Tag, US, you're it

First thing’s first – FYI: for some reason Belgium only lets you have one carryon to fly to the US. That doesn’t mean one item and one personal item, it means ONE item. I had to be that guy going off to the side to rearrange my luggage to make it fit. Luckily because of my Gold Medallion status, my bag limit is 70 lbs. and not the normal 50. The flight sucked and I woke up a lot during my Ambien haze.

As soon as I got home, I had 2 hours to change out my bags and then it was back to the airport. Crazy, I know. My company had a technical conference at The Biltmore in Miami which I didn’t want to miss. Last year it was in Atlanta, which was convenient, but this year I had to use miles to make the trip. We have an annual Rock Band Competition which is really fun and I was also presenting an application that my team developed on a project. This ‘DemoJam’ is a competition held by the head of the company to find the best app to roll out for the whole company. There are also classes and seminars to enrich our careers, as well as lots of networking events. Given the nature of our company, most people don’t get to see each other except at this event.

I had been in Miami back in December for Summit Club and got invited there based on my application presentation last year. I was hoping for something similarly as cool. It was great to meet up with people I hadn’t seen in a while, but the jet lag was killing me all weekend. I woke up at 4 am on Friday morning and couldn’t really go back to sleep. I struggled to get through my classes and skipped a few for naps.

I presented one of about 5 or 6 applications to the 300 or so people that came to the conference. I was a bit nervous, but have been getting used to talking in front of people at work. Plus, I know the app inside and out. I felt kind of weird being the only person up there since I only had a hand in its creation. Three or 4 other people on the project also chipped in, but I was the only one to volunteer to present. Our big boss said that he would decide the winner (and unknown prize) the next day.

On Saturday night UK was playing WVU in the Elite 8 (boo) at the same time we were prepping for the Rock Band Competition. Tag, my band mate and fellow UK alum, were huddled in front of a laptop while our other two members got ready. Once we saw that the game was going downhill we focused on rocking the house. We decided months ago (yes, we did plan this far in advance) to dress up like ZZ Top and call ourselves the ZZ Sources. It’s a twist on one of the methods we use in our company, don’t worry about it. Later, we found out that the competition was using Beatles Rock Band, but it was too late to go back on our costumes.

The prizes were $1000 for 1st place, a nice set of headphones for each 2nd place, and steak knives for the last two. I thought the steak knives were a joke, but apparently not. The preliminary rounds were on Thursday and Friday and were based solely on points (so no one dressed up in their costumes, saving them for Saturday night). We made it through the prelims and were among 4 bands in the finals Songs couldn’t be repeated, so we had a little draft to see who got to sing what. Being the singer in my band, I got to choose. I don’t know that many Beatles songs and a lot of them are repetitive and slow. I’m not sure how I got lucky, but I got my two top choices: 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'Twist and Shout'.

As I watched the other bands, I knew we had a chance. Our costumes were hilarious, as you can see, and we had high energy songs to get the crowd to participate. They set it up like American Idol with three celebrity judges – the pro tennis players that we sponsor (Melanie Oudin being one). You were supposed to text to a phone number to vote for each band. The first band had the upper hand and posted their texting number on Facebook. Well played. Tom (the company founder) decided to use an unscientific applause-o-meter instead (he starts with his hands together and raises one depending on the noise level).

We were 3rd on stage and ROCKED OUT. I’m hoping I can find a video, I haven’t had this much fun on stage in my life. People got up and danced, they were singing, I thought we had it in the bag. The last group was made up of partners and senior consultants from the company. While they were better technically at playing the instruments (they practiced for the competition with their kids), we sounded better vocally and got the crowd going more. Despite this, when it came time for the applause-o-meter, they won. Second place went to a group of our clients that attended the weekend, since they were our guests. Politics. We repeated our 3rd place finish and I guess I’m getting steak knives in the mail. Yippee.

The last bit of important news from the weekend is that the confirmed that I would be going to Australia and it would be until sometime in October. Finally, I have a definitive answer. Oh, yeah. And I won an iPad for my application presentation, sweet! I’ll be flying out on Monday, April 5th for the first leg of my project. They’re letting me come home for a week every 90 days or so to renew my visa and work from home. It’s crazy that I’m only going to be home for a week, but I’m looking forward to the trip! I also started reading ‘Up In the Air’ since I liked the movie so much. I’ll report on that when I finish it. Talk to you down under!

It's Time To Go

Written on a train between Brussels and Amsterdam.  I would say it's mostly autobiographical, but not totally.  I have the chords in my head, maybe I'll find time to put it all together.

It's Time To Go
----------------
Why do I roam
With just this beat up suitcase
I run along in this race
But I'd like to get back home

But what is home
An empty place that I call mine
Connections fade with passing time
And I don't need this phone

-
And I wish I had someone
To come back to
And I wish I had a reason
To stay
The miles go by
The days they fly
Can't spend my time
Just wond'ring why
You walk the path you choose
It's time to go
-

From here to there
I meet new people in each town
The one I need has not been found
I look I try I don't know where

I keep in touch
Friends tell me my life's so great
They'd like me home, I try to wait
For just one more to miss me that much

-
And I wish I had someone
To come back to
And I wish I had a reason
To stay
The miles go by
The days they fly
Can't spend my time
Just wond'ring why
You walk the path you choose
It's time to go
-


I wake up alone
'Cause no one wants a trav'ling man
But with no reason to stay where I am
Sweet irony you win
It's time to go

Back in Amsterdam

I took a train to meet up with Carolien, Aukje and Anook, all my Dutch friends I have talked about in previous posts. On the train ride I reused the ticket that didn’t get stamped during my last trip (yes, free ride!). I’m not sure why, but I felt inspired to write a song on the way, which occupied my mind on the 3 hour ride. It’s about someone that travels for a living and doesn’t make many connections – think ‘Up In the Air’.  After some edits, here it is.

