Warsaw Recap - 3 of 3

I'll jet through this last post. It's a bit of architecture, churches, and food - and not a lot of any of them.
A lot of Warsaw's architecture has that post-WW2 Socialist Realist feel to it. The building above, for example, the Palace of Culture and Science, was a gift from Soviet Russia and it was designed by a Russian architect. I liked it. Fortunately for us, it was right across the street from our hotel, making our hotel easy to find. Unfortunately, it's sort of square. So a couple of times we were looking at it, but we weren't sure which side we were standing on - and it's a long way from one side to the other. We never went in. We meant to, but we got back to the hotel on the last day, realized we'd missed it, shrugged and said, "Oh well...next time."

This was shot from the courtyard of the Banking and Finance Center. We walked by on a bank holiday. These square, gray, solid buildings look really great when there's no one around. There was another couple - a mother and son combo - who were taking pictures of this building while we were there, but it was big enough that we were able to avoid them.

There are a lot of palaces in Warsaw. This palace, that palace, a former palace, etc. (I think they're overusing/misusing the word.) The photo above is of the Palace on the Water. It actually looked like a palace, whereas some of the other buildings looked like just another a very large building. This had a lot of repairs done to it after the war because rather than blowing it up - as they had planned - the Nazis just set fire to it before they left. Thanks, you guys, hope that taking over the world thing works out.

The palace was crowded with people and there were a couple of peacocks, which were causing a bit of a fuss. They were squawking and people wanted pictures of them. The peacocks weren't cooperating. Not a lot of "back feathers up" photos. But some nice snaps of the canals and lakes.

Something else there were a lot of were churches. A huge church filled with statues and art and right next to it would be another huge church. It was ridiculous planning. Warsaw must have a lot of Catholics. However, if you've seen a lot of old European Catholic churches, you've pretty much seen these. They're pretty, but I sort of felt like I'd seen them already.

One thing I hadn't seen was some really good relics. I've seen relics before, but these looked like they'd just been cleaned and remounted. I forget what church this was, but they were beautiful and fascinating. A lot of the ones I've seen are just brown bits of a bone that were glued to a piece or red velvet 70 years ago. These were big and nicely mounted. (These are relics, right?)

We visited the Royal Castle on the last day. I was a bit ambivalent about going in. It's a massive structure, and it's beautiful, but the real castle was destroyed by (say it with me now...) the Nazis, in 1944. So this is largely a reconstruction and - I hate to say it, but - it sort of feels like it. Everything is really new looking - especially some of the statuary. That said, I liked seeing it because it's beautifully done and it does give you the feeling of being in a really old Polish building. But it didn't give me a "King Zygmunt III slept here" feeling.

Complicating matters were several groups of school children (on a Saturday?) who were...what's the word I'm looking for? Oh - groups of school children. Avoid. at. all. costs.

This is me buying stamps at the big post office in Warsaw that is - this is my favorite part - open 24/7/365! When I went to get a number (they are very organized) an old woman walked right up and tried to grab my number. Without thinking, I said, "What are you - nuts? Get in line!" To be fair - to me - she was pretty crazy and after I took my number she just wandered around muttering to herself. Buying the stamps was a slight challenge. It called on my vast array of non-verbal skills. Pointing, hand gestures, the universal holding up of fingers. Oddly, speaking English really loudly doesn't always make people understand what I am saying - but I tried that too.

The first night of our stay, we asked the guy at the desk for a restaurant recommendation. I wanted something very Polish and very normal. I was thinking of a Polish diner in NYC and I wanted a plate of pierogi like I used to get there. Yes, it was a lot to ask for, but if you don't ask...

He sent us to Delicja Polska, which is a little chi-chi and not what I was hoping for. First of all, it was a beautiful evening and all of the street cafes were filled. This place had no sidewalk tables. The whole thing was in the basement, which was unfortunate. And as far as the decorations went, it looked like Poland's gayest man and someone's grandmother had had a child and that offspring had grown up and decorated the restaurant. It was over-the-top in a lot of strange ways. Lots of flowers and too much of everything. Cute idea, though. And the food was really good. I probably should have said that first. The food was great. A little fancy, but really good Polish food.

The second day, we found another restaurant, Klaskyka Polskie. (Full disclosure: I found it and insisted on walking in to ask if: 1) they spoke English, and 2) they were open for lunch.) I didn't get a plate of pierogi, but we got some fabulous potato pancakes (mine had goulash on them and Fred's had a mushroom sauce), and went back in the evening for the Polish plate. The Polish plate was various kinds of Polish food, one of which was pierogi and one of which was potato pancake - again. I'd complain, but they were good every single time: thin and fried with a sauce. It's a heart attack on a plate, but they were delicious.

The Polish apparently haven't gotten wind that there are other vegetables in the world besides cabbage and carrots. This was also not a diner, but it was cozy "as all get out," as my father would say. You can click on the link and see the restaurant: a little artificial in appearance, but I'd totally go back.

