[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
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
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:
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.
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 ;) ]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).
in the brewery:
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
[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
Monday, November 23, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, November 22, 2009
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
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
Saturday, November 21, 2009
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!
[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!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
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.
In front of the Rijksmusem:
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!
Friday, July 4, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, June 30, 2008
The Cathedral in Cologne and a strange (uncomfortable) conversation
Yesterday I basically passed out when I hit the bed. I didn't have the
energy to undress or brush my teeth or anything. I eventually woke up
enough to do these things at some time in the morning, and Inna left at
5am to go back to the states (flying out of Cologne).
I finally got up around 8:30 am or so, showered and traipsed downstairs to check email and try to plan the day a little. I gave up on planning and went to the Dom, the miraculously-preserved gothic cathedral that Dominates the landscape here. The Dom was beautiful in the early morning light, quiet, and mostly empty. And of course I ran out of batteries as soon as I started taking pictures. So, I went on a quest and found a place that looks a lot like a Best Buy and bought 4 AAs for about 5 euro.
After trying to follow various walking tours poorly marked on maps, I gave up and just walked around. Since the town was so damaged in WWII, the city has rebuilt, and the town feels very young. Outside of the fact that everything is in German, and there are cobbles, it could pass for an upscale suburb of Chicago, even.
Eventually coming back to the Dom, I sat and read a copy I'd made of what Lonely Planet had to say about Cologne. A guy came up and spoke to me in German, asking where I was from. He didn't speak any English, so I had to use my incredibly sparse and grammatically incorrect German to try to communication. He's Kurdish, 35, and works in a restaurant here. He thinks I'm very pretty and objected to my assertion that I wanted to walk with a "halb-metre" between us. He also commented on my "Angst" (fear) which was my discomfort...I was somewhat uncomfortable. I didn't find him attractive and didn't want to lead him on, and I'm told in more...religious...countries, that showing skin was taken as an invitation. So, I was a bit worried. He wanted to hold my hand and I shied away and he talked about how in Germany if people are not married they'll decide to have sex with each other after only knowing each other an hour. This happens in the states, too, I suppose, but I assume it's mostly local to a certain age bracket, i.e. my students. He said he had a Ukranian girlfriend for 6 months and asked if/when I'd had a boyfriend (very annoyingly, Freund is ambiguous as either boyfriend or male friend). He said I seemed confident and was good at explaining what I meant with body language and what German I could cobble together. I had no idea what the word in German for "safe" was so I had trouble explaining that I disagreed with his assessment of Copenhagen as being a ghetto (same word in English and German), even though it was dirty (schmutzig). From what I gathered, Cologne is very multicultural and liberal, unlike regions of germany like Munchen (Munich) and Bavaria.
We parted ways and I felt sort of bad for being a typisch (typical) American, raised in our culture of fear...but this kind of wraps into a conversation (rather inappropriate) I'd had in the castle with math boys about how I know a LOT of women who've been raped, and I have worked very hard to be very careful around men.
:/
And now I'm hiding inside to recover from my sunburn. I'll probably venture forth in a bit to scrounge up dinner and maybe check out the cathedral of St Ursula who was killed by an arrow after getting married and trying to retain her chastity. Weird.
I finally got up around 8:30 am or so, showered and traipsed downstairs to check email and try to plan the day a little. I gave up on planning and went to the Dom, the miraculously-preserved gothic cathedral that Dominates the landscape here. The Dom was beautiful in the early morning light, quiet, and mostly empty. And of course I ran out of batteries as soon as I started taking pictures. So, I went on a quest and found a place that looks a lot like a Best Buy and bought 4 AAs for about 5 euro.
After trying to follow various walking tours poorly marked on maps, I gave up and just walked around. Since the town was so damaged in WWII, the city has rebuilt, and the town feels very young. Outside of the fact that everything is in German, and there are cobbles, it could pass for an upscale suburb of Chicago, even.
Eventually coming back to the Dom, I sat and read a copy I'd made of what Lonely Planet had to say about Cologne. A guy came up and spoke to me in German, asking where I was from. He didn't speak any English, so I had to use my incredibly sparse and grammatically incorrect German to try to communication. He's Kurdish, 35, and works in a restaurant here. He thinks I'm very pretty and objected to my assertion that I wanted to walk with a "halb-metre" between us. He also commented on my "Angst" (fear) which was my discomfort...I was somewhat uncomfortable. I didn't find him attractive and didn't want to lead him on, and I'm told in more...religious...countries, that showing skin was taken as an invitation. So, I was a bit worried. He wanted to hold my hand and I shied away and he talked about how in Germany if people are not married they'll decide to have sex with each other after only knowing each other an hour. This happens in the states, too, I suppose, but I assume it's mostly local to a certain age bracket, i.e. my students. He said he had a Ukranian girlfriend for 6 months and asked if/when I'd had a boyfriend (very annoyingly, Freund is ambiguous as either boyfriend or male friend). He said I seemed confident and was good at explaining what I meant with body language and what German I could cobble together. I had no idea what the word in German for "safe" was so I had trouble explaining that I disagreed with his assessment of Copenhagen as being a ghetto (same word in English and German), even though it was dirty (schmutzig). From what I gathered, Cologne is very multicultural and liberal, unlike regions of germany like Munchen (Munich) and Bavaria.
We parted ways and I felt sort of bad for being a typisch (typical) American, raised in our culture of fear...but this kind of wraps into a conversation (rather inappropriate) I'd had in the castle with math boys about how I know a LOT of women who've been raped, and I have worked very hard to be very careful around men.
