Na zdrowie - A Polish extravaganza

A few weekends ago we attended the wedding of our friends Agata and Theo. She is Polish and he is Dutch, and the wedding was in Warsaw, Agata's hometown.

The city of Warsaw, capital of Poland and its largest city, was ravaged during the second world war. Much of the city had to be rebuilt, and during the communist occupation large prefabricated housing projects were erected. The Old Town (Stare Miesto) was restored in the old style.

We arrived late on Friday night to our serviced apartment in the Old Town. We walked around for a bit, but it was late and everything was closed or closing.

Fun Polish fact: In every one of our four TV channels that we got in our room, the shows were dubbed in Polish by the same guy! So say you were watching a scene with four different actors -maybe a grown man, an elderly lady or what-have-you - it's all that one guy doing the voices! on every channel! Also, he doesn't really "act", he just reads off the words. Kind of takes the fun out of it. Luckily there was no MTV, i would hate to see what that guy sounded like in a music video. Just kidding.

On Saturday, we grabbed a map and walked the King's Path that passed through all the major sites. It was a very long walk, and we stopped by the Botanical Gardens (not recommended) and ended in the beautiful park that has the palace on the water. We somehow managed to find a bus that went back close to the Old Town - this was not easy as the bus routes are not very easy to decipher and the older people in the city, namely the cabbies and the bus drivers, do not speak very great English, if at all. So we were quite proud of ourselves for that. We did have a Polish phrase book, but we had no idea how to pronounce anything. The Polish language is not a fan of vowells.

We met our friends Sara and Rien for lunch in the old town, and feasted on greasy meat and cheese pierogis to prepare for a long night of vodka drinking.

The streets in the Old Town are much worse to walk on with heels than in Amsterdam, and believe me, that is saying a lot! Unfortunately, it was too late for me, and as we left our hotel to try to find a cab to take us to the church, I wabbled about, getting stuck between the cobblestones. There were about 50 weddings going on that day - and the weather was perfect for people wandering about in the Old Town. So finding a cab was difficult, but we managed to score one eventually. We asked them to take us to the only Protestant church in the city, which wasn't hard to find. When we arrived though, we had no way to know if we were at the right wedding, b/c we didnt' recognize anyone.

The ceremony was very nice. We understood nothing - the ceremony was in Polish, with some in Dutch. If you can believe it, it was actually comforting to hear Dutch because we could recognize it. That will probably be the last time I say that though, b/c I find the Dutch language repugnant.

After the ceremony, a nice Polish couple recruited us to drive with them to the reception, which was held in a very beautiful wine cellar-y kind of place. It was quite lively as there were two other weddings being held there that night, but it didn't really complicate things as they were in different rooms.

We were served champagne and when the happy couple arrived, they were promptly handed their first celebratory shots of vodka, which they then threw over their shoulders. After their arrival we were escorted inside. About 20 minutes after we sat down, we were given our appetiser - a medley of delicious fish nibblets with a shot glass full of vodka in the middle. We embarassed ourselves a bit by taking a picture of this (see above). Shortly thereafter, the waitress came with a bottle of red, wine and a bucket with ice and a bottle of white wine and a bottle of Absolut.

As the night progressed, the tables emptied a bit as some Dutch boys proceeded to drink too much and wind up in the unisex bathroom vomitting and passed out on the benches aside. The shots of vodka continued, and we ate a lot of hearty Polish food to absorb them. We danced around quite a bit, and at one point I decided to ditch my shoes - classic drunken wedding move.

All was dandy until the bouquet toss. All the single ladies circled around the bride and shuffled about in a circle to same crazy Polish tune. When the music stopped, Agata threw the bouquet and our little Sara Lopez caught it. We were all still clapping and laughing when her boyfriend Rien came over, got on one knee and proposed! A night of surprises it was.

Around 3am we headed back to the hotel. The next morning was brutal. A shame, because it was a beautiful day and it would have been nice to have some more pierogis! Instead we relaxed, slept and read in the room, all the while listening to the string quarter playing right outside our window, which was quite lovely. We headed back to Amsterdam in the afternoon.

