How Did I Get Here?

London's East End: City Farm, Flower Markets, London Canals

cfitchey — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 13:08:00 GMT

Sunday

I probably never mentioned it, but when I was in Goa, India, staying at the yoga retreat for ten days, I met several lovely Europeans. Two of them were Jo and David, a delightful young couple from London who were just beginning their travels in India. They were planning to stay in India for a few months, but unforeseen circumstances forced them to return to London for a brief interval, and this happened to coincide with the time I was to be in London.

They thoughtfully offered to show Liz and I around the East End of London, neighborhoods they knew well having lived there some years before. We met them at the station and they guided us through quiet Sunday morning streets. The landscape was quite different from the sleek urban central London. These neighborhoods were in a slow decline. Some of the places they pointed out to us had been record stores or dance clubs, but were now closed and boarded up.

And the shops that were there were odd. We passed one small shop filled with the tools and work benches of a carpenter, and the entire back wall was an array of fancy wooden spoons in all shapes and sizes. That was all they sold. Spoons. The place looked rundown, like it had been there forever. But Jo and David said it was new. I guess you have to have your workshop somewhere, but how on earth did he have enough customers in such a neighborhood? I don’t know how he would have enough customers in any neighborhood to only be selling spoons. It still seems unreal.

Just beyond the odd spoon shop, we stopped for breakfast at the restaurant just inside the Hackney City Farm. They served a rustic eggs and bacon breakfast with toast. David said it was organic and the eggs came from the animals on the farm. Just outside the restaurant was a small working farm, with chickens and goats and a few cows in a field surrounded by a barn and a chicken coop. Along the side, was a vegetable and flower garden.

Apparently, this is not the only city farm in London. It’s part of a system of city farms created to help acquaint city kids with farm animals and the reality of life outside the city. I’d never heard of such a thing but when you think about it, it’s such a great idea. How many city kids might go their whole childhood and never see a cow or a chicken? But with these city farms, parents take their kids to the park and they see and learn about the farm animals as well as the vegetable and flower garden. I was impressed.

After the farm, we strolled through the streets and found the East End Flower Market. It starts early in the morning, so when we arrived in early afternoon, it was meant to be winding down, but it was so crowded you could barely walk forward. It was a small lane lined with adorable shops full of antiques, and cooking bits. One shop was down a hallway and opened into a room covered wall to wall in maps of the earth and the stars and the universe colored in a most amazing way I can’t describe. But the shop was so small it was claustrophobic.

So this small lane with unusual shops was lined with flower stalls one after another that spilled into the street in such a way that there was about enough room between the building and the stalls for one person and another person could squeeze past going the other way, and in the middle of the street the stalls faced off with each other 3 or 4 people wide. So many people crowded in to see the flowers, it was sort of battle to push on through the crowd to the next stall. And some people were actually buying flowers, in some cases huge bouquets. Apparently, that’s a thing you do when you live in London on a Sunday – especially this sunny Sunday.

The special thing about this flower market is that it’s been running for generations and all the flower hawkers are men from the East End, scrappy working class men with their East End accents, calling out the price of the flowers they’re pushing, like auctioneers. In the commotion, I didn’t notice this until Jo pointed it out, but once she did, I caught on right away. Just one of the nice things about having a local guide when you travel – they point out these things.

We didn’t buy any flowers since we wouldn’t be able to enjoy them really, but we took lots of pictures. They were so beautiful, it was hard to stop. Unfortunately, I only got one good picture of a salesman.

After we muscled our way to the end of the flower market, we emerged from the crowd and spilled back into the street. By the end, you kind of forgot you were on the street, until suddenly you were, and there was nothing – just pavement. A handful of people were milling around, but if felt so abandoned after the claustrophobic crowd of the market. We walked on, down the lonely street.

Jo and David guided us to what can only be London’s best kept secret – the canal! Yes – London has a canal. And there’s a paved path down the side of it that you can walk along and enjoy the scenery that it provides. It passes along a typical East End neighborhood, somewhat gritty and rough and eventually ends up in a very posh ritzy, gentrified area with pubs and restaurants and all new, ultra-modern upscale apartments – the sort of places the average person can only imagine living. It was quite eye-opening.

And at the end, the canal receded into a beautiful forested wood along its banks – a park, I suppose, where city folk can get away from the city without actually leaving it. That part had an atmospheric houseboat anchored in it that reminded me a lot of the canals in Amsterdam. And while it didn’t look like an extra-ordinary houseboat, it was apparently, quite a prize to be able to be anchored in that spot. Permits and all make it prime real estate.

The day was drawing to a close and we asked David and Jo to take us to what they would consider a classic pub. We walked through a quiet residential neighborhood that had an eerie feeling of decline. And perhaps that was not just my imagination since the pub was closed. Permanently. David and Jo were utterly surprised – couldn’t believe one of their favorite and long-standing pubs had closed. And that kind of formed my impression that London neighborhoods are currently experiencing a whole range of aspiring and declining. Some are coming up, while others are sinking. Perhaps this is a phenomenon of old cities, but it is certainly a new thing for me. I don’t recall noticing this sort of thing anywhere in the States.

Lacking a pub, we ended up in the nearby and recently gentrified shopping district for a bite to eat. It was a lovely day being on tour with genuine Londoners, but it was a ridiculous amount of walking. Liz and I were both exhausted and departed soon after eating to return to our room for a long night of rest. Hopefully, we’ll be refreshed for tomorrow’s adventures.

Photos: London: City Farm, Flower Market, London Canals

cfitchey — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 04:27:00 GMT

First Days in London

cfitchey — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:09:00 GMT

I arrived in London on a Thursday afternoon. My first impression: London is diverse! I might not have noticed this since America is very similar, but since I haven’t been in America these past months, and most other countries are incredibly homogenous, the diversity of the population really jumped out at me. It’s nice to know America isn’t the only country in the world where immigrants are welcomed. I use “welcome” loosely, since American rhetoric is not particularly immigrant friendly of late.

