Engaged in Phuket

I really have fallen behind on blogging. I meant to write about the huge Giants Superbowl, my trip home to New York in February and the whole LSAT experience. But alas, now that all seems to be old and boring news in the face of our recent few weeks.

Despite our constant complaining about the need to escape the horrid Amsterdam weather for some sun and fun in February, by mid January we still had not planned anything. At this point, we realized that there were no sure places to beach in Europe at this time of year, Africa was too unstable to go for our intended safari adventure, and St. Martin was retardedly expensive to fly to from here, despite it being a Dutch colony and there being direct flights. This we learned all in one fateful Sunday, where Matt spent no less than 12 hours behind the computer searching for trips. We finally decided to search for destinations in Thailand, and after some long and grueling hours (on Matt's part) we had booked our trip to Phuket on the south coast of Thailand (of tsunami fame), flying Malaysia Airlines via Kuala Lumpur and staying at the Indigo Pearl hotel and resort from 8 Feb until 17 Feb. And what a trip it was.

The flight to Malaysia was just under 12 hours. Thankfully we had little TV's and we spent a good portion of the flight watching synchronized episodes of House. The food was also pretty tasty and different (I had spicy chicken with rice and mango for breakfast). The problem was the screaming child in the seat in front of us, and his aloof parents that when the little portable crib was removed during landing, the mom wanted to put the sleeping baby on the floor like it was a piece of hand luggage. Also it was either the bathrooms up ahead of our seats or this collicky baby, but something stank all flight!

When we landed in Kuala Lumpur we were bombarded with the humidity - ahh, how nice it was. I immediately scanned the airport for a Starbucks, and while I was glancing around I spotted the thing, smiling at me from the floor above. We had some pick-me-ups and my sure-fire disease-preventing and stomach-healing cure for long-haul flights - Alka Seltzer. Works like a charm. After a short layover we boarded for our one hour flight to Phuket.

Our resort was only a five minute cab ride from Phuket airport, which I loved. Nothing is worse than touching down from a long flight and having a long road trip ahead. Going home that way may be even worse. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived (around 11am local time) so we sat in the beautiful open air lobby and drank iced teas and chatted. About an hour later we were escorted to our room, and we quickly packed away our things and threw on our swimsuits and went to the pool. The resort had 3 pools (one of which was adults only so no more screaming kids), 3 restaurants and 3 bars. You could also order drinks and food at any one of the pools. We took it easy our first day, relaxed and ordered drinks and salads by the pool. We have a standard beach vacation mode - wake up early, sometimes exercise, eat, go to the beach, come back to the room around 4 or 5, shower and nap and then go out for dinner. And that was pretty much the standard for this trip too, though we did change it up and do different things some days.

On our second day in Phuket, we took the tuk tuk to the beach and spent the entire day there, leaving at 4:30 to go back to shower and nap. Our plan was to go back to catch the sunset, which is famous in these parts. Unfortunately, we slept through it. We had made dinner reservations at the Thai restaurant in the hotel for 8 and before eating we headed to one of the bars in the hotel that overlooks the grounds, the Rebar. It's a very beautifully designed open space and they had a really good band playing. We climbed the steps and sat at the top before going in, and this is where Matt proposed - overlooking palm trees, in the moonlight, with good music playing in the background. Of course I cried, and said yes before he had even formally asked. I had no idea what he had been planning all along, and it was very sweet and romantic. We celebrated our engagement with Kir Royales.

The next day we took a speedboat tour around the Phi Phi islands. The water here was beautiful and clear, and the islands were surrounded by huge bat caves. We stopped at three islands and one larger boat for lunch. The highlight of this boat trip had to be the Russian couple on board. The guy was hideous and a definite mafia type - he took his $2,000 camera in the water without a care. His girlfriend was very beautiful, and very dumb, and the two kept fighting in Russian the whole type and he was constantly posing her for pictures. The other funny couple was an old hippie couple that we think were Greek - they were just annoying and always in the way. The other American on board was acting typically American by chatting everybody up in a very loud and friendly voice. That night we ventured out to the beach for dinner. After eating, we stopped by a little bar on the beach that had a pool table. After a beer each and one rather sorry game of pool, and noticing some shady business going down with the male English patrons and the Thai ladies behind the bar, we got the heck out of there.

