Adventures while abroad!: December 2009

15 December 2009

Two weekends ago, Jenae and I went to Amsterdam. We were only there for 24 hours (we have been grounded by a lack of money and a major increase in my workload for school), but it was a very fun time. We met our friend Jackie there, who was staying with her dad who lives just outside of Amsterdam. We however were not staying in the Crown Plaza with Jackie and her dad, but instead were spending the night in a hostel...on a boat! Our hostel was a small boat with tons of tiny rooms. It was the best hostel we have been in yet and it being on a boat with a grumpy and grungy man running it made it quite authentic and amusing. The beds were really comfy and the breakfast was awesome!

We went to the Anne Frank house, which is the actual annex that she, her family, and other Jews in hiding used during WWII. It had been a while, maybe since Berlin, that WWII was talked about. They have turned the annex into a museum of sorts detailing the time the people spent in hiding in the annex.

We spent the rest of the day just walking around Amsterdam. It is yet another city on the water, but did not hold the same type of beauty as Brugge or Venice. Perhaps because it is a much more bustling place, and it was cold and rainy. Amsterdam is every bit what you have heard about it and more, drugs and sex everywhere. We went in a few of the sex shops and coffeeshops, where they sell coffee...and drugs....

We also had a "traditional dutch meal" courtesy of Jackie's dad. And I was shocked and appalled to learn that "dutch apple pie" does not in fact have the yummy crumbly top that it does at home! :(

It was also St.Nicolas day on the weekend we went, so there was a lot of decor up for this. Also, boats along the canal were carrying people dressed like "Sinterklaas" aka Santa and his helper, who in Netherlandish tradition is "Black Pete". Pete performs almost all the duties we associate with Santa, aka going down the chimney and leaving the gifts. Pete is basically Santa's slave. He is a white man but is painted black, it was quite strange. And apparently if children have been bad, Pete kidnaps them and takes them back to Spain to be slaves for santa as well. So yeah, the Dutch have a black slave that helps Santa out...

Condoms in a shop window

This was the main shopping area in Amsterdam, it was super crowded

And there's Black Pete! This was actually a doll in an installation of a bunch of black Pete's climbing up and down these ropes inside a department store. The store was decked out for Christmas and made me think of Macy's in New York.

Jenae and I outside our boat

Our boat hostel, Friesland!

14 December 2009

MADRID

Because I haven't posted in a few weeks, and because mom asked for it, I am going to throw a few posts on here about what I've been up to lately...or not so lately as the Madrid trip was a few weeks ago. Alas, I have been 'up to me ears' in work the past couple weeks, trying to get some sort of projects together as the end is so near and while I have a lot still to do, I figured I'd take a break from assembling books, pdfs, posters, and drawing to let everyone hear about and see some pictures from Spain!

So the last post left us on our way out of Heidlberg. We hopped an ICE train, aka super fast German train, to the Frankfurt airport where we jetted off to Madrid. We stayed at a very nice apartment, though it was a heck of a cab ride from the airport...50 euro or something crazy to get there! We wisened up on the way home and took the metro...2 euro. So our apartment was really nice and Spain is quite the accessible city by foot. We head out the first night in search of some groceries, with the grand idea we should welcome David, Jeff's friend who would be staying with us the following day, with some breakfast. Alas, the only place we could find open was a supermarket where there was not so much breakfast food to be had. We did however stack up on some essentials (bananas, coke zero, and chips?) before heading back to our apartment. In the coming days we learn that we just happened to walk the wrong direction to find food, as nearly everything in Madrid is open until the wee hours of the morning except the establishments we tried to go to (aka the place with a big sign that said "QUESADILLAS!")

Jeff and I awake to panic the next morning as we have not heard from David at all and Jeff has neglected to check his email/facebook in which David has sent many requests for directions to our place. We attempt to call David, but obviously his American cell is not functioning abroad. Out of stress, Jeff manages to finish any breakfast food we did have for David (bread and nutella from Germany) and we take turns showering/getting ready while the other mans my cell phone and the computer for any word from David. But alas, after seeking the aid of an internet cafe, David finds us and we are off on some adventures in Spain!

SIDENOTE: David speaks fluent Spanish, which in retrospect makes it much less frightening that he was unable to find us for a bit. He also has friends in Madrid, but has no way of contacting them, like us, but still, we probably got more panicked than necessary.

So it's Thanksgiving day and we are in Madrid! We have dinner reservations at a place recommended by David's friend, but as everything happens very late in the evening in the Spanish culture, we have a whole day ahead of us before dinner. So we go to grab some lunch, and end up eating glorified cheese, crackers, and beefstick. It was actually a cheese plate, assorted breads, pate, and some sort of beef that David ordered, accompanied by a couple of glasses of wine. After lunch, we stop at a few markets to buy groceries for our apartment (more soda, fruit, and some cheese, beef, and bread) before heading out to walk around the city. We spend the better part of the afternoon walking around Madrid and going into various shops looking for a scarf for Jeffrey. After a few hours of shopping and wandering, we decide to go to the first of the three big art museums in Madrid. The museum is called T

e Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and is the smallest of the three we visited. It had a very nice and logical layout and was about the perfect amount of art to see in one afternoon. We then head home to clean up for our fancy Thanksgiving dinner!

