I spent 48 and a half hours in Amsterdam from Thursday to Saturday.
I went to the Anne Frank house.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
And since Dublin...
The week after Di and I got back from Dublin was filled with preparation -- for paper deadlines, for Sam and Jessica's visit, and for Halloween. I had my first essays due on November 3rd, so I had to watch movies and reread books and articles, but somehow I managed to bang them out.
In more exciting news, Di, Kara, Kristie and I went to see Quantum of Solace on October 31st, since it comes out in the UK a couple of weeks early. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as Casino Royale. The plot was a little all over the place, but I still think it ranks above many of the lesser Bond films, especially Die Another Day.
The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to work out my costume. I went as a mime for Halloween, and had all the necessary clothing (black pants, a striped shirt, and a beret I bought in Paris), but I needed to find makeup. Unfortunately, I was pretty late to the game, so the only thing I could find was white eye-shadow. And that's what I smeared all over my face, along with purple eye-liner (I don't own any black), and a little mascara on my lips because I didn't have black lipstick (in retrospect, I might have slightly poisoned myself by doing so). I'll put my pictures up soon and let you all judge if the results match the effort. I think it turned out okay.
Di was Sarah Palin, and put a lot of effort into her hair. It's amazing that Palin does it everyday -- I can't quite figure out how anyone does an up-do like that. We met up with Kristie and her roommate Mel at Oran Mar, or "the church bar" as most seem to call it. We all walked over to this house party Kristie's friend had been invited to. Supposedly the house once belonged to the creator of the Scottish soda Irn Bru, and now was just a house rented by a group of international students. We all thought that it was a pretty open party, but it was fairly quiet when we arrived, and everyone seemed to know each other. It also was a BYO, so after a few minutes of appreciating the decoration, Di and I decided to bail, and head over to Halloween Cheesy Pop at the QMU. I heard that the party picked up a bit later, but we were already entrenched in the QMU line at that point.
The line was down the block and around the corner when we got to the QMU. We waited on it (in the freezing cold) for a little less than two hours. Luckily, the people behind us were very friendly, and we chatted with them to pass the time. Finally, after being pushed and shoved up the stairs to the main doors, we got in, got drinks, and danced the remaining two hours of Cheesy Pop away up on the balcony. A Finnish man we had been waiting in line with followed us around and kept spitting on my neck as he tried to whisper in my ear, and when he left, asked Di if we were lesbians (I was in the bathroom at the time). He later reappeared (again, I wasn't there -- I was talking to someone in the bar) and asked Di to dance, as well as asking her if she usually dressed like a school teacher. CREEP.
Saturday was a day of recovery, and finishing up my essays. Di and I went back to the QMU for a concert that evening, by this folk singer Seth Lakeman. One cool thing about the concert was the Swedish all-female country band that opened for him. Sort of like the Dixie Chicks from Sweden. All in all the concert was okay, a little long for an artist I didn't know, but there was this crazy woman sitting next to me who kept drumming on the table with her hands off-rhythm. By the end of the night she was up on her feet and dancing really awkwardly, almost in my face because of the tight space. I just ended up feeling bad for her husband, who was quietly and politely sitting next to her, and looking unhappy about the entire situation.
After Sam and Jess showed up we hung out on Sunday and Monday. We went to the Burrell Collection, which was neat because there were some pieces by Rodin, Manet, and Degas there, so the Art History student in me was happy. We also went to the Ubiquitous Chip and the Loft for dinner and drinks with Di, and I'm definitely taking my parents and Dan back to the Chip. Excellent food all around.
On Monday we had tea at the Buchanan Tea Rooms (since the Willow Tea Rooms close at 5, and I had been in class until then), and then had dinner at Two Fat Ladies, a tiny seafood restaurant on Dumbarton Rd. More great food, especially the cullen skink, which is the Scottish equivalent of New England clam chowder.