The hostel we’re staying at is in the East End of London, quite a distance from the center, but it’s cheap, by London standards anyway. And it proves to be clean although just as old and un-updated as the hostels I stayed at in The Netherlands. It strikes me as so odd how so many hostels in Taiwan and New Zealand were really quite nice. Simple, but nice. But the quality of hostels in Europe has proved to be less than stellar, especially on the low end of the range.

The World Cup opens today, tonight actually. Like the opening of the Olympics, the World Cup is a worldwide event – although as Americans our interest in soccer is so recent that I’ve only been aware of the World Cup since the previous one four years ago. I’m hoping it will be fun and culturally interesting to be in a country that truly cares about the outcome of the Cup, while it’s in progress!!

Friday

Elizabeth arrived this morning, all fresh-faced and excited. This is her first time out of the US and she is particularly enamored with Britain and its people and culture, so this is a dream come true for her. She might, in fact, be in love with over half of the famous and not-so-famous British actors of film and TV. I think it’s the accent. J I shouldn’t kid about this. She is a very serious Anglophile and I’m sure she will be a great tour guide as we spend the next 12 days wandering about London.

We went out to breakfast at an adorable café near the Tower of London. It was a very sunny day, and this being London I found that surprising, since they say it’s always grey and rainy here. After breakfast we stopped by the park that’s just outside the Underground, Trinity Square Gardens. It was lunchtime by then and the park was filled with working people from nearby come to have their lunch on the grass and get in a bit of sunbathing. The small park was filled to capacity. I imagine a sunny day like this is a pretty rare thing for the people of London, so it seemed a good first day for us and the park was a nice way to experience what the regular Londonite was doing. It wasn’t long though before Liz’s jetlag caught up to her, and we headed back to the hostel so she could have a nap.

For dinner, we stepped down the street from our hostel to a Chinese restaurant. It was surprisingly authentic. Not like our Chinese-American restaurants. The menu and the food were much more in sync with real Chinese cooking. At least what I experienced of it in Taiwan.

Saturday

Today we shall see Westminster Abbey – the cathedral. On our way we passed the Big Ben clock and got our first look at the Thames. It’s cloudy and grey today, and looks like it might rain - so I might have been right that yesterday was special.

Westminster Abbey was quite impressive. The incredible architectural molding and features on the outside was rivaled by all manner of interesting things on the inside. I loved the sculptures everywhere, and the fact that they buried scientists, poets, writers and musicians here. Still marveling that Charles Darwin would be admitted. And the building was really awesome too, especially the Lady Chapel which is incredibly beautiful and remarkable in it's detail. In the Lady Chapel RAF window, it read: we few, we happy few, we band of brothers. A telling reminder. I also liked the aspect that the cathedral was so historical and covered a lot of Britain's history within the cathedral's 1,000 year history. Most churches are just churches built a long time ago, but this one managed to join its past with the present. The choir area was spelled Quire. Could this be right? It's so phonetic. Why does American English spell it Choir? Not phonetic at all. Strange. Where did this other spelling come from I wonder? You’re not allowed to take photos inside though, so the ones we do have were taken on the lowdown. I've added some interior photos to the gallery today. Personally, I loved the inner courtyard and the covered walkway that surrounded it.

Afterwards, we wandered around looking for food, but nothing was open. We thought perhaps it was a business district and since it was Saturday the restaurants weren’t open. But it seemed strange to me that so near to a large tourist attraction there was nowhere around to eat. How has such a business opportunity been thwarted? Even my phone was no help. We ended up wandering through several blocks of a residential neighborhood before we happened upon Pret-A-Manger. Pret, we learned, is a chain that serves coffees and smoothies along with a large variety of ready-made food like sandwiches, salads, yogurts, pastries and fruit. It was quite unexpected and delightful. I found something healthy and Liz found something more to her taste. At rock bottom prices (for London), it soon became our favorite restaurant in London.

To end our day, we rambled down a shopping street in search of Selfridge’s – the department store. You may have heard of it, as I did, from the PBS show of the same name. It was incredible! Also, crowded and insufferable! Just so many people it was hard to enjoy all the lovely things there to look at. And it had the typical department store feel of leaving one disoriented. I have to say, my favorite part was in the basement. They had a chocolate shop or rather department. In addition to bonbons of all shapes sizes and flavors, they had a library of bar chocolate from all over the world. For a former chocolate connoisseur like myself, this was like encountering Eden. I was amazed to discover so many handmade specialty chocolates from around the world that I had never seen or heard of before. It was very special. Perhaps there are occasional chocolate shops in America like this, but I’ve never encountered them. One can only hope they will be coming soon.

So far London is a rambling place. And Liz, well, I think she’s in love.

Photos: London: Westminster Abbey

cfitchey — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 02:53:00 GMT

Photos: London: Big Ben and the London Eye

cfitchey — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 02:27:00 GMT

Photos: London: Around Town

cfitchey — Sun, 15 Jun 2014 11:20:00 GMT

Photos: London: Sherlock Holmes Museum

cfitchey — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 11:02:00 GMT

Train to London

cfitchey — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 15:53:00 GMT

Today, I’m on the train from Delft to London. I thought it would be cheaper than flying and I’d get to go through the Chunnel. Talk about sticker shock! The ticket was 202 euro one way. And on the train from Rotterdam to Brussels, I didn't even get a real seat, just a boarding pass to sit wherever is available until the ticket taker comes along and gives you a seat.

So the train to Brussels is full and I'm stuck sitting in the entrance way because I can’t seem to push past these two dirty French hippies and their twenty suitcases and their two dogs, who, oddly, are slightly cleaner than them. Crouched over my suitcase I’m asking myself, 'Can these people be real?' The pictures cannot convey the amazing smells coming off this squalid looking group. Bad breath, dog breath, armpit odor, the smell of mangy street dog, and, of course, stale marijuana. It all blends together in such an unpleasant way I can barely stand to breathe. Perhaps more amazing, they are so completely immune to themselves and their smell and the general disarray that they present. I just can’t quite believe that they exist at all.

