Monday, April 30, 2007

Holland!

I had some kinda flight to Holland, I'd say... due to my complete ignorance of European geography and my reliance on a spanish cheap ticket service, i flew first to copenhagan, and then out to amsterdam airport. my plane was delayed for ages!! but ellen was wonderful and picked me up right at the airport. from there we took a train out to utrecht, where ellen lives and goes to college. it's a cute little student town, lots of bars, and, of course canals... ;)
we went to a friend's house party, and then hit the town on friday night, just because it was SO warm outside. it was BEAUTIFUL. everyone was sitting outside drinking and laughing and chatting it up... the weather really loved me in holland that weekend.

i was so surprised by the size of the beer glasses, though! after coming from ireland's pint to germany's weisse glass, holland's itty bitty sippy cup of beer just wasn't enough for me. about 4 rounds felt like a pint. go figure! but that's okay.
after a few rounds (see? doesn't sound so bad here...) we stopped to get some very traditional, and VERY yummy, dutch food.
krokets! oh it was brilliant! it was some kind of chicken potatoey breaded thing. with soft insides. and warm. with mayo or mustard? but mine was plain. yum!
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the crazy thing, to me, was that main transportation is bikes. i mean, i know it seems kind of silly, but bikes are almost purely recreational where i'm from. so to balance precariously on the back of ellen's bike on the way into and out of town was some kind of challenge. but fun! i learned how to be confident moving swiftly on a bike with no brakes. also, the whole time i was there, i didn't see ANYONE wearing a helmet. and that's something that's SO stressed in america! :) maybe they learn to bike better in holland. less accidents?

on the saturday morning, we awoke and hit a train over to amsterdam city.
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heheh, that's a random bar, but i thought the photo was appropriate. we were causing some kind of ruckus! ben (ellen's flatmate martinde's aussie friend) and i went to the museum of sex, which was probably very cool when it first opened, but seemed kind of dated while visiting it.

the streets were completely thronged with people the entire time we were there, from morning to, well, the next morning. and there are canals, everywhere! here's a typical photo of one...
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we walked through dam square, where i actually did pose with a living statue. i know, right... touristy, but i had to. this guy did yoga, we saw him before i posed with him.

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me and poseidon, my buddy.
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the streets were so small! and there was an H&M on every block. no, seriously! along with your typical coffee shop... and smart shop... where you can get anything you're looking for. anything. or so it seems, coming from america where our war on drugs hypes the whole thing up. overmuch. of all the cities i visited, amsterdam was definitely the most diverse.

the weekend we were there was a free museum weekend, so we ran in and out of a bunch of different museums, including the one housing rembrant's night watch. i decided that when it comes to museums in cities, that in order to visit, i must first have a little but of prior knowledge, and a little bit of interest. like seeing that painting was cool... but i knew literally nothing about it. hmmm what else...

we ran into some ice sculptures! quite literally, with a hammer. it was actually an ad campaign for ice cream, but we didn't mind. it was hot enough to have it.
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naturally, because the temp was so wonderfully hot, we had to find some makeshift air conditioning ;)
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it's okay.. you can admit that we're basically too hot for this picture. melting the scenery and all that. we def are!

after wandering around for a while, we stumbed upon this as well.. i AMsterdam! i am amsterdam. what a great group picture though... these folk were mad for the craic! (and i mean that in the irish way, not the sketchy fella offering it to you on the street in the red light district way)
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speaking of the red light district, yes, we did visit. at midnight on a saturday and following... i couldn't believe it. i mean, it's not BAD really, but... yeah. it's shocking. because it's right there, in your face. and you can get any kind depending upon which side street you walk down. well. i mean. yeah. i can't really say much 'bout it because it was sooooo out there.
but martinde and i found different ways to distract ourselves.
and we all sent ben into a peep show, but all he saw was some boobies, then time was up.
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after that, we walked across town again to head to a night club where we danced the night away! and had some shots. ben and i did. and baby beers. it was fuunnnnn... but when we finally got back to utrecht, the sun had risen and people were on their way to work, and we were just biking back from the train station... nothing like the morning wind in your face while you're stumbling to stay awake. ;)
("it's getting light i hear the birds i think i put my shirt on backwards"-dar williams)

i stumbled into bed and alseep before i could focus to write anything down in my paper journal.

sunday morning, after we were able to wrench ourselves from bed, we went on a 30 km bike ride to a nearby town to watch the end of the rowing varsities. apparently, after winning said competition, it is a tradition that the team gets stark ass naked and jumps into the river to congratulate the winning boat...
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as for me... ow. 30 km is so much to someone who's not ridden a bike since she was 13! but it was fun. SUCH a good way to see holland! and the tulips! it was brilliant.
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here's the bikes all lined up before we took off on the way back-- after several makeshift fixes to student's bikes...
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i loved it. but i'm nothing like the dutch girls on bikes. they're like serious multitaskerbikers. they can pedal, talk on the phone, smoke a cigarette and have a drink while masturbating. or something..

when we got back to utrecht... (oh i had such a hard time getting back on the bike when i could see the bruises forming...) we grabbed some blankets, candles, joints, and WOK TO GO. we went to the park where we just ate and lounged and played mad libs till our sides ached from laughing. and i thought i was some kind of brilliant photographer... it was amazing.
i think this was one of my favorite nights. for sure.