Tuesday night a bunch of Americans stayed up to watch the election in the TV lounge in the reception building. Di and I bought a LOT of snacks that we didn't even come close to finishing, and alcohol that we didn't drink. It was exhausting to stay up until 5:30 AM, but we saw all of it, from the exhilarating moment when they announced Obama had won Pennsylvania, to the wonderful speeches from both candidates. I'll admit it, I teared up a bit. Okay, a lot.
Wednesday was November 5th, so Guy Fawkes Day, so Di and I watched V for Vendetta in the afternoon. Glasgow, in a hilarious move, actually postponed their fireworks until Thursday because of the Celtic v. Manchester United match. Di and I walked down to the Loft to see the match on the big screen after we finished the movie.
That about covers it, I think. I still have plenty of photos to put up, but at least I'm basically up to date on the text side.
In more exciting news, Di, Kara, Kristie and I went to see Quantum of Solace on October 31st, since it comes out in the UK a couple of weeks early. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as Casino Royale. The plot was a little all over the place, but I still think it ranks above many of the lesser Bond films, especially Die Another Day.
The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to work out my costume. I went as a mime for Halloween, and had all the necessary clothing (black pants, a striped shirt, and a beret I bought in Paris), but I needed to find makeup. Unfortunately, I was pretty late to the game, so the only thing I could find was white eye-shadow. And that's what I smeared all over my face, along with purple eye-liner (I don't own any black), and a little mascara on my lips because I didn't have black lipstick (in retrospect, I might have slightly poisoned myself by doing so). I'll put my pictures up soon and let you all judge if the results match the effort. I think it turned out okay.
Di was Sarah Palin, and put a lot of effort into her hair. It's amazing that Palin does it everyday -- I can't quite figure out how anyone does an up-do like that. We met up with Kristie and her roommate Mel at Oran Mar, or "the church bar" as most seem to call it. We all walked over to this house party Kristie's friend had been invited to. Supposedly the house once belonged to the creator of the Scottish soda Irn Bru, and now was just a house rented by a group of international students. We all thought that it was a pretty open party, but it was fairly quiet when we arrived, and everyone seemed to know each other. It also was a BYO, so after a few minutes of appreciating the decoration, Di and I decided to bail, and head over to Halloween Cheesy Pop at the QMU. I heard that the party picked up a bit later, but we were already entrenched in the QMU line at that point.
The line was down the block and around the corner when we got to the QMU. We waited on it (in the freezing cold) for a little less than two hours. Luckily, the people behind us were very friendly, and we chatted with them to pass the time. Finally, after being pushed and shoved up the stairs to the main doors, we got in, got drinks, and danced the remaining two hours of Cheesy Pop away up on the balcony. A Finnish man we had been waiting in line with followed us around and kept spitting on my neck as he tried to whisper in my ear, and when he left, asked Di if we were lesbians (I was in the bathroom at the time). He later reappeared (again, I wasn't there -- I was talking to someone in the bar) and asked Di to dance, as well as asking her if she usually dressed like a school teacher. CREEP.
Saturday was a day of recovery, and finishing up my essays. Di and I went back to the QMU for a concert that evening, by this folk singer Seth Lakeman. One cool thing about the concert was the Swedish all-female country band that opened for him. Sort of like the Dixie Chicks from Sweden. All in all the concert was okay, a little long for an artist I didn't know, but there was this crazy woman sitting next to me who kept drumming on the table with her hands off-rhythm. By the end of the night she was up on her feet and dancing really awkwardly, almost in my face because of the tight space. I just ended up feeling bad for her husband, who was quietly and politely sitting next to her, and looking unhappy about the entire situation.
After Sam and Jess showed up we hung out on Sunday and Monday. We went to the Burrell Collection, which was neat because there were some pieces by Rodin, Manet, and Degas there, so the Art History student in me was happy. We also went to the Ubiquitous Chip and the Loft for dinner and drinks with Di, and I'm definitely taking my parents and Dan back to the Chip. Excellent food all around.