But then they are so friendly, and so French! When the ticket taker finally does come, they keep him busy talking (in French) for over 20 minutes. Some problem with the dogs I couldn’t completely understand. Try to imagine this hippie girl, with shaved head and unruly braids and all manner of smells, going through immense gesticulations and protests, and then negotiations and finally an agreement with the ticket taker. All the while her boyfriend looking on, like me, unsure how this is gonna end, unsure if they’ll get kicked off, with the two dogs asleep at their feet, completely unaware. It was like watching a classic over-the-top French comedy take place right in front of my eyes. This cannot possibly be happening, can it? In the end, I think they had to buy tickets for the dogs. Or maybe they paid a fine for having the dogs on board.

After that, it was all I could do to get the ticket taker to even look at my ticket. He wanted to move on. He didn’t give me a seat. And when I asked if I would make my connection to the high speed train in Brussels, he failed to respond. Yes, that’s right, this train wasn't even on time. We sat for 25 minutes in the middle of nowhere for who knows what reason, putting me dangerously close to missing my connection in Brussels. I didn't expect that, especially after all the trains in The Netherlands were on time. This day is so not what I thought it would be.

Needless to say, at the Brussels station, I was first off, sitting in the doorway made that easy, and I rushed to find the high speed Chunnel train from Brussels to London. It was a very confusing station and I was in a hurry, but luckily, I saw the Eurostar sign before I rushed past it, so I found the entrance to the train and I made it. What I didn't realize was why my ticket said I should be at the boarding area 30-40 minutes in advance of departure. Turns out, I had to go through passport control and turn in a landing ticket before going through luggage inspection and finally getting on the train. So I was really very, very late! In fact, I think I was the last one to board the train. No sooner did I find my seat, but the train started moving. It left a whole minute early!

This second train, the Eurostar, was much nicer! Quiet. I have my own seat. It's relaxing, and it does seem fast. I thought it was only an hour on this train, but it's actually two with the time difference. So maybe the 202 euros was worth it after all – I have some time to enjoy the long train ride at least. Going through the chunnel, I have to say, was incredibly anti-climactic. The tunnel into Manhattan is more interesting. And when the train emerged in Britain, the train tracks were fenced off so you couldn’t really see much. When the land did come into view, it seemed reasonably English-like, but nothing spectacular. I don’t think I even took a picture.

Perhaps the best part of the whole ride was arriving in London at the central train station. It was all abuzz with after-work traffic and the vibe was so electrifying. I really loved it! I have to say arriving to a new country via a train station is so much more interesting than arriving at an airport. That station was definitely a great first impression for me. And it made it easy to catch the underground to my hostel. All in all, it was nice to take the train this time, but given the price, next time I’ll just fly to London.

Delft

cfitchey — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 06:04:00 GMT

What an absolutely adorable little town Delft is! I shall definitely stay here a bit. I arrived on Saturday night on the train after a long day of tramping around Amsterdam. It was the cheapest place I could find to stay on a Saturday night anywhere in the country - still 28 euro though. I only booked one night here, but in only an hour, this place has already struck me as such a wonderful gem of a place that I've decided to stay at least another two nights.

So far, I'm not a big fan of Dutch food, so for dinner I went to a Thai restaurant just down the block from the hostel. It was an unusual experience, to say the least. In the first ten minutes, they took my drink order, brought some fish-flavored rice crisps and a bowl of coconut soup, but never a menu. I'm thinking, This is weird. But everyone else appears to be getting great service. What’s going on? Can they tell I'm a foreigner when I haven't even said anything? Or is it because I'm alone? Ah well. I dive into the soup.

And what a lovely soup it was! A thin coconut base with lemon and scallions and mushrooms (I took those out, of course) and a bit of shrimp and chicken. Just lovely! At this point, I saw the same dishes come out to two different tables and it hit me - this place has a set menu! What a great surprise! Probably would have known that if I could read the signs, but now I’m free to wonder what they'll bring out next. Oh boy, I'm so excited! The entree was a very delicious sampler plate of four dishes - quite a variety, really. It was a lot of fun to taste them all, but none of them topped the coconut soup! All in all, a refreshing change from Dutch food.

Nearly every dish in The Netherlands has some sort of lovely cheese in it, as well as a meat or a fish. This is tough for me since I'm not really partial to food with meat and cheese at the center. I've also just come from Vietnam/Thailand where it was easy to eat all vegetable dishes all the time, so my palate is not really used to this type of food. Needless to say, eating in The Netherlands has been a bit tough for me. I did find a cafe that served a wonderful couscous-based dish with cucumbers and red peppers and garbanzos. That was by far the best dish I had. And one night, I had to beg off and check out a local Indian restaurant - that was a great experience. Surprisingly authentic! Both in the food and the décor.

Beer is very popular here, and I gather there are a lot of breweries, but not being partial to beer either, I haven't had any. But another popular drink is fresh mint tea - literally hot water with mint leaves stuffed in it. This is right up my alley. And it's delicious! I've had it several times now, and even in the warm days of summer it seems like the perfect beverage.

Speaking of tea, I've noticed they have an extraordinary amount of coffee and tea shops here in Delft. And while some of them are actually selling coffees and teas, most of them are simply selling the accoutrements. Who knew there were so many odds and ends to be bought related to the brewing of coffee and tea? And who knew there could ever be such a market for them? I literally spent hours browsing through these shops looking at all the different shapes and sizes and materials of teapots. A delightful way to pass an afternoon.

I have to say I've become a bit obsessed with tea during my trip. It was very big in India and Taiwan and Vietnam, but I'm kind of surprised that tea is big here. I've bought so much tea on my trip, since it's cheap and travels well. Now all I need is a teapot! But alas, they are, like everything here, incredibly expensive. So the photographs will have to do.

Other than visiting the shops, I've spent a great deal of time here wandering around the main square that is sandwiched between the New Church and the City Hall - both very grand buildings. The New Church has a very grand bell tower with a golden clock, and it still chimes the time every 15 minutes, just like olden times. Although, apparently the chiming of the bells is part of modern life here.