Poland was a very interesting place to visit, and we would like to go back one day and visit Krakow and some off-the-beaten path cities. It was so great to be part of Agata and Theo's special day, and what turned out to be Sara and Rhijn's special day as well.

P.S. Na zdrowie means Cheers in Polish. Use it.

Random Musing: The Dutch Lemonade

In celebration of some hard-to-come-by decent weather last Sunday, Matt and I went out for a run around the Vondelpark in the morning then out for a walk around the Jordaan in the afternoon. We stopped at a cafe on the Singel canal that has a huge terrace that we frequent on warm Friday nights.

Matt had himself a bloody mary, and I ordered a lemonade. We had to pay in advance, and we probably should have taken this as a warning of what was to come, given that these people don't even have faith in themselves to complete a transaction properly and in a normal fashion.

Five minutes after ordering and paying, Matt gets his bloody mary. I get a sprite.

"This isn't what I ordered," I say.

"The ticket says Sprite," says the waitress.

"Ok. But I didn't order a Sprite. I ordered a lemonade."

"Oh. But this is just like lemonade."

"No, this is a Sprite."

"So you want a lemonade? Like, water with syrup in it?"

"Um. I guess."

"Ok. I will get it for you."

Fifteen minutes later, Matt has finished his drink and I was still waiting. The waitress runs by, "I will be right back with your lemonade."

"Thanks."

Ten minutes. No lemonade. If I hadn't paid for this drink, we would have left. But this was a matter of principle now! The service in Amsterdam is so bad, and something must be done!

Matt calls over the waiter we placed our orders with and explains the situation. He said he'll take care of it.

A few minutes later, the waitress comes back with a drink.

"Here is your lemonade!" she says. "No gas!"

Matt and I look at this thing.

"What the hell is that?" asks Matt

Does this look like a lemonade to you?

I sip this thing. Sure enough, it is water, with syrup in it. No gas. I tastes like a flat shirley temple. I leave the drink there, and vow never to return.

Moral of the story - do not order lemonade in Amsterdam, unless you want to wait 30 minutes for syrupy red water that tastes like an old liquified cherry.

your gay pride is showing

This past weekend, 4th August, was Gay Pride Day (aka Amsterdam Pride) in Amsterdam. One of the largest GLBT (Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transexual) events in the world, Amsterdam Pride sees 350,000 to 500,000 visitors every year. There are several street parties, mostly limited to the "pleins" (squares) and the well-known gay streets, but the big fun is on the canals. Instead of a parade with trucks, the Amsterdam Pride parade is on boats - lushly decorated boats with dozens of dancing men in speedos. Not a bad way for a gal, or a gay, to spend an afternoon. There were also a handful of lesbian boats, but these were nowhere near as fun. Many companies sponsored boats - like ING, ABN AMRO and TNT (the mailmen). There were also a few heterosexual boats that came by to ruin the fun, and hilarity ensued when tourists out on their paddleboats meandered into the Prinsengracht and had to navigate their way out. The parade was limited to the Prinsengracht and only lasted a few hours. We celebrated properly with eleven bottles of rosé between five of us - but it did take us all day.

We missed this event last year because we were in Spain, so it was great to catch it this year. I think I prefer it to Queen's Day because there were less people and funnier music (think theme song to "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"). Plus it happened to be on the nicest day of the summer so far - even the sun came out of the closet today!

Homecoming - July

Last Friday (20 July), we returned to the United States for our third trip home since arriving in Amsterdam. This trip was the best one so far - we got some excellent beach time, saw tons of friends and family, saw our good friends Drew and Paige tie the knot and ate an unbelievable amount of junk food like burgers, chicken wings and crab dip. Plus it was great to have some warm and sunny weather after being punished to no end with the rainy cold in Amsterdam. Spectacular indeed.