On Wednesday we spent the day at one of the pools. The pools were so well serviced, the workers would come by with cold wet towelletes and fruit every so often, exactly when you were wishing you had one of those things. We saw a couple there that had been on the Phi Phi trip - the guy was Canadian/American and the girl was French. Matt and he planned a tennis match in the evening, and while he was out I went out to the beach to get a manicure. I had this new beautiful thing on my finger and chipped nail polish - that just couldn't be! That night we met up with the couple again for drinks at the Rebar then dinner on the beach.

The next day was my 28th birthday, and Matt surprised me with a day at the spa. While I was getting scrubbed and wrapped and massaged with various coconut-inspired products, Matt took the opportunity to get a cheap massage on the beach. That night we did up with a steak dinner at the hotel, and they gave me a cake for my birthday :-)

On Friday we planned to take the morning cooking classes. First order of business was going to the outdoor market that was a 10 minute drive from the hotel. The smell of this place really hit you hard - lots of fish in the hot and humid weather! We picked up the things we needed to make our menu - fried shrimp cakes, thai noodles with prawn, papaya salad, green curry chicken, and fried bananas. Unfortunately our kitchen was not air conditioned so it was very hot, but still a lot of fun. Our teacher, Peak, was really nice and a great cook and we ended up with some amazing food which we polished off for lunch. After eating, we went back to the room to cool off and nap and start our wedding planning.

On Saturday night we attended a thai kickboxing (muay thai) match. We had ringside seats, which made us quite obvious - the only others in ringside were clearly tourists. There were 10 fights in total, 5 rounds each. We were very surprised by how young the fighters were - some could have been as young as 8. It was kind of disturbing to see a young kid get punched in the head so many times as to knock him out. But the fights were intense and lively, and the crowd was getting more and more into it the more they started betting on the fights. We opted against that, but there were even some tourists getting on the gambling action. The coolest part of the fights was the fight music they played during it. It made it seem almost like a ritual dance and was pretty hypnotizing.

To enjoy our last day in Phuket, we took advantage of the beach and then headed back to have lunch at the pool. Since the airport was only a 10 minute drive away and we already had our tickets, we got a 5pm checkout and got to spend all day in the sun before having to return to the Amsterdam rain. A 13 hour flight later, and we were back. What a great trip!

Australia Day

January 26 is Australia Day, the country's biggest celebration. This day, the country gets together to celebrate "everything great about being an Australian". So it's not actually a memorial day in that nothing ever happenend on January 26, except other Australia Days.

Being that we have several Australian friends, this was a celebration that we would join in ths year. We ordered ten meat pies from the New Zealand shop nearby, and brought a case of Brand beer. The festivities were held at Jason and Jane's house, the same who hosted Christmas. This time there were a lot more people, and a bathtub filled with booze.

We arrived around 3pm and were promptly handed cans of Fosters. A few hours later, we warmed up some meat pies (Ross had also brought 20 of them) and started up the barbie for a meat eating bonanza. After we ate, the boys headed out to the park next door to play footie, or Australian rules football. I give them all a lot of credit since it was freezing out. That really quieted down the place, and left the girls to manage the barbecueing. I think we did an ok job, but definetely made way too much meat.

As the night progressed, it was decided we would go out to Cocos, the Aussie bar in town where Matt and I caught the fabulous Cowboys defeat to big blue. When we arrived, the bouncer wasn't letting anyone in. He let 3 girls go inside, myself included since all the boys in our group pushed us all in. Once inside, we learned that they weren't letting anyone else in because the place was absolutely packed and someone had just thrown a beer bottle and just missed a bartender. So I decided to ditch, since I didn't know when Matt would be let in and he wasn't feeling well. So we made the wise decision of walking home. Wise because we'd find out later that it turned out to be an all-nighter. At Cocos?? No thanks. All in all, some good Aussie fun though, and those meat pies - mmm....