On Monday we had tea at the Buchanan Tea Rooms (since the Willow Tea Rooms close at 5, and I had been in class until then), and then had dinner at Two Fat Ladies, a tiny seafood restaurant on Dumbarton Rd. More great food, especially the cullen skink, which is the Scottish equivalent of New England clam chowder.
Tuesday night a bunch of Americans stayed up to watch the election in the TV lounge in the reception building. Di and I bought a LOT of snacks that we didn't even come close to finishing, and alcohol that we didn't drink. It was exhausting to stay up until 5:30 AM, but we saw all of it, from the exhilarating moment when they announced Obama had won Pennsylvania, to the wonderful speeches from both candidates. I'll admit it, I teared up a bit. Okay, a lot.
Wednesday was November 5th, so Guy Fawkes Day, so Di and I watched V for Vendetta in the afternoon. Glasgow, in a hilarious move, actually postponed their fireworks until Thursday because of the Celtic v. Manchester United match. Di and I walked down to the Loft to see the match on the big screen after we finished the movie.
That about covers it, I think. I still have plenty of photos to put up, but at least I'm basically up to date on the text side.
A Much Needed Update
Gah, I'm so behind on this thing. When Sam and Jessica showed up the blog got pumped down a few spots on my list (with good reason). So, where was I?
Oh yes, so Di and I finally made it to our hostel in Dublin. We stayed at the Abraham House, along a row of other hostels and cheap B&Bs in the center of the city. It was a perfectly nice place, clean and respectable. We stayed in a room that held 10 girls, and there was a bathroom en-suite, so just for that it wins points over the Young and Happy Hostel in Paris. There was a bit of hilarity connected to the hostel room, since the main door wouldn't stay closed unless you locked it (and since there was only one key, this lead to getting up at 3AM to let people in), and the bathroom door had the tendency to stay shut unless you really worked the doorknob (also leading to 3AM tug of wars with the bathroom door).
At any rate, after a good sleep on Saturday night, we got up fairly early on Sunday and headed into town. I have now learned to mistrust the "included breakfast" hostels advertise. This was even worse that in Paris -- orange juice, coffee, and toast. Just toast. At least they had a variety of spreads, but it was a pretty meager offering. You get what you pay for, I guess.
Di and I walked over to O'Connell Street again, encountering the famed Spire, built in 2003 for no apparent reason. It's just ... very tall. Dublin is also a very touristy city, and on our three block walk from our hostel to O'Connell Street we saw about 3 or 4 gift shops. Unsure of the layout of the city, Di and I bought tickets for those sight-seeing double decker buses. It was nice to have a bit of a tour, but in retrospect an unnecessary buy -- Dublin is a very manageable city for walking around.
We got off at Dublin Castle, which does offer tours for its private chambers, but it being Sunday, they were closed. So we strolled around the grounds, and then, perusing our map, realized we were close to Christ Church. We managed to see both that and St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday, which was great, considering my love of cathedrals. I've yet to get to St. Mungo's or Glasgow Cathedral in Glasgow, but they're on my list.
We spent the rest of Sunday (and frankly, Monday as well) strolling around and taking in Glasgow. Monday was the Dublin Marathon, so it made navigating our way to the National Gallery a little difficult, but we managed it. The National Museum and the Natural History Museum are closed on Mondays (darn it), so there's still plenty to see if I want to go back. And the shrine to St. Valentine was closed, so Di and I couldn't go and glare at him for making such a depressing holiday. Our nighttime adventures also make less than exciting reading (although we enjoyed them). On both nights after dinner (Italian on Sunday, and Mexican on Monday) we went to a pub in the Temple Bar district, had a drink or two, and then went to the movies. We saw High School Musical 3 and Eagle Eye. On the plus side, I discovered a beer I actually like -- Paulaner, a German wheat beer.