I really love trying the local cuisine when we travel. I always think about how much my father would enjoy it. He likes different kinds of food. I've always been a good eater like that.

Side note: Along the Nowy Swiat were several coffee places. Coffee Heaven was one. (It...disappoints.) They also had several others, including a Costa and a Starbucks. Apparently the Starbucks had just opened because it was completely crowded with people - including an American and a Dutchman a couple of times.

While I was talking to my student today, she told me about her trip last weekend to Budapest. She had that "Wow!" feeling when she was talking about Budapest. I don't feel "wow" about Warsaw, but I enjoyed the trip. I wish I'd worn better shoes. It was an interesting city to see, one that I don't think a lot of people (comparatively) are going to bother with. If I were going to make a suggestion, I'd say you could probably save it. It'll get better as the years go by. Apparently there's an ongoing effort to improve it. But if you're in the neighborhood, definitely stop in.

Warsaw Recap - 2 of 3

On Friday, we headed out to see the Former Jewish Ghetto. It's in a completely different part of town than the Old Town and the New Town. We walked to get there. It felt really far away.

There's a Path of Remembrance and it starts with the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes - shown here. It's large and, as with a lot of these monuments, it includes a lot of empty space.

When we walked the path, it led us along some streets where we saw little markers like this one. They're engraved with why the spot is significant. However, they are only engraved in Polish and Hebrew. If you don't read either one, you're sort of left out of the experience.

The main problem I had with the walk was that the ghetto is gone. There's nothing much to see. But on top of that, there was no real hook to draw me into the whole experience. I couldn't even read the monuments. I was made to depend on my scant knowledge of the war and the uprising, plus whatever help the guidebook could give. I know, poor me. I'm a white Protestant American male and I feel all left out. Boo hoo. I'm just sayin'.

The part of that walk that I found the most moving was the Umschlagplatz Monument, which is where people were loaded into boxcars and shipped off to death camps. It's designed to be in the shape of a boxcar. Now that's a well-designed monument. The walk as a whole, however, was a bit disappointing. Granted, they don't have much to work with since most of the buildings were leveled, but most of it didn't speak to me the way other monuments like this have.

The site of the Pawiak Prison was also well done. Again, it's empty space. There were not any tourists (except us) around. It's just these monuments in the middle of a neighborhood. It would be interesting to live near one of these and see it every day. I like that they didn't build anything where the prison was. It's just a gated off space. On the other side of the wall that is on the right in this photo is a tree.
Fred and I discussed whether or not the tree was real. It's definitely not alive. But it looks like fiberglass to me. There are obituaries nailed to it. It's a nice addition to the whole prison monument.
One thing I liked in Berlin and that I liked here - and there's even one here in Amsterdam - is a line in the ground where the wall used to be. In Warsaw, it's the Ghetto Wall. I tell you, spending a whole day reading about the havoc wreaked by the Nazis was disturbing. We walked towards a piece of the wall that is standing, but got turned around and ended up missing it. We didn't go back. My feet were killing me.

When the walk down the Pat was over, we walked back to the hotel past these lovely buildings. Big gray buildings. Fred said that the EU is sending Poland a lot of money. I said, "Just send paint." Everything is so gray. It's just cinder block gray buildings.

Street after street. It's everything you would expect a place like this to be. It was not the prettiest side of Warsaw.Then there was this sign - the one with the girl. I have no idea what it means. Yeah, probably children playing, but what's she holding? Is that a lollipop? A balloon?

When we got back from Istanbul, my friend Venessa read my posts and said, "Well, I can see you didn't enjoy it." We did. We just weren't...taken with it - like she was. That's sort of how I feel about Warsaw. We enjoyed it, but then there's this whole cloud hanging over the city with the history and with how cut off it felt.

Oh well. Tomorrow is churches and other architecture - and a bit about the food.

Warsaw Recap - 1 of 3

One of the advantages of blogging every day is that not every post has to be fabulous. It just has to be. Another is that I can draw things out a bit. Thus, this will be the first of three posts recapping our recent weekend in Warsaw.

I'll start by saying that I enjoyed it the trip as a whole, but that I don't think either one of us were blown away. (Part of this was that after he booked the trip, Fred heard the Kraków would have been the better choice.) However, we saw some new stuff, saw some stuff (very much like stuff) we'd seen before, and we have now changed the Warsaw pin in our world map from white (trips we'd like to take or that we have planned) to red (places we've been together.) The white pin went immediately to Kiev, by Fred's decree. By the way, the mermaid at the top is the coat of arms of Warsaw.
I've divided our tour up into three posts. This first post is about Old Town and New Town. It's easy enough to write about the Old Town - and the New Town - because they're so darn cute. They've been restored or rebuilt or transformed into everything you want a little Eastern European city to be. If you were just staying for a day or two, it would be a great area to stay in because being there would bookend your day. We stayed a little further out, which was fine.