A Giant win

Last night Matt and I went to an Aussie bar on Rembrandtplein to watch the NFC playoff games. We caught the last half of the Colts-Chargers, ate cheeseburgers that tasted like greasy cardboard and then watched the Giants take the win against the Cowboys. The bar closed at 1am but they let the few of us remain until 1:30 to watch the end of the game. There were about 5 other scragglers there aside from me and matt, all rooting for the Giants. When McQuarters stepped up to intercept that final pass, we all hooted and hollered and cheered with relief and disbelief. Tom Coughlin should send Jessica Simpson a fruit basket. The Cowboys may be one of the more irritating NFL teams, and they clearly did not deserve to win last night. And why is that one can't get a decent burger in Holland?

An anomalous January...

I just wanted to take the time to note to all that this is my fist January in five years that has not been marked by the long, boring, stressful hours of an EY busy season, replete with fatty fast food dinners, little sleep, and foul smells of dirty bodies sitting and sweating in a tiny supply closet for 18 hours. I surely do not miss the promise of an entire month with little chance of seeing the sun - b/c often you'd get in before light and always leave after dark, and b/c even companies with the coolest offices in a highrise in downtown DC stick the auditors in a small, windowless room, and b/c the notion of actually dropping your work for 30 minutes to get lunch is unheard of so we always sent the intern out. How unfair is that? I wish I could have been the one to escape the stinky audit room for 20 minutes to get some fresh air, while all the other suckers worked. Alas, I was always one of those suckers.

I have found that b/c of this new freedom, I have been sleeping more than usual, and I have a bit of a misgiving about actually leaving the house. I think that psychologically, given the time of year, I fear that it means not returning until 20 hours later. And having to audit in between.

Bombs over Amsterdam

For what may be the last year that civilian fireworks are legal, Amsterdam sure went out with a bang. And a boom and a crack and a ka-blauw. As a result, what we imagined would be a laid-back New Years turned out to be one of the most incredible ones ever.

We went over to our friends Ross and Sascha's place to ring in the new years with a pseudo-barbecue and oliebolen and lots of champagne. We made the precarious decision of riding our bikes over, and through the Vondelpark at that. I must note that the fireworks had been exploding all week. That day, the 31st, I can safely say that one went off loud and clear about once every ten minutes. They sounded so close that I constantly looked out over our back balcony thinking that they were being set off in the playground of the school behind our apartment. But they weren't; they were just THAT loud. So you can understand the sensitive situation we put ourselves in by riding through an empty park at 9pm, where large clusters of young men gather to blow things up. The sky was an eerie smoky greenish color, and as we rode through we rode as if we were trying to dodge machine gun fire. I now think I know what it feels like to be at war. But we arrived safely to our destination after all.

Throughout the evening of the 31st, we were constantly interrupted from our lively conversation to view the spectacle out the window. But none of that compared to the insanity that ensued post-midnight. After the countdown, we took our champagne bottle and flutes outside to witness the fireworks first-hand. The sky was completely lit up. For all of the activity in the sky, the irony is that the city of Amsterdam does not official host or sponsor any such festivities. It's just regular people that buy these fireworks, at very high prices, and set them off for fun. Some of these shows were incredible. We meandered around the streets to follow the best ones. At one point, we came upon a group of guys that were setting off a ton of fireworks. The blasts were no more than 15 feet away. After a great mini-show, the guys haul out another box of fireworks, and this time it takes two of them to carry it. This went on for about two more rounds, until the last box came out, which was huge and took four of them carry. I've never seen fireworks like that in my life, and probably never will again. After we got our fill about 45 min later, we went back to Ross and Sascha's to laugh at the paldry fireworks going off in London, mocking them with our best, but still quite poor, English accents. Oh balderdash!

We hopped on our bikes just after 3am for the ride home. There were still some pops and bangs going off, but much more mellow than it was hours before. As we rode through the spot that just hours before we were marveling at fireworks, we see the remnants of the cardboard box that held the fireworks. Someone had thrown a few bikes on top of it and they were still smoldering, absolutely burnt to a crisp. Ah, life in Amsterdam - your bike is NEVER safe. The sky reeked of fireworks, and when we got home, so did we. I never realized they had a smell - now I know.

