'mystic lamb' and decided not to pay to see the real one, and wandered around the crypt. There's art dating back to 1414, which is amazing because it is so damp, and Will tells me this is normal Belgium weather.




Finally managed to buy a map of Ghent after that (had tried a few times) and took probably the least optimal route to the Castle of the Counts. That was awesome and totally made the whole thing worth it.  It has a moat, and looks like what I think most people think of when they think 'castle'. Great view of the town, modulo the construction.




Wandered around. Saw the Ghent manneken-pis (which isn't even a fountain).  Eventually gave up and made my way back to the station, soggy and ready to get out of the constant rain (which had soaked all the way through my hat :P).

Dinner was delicious veal and lamb-meatball stew, with a trappist ale, Rochefort 8 (very delicious).  We went and found the bar with lambics on tap and had one. It was a very uncomfortable bar -- all rough-cut wood and metal. Good beer, though. Maybe they'll figure out to make things more comfortable.


ciao

Travelogue 5: Im Brügge

Pics from Bruges/Brugge/Brügge

In deciding whether to do Bruges,  Gant, or Bruges & Gant, I discovered that Bruges had just opened up an exhibit of ice sculptures. They also had three freshly-opened christmas markets. Awesome. Also, it's further, so we took advantage of weekend discounts -- about 28 euros for the both of us, there and back (normally it's twice that).  As a snack at the station, we had a packaged toffee waffle (pretty good, actually) and I got an espresso (mmm coffee).

Bruges/ Brügge is in the Flanders region of Belgium, where if you don't speak Dutch it is preferable to speak English over French. My understanding is that the Flemish(who often speak Dutch, French and English) hate the Frenchy-Belgians/Wallonians (who speak French and occasionally English). Case in point: the Flemish threw all the Frenchy Belgians out of the university of Leuvan, and the Wallonians/Frenchy-Belgians founded their own frenchy university of Leuvain-la-Neuve. The library is split exactly in half (each library got every other book)-- there's a three-volume set of books (witten & someone) where one university has vol 2 and the other has vol 1 and 3.

Back to Bruges. Getting off the train put us right at the ice sculpture park. The ice sculptures had the theme 'ice age 3', with a whole section to the side honoring Darwin (Darwin statue, and ice sculpture of his library). It was quite cold (-6 C), and pretty neat. Found out from the brochure that the clearness/cloudiness of the ice depends on the content of air in the water.  Followed the chill with some nice Glühwein.

We then walked towards the city center, moving from square to square and wandering around the various christmas markets. As Will said, isn't this just the most picturesque town? [It really is] Apparently lots of British tourists, due to the movie 'In Bruges'.

Ate a very nice lunch of mussels w/cheese (mussels are another regional dish), rabbit and chocolate mousse as well as a Bruges beer, the Bruges Zot. We also got tiny glasses of Kir, each with an ice-cube. While eating, it started to rain quite seriously, then hail, then rain some more, big rolling sheets and strong wind blowing the tourists off of the ice rink and into adjacent buildings.

When the weather cleared up, a parade of St Nicholas came by. Yet another moment of 'really? I guess I *am* in Europe' happened, when I looked down to see St Nick accompanied by a group of helpers in blackface.  [I have pictures]

Seriously, Belgium. Seriously?

More wandering and a ride back to Brussels. Dinner was some really tasty coconut-chicken soup and some ok red curry from the thai place around the corner, proceeded by some Cantillon Krieck.

Going to Ghent/Gant tomorrow. I enjoy this blurb:

"Ghent is a small city with 297 bars, 50.000 students, an alive music scene with free concerts every day, good secondhand shopping, very relaxed natives and almost no cannibals. The city lies between Bruges and Brussels, and that's also what it feels like: you get a romantic setting with pretty medieval buildings (like Bruges) mixed up with a living nightlife (like Brussels)."

vaarwel!

Travelogue 3&4 - finishing up Amsterdam for reals and moving on to Bruxelles

For the impatient, pictures from Brussels

3 (Amsterdam --> Bruxelles):
---------------------------------------------------
``Going down to Amster---shhh!  Amster-,Amster-ssh shh shh!''  (part of a song we sang when I was a kid)

My last day in Amsterdam was yesterday. First thing, I went to the Anne Frank House. Prior to coming to Amsterdam, I had no idea it was in Amsterdam (yah, I know. Americans.).  I think it was really well done. Also, very somber and eerie (well, modulo the loud and obnoxious Dutch teenagers wandering around).  You actually walk into the storefront and up through the hidden door to the annex.

