Monday, November 15, 2010

last stop: London

note: yes, I'm already back from my trip, but I've still got 2 entries left - this one, and then a final trip summary. Enjoy!

After 8 months of adventures, misadventures, and general shenanigans, my trip is almost over (back to the real world! Gah!!). But, before heading back to the US, I had one final stop: London. I had been there in 2001 to visit friends who were studying abroad, and I'm not sure why, but I didn't really like London that much. I think It was most likely because I was annoyed about how expensive things were, and I the weather was probably crappy, too. Well, whatever the reason was then, it didn't bug me this time around (although I did cry about the exchange rate a bit), and I had a blast.

I arrived on Monday, and caught up with some friends from work who were now working in the London office (special thanks to Anu, who let me crash at her place for the week). I chilled out, wandered around London, and explored a few museums. I spent one whole day at the Imperial War Museum, which I really enjoyed. They had a fascinating set of exhibits on WWI and WWII, and it was very interesting to learn about the war from the view-point of a country that was right on the front lines. They even had an exhibit where you were in a simulated bomb shelter during a bombing raid. Quite intense.

Over the weekend I was joined by college friends (Jean and Sabrina from Boston, and Mark from Brussels), and we explored the city some more. Definitely a good weekend. So, London, I apologize for thinking bad things about you for the past 9 years, I really enjoyed my visit. Oh, and your pubs are awesome!

Pics below:



me and the London parliament building at night. Good thing Guy Fox didn't succeed in blowing it up back in the day, it's a pretty cool building!





cool statue of the London Dragon (I think it is their city symbol or something - they're everywhere!)




cool giant ship in a bottle




London phone booth. Classic!




interesting WWII propaganda posters about moving kids out to the countryside to avoid the bombings




the London Eye at night




loved this headline placement confusion. Glad to see Obama's so concerned about sexy trousers!




Sabrina was not happy to learn that Yorkies are NOT for girls. Damn sexist candy bars!




artsy night shot with Big Ben



the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. I really liked this because when I was in Greece I heard the story about the Elgin marbles (how they had been removed from the Parthenon in the 1800s, and Greece wanted them back), so it was interesting to see the source of the debate.




you know what they say: "when in London, do as the Londoners do" - Mark and Sabrina enjoying tea and scones at high tea (the scones were amazing!)




cool night shot with a dragon silhouette

Sunday, November 7, 2010

weekend with the Danes

In order to continue the theme of "Europe is for reunions," after Amsterdam I flew to Copenhagen to visit Mie and Sanne, who (or is it whom? I stink at that grammar rule) I'd met in Laos and then traveled with for the next six weeks throughout Southeast Asia.

While I'd heard many good things about Copenhagen, I can't really give a good opinion of the city as a tourist, because rather than wander around the city, checking out all the museums, etc I was more interested in just hanging out and catching up with Sanne and Mie. However, we did go to the Carlsberg brewery for a very entertaining tour followed by some extremely competitive foosball (I won't gloat by rubbing in the fact that I went 3-1, because that would be rude). We also did a bike tour of the downtown area to see all the major sites. Oh, and random fun fact: bikes are extremely popular in Copenhagen. They have their own lane, etc. Very different from the US, where bikes pretty much have to just share the same lane with cars. . .

Anyways, the point is, I got to see a decent amount of Copenhagen, but more importantly, spend a lot of time with Mie and Sanne, reminiscing about our adventures in Southeast Asia. Good times. And don't worry: even if I wasn't doing much of the tourist thing, I still managed to take plenty of pictures:




artsy shot - blue sky, green roof and statue (I think that's mercury)




cool night shot




me and Mie pose with the world's surliest guard. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see him glaring at Mie. When we went to take the picture he snapped at her for being too close, even though she was several feet away at the time. Well, I guess I'd be pretty surly too if I had to wear that ridiculous hat, stand still for hours on end, and deal with tons of tourists who wanted their pictures taken with me. . .




so many beers, so little time! At the Carlsberg brewery they have the world's largest collection of beer bottles (19,642 and counting). We had fun looking through and pointing out the beers we drank in the different parts of our trip.




now things get serious - foosball faceoff with Sanne at the Carlsberg brewery




I was disappointed to learn that Copenhagen's iconic statue The Little Mermaid had been moved to Shanghai for the 2010 world expo. But luckily for me, they had a copy at the Carlsberg brewery. Problem solved.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

aaaaaaamsterdam!!

After hanging out for the week in Brussels, Mark and I took a weekend trip to Amsterdam. I'd say Amsterdam is famous for three things: its canals, its museums, and its shenanigans. And you can certainly find all three of those there in abundance. While we did not engage in any activity that is illegal (well, illegal back in the US), or that could result in contracting a nasty disease, we still had a lot of fun. We hit up a bar crawl, wandered the red light district (such a strange/unique place - definitely a must-see, although I'd recommend against sampling the wares), and went to several museums.

Mark left at the end of the weekend, but I stuck around, hitting up a few more museums, and generally chilling out until the end of the week when when I'd head to Copenhagen for another reunion. Since I was in Amsterdam for almost a week, I managed to accumulate a lot of fun/interesting facts about Amsterdam through the ages:

  • in the 1600s there were so many surgeons in Amsterdam that it was not possible to make a living just performing surgery. So, surgeons would give haircuts as well

  • according to one exhibit "swimming lessons [in the 1960s] apparently dramatically reduced the number of people drowning in Amsterdam waterways." Wow, brilliant deduction there, Holmes!

  • Rembrandt was a big fan of Bols liquors, but couldn't always pay the bills. So, to settle a large outstanding debt he gave them a painting

  • Apparently when Amsterdammers have had a bit too much to drink they wander around chucking unlocked bikes into the canals. About 25,000 bikes per year are fished from the canals, refurbished, and sold back to the people who lost them in the first place

  • so many horses fell into Amsterdam's canals that in the 1860s someone invented a special hoist to fish the horses out. And if a horse didn't survive the ordeal the guy with the hoist would buy the dead horse, and the next day he'd sell it in his butcher shop! I guess that's efficient, but kind of gross. Also provides a disincentive to actually rescue the horse if he needs more meat in his shop. . .



Enough talking - it's picture time!



the crowd at the Anne Frank museum. While it was cold and raining slightly, it was well worth the wait. Very well done museum - I'd definitely recommend it.




patriotic hot dog - one of the many strange things you'll see in Amsterdam




hangin' out with my buddy Vinny




me and Mark at the famous iAmsterdam sign. I think we had to wait 10 minutes until we could get a picture not blocked by random other people getting their picture taken / this one annoying couple who insisted on making out in front of the sign.




nice artsy shot - sunrise with windmill





fishing for bikes in the canals (as discussed in the "fun facts" list above)





one of the many cool canal views in amsterdam





windmill (sans sunrise)





the old-school equivalent of house numbers





Amsterdam has such a problem with people peeing on the streets that they have installed a bunch of splash guards which effectively pee back on you. And this one added in spikes! I wonder why the people don't just pee into the canals instead. . .





one of our favorite statues - "johnny bird-coat and his icosahedron" (no, that is not its real name, but it should be!)





cool street art





artsy shot - neat sculpture silhouette





Amsterdam canal in the afternoon light