I woke up around 8am the next morning to get a drink of water, and the city was so quiet that it was positively spooky. Living across the street from a busy supermarket and with a school playground behind us, there is always some noise. Often, a whole lot of noise. But that morning it was dead quiet. And it stayed that way until about noon, when a few people starting peeking out, trepidatiously, like baby polar bears coming out of hibernation.

I think Holland will have a hard time enforcing a law that would make the purchase of fireworks illegal. Setting off fireworks on New Year's is so embedded in the Dutch culture, or at least it is in Amsterdam, and people love it so much. But it is very scary that there are so many that buy these things and set them off, and have no business doing so. Fortunately, we survived this new year's celebration, alive and kicking and maniacally laughing.

Christmas in Amsterdam

This year we opted out of a Christmas trip and spent the holiday in good ol' Amsterdam. Though last year the group we traveled to St. Anton with all vowed to do it again in 2007, it turns out that we all had different things going and couldn't do it again. Also, Matt thought he had to work on Christmas Eve, up until the week before, so we didn't plan anything, and by the time we knew we could actually go somewhere, we had gotten quite comfortable with the idea of not having to travel this year. And it was the first year in our adult lives that neither of us had to do any traveling during this crazy time of year. The week leading up to Christmas was actually quite cold around these parts. We even woke up a few mornings to a fresh coat of snow outside. Though a few nights we meant to go out in the evening, to do some window-shopping and check out the light decorations all over town, it was simply too cold and instead we sought refuge at home making warm dinners and playing cards. On the Friday night before Christmas, we did do a bit of walking around and stopped at our favorite cafe to drink some strong beers and be thankful that sometime in 2008, smoking will be banned in the cafes - we cannot wait! The next day, Saturday, we helped some friends move house, and it actually turned out to be a fresh and crisp day with some sun to ward off the extreme cold. We biked through the Vondel Park to get to their new place, and the place looked absolutely majestic. The ponds in the park had frozen over and there were several adults and children ice skating. The whole park was shrouded in a cold mist and the lights on the trees were beautiful. After some hours of heavy lifting, then some hours of recovering with tea and kerstbrood (christmas cake, kind of like fruit cake, but with a delish almond mush in the middle), we biked back home. Later that night we met up with them again for their first dinner in their new neighborhood. We ended up ordering a big salad that the four of us shared that had some suspicious meats in it...turns out, those suspicious meat were even scarier than we had anticipated - chicken livers and lamb thyroid glands. Very chewy. After dinner Matt and I biked back home, through the Vondel park again, talking about how we had never imagined that we would be riding our bikes in the middle of winter in -5 degree Celsius weather.

On Christmas Eve, I decided I would prepare a wondrous Brazilian feast. After excursions to the Noordermarkt for vegetables (and finding out the Monday market is only for clothes), 2 different Albert Heins (local supermarket), the butcher, the Brazilian grocery and the bakery to pick up the pies we ordered for christmas, I set to work on an epic meal. Starting out with toasts of champagne, we feasted on farofa, molho de campanha, rice and black beans, and bife acebolado. We finished with spoonfuls of homemade doce de leite (aka dulce de leche). It was the perfect storm of food. Matt wondered why I've been holding out on him all these years, and I could only respond by wondering the same.

The next day - Christmas day - Matt repaid the favor by taking care of the sausage stuffing and salad that we were assigned to bring to the potluck dinner we were having with a group of friends. The dinner, dubbed the Orphans Christmas, consisted of 10 poor souls spending Christmas in Amsterdam without their families. We had 2 Aussies and their respective Dutch partners, Matt and I, two other single Americans and the Aussie couple that hosted us. We each were assigned dishes to bring, and we each prepared our dishes for 10 people. Which meant that we had enough food for 100 people. We barely made a dent in it. But in the end, it was a great thing that we had so much food, b/c we all consumed an even heavier amount of alcohol. After 12 hours at these poor people's apartment, from 3pm to 3am, Matt and I were only the second couple to leave. And it was a good thing we left when we did, because it was around the time my eyes starting rolling back in my head (not literally, but you get the picture). We had champagne, wine, beer, eggnog and whiskey, and I had 4 of the 5 during the night. I'd post pictures but we inadvertently left our camera at their place. And we probably all look terrible. Needless to say, the next day, Boxing Day, was very quiet and lazy. We parked ourselves on the couch, ate a frozen pizza (offensively titled Big American) and watched the Discovery Channel and episodes of Flight of the Conchords and Planet Earth. Unfortunately my hangover lasted until the next morning and I had to skip my 10:30am Pilates class :-/