I'm sure you recall that I said I heard the bells in Amsterdam and Utrecht as well. I also recall as a child a few churches here and there that still rang out the time, but it certainly couldn't be considered the part of the fabric of American culture as it is here in The Netherlands. I’ve always thought churchbell time is so novel and clever, so I find this soundscape to be both fascinating and endearing - just another part of this country that makes me love it.

But back to the Delft church, which has its own little twist. It plays a wild, discordant melody after it rings out the time on the hour, almost as if the bells were out of tune. I was so taken with it, that I actually made a recording of it on my phone. You can go up into the bell tower and see the inner workings of both the clock and the bells. They have been replaced over the years, but they certainly don’t look new, so they very well could be out of tune. I don’t really know how those bells work. It was pretty amazing to see the inside of the bell tower, not to mention the amazing views from the three different levels of balconies. Definitely a recommend if you’re ever in Delft.

Perhaps you’ve heard of one of the things that makes Delft famous: Delft ware – ceramics. The ceramics are primarily painted in blue and white and like other countries, the patterns are very limited and specific. I wasn’t all that impressed with it though – maybe because it was overpriced. Because it’s so famous, they have expensive tours of the ceramics factory – which I did not go to, partly because of the expense and partly because it was an out of the way location. But they sell the ceramics all around. I bought what I thought was fitting and affordable – a tiny round plate, just large enough for a spoon and a teabag. Which was 5 euro. Too much I think.

Foregoing the Delft factory, I decided instead to indulge in the Vermeer museum. You may recall the painting of the Girl with the Pearl Earring – that was Vermeer. And he was from Delft. They have a small but very well curated museum in the heart of Delft. I learned that for 90% of his paintings, there is a window, a table, a model, possibly a curtain, and sunlight. It appeared that he took a corner of his studio and embellished on these simple things reimagining them in new ways for each painting. He’d change the panes in the window, the tablecloth, change the outfit on the model, change how her face was receiving the sunlight – creating a whole new scene from the exact same location. Talk about using what little you have to work with. It was inspiring! You also learn that this simple set up allowed Vermeer to focus on the fundamentals of painting, specifically painting light, without ever having to leave home. It was kind of genius. If you’re in Delft, definitely want to check out this little museum.

I’ve stayed here four full days and now it’s my last morning in Delft. And what do I find on my walk out for breakfast, the weekly Thursday morning market in the square! Could this place be any more adorable? Apparently this happens every Thursday. How lovely! I’m so jealous right now. A real weekly market: with fresh fruits and vegetables and fish and cheese and olive shops and bakeries and clothes and bolts of fabric. It’s small, just booths inside the main square, but it exists, and every week. Plus - the church bells play songs non-stop all morning.

I tried the fried codfish – not ideal first thing in the morning, but apparently they eat it for breakfast so I got the authentic experience. I thought it was a better choice than the herring sandwich. I may have been wrong. The fish was tasty, but very plain and now I haven't tried the herring. Shucks. I also tried the Netherland raspberries - oh so good!! At least as good as the strawberries I had yesterday.

I will miss darling little Delft. It was an incredibly lovely place to daydream five days away. I could have stayed weeks and weeks here. And now you know why. Funnily enough, I never even tried out the bicycle. I guess that gives me a reason to come back. As if I needed another one.

And now, I’m off to meet my friend Liz in London.

Photos: Delft

cfitchey — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 01:07:00 GMT

Utrecht

cfitchey — Sat, 7 Jun 2014 06:01:00 GMT

First Impressions

After a confusing exit from the train station, and a frustrating detour down a thoroughfare that was under construction, and a long walk dragging my suitcase behind me, I finally reached the oh-so-pleasant city center of Utrecht. I decided to visit Utrecht after I received a recommendation from a Dutch girl I met in a hostel in Hanoi, Vietnam. She recommended it as a small but thriving city - and her recommendation proved to be an excellent one. Utrecht is a university town, so there are lots of students, and at least as many bicycles as in Amsterdam. The bicycles, it appears, are a staple in the whole country, not just in Amsterdam.

The cars are so tiny here, that the bikes seem bigger than the cars. Honestly, I don't know how the giant Dutch fit into those tiny cars. It can't be easy.

More about Bicycles

The Dutch are open and friendly and they look at people on the street. Even on their bikes, but more so walking, the Dutch look around. At least here in Utrecht. I don't remember now if they did that in Amsterdam, but that was a much more touristic city so it was hard to tell who was a local and who wasn't.

I'm still so fascinated by the bicycling aspect of this country. Here in Utrecht the bike lanes are so wide they seem like sidewalks and I have to be VERY careful because my brain naturally moves my body toward that space because it thinks it's the sidewalk. And if the riders seemed fast in Amsterdam, it's off the hook here.

I would love to see a chase scene in Utrecht on bicycles. They tear around corners here without slowing, and with so many pedestrians, it would be really intense. It's so fun to watch anyway, but for it to be a chase scene, the suspense would make it even better!

In the bike lanes, there's a pace at which everyone seems to ride. Just like cars, the riders end up in packs, stopped by the lights. Often a mom will hold onto the back of the neck of their child as he/she rides on a bike next to her. I'm not sure what this is about, but I suspect either she's teaching her child how to ride at pace or helping her child to keep pace and stay together on a busy road. It's unclear to my foreign eyes. Just another fascinating part of the bicycle culture here.

One more thing, in order to mount the back of a bicycle, it has to be moving just a little. The driver rides off a little and the passenger hops on after it gets going a bit. At least that's how all the Dutch get on. How do they do that?

The Hostel

The hostel is in an old building that's been converted, and somewhat poorly I might add, into a hostel. The floors are all uneven. The dorm I'm staying in doesn't have a toilet, only a shower room. You have to step outside the room to a water closet in the hall that's shared by other rooms. That's not so bad, but the shower room has a door with a clear window!?!. This seems completely bananas. Staying in a room with up to three other strangers and there's no way to shower with any privacy? And all they have to do is change out the door - it doesn't make any sense. I ended up fashioning a towel in front of the door in order to use it, but the girl in the upper bunk opted to use the shower on the upper floor.