We approached Old Town by coming across the square in the photo above. After walking the long avenue (not such a chore), we rounded a corner and saw the square. Seeing it made me really happy. It's got that old feeling with the quaint houses all painted up in various earth tones. Totally cute and worth the price of admission. (No, you don't actually have to pay admission; it's just an expression.)
While we were there, they had a big military thing where they were marching around. May 3 is the anniversary of the Constitution of Poland and there was a lot of stuff going on that had to do with that the whole weekend. Most notably, closed shops on Saturday.

The square in the New Town is totally cute. There are outside restaurants and people selling things. There are a lot of shops around the square. One thing about these shops that I noticed is that they are filled to the brim with lots of little things. They have multiples of thimbles and figurines and postcards, etc. Doing inventory in one of those stores would be horrible. There's also lots of authentic really old Polish stuff to buy - if that's your thing.

We also spotted some carved handicrafts. Old Jewish men were a popular subject. And speaking of carving/sculpture, there is lots of this kind of thing around...

There are other details that give the square lots of charm.

They're definitely trying to convey the Eastern European charm of Warsaw in better times - i.e. pre-WW2. The colors and music on the square made it a nice place to sit. Of course that means that it was flooded with people. However, it never felt totally crowded or claustrophobic. Maybe it wasn't that bad because tourism is down a bit. But I heard several American voices. I was surprised at how many. I wouldn't think this would be where a lot of Americans wanted to put their tourist dollars. There was some very interesting art on sale in around the square. We bought a small print.
Right next to the Old Town was the Monument to the Insurgents of the Warsaw Uprising. It's large and imposing. It's sort of impressive in terms of its design, but the artist in me didn't love it. It was sort of stiff and cold. I sort of missed that whole Warsaw Uprising story when I was in history class. Fred missed taking a picture of the whole thing because he was trying to take really artsy shots. (The basic documentation photos are usually my department, but I forgot the smaller camera.) So here's one I found.

While Warsaw's Old Town and New Town are both cute and worth a visit, they are not all there is to the EU's eighth largest city. There's much more, which I will cover tomorrow and Tuesday. By the way, the exchange rate was one euro to 4.39 PLN or złoty.

Yes, an entire weekend of doing math in my head! We were surprised at how affordable it was. We had a couple of very nice dinners for less than we thought we would have to pay. I wonder how prices will change when the euro finds its way to Poland.

Last Day in Warsaw

While we were at the bar getting our "welcome drink" - on the night before we leave - Fred said, "There's no seats. Let's sit next to the whore." A little later, a woman starts talking to us and it turns out she's from Texas. She works in IT at some bank, and has lived here for seven years! And it turns out that the other woman really was a whore. Who knew?

Fred.

Did lots of walking today. Saw lots. We saw lots of the Old Town and the New Town today. We toured the castle, which was overrun with school children - and it turns out that the whole thing is reconstructed because the Germans blew up the real one during the war! Who knew?

Looking forward to getting home tomorrow. I'll write more about the trip later.

Warsaw

Fred and I are on the road for the weekend. Just a long weekend in Warsaw. Our friend, Dalia, is watching the apartment. She wanted to sell (on Queen's Day) in a better neighborhood than she currently lives in, so she's is holding down the fort for us while she does her thing.

Meanwhile, we are walking ourselves silly. We didn't wake up today until about 11:00, which was fine with me because I knew Fred would be go-go-go as soon as he woke up. We walked for about eight hours before finally sitting down to eat. But according to Fred, "Well...we sat for an hour or so with the coffee breaks, so it wasn't really eight hours." Tell that to my feet.

You can really tell that Warsaw was under someone's thumb for a long time. Lots of gray concrete and the trams - like in the picture above - are really old. Of course we haven't ridden one because we have to walk everywhere. Seen some interesting stuff. I'll elaborate when I'm not in the lobby of a hotel.

Monk Bowl

When Fred and I were in Bangkok last summer, he read a sidebar in the guide book that described a Monk Bowl Factory. He decided he wanted to see and we went in search of it. It's not that difficult to find things in Bangkok, but my experience is that you need to be careful of who you ask when you're looking for help.

We asked a woman for help one afternoon and it cost us hours because she wanted us to go somewhere else. It's a long difficult-to-tell story and we don't come out looking very good, so I'll skip that one. However, the story of the monk bowl is a success story and its' quick, so I'll put it in.

The walk to the neighborhood wasn't a problem. The problem was finding the actual "factory" where the monk bowls were made. It happened to be in an alleyway off an alleyway off a small street. We stood and talked to a guy for fifteen minutes until he finally understood what we were looking for and he took us there - and didn't ask for anything. Here's a shot of the first thing we saw. Does it inspire confidence or would it send you running?