When I got to Amsterdam, we went to a random restaurant near Anook’s house, where I learned a new thing about her. She likes to make friends with elderly people. I never figured out why she does it, and yes, it is a nice thing to do. So this guy in his 80s was at the restaurant/bar around 10 pm and she immediately went up and started talking to him when we entered. She gave him her number, which I thought was hilarious, and came back to us to report that we were having lunch with the old-timer tomorrow. Yes, WE.

The night wasn’t that exciting, pretty much the standard Dutch drinking and the standard Dutch weather (rain). We turned in early and now to the good part – where we met up with Jan Mortyn (pictured at left with Anook and Carolien). This wasn’t just some random old guy, he was relatively famous. Let me backtrack a bit. We went into the restaurant and sat down for lunch. He spoke very little English, so Anook and Carolien translated for me. He told us stories about his multiple wives (from multiple countries in Southeast Asia) and multiple children (he wasn’t sure if it was 7 or 9). A few things he repeated, so we could tell that he was a little senile and maybe making the whole thing up. He said he fought for Germany in WWII against the Russians at the Eastern Front, was a mercenary and then journalist in Vietnam, was injured by a grenade, and spent most of his time since then as an artist.

By then we were ALL skeptical and just thought he was crazy. Then I started Googling him on Carolien’s phone and his online gallery came up. It had a bio section went over all of the major points he told us about, so we started to give him more credibility. Further investigation on the website showed that there have been multiple book written about his life, a play (which he said is being turned into a move – I believe him now), and even a 7 page article in the Dutch edition of Playboy from 1990. This guy was legit. He asked us what we were looking at and we showed him a few of his abstract artworks from the site. He was surprised, and didn’t even know he has a website.

We finished up a 2 hour lunch and he invited us to an exhibition in another city a few weeks from now that I think the girls were going to take him up on. After that we went to the Heineken Experience, the site where the company was founded. The tour was ok and kind of long, but the best part was the pub at the end of it. Before we knew it the day was over and we had to head back to Utrecht.

My remaining days in Utrecht weren’t all too exciting to read about, but very relaxing.  Aukje was kind enough to let me crash at her student house for free. The bathroom was small and community kitchen a bit dirty, but I got over it. One day we went to Kasteel de Haar together since she didn’t have any classes. The next day I visited the Dutch royal family’s summer residence, Het Loo. We did some shopping together and ate at a few good restaurants.

On my last day, Aukje and I went on a canoe tour of the city’s canals. I didn’t want to do the typical canal tour by boat, it was much more fun to paddle yourself. Although the water was gross in a lot of areas, it was a relaxing 2 hour trip. The weather was nice and I got to soak in Holland one last time. Aukje walked me to the train station and we parted ways. Carolien said goodbye earlier in the day and at this point we just laughed and said, “Yeah, yeah, see you soon, blah blah, whatever,” since it was about the 5th time we’ve said goodbye. So at this point, I don’t believe in saying goodbye to friends you meet in random places. See you soon, Aukje.

I took a train back to Brussels and met up with John (my replacement at work) for dinner. He let me sleep in his hotel room before my early morning flight on Thursday. I checked my email and at this point, it looks like Australia is going to happen! I’ll be home for a week and then will fly out on the 5th. G’day, mates!

Last week of work

My last week of work didn’t bring anything exciting as John started to pick up the workload and I had time to think. What do I want to do with my final 6 days in Europe? I had my travel department push my return flight out by a week so that I could travel. I had already hit most of Holland, but I had friends there and knew that I would have a good time. I could maybe do Paris and London, but a lot of that would be solo. I contacted my Emmanuel, a Parisian friend from Georgia Tech, and he seemed open to touring me around and letting me crash at his place. With that set I got another email bombshell…

Jay,

There is a possibility that you would be utilized in Australia beginning the week of 3/22 for an extended stay. Would this suit you?

Hmm, let me think about that. YES!

As you can tell from previous posts, this doesn’t mean that anything is set in stone. Emails over the next few days let my hopes down as they used a local Australian resource for the project. But wait, there’s more. Since they knew that I was interested in Australia, our company has another project that needs someone. So you’re saying there’s a chance.  They went ahead and gave me my week to travel plus a week at home to recharge, so my Australian start date is April 5th.

Toward the end of the week I hadn’t heard from Emmanuel about a few questions I had so I started to get nervous. I didn’t want to drop money on a train ticket if I wasn’t going to meet up with him – I had no backup plan. I expressed this to Carolien and Aukje and they persuaded me to come back to Amsterdam for the weekend and hang out with them in Utrecht during the week. I’d been to both places already, but I didn’t have any other options so I agreed.