Now the buzz is all over town for New Years. We're probably going to take it easy, go over to some friends' place so Matt can light some fireworks (which are legal here). The TV commercials have already started showing what can go wrong when you play with fireworks, and I hear they'll be getting more gory as New Years approaches. There are bangs and booms going off all day, starting in the early morning, some seem like they were even set off in our living room. The city is already filling up with tourists, too. Matt and I were discussing the probable appeal of having New Years in Amsterdam is you are "party people". And they really are flocking in from all over. Sirens are also becoming more frequent, but that's the price of living downtown in one of the coolest cities in the world! Merry Christmas to you all and a very happy and healthy new year! I've posted a video of last year's New Years fireworks that we took from our balcony for your enjoyment - mind you, most are amateur fireworks:-)

Giving thanks

Though this year has shaped up to be quite full of misses with few hits for me, in the spirit of the holiday season I have come to realize that it's years like these that define you. It's easy to remember the events that hurt you - a place, a smell, a feeling. And why is it that the best moments seem to pass by without you noticing? Maybe it's our endless search for self-improvement, or our need to have everything always work out. But it never does, and if it did, would it be as sweet if we had never known hardship? It really is true that life is what happens when you're busy making plans for it.

So for my own cartharsis, and to stick it to a world that tries to break us, I've laid out a few of my favorite moments and accomplishments of this year that I will carry forward. The bad moments can stay where they are - in the past. These are by no means in chronological order.

1 - My mom turned 60 this year, and my dad, sister and brother all came together to get her her first trip to Europe. I think the fact that it was from all of us made it so much more special for her, and she had such a great time. We saw so much and walked everywhere, and I always got tired before she did. I'm the luckiest because I got to share that with her.

2 - Matt hiked a horrible 42 miles over the treacherous and rather depressing landscape of Scotland. I was so proud of him for that.

3 - I surprised Matt with a birthday trip to Spain. He didn't know where we were going until we got past security. I never would have been able to do that from the US!

4 - I started my Sociology with Law B.S. program through the University of London, purely for intellectual reasons, but now hope it will help me get into Columbia Law. I love that I'm learning again.

5 - Matt and I got to go to a Polish wedding and see two of the nicest people we know tie the knot.

6 - I spent 3 amazing weeks in Italy, drinking more wine and eating more pasta than should be allowed. And I learned how to make gnocchi.

7 - I turned down two good job offers because they just didn't feel right. It feels great to be in a position like that.

8 - I finally got into Pilates, going twice a week now, and I've actually gotten quite good at it :-)

9 - I made a huge life decision to finally to try my hand at law.

10 - I survived another year in Amsterdam! And thanks to trips home and visits from friends, we haven't felt isolated from family and old friends.