The "factory" was really little more than a garage with a couple of teenagers working the front. Neither spoke English. They fetched the owner pretty quickly. He was a shirtless older guy with a pony tail. He understood what we wanted. (They have one product.) And he showed us the display case where we chose two bowls. One was the one at the top of this post, which we kept and one was a dark, metallic green that we knew would be the perfect gift for our friend, Butch.

The process of making them is fascinating, but I won't go through the whole story. Another guy blogged about it which you can read about here. Basically, the bowls are made up of eight pieces. (And all of the employees can all count to eight, which each one proved to us.) I think eight might be symbolic of something. Here's one put together, but not pounded out into a round bowl.
They were amazingly accomodating and took us through how the bowls are put together. The whole thing is done by hand and it's pretty amazing if you're into how things are put together, which I am. It's all sheet metal and hand tools. Here's a photo showing an old man in an alleyway and how they four little triangular pieces are attached. It's all about a hammer and pounding the metal until it submits. (Sort of like how some people rear children.)

All of those little zippered in pieces are cut by hand. The alleyway was probably a meter wide and people were walking along it the whole time. I can't imagine doing that all day long. It was really primitive - and sort of dank and hot, hence the shirtlessness.

We bought two bowl. Fred instinctively tried to bid the owner down. (We bought small ones. They have several sizes.) Fred took off a couple hundred baht off the asking price and I said, "Dude, that's like a dollar. Just pay him."

The bowl is one of my favorite souvenirs from that trip because I saw what it came from and where it came from. The most amazing thing is that they're made from eight pieces, but they have a ring like a solid piece of metal. And apparently real monks actually use them. If you're ever in Bangkok, go look them up.

Monk Bowl
Handmade by Mr. Somsak Buppachat (Mou)
14 Soi BANBAT, BARIPART Rd.
Bangkok 10100 Tel: 02-621-2635

Next Stop: Warsaw

Fred and I have a map to chart our travels. It's color coded. (I love color coding.) I've put a pictures of the map on here before, but here it is again because it's such a nice illustration of where we'll be.

Color coding decoded: orange - Fred alone, green - me alone, red - us together, white - where we want to go. If you were standing in our kitchen, I'd make you figure it out for yourself.

I think I wrote already that Fred put a kibosh on vacations for 2009. But then he found a great deal online (aren't all the great deals found online?) for a weekend in Warsaw. And a weekend away is not an official vacation in The Book of Fred. Similarly, a week on a Greek Island is not a vacation. For it to be a vacation, it has to be something other than a city trip (Warsaw, Berlin, London, etc.) or a week on a beach. Come live in our world. You might not always understand the rules, but you get lots more air miles.

I digress.

Yes, the site of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is now a great destination for a weekend away! The problem is that when I think of Warsaw, I always think of gray pictures and film footage from World War II. I think if falling-down buildings and Nazis and Schindler's List. So when Fred suggested it, I was not impressed, but I've never been there before, so I'm cool with it - as the kids used to say. It sort of reminds me of a conversation I had with my mother. When I told her, two years ago, that we were going to Croatia for vacation, she said, "Is it safe?"

My answer: If overweight Russians in bikinis don't scare you, you'll be fine. Similarly, I'm sure Warsaw will be filled with Eastern European tourists. (Just don't cut in line at the buffet.) I once said, "We never go to Eastern Europe." We do now.

Since the initial announcement/suggestion, I've done a little reading and it sounds like it'll be a very nice weekend. Since the war ended, the city has an extreme make-over - and I love those shows - so you can see how excited I am.

The current student pastor at church is from Poland - by way of Edinburgh. She happens to have a friend visiting from Warsaw (what are the chances?) and she sent me a few suggestions about some places to see. They are as follows:

The Warsaw Rising Museum - About the 1944 uprising and the legacy of the Polish underground
Warsaw Old Town - The historical district
Royal Baths Park - Old gardens and parks
Palace of Culture and Science - A nice view from the top, which I always enjoy

Sounds like a well rounded start to a trip.

We'll find a guidebook somewhere and carry that along. Any suggestions are always nice - feel free to comment or send an email. We do a lot of walking on these trips. Fred loves to walk. (And you should see his shoes. They are not sneakers. They're shoes you'd wear to work. He's nuts.) I like walking enough, but I'm not the walker that he is. I would see far less without him - or take a bus or subway. I'm glad he's there to pull me along. And I'm sure I add something to the experience.

The trip is planned for Queen's Day - April 30. He's already heard that we should have chosen Krakow. When he told me, I said, "Oh please. It's not going anywhere."

So that's something to look forward to: a new pin in the map, a new snow globe and lots of new snaps - and one more country that I can say I've been to.

T is for Tegels

Tegels is Dutch for tiles. Interestingly (or not), on the little translator widget on my Mac, if you type in tegel, it give you flag as the English definition, but if you switch it, flag becomes vlag in the Dutch box. And if you type in tile in the English box, you get tegel. I knew I was right, but someone needs to take a look at that widget. Glad it was a free widget.