:/
And now I'm hiding inside to recover from my sunburn. I'll probably venture forth in a bit to scrounge up dinner and maybe check out the cathedral of St Ursula who was killed by an arrow after getting married and trying to retain her chastity. Weird.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Weekend bike ride along the scenic Rhine
I biked 70 km yesterday (gestern, auf Deutsch) from Bonn to Koblenz. The
ride was beautiful. Pics will be delayed because to save room/weight we
only brought one camera. The Rhein (Rhine) is beautiful, lush and
green. We biked by fields of wheat and baled hay, as well as through
small old towns. The old towns here all seem to have an Altstadt (old
city) with a fortified outer wall and tower. Each records the height of
past floodings of the Rhein, with notable high-years including so
recently as 1995.
We explored the Altstadt of a town named Remagen (Reh-MAH-gen), where I was chided by an old German lady for dragging "deine Jacke an die (auf dem?) Erd" (along the ground) and I had two espressos and a plateful of gnocchi. Germans seem to go crazy with desserts. There are a lot of ice cream cafes (Eis Cafe) where you can buy any of at least 30 variants on dessert, many dripping with fresh fruit or nuts or covered in delicious chocolate sauce. We took a break for some ice cream at such a place in the Altstadt of Andernach, and then went down by the Rhein to rest and stretch out.
The path along the Rhein also drew us up abreast of a nuclear power plant. I feel like a similar path in the states would not do that.
Including breaks, the trip took 9 hours from Bonn to Koblenz itself. Then we had a ferry crossing and had to haul our bikes up about 4 flights of stairs to cross a bridge. Post-bridge we had a long haul uphill to our youth hostel, in a fortress atop the hill. The walk was very steep and probably took about half an hour. The view at sunset was great, and after some confusion about my reservation, we ate food, I had a glass of wine, we showered and slept.
I have to say, I hate the fortress. Passionately. The walk up sucked, and we almost have to bike back down. And the bed folded completely around me so that the middle of my back hurt as well as everything else that was hurting anyway.
LESSON LEARNED:
If you decide to spend a day biking, fork over the extra money to stay someplace
a) nice (where nice == decent/comfy beds and free internet. Or, just the former)
and
b) NOT at the top of a hill
Today we groggily got up, crankily went to Koblenz proper to see a monument that Napolean erected preemptively for his "Victory against the Russians", which the Russians came back to and wrote on it "Seen and approved" (all in french). Pretty hilarious.
Then (regional) train to Bonn to return bikes and region train to Koeln. Thankfully, our hostel seems pretty hip and has free wireless. I love them.
However, regional trains are awful. Maybe they're more awful on days when Germany will be playing a very important game in the Eurocup. I don't know.
Observation about trains in Germany: NO AIR CONDITIONING. How do people ride these all the time without dying?!?!
:P Now I am exhausted and want to take a long nap. I think I will get a Koelsch since I'm in Koeln (where Koelsch is made). This was the reason for the Riesling in Koblenz, since Koblenz == the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein rivers, and I like Rieslings from the Mosel region.
I leave in two days. I am ready for my bed and shower and going to the gym again.
We explored the Altstadt of a town named Remagen (Reh-MAH-gen), where I was chided by an old German lady for dragging "deine Jacke an die (auf dem?) Erd" (along the ground) and I had two espressos and a plateful of gnocchi. Germans seem to go crazy with desserts. There are a lot of ice cream cafes (Eis Cafe) where you can buy any of at least 30 variants on dessert, many dripping with fresh fruit or nuts or covered in delicious chocolate sauce. We took a break for some ice cream at such a place in the Altstadt of Andernach, and then went down by the Rhein to rest and stretch out.
The path along the Rhein also drew us up abreast of a nuclear power plant. I feel like a similar path in the states would not do that.
Including breaks, the trip took 9 hours from Bonn to Koblenz itself. Then we had a ferry crossing and had to haul our bikes up about 4 flights of stairs to cross a bridge. Post-bridge we had a long haul uphill to our youth hostel, in a fortress atop the hill. The walk was very steep and probably took about half an hour. The view at sunset was great, and after some confusion about my reservation, we ate food, I had a glass of wine, we showered and slept.
I have to say, I hate the fortress. Passionately. The walk up sucked, and we almost have to bike back down. And the bed folded completely around me so that the middle of my back hurt as well as everything else that was hurting anyway.
LESSON LEARNED:
If you decide to spend a day biking, fork over the extra money to stay someplace
a) nice (where nice == decent/comfy beds and free internet. Or, just the former)
and
b) NOT at the top of a hill
Today we groggily got up, crankily went to Koblenz proper to see a monument that Napolean erected preemptively for his "Victory against the Russians", which the Russians came back to and wrote on it "Seen and approved" (all in french). Pretty hilarious.
Then (regional) train to Bonn to return bikes and region train to Koeln. Thankfully, our hostel seems pretty hip and has free wireless. I love them.
However, regional trains are awful. Maybe they're more awful on days when Germany will be playing a very important game in the Eurocup. I don't know.
Observation about trains in Germany: NO AIR CONDITIONING. How do people ride these all the time without dying?!?!
:P Now I am exhausted and want to take a long nap. I think I will get a Koelsch since I'm in Koeln (where Koelsch is made). This was the reason for the Riesling in Koblenz, since Koblenz == the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein rivers, and I like Rieslings from the Mosel region.
I leave in two days. I am ready for my bed and shower and going to the gym again.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
"Theme Park Germany", minus Leiderhosen.
Germany won [in the Euro-cup] against Turkey yesterday, and there were loud, drunken,
flag-draped Germans running around singing and yelling "DEUTSCH-LAND!"
when we stopped by the bus station for the last bus to the youth hostel.