Our Bed & Breakfast

The flow of visitors has come to an end for now. Over the past 2 months, we have enjoyed visits from our friends Emily and Bryan from Baltimore, Stacy from New York, and Ryan from Baltimore who joined Kristen, who now lives in Stuttgard, and Brian, who now lives in Vienna. Herewith I will share with you the highlights of these visits: Emily and Bryan - September While Emily and Bryan were here, all of our electronic equipment stopped working and I got fired from my job. It was their first trip to Europe, and we all joked that they'd get divorced before returning home. Of course they didn't, and we are all glad for that. They were really two of our most easy going guests, and having them was an absolute pleasure. The Saturday of their arrival was spent walking around the Jordaan, and in the evening dinner then the red light district. These two people were probably the most relaxed and least fazed by the sights at the red light district. Their calm was really quite fascinating. We headed to a bruin cafe for a chat afterwards. We spent about 20 minutes in the wee hours of Sunday morning staring in the window of an orthopedic, geriatric, incontinence supply store a few doors down from our apartment. Here we discussed the crutches, catheters, pantyhose, thick grip utensils and sippy cups displayed and marveled at how getting old must really suck. The weather was spectacular for them. On Sunday we got pancakes, took a canal cruise, ate vlaamse frites and drank small beers. We walked around a lot - I think they really got to see most of the city on foot. We also spent a lot of time on our balcony since the weather was so good, just people watching and snapping pictures of people doing weird things on their bikes. On Monday they headed to Belgium to continue their Euro-trip. Stacy - September/October This was Stacy's third visit since we've been in Amsterdam, and if you count the two weekends she was here as separate visits(she went to visit another friend in Brussels in between),then you could say third and fourth. It's always great to see her smiling face brighten Amsterdam's dismal weather. Since Stacy had already seen a lot of the tourist things, it was just max and relax time. The Saturday that she arrived, we took her to a houseboat bar then took a canal cruise. Stacy is a fellow foodie, so we took her to all the great restaurants, including Indian, Spanish tapas and Thai (which the Dutch call Thais - which is funny). On Sunday while walking around and enjoying the weather, Matt and I saw the perfect bookcase. It came in separate pieces. We've been looking for one that would work in our apartment and that didn't cost 800 euros, which has been difficult. So we got 4 pieces and made Stacy carry one back to our apartment. You have to work if you come visit! We went to a cafe in our neighborhood on Sunday night for a drink before dinner, and while we were hanging out on the couches, a photographer came up to us and asked if he could snap photos of us. He was shooting pictures for an article in a local mag about playing games in the Amsterdam cafes. A lot of the cafes in Amsterdam have little games that you can play, like chess, checkers and monopoly. We picked Kolonisten, a game that we learned from some friends, set it up and let the guy take pictures of us pretending to play. Beers had to be involved in the photos, and Matt helped the guy with suggestions for interesting pictures and was a hand model for several of the shots. So now we're kind of celebrities. Ryan, Kristen and Brian - October This was Ryan's second visit to Amsterdam. His friend from college, Kristen, recently moved to Stuttgard because her husband is an officer in the army and got stationed there. Our friend Brian from Baltimore also recently moved to Europe and now lives in Vienna. So they were all invited to join Ryan during his weekend here. Ryan arrived on a Thursday. I picked him up from the airport and then we went to a nearby cafe for lunch. After he finished telling me a story about how after his running club practiced one night, they went to a bar to get food and an hour later the waitress came by to tell them she had lost their ticket and they had to order again, I realized the same thing may have just happened to us. An hour after we arrived, we noticed people that came after us get their food. By this time, we were too hungry to speak to each other anymore. I asked the waitress about our order, which was taken by another waitress who had just left, and she knew nothing about it. Irony is great, isn't it? After eating, we walked around a bit and found a game store that had a Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game in the window. 30 euros and a short dispute with the store owner about who the biggest Buffy fan was (him or me) later, we walked back to the apartment to set up my new game. It was very complicated, and at first, not very fun. But we gradually learned, and when Matt came home we made him play too. And then when Brian and Kristen arrived the next day, them too. We played about 9 times that weekend. On Friday before Brian arrived, the three of us (Matt, Ryan and me) walked around and decided to stop in the Sex Museum, which was recommended highly by our friend Rowena in Baltimore. It was a very disturbing experience and I will now put it out of my mind. We walked over to Dam Square and found a little carnival going on. They had one of those swing rides that circle around and go real high. Ryan and I decided to go. What we failed to calculate was how cold it would be up there, and how fast the ride was going. We were scared, cold and dizzy. So in other words, we had fun. Later on Friday, Brian arrived around 4 and Kristen around 8. Once our party was complete we took them to the red light district for dinner at a great little Thai restaurant. Then we walked over to the windows. On Saturday we got pancakes, then they did the tourist thing while Matt and I just chilled and made a 5-person dinner. After dinner, we went to a bar to watch the rugby finals, then over to a bar where a friend was having her birthday party. We then stopped over at the Dam Square carnival one more time for Ryan to ride a crazy baton ride. On Sunday it was the Amsterdam marathon, and after Ryan missed his chance to run the half, we all headed over to the Vondelpark to watch the runners go by. Then we laid down some towells and Matt found a huge stick. Since Ryan randomly had a baseball with him, we decided to play. The stick got smaller and smaller with every hit. Ryan came close to getting beheaded with it one time when Matt hit the ball and the stick cracked in half. The half of the stick that broke off went as far as the ball. AFter the stick was no longer useful as a bat, we improvised and played long-distance throwing competitions and a weird golf game that we made up. Then some vicious dogs came over, barking and chasing and humping each other, and we decided to play a game of Uno then leave. It was a full day of playing, it was like we were 8 years old again. Then fun didn't end when we got home, though, b/c we then played another game of Buffy.