A couple of years ago, when Fred and I were in Istanbul, I took a lot of shots of the tiles that lined the walls of the buildings. They were just covered in tiles - and I'm pretty sure these were built in the days before Henry Ford and the assembly line, although there must have been some assembly line process to make all those tiles. There are zillions of them. And they're really beautiful and in pretty good shape.

Years ago, I worked in a ceramics factory that boasted that all of its pieces were hand painted. It was one of those jobs that I, as an art student, got thinking that it was so nice to have a job where I can actually use my art ability. And then it quickly became a chore because I was drawing the same stuff on these pots over and over making crap money. And I always went home covered in clay dust and glaze.

Interestingly (and isn't this all interesting?), if you follow the link, you can see the actual stuff we were making.

Anyway, after I took my pictures (not a completely original idea, I know) in Istanbul, I noticed a couple of other people taking pictures of tiles. It's so nice to inspire.

P.S. Instanbul is really nice for a long weekend. Tons to see and it's got a very exotic feel.

The Long Trip Back

Our trip back from Cincinnati seemed ridiculously long - and it was. The original plan was to get on the plane at about 11:00 in the morning in Cincinnati, change planes in Detroit, and get into Amsterdam at about 6:15 on Monday morning. From there, I would go to work. Sounds horrible, but I'd planned a light, energetic day at work so I could stay awake and wouldn't have to call in a substitute again. Thanks, Alastair, for invigilating for me.

Patty dropped us off at the airport at about 10:00 and we went to the Starbucks before heading to our gate. At the Starbucks, a fairly attractive guy of about 22 was manning the cash register. He had thinning curly hair that was pulled back into a tiny little pony tail. He was so pleasant and so accommodating that it felt like he was playing the role of someone who is pleasant and accommodating. He would have seemed sarcastic, but you could see in his eyes that he was sincere. He also had these little affected hand gestures he did. When he asked Fred if he would like a "traditional espresso macchiato," he looked like he pantomiming forming a little ball of clay before our eyes for just a second. When we'd paid and we were moving to the coffee pick up area, Fred turned to me and said, "What was that?"

We made it through the security area fairly quickly. I got picked to go through a new machine they have called the Entryscan. It blasts air on you and then analyzes the air to see if you've been around explosives. It's awful. (By the way, I am officially explosive-free, so I'm fine for parties and other occasions both formal and informal.) Fortunately, we'd checked three bags, so we didn't have any trouble with security. Going to Ohio, I had a big pair of scissors taken away from me at Schipol (woops) and my pocket knife taken away from me in Detroit. Actually, they let me put the knife in an old bubblewrap envelope and I checked it, but it never came through the belt in Cincinnati, so it was gone.

At the gate, we sat and waited and then we sat some more. After about an hour, they started boarding us. Right after they took our tickets and we were headed into the gangway, everyone started coming off the plane saying that someone said the plane was "broken." Nothing more specific than that, just broken - like a child's toy. An older woman was complaining about being made to disembark, but I thought, I don't want to be on a broken plane. I was totally cool with not getting on anything broken.

After a few minutes, they announced that the flight was canceled and that we should all line up so that they could move us to other flights. And most of the people going to Detroit were right in front. Wouldn't it have been nice to let people with connecting flights go first? Whatever. It took them forever to do each person and the line was really long. To make the situation even more annoying, there was a lonely young Black girl headed back to college in front of us who was on the phone talking in her loud American voice the whole time. It went something like this, "Yeah? Then what did he say?...Seriously?...What was he wearing?...Girl stop..." It was just that keep me company or I'll be alone with the thoughts in my head sort of chatter.

I decided that I was going to call Patty and tell her what was going on. As I was headed to the payphone (they still have them), I heard an announcement over the PA. "Would Andrew Baker please come to gate A 13. You have a message. Andrew Baker." Fred and I both thought, Yeah! They're going to give us the special treatment we deserve and move us to the front of the line! (This is a thought we think throughout the day most days.) Turns out that there was a small package for me at the check-in counter at Terminal 3.

When I got to the counter, the young woman who'd helped us - Kristen - said, "The strap off one of your bags must of broken and your knife fell out. We didn't find the strap, but someone put your knife in an envelope." She handed it back to me. That's not how it happened, but I just smiled and said thank you. Fred bought it for me in Switzerland. It's a Swiss army knife - more a nail file and tiny scissor than a real knife. It's a replacement for the one I'd bought myself in Switzerland but was taken away from me in Florida. I can fly all over the world with that thing in my pocket, but get into the US and it's taken away every time. I'm usually more concious of it, but I forgot. It's so tiny. It would be a lot of trouble to try to kill someone with that blade - I'm assuming.