ellen looks so pretty here:
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martinde's hands and feet...
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and me. happy to be alive...
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there is no way i could classify how much fun i had this weekend! it was such a blast. i can't wait to see ellen again at easky, the paddler's epic weekend in june. we're going to rock the place up like something serious.

i was so nervous leaving holland, because i had to take several forms of transportation to get to where i needed to be, in barcelona, but my fears were eased when i met jeroem and juerd, who probably made my journey so much better. i literally met them at the train platform in utrecht... they saved me. but more about them later!!

love, chris

Friday, April 27, 2007

hamburg, germany

so, on easter morning i left dublin and my family and friends to go off to germany to visit martha! i had such an amazing time, i can't thank her enough for hosting me and keeping me mostly entertained. ;)
we cooked an easter meal that surpasses anything i've eaten not in a restaurant since moving to ireland. martha's love interest/boyfriend, philipp, made this rosemary wonderlamb in a white wine marinade... martha made green beans in a lemon and butter sauce.. we had rosemary potatoes and also mashed potatoes with goat cheese... mmmm... shit i'm drooling just thinking of it and it was weeks ago! we had salad, red wine, gin and tonics, and kräuter liquor to digest our food afterwards... and finally, philipp and i finished with ice cream cake. martha had hers in the morning. but it was such a good night over all, with once HAPPY chris belly.
i was kicking myself afterwards because i didn't take a picture when the table was set and ready for eatin'... it looked so good and everything.

morning after, philipp made us homemade pancakes with, i have no idea where he pulled this out of.. but homemade maple syrup! so yummy.. here's my morning after face:
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following our divine breakfast, martha and i walked all around the city. i saw the harbor, which was beautiful.
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i also was able to see this church, st. nikoli's, which was bombed in wwii and the germans left there as a memorial of everything that had happened. there's all this art within the space of the church.. it was alright. i liked some of what the artist did, but not everything. in the picture you can see a statue of a woman reaching up to heaven with hands and stuff coming out of the base.
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there was also this co-opted, squatted house, full of anarchists and covered in graffiti, that apparently throws some serious kind of party. if i spoke german, i'd love to have a conversation with these people. i like seeing acts of resistance within cities, it makes me feel like people are still paying attention to what's going on, and considering alternative methods.
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close up..
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hamburg has subways like new york city, but it's so much cleaner, and greener. the subways smell the same, though. it has two lakes called the alster-- the outer and the inner. people have their homes, but also, much of the middle class has these little garden-homes where they go to escape the hustle and bustle of the city.. and return to nature and the like. my favorite part of the city was sternchanze-- this student like part with loads of little shops and bars. it's a hippie, hipster, student zone with loads of cafes.

hamburgers (hehe) ride bikes everywhere. any place that can support the parking and locking of a bicycle, does. there are bikes hanging around which have clearly been there for years.. and they stay there as monuments of an age of their prior mobility.
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it was so strange to be in a place where i didn't speak any of the language. i was pretty much in awe of martha's ability to communicate at all, the entire time. did i cop out of an experience, coming to a place where english is the norm? probably... but i wouldn't have done it any other way.

martha and i also went to sub, called the sofa bar by the locals, and played cards and drank coffee... i think i secretly fell in love with coffee in germany. or working at a coffee shop. either way... it was wonderful to just relax in the sunshine. we played
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on the way walking back, we passed through this carnivale deal, much like the hebron harvest fair with booths set up selling whatever you could wish for... except in german ;)
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i loved that in germany, i could spend 10 euro, and get all of my food for two days as well as beer. we're talking-- loads of beer, like 7 bottles, WITH the food. it was glorious. coming back for a pint here in ireland just didn't have the same effect as the good german beer that was so damn cheap.

another problem i kept running into was that i kept saying "cheers" for thanks, as i was leaving the shops, and it sounds like a rough mispronounciation of how they say good bye...

one of the following days martha and i went to the banks of the alster lake, where we sat in the sun drinking beer. it was wonderful. the beer was sooo good. and to drink in public feels kind of funny , but no one looks at you with any sort of stigma. i suppose it would be like drinking a can of coke... no one thinks anything of it.
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that night we went to the reeperbahn which is the street upon which the red light district is centered-- it was an experience, for sure... :) but nothing like what was to come in amsterdam
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to finalize my time in hamburg, martha arrange this bonfire on the banks of the river there... it was amazing. we made the fire in one go... and then sat around drinking and having the craic with some of the germans and some other smithies.
philipp brought a grill, so meat was had by those who eat it. it was fantastic. i love the way my clothes smell after a good bonfire... with some sort of wonderment attached... summer nights and all that :)
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i cooked while the germans stood around and watched. it was fine- i had to do it my way anyway :)
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over, i had such a good time... i'm so glad that i went! more for all of ye later...

love, chris

eurotrip, 2007!

i have so much to update about my recent trip around europe...
i've got to upload photos, first, and transcribe some paper journaling, and just get everything together.
i should have it up here for ye 'round the end of next week... i hope.

until then, here's how it started:

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