One of the other UIUC math grads said that he felt he was seeing "the
real Germany". Then again, he also expressed the same sentiment when we
went to Linz.
Linz is kind of like the German version of a quaint German town. I think I called it "Theme Park Germany". It is everything that people think of when they think of stereotypical Germany, minus the Leiderhosen. The Rhine (Rhein) floods every year, and there are labels on their main gate/tower where the worst floods in their town's history have been. Several hundred years ago, it flooded up the first story of the shops, and in 1995 it was pretty close to that.
The castle in Linz (Burg Linz) is really more of a fortified building than castle, all whitewash and wooden frames. They had a cellar that supposedly was used for torture, and several displays of old torture devices and a door with a motion sensor that would rattle at you when you walked by. Our tour guide said that the people of Linz used to live making wine and mining the volcanic stone nearby (which they sold to Holland to build dikes) and then that wasn't working so well and they discovered tourism.
The point of going to Linz (via boat -- very nice) was that this conference is in honor of the 60th birthday of a very influential topologist. Dinner included a lot of toasts and speeches and funny stories. A very very famous mathematician basically said that Haynes (the birthday mathematician) was the only mathematician who ever made him feel good about his work.
What I have learned about mathematicians on this trip is that the vast majority are insecure about their own work and how they appear in the eyes of other mathematicians. Also, that just because someone is dismissive or answers quickly does not mean that they are a) right or b) all that much smarter or c) as fast on their feet as they appear.
As I've said to other people, I've discovered that the famous people "are real people too".
Today I'll be going on the "Beethoven walk" of Bonn. He was apparently born here.
Linz is kind of like the German version of a quaint German town. I think I called it "Theme Park Germany". It is everything that people think of when they think of stereotypical Germany, minus the Leiderhosen. The Rhine (Rhein) floods every year, and there are labels on their main gate/tower where the worst floods in their town's history have been. Several hundred years ago, it flooded up the first story of the shops, and in 1995 it was pretty close to that.
The castle in Linz (Burg Linz) is really more of a fortified building than castle, all whitewash and wooden frames. They had a cellar that supposedly was used for torture, and several displays of old torture devices and a door with a motion sensor that would rattle at you when you walked by. Our tour guide said that the people of Linz used to live making wine and mining the volcanic stone nearby (which they sold to Holland to build dikes) and then that wasn't working so well and they discovered tourism.
The point of going to Linz (via boat -- very nice) was that this conference is in honor of the 60th birthday of a very influential topologist. Dinner included a lot of toasts and speeches and funny stories. A very very famous mathematician basically said that Haynes (the birthday mathematician) was the only mathematician who ever made him feel good about his work.
What I have learned about mathematicians on this trip is that the vast majority are insecure about their own work and how they appear in the eyes of other mathematicians. Also, that just because someone is dismissive or answers quickly does not mean that they are a) right or b) all that much smarter or c) as fast on their feet as they appear.
As I've said to other people, I've discovered that the famous people "are real people too".
Today I'll be going on the "Beethoven walk" of Bonn. He was apparently born here.
Monday, June 23, 2008
DEUTSCHLAND! Or, the trip from copenhagen to germany
I have a traveling companion now who is a first year grad at MIT. We
traveled to Bremen and then to Bonn. There wasn't a lot of sightseeing
since we were both tired, but we did take a few photos, including one of
a statue of the Bremen town musicians. My German is very very bad, but
has been somewhat helpful. At least now I can ask someone if they speak
English first before just speaking at them.
The train from Copenhagen to Hamburg boards a ferry. Sehr kuhl.
The train from Hamburg to Bremen was very full and we sat for the first hour in the compartment basically between trains. Very loud. Then figured out we could sit in the reserved seats if we were there not during the reserved leg of the journey.
Food in Europe *is* better. So is the coffee. And, man-- the bread is awesome. Also, Americans are fat. All the Europeans I've seen are pretty slim, or a little pudgy, but no one is 300-500 pounds and oozing over their seats on the train.
And! No handicapped-accessible anything. Do they all move to the US? I have not seen a single person in a wheelchair, and if I did I would stop them and ask how they get around.
The Danes more universally spoke English than where I've been in Germany. I wonder how the tourism of the two countries compares.
Our room here is bigger (by a lot) but about 30 minutes by bus from the university. I am surrounded by so many mathematicians (250 or so?) that the applause (quiet and polite) after each talk is thunderous.
Two of the other people at the workshop and now this conference do Tango so I will probably dance at some point in Bonn and danced twice in Copenhagen.
Lunch is 3 hours and it doesn't seem like quite enough :) Oh, and the student cafeterias here and in Copenhagen are really really nice. Nice salad bars, especially. Europe isn't so bad as a vegetarian (if you're careful).
Aside:
I am so incredibly happy I have a traveling partner. All this alone would have been a bit much. I feel so foreign surrounded by people not speaking English, and I'm a lot more shy/unassertive than I would be in, say, Chicago .
The train from Copenhagen to Hamburg boards a ferry. Sehr kuhl.
The train from Hamburg to Bremen was very full and we sat for the first hour in the compartment basically between trains. Very loud. Then figured out we could sit in the reserved seats if we were there not during the reserved leg of the journey.
Food in Europe *is* better. So is the coffee. And, man-- the bread is awesome. Also, Americans are fat. All the Europeans I've seen are pretty slim, or a little pudgy, but no one is 300-500 pounds and oozing over their seats on the train.
And! No handicapped-accessible anything. Do they all move to the US? I have not seen a single person in a wheelchair, and if I did I would stop them and ask how they get around.
