Amsterdam

I left Leiden on Sunday and headed to Amsterdam. My time with Meike was great and relaxing. It was so much fun to see her again and see how well she is doing in Holland. Plus I had a private room, so it was nice to have a quiet place to sleep.

Amsterdam is definitely an interesting place. My hostel, like most of the others I have seen, is in the heart of the Red Light district which makes it a very central and interesting place to stay. The Dutch really are ok with almost anything. Even as I was first walking to my hostel in the bitter snow with my full pack, women in their clear glass windows stood trying to get me to take a second look.

The first day I was in Amsterdam it was snowing uncontrollably. So by the time I had finished my day of walking around, I was soaked to the bone. Definitely the first big snow I have seen on this trip.

I really am not a fan of drugs. The thought of putting some strange substance into my body hoping it will relax me or do something else to me doesn't sound like much fun. I would rather just have a coffee in a coffee shop, but in Amsterdam you can have whatever intoxicating substance you want at a coffee shop. Ecstasy, thousands of kinds of marijuana, whatever you can think of (except for the top killers like heroine and meth). It makes me wonder what all of these people are trying to get away from, what it is in their lives they need to dilute with drugs. You don't start taking things like this because you are totally pleased with the way your life is. You are trying to numb something in your mind and it makes me feel a little weird to be surrounded by it so much.

I am definitely picking up on the foreign energy that is Amsterdam (well, at least the Red Light district). I have, however, found other things to do while I am here. So far I have been to the Anne Frank house, and seen the annex where she, her family, and four other Jews hid from the Nazis. You also get to see the original diary of Anne Frank. It is quite a powerful place. I also went to the Van Gogh museum and saw the largest collection of Van Gogh paintings and sketches in the world. Awe inspiring!

Amsterdam has been fun, and would probably been a lot more fun had I been willing to partake in some of its more elicit activities, but that is the choice I have made. I definitely won't be sad to leave, unlike some of the other places I have been.

Monday
Things are going well here. Tried to go on the free Amsterdam walking tour today, but I don't think it actually happened because I met several people trying to do the same tour without any success. I met a guy named Rob from NYC and we ended up walking around a bit before heading to the "Torture Museum" (envision a glorified Torture Museum at Medieval times). At the museum, Rob and I met a girl from Chicago, Emily. The three of us ended up exploring the museum together and poking fun at the elaborate torture contraptions. At the museum I discovered that Emily was a Production Manager/lighting designer for a dance company that was touring in Holland so it was fun to "talk work" a bit with a fellow lighting designer.

After the museum, we all walked around a little bit seeing the national opera house and a small market. There were actually some really fun things on sale at the market like a crying teddy bear that played the drum. It was so sad, yet so cute. I had been expecting lots of "smoking" paraphernalia but was surprised by its lack at the market.

I think I am heading to Cologne tomorrow on the recommendation of some girls I met earlier today. It is really close to Dusseldorf and apparently a little more metropolitan, so easier to get back to London from.

Leiden, Holland

I have arrived in Leiden and met up with my friend, Meike. She lives about 20 minutes outside of Leiden but is lending me her smaller bike for the two days I am here so I can get around easily. Hopefully I won't suffer some crazy accident with a motorist. Although, I have been informed that a new law as been passed in Holland making any car accident with a bike automatically the motorist's fault. That means, if I do get hit, the person that hit me has to pay for all of my medical expenses. Awesome!

Meike and her fiance, Stephen, are putting me up on a spare bed in their guest room (aka their laundry room) but it is perfect for me. Exactly what I needed. I have gotten to the point where I am a bit uncomfortable with anything too nice. I don't want to make anything dirty with my vagabond self.

I know that Thanksgiving is coming up. I actually got a little worried that I might have accidentally missed it yesterday but was relieved to find out it is next week, exclaiming, "Thank God!!! If I didn't call my mother on one of the biggest American holidays, I might as well get a ticket on the first flight home, because there is no way I can make up for that one."

Brussels, Belgium

I have been having a great time in Brussels and have made arrangements to meet up with my friend Meike in Leiden tomorrow so I will be able to get to see her. It will be a blast catching up with her since I haven't seen her in over a year.