The restaurant we have dinner in is about the swankiest place around! And we each order the chef's special which is 6 courses, of which we know nothing about until they are presented to us. Let the eating begin! The first course is an assortment of breads served with some green olive pesto, pate, and foi gras (which until this dinner I thought was only something served on Top Chef). Next came the asian inspired sushi course, which was super yummy. Next we had a salad with whole squids on top and squid ink used as the dressing! Then came a fish course followed by a quite peculiar course that was an egg on top of some cream and you stirred it together into a egg pudding/soup? It tasted good but was a bit scary...Then we had a lovely course of steak and peaches followed by the first dessert course, which was the best of the night. Fresh cream with strawberries in a sweet strawberry sauce and this crystalized sugar piece and an edible flower! YUM! Then came a chocolate dessert course followed by churros with hot dipping chocolate. After consuming all of this, and having a few drinks we were all outrageously full and sleepy. It took us about 3 hours at the restaurant for our dining experience, and we went home and headed to bed.

The next day we spend shopping and then at the Prado, which is basically the Louvre of Spain. If you have ever studied Spanish art, this is the place to go as the walls were decked with El Greco, Goya, and Velazquez. (The Picasso and Dali would be later found at the modern art museum) I think we saw every monumentally famous piece of Spanish art, as the Prado holds Las Meninas, The 3rd of May, and the pair of The Nude Maja and The Clothed Maja (super famous Goya stuff). The Prado also had a ton of art not hailing from Spain, our favorites were the Bosch paintings. David has a super fun museum habit: he listens to his iPod and dances around through the rooms! :) After the Prado, we head back home. David goes to meet his friend for dinner, and Jeff and I set out to find a Spanish feast, I want paella and Jeff wants the spanish tortilla which is a potato and egg omelet. We find a nice place near our apartment and have about the nicest waitress in the world. She even only charges us for 2 coke lights, when we drank I think 5. We order the tourist special menu which comes with these little fried puffs filled with ham, cheese, and potato, a big old pot of paella, and sangria. We also order the spanish tortilla which is quite delicious. We have tons of food left and she even brings us a to go box. We really liked her and I think we were quite amusing for her as well.

After dinner (it is 130 am at this point) we head home but think it would be nice to find some coke light first to drink in the morning. (Jeff is more addicted to diet soda than I am! And David enjoys his diet Coke as well) We get a bit lost and end up at a really neat little market place that is hopping at 2 am. We are incredibly full but spot these very tiny ice cream cones, which we have to get based on the novelty of the cone being so small. So we buy the ice cream, get the soda, and find our way back home.

The next morning, I wake up feeling quite ill and spend most of the day expelling everything that is in my body via any means necessary. Jeff kindly goes to the pharmacy and explains in motions that I am vomiting and have diarrhea, which was quite funny when he reenacted it. Jeff and David go to the Palace Royal during the day while I am sick and at around 6 pm, I head out with them to see the last of the 3 big museums, the C

entro de Arte Reina Sofia which houses the modern art. We got to see Picasso Guernica which David and I explain to Jeff is THE Picasso. There is a lot of Dali and Picasso work as well as tons of films, installations, and other modern pieces.

I stayed home the rest of the night while Jeff and David went out to dinner and a club. The next morning it is already time to leave Madrid! Jeff and I walk around the city a little bit to pick up some souvenirs, and he shows me the palace that he and David had visited the day before. We head back to the airport and fly back to Frankfurt where we meet Jenae and Jackie at the Christmas market. Jeff needed one last fix of gingerbread, bratwurst, pretzels, and yummy Christmas cookies before heading back to New York the next day.

Madrid lights up pretty for Christmas :)

Jeff and David looking really...tough? Mind you this was the backside of a church!

David and Jeff

Jeff and I at the Reina Sofia

Everyone was taking pics of this place, so we did too ;)

Repeat above caption...

Tiny ice cream cones at 2 am!

Jeff was exhausted of paella, we barely even made a dent in it!

Our Spanish feast...even though David insists you can only get good paella in Barcelona!

Jeff and David clowning around at the entrance to the Prado...IMPORTANT VOICE

Wow, we look cheesy!

Get that lobster Jeff!

The Madrid Airport is really cool looking inside, unfortunately we had to take about a million shuttles to get to this part!

04 December 2009

Brussels, Brugge, Heidelberg, and best of all...JEFF!