The Danes more universally spoke English than where I've been in Germany. I wonder how the tourism of the two countries compares.
Our room here is bigger (by a lot) but about 30 minutes by bus from the university. I am surrounded by so many mathematicians (250 or so?) that the applause (quiet and polite) after each talk is thunderous.
Two of the other people at the workshop and now this conference do Tango so I will probably dance at some point in Bonn and danced twice in Copenhagen.
Lunch is 3 hours and it doesn't seem like quite enough :) Oh, and the student cafeterias here and in Copenhagen are really really nice. Nice salad bars, especially. Europe isn't so bad as a vegetarian (if you're careful).
Aside:
I am so incredibly happy I have a traveling partner. All this alone would have been a bit much. I feel so foreign surrounded by people not speaking English, and I'm a lot more shy/unassertive than I would be in, say, Chicago .
Friday, June 20, 2008
Last day of math workshop, leaving Copenhagen soon
Today is the last day of the Math workshop.
The morning lectures sped up somewhere around Wednesday and the afternoon lectures have been entirely incomprehensible (I don't have a 1 year background in Algebraic Geometry).
This has been good and bad for my ego. I can answer some questions that are asked in the workshop and I can answer some questions other people have, but I really haven´t been doing math my whole life and meeting people who have is intimidating.
This has been like a flashback to first year of gradschool for most people, I think. The math is hard, and fast, and we're all unsure if it is okay to ask questions or not, leaving the question-asking to those people who are confident, arrogant, or who have already seen the material. People are quietly spread out over the auditorium, some skulking in the back where it is hard to hear and see the lecturer, but it removes you from the potential scrutiny of other grad students. Some sitting right up in front where you can almost pretend there isn't a veritable sea of talented grad students at your back.
I am very tired. Two of my roommates are checking out today, so it will be quieter tonight to sleep, which will be nice. I am probably going on a boat trip tomorrow, unless I really want to get up early, stop in Hamburg and mostly just use Bremen for sleeping and early morning traipsing (which is plausible. I will look at my options today).
I managed to only spend about 5 USD yesterday. I will make up for it and then some today I think.
Danish Keyboards
A lot of the normal US special characters like / and < and > are reorganized. One reorganization I really like is that < and > are on the same key, and one is shift + that key. One thing I don'like is that the normal location of 'is replaced by ø, which ends up with typos like "donøt" for "don´t".
The morning lectures sped up somewhere around Wednesday and the afternoon lectures have been entirely incomprehensible (I don't have a 1 year background in Algebraic Geometry).
This has been good and bad for my ego. I can answer some questions that are asked in the workshop and I can answer some questions other people have, but I really haven´t been doing math my whole life and meeting people who have is intimidating.
This has been like a flashback to first year of gradschool for most people, I think. The math is hard, and fast, and we're all unsure if it is okay to ask questions or not, leaving the question-asking to those people who are confident, arrogant, or who have already seen the material. People are quietly spread out over the auditorium, some skulking in the back where it is hard to hear and see the lecturer, but it removes you from the potential scrutiny of other grad students. Some sitting right up in front where you can almost pretend there isn't a veritable sea of talented grad students at your back.
I am very tired. Two of my roommates are checking out today, so it will be quieter tonight to sleep, which will be nice. I am probably going on a boat trip tomorrow, unless I really want to get up early, stop in Hamburg and mostly just use Bremen for sleeping and early morning traipsing (which is plausible. I will look at my options today).
I managed to only spend about 5 USD yesterday. I will make up for it and then some today I think.
Danish Keyboards
A lot of the normal US special characters like / and < and > are reorganized. One reorganization I really like is that < and > are on the same key, and one is shift + that key. One thing I don'like is that the normal location of 'is replaced by ø, which ends up with typos like "donøt" for "don´t".
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Traipsing, miscellaneous Danish, etc
Out of my travel-reading-book:
"Out of a billowy upheaval of vivid green foliage, a rifle-shot removed, rises the huge ruin of Heidelberg Caste, with empty window arches, ivy-mailed battlements, moldering towers-- the Lear of inanimate nature, --deserted, discrowned, beaten by storms, but royal still, and beatiful"
- Mark Twain A Tramp Abroad p.9
Agurk = Cucumber
Kylling=Chicken
Aaben= Open
Tryk= Push
Med= With
Tak= Thanks
Marked= Market/Bazaar?
Salg= Sale
Til= to/towards
i= and
Kirke= Church
Land= Land?Country?
er= is
Proverum= changing room
Sommer= Summer
Ost= Cheese
Tomat= Tomatoes
Nørre=North
Fri= Free
Fra= From
Today has been a bit long. I like people, but I also like quiet, and I think I am repleat with both sight-seeing and human interaction. Went off to explore the city with a friend I'd maid. We were very lackadaisical and so missed seeing Christiansborg slot ruins (ruins from two previous palaces/fortresses that are underneat, including Bishop Absalon's original fortification that put Copenhagen on the map in 1128 or so). That was sad.
More traipsing, getting back close to 7 (so about 5 hours of traipsing). She talked nearly the whole time, which hopefully is not habitual. Typing some, labelling pictures.
Apparently Danes are known for their milk, ice cream and open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød).
The air here is surprisingly arid. It has been windy, but I assumed that was just due to storms. One of the local mathematicians said that no, it's constant. Thus, aridity? I mean, this is a harbor. It should be wet, no?
As a result, I´ve been drinking about 3 litres of local water a day and wishing I had lotion (like the desert but greener and rainier. No serious storms, just little drizzles here and there).