We took our standard flight to JFK that gets in at 8pm on Friday. My parents picked us up and we headed, excitedly, for a weekend in the hamptons. Saturday and Sunday was excellent beach weather - sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze on the beach, and cool in the am and pm. The beaches in eastern Long Island are unmatched - soft sand, clean waters and for the most part pretty desolate. We even found some time to go for a run and a long bike ride - it's nice to do those things without having to worry about getting hit by a tram, or speeding car, some jerk on his motorbike or reams of meandering tourists that are confused by the concept of walking on a sidewalk. My parents cooked up a mean bbq on saturday night, chased by some even meaner caipirinhas, then a late evening stroll through the westhampton town, which has become 80% real estate brokerage offices. On Sunday, my aunt and uncle hosted a luncheon to keep the eating frenzy in motion.

On Monday we took shelter from the rain by indulging in some retail therapy. It's fun shopping with dollars now that we have euros - it's kind of like monopoly money. Quite dangerous. On Tuesday it was back to the beach before heading out of LI and into NYC to meet some friends for dinner at Dos Caminos. Mike, Stacy, Liz and Saurab were kind enough to meet us for what turned out to be a really fun time at a mediocre restaurant (why does Robert DeNiro come here??). It was bittersweet since we knew we only had one night with them. We headed to New Jersey to Matt's parents' house that night.

On Wednesday, I did some damage at the new Anthropologie store that opened up in Red Bank (love that store!). Afterwards we went to an enormous supermarket - not really enormous by American standards, but to us it felt like Disneyworld. We sped along the aisles with our shopping cart and marveled at all of our options - it is truly amazing how many options we have in the US, what a great country. Mrs. Sgrizzi picked up a tremendous pack of ground beef to make hamburgers and I just stared at this thing with wonder, a reaction upon which Mrs. Sgrizzi responded with "You think that's big, you should see what they have at Costco". Wow.

A couple of delicious hamburgers and fabulous eggplant rollitini later, we were spent, also no thanks to the two-glasses-of-wine-and-two-Benadryl cocktail I inadvertenly swallowed (I'm allergic to Matt's dog Casey). Not much time for lounging, though, since we were catching the 7pm train to Baltimore.

We said goobye to the nice, breezy summer weather of the northeast when we boarded that train to Baltimore, where the weather was no less than 90 degrees and humid. A short train ride later and we were greeted by our good friend Ryan, who drove us to our friends and hosts Emily and Bryan's huge pad. After dropping our bags, we head out to the bars and met up with our friend Glowacki. While I was on the phone with a friend, Mattt had ordered me a Coors Light. Now, I've never been a fan of this beer, and especially now that I live in a country where "light" beer has no home, I was quite disappointed by this choice. But we were in Baltimore now, and we had to be as the Baltimorons are.

On Thursday, Matt had a hectic day of going to his office in Baltimore to say hello, then going to pick up his tux in Towson for the wedding the next day, then going to the rehearsal at 5, and the rehearsal dinner at 7:30 (Matt was one of the groomsmen). All this in a suit in nearly 100 degree weather - unfortunate. I, on the other hand, chose to lounge around for most of the day in my good friend Mia's bridesmaid boutique that she opened not too long ago. We gossiped and tried on some bridal gowns - I was tempted to take a picture of me in one and send it to Matt via SMS, just to freak him out. I decided against it though! After a few hours of fun, Ryan picked me up and we lunched al fresco on some crab dip in Fell's Point. Later I met Matt at Sabatino's in Little Italy for the rehearsal dinner. This is also the restaurant where Matt and I had our first date over 5 and a half years ago, so it was nice to go back. The dinner was good, but the portions were incredible! I couldn't finish even a quarter of my pasta dish, and neither could most people. Matt, however, had no issue here. And our espressos were like a triple shot! So gluttonous. When we got home, Kootman "surprised" us by coming up from DC to see us. We then went out to Fed Hill, our old haunts, for some more light brewskies. Our friend Andy also came out to meet us. We were surprised to see that The Thirsty Dog was renamed The Dog Pub due to some copywright infringement and that Ryleigh's was transformed from a sports pub where we used to watch all the Giants games to a suped-up lounge. Life actually does seem to go on in Baltimore since we left - odd.

Friday was wedding time - and it was a very beautiful ceremony and reception. The color of the details was a nice bright tangerine, which was different and worked out really, really well. Paige was a beautiful bride, and Drew looked dapper as always. We were so glad to be able to share that day with them, so many miles away.