None of this would be that big of a deal, except that this will actually turn out to be a very typical hostel in Europe, and Europe is so expensive. I'm paying at least $30 US or more to stay in these rooms. For that price, they should be 100% nicer. In NZ, they were nicer. And in Taiwan they were nicer and cheaper. So it just kind of makes me feel like Europe is greedy. They may have started the hostelling system, but their standards have lessened quite a bit in modern times. It's sad and unfortunate. I suppose competition doesn't help much.

Despite the condition at the hostel, I had a nice time there. I was lucky enough to get the bottom bunk for once. And the bed was right next to a large window that opened. It was a lovely place to rest. And the girl in the bunk above me was also American and an artist. It was nice to talk to someone about the different observations I've made here in The Netherlands. I was surprised to find she had so many of the same thoughts.

Delightful Moments in Utrecht - Day One

I went to the park this morning for a walk. Some guy was practising his trombone at the basketball court - kind of a strange place to do that. Scanning the nearby apartments, I saw an old man opening the curtains on his floor to ceiling windows to let in the beautiful morning light - he was completely nude!! Only wearing his birthday suit!!! Say whaaaat? He was on the third floor, so not in plain sight, but still, in plain sight of a public park!. It seemed like an unusual thing to do. I can honestly say I've never seen that before.

The river ran through the park and there was a pond with ducks. There was also a huge play area for the little ones that looked like a space station, and in the far corner, a sort of farm with cows and chickens. I guess this was a way for city kids to learn about country life.

Later in the day, I wandered through the old town, past a great church with an impressive bell tower. This seemed to be the center of the old town where there were several churches near each other and the river ran through and there were lots of shops and restaurants.

I saw a bride and groom come out of one of these churches. The guests were all crowded on the steps outside and everyone cheered and handed them balloons. After the cheers died down, the guests all stood behind the bride and groom on the church steps for the photo. What a great idea! Just a few simple pictures right away and you really capture the moment. The bride had a traditional white dress, but the groom got married in a lovely blue suit. Very unique! It didn't seem like there was a wedding party, certainly there were no matching bridesmaids, so if there was a wedding party they were all mixed in with the other guests for the picture. It was so organic and natural and yet all the guests seemed to know that's what they were supposed to do. I felt like I was witnessing a really special cultural moment.

Later in the day, while sitting at a cafe, I saw another bride and groom walking through the streets, and again no apparent wedding party, but all the guests from the wedding trailed behind them, as if they were walking to the reception. Another way cool cultural moment.

At the cafe, I also did some cultural research by trying the French Fries. It's a dirty job, I know. Apparently, french fries were actually created in Belgium, but they're AMAZING here in The Netherlands too. And they eat them with mayonnaise - haven't seen that since I was in college. How fun!

Much of my stay in Utrecht was on and off with the rains. This is the first place I've been to where the rain actually interfered with my visit. Luckily, I didn't have any specific plans for my stay in Utrecht so it wasn't a big deal. I had a good excuse to stop into a lot of cafes and have a coffee. Did I mention they have a lovely cafe culture in The Netherlands? Just one more reason I love it here. It's not really my type of food, lots of meat and cheese sandwiches and the like, but still it's nice to have all the cafes. And most of them are local and not chains, so that gives them a unique feel.

Day Two

I've found the local shopping district today and it's packed and busy. Looking for a public bathroom, I happened upon the central library in Utrecht. I thought the library in Amsterdam was special because there was a restaurant on the top floor. Turns out, it's not that special. The one in Utrecht has a coffee bar inside! You can come to the library to use the Internet and have a coffee at the library! A really nice coffee, I might add. It's Perfect! But - you still have to user your library voice - it's so lovely and quiet here. What a great idea for a way to repurpose the square footage that used to be filled by books that nobody's all that interested in anymore. Of course, they still have many many books and also a video and music library, but they've expanded to fit the times. I think it's brilliant!!

I also came across an amazing chocolate shop. Apparently, that's something that came from Belgium as well - the chocolatiers. I read that it's not uncommon to come to the chocolate shop everyday to buy that one specific chocolate for that evening's dessert - or to buy one for the whole family. How delightful that would be to stop by the chocolate shop every day to buy the one chocolate truffle that would hit the spot or pair perfectly with your dinner for that day! I just find this concept so romantic. The epitome of a rich, fulfilled, satisfying life and yet it's not excessive. It's just a tiny truffle. It reminds me of how Parisians buy their bread every day on the way home from work. I don't that the Dutch actually do buy truffles everyday, but I know I probably would if I lived there.

There are a lot of street musicians in this country, and there are many out today taking advantage of the nice weather and the busy shopping district. And they are really good musicians too. I've seen a classical music band, a lone trombonist, a guy playing some type of kettle drum thing that I've never seen before but that has a mesmerizing sound, a bluegrass band playing without any shoes, and at the table next to me, some choir singers are practicing their notes with each other. This country is a veritable wonder.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my time in Utrecht. I think it gave me a good feel for what a mid-sized city in The Netherlands is like. This place definitely feels like an ideal place to live, work and raise a family. If you're looking for a non-touristic place to visit in The Netherlands, this is the place I would recommend.

Photos: Utrecht

cfitchey — Sat, 7 Jun 2014 02:59:00 GMT

Amsterdam

cfitchey — Tue, 3 Jun 2014 05:59:00 GMT

Pretty easy flights today to go from Bangkok to Amsterdam, but man am I thirsty. Flying really takes the water out of me.

Amsterdam's Schiphol airport is surprisingly plain. And the luggage is taking forever! I really would have thought the luggage would be faster here than anywhere else since this is such a hub. Ah well.

But the passport controller was the friendliest I've ever had! He actually smiled and wished me a happy journey. Imagine. I've got Good Vibes from the Netherlands already! If it's not blazing hot here, I'll be happy with whatever this country has to offer.

They have so many trains here - and in all sizes. Even double decker trains, like I first saw in Sydney, AU. I guess that's only unusual to my American eyes.

It's not blazing hot here. In fact it's kind of cold. Only 58 this morning! Let's hope it gets sunnier.