Then Kristen said, "How's it going up there? I heard your flight was canceled." I told her the line was going really slowly. "Would you like me to try to rebook your flights?" Could you? She said the next flight was going through Paris at 7:30 that evening. Or we could get the same flight the next day going through Detroit. I decided I needed to ask Fred's opinion. If my cell phone worked in the states and if I'd brought it and if Fred's cell phone had been charged and on, that might have been done with a phone call. Instead, I had to go through security again.

When I got back to Fred, he was still in line. Our little friend was off the phone and stared at us while we talked. Fred agreed that we should take the flight through Paris and suggested that I go back and have Kristen help me. So I did. And I went back through security again to get back to him. By the time I got back to the gate again, he was standing in the hall waiting for me. Apparently, the woman doing the rebooking at the gate had suddenly looked at her watch and said, "I have to get back to my post." So the whole line merged and then moved to another desk. Then that woman said, "I have to get back to my post" and they were abandonned. Fred said, "Don't ever talk to me about Dutch service ever again." I won't until we're faced with crap service again. That should be about ten minutes.

So I called Patty and she said she'd come get us. Fred thought it would be a terrible inconvenience for her come get us, take us back to their house and then take us back to the airport. Maybe, but she didn't seem to mind. They drive in Cincinnati - a lot. I don't think they think about it like we non-drivers do. At any rate, I jump at any chance to spend a little more time with Patty, so I liked it. Plus, I had left my ipod at her house (Can. You. Imagine?) so it was a great opportunity for me to reunite with my constant companion.

While we were waiting for Patty, we went by Starbucks again and saw our little friend again. He seemed to have no memory of our being there before. He just proceded to take our order and smile at us like he was sitting on a little cloud of bliss. I've known guys like that. He's the type that's going to be 40 and single and sort of hippy-granola and will always have a smile on his face while he works in a job where that constant smile is an assett. (Read: cashier at Starbucks) Oh well. At least he's happy. (And he had such lovely skin. Twenty-two. Been there - done that.)

After a short stay at their house, we went to a restaurant and ate sushi and then went back to the airport where I went through security for the fourth time that day, which you'd think would arrouse suspicion, but it didn't. Anyone curious about how that little nail file of a pocket knife got through security three times should be assured that a cavity search would have gleaned nothing. I was not that desperate. But once when I was going through security in Dallas, the security guy said that I shouldn't bother taking off my belt. "Just cover the buckle with your fist," he said. Apparently, that much flesh and bone is enough to keep the metal detectors from going off. So do the math.

Thank goodness I had the ipod back. The Delta plane we were on didn't have individual screens like the Northwest planes do. I knit for a while and then fell asleep (with a little help). I woke up four hours later when they were serving breakfast.

Charles de Gaulle in Paris is a pretty airport, but it wasn't that efficient or clear in terms of where to go. Crap signage. At any rate, we hung out in the gold card lounge for a while (love that Fred and his gold card) and then got on our flight to Amsterdam. So I've been to Paris again, but it looked almost the same as the view I get of Detroit every year.

Back in Amsterdam, our bags did not arrive with us. They were left in Paris. Well, mine were. Fred's were not accounted for. He was making an inventory of his luggage (with reciepts) immediately - and mourning the loss of that favorite sweater. I said, "Dude, I got my pocket knife back. You'll get your luggage. Don't worry."

Back at the house, I sang a different tune. My computer, all of my cables (including the charging cable for my ipod) and a lot of other crap was in my suitcase. Years ago, my friend, Maria, said I should get a computer. I said, "What would I do with a computer?" Ten years later, I sat in the apartment thinking, Is it really possible that I spent entire evenings not checking my email or Googling answers to questions? I also wondered if it was possible that we could leave Patty's house at 9:30 on Sunday morning and arrive in Amsterdam at 5:30 on Monday evening. What a trip. Will I do it again next year? Of course!

Our bags arrived on Tuesday afternoon at 15:30. Tuesday was completely strange. The no computer thing really threw me. I hope I never have to deal with that again. I like being in contact, checking my email, blogging, etc. It's important to me. Fred - not so much.

And then the week started and went like any other week. It's nice to be home.

The Winner is...

The other day, my friend, Alastair, said, "You seem to be participating in National Non-Blogging Month." I kept thinking I would catch up, but I just got too far behind and my heart wasn't in it this year. I'm also really busy with a lot of stuff from two different jobs, so I just sort of let that go. And then I disappeared.

However, Lou tagged me on a meme and I thought I would at least participate in that - since I inspired her to do NaBloPloMo - and she is doing really well. So here's the meme.

The Rules:

1) Link to your tagger and list all these rules in your blog.

2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by including links to their blogs

4) Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

1. I'm a middle child
2. I love hearing the sound of a freight train in the distance while I'm lying in bed.
3. The first concert I ever attended was Barry Manilow.
4. I once waited on Yoko Ono - and I saved the fork she used.
5. I was 37 before I left North America.
6. I have three tattoos.
7. I sort of have no desire to visit Australia - not sure why.

I won't bother tagging anyone, except maybe Kathy, my sister.