Le Rugby

On the weekend of October 12 Matt and I and our friends Ross and Sascha drove down to Paris. The drive was about 5 hours, including a pit stop, and very easy (especially since we weren't driving). The semi-finals for rugby were also going on that weekend in Paris, and in a surprising turn of events, France had beat Australia the week before so were still in it. Needeless to say there was a lot of excitement in the air.

We arrived around midnight, and checked into our roach motel. All the hotels in Paris were booked that week. In addition to the rugby tournament, that weekend was also the annual festival in Montmartre, as we would later find out. Our hotel was in a great location, but the rooms were pretty scary. I'm talking hairs in the sheets and very thin walls so you can hear everything going on in every room around you. We quickly dropped our bags off as soon as we arrived and jetted off to find some nice Parisian food. However, it was very late and a lot of the cafes were already closed or closing. We chanced upon a pretty lively place called the Hippopotamus, which was open late. Here, at 2am, we ate medium rare hamburgers.

The next day we met up around 10:30 and decided to forego the 5 euro breakfast at the hotel, figuring if our rooms were what they were for 140 euros, then what must the 5 euro breakfast be like. Matt guessed it was probably a coffee and a cigarette. We headed to the Museum d'Orsay, the impressionist museum that Matt and I missed during our trip in Easter. The museum is absolutely beautiful inside, and has some pretty spectacular sculptures, and works by Rodin, Klimt and Munch.

After perusing the D'Orsay we made for the Champs Elysses to have apps and a bottle of wine at a trendy bar/restaurant that came recommended. After some overpriced snacks that left us feeling less than full, we walked a bit more to find a nice terrace at a Parisian cafe, where we ate and drank some more. We then went over to the Arc de Triomphe and climbed to the top. We spent quite a bit of time checking out the views and, mainly, watching traffic trying to get around that monstrous traffic circle. It's quite fascinating - like an almost organized chaos. Sascha and I then counted SmartCars - those tiny little death machines famous in Europe that the US is trying to introduce. Between 6:24 and 6:30 on Saturday, October 13, there were no less than 25 SmartCars making their way around the northwest side of the Arc de Triomphe. Or maybe it was southeast. You get the point.

Matt's friend and former colleague that used to work in Paris recommended a few bars for us to go to watch the rugby game at 9. One of them was an Aussie bar that we tried to arrive to early but even an hour before the game it was already crazy packed. It was full of unattractive New Zealand guys and trashy English girls, loud and smoky. Sascha and I were definetely not having fun, but the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves. The last straw came when the waiter accidentally poured some beer down the back of my cashmere sweater. We left and tried to find a more "decent" locale to watch the game. This new place came in the form of a cafe with a crazy waitress that kept moving us around the restaurant as more people tried to squeeze in. It was a good game, but unfortunately England beat France, so the anticipation of victory in the air all day Saturday turned into the dismay of defeat come late Saturday night.