Also! Nigh impossible to wash stuff out of your hair. I am going to borrow someone else´s shampoo and have a go at it, and/or go find the supermarket and buy cheaper shampoo than what I have. Or maybe a Netto (like biglots but not big)
Odd stuff:
*Seems like Danes overall start going bald earlyish, I'd guess 30s.
*There was a train on the street. A little kiddy-sort of train, with tourists. Say what???
*I saw a woman with knee-high leather boots and a tight skirt with a bike. These people. Talented.
*One of the guys I tangoed with on Saturday is a postdoc in Math here in Copenhagen. S'funny.
"Out of a billowy upheaval of vivid green foliage, a rifle-shot removed, rises the huge ruin of Heidelberg Caste, with empty window arches, ivy-mailed battlements, moldering towers-- the Lear of inanimate nature, --deserted, discrowned, beaten by storms, but royal still, and beatiful"
- Mark Twain A Tramp Abroad p.9
Agurk = Cucumber
Kylling=Chicken
Aaben= Open
Tryk= Push
Med= With
Tak= Thanks
Marked= Market/Bazaar?
Salg= Sale
Til= to/towards
i= and
Kirke= Church
Land= Land?Country?
er= is
Proverum= changing room
Sommer= Summer
Ost= Cheese
Tomat= Tomatoes
Nørre=North
Fri= Free
Fra= From
Today has been a bit long. I like people, but I also like quiet, and I think I am repleat with both sight-seeing and human interaction. Went off to explore the city with a friend I'd maid. We were very lackadaisical and so missed seeing Christiansborg slot ruins (ruins from two previous palaces/fortresses that are underneat, including Bishop Absalon's original fortification that put Copenhagen on the map in 1128 or so). That was sad.
More traipsing, getting back close to 7 (so about 5 hours of traipsing). She talked nearly the whole time, which hopefully is not habitual. Typing some, labelling pictures.
Apparently Danes are known for their milk, ice cream and open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød).
The air here is surprisingly arid. It has been windy, but I assumed that was just due to storms. One of the local mathematicians said that no, it's constant. Thus, aridity? I mean, this is a harbor. It should be wet, no?
As a result, I´ve been drinking about 3 litres of local water a day and wishing I had lotion (like the desert but greener and rainier. No serious storms, just little drizzles here and there).
Also! Nigh impossible to wash stuff out of your hair. I am going to borrow someone else´s shampoo and have a go at it, and/or go find the supermarket and buy cheaper shampoo than what I have. Or maybe a Netto (like biglots but not big)
Odd stuff:
*Seems like Danes overall start going bald earlyish, I'd guess 30s.
*There was a train on the street. A little kiddy-sort of train, with tourists. Say what???
*I saw a woman with knee-high leather boots and a tight skirt with a bike. These people. Talented.
*One of the guys I tangoed with on Saturday is a postdoc in Math here in Copenhagen. S'funny.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Copenhagen, day 4 of travel: roommates, finding a supermarket
Last night I wanted to kill 2 of my 4 other roommates.
One didn't get in until 1pm and had to knock. Another kept tossing and
turning and had brought smelly food into the room and left it there, in
the trash when done. This room is amazingly small. I'll try to open the
blinds and get a few good pix. This thing is the size of a small closet,
has four beds and a bathroom with a shower head that you use by closing
a curtain around yourself (and it's a small bathroom overall). The
space efficiency is amazing.
So, first person got up at 6 am (sun gets up at 4am), and I finally gave up and showered and got out around 6:40 to check email and then eat. We have a nice breakfast buffet for 50 kroner (about 10$ USD) -- yogurt, muesli, about 5 kinds of fresh bread, cheese (with a neat cheese cutter), orange juice, really good coffee, milk, meat if you want it. Good stuff.
Walked with a group to the math department a little after 8 am. Checked in and went to the first talk. I was able to follow most of it and formed a group of (super powered people) to solve some of the problems afterwards. We worked for close to 1.5 hrs or 2 and then went to eat at a place called "Tasty Kitchen". Had an egg salad sandwhich with nice bread for 28 kroner (a little more than 5 dollars).
The bread here seems uniformly awesome
Went to the second talk which was awful because he assumed about 10 chapters of varied math books worth of background. I am going to try to read up a little tonight to try to catch up, but I don't know how much I'll be able to catch up. :-/
However, I ran into probably my favorite mathematician outside of my advisor, who this conference was in honor of. I like this guy because he let me take up my time and seemed to find my questions worth answering. I saw him today. He asked what I was working on and I told him and it is so nice talking to him because he's the only person I can talk ``Randy-speak'' (Randy is my advisor) at who understands all of it. So, now I need to go back and ask him why what some of I said was clear and press him for some more details that he offered to tell me more of.
Man, I'm totally going to go visit Boston and camp outside his office for a week sometime this year.
Anywho, that totally made my afternoon.
We asked a local where Danes buy stuff, because I fail to believe anyone can live solely out of kiosks. My evidence? They don't sell paper and pens. Or trash bags. Or cookware. So, after some wrangling, I was able to convey that what I wanted was a supermarket ('grocery store' wasn't cutting it). We were directed to one, where for just shy of 5 USD I was able to get TEN razors and a travel-sized shampoo! YAY! (I KNEW there had to be SOMEplace normal people shopped. I of course failed to convey that this is what I wanted by asking a Dane "So, where do real people go to buy real things?" which I thought was perfectly intelligible.
The UIUC people (me, Dan and Nat) pooled our resources and had tasty bread, hummus, and fish for dinner for about 5 USD. Good stuff.
AND! post-supermarket I thought I'd lost my passport and my head started spinning and I started almost hyperventilating. I tore through my bag and found my money bag, put it on, and later hypothesized that I'd become so cheery from the adrenaline.
