Amsterdam

This past Friday morning, Meghan and I left for a weekend adventure in Amsterdam. I'm not going to give you a play-by-play of the trip; rather, I will use photography to highlight some of the more interesting bits.

Now these aren't in any specific order because Blogger is really hard to use with photos, so just bear with me.

Fries with Mayo, mmmmMMm --->













Red Light District ---->






















Flower fair thing --->




















Cool leaning buildings down a sidestreet --->



















Oosterpark by our hostel --->












Basically Amsterdam in a nutshell, mixture between old and new -->



















Sh! ---->














Bikes, bikes, bikes, bikes ---->





















Bob Dylan picture in the Richard Avedon exhibit, you know him, google him for some images --->















Remember these --->

















So thats Amsterdam in a nutshell. It was a lot of fun. It was a very cool city to walk around and see the different people. Lots of tourists, obviously. The only downside was that because the Netherlands is on the euro things were significantly more expensive.

P.S. I know the labels are messed up. Deal with it. Things are pretty self-explanatory.

Run Adventure II

About a half hour ago, I decided to go for a run. Around 3pm it had started to rain/hail, but it seemed that the clouds had pushed aside and it would be a calm run...

I started out this time going a different route. I discover an underpass that allows pedestrians to go under one of the main roads that straddles our flat. I followed this route straight down in the direction of the river. Along the way I discovered a huge monastery/church and the meaning of steep. The road turned into a narrow pass that dipped down towards the riverside. From there I followed a variety of routes and found the river.

I headed right, instead of left like last time, and soon ran into a pretty busy section of Prague. There was a metro stop not far away so I cruised towards it and discovered that it was Karlovo Namesti. This is the tram stop that we take to transfer from the trams that go home and the trams that go to CET. Its three stops from the closest tram home. I was surprised that I had make it that far out, distances in Prague can be deceiving though so I'm not really sure how far it was in miles. From here I discovered a cool monument, did a lap around an old church, and drifted down a windy side street. I soon found my way back to where I needed to be.

After huffing up the steepest hill on the face of the planet it immediately started to pelt a wintery mix in my face. For us native Duanesburgers, wintery mix is an ominous term for a-whole-bunch-of-shit-you-don't-want-to-drive-in. Sucking wind and ice, I finished by racing a couple of children underneath the underpass.

Overall, despite the freezing tempterature and the hardly foot/ankle friendly cobblestones, running v Praze is worthwhile. I discover something new each time, and hopefully I'll be able to piece everything together and have a good sense of the area I'm in.

Evidence of Bicycle Soccer

Link 1

Imagine this, but without the stick.

Visitors in Prague!

This past week I had a couple of visitors. My good friends Dana and Joel came with one of their friends, from London. They had spring break so they did a trip of Vienna, Salzburg, Prague, and Berlin.

I think they had a good time. I was in class most of the day that they were here, but I tried to give them some insight into Praha. The best advice I can give someone visiting this city is to wander. There are so many hidden churches, monasteries, and beautiful old buildings.

Getting lost in Prague is easy, but necessary. There is no way that you can claim to know Prague simply from visiting the castle, Old Town Square, and the Charles Bridge. Even the New Town has different sights to offer. The other day I went for a run and discovered many old buildings right in my neighborhood that I had no idea existed.

Its a bit chilly out, true, but I have no clue when its going to warm up so you might as well just suck it up and get out there. At least thats what I told the Prague Bicycle Soccer coach when he saw me running. Heres the story:

So I'm running down by the river. Theres a small dock that runs parallel to river, which in turn runs parallel to a main street. I'm in New Town a couple of bridges away from the Charles (I find bridges are the best way to determine where you are on the river). On this particular parallel dock there is a section that is flooded. It rains here constantly. Not necessarily pouring rain, just rain. Constant. Stupid. Rain.

I see the flooded section, but to turn around I'll have to go up steps. Steps are vastly overrated. I never understood why we just can't have steep ramps... Anyways, so I decided why not leap over the flood. Mind you its about 20 feet. If I miss it theres a good chance that my feet might actually freeze (its about -1c outside).