Here's someone else's picture of the moveable book-case and door

There's a lot more room than you might imagine. It had a full kitchen and toilet.  Otto Frank requested that the annex remain unfurnished after the war (the furniture had been taken during the raid where the people in hiding were taken), so the place is quite empty, with descriptions on the walls and a display with miniatures of what the furniture was like, etc. Apparently both Margot and Anne Frank were taller than I by at least a few inches -- the markings of the childrens' heights were on the walls. I wish I had re-read the diary recently. There were excerpts posted on the walls, and the actual diary under glass, as well as videos of interviews with survivors -- Anne's childhood friend, and her father.

After walking through the house/annex (and its steep stairs that might as well be a ladder) you walk down and through the adjoining (modernized) building, and out.

I walked around a bit more after this, bought a sandwich at a bakery, bought the luggage and walked to the bus station. About 1-1.5 hrs longer than the fast train (2.5 hrs), and ~half as expensive (15 euros, versus 33. If I'd bought much earlier, it would have been 7 euros). A mostly-uneventful ride through the countryside and we arrived in Brussels about half an hour late.  The countryside was quite beautiful. The grass is (still) very green here. There were a *lot* of sheep out grazing. Trees. Rolling hills. Farmland. Weensie canals/trenches. A few cows. More sheep.

I met Will at the station and we took the train to his place, which is right next to the European Parliament in Brussels. Pretty futuristic building. Realized tonight that the square there has a poster of the Berlin wall ringing the central round area and big pieces of the wall nearby. I like the poster; one of the pieces of the graffiti said 'if communism is so great, why do they need a wall to keep people in?'

Grabbed a Duvel nearby and went to the center of town for dinner, at a thai place ( rouge, jaune or vert curry), where I had a Krieck (sour-cherry sweetish beer) and afterwards got a waffle covered in rasperries (framboise), cream (chantilly), and powdered sugar. Delish. Forestine christmas beer at Cafe Poechenellekelder by the Manneken Pis (which thankfully has a non-smoking section downstairs), then back to Will's place.

On Europe and smoking -- How can people so concerned about C02 emissions etc not give a crap about their own lungs? Weird. Also, enjoyed the car with the 'baby on board' sign and the kid asleep inside, windows closed and parent smoking. Nice.

4: First 'real' day in Bruxelles/Brussels:
 -----------------------------------------------------------

Lots of walking. Got up late, walked into the city and got a sandwich and an espresso.

Walk walk walk walk. Plaza this, plaza that. Statues. The outsides of various museums, that I will venture inside probably Monday or Tuesday. At some point, grabbed a beer at a cafe (about when I was getting tired from walking). I commented on how the sun arcs funny. It does! Do not attempt to tell time from it, at least not if you're used to telling time from it in America.

The pigeons on the building above stealth-crapped on the tour map I was holding. Glad it wasn't me. Of course, they somehow got my hand later while I was walking. Seriously, pigeons.  Or, ``oh no pigeons''

Walk walk walk.  Went through a few outdoor markets, one in the Antique-y district. Will said he saw someone pay 1200 euro (in cash!!) for a painting at one of these (in response to my remark 'who carries the kind of money to spend at these?') The fashion here is more toned down than Amsterdam, definitely. Also, more dogs. Went to a cool cafe in the Antique-y district, ``Cafe Pixel", had some ``chocolat chaud'' and a fromage plate.

Walk walk walk. Dinner at a place serving ``Traditional Belgian Fare''. Had ``stoemp''. Which is mashed potatoes & veggies, apparently. Served with some very delicious sausages and washed down with a glass of trappist ale, a westmalle. The placemat was an advertisement by amnesty international, a sort of pixelated cityscape, were people were being shot, raped (no, seriously), beheaded, etc. Not what I was expecting. I should take a picture of it or scan it in later or such.

Mainly uneventful rest of evening. Looking for a bar that was recommended that has (honest) lambics *on tap* (which is rather crazy-sounding to me), but didn't find it. Had some ice cream (tasty and fluffy). In a (wait for it) waffle cone. Next time, I should actually get it *on* a waffle (which is an option). There are two kinds of waffles here, one light and fluffy (and necessarily made fresh on the spot), Brussels-style. The other kind is Liege-style, thicker, heavier, longer shelf-life. I've only had the Brussels-style so far.

Oh right yes. Europeans and cars. Good god. If these people lose their jobs, they could be cabbies in NYC or something. They pull some crazy maneuvers just to get around corners, let alone park.