Day One: Amsterdam Central and First Impressions

Old quaint quiet bikes and canals everywhere. All lovely. In the afternoon it got sunny. The perfect temperature. I'm still dehydrated from the flight and I can't find water anywhere. There are no huge bottles of water anywhere, or even small ones, being sold on the street. This is really strange after Asia, where they have water simply everywhere. Cultural differences, right?

Welcome to the Land of Giants. Seriously. They grow people Exceptionally Tall here. It's pretty cool. Actually, it gives me that feeling of true Awesome. Just watching these giant people walking around like it's nothing odd is so "Wow". After traveling to a lot of different parts of the world, I can say it is such an unusual thing to see uniformly tall people. Okay, so you get that I'm really taken with these people.

Smells like weed everywhere in Amsterdam. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise, but it's not the beatiful, fresh smell of marijuana buds that you might be imagining (should you be familiar with that smell). More often than not it's kind of a stinky, stale aftersmoke drifting through the air. Not the most pleasant smell ever. Get ready Americans - this smell may be coming to a city near you. But smell aside, this place is delightful!

They have such cool shops and restaurants here and it doesn't feel crowded at all, even though it's the most populated country in Europe (I read that online). But man, the sticker shock. Everything is so expensive!! After walking for two hours, I finally did find a little stand that sold water. A half-liter (a tiny little bottle of water by Asian standards) cost me Euro 2.50! That's like movie theater prices!! Totally outrageous. But to them, that's totally normal. I don't think NZ was this expensive.

They seem to like bagels here. I keep seeing places for them.

And everyone smokes here, and I don't mean The Chronic. Tobacco is BIG here. It's been awhile since I was in a country with so many smokers, and it seems really weird. But I guess if you bicycle everywhere, which they do, it kind of balances out. It would be interesting to look up the studies on that? Do Dutch smokers have lower lung cancer rates because they do so much regular exercise in the form of bicycling everywhere?

Since there are so few cars, it's incredibly quiet. It's like being in a small town, while actually being in the center of big city. So cool.

It's not that warm here and it's the first of June. They're all still wearing pants and light jackets on their bikes. I wonder what they wear when they're riding in winter. I wonder how cold it gets here in the winter.

Day Two - The Amsterdam Library and Bicycle Culture

Wow! The Library is a five story building. The first level is all music and movies - seriously. No books at all. Just like going to the music store except you get it for freeee! They have a huge DVD collection too. And there's a radio station on the first floor too - what an ideal place for a community radio station! The Dutch are so clever. And just generally cool. The fifth floor has a wonderful view of the city and a large bay that connects the ocean to all the city's canals.

I thought Taiwan had a strong bicycle culture, but the Dutch beat them tenfold. Watching the Dutch on bicycles is incredibly fun. These people can ride! And they aren't joyriding around, they're going FAST. As fast as their bikes can carry them. Two ladies ride next to each other, talking fast, riding faster. It's so cool to watch.

They don't wear helmets. Except sometimes the children, who are usually in a little seat in front of the rider. Bigger kids ride in the back. And they all have bells on their bikes to use like horns to warn you that they're coming. Bicycles have their own lane here, but for unfamiliar pedestrians, like me, it's a bit too easy to wander into what seems like a sidewalk, but is actually the bike lane. Luckily, they aren't afraid to use those bells. Woops!

Their bikes aren't status symbols mind you. No one's riding around with a blinged out bike. Some are a bit nicer than others, but mostly I would describe all of them as sturdy with that rickety sound of fenders. Fenders with reflectors. All manner of old to new bikes with very large frames. And most bikes have baskets and racks on the back. These bikes are built to be USED. Commuting, grocery shopping, going for a drink with friends. You can bet they're riding their bike to get there, if they can.

It's like a dream come true to see them riding bikes everywhere. Isn't this the universe we want to see come true? Environmentally speaking, I think it is. Healthy, cheap, quiet, non-polluting, personal. Why did we ever stop riding bikes? I thought it was Taiwan, but The Netherlands might be MY country! Is this model exportable? If only.

Day 3 - Another day in Amsterdam, a few days later

Back in Amsterdam after a few days in the college town of Utrecht, I'm taking the delightful, tourist-required, canal tour. The highlight: We hit another boat! Or rather he HIT us. Right in the middle of the bay (across from the library). It wasn't a large boat, but it was a very nice sailboat. The Captain was less than impressed with this guy, who immediately got angry and started yelling, like it was our fault. It was all very slow-motion and unbelievable. This sailboat just got closer and closer and then BAM, right into our bumper. The Captain was so nonchalant on the microphone, that at first I thought it was part of the tour. Ha Ha. It wasn't!

Picture some drunk guy driving a nice sports car rear-ends your heavy duty truck at a stoplight and then is like, "Why'd you hit me?!?" His front end is crumpled and your truck has nary a scratch. The sailboat had a nice dent, but we didn't suffer any damage. The Captain tossed a few words back at him, but we just floated on. I guess you don't have to call the cops in that situation? It was all a bit crazy. But unusual and exciting.

After that, the rest of the tour was a bit anti-climactic. And with no one to share it with, it was a bit blah too. Canal after canal lined with beautiful old Dutch mansions from the 1600s. You can get it from the pictures.

After lunch, I made the obligatory walk through the Red Light District. It was late afternoon so there wasn't much going on. Only two scantily clad girls standing in floor to ceiling windows. I'm sure it is quite a scene in the evening, I can only imagine. It was simultaneously strange, disturbing, curious, unbelievable and fascinating. I can certainly see the logic and sense of the place, from a legal perspective, but that industry doesn't really lend itself to sense and logic. As a cultural phenomenon, I'm glad I saw it, but a quick walk through was enough to satisfy my curiousity.

The other part of the Red Light District is all the marijuana bars. They are coffes shops really, where you order any number of types of mj, instead of coffee. Not that interesting, really. The most interesting thing in the District was a large metal sculpture that turned out to be a men's public toilet, where (drunk or stoned) men could take a piss on the pavement without exposing themselves. I suppose otherwise, they'll just go right in the canal, exposing themselves in the process. Talk about mind-boggling. I'm still confounded over that one. Wait till you see the picture.