Jeff came to visit and we had a wonderful time! He managed to peg 4 countries and 7 cities in just 10 days! After arriving, I met him at the airport and we were off on our way to Belgium! After a very fun train ride (people were staring at us because we were laughing so loud...we were laughing so hard because a man on the train had the biggest cell phone we have EVER seen!), we arrived in Brussels! We had both forgotten that Belgium is outrageously famous for their waffles, and were conveniently reminded as we walked through the train station. We just had to get on! So we got the most gooey, warm, not all the way done waffle coated in Nutella...yum!! After asking the girl working at the waffle stand for directions (Jeff's French was quite helpful here), we made our way to the hotel. We checked into our hotel which was conveniently located close to the train station and in the heart of Brussels.

We headed out to wander around Brussels and while many people had warned Jeff that there was little to do in this city, there were TONS of people out shopping, chocolate galore, music on every corner...it was quite charming! We wandered around and into some chocolate shops and found our way to some dinner. We were intent upon getting mussels in Brussels because they are quite famous for their mussels (not just their waffles!) The mussels were delicious and came with another Belgian specialty...French Fries! Which were actually invented in Belgium not France. We explored Brussels for a few hours more, Jeff was quite intent on finding the gay district which is advertised by a large mural of two guys walking down the street together. Well this "district" was only about a block long with not much happening at the time but we did manage to snag a few pics of Jeff with the mural before heading back to bed in preparation for our bike tour the next day!

The next morning we head out for our bike tour. It was just Jeffrey and I and one other girl on the tour with a guide, who we do not remember the name of, we have been referring to him as Fritz though, so we will go with that for the purposes of the storytelling. First of all, it was fun just to be on a bike through the city, though not so fun when we were biking through highly pedestrian areas! Fritz had a very awkward way of stopping us and asking us if we had questions. And then quizzing us throughout which made us all feel bad that we knew little to nothing about Belgium before the bike tour. It was like being on Family Feud...he says to us "Why is Belgium famous?" and we blurted out all the stereotypical answers : "Fries! Mussels! Beer! Waffles! Chocolate! Lace! The peeing boy statue! Cartoons!" Anywho, the bike tour was really fun except for when Fritz was being offensive or quizzing us...and we ate the "best french fries" in the world from some stand. But since we had eaten fries the night before, we were a bit fried out. We ate them none the less and they were quite delicious, but I still think McD's on a good day has them beat ;)

So after seeing the sights of Brussels via bike we decided to hop a train to Brugge, which is considered the "Venice of the North". Many people had told us how beautiful it is and only an hour or so away from Brussels. After a torrential downpour during the train ride, we emerge from the station in Brugge to stumble upon a beautiful double rainbow in the sky! Then we are off on our way to see the town before nightfall. Brugge was like a very cold version of Venice. The canals were very pretty and the town was lit up for Christmas. Most of the shops were still open even though it was Sunday (everything is closed in Germany on Sundays...) and we checked out stores with mainly the same things that the stores in Brussels had: chocolate, lace, and other souvenirs. We ate at a pretty fancy restaurant on one of the canals. We both ate some sort of boar stew...it looked like poop but tasted okay, but was nothing compared to the amazing dessert platter that followed it containing the most delicious chocolate mousse in the world...

We also tried some interesting beers in Belgium. Jeff had a cherry beer which was absolutely phenomenal. The peach beer was also quite good. I, however, decided to try the blueberry beer...this was absolutely revolting! After dinner and the beers, we headed back to the train station to go back to Brussels for the night. I left in the morning to come back to Darmstadt for class and Jeffrey went to Amsterdam for the day and night.

On Tuesday, Jeff came back to Darmstadt and we spent the afternoon at the Christmas market before he crashed hardcore from all the traveling. We awoke on Wednesday and he conned me into skipping my class and going to Heidelberg with him. So off to Heidelberg we went! We walked through the Old Town and the Christmas market, and spent way too much money buying cookies, but they were the most delicious little star shaped cookies ever! We continued up to the castle, and we got the audio guide this time (I had been to Heidelberg before but I did not do the audio so everything was new for me). The weather was uncharacteristically sunny and nice for our castle tour and we had a great time. The audio guide was complete with historical facts and accompanying sound effects which were quite amusing.

We hopped a cab back to the train station because we had a train to catch to the airport and were running a bit late. The cab got us there on time and we were off to the airport with Diet sodas and sandwiches in hand. Jeff loves hardboiled eggs and was pleased to see how much they are utilized in Germany. We decided the egg is way underutilized in America. The Germans put hardboiled eggs on most of their deli sandwiches which is yummy! So we arrive at Frankfurt airport quite early and without any problems...this is rare for being with Jeff I think ;) and we're off to Madrid!

***There are many more pictures, just ask me when I get back if you want to see more of Jeff's funny Heidelberg faces ;)