Posted some pics to flickr, including sculpture of a man peeing. Crazy ness.
Also, I want a bike. I cannot explain how stuffed to the gills this city is with bikes. Everywhere! Giant bike lanes! Bike lights! Bikes bikes bikes! Bikes laid against buildings, unlocked.
So, first person got up at 6 am (sun gets up at 4am), and I finally gave up and showered and got out around 6:40 to check email and then eat. We have a nice breakfast buffet for 50 kroner (about 10$ USD) -- yogurt, muesli, about 5 kinds of fresh bread, cheese (with a neat cheese cutter), orange juice, really good coffee, milk, meat if you want it. Good stuff.
Walked with a group to the math department a little after 8 am. Checked in and went to the first talk. I was able to follow most of it and formed a group of (super powered people) to solve some of the problems afterwards. We worked for close to 1.5 hrs or 2 and then went to eat at a place called "Tasty Kitchen". Had an egg salad sandwhich with nice bread for 28 kroner (a little more than 5 dollars).
The bread here seems uniformly awesome
Went to the second talk which was awful because he assumed about 10 chapters of varied math books worth of background. I am going to try to read up a little tonight to try to catch up, but I don't know how much I'll be able to catch up. :-/
However, I ran into probably my favorite mathematician outside of my advisor, who this conference was in honor of. I like this guy because he let me take up my time and seemed to find my questions worth answering. I saw him today. He asked what I was working on and I told him and it is so nice talking to him because he's the only person I can talk ``Randy-speak'' (Randy is my advisor) at who understands all of it. So, now I need to go back and ask him why what some of I said was clear and press him for some more details that he offered to tell me more of.
Man, I'm totally going to go visit Boston and camp outside his office for a week sometime this year.
Anywho, that totally made my afternoon.
We asked a local where Danes buy stuff, because I fail to believe anyone can live solely out of kiosks. My evidence? They don't sell paper and pens. Or trash bags. Or cookware. So, after some wrangling, I was able to convey that what I wanted was a supermarket ('grocery store' wasn't cutting it). We were directed to one, where for just shy of 5 USD I was able to get TEN razors and a travel-sized shampoo! YAY! (I KNEW there had to be SOMEplace normal people shopped. I of course failed to convey that this is what I wanted by asking a Dane "So, where do real people go to buy real things?" which I thought was perfectly intelligible.
The UIUC people (me, Dan and Nat) pooled our resources and had tasty bread, hummus, and fish for dinner for about 5 USD. Good stuff.
AND! post-supermarket I thought I'd lost my passport and my head started spinning and I started almost hyperventilating. I tore through my bag and found my money bag, put it on, and later hypothesized that I'd become so cheery from the adrenaline.
Posted some pics to flickr, including sculpture of a man peeing. Crazy ness.
Also, I want a bike. I cannot explain how stuffed to the gills this city is with bikes. Everywhere! Giant bike lanes! Bike lights! Bikes bikes bikes! Bikes laid against buildings, unlocked.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Last night
After assuring myself that Copenhagen is safe to walk in at any time of day, I decided to try out dancing some tango in town. It cost 60 Kroner, which is about 12 USD (conversion rate is close to 5 to 1). It was a nice dance. VERY different than Urbana. It started with few men, and soon a woman asked another to dance, so I did as well. The first follow was just wonderful. It was like hugging a good friend. Lots of fun dancers, who uniformly danced open embrace (i.e. more 'modern'). Several men followed each other and when I asked them to dance, they asked me to lead them.
The danish I learned:
Vil du danse? (Want to dance?)
Mage tak (thanks)
Untschuld (excuse me)
There's more dancing at the same place Monday night; I may go.
Danced until 2 am and slept 10 hrs.
Today
Ran into a mathematician I know (and another I didn't) who was hungry, so decided to go explore and eat. Traipsed around Copenhagen with them for a while. Saw the Rådhus (town hall) and the outside of Tivoli. Went to the National Museum and saw prehistoric denmark stuff. Very neat. They made a remark about how "we're mathematicians, we won't be long in the museum" and I thought that was weird. I like museums. I like doing stuff. I think I'm an atypical mathematician.
We ate on the Strøget, the pedestrian road. 35 Kroner (7 USD) for a sandwich, and that was cheap food. Most places more like 10-25 USD.
I also found the places to buy food! I bought apples, oranges, peaches, a neat dried chickpea + raisin mix for a little under 10 USD. Good stuff. The places to buy food (Bazaars or markeds) are, quite logically, ear the central train station. I'm kind of surprised I didn't think of this earlier.
The places to rent bicycles was closed as was the tourist info center.
I found some neat restaurants to try out, in including a Turkish place.
As I wrapped up my traipsing (feeling sunburnt and nearly out of water), I was walking around Copenhagen's center and this was being sung at a bar as I strode past
"..and theres reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I cant remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass.."
("Long December", Counting Crows)
I thought it was appropriate.
Some extra commentary:
It is very useful to carry a small map around. I helped out three foreigners find where they were going because I was approached for directions and offered to help with my map.
Also, attitudes about inability to speak Danish differ from person to person. Some people seem completely unphased and some seem rather disdainful. Most people speak great English. I've run into a few that speak none -- mostly foreigners (to Denmark) who speak Danish + their native tongue, e.g. the guy I danced with who spoke Spanish, Danish and about 5 words of English. That was kinda fun to try to talk with him actually.
I've been debating trying to pick up Spanish this year, and I think I should. Esp if I want to try to go to Argentina.