Tomorrow --- Bruges!

Bon nuit

Travelogue 2 -- finishing up Amsterdam and moving on to Bruxelles/Brussels

I've been thinking that an infatuation with Europe is something like the grown-up version of wanting a pony. I haven't gone anywhere else with that thought, but it's a thought.

[My set of pictures of amsterdam]

The first part of Amsterdam day 2 was eaten up by a trip via tram to the Albert Cuypmarkt, an open-air market. There were really nice food stalls -- the thing/gimmick in Amsterdam is fresh-squeezed orange juice. At food stalls, in bars/cafe's. Wherever. There were also people selling discounted shoes, luggage, sweaters, coats, scarves, cheese, meats, seafood, cds & hookahs, chocolate (including chocolate naughty-bits).  There was a really nice band/trio as I was walking in,  playing a song I knew, but couldn't place, maybe tango. A sax, an accordion and, I think, a clarinet. The average piece of clothing was about 15 euros, and in the adjoining stores was closer to 50 euro to start.

Here's a good picture, ala wikipedia

I ended up getting a european-style vegetable peeler, and a hard-sided suitcase. Apparently the thing now is to have four wheels, and multi-directional. Quite handy.

About dutch: It's pretty close to english.
Hello   == Hello/Hi
Mag    == May
We     ==  We
ik        == I
huis    == house

So, it's actually pretty effective to just talk English at people, because either they know English, or the words are close enough that you can both get the gist of what the other person is saying. There are a wide range of accents, from the airport's canned announcements that sound somewhat swedish in terms of intonation, to the girls on the tram today that spent 10 minutes chatting where they seemed to be hocking up loogies and somehow turning that into language (for perspective: I actually think german sounds fun. This was different :P )

I ended up stopping into a cd store that spanned 5 store-fronts (quite a lot of property in amsterdam) and then on to the (somewhat underwhelming) foto museum, Foam . Their cafe was recommended to me by my friend Cherie, so I went in and ordered lunch. As I went back to my table, I noticed two guys roughly my age chatting in english over a map, and sounding lost. I ended up helping them figure out where they were and where they were going and we all ate lunch together and chatted. One was a canadian and the other welsh (originially austrian), both worked in a very nice hotel near London. The canadian is a chef; we talked food, which was a lot of fun. After a very leisurely lunch, concluded with dutch apple pie (sadly overrated in my opinion, but I'm not much of an apple pie fan), I walked them to their next destination ('the Heinecken experience') and went back to where I was staying.

There's something really wonderful about speaking your own language in a place entirely foreign.

Later that night I went out with my friends who were hosting me to a live Tango-music concert, in a small venue called the Badcuyp ( 'the Bathtub'). The musicians were very impassioned, and were accompanied by a show of projected images on the screen beside them for each song. 

One song had a sort of strange set of images involving scantily clad women, which was sort of appropriate in two ways -- Amsterdam being known for its red light district, and the origins of tango as a dance danced by men waiting for whores.

I'll leave my trip to Bruxelles/Brussels for next time.

à bientôt!

Europe/Amsterdam - travelogue 1

It started at 10 am,  bus --> train --> train --> plane. Changeover in Madrid (7:50 am local time, so about 12:50pm central time)--that was crazy, and the timing was very tight. There was a 20-minute train between terminals and it was pretty unclear where my flight was going to be out of.  We had to go through customs, where I was chided for not filling out a declaring-things form and reminded that Holland is part of Europe. The implication being, I think, that as soon as you arrive in the EU, you declare stuff, which is a bit different than what happened last summer because I stopped over in London and then had to declare stuff in Copenhagen. After chiding me (in English), they stamped my passport and waved me on, where I had to get my bags re-scanned and was again chided (with a waved 'no-no' finger) by the guy there (in Spanish) about how I'm not allowed to bring bottles of juice on with me. I managed to convey that it was fine for him to take it, and I'm sorry about that, then ran across the remainder of the airport to get to my terminal. I boarded about 10 minutes later.

My friend met me at the airport, which is also a train station, and directed me how to get to his place (which I still managed to screw up; I blame jet lag). I discovered that standing around looking confused will not cause anyone to stop and help you, but people respond well to polite inquiry (in English).  I made it back to his place, got a shower and got back out -- to see the Rijksmuseum, which is a sort of history-by-artwork tour of the 'Golden Age' of Holland history (1600's to early 1800's). Beautiful. 'The Night Watch' is the really famous Rembrandt piece there, taking up a huuuge wall. In its original dimensions it measured approximately 13 by 16 ft,  but it feels much larger. My estimate on the postcard I wrote to my dad was 6m by 8m. 