As I was packing my things to check out of my home (it didn’t feel like a hotel anymore), I got a message from Emmanuel that he had been busy with work but was planning a bunch of stuff for us to do. Aw, crap. I emailed him back to give me the details and I would do my best to go there after Amsterdam, since I had already reserved a hotel (with points, cha-ching). I never heard back from him. I guess he was pissed.

Last weekend in Brussels

With one last weekend in Brussels, I felt obligated to hang out with the Romanians and not just meet on Thursday, get a drink, and then skip out because of work the next morning. I met them at a little smoky dive bar called Café Central in downtown Brussels. It was very near the Irish pub I visited a few weeks before with my American friend (Stephanie) and Greek friend (Anna).  It was an interesting place, besides all of the smoke. I was introduced to a bunch of Italian guys, one whom had a girlfriend that looked so much like my friend Chrissy that every time I talked to her that’s all I could think about. Freaky.

We ended the night at a club up near where we all live called Spirito Martini which was in an old church. If you have ever been to Club Opera in Atlanta, the setup is very similar except all of the stonework and stained glass windows are authentic (from what I could tell). It was supposed to be a trendy, packed club, but when we got there very few people were dancing and the music wasn’t loud at all. We had a few more (expensive) drinks and called it a night.  Thanks to Mădălina, Ana-maria, Adina, Ioana, Alex, and the rest of the people I can't remember or whose names I can't pronounce.

The next morning I got up relatively early to meet Stephanie and a few of her friends (Danish Daniel and Ukrainian Yagna) at the train station for Antwerp. It was the last major touristy city in Belgium I hadn’t gone to, so I had to check it off the list. I had some ideas in mind from my guidebook, so we got on the train for the 40 minute ride and planned out the day. I was on a mission to find Westvleteren beer and take a tour of the city’s sewers.

The vibe in Antwerp is totally different from Brussels. There is a giant shopping district through the main part of the city. The road ends at one point and it becomes a giant pedestrian thoroughfare. A few hundred years ago, Antwerp became the largest importer of diamonds from Africa, and to this day 80% of them pass through the city.

Of course, there was a church in the center of the city. You had to pay to get into this one, but it housed 4 paintings by Rubens that were spectacular. Here is a picture one of the masterpieces. After seeing the church, we wandered along the river and through the not impressive red light district as the girls pretended not to giggle. Here is a picture of the city – we walked through a tunnel underneath the river to see the Antwerp skyline from the other side. It was a cold and windy day which made most of our outside activities consist of walking quickly with your head bent down to shield the wind.

Based on the reviews of the canal tour, I wanted to go and convinced everyone else to check it out. We were on a bit of a time crunch because Stephanie wanted to go to the American style supermarket on the outskirts of town (she is studying in Brussels and wanted some food to cook). We got to the building and it looked innocent enough from the outside. When you entered the ticket area you could see the steps spiral down below floor level and fade into darkness under the street that we came in on. At this point it was 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the supermarket closed at 5. We could pay 5 Euros (or so) to peek down into the sewer, or pay 15 for the full tour that lasted 3 hours. Since it didn’t fit into our plan, we all decided to just leave (although by now we all really wanted to take the 3 hour tour – it looked really cool and I would recommend anyone to check it out if they get the chance).

We convinced Stephanie that there was too much else to do and her supermarket trip wasn’t that important, so we got pints of Westerleven Trippel (my favorite beer from the trip) at a local pub. Lonely Planet said to try a certain pub in Antwerp for the elusive and highly reviewed Westvleteren trappist beer, but they just laughed at me when I asked for it. No luck. We gave up and went to the Rubenshuis, the former house and studio of Antwerp’s most famous artist, Rubens. It was only 2 Euros to get in, so definitely worth it. A few of the pictures were good, but a lot of his really amazing works are displayed in museums and churches mentioned before.

To wrap up the day we did some shopping (yes, even me). I failed to get the two things I was really looking forward to out of the city, but I definitely prefer Antwerp to Brussels. The group talked about going to get a drink in Brussels when we got back, but I was beat. The hope was to take a nap and meet back up with the Romanians, but after I got home and talked to them they weren’t up for it. I spent a night in and rested up for my last bit of sightseeing in Belgium.

The first thing I did on Sunday was use the metro – for the first time after being there for six weeks. It was pretty easy to figure out, and I went to the northwest part of the city to see the Brussels Atomium. It was built for the World’s Fair held here back in the 50’s, and resembles a giant atom. I paid the highly overpriced 12 Euros to go inside, and took an elevator to the top floor. The views honestly weren’t that great. You could see a lot of the city, but all of the cool buildings were far enough away that it didn’t strike me as impressive. The coolest part was just walking around the outside of the Atomium and looking up at the massive structure.

I caught the metro back into town and walked around a little more. Then I peed on a church. Haha, let me back up. So I’m walking by a church and I see this partitioned part on one side where a few guys were facing the wall. On closer inspection after they left, these were indeed “urinals”. Metal dividers had been put up and a pipe at the top dripped water down the wall. I said, “Don’t mind if I do,” and peed on the church.