And now I'm off to Delft. But next up, I'll have an article about my time in Utrecht. And maybe one about the amazing Rijksmuseum that I didn't cover here.

Photos: Amsterdam

cfitchey — Tue, 3 Jun 2014 00:44:00 GMT

Bangkok

cfitchey — Sun, 1 Jun 2014 05:00:00 GMT

Thursday - First Impressions

So strange. They drive on the wrong side of the road here. We were just in Cambodia and they didn't do that. I wonder how they change sides between countries. We didn't cross the border on land so I don't know.
But I'm thankful we didn't cross the border on land. I made the decision yesterday to spend the $100 for the flight from Siem Reap. It was so worth not having to spend the eight hours on a bus it would have taken us to get here, which would have completely wiped us out. We are well rested and have a whole extra day in Bangkok to enjoy.

The hostel is quiet, but near a busy night food market. We ate some incredible Thai food for dinner and decided that Thai food was so great that we should do a food tour in Bangkok. Lucky for us, I was able to book one for the following day. Sometimes, having the Internet on your smart phone is so great!

After dinner, we wandered around the area. I thought I saw a line of people waiting for a bus, but when we got to the front of the line, it turned out to be a moto-taxi stop. Apparently, moto taxis don't hang around on the corners here, they have designated stops. Really cool! Each person in line hops on the next moto that pulls up. Once again, I will not be trying that. It's cool, but it still seems so unsafe.

Friday

Today we are on the food tour. First tasting was duck, roasted and sliced in this delicious sauce. Wow! I don't even like duck, but that was amazing.

Then we saw Song Ra Temple - a small temple, tucked into the parking lots, behind the big buildings of the city. Kind of an odd place for it.

Next tasting was pancake with egg and chicken topped with sweet cucumbers and hot pepper, followed by Massamun curry and five other yummy dishes. I can't remember them all, but they were incredible.

The tour was so informative from a culinary point of view, helping us to explore the wide variety of food that is Thai, as well as covering the history of the city of Bangkok. We really enjoyed it. I was quite surprised about the diversity of the food. Thai food encompasses a lot more than I imagined.

After the tour, we stopped by the Emporium, a large mall near our hostel. It was an amazing five floors, but especially the food court was fantastic. Desserts especially. There must have been three different types of gourmet ice cream shops alone, among other things, like donuts, and other pastries. In fact, it was so overwhelming trying to choose that we just had coffee. In a way, it was more fun to look at it all than to eat any of it. Oddly, it was also surprisingly western desserts.

So far, we haven't seen anything in the way of protests or military presence on the streets here. The population seems to think all is normal. There was a curfew, 10 pm to 6 am, but they protested that because it wasn't good for business, so they even changed the curfew to 12 am to 4 am.

Saturday

Today we took a tour of the Grand Palace and a Buddhist Temple.

The temple was indeed quite grand, with golden dragons and snakes, golden ceilings and even a golden Buddha or two. It was built on the vertical to encompass a fairly small square footage so to get to the top you had to walk up about seven flights of stairs. It's 40 degrees Celsius again today so that's like 104 Fahrenheit. And Dad isn't feeling well - I think some of the crazy food combinations may have gotten to him. Or perhaps it's just the heat.

I hiked up to the top to see inside the temple, but it was a bit anti-climactic. I guess I find the extreme ornateness and gold and jewelled everything to be over the top. Somehow it kind of cheapened it for me. And we didn't really get any history from the guide. He just directed us to go up and see it.

With the temple out of the way, we could see the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is the king's home, but the grounds and a few buildings are open to the public, for a price of course. It was well worth it.

Based on the outside of the buildings, I can't imagine they had much gold or jewels left to do anything on the inside. It was impressive! A blur of unusual architecture, combined with wonderfully detailed ornamentation. The guards, like the one in the picture, came in all shapes and sizes. Such unusual fantastical creatures I've never seen. It was hard to believe this wasn't a children's fantasy park like Disney, built to astound and amaze and to enrich fantasy. But in fact, this was a real palace, still in use today and the fantastical creatures were meant to be spiritual guardians to the Thai royalty as well as the Thai people.

Perhaps the strangest part, was just how much gold and jewels were on display out in the open. Nothing was set behind glass boxes or secured with human guards. It didn't appear that they were worried at all about anyone stealing anything. Granted, I'm sure it wouldn't be easy. But it sure was weird to have such close access to all this incredibly valuable art and architecture. And if I remember correctly, I believe that it was originally built for the people, so it was always meant to be a public space.

Despite the heat, we really enjoyed the Grand Palace. But we agreed we wouldn't recommend that anyone else visit during this time of year. As you can see in the pictures, the Thai people are all carrying umbrellas. They don't like to get any sun, but I'm sure those sunbrellas were helping block some of the heat as well. We were not that smart. Oh well. We'll know for next time.

We didn't notice a thing anywhere in Bangkok that might indicate the country is under military rule, that citizens are protesting, or that anything is out of the ordinary. But some other travelers commented that they hadn't seen any Americans here in awhile. And in Bangkok that was certainly true. Any Americans I saw here looked as if they lived here/worked here, but they did not look like travelers.

It's too bad really. I can only imagine the amount of fear-inducing nonsense the media is pumping into the news back home about the "coup" in Thailand. For the Thai people, it's all business as usual. Gotta love their attitude.

I decided to change my flight and leave Thailand early because of the heat, but I do wish I had a few more days here in Bangkok to get a feeling for what the Thai culture is like in general.

The food was definitely amazing! I thought I knew Thai food fairly well, but the typical Thai menu in the states is actually pretty limited compared to the real thing. Looking forward to trying more Thai food at home.

So I will definitely want to come back here one day. But for now, my time in Thailand has run out. I'm off to Europe tomorrow. Amsterdam here I come.

See you on the flip side.

