Holland x 2

I have a confession to make. I have fallen madly in love...with Holland! I was there for two consecutive weekends, starting three weekends ago. The first weekend I was in a town called Tilburg, in the south, in order to see a music festival called Festival Mundial; for the second I went to Amsterdam. Both weekends were a blast! And the Dutch people and culture appeal to me very much. Each weekend I learned a lot about some different aspects of Holland.

Tilburg: I decided somewhat last minute to go, as a seat in the rental car spontaneously opened up. My travel companions were 6 Spanish people and a girl from Hamburg. All very delightful, fun, and nice people! We did Couchsurfing, which is basically sleeping on someone's couch or spare bed for free when you're travelling. We stayed with this Dutch guy named Arjen, who somehow had space for 8 people in his home. I had a very nice time. Because of Arjen, we got to meet and hang out with a lot of real, authentic Dutch folks and try out some Dutch food...some of which tasted like American food (I ate something that tasted exactly like a corndog) and some of which was VERY different (I tried a sucker that tasted like a Chupa Chups at first but had a salty liquid reminiscient of soy sauce in the center...it was pretty gross but I stuck it out to the end nonetheless).


The Dutch people are very nice and cool people, and their language is fantastic. To me it sort of seems like a mix between German and English. Surprisingly, however, most Dutch people speak very little German. They do, however, speak perfect English so there was no language barrier. They also have a lot of World Cup spirit; both weekends the streets were totally decked out with bright orange banners (the orange thing is because of William of Orange...for anyone who's taken a European history class, this may ring a bell), their flag (which basically looks like the French flag turned sideways), and signs that say, "Hup Holland Hup!" During the Tilburg weekend they were actually playing a game in the Cup, so we saw lots of people at the festival dressed and painted in orange or dressed as a lion, their mascot.


Festival Mundial was a multi-cultural music festival; there were bands from Spain, France, America, Ireland, and many different countries in Africa. I got to see N.E.R.D., Flogging Molly, and Sean Paul (who is, as it turns out, kind of a jerk) and also discovered a pretty good band from France called Babylon Circus. It was a bit rainy and cold the whole weekend, but still a very good time was had by all.


Amsterdam: Most beautiful place I've ever seen in my life. My companions this time were three Romanians, two of which work in the same chemistry lab as me, and a Frenchman. Our sleeping arrangements, assembled somewhat at the last minute, consisted of "camping" at a site in Amstelveen, a town right outside of Amsterdam. The placement of quotes is due to the fact that we were sleeping in a cabin, on beds, with a restroom and showers nearby. Which was fiiiine by me. We rented a car again for this trip and driving into Amstelveen we saw my dream neighborhood. I didn't know before that it was my dream neighborhood, but I know it now. Picture this: a street lined with house after quaint little house, each surrounded by a moat where people hung out on their boats and there were gardens with beautiful flowers everywhere...it gave the feeling that the people who live there must not have a care in the world. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture, but I would seriously like to live there someday.


Within the center of Amsterdam there is also a lot of water, and bridges everywhere. Again there were apartments all along the waterfront, with a boat in front of each one. I saw people sitting in their boats just reading or having a picnic. I thought it looked the most stunning, however, at night, when the city lights were reflected on the water like splashes of paint.


We toured the Red Light District, and this time I stayed dry since girls are allowed to walk through; I did, however, refrain from taking pictures as I heard that the "employees" of the district are wont to do one of the following to those caught doing so:
a)Jump out and grab the camera of the offender, then proceed to throw it on the ground, subsequently stomping on it mercilessly; and/or
b)Throw a cup of urine (!!!) at the offender.
So...yeah, I kept my camera in my purse.

After a night of our own "self-guided" tour of the city, we took a free walking tour the next day, which was very informative (an organization called New Europe has free walking tours in many cities, including Munich, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Paris, and many others). We got to see many interesting parts of the city that we'd simply walked by before without noticing, or without knowledge of the vast history behind it. For example, we saw the street Rembrandt lived on, the Anne Frank house, and "Hand on Boob," a sculpture done by an anonymous artist in the night right outside a church.


By the way, the church is situated right in the middle of the Red Light District, so that, in bygone days, those who had "sinned it up" in the City of Sin could go straight to a priest and pay money to have their sins forgiven. There was also a women's prison where people would go to watch prostitutes get whipped for fun. Ah, those were simpler times.

Now about the architecture. At first I wasn't very impressed...it's not exactly dazzling and I was used to the gothic, medieval, and baroque style of Germany. Slowly, though, I began to notice how much character the buildings have and by the end of the weekend it really grew on me. Many of the building have an odd bell shape on the top. They all have large hooks extending from the front near the top. And many of them lean forward. I have no clue about the reason for the first statement, but the last two have to do with the big import business that Amsterdam was built for. The hooks were used to haul things up into the buildings, which leaned forward so that the things being hauled up wouldn't swing and hit the front of the building. Clever!