My last stop of the day after eating another delicious waffle was to the two museums in the city. The Magritte Museum (think man wearing a bowler hat with an apple in front of his face) was appealing to me because he was a contemporary of Dali and had a very similar style, just not as twisted. The Beaux Arts Museum held the Hals painting I mentioned in an earlier post of a man that might be one of my ancestors.

It turned out that the Magritte Museum was sold out, so MAKE SURE TO RESERVE TICKETS ONLINE if you want to go. The Beaux Arts ticket was only 2 Euros and the place was relatively empty. Surprisingly, I saw a few works in the modern section that I recognized. They had a Dali, Van Gogh, David, Seurat, and of course my sought after Hals. See the resemblance? And to those that have given me crap about the scarf: it was cold, rainy and windy, and I don’t care. :P

I ended the day watching UK win in overtime (I found a streaming site online) and then went out to dinner with John, my replacement here in Belgium. He’s a Scottish guy and pretty cool although he’s a bit older than me. We got to know each other over a few pints and got ready for my last and his first week of work.

So long, True Value

I just read a story in the Lexington newspaper that hit very close to home. True Value Hardware, a fixture in eastern Lexington for 26 years, is closing. The picture to the right is from the Herald Leader and shows owner David Wagoner (left) helping a customer.  I had the priviledge of working there one summer during college and I will never forget my time there.  I thought I would share my experience...

During the spring of my sophomore year in 2002, I did my best to find a position related to my degree - computer science.  After submitting my resume where I could and getting a few interviews, the summer was nearing and I had nothing lined up.  I saw an ad in the Kentucky Kernel from True Value and went for it. I had never worked in a hardware store although I've always considered myself pretty handy in helping my dad with home projects.

The True Value store is located in the Eastland Shopping Center near New Circle Road.  I drove from my rented house near campus up Winchester Road, an area I was not very familiar with, for my interview.  When you first stepped in the door you immediately felt that this was what a hardware store was supposed to be.  It was a dwarf compared to the bix boxes, but it was intimate and comfortable.  Country music softly played from the speakers and there was a soft hint of pipe smoke.

My interview with David went spectacularly well and I quickly started my position as an associate a few weeks later.  He had used many college students in the past and quickly trusted me with a key to the store.  He was a very grandfatherly figure, always wearing jeans, a button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pipe in the side of his mouth.  I got used to the country music, which took a while I must admit. David's son Todd worked with me, but was mainly in the back room repairing lawn mowers most of the time.

When a customer came in the door, one of us would always be there to quickly greet them and ask if they needed any help. After a week or so I became familiar with where most items were and could direct people to one of our 15 or so aisles. I would hop behind the key counter to cut a key or two if needed and also learned how to mix paint. I got to the point where if someone came in with a screw, I could name the size and length to a fairly high degree.

One of my main duties was repairing screen doors and windows when I wasn't helping customers. When you entered the back room of the store, Todd was usually bent over a lawn mower with grease on his hands and a cigarette hanging from his mouth. My area was nearby, with a big table surrounded with aluminum frames, glass panes, rolls of screen and splines (the rubber lining that holds screens into the frame).

The method of screen replacement wasn't that hard, but getting it to look good took some time. You had to make sure the screen was taut, but not so much so that it bent the frame.  You work the spline into the groove of the frame with a pizza-cutter like tool and then cut the excess screen away.  This is another thing that took a while to get down, but once I had the hang of it I could repair a frame in a half hour or so.  I worked with David for about 3 months and then came in on the weekends during the fall semester to help out when needed.  Even after that, I would drop by every now and then to say hello.

The next summer I had an internship lined up that fell through.  I came back to David to see if he needed any help, and he thought long and hard about it before turning me down.  I know this was a tough decision for him and something that he didn't take lightly.  He had already hired someone a few weeks before, otherwise it might have kept me on staff.  I wasn't mad because I know that if David had been able to get by with an extra person he would have done so.  My job search continued and I eventually found a technical position related to my degree, so it all worked out in the end.

I learned a lot over that summer about hardware in general, but more importantly about the struggle of small businesses and how to treat people.  I have since moved away from Lexington and have only driven by the store a few times in the past few years.  David made a few upgrades to the store since I left, modernizing the cash registers and rearranging the aisles to a different configuration.  Regardless, the customer service never changed.  Every now and then I am forced to wander through the big box stores, endlessly searching for what I need.  Unfortunately there are no small hardware stores near my house, and every time I enter the big boxes I remember how easy and pleasant it was to walk into Eastland True Value (and have some sense of betrayal to David for not seeking out a True Value or other 'mom and pop').  I wish David the best in his retirement and would like to encourage everyone to support small businesses and shop locally.

Week 5

I got home from Amsterdam on Sunday evening and caught up on emails from the past 3 days. I found out from my neighbor Drew that I had a summons for jury duty. GREAT. Let's see how hard it is to get out of this. Part of me is curious about the judicial process. I wouldn't mind serving on a jury as long as it was short and interesting. I think that would be wishful thinking since most people have such bad experiences. I found out that March 19th is definitely my last day for working in Brussels, so maybe I will be around to follow through with it. I'm hoping to travel from the 19th to 25th as long as I can get my return flight pushed back. I'm not sure where I'll go yet, but Paris seems like a good bet.