Brussels is beautiful and a lot smaller than I thought. So many people have told me that Brussels is a bore, but I really haven't seen the boring side of the city. I guess it is because I met these two really fun Brazilian guys my first night in the city. They have both been living here for quite some time, Claudio 20 years and Tarcisio for 10 years. Claudio is a contemporary dance choreographer with his own dance company in Brussels and Tarcisio is an architect/retail manager. The two of them have helped show me around Brussels when they aren't working, and treated me to some traditional Brazilian food the other night. It wasn't a bunch of guys walking around with kebabs of meat either. They told me that was more of a Southern Brazilian tradition.

I got to see the famous statue Manneken-Pis, the statue of the little boy peeing. Seeing famous pieces of art for the first time is always such a weird experience because I walked around for hours trying to find the statue of the little boy only to realize that I had passed it several times. The statue itself is about the size of a cabbage-patch doll and situated in a small street corner fountain. I had been looking for it in main plazas, but was sadly mistaken.

I have really had a great time in Brussels, I guess it all depends on who you meet.

Belgium

Belgium is lovely. I am really enjoying it here. Haven't had a single snooty Belgian experience yet. I was warned by many people about the snooty Belgians.

I am in contact with my friend in Leiden, and we are still working out the details, but I should be able to get to Leiden this weekend and see Skkinterclas (Santa) and some really racist black face (Santa's main elf, or slave, is black and they always have a lot of white Dutch dressed in black face as him.)

Bruges, Belgium

After leaving London this past Sunday, I took the EuroStar to Brussels. I would like to recommend to anyone traveling in and out of London to consider using means other than the EuroStar. If I had been more careful I would have taken a bus, because, while the EuroStar is fast, the bus is a lot cheaper. A LOT CHEAPER. Heck it would have been cheaper to fly, and possibly just as convenient. Since you are taking the Chunnel, a perfect location for a terrorist to do a lot of terrible damage, there is a lot of security to go through when riding the EuroStar as opposed to any other train one might take. Plus there is greater attention paid to passport control. You actually have to queue into a line, which was the first time I had seen that in quite some time. I understand that this is far more efficient than parking the train for a half hour in the middle of the English Channel while passport officials make their way through the train, but I am simply pointing this out to fellow travelers who might not be aware of how the EuroStar works. It would be terrible to pay for such an expensive ticket and miss your train because you thought you could just show up 5 minutes before the train left, like any other European rail line.

I decided, while in London, not to stay in Brussels due to the fact that I could not find reservation in a hostel online. So instead, I spent two nights in Bruges, Belgium. It is a really wonderful place, that I think would be marvelous a bit closer to Christmas. Not to say that it wasn’t fantastic while I was there, but from what I could see, the Christmas festivities were going to be really nice. Bruges is a small coastal port, filled with winding cobble stone streets, placid canals, and shops of every kind. I especially recommend one of many Chocolatiers. Belgians are known for their chocolate and beer, so why not indulge yourself a bit while you are there.

I spent most of yesterday, simply walking around, getting lost, and enjoying the sights and sounds of Bruges. Workers were setting up a Christmas Carnival in the middle of the town square, women were shopping in some of the high quality clothing stores along the tight streets, and tourists hunted for their favorite place to get “the best chocolate” in Bruges. It was wonderful. Very few tourists, even fewer cars, and just a calm relaxed atmosphere.

I loved the fact that most of the restaurants in town had large fires crackling inside, perfectly visible to passers by looking for a warm, comfortable place to rest for the evening while enjoying a fine meal and even better beer. It was just lovely.

Today I checked out of Bruges, a little tired from a night spent trying not to listen to the six Spanish boys I was sharing a room with trading off snoring responsibilities. I realized quickly, that they always snored in pairs, so when one would turn over and quiet down, another would pick up right where he left off. It went on for hours, but you learn ways to tune it out, I just wasn’t doing very well at it last night.

I am sitting on the train to Brussels now, trying to decide if I will stop and stay in Brussels, or if I while continue on to Amsterdam. I am leaning more towards staying, but I am not sure for how long. I would like to stay close to London, so that when I need to head back next week , I will be near enough not to have to work too hard to make the journey back. I guess I will just have to play the next two weeks by ear. What a drastic change from everything else I have been doing on this trip so far… LOL.

I hope all is well back in the states. Only twenty more days until I head to Asia.

