Amsterdam

Wow! Since I'd been to Edinburgh a few times before, Amsterdam was the completely new experience of vacation - and oh wow!

We awoke early in the morning to catch our flight, which was the same length as flying Sacramento to Burbank. When we arrived at Schipol airport, we were in for a surprise. It's less of an airport and more of a mall that's big enough to have its own airport and train station! Along with tourist shops and fast food, there were bookstores, a grocery store, and even a store where you could buy a tailored suit! In fact, on our way back to Manchester, we went up to the third level to a nice restaurant for dinner, but more about that later.

We arrived, got out passports stamped, and emerged into the giant mall. Understandably, it was rather confusing! We got some food, the started trying to figure out the train system to get us to the central station, where we could catch a tram to our hotel. Several frustrated attempts later, we had tickets for the train ride. European credit cards and debit cards are different - they have these chip things - so figuring out which options to select was a little tricky, but at least the machine had a button for "English"!! We got on the appropriate train, sat down, and started looking at the phrase book. I was started when I glanced up and we were already moving - the trains were super-smooth running. I've found the UK trains to be smoother than Amtrak, but these beat both. Granted, we were on a heavily traveled route close to a major city, not going across the landscape, but still, it was impressive. We got off at the Central Station and found the tram ticket office, buying 72-hour passes to get us through our stay, hopped on a tram, and made it to our hotel. Whew!

We got checked in, then headed to our room - alas, no giant beautiful room awaited us this time. The room was big enough for the bed and that was pretty much it. However, the shower was the largest I've encountered over here. The window looked out into the stairwell. It didn't really matter... we promptly flopped down on the bed and fell asleep for a chunk of the afternoon - I didn't even take off my shoes! After New Years, the trip back to Manchester, doing laundry, packing back up, and leaving early for the airport, we were pretty tired. Luckily, the day wasn't a total loss. As well as seeing some of the places we wanted to go from the tram, we had a great evening.

We headed out into the bitter cold (see fluffy pigeon picture below)... I would have gladly put on another pair of pants (longjohns and normal pants weren't enough for the sharp wind). We took a short walk to De Pijp to find dinner. We found a nice little place, but became a little confused when we ordered beer - it came in quarter-liter glasses. They were small. We were perplexed. They did indeed possess pint glasses, since they produced a pint when Neal ordered one to go with dinner, so we're just not sure what they were thinking. Or maybe they were confused. But beer is supposed to come in pints unless otherwise specified, right? To make a night of it, we wandered around De Pijp a bit more and came across a pub that looked alright.

As most of you know, I'm not much of a go-out person or drinker. Usually, I tend to drink ciders or lagers - both very tame in comparison to a lot of things out there - and not in very large amounts. I was convinced to try rum & coke - turned out to be quite tasty & a good break from pints of something. We had a great time chatting with the two bartenders, covering such topics as the war in Iraq and the pending visit of the bartender's girlfriend (they met while he was tending bar and she was on spring break in Amsterdam - now she's getting a visa!). Several hours later, we headed back to our room.

After breakfast the next morning, we set out to explore the town. First, we headed to the Van Gogh Museum. Not only did they display his work, but also pieces from artists that influenced him. He's famous for bright images with vibrant color, but his early years of paintings were very dark and depressing. But neither Neal nor I had seen any of his originals before, so we enjoyed it very much. We had a walk-through of the Flower Market as we headed toward the center of town. Just after the market, we passed by a shopping mall with a Haagan Daz shop just inside. Neal had promised me that I'd be able to get a good waffle in Amsterdam (logic was that Belgium's close) and lo and behold, they would put ice cream on a waffle for you. I enjoyed my treat immensely! Next up was a sex museum - lots of artifacts and photos and such. And, of course, the red light district. As we meandered down the sidewalks, it began snowing!!! It was amazing. We bought tickets for a show later, then went back into town to get some dinner. We found an Italian restaurant - I was craving pizza and it was delicious.

After dinner, it was time to catch our show as Casa Rosso - definitely worth watching. I can't imagine going all the time, but it was an experience. A highlight: Neal volunteered to go up on stage and help eat a banana (how many people can say they've done that?!). Oh, and our assessment that EVERYONE smokes was confirmed when one of the acts involved a woman smoking with her nether regions. I was impressed, but I don't think it's a skill I'll be practicing! As we walked back to our hotel, it began snowing more. We decided to stop in at the hotel, turn up the radiator, and then go visit our bartender friends for a nightcap. Definitely a full day, but very interesting and enjoyable.