In front of the Rijksmusem:

So far, Europe is awesome.  There are trams, trains, buses, subway/metro and bikes everywhere here. Plus these things that look like one-person smart-cars -- the width of a bicycle-lane in america -- that are actually allowed to drive in the bike lanes. Everyone speaks English, and I know no Dutch, so good for me. I think my hat is very distinctive here, but I'm still wearing it due to the rain, wind and cold. INTENSE wind. It made landing yesterday rather terrifying, actually.

On the docket for today is a trip to Albert Cuypmarkt (an outdoor market), a local cd store that takes up 5 storefronts or so, and the Fotomuseum. Perhaps a little walk around Rembrandtsplein.

Tot ziens!

Home, thoughts on America and Europe

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

I'm home and life has wrapped its warm sameness back around me, all its varied tendrils latching back on, down to/including my lethargy towards research. Of course, I can blame some of that on recovering from 2 weeks of mathmathmath, but it's mostly just a convenient excuse. I am unenthused.

It was jarring to walk around Chicago from one train station to another. Black people! Cabbies! The poor, the disenfranchised. The land of unfulfilled dreams, of unrealized hopes.

On the plane there was a program about how the Danes were the "happiest" country in the world. The Danes interviewed said that perhaps what was meant was "most content". The average work week is more like 35 hours. The country pays for as much college as you want, as long as it takes you. Everyone is roughly in the same income/living-bracket, all middle class. And their advice to America? Give up on the American dream. More is not better. More will not buy you happiness.

I was amused that the first movie following this was "The Bucket List", whose moral really is that the RichDivorcedWhiteMan's money will buy happiness, with the very slight catch that he only thinks to buy happiness and achieves it by sharing it with PoorButReligiousAndFamilyOrientedBlackMan.

We are a young country. We reward youth. We tear down the old to build up the new. Our attention spans are short and we dream big. We deny our mortality. We forget to take care of the old, of the environment -- we will live forever, we live now, we don't need to preserve anything because it's all about us. About our quest for happiness. Our guarantee to pursue happiness. Our entitlement.

Leaving Germany

My last day in Cologne/Germany, I re-check the train departure times and note that the ones heading straight to the Frankfurt Flughaven (Airport) are all ICE, or fast-trains. I remember Inna telling me that Eurail passes would not get me on such a train, and I remember also that when I read the rules, travel was allowed on all rail in Germany. So, deciding to perhaps play a little Russian roulette (if you have the wrong ticket, you are subject to fines on the order of 100 euro, which is 20 more euro than an actual ticket on this train costs), I get on the train that will put me in Frankfurt's airport about 3 hours before my flight. I board the train and ask to sit down to a nice little old German lady, who, against trends for people in Germany her age, actually does speak English. I look a bit worried as I realized I should have probably re-read the rules to make sure and the lady asks if I'm on the wrong train. I say no, but my ticket might not work. So, I settle in and wait for the conductor to eventually come by. Or not. The woman I am sitting next to is going to Munchen (Munich) to her nephew's wedding - he's marrying a korean girl, but came back to get married in Germany. Then they're going on a vacation by car to Austria.

Eventually the ticket-person came by and, indeed, Eurail passes work on superfast trains. Score. I should have been riding them all along. The regional trains are terrible (and, terribly cheap). If I make it back to Germany with another Eurail pass, I will make sure to either buy less days or travel more, but randomly. You know, hop a train to Hamburg to just tool around for one hour, and then hop on another train. Of course, I would like my next trip abroad to be less stressful. Inna pointed out that it probably would have been a better idea to travel before the workshop and conference, just due to how exhausted we were by the time we traveled. Then, you know, biking 70 km(about 43.5 miles, the furthest I've ever biked in one go) and hiking up a hill to sleep on uncomfortable beds didn't help. I think that probably shouldn't have been our first day of travel post-conference, because it really wiped me out.

Ah, so I got to the Frankfurt airport. This is not a good example of German efficiency. I think it has been cobbled together haphazardly over time, and is generally rather unpleasant and confusing.

The flight was close to 9 hours and followed by about 1.5 hours in customs, a 1 hr train ride to the Amtrak station and about 2.5 hours on the Amtrak train to Champaign. I didn't sleep on the train and got to bed around 3 am. I'm a trooper :P

Customs sucked. A lot. Also, now, if you want to visit the US, you have to be fingerprinted and photographed. No wonder people hate us.