I get a good running start. Clear it. But just as I'm in the air a man on a bicycle goes through the puddle too. He splashes me from the displaced water from his tires. I am soaked in dirty swan water (instead of ducks there are massive herds of dirty swans on the river).

He pulls up next to me and starts to speak some Czech garbage. I like Czech, its only garbage in this instance because I just got soaked and I'm about a mile from home (uphill I might add).

Finally we get to talking and hes the coach of a sport here which involves 2 teams. There are 2 members of both teams. They play on a court about the size of my elementary school's basketball court. They use a ball about the size of a mini-basketball and the point of the game is to shoot the ball into a small goal (about the size of a lacrosse goal) but ONLY by using the bicycle tire. I've seen it on T.V. once. Crazy stuff. Apparently only the Czech, Germans, and Slovakians play it. The one rule that I understand is that your feet can never touch the ground, thats a foul.

Intense stuff.

Anyways so hes the coach of the Czech team. Apparently they are training. He gave me his card and the address of their training facility. It would be good to get into an organized sport again. I might check it out if I get bored.

Dana, Joel, and Katie left Friday, but I think they had a good time in Prague. Most people who visit do. Especially because the exchange rate is so good here (esp. considering the other cities that were on their list).

Descent into the Land of Laundry...

As I'm sure you've realized by now, our washer blows.

It suddenly decided to stop working maybe two weeks ago. I had a load in and the washer proceeded to soak the clothes and deposit the soap. Then nothing. No spinning. Nothing. I tried three times in a row. Nothing. I was forced to wash out the clothes in the sink.

Our flat decided, for some odd reason, to put off telling CET about our problem and to just not do laundry. Bad idea.

Finally, forced to seek alternative methods, I looked up laundromats on expats.cz. I found one pretty close to our flat. It had several self-service machines, so it seemed like a good place to go.

Kendra and I packed out suitcases and wheeled out to, the aptly named, Laundryland.

We got there at 7pm, self-service ended at 8pm, so the girl refused us and told us to come back the next day. Kendra went back the next day, but the place was full of Americans.

Our suitcases proceeded to sit in the hallway for a couple of days. Finally this past Tuesday, we we went to Laundryland. CET had also been notified of our problem.

The self-service machines were full, and the lady told us to come back in an hour. Well it was raining out and we were desperate. We asked her for full service instead. A.K.A. we left suitcases full of dirty clothes with an old lady and told her to do our laundry for us. The prices seemed steep but we were desperate.

She told us we could have our clothes the next day.

3pm, Wednesday. Czech class. The lady calls Kendra and tells us its done so we can pick up. Phew. We had spent that whole morning speculating on the condition of our clothes.

We picked up our clothes, paid, and that was it. It was surprisingly cheaper than I expected. Wash, dry, and fold was only $20 for nearly all my clothes. Considering that would be at least 3 loads at the dorms = $15. Not too bad. Our washer is fixed now, but you can't put a price on the softness that a dryer can provide. Its wonderful.

Terezin.

I haven't written in a while, but here's an update. Last Sunday we went to a concentration camp.

I'm not going to give you a tour of the camp or talk about what we saw or what we did. That's really something that needs to be experienced firsthand.

Briefly, I would like to talk about my reactions.

Its hard to come up with adjectives that fit properly, but it was an interesting? experience. I'm just glad that I went to Dresden first because I can't imagine seeing a Neo-Nazi rally after visiting the place where 30,000 people died.

One of the people on our tour put it best. She described the experience as one that affects the 5 senses. While in the Small Fortress (for political prisoners) we went into the hospital room. You could almost smell the sickness still in that room.

Terezin was for sure an experience I won't forget.

Its hard to say whether or not it was what I expected. I would say no. The Small Fortress looked like what you would imagine a concentration camp to be, but the ghetto section was not. Terezin was the camp that the Nazis used to allay the fears of the Red Cross of mistreatment. It was a "ghetto," aka concentration camp under the guise of a ghetto.

It was an interesting? worthwhile? experience.