To begin our final day in Amsterdam, we re-visited the Flower Market for some postcards, souvenirs, and, of course, some bulbs and seeds! Then we found the Botanical Gardens. They were great! Neal let his inner nerd out to play and I got to learn about some of the plants. Another highlight was the butterfly greenhouse. We got some lunch in the little cafe associated with the Gardens. Instead of some form of lettuce, I think they were trying to feed me unwanted pieces of their collection on my sandwich! Just kidding, but they really were leaves. Next, we intended to do the Heineken Experience, but when we arrived, there was a small sign announcing it was closed for renovation, reopening summer 2008. To assuage our sadness, we went across the street for a pint of Heineken at a pub. Remember what I said about the smoking? I'm not sure what the people that came in right after us were punishing their lungs for, but it was not a happy time. To fill in the last bit of our time before we needed to get to the airport, we checked out a replica Dutch trading ship.

We made it to the airport (another small battle with the ticket-procurement) with plenty of time to spare. As I mentioned, we headed up to the top floor in search of dinner. Neal got a tasty game stew with venison and rabbit. My favorite part of the meal was my Apple Strudel - close enough to mom's pie for me! Another tasty and delicious treat - yum! While we were killing time, Neal spotted movement under a table near us. It turned out to be a cute little mouse. Here's the "things you don't see in America" part: the waiter saw us watching it, smiled and said, "Oh, I see you have seen one of our little friends." Can't you imagine some irate soccer mom throwing a fit? But it wasn't a big deal here. Also, I got a bit of a laugh when I ordered ginger ale. Over here they have a much more limited selection of sodas, so I was surprised to see it on the menu. When it came, it was Schweppes American Ginger Ale. Ohh fancy!


We boarded our flight, looking forward to washing our clothes to get the smoke smell out and feeling good about the experience. There's still more to see in Amsterdam, so we'll see if I make it back there sometime. I just hope they've banned smoking in some places by then!

Hogmanay 2007-8

Happy New Years! Mine was fantastic this year - I hope everyone had a great time at parties and whatnot too!

Neal and I travelled up to Edinburgh for the Hogmanay celebration (Scottish New Years in proper form). After getting off the train December 30th, our first adventure was finding our hotel. I spent a few afternoons searching webpages and called hotels to find the cheapest room I could - Hogmanay is a big deal and many places were only offering outrageously priced packages or had long minimum stays. But boy was I in for a surprise! Our hotel was gorgeous - giant room with great big windows and very high ceilings. We were impressed. And it got even better. Our hotel was paired up with the 5-star hotel across the street, where there was a beautiful dining area and bar, where Neal took the opportunity to enjoy some single-malt whiskys one can't find in the US. We got some dinner there - Neal ordered the seafood platter since the hotel was all about the Orkney seafood. However, it resulted in another cold meal of fish. Don't worry, we got him some proper Scottish hot food the following day.

Back to our first night. Hogmanay is more a series of great night events than a single day, although December 31 is certainly the biggest celebration. We were one night too late for the torch procession, but we did get to see the Massed Bands. They met up on the Mound and processed all the way to the Assembly Rooms on George Street. There's something totally cool about following behind a whole lot of bagpipes, marching through the streets of Edinburgh and singing along with "Scotland the Brave" :)

When they finished, a street party began. There were several stages, all with different shows. The part we enjoyed most was the stilt-walker giant ants (see picture), dragons, bugs, and old hags that were wandering in the streets. There were men dressed as goblins lighting road flares (which startled people with the noise), bathing the ants and dragons in a red glow. They also helped the stilt-walkers play tricks on people, like stealing hats or allowing a bug or dragon to sneak up on someone, so when they turned there was a giant creature right there! We enjoyed watching a group of the hags surround a woman who had gotten a better view up on a concrete thing around a lightpost. A few moments later, Neal and I were startled by one of the troll hags - we were looking at the approaching dragons, only to turn back and her head was right there! They were made to look adorable in a pathetic way, but they were scary enough that we both jumped.

We returned to our hotel, enjoyed a nightcap, and found "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" on TV. I haven't watched much/any TV since I've been here, so it was a treat. And an important one, since I'd never seen the movie and apparently it's required viewing (according to Neal).