Before we knew it, the weekend was over and it was time to go home. Sadly I did not get to go to the Van Gogh (my favorite artist!!) Museum, but hopefully someday I will be back in Amsterdam.

Hamburg!

This past weekend I went to Hamburg, a city famous for its port. My companions this time were fewer and consisted of a mixture of American and Canadian kids also participating in RISE (my internship program), as well as my neighbor Yasemin. My trip can be basically summed up in a series of facts and myths.

Fact: People eat a lot of fish in Hamburg.

Myth: Hamburgers were invented in Hamburg.

Fact: A couple of my companions felt the need to eat hamburgers in Hamburg nonetheless. Yasemin ate four because she made a mistake when ordering in German.

Myth: Water is never free in Germany (we found a drinking fountain!!)

Fact: It's cooler to be American than British.

Myth: Women can't enter the "men's only" section of the street.

Fact: Women who enter the "men's only" section get sprayed with a super-soaker by an angry prostitute.

Myth: It's easy to stay up partying until 6 a.m. then take a train home.

Fact: If you try to sleep in McDonald's, they will kick you out.

Let me be more explicit...

We left for Hamburg on Saturday morning and got there at noon. We then spent the whole day walking around the city and saw virtually everything. It's a very nice, family-friendly city (excluding Reeperbahn) and not too touristy. There are a few very cool old churches that we saw. This is a statue above the front door of one called St. Michael:

There were lots of bands playing on the streets and festivities going on in the city center. When we first arrived, we passed through a huge clump of people interacting with each other and wondered what was going on until we realized that they were all exchanging soccer trading cards! Within the city center also lies the Rathaus (town hall), which is a very beautiful building with an equally beautiful courtyard. As a Kansas Cityian, I was particulary fond of this fountain:

We walked along the harbor, which was very pleasant and peaceful. There were many cafes along the waterfront where people were sitting and reading. There was also some playground equipment and musical instruments on the ground that you can play with your feet:

The port was nice but my favorite spot in Hamburg is in the picture at the very top, which really doesn't do it justice. The green rooftops on the buildings were truly stunning and seemed to go on for miles.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called Kartoffel Keller, or "Potato Celler." Almost all the dishes were made with potatoes and the waitresses wore potato sacks. It was lovely! And the food was DELICIOUS. I would consider going back to Hamburg just to eat more potato dishes from Kartoffel Keller. So smooth. So creamy. So hearty a meal.

After dinner we went to watch the World Cup game of America vs. England at a big public viewing. It was tons of fun as there was much support for the U.S. and much amusing rivalry between ourselves and the Brits who happened to be there. Most memorable chant from the British side: "You f***'ed our language!"

After the game (which was, by the way, a tie, for those unaware), it was on to the infamous Reeperbahn, a street where sex is solicited about every few feet (or meters if you're so inclined). This includes, but is not limited to, the "section where women aren't allowed," or, "prostitute alley" as I like to call it, mostly since I don't know its real name. Anyway, I scoff at the notion of "men only" so as a feminist I was naturally obliged to walk through. The consequence of this action can be found in the Facts and Myths above.

After much dancing, bar hopping, and general merry-making, it was finally 5 a.m. and the sun was beginning to creep up the horizon. Any Hamburger knows what this means on a given Sunday morning--Fischmarkt! It's basically a big market where a lot of fish is sold, as well as your average fruits, veggies, etc. It lasts from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and hundreds to thousands of people attend, many of them pooped-out partyers like ourselves.

Finally it was time to go home, and boy were we ready. We were exhausted...this city definitely showed us who's boss! It was a great weekend.

Tchussi!

<3>

Fact: This post was entirely too long. I apologize.

Berlin!

So, instead of doing all those things I listed for last weekend, I spontaneously went to Berlin on Saturday with 16 other people!! One of them, Yasemin, is my next door neighbor, and a few others I had met some days before, but I many I had not met yet at all! It was decided Friday night at a BBQ and though I already had plans for the weekend it sounded like way too much fun to pass up. So Saturday morning we all met up and basically overtook the train for the 3 hour or so ride to Berlin. We toured the city during the day on Saturday, danced until morning at a techno club called Zapata, slept in a hostel for like 2 hours, then went back to Braunschweig Sunday afternoon. Things we saw include:

--Brandenburger Tor: Interesting story about the statue on top. The Germans spent tons of money getting the woman's head to turn so it would face the French Embassy, because the French tried to steal the statue once (or something like that) and they didn't want them to ever forget it.

--Holocaust Memorial: Very interesting memorial. It basically consists of a bunch of concrete blocks of different sizes, and the floor beneath is very uneaven. As you walk through it the blocks get taller until you are surrounded by these massive, menacing towers. It was a bit eerie.