But probably the most ridiculous part of our trip was the Guinness Storehouse. No one would say that Di or I was a fan of beer, and Guinness is definitely not even close to drinkable for me. But we went because everyone said it was a necessary experience, and I did have a good time. The entire museum is built around a pint-shaped atrium, and as you can see in the album there's plenty of things to read and interact with. Aside from the incredible pompous atmosphere (the yeast used in Guinness is a "national treasure"; the story of the transportation of Guinness is the story of transportation itself) it was kind of a fun trip. Of course they give you awful stuff to taste, but in the end they do offer a free pint in the Gravity Bar, which is at the top of the Storehouse and provides a 360 degree view of the city. Di and I opted for a free soft drink, instead of a pint of Guinness.
My favorite part was definitely the small exhibit about the advertising for Guinness throughout the years. But that's just me being a dork. Although it's pretty amazing to think that doctors were once really ok with just saying that "Guinness is good for you."
The Oscar Wilde memorial was also fantastic. It's just a statue of him in Merrion Square, across from the American College of Dublin, where he lived for a time. But the statue utterly captures his entire attitude, and is completely fitting. So props to Dublin on that one.
I know I'm forgetting loads of stuff, but that's the price of my laziness, and not updating for two weeks. Next post is everything since Dublin.
Oh yes, so Di and I finally made it to our hostel in Dublin. We stayed at the Abraham House, along a row of other hostels and cheap B&Bs in the center of the city. It was a perfectly nice place, clean and respectable. We stayed in a room that held 10 girls, and there was a bathroom en-suite, so just for that it wins points over the Young and Happy Hostel in Paris. There was a bit of hilarity connected to the hostel room, since the main door wouldn't stay closed unless you locked it (and since there was only one key, this lead to getting up at 3AM to let people in), and the bathroom door had the tendency to stay shut unless you really worked the doorknob (also leading to 3AM tug of wars with the bathroom door).
At any rate, after a good sleep on Saturday night, we got up fairly early on Sunday and headed into town. I have now learned to mistrust the "included breakfast" hostels advertise. This was even worse that in Paris -- orange juice, coffee, and toast. Just toast. At least they had a variety of spreads, but it was a pretty meager offering. You get what you pay for, I guess.
Di and I walked over to O'Connell Street again, encountering the famed Spire, built in 2003 for no apparent reason. It's just ... very tall. Dublin is also a very touristy city, and on our three block walk from our hostel to O'Connell Street we saw about 3 or 4 gift shops. Unsure of the layout of the city, Di and I bought tickets for those sight-seeing double decker buses. It was nice to have a bit of a tour, but in retrospect an unnecessary buy -- Dublin is a very manageable city for walking around.
We got off at Dublin Castle, which does offer tours for its private chambers, but it being Sunday, they were closed. So we strolled around the grounds, and then, perusing our map, realized we were close to Christ Church. We managed to see both that and St. Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday, which was great, considering my love of cathedrals. I've yet to get to St. Mungo's or Glasgow Cathedral in Glasgow, but they're on my list.
We spent the rest of Sunday (and frankly, Monday as well) strolling around and taking in Glasgow. Monday was the Dublin Marathon, so it made navigating our way to the National Gallery a little difficult, but we managed it. The National Museum and the Natural History Museum are closed on Mondays (darn it), so there's still plenty to see if I want to go back. And the shrine to St. Valentine was closed, so Di and I couldn't go and glare at him for making such a depressing holiday. Our nighttime adventures also make less than exciting reading (although we enjoyed them). On both nights after dinner (Italian on Sunday, and Mexican on Monday) we went to a pub in the Temple Bar district, had a drink or two, and then went to the movies. We saw High School Musical 3 and Eagle Eye. On the plus side, I discovered a beer I actually like -- Paulaner, a German wheat beer.
But probably the most ridiculous part of our trip was the Guinness Storehouse. No one would say that Di or I was a fan of beer, and Guinness is definitely not even close to drinkable for me. But we went because everyone said it was a necessary experience, and I did have a good time. The entire museum is built around a pint-shaped atrium, and as you can see in the album there's plenty of things to read and interact with. Aside from the incredible pompous atmosphere (the yeast used in Guinness is a "national treasure"; the story of the transportation of Guinness is the story of transportation itself) it was kind of a fun trip. Of course they give you awful stuff to taste, but in the end they do offer a free pint in the Gravity Bar, which is at the top of the Storehouse and provides a 360 degree view of the city. Di and I opted for a free soft drink, instead of a pint of Guinness.