On Tuesday I went to dinner at my favorite restaurant in Brussels, Le IIéme Élément. I've been there twice and have ordered the same thing both times. #25 on the menu is a chicken curry dish in coconut milk - it's so good. The restaurant is located in the Ixelles neighborhood about a 10 minute walk from my hotel. There are a lot of African shops and markets in the area, and every time I've been there at night I see shady characters standing on the corner - and no, not because they are black. They always speak to me (in French) when I walk by, but I usually just ignore them and go on.

This time, I was walking along the sidewalk with my head slightly down to block the wind and I came upon three guys blocking the sidewalk. I was aware of what they were doing, so I wasn't surprised when they didn't move out of the way when I approached them. I came to a stop and attempted to get by when one of them said something and pulled out a little bag of weed. I shook my head but none of them moved. I side-stepped between two cars and walked across the street, continuing home on the opposite side. They yelled a few things at me that I couldn't understand. My blood was pumping and I know that things could've ended a lot worse. I'd love to think I could go for a run (if it wasn't so cold), but things like that make me stick to the hotel treadmill.

Totally shifting gears here, I think my weekend plans are set. A few people I met in my third week here are going to Antwerp on Saturday, which happens to be the last major city in Belgium that I haven't visited. I had plans to go there anyway, so it worked out that they will be going as well. I plan to spend Sunday in Brussels going to a few attractions that I haven't seen, namely the Atomium Magritte Museum (think apple and bowler hat) and Musees Royaux des Beaux Arts. The Beaux Arts Museum has works from famous artists like van Dyck and Rubens, but others like Frans Hals.

The reason that I'm interested in Frans Hals takes a little bit of explaining. A few years ago my dad traced my family's geneology. Our family has lived in Kentucky for a long time, and one of my ancestors saved Abraham Lincoln from drowning when they were children (my great-great-great-great-great uncle... but that's another story). The 'Hornback' line goes back to the 1600s, where he found that we were descendents of a Dutch man named Johannes van Horenbeeck. I created an online version of our family tree on Geni.com.  Coincidentally, our family comes from Hertogenbosch, only 30 km away from Carolien's hometown of Oosterhout which I visited for Carnaval.

I started Googling Johannes van Horenbeeck, and it turns out there were more than one - it was and is a family name (Johannes is Dutch for John, which is my given name as well as my dad, grandfather and great-great-grandfather). One of the Dutch Johannes' was a theologian whose portrait was painted by Hals in 1645. That painting sits in the forementioned Beaux Arts Museum in Brussels.  I don't know how or if I'm related to him, but I'm definitely going to seek the painting (pictured here).  Post note: I tried to dig up some geneology, but it turns out that the trail goes cold for my family with Warnaar Hoorenbeeck, born in 1645. There is a chance he could've been related to the portraited Johannes, but I can't prove it.

Feel free to drop me some suggestions of places I should go on my week off.  I'm open to anything!

Amsterdaaaaaaaam

One place I HAD to visit on my Eurotrip was Amsterdam - of course. How many people can say they've been to Holland twice without visiting the most popular city of the country? My third time was the charm. A few weeks ago I met a bunch of Carolien's friends at her graduation party. One of them, Aukje, told me to send her a message whenever I made my way up there and she would be my tour guide. I spoke with her a few times over the past few weeks and everything worked out for her to show me around this weekend.

I took off from work a bit early on Friday and took a train north. My train pass gives me unlimited trips in Belgium, but otherwise I had to buy a ticket. Antwerp is the major train station in northern Belgium, so I got off there and bought a €30 ticket to Amsterdam (about a 2.5 hour ride). During the entire ride, the train attendants (or whatever you call them) never came by to stamp my ticket. I could have ridden for free. More on this in the bottom of the post...

The further north I got, the more it rained. Great. I was hoping I wouldn't go through another sightseeing trip in the rain. I made it into Amsterdam around 6 pm and found Aukje waiting for me with relative ease. I was surprised since the train station was pretty big. She had a present waiting for me - stroopwafels. They were invented in Holland and are a typical snack or coffee accompaniment. I had never seen or heard of them, but I'm hoping to bring a bunch home with me!

I checked into the nearby Marriott Renaissance Hotel (thank you, rewards points!) and we hung out for a little bit since we had only met once and talked online a few times. She figured out what I wanted to see and we planned our Saturday. Later we made our way through the rain and went to dinner at a trendy little restaurant called Brix. They only served appetizers, so we got a few and shared them. There wasn't much sense in walking around in the cold rain. After looking at the map of all of the things we planned I realized how much walking we were going to do. We called it a night and got ready for a day of walking all over the city.

The first thing you notice about Amsterdam as you walk through the city is the canals. Many streets look the same and it would be very easy to get lost. A lot of people were wizzing around on bicycles which surprised me since it was so cold. Three to four story apartment buildings/houses are jammed together, each with a frontal view of the canal. Streets are one way on each side of the canal, with bridges crossing every now and then to connect them. There were a few churches and larger buildings spread throughout the city, but for the most part it was architecturally more boring than other cities I've seen. The picture here shows Sint Nicolaaskerk (Church of St. Nicholas) along one of the canals, with shops and houses along the banks.