--The Wall: We saw a part of the wall left over from when it was torn down. The division of East and West that once existed was quite obvious just from looking at the difference in architecture on either side of the wall. It wasn't hard to tell which side you were on. For me the most interesting part was the graffiti on the wall; someone had written a message to a family member or friend saying they will be together soon. Overall it was a bit depressing.

--Checkpoint Charlie: Not really much to tell about this, actually. The actual checkpoint was much smaller than I expected, and you had to pay to get a picture in front of it! Lame.

--Painted Bears: The symbol of Berlin is a bear, and there are painted sculptures of them all over the city. For you Kansas City folk, it's a lot like the cows. This is the "European Union" bear:

--Kreuzberg: The Turkish neighborhood in Berlin. We actually didn't do much there except sit in a park, but there were tons of Turkish families there, grilling, playing soccer, etc. It was nice to sit and watch after all the walking we had done.

--Reinstag: The German Parliament and such a beautiful building. Anyone can go inside and watch the goings-on of politics from above. However, there was a very long line so we skipped it. Inscribed on the front of the building is "Dem Deutschen Volke" which means "For the German People."

For dinner I had my first Doener, a Turkish chicken sandwich that is rather hard to explain but very good. At 2 a.m. the night was still young of course (Berliners often party until 7 a.m. or later, and people laughed when I told them that in America we are usually home by 2) and we went to Zapata, a club that played techno music all night and where fire spewed from the ceiling. We found it while walking along Orangienstrasse, a street with lots of very cool-looking restaurants, bars, and other forms of entertainment.

The highlight of the trip, however, had to be when a 46-year-old German man (I know his age because he told me) approached me and began to serenade me in German. He then proceeded to do the Goose Step. The experience as a whole was very awkward but mostly just really amusing.

Unfortunately, all the walking and dancing in Berlin gave me quite a few blisters on my feet, one of which got infected and subsequently very swollen, leading to my first doctors visit in Germany! The doctor prescribed me an antibiotic, and it seems that here in Germany the only antibiotic they have is Amoxicillan...which I may be allergic to. So much excitement here! :) Anyway, my foot, which at first was extremely painful, is now much better but I am still bedridden until the swelling goes down. Thus I am writing this post from my dormroom, where I now have internet, woohoo!!

Everyone here is gearing up for the start of the soccer World Cup this weekend. Europeans are crazy about it, which I'm sure most of you know, and I'm excited to see!

Aufwiedersehen!

Amy

Amy Lynn Schaag is a Cavewoman with No Internet.

So. I had planned to wait until Thursday (yesterday) to make another blogpost because that was supposed to be when I received internet access in my dorm. To make a long story short, no internet access was received and probably none will until next Thursday. So now I am making this post in the lab.

My first day in Germany was somewhat pitiful, but that could just be because I was tired and scarred from the long, lonely, uncomfortable plane rides. Or it could be because my very first European bus ride experience consisted Germans laughing at me for not knowing what to do with my bus ticket when I got on. But don't feel sorry for me because it only has gotten way better since then!

Everyone in the dorm I'm staying in is super nice. I met a bunch of people the very first night because I had to go around knocking on people's doors to see if I could borrow a towel (great conversation starter by the way!). I ended up actually getting a towel from a very friendly Spanish girl named Patricia who has since loaned me many other items, invited me to every event in her life since then, and helped me find a phone for use in Europe. Because of her I have been introduced, I think, to the entire Spanish community in Braunschweig. They are very fun people! Patricia is also a great person to practice my German with because she speaks virtually no English, and I speak absolutely no Spanish, so we are forced to speak German with each other. It causes a lot of miscommunications but that's ok.

The people who work in the lab with me are also AWESOME. They go out of their way to make sure I am having a good time and include me in everything. They often speak English to make sure I understand what is being said and if I want to speak German they speak slowly because they know I can't understand when they talk fast. They have a soccer team and were very adamant about me joining, even though I told them I suck. We played yesterday and even though I was stinking up the field, they still passed the ball to me all the time. They are a very funny, close-knit group of people and all have nicknames for each other. For example, they call Jo "Vogel" which means bird in German and another guy "Ossie" which is a German slang term for someone who comes from East Germany. There's another guy whose dad apparently owns or has some very important position with Jaegermeister. They call him "Mr. Jaeger."

There seem to be no hipsters present yet in Braunschweig (punkish yes, 90's-esque grunge definitely) but I plan to start a wave. Jo calls my wayfarers "mickey mouse sunglasses" and I was like, "Dude. Just you wait and soon everyone in Germany will be wearing these just like EVERYONE in America wears them!" He also said that when I wear my fannypack I look like a "cool ghetto kid." WIN.

This weekend I am staying in Braunschweig to explore, etc. Tomorrow I'm going to the Fleamarket to buy a stolen bike for cheap (very common here) then there is a free Beerfest, a small music festival, and Jo wants to go see Robin Hood sometime this weekend (dubbed-over in German for the win).

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!
Tchuss!