My favorite part was definitely the small exhibit about the advertising for Guinness throughout the years. But that's just me being a dork. Although it's pretty amazing to think that doctors were once really ok with just saying that "Guinness is good for you."
The Oscar Wilde memorial was also fantastic. It's just a statue of him in Merrion Square, across from the American College of Dublin, where he lived for a time. But the statue utterly captures his entire attitude, and is completely fitting. So props to Dublin on that one.
I know I'm forgetting loads of stuff, but that's the price of my laziness, and not updating for two weeks. Next post is everything since Dublin.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
I Don't Think I'm Very Good at This
Especially since I continue to update this blog sporadically, and then have to account for a lot of things that have happened in between posts. But at least my Dublin photos are up!
Luck o' the Irish
Right now I'm waiting for a call from Sam and Jessica, letting me know that they're either at their hotel in Glasgow or on the way. I got up early and everything for them, but nothing yet. Oh well, at least it's motivated me to actually write in my blog. I guess if they call I'll just come back to this later, maybe post the entry in halves.
Anyway, so after the incredibly wet, yet exciting adventure Di and I had last Saturday afternoon, we packed up and got ready to go to Prestwick for our flight at 11 PM. The plan was to take a bus from Buchanan Bus Station to the airport, and we were all set to catch an 8:50 PM bus. It was still raining hard, however, so we didn't really want to walk back down to the subway station. I arranged for a cab to pick us up at 8:20 (calling them a full two hours before), but it never came. We missed our bus and had to call another cab to take us straight to Prestwick, which was much more expensive, but at least we didn't miss our flight.
The flight itself was fine, although our plane seemed to be populated almost entirely with Irish football hooligans, spouting racist epithets and singing way too loudly for that time of night. Right before we took off a soggy baseball cap fell on my face, seemingly out of nowhere. I asked around to see if it was anyone's, but no one ever claimed it, so I just left it on the plane. We got into Dublin around 12:30 on Sunday morning, shortly before the clocks changed over here (they have a different date for daylight savings time, so for this week only the time difference between NY and Glasgow is only four hours -- crazy). There were some shenanigans with locating a bus into the city centre, but finally we made it to O'Connell Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Dublin.
Oops, there's Sam and Jess -- more later!
Luck o' the Irish
Right now I'm waiting for a call from Sam and Jessica, letting me know that they're either at their hotel in Glasgow or on the way. I got up early and everything for them, but nothing yet. Oh well, at least it's motivated me to actually write in my blog. I guess if they call I'll just come back to this later, maybe post the entry in halves.
Anyway, so after the incredibly wet, yet exciting adventure Di and I had last Saturday afternoon, we packed up and got ready to go to Prestwick for our flight at 11 PM. The plan was to take a bus from Buchanan Bus Station to the airport, and we were all set to catch an 8:50 PM bus. It was still raining hard, however, so we didn't really want to walk back down to the subway station. I arranged for a cab to pick us up at 8:20 (calling them a full two hours before), but it never came. We missed our bus and had to call another cab to take us straight to Prestwick, which was much more expensive, but at least we didn't miss our flight.
The flight itself was fine, although our plane seemed to be populated almost entirely with Irish football hooligans, spouting racist epithets and singing way too loudly for that time of night. Right before we took off a soggy baseball cap fell on my face, seemingly out of nowhere. I asked around to see if it was anyone's, but no one ever claimed it, so I just left it on the plane. We got into Dublin around 12:30 on Sunday morning, shortly before the clocks changed over here (they have a different date for daylight savings time, so for this week only the time difference between NY and Glasgow is only four hours -- crazy). There were some shenanigans with locating a bus into the city centre, but finally we made it to O'Connell Street, one of the main thoroughfares of Dublin.
Oops, there's Sam and Jess -- more later!
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