After assuring myself that Copenhagen is safe to walk in at any time of day, I decided to try out dancing some tango in town. It cost 60 Kroner, which is about 12 USD (conversion rate is close to 5 to 1). It was a nice dance. VERY different than Urbana. It started with few men, and soon a woman asked another to dance, so I did as well. The first follow was just wonderful. It was like hugging a good friend. Lots of fun dancers, who uniformly danced open embrace (i.e. more 'modern'). Several men followed each other and when I asked them to dance, they asked me to lead them.
The danish I learned:
Vil du danse? (Want to dance?)
Mage tak (thanks)
Untschuld (excuse me)
There's more dancing at the same place Monday night; I may go.
Danced until 2 am and slept 10 hrs.
Today
Ran into a mathematician I know (and another I didn't) who was hungry, so decided to go explore and eat. Traipsed around Copenhagen with them for a while. Saw the Rådhus (town hall) and the outside of Tivoli. Went to the National Museum and saw prehistoric denmark stuff. Very neat. They made a remark about how "we're mathematicians, we won't be long in the museum" and I thought that was weird. I like museums. I like doing stuff. I think I'm an atypical mathematician.
We ate on the Strøget, the pedestrian road. 35 Kroner (7 USD) for a sandwich, and that was cheap food. Most places more like 10-25 USD.
I also found the places to buy food! I bought apples, oranges, peaches, a neat dried chickpea + raisin mix for a little under 10 USD. Good stuff. The places to buy food (Bazaars or markeds) are, quite logically, ear the central train station. I'm kind of surprised I didn't think of this earlier.
The places to rent bicycles was closed as was the tourist info center.
I found some neat restaurants to try out, in including a Turkish place.
As I wrapped up my traipsing (feeling sunburnt and nearly out of water), I was walking around Copenhagen's center and this was being sung at a bar as I strode past
"..and theres reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last
I cant remember all the times I tried to tell my myself
To hold on to these moments as they pass.."
("Long December", Counting Crows)
I thought it was appropriate.
Some extra commentary:
It is very useful to carry a small map around. I helped out three foreigners find where they were going because I was approached for directions and offered to help with my map.
Also, attitudes about inability to speak Danish differ from person to person. Some people seem completely unphased and some seem rather disdainful. Most people speak great English. I've run into a few that speak none -- mostly foreigners (to Denmark) who speak Danish + their native tongue, e.g. the guy I danced with who spoke Spanish, Danish and about 5 words of English. That was kinda fun to try to talk with him actually.
I've been debating trying to pick up Spanish this year, and I think I should. Esp if I want to try to go to Argentina.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Day 1, first trip to Europe (Copenhagen first)
Day 1: Champaign --> Chicago ---> London
Reading : A Tramp Abroad by Twain, which is about his travels in Europe, specifically Germany.
10:30/10:45 Amtrak (half hour late) to Chicago
En route, I discover I am sans Eurail pass and call my housemate to see if she can find it. She does, and we arrange for her to ship it to me at my first hotel.
1:30 arrive in Chicago
Having done this whole Amtrak - to - O'Hare business before, I don't really double check that I know how to get to O'hare, instead traipsing lost around the city until I call my friend John and get directions to the nearest blue line stop. To be fair, I was only about 3-4 blocks away.
3pm Arrive at the airport.
I get bumped up to the direct flight to London that leaves the same time as my two-leg flight to london. Woot.
6 hour layover? Not so awesome..
However! Our departure is delayed about 2 hours, so the layover in London is only about 4 hours.
Also, that flight was cake. I napped some. Maybe 4 hours total? They fed us two meals and supplied lots of beverages. I was very impressed. Also, there were games and movies and stuff.
AND! Best 10 dollar purchase so far is clearly the inflatable neck pillow.
Day 2: London to Copenhagen
I can already tell I'm in Europe (well, duh, but really...). People are trendier and prettier and speaking different languages. The way Heathrow is set up is interesting. We pulled into a terminal and had to walk down and up a series of corridors and escalators...at least 8 of them. Maybe 10. And then take a bus. And another corridor and two checkpoints, one where they checked our passports and another being security.
Someone joking asked "Where's the cheese?"
Have to say, London's got some pretty ground crew people. And quite pleasant at 8 in the morning. They called us ladies and gents, told me to "come on, love" when going through the walk-though scanner and called rollerbags "wheely bags". The announcements were in four languages I think (at least three) and the kiosks took US dollars (at an exhorbitant transfer rate) so I was able to buy some food and get 2 pounds 53 pence change for my 10$USD.
Ah, here's the neat thing --- they don't announce what gate you're at until they're nearly ready to board you. This is a good idea -- it forces people to use the (very nice) lounge area, which they're probably happy about because it contains a lot of shops, and it allows for last minute gate changes that don't affect their customers.
Oh, and people clearly don't like Americans. The UK woman in front of me (maroon passport cover) handed her stuff to the flight woman, who smiled at her, and I handed her my stuff and she got grumpy.
Copenhagen
Flying into Copenhagen, I was greeted by a line of white windmills in the water, nearby what looked like a bridge that went nowhere. I think I'll ask around about that.
Danish is very foreign. A swedish woman told me a while ago that it's very much like swedish, except the people speak like they have a potato in their mouth. I would say the announcements on the plane had a woman who spoke like her tongue was stuck to a metal pole (ala Christmas story). It looks kind of Germanic. (Wikipedia confirms my guess).
I took the Metro to the stop very near my hotel. I have only noticed one person who clearly goes tanning here, and she is pretty outside of the fact that her skin is clearly damaged. Also, even trendy people are wearing socks with their sandals. And, I think I saw some of the Danish version of hipsters.
So far, the Danes are pretty, and a lot of them are quite blonde. Probably the proximity to Sweden.