I'm here in Ohio and I'm enjoying myself - as is Fred. It's mostly about sitting around and talking - and eating. Yesterday, we saw Happy-Go-Lucky, which I thought was an interesting decision since it was a European import that Fred and I have been talking about seeing for a month or so. But there was nothing much on. The selection here was diplorable. I gave it two thumbs up. The rest of the group gave it one thumb up. No thumbs down.

We're also playing a fair amount of games, which I really like. We played a Scattergories type game on Thanksgiving night and then we played Celebrity last night - Fred was named Most Valuable Player of his team. He's so subdued generally, but he's on fire when he plays that game. I'm just crazy about games in general. Everyone gets involved and now most of the kids are at the age where they can play - to varying degrees.

Yesterday, the two little girls were trying to entice me into playing a game. They wanted a game that involved me chasing them around. I said, "We can only play a game that I can play while holding a cup of coffee." How about checkers? (I was roped into that the night before.) "No checkers," I said. They asked about Bingo. "No Bingo. But I'd play Candyland if you want." They said I should go get it. "Oh yeah...that's not really going to happen. I'm the adult. I don't fetch for you." We ended up looking through a suitcase full of old journals that I left here several years ago. Big fun. I love stuff like that. It's like a time capsule - and it's all about me.

Today, we're going to do a bit of shopping at Costco and then tonight we're going to see Garrison Keillor, which will surely be a wonderful treat. I've heard about it for years - and I listen to the podcast, which is just a snippet. I'm really looking forward to it.

There's so much eating that goes on here. We snack constantly. It's all good stuff, but it's so much more than Fred and I are used to consuming. Cheesy dips and spreads (like a spicy shrimp dip) on crackers, cakes and pastries, anything that you could pile a slice of baguette.

So I'll get back to blogging. I think getting behind and realizing that I had seven posts to do sort of paralyzed me. Giving up was good. Alex and Lou have done a really good job this month. I think I'll have a self-imposed NaBloPoMo in a month or two when it's not November.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

Weekend in Belgium

When Butch visited the first time, he and his friends wanted to take a side trip to Belgium. Fred and I discouraged it because they were only here for about a week, and I really feel like there's enough to see in Amsterdam and the surrounding area to keep you busy for a week. So when he was planning this trip, we decided to spend a weekend in Belgium.

Disclaimer: I've often referred to Belgium as the Canada of the Netherlands, meaning that it's okay, but completely missable and not really that interesting. However, I take it back. Belgium has some very interesting bits to it. I've been sort of charmed the last couple of times we've been there. And Canada really is pretty interesting. (There's just a really horrible drive from the border to Toronto - or there was several years ago.) So I take it all back. They are both fine countries.

For our weekend in Belgium, we went to Antwerp. Fred's niece and her husband (and two kids) live there and we've been there a number of times. The first few times we went, there was construction everywhere, which was annoying. Not that's calmed down and it's a very nice city. It's really not the kind of city one sees on one's first trip to Europe, unless it's part of a big package and the bus just happens to be swinging through, but it's a good place for a weekend away if you happen to live here or are looking for a new European city to visit.

The main square - seen here - is a good example of the feel of the whole city. It's old and it's easily find your way around (especially if you have Fred by your side holding a map). We had the requisite Belgian fries and then ate mussels one night for dinner. And we drank some Belgian beer. The first time Fred and I went down there, we went to a beer bar and had a couple of really good, high octane beers. This time, we just had a couple of normal beers with dinner.

We took a side trip to Brugge (there are several spellings) on Saturday. I had been there six years ago 0n my first trip - we drove through and spent a couple of hours. All I remember is lace. It's an excellent side trip. Brugge is completely cute and set up for tourism. At one point, I turned to Butch and said, "Doesn't it feel like we're walking through a movie set?"

Fred and I went to the top of the big bell tower used in the movie In Bruges. It's sort of annoying because they only have one stairwell for up and down, but people are polite and patient for the most part. (It's a lot of steps.) There's an excellent view from the top. However, as Colin Farrell says in the movie, there's really nothing to do in Brugge. There's lots of cute and it's very easy to take good pictures on a pretty day, but then it's time to go.

Antwerp has a subway, but it felt like it was built in the Seventies and then left alone with no modernization. It needs some help. It's not dangerous, but it's dank. It's what I imagine communist Russia to have been like. Fortunately, Antwerp is easily walkable.

On Sunday morning - while my choir was singing back here in Amsterdam - we went to the flea market. It's a good flea market - and it closes at about 13:00. Lots to see. Stuff from all over the world. Africa, Asia, and whatever else people pulled out of their basements. Butch bought a couple of things for a total of €5,50, which (to answer his constant question) means $8.02.