On Sunday we slept in a bit, then headed out for some coffee and cappuccinos then went over to the Eiffel tower. That day was the Paris 20k race, which was just finishing up at the Eiffel Tower park when we arrived, so lots of runners were out walking around. We got in line to climb to the top. It was again a beautiful day, and 668 steps up later, we were looking at Paris from the top of the tower. Sascha pointed out to us the area in Paris that we would be going to that afternoon - Montmartre. Unfortunately we were too high up to count Smart Cars that day. After soaking in the sights and some rays from the top, we headed back to the metro to go to Montmartre.

By the time we arrived in Montmartre, we were all hungry and kind of grumpy. Finding food was a priority. Montmartre is at the top of a hill, so more climbing. After quite a bit of walking, we chanced upon a perfect little Italian style cafe that was virtually empty. The kitchen was closing but we convinced the waitress to feed us. After lunch we felt rejuvenated, and continued our walk to the top of the hill. Sunday was also the day of the Montmartre festival, so there were little tents set up all over selling wine and sausages and other fares. There is a beautiful church at the top, and another great view on the steps. It was so busy though that at first we couldn't even find the steps down. It turned out that there was a guy at the bottom playing guitar and singing, and the steps were packed with people sitting and listening to him. Very cool.





We then had to rush back to our hotel to collect our things and the car to make the long drive back to Amsterdam. We left Paris at about 6, and arrive in Amsterdam close to 11. Pretty amazing that we just drove down to Paris for the weekend!

Begur!

As part of Matt's 27th birthday gift, I arranged a surprise beach getaway. He had no idea where we were going until we got our boarding passes at the airport. All he knew was what the weather would be like, how long we would be gone, and that we needed to rent a car. So you can imagine the barrage of questions in the weeks leading up to it, but I revealed nothing!

The destination was Begur, Spain, in Girona along the Costa Brava, about a 1.5 hour drive north from Barcelona. We stayed at a fantastic little family-run hotel that turned out to be perfect. The beaches around Begur were all beautiful and we had many to choose from. It was really the most perfect little beach getaway and we really lucked out with the weather. Turns out that all the guests of that hotel had been asking for blankets all summer long because it had been unseasonably cold. But the weekend we were there was a comfortable 80 degrees on the beach and the water was cool and refreshing, and the evenings cooled down to about 65.

We arrived very late on Friday, landing in Barcelona at about midnight then having to wait on the Europcar line which wasn't long but was stupidly slow, then make the 1.5 hour drive up to Begur. When we arrived it was about 2:30 am, and luckily I had asked the hotel to have a bottle of red wine in our room. It was good to drink some wine on our private balcony and unwind.

We started the day off right on Saturday, waking up early and having a magnificent breakfast at our hotel and then driving down to La Platja Raco. In Begur, most of the inhabitants speak Catalan, which is a variation of Spanish that looks quite strange. Differences include the word for beach, which in Spanish is "playa" but in Catalan is "platja" and Spanish "agua" is "aigua". Luckily most people also spoke English, and the language was not a problem at all.

Adjacent to Platja Raco behind huge rocks was Illa Roja, the nudist beach. It also happened to be the most beautiful beach in Begur, by the looks of it. Why do the nudists get the nicest beach? It just isn't fair. So we had to stay in Platja Raco, because we didn't want to be nudies and we didn't want to have to be around nudies. Though the amount of topless old German and English women wasn't too appealing either. Is it really that big of a deal to have some tanlines? Leave something for the holy ghost! We also sat right next to an couple in their seventies, who everytime they went in and out of the water had to change bathing suits, very openly. It was actually quite hilarious.

Begur, as most of Spain, enjoys the traditional siesta. The beach tends to clear out around 1pm, and people start returning around 4pm, though far less. This also means that people don't dine until around 10. It's really great to see the town alive at night, with people of all ages. It's one of my favorite things about Spain.

On Sunday and Monday we tried new beaches. They were each great in their own right, and the water was cool and nice to swim in. On Monday Matt bought snorkeling gear and tried it out. We spent all of our days lounging on the beach, returning to the hotel around 5 most days and going out for dinner at 9.

This trip was our second time to Spain together, the first being our trip around Andalucia last August. It really is such a great place, full of culture, great food and great beaches. Check out our pictures below:

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!