For the most part, our morning was just spent walking through open air markets and shopping districts. I didn't go into any stores other than a few souvenir shops. I didn't end up buying anything because I didn't want to carry it around all day, but I did try on some wooden clogs (about as uncomfortable as they sound). We passed plenty of "coffee shops" which are the infamous smoke shops. Before you ask, I didn't go into one. After moving south through Noordermarkt, Westerstraat, Jordaan, De, Negen, Straatjes and Leidsestraat, we took a break in the Vondelpark, Amsterdam's biggest park.

I wanted a break because what I already knew was going to be my favorite part of the weekend was coming up: The Van Gogh Museum. For all you gringos, it's not pronounced "Van Goe" although the true "gh" pronounciation is hard to explain. I would call it a soft throat clearing sound, something like "Van Gohk". The Dutch use that sound a LOT and I can't seem to get it right. Anyway, I bought a museum pass for €40 since I was planning to visit other attractions over the next few days.

I saw a traveling exhibit of Van Gogh at Atlanta's High Museum way back in 2005, but none of those were included in this permanent exhibit. Of course there were no cameras allowed inside, so here are a few links to the highlights:
The Potato Eaters
Wheatfield with Crows
Sunflowers (one of the series)
A few self-portraits
Skull with Burning Cigarette
Irises
Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun

I was really in awe. I have spent most of my life admiring Van Gogh's work - imitating it in art class and reading about his life. It was one thing to read about it and another thing to see it. There were exhibits of artists that inspired the artist and others of his contemporaries - you could see the influence they had on each other.

Sadly, we had to move on but I seriously considered returning on Sunday (my museum card gave me unlimited access). We took a few touristy pictures near the famous 'I AMsterdam' sign. Then it was off to the Red Light District for some old fashioned gawking at hookers. The RLD is much like the layout of any other street in Amsterdam, except there are scantily-clad women standing in the windows. I had heard or read that they don't like their pictures to be taken, so I tried to be discreet and snap one from far away.

A lot of the girls were beautiful... well, kind of. We used to call it 'Frankfort Sexy' growing up (think Jamie Presley's character 'Joy' from My Name is Earl). Another description would be 'Trailor Sexy' - not the kind of girl you'd bring home to meet mom (based on personality, not looks before you get offended). I think you get the idea. There were quite a few with tattoos, fake breasts, dyed hair and lots of makeup. If you made eye contact with them, they would tap on the window or open the door. I can't imagine they get much business - it seemed like everyone on the streets was there for the tourist attraction of the place, not to get any action. I would imagine it to be awkward to try to make a transaction with all of the on-lookers.

Aukje and I had dinner at a little Thai place and then she had to go home to Utrecht. I was left to fend for myself for the rest of the night. I went back to my hotel room for a while and then went to Rembrandtplein, an area recommended by the consierge for nightlife. Unfortunately I didn't make any new friends. It was really the first time I felt like I missed out by traveling alone. I've made a lot of new friends and had fun nights, but not this night. I had a few depressing solo drinks at a bar and then went home. It was ok though, since I had quite a few more museums to see on Sunday.

I got up relatively early and checked out of the hotel. They let me leave my backpack and laptop bag with the consierge so I didn't have to carry them around all day. That was crucial I started the morning at the Anne Frank House (pictured). I was hoping to beat the crowd, but when I got there it was already around the block. After a little over an hour of waiting, I got inside. I read Anne Frank's Diary in 5th grade, but I didn't remember most of the details. It was a pretty powerful place. The house was lacking furniture for the most part, and just had quotes and very few artifacts to display. Some of the rooms had TV screens and short video clips that showed interviews and exerpts. I definitely recommend seeing this.

Ten minutes walk away brought me to the Amsterdam History Museum. It showed how the city has changed over the years. People first dammed the Amstel river in the 1100s... hence the name. I never made the connection before. There were a lot of old paintings that showed many of the churches and buildings I had seen around town, along with portraits of important people throughout the city's history. I didn't linger too long since there were other things to see. I wouldn't put this museum on the 'must see list'.

The Rijks Museum is the major museum of the city. A large portion of the museum is going under restoration so there was a limited display. That was OK with me because the major works were the only ones that I wanted to see. I was getting to the point of museum overload and I had a train to catch later in the afternoon.

Rembrandt is the major artist of the museum as he is the most influential Dutch artist (sorry, Van Gogh) in history. Syndics of the Drapers Guild and The Night Watch are probably the most recognized of his paintings. Other famous artists in the exhibition include Johannes Vermeer, Frans Hals (who may have painted a portrait of one of my ancestors - more on that later), and Jan Steen. Enough with the art history lessons though, just put this on your list of places to see in Amsterdam.

I had a little bit of time to waste so I grabbed a hot dog and walked a few hundred meters back to the Van Gogh Museum. I skipped through to all of my favorite pieces, savoring them one last time. I took a tram back to the hotel to grab my bag and then hopped a train back to Brussels. Since they didn't stamp my ticket on the way there, I decided to take a chance and not buy a ticket. I had seen the train attendants finding people without tickets on previous trips. It didn't seem like a big deal - he just swiped your credit card on his mobile machine and printed your ticket. A coworker had told me it only cost a few extra euros, so I thought it was worth the risk. I made it back without incident with a free trip.