It was a very walky weekend. Fred is a walker and Butch and I went along obediently. Then, when we were almost to the hotel, we heard there were "toxic fumes" in the square on which our hotel was located. So along with quite a number of Hasidic Jews trying to get to their synagogue that was around the corner from our hotel, we were delayed and then detoured. We finally arrived home last night at about 18:30.

Antwerp is a nice weekend away from Amsterdam. The trains run regularly and dependably, and they have lots of restaurants and shops. If you've never been, I recommend it - unless you're on your first trip to Europe, and then I'd suggest you wait.

Oh By the Way...

...we're back.

I've been meaning to blog, but so much stuff has been going on - just re-entry sort of stuff - that I have neglected my blog.

American politics have also been taking up a lot of my time. We enjoyed the Democratic Convention (the next morning - we taped it) and then there was that wacky announcement of John McCain picking Sarah Palin for his V.P.

Back when I worked in a rehab, I would listen to recovering crack addicts talk about running out of crack and then desperately crawling around on the floor looking for anything they might have missed.

That was me the whole weekend. I checked every website I could think of thinking There must be something that I've missed. Why can't someone just write something else about this woman? I kept flipping on CNN saying, "Sports? Who cares about sports?" Any other news just made me roll my eyes and sigh.

Then they announced that her daughter's pregnant. I LOVE abstinence only programs. They totally work every time! What...ever. That's what we need: a 44-year-old grandmother a heart beat away from the presidency.

So that was sort of political, huh?

In other news, the wedding plans are coming along. We have to choose a menu at the restaurant and we dropped our rings off at the jeweler so they can be engraved and polished. And work is picking up. There's some fun stuff coming up for the fall.

It's so good to be back here. We walked out of the airport and I said, "It's so cool. That feels so good." We were so used to walking out of the hotel and being hit by a wave of heat and humidity. I love Amsterdam weather. Yeah, it's a little wet today, but it's not hot, and I like that.

Chiang Mai in Brief

We are back in Bangkok. Strange that it's the third time we've checked into this hotel. Feels almost homey. The trip to Chiang Mai and Northern Thailand was completely different than we expected.

We had a first class compartment in the train, but it was not the first class we are used to. There were roaches and it was cramped and sort of dirty. Still, we made the most of it and I got some fierce knitting time out of it. Unfortunately, at 9:45 in the evening, the conductor insisted on putting up our beds. I'd agreed to take the bottom bunk since we had spotted a couple of roaches and Fred didn't really think about the fact that that they can scale walls. I knitted until just after ten and then went to sleep. Fred tried to stay awake (to fend off the roaches), but didn't make it. The train pulled in at 7:00 and we were off to the hotel.

We hated the hotel for a number of reasons I won't go into here. We were only there for one night and we were picked up at 8:30 the next morning for our "trek." We thought it would be a little hike around the jungle and then we'd stay over night in some lodge where the biggest inconvenience might be a shared bath and air conditioning that wasn't quite up to par. We were both wearing the wrong shoes (and not just because they didn't match our handbags.)

We were taken to a mountain village where we ate lunch and finally our elephant picked us up and we headed down a muddy little path for about an hour to the the middle of a jungle and the driver dropped us off at a tiny little outpost that was nothing more than a platform.

After a three and a half hour hike through the jungle up a mountain, we arrived (sweaty, muddy and exhausted) at a bamboo hut. No running water. No electricity. But an incredible view. We actually went to bed (and immediately to sleep) at 8:30 because it was dark and there was nothing to do and we were both dog tired.

The next morning we walked down a muddy, horribly slippery path for an hour an a half (losing our guide part of the way down) and ended up at a tiny village where we were then taken to a "lodge." We had cooking classes, a garden tour, a vegetable carving class, a bike ride around the village and a tour of a neighborhood market at 5:30 in the morning. It was nothing like what we expected it to be. (We had received no details.) We had no free time and we were still recovering from out mountain climbing workout. But the food was good and we learned some new tricks. I can do things with an eggplant now that you wouldn't believe.

We got back to Chiang Mai and showered for the first time in what felt like a week. (It had been two days.) We walked around a bit. Didn't get too much done, but it seems like a city we could see again and send more time in. Charming in a way. We flew into Bangkok this morning and went immediately to the pool to soak and sit like we've been waiting to do.

We had some fabulous (and really spicy) Chinese food in Chinatown this evening. We're going to alternate seeing Bangkok and lounging by the pool. The whole point of these last few days is to lounge a lot. It feels like we've been gone for a really long time. I'm writing more detailed journal entries for anyone who's interested. I'll have to figure out how to post that. It's been quite an experience.

And we're home on the 27th for anyone who's keeping tabs on us.

Kiss kiss kiss. Man, I miss Amsterdam.

Cambodia in Three Snaps

We saw these monks on our long river trip. Any monk picture is fun to get.

We saw this while touring the Angkor complex. It's supposedly the best face. There are many.

This was on the river trip as well. It was amazing. I kept saying, "This is so real."

We're off to Chiang Mai now on the overnight train.