New Year's Eve began with a very tasty continental breakfast - nothing skimpy about it. Then we hiked up to Arthur's Seat... it's quite a walk, but well worth it. The views were great and the history of the place is interesting. It's in the middle of the Old Royal Hunting Grounds - which is now a nature preserve and the site of three ancient ring forts, which we didn't get to go explore. We headed back and made our way back to the Royal Mile. We found The World's End Pub, so named because it used to be just inside the city's walls, so as far as the city people were concerned, it was on the edge of their world. It was amazing! Because of it's location on the Royal Mile, I was skeptical, but it was just wonderful. Great atmosphere, delicious hot food - everything. Neal got his traditional, hot Scottish food to make up for all the cold meals he'd felt obliged to choose. He had Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, from which I sampled a few bites. So I can now say I've eaten haggis, although I'm not convinced I'd have made it though a whole serving.


Then we did the required touristy walk, looked through some of the shops, and bought presents. We found an excellent whisky store for Neal to stock up at, too. By this time, we decided a nap was in order before the big evening we had ahead of us, so back to the hotel we went.


After dressing up for the evening, we headed out. It was a bit drizzly on and off, so I was glad we had tickets for the indoor event as well as the Street Party (for the fireworks). First, we headed back to The World's End for dinner and got some stovies (very tasty). Then we headed to the Assembly rooms for some Ceilidh dancing - definitely one of the most fun things ever! All too soon it was time to head out for the Street Party so we could see the fireworks at midnight. It was glorious! There were two displays - one over Edinburgh Castle and one over Hollyrood Park/Royal Palace. After the show had ended, we headed back to the Assembly Rooms for more dancing and merry-making. We had, to quote Neal, a "wild romping good time." Then we found our way back to our hotel for some sleep before catching our train. We ended up sleeping for most of the ride back to Manchester, too.

Manchester Fun - Ice Skating, Dinner, and Manchester Wheel

On Boxing day, we went for a walk and bought tickets to go ice skating the next day. Our ice skating adventure started with lunch at Abdul's, a family-owned chain in Manchester. I had my first chicken kebab - it was huge and quite tasty. Neal also approved of the food, but opted for a much spicier concoction on his! When we arrived for our scheduled time, it was lightly drizzling. Manchester is very wet. In fact, the ice was essentially one giant puddle from the consistent drizzle-rain. After we got our skates on, we stood by the rink.

There were two rink employees in charge of monitoring the ice, but mostly picking people up after they'd fallen. These guys played on the ice as we waited. It was highly amusing - they'd get going really fast, then skid to a stop with their skates parallel to the wall of the rink where we were all waiting for our session to start. If you've watched skating before, this move usually results in some ice getting thrown up, sometimes making a little cloud. But with water in a puddle on the ice? It makes big arcs of water, like at a Shamu show! Within the first few minutes, several unsuspecting skaters were drenched with ice water! However, this sliding stop was not without its dangers... When the guy was heading towards the section where Neal and I were standing, I quickly backed up while Neal chose to duck under the wall of the rink. My position allowed me to see the guy completely wipe out and crash into the wall. It was pretty great :)

We had a great time skating, especially since neither one of us fell. I felt bad for all the people that were completely cold and wet by the end of the session. Neal decided that forward skating was for sissies and boring people, so he spent some time on the edges trying to teach himself to skate backwards. He got much better at it, although I think it's a skill that requires a lot of practice.

Just before Neal arrived in Manchester, I got my GRE Psychology Subject Test scores. I scored in the 99th percentile overall and in the two sub-categories - go me! I took all of Manchester's "Reading Week" to study, instead of travelling, so I am so glad it paid off. But the point was that Neal and I dressed up to take me out to dinner to celebrate - the picture's posted. We had a fun dinner out - we went to a Dutch restaurant. Neal got a whole lot of cold herring. This theme will reappear - he kept ordering things that you couldn't go to the place and not eat, since they were special/traditional of the country/origin, but they kept being cold things. And on rainy, cold days, hot meals really are better. I had some of the strangest apple pie that I've ever come across - definitely made me miss my mother's baking!

We also took the opportunity to see Manchester's light at night by going to the Manchester Wheel. It's similar to the London Eye, I think, but on a much smaller scale. Still, it was neat to be up above the city in a little capsule with the rain and the wind. Most of the pictures turned out blurry, but it was very pretty in person.


Then it was time to organize ourselves for our two largest adventures!

Manchester Fun - Christmas

Christmas away from home - rather daunting for me. Luckily, Neal was here to share it with. We started off by shopping for Christmas dinner the weekend before.

Christmas morning I woke up first and made breakfast. I'd intended to make blueberry pancakes and eggs, but the pancake mix here was very thin and they turned out more like crepes - very hard to get the blueberries to be in them properly. Sigh... silly England and English food. But the crepe-pancakes turned out tasty and the blueberries were eaten on the side. We ate and then opened presents.