Photos: Bangkok

cfitchey — Sun, 1 Jun 2014 03:55:00 GMT

Siem Reap and the Amazing Angkor Wat Temples

cfitchey — Thu, 29 May 2014 23:54:00 GMT

We arrived in Siem Reap late at night, exhausted from a 9 hour bus ride that we thought was only going to be 7 hours. Luckily, our hotel was nice. Quiet. Off the beaten track. Clean and spacious. We immediately took showers and dropped into bed.

Day 1 Siem Reap

We decided to go to the official Angkor Wat museum on the first day. Partly because it had air-conditioning and partly because we felt we would learn a lot about Angkor Wat before we actually saw it. We were right on both counts! The museum was spectacular. Not only were we better informed about what we were going to see, but we were able to put it all into a much greater context.

One of the first rooms was the room of 1000 Buddha's. Literally, 1000 different Buddha statues and figurines, many of them gold-plated, displayed in the same place. This is when I realized how different the Buddha looks depending on the culture that's creating the image. His face and headdress can change a lot from culture to culture. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos, so I just have to marvel at it in words.

Another thing we learned about Angkor Wat, although the majority of Cambodians are Buddhist, Angkor Wat was originally a Hindu temple and only became a Buddhist temple later in its life. In fact, it was changed back and forth many times. If we look back at some of the temples I took pictures of in India, I think you will agree, there are a lot of similarities, both in the overall architecture and in the sculpted pictures and graphics of the temples.

After the museum, we went to the Angkor Wat ticket booth to buy our ticket to see the real thing tomorrow. This is common practice because they only sell a limited amount of tickets everyday. Afterward, we hiked up to a small temple on top of a mountain to see the sunset. The view was mostly trees and the temple was mostly in ruins so it was anticlimactic, but good exercise (hiking up and down). Now, we are off to see a dinner performance of traditional Ipsara dancers and music and singing.

The Ipsara dancing was quite different than I expected. Elegant hand and foot movements to be sure, but incredibly slow. Incredibly slow! They also had a puppet show, which was all in Cambodian and not much movement of the puppets, except the bullfight at the end. Despite being in Cambodian, the bullfight part was really neat, and saved the puppet show.

Then, they had two dancing and singing skits, which were a lot of fun. My favorite involved a group of young people whispering and joking with each other throughout the dance. They teased and played silly tricks on other members of the group. It was juvenile in a good-hearted way that made it feel mature and funny. Quite novel I thought. They also had a song with an actor in a great peacock costume, which I thought was very inventive.

Day 2 Siem Reap

Today, we had a lovely, if incredibly hot and humid, morning at Angkor Wat. I have added captions to many of the photos giving more specific details about each temple, so look for those.

The temple, at sunrise, was so amazing. I think the pictures actually do it justice! Unfortunately, it was Buddha's Day today, so the main temple shrine at the top of the temple was closed to visitors. We don't know what we missed, other than a long flight of stairs. But it was all so beautiful anyway I didn't feel like I missed anything.

After the main temple, we went to three other temples in the area. My favorite was the second one that had lovely faces on all of its towers. The fourth one was also quite lovely with its beautiful graceful trees intertwined into the building.

By ten am, Dad was exhausted from the heat. And who could blame him - it was super humid all morning. We thought it would be the rainy season here in Cambodia and Vietnam, but its worse. There's so much humidity in the air we might as well be swimming, and sometimes Dad looks like he has been swimming, but in fact we have seen little to no actual rain.

We stopped for some iced coffee that was actually really tasty. I'm not sure which was better, the ice or the coffee. The ice was not like the half-baked ice we get from the fountain at home that melts in a minute, this ice was from a real block o' ice. And it was Refreshing! The drink pepped us up so we could make it through the final temple. Thankfully.

Angkor Wat was really quite a magical place. I wish we had had more time and less humidity to take in the spirituality and loveliness of the whole place - which is vast. We only saw four temples, but there are many more to see.

We returned back to the hotel about noon and dad was wet with sweat from the top of his head down to his knees. Poor thing. I've never seen anything like it. We were only just walking through temples and the forest, but to look at him, we had just been cutting wood for five hours. Who knew humidity could do that to a person!

After resting all afternoon and having a nice dinner at a sister restaurant to the one we visited in Phnom Penh (the one that helps street kids), we decided that we would forego a second day at Angkor Wat and instead spend an extra day in Bangkok. We are flying out tomorrow morning - we couldn't take another exhausting bus ride.

One curious thing about Cambodia, apparently, they have a real problem with orphans and street children. Although I didn't see any actual children by themselves, they have signs everywhere about orphanage tourism and not making children into a tourist attraction. Such a strange and truly sad thing to see.

We went to two restaurants that are helping former street kids by teaching them the hospitality industry - cooking, waitering, etc. I tend to think of street kids as hardened gang members or incredibly tough kids from difficult homes, but I get the feeling these kids were orphaned or abandoned because their parents simply couldn't afford to take care of them, and possibly that the whole family could be living on the street and these kids were simply fighting to survive. Definitely a different paradigm from America.

Cambodia was eye-opening. I saw so much more of the countryside here than I did in Vietnam. And I think Cambodia is much poorer than Vietnam, and perhaps even more so than India. They just don't have the resources and the infrastructure that India has. But they seem to be working their way through it slowly, but surely. And perhaps the best part is they have a strong cultural background, they seem to value their heritage, and they understand how to preserve and exploit it for turistic purposes. So we can expect that their future development won't involve bulldozing over their past history.

I especially enjoyed the laid-back vibe here in Siem Reap. It's a comfortable city that was a breath of fresh air after the endless hours of bumpy roads on the bus. And the food. We definitely had some unique dishes with great flavors and food combinations here in Cambodia. I wish I had kept better track of them. I'm going to blame the humidity for my deficiencies!

And that brings our short adventure through Cambodia to an end. Here we come Thailand!

Photos: Angkor Wat 1: Main Temple

cfitchey — Wed, 28 May 2014 10:10:00 GMT

Photos: Angkor Wat 2: Temple of Faces

cfitchey — Wed, 28 May 2014 09:02:00 GMT

Photos: Angkor Wat 3: Crumbling Temple and Temple of Overgrown Trees

cfitchey — Wed, 28 May 2014 08:08:00 GMT