P.S. I decided to stay in Brussels

London and the Lost Debit Card

Other than the debit card fiasco, which I guess was bound to happen at some point, I have been having a great time in London. So far I have done a different show every night. Billy Elliot, La Cage, We Will Rock You, and last night a show at the National Theatre called To Be Straight With You.

That show was an incredible piece of artwork, and seemed to have an amazing impact on the full house. The show didn't get a full standing ovation, but I think that is due to the fact that the bows were not choreographed/staged in such a way that would encourage the audience to stand. (Although, I was up on my feet as soon as the curtain fell. It was a wonderful display, unlike We Will Rock You, of how technology can dramatically enhance the theatre experience. At one point, an actor was lit using the massive projector while delivering a very touching monolouge and at first, being the lighting designer that I am, I questioned the reasoning for using the projector to do this. Suddenly, though, as the monologue was finishing, they did this incredible effect with the projector where they started blacking out his face and then the rest of his body, so he almost completely disappeared. At that point I knew why the choice was made by the lighting designer. I was really touched by the show, and creatively sparked by the fantastic use of design elements.

After the show, Chris, Shelley's friend who had decided to accompany me to the show and I went out for a drink at a nearby bar. Maybe that is where I lost my card, when I got out my wallet to pay for my drink, but that is a usless subject to discuss at this point. It's lost, it's cancelled, and now I just have to figure out how to get the new one to myself. It shouldn't be too hard, I will just have to make a few travel sacrafices. And this will encourage me to be much more sparing with my money, which is definitely a good thing. If only I could apply for a work visa for the UK while I am over here, then I could just stay indefinitely as long as I had a job. But I guess that would mean I miss out on the rest of my trip, which for the most part I have already paid for. Do you think I can get a refund? LOL.

I will be sad to leave London, whenever that may be. It has been so much fun here, and such a great thing for me. Luckily, as well, I haven't had too terrible a weather while I have been here. My plan, up until now, was to head to Brussels tomorrow, but once I figure out about my card, I will be able to make a more accurate and informed decision on what to do and where to go.

London, England

Sorry to be out of touch for the past couple of days, but I have just been having so much fun in London that it has been difficult to make the time to blog.

I arrived on Sunday after a train ride through the Chunnel from Paris to London. When I arrived, I had not established a firm time to meet up with Shelley so I decided to do a nice walk (about two miles) from the train station to the Regents College Campus. Once I arrived, I was turned away since it is a highly secure campus so I found an internet cafe nearby and sent Shelley an e-mail. She had already tried to contact me and set up an exact time and place to meet (Starbucks across from King's Cross station at 5pm). I headed that way and to meet up with her. Apparently, though, there are three Starbucks in the King's Cross area and, after going to two out of three of them, I figured I had missed her in the small window of opportunity we had.

With pack still resting on my shoulders, I decided to figure out a show to see and meet up with Shelley at the college after she got out of the show she was attending. I decided to see Billy Elliot and had a blast. I was lucky that the cloak room attendant let me check my luggage with her. The show was simply bliss and a perfect way to spend an evening after a long day of traveling and missed encounters. I would highly recommend anyone to see it and it put into my head how much I missed theatre.

After the show, I decided to see as much theatre as I could while in a country where I understand the language. So far I have seen Billy Elliot, La Cage a Folles, and We Will Rock You. The first two were terrific and delightful. The latter made my skin crawl. I enjoy the music of Queen and thought that I would enjoy the show but it was a terrible waste. At least most other people in the audience enjoyed it. Tomorrow I am going to see a show at the National Theatre. It should be really good and it is not a musical for a change.

I haven't done a terrible lot of touring while I have been here. Yesterday I did several hours at the Tate Modern and today I went to Harrod's to see what it was all about. I did so much of the tourist stuff on my last trip to London, I haven't felt it a necessity to return to any of those places which means I can afford more theatre. Plus, it has been great getting to see Shelley and my other friend Karyn while I have been here. They have introduced me around, so when the two of them are busy with class or work, I have been escorted around by some of their other friends. I am absolutely loving London and I wish I could just unpack my bag and stay for a while (especially now that the Pound is doing worse, making my dollars go a lot further). But, alas, there is still much of the world left for me to see.