Once again, another weekend in Holland exceeded the times I have had in Belgium (this is a pic of me trying on clogs - too bad none fit my big feet). I'm definitely going to have to come back to Amsterdam with friends one day so I can have a little more fun at night. There are also more attractions that I didn't get to, like the Heineken House, Rembrandt House Museum, the sex museum, a canal tour, and I would really like to ride a bike around the city (as the Dutch do)... I love Holland!

I told my train trip part of the story to a Dutch coworker today and he said I was lucky... Apparently the few euros is for trips within Belgium. International trains charge ~€90, triple the cost of the ticket. I feel lucky now, and definitely wouldn't have taken the chance had I known that!

Bruges in the Rain

On Sunday morning, I had nothing pressing me to get up too early. I thanked Wouter once again for a fun day in Ghent and walked back to the train station to go to Bruges. It is a city much like Ghent with canals, a long history and many old buildings. I stepped out of the train station into the rain - my luck had run out. I came prepared with an umbrella (that I found in the train station a few weeks ago) and immediately put it to use.

I took a bus to the city center, which was a lot like Ghent and Brussels. The only difference was that the wind was whipping the rain in 30+ mph gusts. I tried to snap a few pictures with my backpack holding me down, umbrella in one hand and camera in the other. The wind kept pulling my umbrella back and I got some drops on the camera that obstructed the shot. It was beyond frustrating.

I used my Lonely Planet guide for a walking tour of the city. About 20 minutes into the walk I was already over it. I wanted to be back in Brussels. My umbrella had turned inside out 5 or 6 times, my guidebook was wet and I hadn't really seen that much. Around every corner and intersection, I never knew which way the wind was going to gust. I veered off the path a few times and ended up getting lost for a bit. I wasn't too worried since I had a map, but after my umbrella's 10th turn inside out I threw it in the trash. Let me rephrase that... I emphatically slammed my umbrella into the trash and trudged off through the rain. There were a few churches and sights recommended by the book, but I skipped them and went for an indoor attraction - the chocolate museum.

Choco Story chocolate museum was located on an unassuming street north of the center. Mostly I was just happy to get out of the rain. I was happily surprised by the artifacts that went all the way back to the Aztecs and continued through the cocoa trade to Europe, how production changed during the industrial revolution, up to today's techniques. There was a demonstration at the end and a free sample. This is a picture of me with Barack Choc-Obama (my title, not theirs - I'm so clever). As a side note, people in Europe love the fact that Obama was elected in the US, but everyone I've talked to about it says they are quickly getting tired of the politics as usual, because what has really changed? Anyway, I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate because I'm (mildly) allergic to it, but I still like to eat it every now and then. It's only the pure stuff that really makes me kind of queasy, but even with that I can take it in small doses.

I quickly walked back to the city center and was tempted by the Salvador Dali exhibit in one of the buildings. It cost 15 Euros and took about an hour to complete, but it only had etchings (no paintings). I REALLY like Dali's work and I've never seen one of his collections, but I was wet, tired, and it didn't look like that great of an exhibit. I caught a bus and took the train back to Brussels to get ready for another week.

Ghent

I woke up on Saturday morning hoping that it wasn't raining. The forecast was calling for rain all weekend, but I turned on CNN International just to check. Just then, they gave breaking news about a huge earthquake in Chile. It happened about 300 miles from Santiago, where I had been working for two months. I logged onto Facebook and messaged some friends and then made my way to the train station with more on my mind than weekend traveling.

A little info on Ghent... it was the second largest city in Europe (after Paris) until the 13th century. It has a rich history of trading and lots of wars throughout the years. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you are in Belgium - just not in the winter time.

I got to Ghent after a relatively short train ride and hopped on the tram to get to the city center. I had no idea where the race was going to begin, but I thought that was a good place to start my search. I quickly realized that I took the tram in the wrong direction as we passed through the suburbs. Luckily it looped back around within 15 minutes and I asked someone for directions. Someone located the square where the race would start on my map, and it turned out that it would be quicker for me to walk.

The closer I got to the race staging area, the less I needed the map. Streets started to become roped off and there was a general pedestrian flow in one direction. The tightly packed buildings opened up around a corner to an open plaza, jammed packed full of cycling team buses, sponsor tents, fencing to route foot traffic and a stage. I wandered between team buses with all of the other people, trying to catch a glimpse of cyclists I knew. It was kind of hard since they were all wearing their helmets and shaded glasses, but I managed to capture a few pictures.

Thor Hushovd, last year's Omloop winner


I watched the start of the race and then made my way to my Couch Surfing host's apartment, less than 10 minutes from the plaza. I took a deep breath and rang the bell... I didn't quite know what to expect. Wouter answered the door and invited me inside. He had a one room apartment half a flight down the main stairway that put his window at street level. He had a single bed in the corner, futon couch (which I assumed would be my surfing spot), computer desk in a corner and a sink in the remaining corner. It was definitely smaller than what I'm used to. The kitchen was shared by the other seven apartments, as was the bathroom and shower. I definitely wouldn't want to live there, but it would do for a night. I wasn't going to complain!