Saturday, our last day in Baltimore, was spent lounging for the most part - playing Mario Kart and eating greasy food. In the evening we went back to Federal Hill for milkshakes and to walk up the Federal Hill and catch a view of the harbor. From here we could see the Trapeze School, and they were having a little performance that we vouyered. We also stopped by Matt's old apartment, which Glowacki lives in now. That was a pretty weird experience to see it all again. We decided to skip the Yankee game since it was too hot and there were only standing room tickets left. We were mindful enough to remember what an awful time those games used to be when it was hot and overcrowded. Saturday night we all went out - me, Matt, Ryan, Emily, Bryan, Glowacki and his girlfriend Traci. We all proceeded to drink too much, and I ended up getting into a verbal dispute with a redneck at Royal Farms b/c he was being mean to Ryan for no reason. And because he was holding a pillow, which I thought was weird and felt that I needed to call attention to that.

Great trip overall - and one we hope to continue doing in the future. With three of our good friends getting married next year in the US, all in different states mind you, and none of which are New York and New Jersey, it may be hard to pull off it in 2008. But thanks to all who were able to come out and spend time with us, hopefully we'll catch the rest of you next time!

P.S. Several people have indicated to me that they don't feel we are blogging enough. And to those I respond - we have quite boring day-to-day lives. But I do realize that certain things do go on that I am undecided as to whether or not they merit a blog. And from now on, I will choose yes. I will also try to post some of our many random musings for your enjoyment. Just remember that you asked for it!

Matt's first blog! - The Caledonian Challenge

So I had my long-awaited hike in Scotland over the weekend.



The idea was to hike 54 miles in under 24 hours through the West Highland Way of Scotland. I was incredibly and retardedly under-prepared for the hike, having been on vacation for 2.5 weeks before and having approximately 2 hills in this entire country on which to train.



We started at 8am and I was amazed at how fast people were moving and I didn't think anyone would be able to hold the pace they first made. Amazingly, most of them did. The landscape was vicious in a word. Constantly really rocky (small, loose rocks) and narrow paths or roads. Mostly wide open areas and awesome views. Inclines were tough but fun, declines were just terrible. It was overcast and rainy and no more than 50 degrees all day, which isn't so bad with the right gear. The bugs were freakin horrible, I had to wear a net over my head and lather my hands in repellent.



There were 4 checkpoints, 10-12 miles apart, where we had support people with food and water ready and our packs containing other things (extra socks, clothes). I was pretty stupid and carried way too much stuff 'in case' I might need it, which of course I never did, so I just carried a heavier than needed pack around the whole time. Without these checkpoints it would have been brutal, and our support team from my company was awesome. It makes for great format in which to attempt something like this. So the hike was boring and we were getting passed, often. Let me tell you, when you're at mile 30, with nearly a marathon to go, and a group of middle age women overtake you, you just want to kill yourself. We jogged a lot of the downhills to make up time and it was a bit easier on the feet. Obviously my legs were tired and my feet hurt, but I felt reasonably good almost the entire time.



Anger over a faster pace turned to fear of getting a crappy time turned to fear of not finishing. About 2 miles from checkpoint 4 my feet started to hurt, real bad. Not sure why, but the arch of my foot just locked up and I was forced to limp. We get into a large, warm tent at CP 4 (mile 42) at 12:30 am and and it looked like a military triage center. People were crying, Royal Marines were running around, people getting first aid and massages. Then I made a huge mistake: I laid down. I waited to get a massage on my foot and calves. I cooled down considerably. When I left the tent, I went into what felt like hypothermia. So the support staff shuffled me into a van and started feeding me. Then I got completely stiff and my foot was killing me. I was doing the hike with 2 buddies from my old Baltimore office who are also working here abroad, and they weren't feeling good by any means either. We get out of the van to try and walk around and see if we can continue, and we were all real iffy. I made the call first and refused to limp 12 miles in what probably would have taken me 6 hrs starting at 1 am. We also didn't have head torches (retarded) and because it was overcast it was real dark. It was also tough from a competitive standpoint, because these two german guys who were hardcore hikers had an hour lead on us at CP 3. When we got to CP 4, they got in 5 min ahead of us and quit, an emotional blow (if they couldn't do it what the hell was I thinking). We all decided to throw in the towel. That made it 42 miles in something like 16 hrs. Of the 1500 people who did it, our time at CP 4 was around 450th. 1000 people finished.