On the train I didn't speak with anyone til a woman got on one stop before I got off and said something to me in Danish, and I said "Sorry", so she repeated in (very excellent) English "I'll only use up a little room" and she asked if I'd waited for a while on the train, since there had been announcements about a dog and something (I'd noticed a very large dog at one of the stops and suggested maybe it got loose). She asked if I was a tourist and I said I'm here for a conference, and that it was my first time to Europe, which surprised her and she asked where I'm from. I said the U.S. and she said "Our country is very small compared to yours" and she said she's from Jutland (another part of Denmark. Copenhagen is in Zealand, I think).
Found the hotel because of a giant sign facing the water (lake? river?) I walked across. The sidewalks are very wide, bordered by very wide bike lanes. Not much traffic. I am waffling between exploring or napping. I think I'll do a bit of both. It is current about 6pm here. We're 7 hours ahead of Chicago (Central time), i.e. 1 hr ahead of Greenwich mean time.
========
UPDATE: I just bought a toothbrush, in Copenhagen. It cost $5USD. :P I was going to buy a razor, but I'd have to buy a 5-pack which would run me a little over $20USD.
So, for the record --- Yes, Virginia, Europe is expensive.
Also, I really really really wish I had a bike. This city is meant for bikes.
Reading : A Tramp Abroad by Twain, which is about his travels in Europe, specifically Germany.
10:30/10:45 Amtrak (half hour late) to Chicago
En route, I discover I am sans Eurail pass and call my housemate to see if she can find it. She does, and we arrange for her to ship it to me at my first hotel.
1:30 arrive in Chicago
Having done this whole Amtrak - to - O'Hare business before, I don't really double check that I know how to get to O'hare, instead traipsing lost around the city until I call my friend John and get directions to the nearest blue line stop. To be fair, I was only about 3-4 blocks away.
3pm Arrive at the airport.
I get bumped up to the direct flight to London that leaves the same time as my two-leg flight to london. Woot.
6 hour layover? Not so awesome..
However! Our departure is delayed about 2 hours, so the layover in London is only about 4 hours.
Also, that flight was cake. I napped some. Maybe 4 hours total? They fed us two meals and supplied lots of beverages. I was very impressed. Also, there were games and movies and stuff.
AND! Best 10 dollar purchase so far is clearly the inflatable neck pillow.
Day 2: London to Copenhagen
I can already tell I'm in Europe (well, duh, but really...). People are trendier and prettier and speaking different languages. The way Heathrow is set up is interesting. We pulled into a terminal and had to walk down and up a series of corridors and escalators...at least 8 of them. Maybe 10. And then take a bus. And another corridor and two checkpoints, one where they checked our passports and another being security.
Someone joking asked "Where's the cheese?"
Have to say, London's got some pretty ground crew people. And quite pleasant at 8 in the morning. They called us ladies and gents, told me to "come on, love" when going through the walk-though scanner and called rollerbags "wheely bags". The announcements were in four languages I think (at least three) and the kiosks took US dollars (at an exhorbitant transfer rate) so I was able to buy some food and get 2 pounds 53 pence change for my 10$USD.
Ah, here's the neat thing --- they don't announce what gate you're at until they're nearly ready to board you. This is a good idea -- it forces people to use the (very nice) lounge area, which they're probably happy about because it contains a lot of shops, and it allows for last minute gate changes that don't affect their customers.
Oh, and people clearly don't like Americans. The UK woman in front of me (maroon passport cover) handed her stuff to the flight woman, who smiled at her, and I handed her my stuff and she got grumpy.
Copenhagen
Flying into Copenhagen, I was greeted by a line of white windmills in the water, nearby what looked like a bridge that went nowhere. I think I'll ask around about that.
Danish is very foreign. A swedish woman told me a while ago that it's very much like swedish, except the people speak like they have a potato in their mouth. I would say the announcements on the plane had a woman who spoke like her tongue was stuck to a metal pole (ala Christmas story). It looks kind of Germanic. (Wikipedia confirms my guess).
I took the Metro to the stop very near my hotel. I have only noticed one person who clearly goes tanning here, and she is pretty outside of the fact that her skin is clearly damaged. Also, even trendy people are wearing socks with their sandals. And, I think I saw some of the Danish version of hipsters.
So far, the Danes are pretty, and a lot of them are quite blonde. Probably the proximity to Sweden.
On the train I didn't speak with anyone til a woman got on one stop before I got off and said something to me in Danish, and I said "Sorry", so she repeated in (very excellent) English "I'll only use up a little room" and she asked if I'd waited for a while on the train, since there had been announcements about a dog and something (I'd noticed a very large dog at one of the stops and suggested maybe it got loose). She asked if I was a tourist and I said I'm here for a conference, and that it was my first time to Europe, which surprised her and she asked where I'm from. I said the U.S. and she said "Our country is very small compared to yours" and she said she's from Jutland (another part of Denmark. Copenhagen is in Zealand, I think).
Found the hotel because of a giant sign facing the water (lake? river?) I walked across. The sidewalks are very wide, bordered by very wide bike lanes. Not much traffic. I am waffling between exploring or napping. I think I'll do a bit of both. It is current about 6pm here. We're 7 hours ahead of Chicago (Central time), i.e. 1 hr ahead of Greenwich mean time.
========
UPDATE: I just bought a toothbrush, in Copenhagen. It cost $5USD. :P I was going to buy a razor, but I'd have to buy a 5-pack which would run me a little over $20USD.
So, for the record --- Yes, Virginia, Europe is expensive.
Also, I really really really wish I had a bike. This city is meant for bikes.
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