We talked for a bit and got to know each other and then walked to the city center. The rain had held off so far, and I hoped that would continue. Wouter wasn't a cycling fan, but I convinced him to plan to be back at the plaza for the race's finish in about 4 hours. He took me through the city, which he actually didn't know that well since he had only been living there as a student for 6 months (he was from Holland and studying photography at the university).







We paid 2 Euros to go into the Belfy of Ghent for 'the best views of the city' according to Lonely Planet. It was finished in 1381 and only took about 70 years to build - no big deal. You'll notice in the picture directly above that it looks a lot like one of the churches I have visited, but it isn't. It has a bell tower and was used to summon townspeople, but never served religious purposes. There are churches on either side of the tower.

I already climbed the Dom Tower in Utrecht last weekend, so I wasn't as excited to climb another - plus, we were on a time crunch. This one had an elevator, so you only had to walk up two flights of stairs to get to it. It looked pretty typical from the inside, but I definitely recommend the view, as you can see from the pictures below. I was disappointed that we didn't get to go all of the way to the top. The observation area is just underneath the clock in the picture. There were stairs going further up with a simple chain barring entry further up - no sign saying do not enter, just this red and white chain. Wouter and I considered just stepping over it and going further up the tower. His exact quote was "You're American, you make your own rules." Low blow, my friend. We ultimately decided not to do it and headed back down to the cathedral. Here are three of the best pictures from the belfry:







St. Bavo Cathedral, (pictured directly above, last of the three pics from the belfry), now ranks as the most impressive cathedral I've visited. Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The church was founded in the 11th century and is MASSIVE inside. The most famous piece of artwork held by St. Bavo is Jan Van Eyck's masterpiece "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb". You had to pay to see the real copy but they had a duplicate on display which was impressive enough for me. There was a medieval castle that I would've liked to go inside, but we didn't have a whole lot of time. For the most part, the allure of the city is just walking along the cobblestone streets and looking at the architecture. I was disappointed in all of the construction that was going on though. Many of the streets, especially around the churches, was torn up and filled with fencing to route traffic. All of the rain created a lot of mud and obstacles as we toured the town.

Wouter and I made it back in time for the end of the cycling race, which was not surprisingly won by someone I had never heard of. He won by 18 seconds, so the race ending left me unsatisfied. We walked around the team buses again, hoping to get pictures of Tom Boonen for Dana (yes, I was that dedicated to your cause, Dana). Tom is Belgian so there were a lot of other people waiting on him, but he didn't show. Maybe he was upset with his poor performance in the race.

We went back to Wouter's apartment for a while and got into a long discussion about girls and relationships. I think he was more messed up than I am/was, and though he is only a year younger than me, he had the relationship mentality of someone much younger (girls are stupid). We debated for a while but I just kind of gave up.

I treated Wouter for dinner as a thank you for letting me stay with him. We went to a Turkish restaurant called Ankara which I highly recommend. We got a two person sampler plate that was stacked full of all kinds of meat - yum. After that we went to the bar area, which wasn't as impressive as I would have thought. Wouter told me that a lot of students go home on the weekends, so the bars are most lively in town on Thursday nights. Oh well, nothing I could do about it.

Wouter was super shy, coming up with all kinds of excuses not to talk to girls. I was trying to be a good wingman, because I could tell that he wasn't bold enough to start a conversation. I surprised even myself because I'm usually more in his role while other people seek out new friends, but I was getting tired of just walking around with only him, not making any interactions with the scene.

"What about that group of three girls?" -me
(pointing to three brunettes)
"No, I like darker brown hair." -Wouter
....
"Look at that girl." -me
"I like cute, next door girls. She's too done up." -Wouter

This was a typical exchange, each time with an excuse. Finally I gave him an ultimatum that he had to talk to a girl within 5 minutes or we were leaving (it was 1:30 am at this point). He found a woman ~35 and asked her for a cigarette, then walked away proud of himself. I shook my head in frustration. I had never seen so many girls in a bar, just sitting by themselves and talking without guys coming up to them. I was trying to do Wouter a favor. Finally I spotted two girls and said, "Look, I'm going to go talk to them. I don't care if you like them or not. In a minute I'm going to wave you over and we're going to hang out. Ok?"

I went over and met the girls and started to have a conversation. I kiiiiiiind of forgot to work Wouter into the conversation, and 15 minutes later when I finally did, he was gone from the bar. I had his phone number and a map to get home (about a 25 minute walk), but I was still kind of worried. The girls were cool about it and waited while I looked around the bar, before finally texting him to come meet us. He didn't seem too upset, but I felt like I broke the Bro-Code. The girls seemed to want us to hang around and stay out later, but I could tell that Wouter wanted to go home, so I thanked them for their time and we left. It was probably best since I was planning to go to Bruges in the morning. We had a conversation about girls (again) on the long walk home. I really wish him luck because his whole relationship outlook is pretty twisted and counter-productive.

Sunday - on to Bruges!

Fuerza Chile

Luckily everyone I know in Chile survived the earthquake. If things had gone according to the original work plan, I would still be there. Santiago seems to have gotten some damage to buildings, but nothing 'major' compared to other areas. Here is a video of a hostel in Santiago where I spent one night about 4 weeks ago.




La Concepcion (which I did not visit) is much worse off. I'll try to post some information if you would like to help out when I can...

Fuerza Chile!