Ciao bella!

18 days in Italy, and sweet tans, inflated guts and easy smiles to show for it.

I won’t even try to detail all of our adventures. Especially since Matt already says my blogs are too long. I will merely mention the highlights, and show only a few of the 330 pictures we took (which you can see on snapfish – let me know if you need the link).

We started our week in Florence on Saturday, May 12. We arrived at the Rome airport, and the first Italian I see is wearing a t-shirt that says “Orgasm Donor”. Matt warned me about the quirky fashion sense so customary of southern Italians, but I wasn’t prepared for such in-your-face tackiness.

An easy train ride later, and we were in Florence. Matt studied in Florence 7 years ago for a semester, so he was anxious to see the city after so many years. We took in a few sights, but mostly chilled - drinking wine and eating pasta by the kilo and enjoying the beautiful weather. Our hotel had a great rooftop terrace which we frequented often – thanks to Stacy the book she gifted us, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”, which recommended the hotel for that very reason. The rest of the Sgrizzi clan arrived on Tuesday, May 15.

Florence highlights:

When we went to the Duomo, I was wearing a lovely top with thin straps. Apparently, this is quite sinful attire. When I didn’t have a sweater or shawl with which to cover my shoulders, the security man forced me to don a stinky oil rag with a hole in the middle to stick my head through in order to enter the church. I was so embarrassed that I don’t remember much of the inside. Matt found my new outfit hilarious. I wasn’t the only one wearing this though, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I threw it out as soon as we got outside to go to the entrance to get to the top of the dome. There I had a similar problem, except this time the guy had nothing to offer me. I was annoyed, because the steps weren’t even inside the church, and I was sure that God or whatever wouldn’t mind. Luckily, a little Greek lady offered me her shawl, and I avoided an embarrassing expulsion from the church.

We took a bike trip one day through Florence, riding around in these huge mountain bikes. It took a while to get used to riding nice bikes, given that my bike in Amsterdam is no less than 30 years old, a rusty pile of steel with no hand brakes. More than once I tried to brake by back-pedaling, only to be completely exasperated when it didn’t work. My first time braking I almost flew over the handlebars. But we soon got used to the bikes, and enjoyed a stressful ride through the city (I also missed my bike’s bell!) up to Piazza Michelangelo, then out of Florence and into Tuscan olive country. Absolutely stunning views, and we also were treated to a delicious lunch with lots of Chianti.

One night we took a cooking class and made some delicious dishes. We arrived to class late from our appointment to see the David at Academia, and missed most of the preparation for the tiramisu. We were promptly handed aprons and sharp knifes and got to work. We made stuffed tomatoes, gnocchi with homemade sauce, fried zucchini with mozzarella. Then we gorged ourselves. There were 12 of us in all, and we were all Americans. Except for Matt and I, everyone else was from California. It was funny talking to the other Americans, especially since the way Americans travel is so funny. Granted, it’s a function of the very few vacation days that people get. But people were hopping from Rome to Florence to Venice to Pisa to Cinque Terre to Capri and etc all in matter of a few weeks! I thought it sounded more like work than vacation.

Positano was definitely the hit stop. We stayed at a villa about midway up the mountain, and the views from our terrace were stunning. We had a clutch little bar a few doors down from us, which was great for double espressos and sweet buns in the morning and dessert and digestivos at night. We also had an excellent restaurant nearby called the Grottino Azzuro, and we ate here 3 times whilst in Positano. We made a day trip to Capri one day – not my favorite. I thought Positano was much more beautiful and much less commercial. Walking the 700 steps up and down from the beach also helped work off all the olive oil which we were consuming.