We had a lazy afternoon. We both called home through Skype, which was nice. I'd gotten very homesick on Christmas eve, missing my family and all our traditions, so talking with everyone was especially important for me. I sent them pictures and they sent some back - it was strange to see them all gathered around our Christmas tree without me.


Then it was time to start thinking about Christmas dinner. Because we'd slept in and had a correspondingly late breakfast, we didn't start thinking about dinner until about 5pm. But we realized that we only had a bottle of wine. Not such a big deal for me, but Neal's family celebrates with a bit more alcohol, so we went out in search of some. Luckily, I live close to the Curry Mile, where Western holidays aren't celebrated so heavily. We got two kinds of cider and some beer at a little gas station shop. That probably sounds sketchy, but gas stations & little shops are much different here - there's quality food and fruits and veggies along with the snack isle. So, satisfied that we'd be entertained and not thirsty while cooking, we headed back to begin.

Now, the cooking/eating situation here is rather interesting. Living abroad for only a year means that you don't bring/buy things that you'd ordinarily have around, like baking trays. You don't even buy ingredients because if you had the ingredients, you'd want to buy trays to make the desserts and it would result in an endless spiral, ending when you had to sell, trash, or ship everything to come back to the US. And it's also tricky, because you don't want to use cheap, crappy equipment all year, but you also don't want to buy nice things that would have to be gotten rid of or shipped home (which is expensive!). So we spent the first part looking through my flatmates' cupboards to scavenge cookware to use. We cleaned everything back up and they were all home for break, so I don't think they minded ;)

Neal cooks very well, so I was helping and learning as we made dinner. Might I just say that it was a very impressive dinner? Not only was it fun to make (company in the kitchen is one of the best things ever), but it was beautiful to look at as well as tasty & delicious! We had Venison with Red Wine Sauce, croquettes, real cranberry sauce (we started with cranberries and sugar, not with a can), mashed potatoes, and corn and beans. red wine (and cider) to drink, and for dessert we'd bought a Black Forest Gateau. It was amazing. Definitely one of the fanciest dinners I've been involved in making! It helped make this Christmas a very special one.

Manchester Fun - Neal's Arrival & Polo!

You'll notice that the titles of this round of blogs corresponds to photo album titles on Facebook and Myspace - these are the stories to go with the pictures :) I have added in representative pictures for illustration.

So, six weeks of winter vacation. Slightly tainted by the fact that exams aren't until after the break, but that's how they do it over here. But the semester was both long and short at the same time and I welcomed the break.

I counted down the hours for Neal's arrival - he made it safely on Tuesday morning (December 18th) and I met him at the airport. Our first outing was on Thursday the 20th, to play polo - on horses, the real kind of polo.

We got up early to catch the train to Rugby, where my friend would pick us up in her car. The train ride was lovely - it was all foggy outside and going through the green English countryside was beautiful. We found some sit-down pizza for lunch, then made it out to the Rugby Polo Club for our lesson. The place really is in the middle of nowhere, very rural. It happened to be bitter cold that day, with lots of wind, so we were happy to ride in the wind-sheltered arena with a roof. The grooms tacked up our horses and we began.

For never having ridden a horse before, Neal did famously. Within a few minutes he had his mount going where he wanted and was working on hitting the ball. Hitting a polo ball is harder than it looks - you're trying to position yourself correctly while controlling your horse and your mallet to hit a ball that's on the ground while you're way up on a horse. It's even harder if you're not used to how a horse moves under you. We all rode around practicing hitting for most of our lesson. Soon Neal's horse seemed to be getting the better of him - horses have personalities and if they get the sense you don't know what you're doing, sometimes they try to take advantage of you. Neal's horse would get close to the ball, then stop before he was close enough to hit it. Then he remembered all the horse-riding in Indiana Jones movies, decided he wasn't going to break his horse if he kicked harder, and thus resolved the difficulty. At the end of the lesson we played a 2-on-2 game, my friend and I against Neal and the instructor, with the modification that the instructor couldn't score goals. We had a blast playing against each other and we all scored several points.

Our train back to Manchester wasn't for several hours, so we puttered around Rugby and found food and a pub with a big radiator to sit in. I was completely exhausted by the end of the day, so I spent a great deal of the waiting at the station using Neal as a pillow.

As you can tell, it was an amazingly fun day and we both enjoyed ourselves immensely :) Sadly, I didn't manage to remember to take pictures.