Some highlights from Positano:

The 4 "kids" (Matt and myself, along with his brother Danny and Danny’s girlfriend Caitlin) did (what we think is) the Path of the Gods hike. We can’t be sure that we did the correct path b/c of the lack of clear markers. Plus at times the path was pure sketchiness. I couldn’t allow myself to be scared, b/c one wrong step and you could be catapulted down the mountain. The views were beautiful though, and we ended up in the next town called Praeano. Here we found a “beach” bar (it was more like a bar on a rock with a little pool ladder to get down to the sea). We then took a speed water taxi back from Positano, and this was super fun.

We made good friends with one of the workers at a beach bar in Positano called Fratelli Grassi. If you are ever in Positano, go here! It’s on Puppeto beach, and the food is great. This guy was hilarious too, and he kept promising to give me a gift – a photo album of pictures he took of Positano in the 70’s. So on our last day I asked him where my “regalo” was, and he brought me a bag of lemons and oranges! Not exactly pictures, but still thoughtful. On our last day we also learned that he used to be a professional soccer player, playing for Milan and Madrid and other teams. Not a bad way to retire!

We hired a boat to take us to Amalfi, with a pit stop at the Emerald Grotto. The weather turned suddenly, from sunny and cloudless to a freaky lightning storm while we were on the boat. Typical Italian style, our worried looks were met with “No problem! This is Italy!” from our boatman. When his expression changed and he was frantically trying to call someone on his cell phone – that’s when we started to wig out. He told us a bigger boat was coming to meet us to take us to Amalfi. When it arrived, we realized that they expected us to jump from the little boat to the big boat, in the middle of the sea, with waves teetering both boats and nearly crashing on us. It was an adventure, but the reward was worth it. (Well, except for the Emerald Grotto – 5 euros each for 2 minutes of uneventfulness. For all we knew, the cave could have been lit up by floodlights.) When we arrived in beautiful Amalfi, we took the bus up the mountain to Ravello, which was spectacular. Here we saw the Ravello gardens and had drinks in the big square and a pizza dinner.

When our week-long visit to Positano came to a sad end, Matt and I took a boat to Ischia. In typical Italian fashion, a trip we expected would take less than an hour turned out to be a 4 hour journey. In Ischia, we were surprised to see so many Germans. We spent our 3 days here relaxing on the beach, reading, drinking wine and playing cards.

On Tuesday, we took the boat to Naples, got ripped off on our cab ride to the train station, and tried to ward off sketchy beggars at the station while awaiting our train to Rome. The Naples train station is just disgusting – it’s completely unmanned by security, so it’s just a free-for-all for very aggressive panhandling. The beggars then get on the trains and try to force tourists to allow them to help them with their bags, only to demand 10 euros after the deed is done. With our trip starting at 8am, by the time we arrived at our hotel in Rome at 1pm we were completely spent. Nevertheless, we walked around Rome and saw a few highlights – namely the Spanish steps (we think) and the Vatican – stopping for lunch and to knock back a few espressos.

Some other photos for your viewing pleasure: (from top to bottom) Boboli Gardens in Florence, the Duomo in Florence, Ponte Vecchio, Positano, Amalfi, Ischia, the Vatican, dinner in Roma.

Queen's Day 2007

Queen's Day is arguably Holland's most treasured holiday. For the past century and a half, the Oranje family has been the royal family. Queen's Day commemorates the former queen's birthday (30 April). Queen's night, the night before, is also a huge celebration. Queen's Day 2007 was our second installment.

On Queen's Night (Sunday) we went to a cocktail at a friend's house. We mistakenly imbibed on sangria, dacquiris and mojitos (Matt only) so the next day was pretty rough. Matt had to work until 1pm, but after he got home we had a few friends over then went out into the madness. The Prinsengracht is the canal just off our street, and it was jam-packed with people. People were selling junk everywhere, and the city turned into a huge yard sale. We walked by a little boy about 6 years old painting portraits of people so that he could earn money for a gameboy - very cute. There was music playing, beer flowing and the canals were filled with crazy party boats. We walked around a lot! Next year we are going to try to get on one of those party boats. That's where the good looking people are apparetnly. Everywhere else, the city is filled with ugly "festival" people, drunk and stoned and sweaty and puking and being ugly.