Amsterdam Part Deux: A Rain Story

Since the last time I went to Amsterdam it was a unplanned event, I decided to go back with Jo and some other classmates.  We elected to stay on a houseboat (don't lie, you are jealous).  Yes, I was singing "I'm on a Boat" in my head all weekend.

1. Bottom left: The House Boat!
2. Bottom right: The view from the boat...ok, so it is nothing special.
3. Top middle: The room.  I slept in the single bunk and it was so close to the ceiling that my shoulder touched if I laid on my side. Tight.
4. Top right: The friendly cat from next door.  This is Friendly Cat 2 (the picture is from Saturday when it's light outside, don't worry...Friendly Cat 1 is coming).

Friday night was just a party night because we arrived too late to do anything (aside from activities that don't start until night time).

• Top: At dinner we met Friendly Cat 1.  He curled up on someone's jacket (right next to them) after they sat down for dinner.  They must have been cat people because not everyone would tolerate that.
• Bottom left: Not the first time I have urinated in public in Amsterdam.
• Bottom middle: Killer swans in the canals!

Saturday was eventful.  After waking at the crack of noon, we made our way over to the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, which had a number of Rembrandt's and other famous paintings.  I bought postcards of all of the paintings that I like; I will comment that I bought nothing from the Rembrandt museum.  I'm not saying his work, and other works from that era, were not amazing.  The paintings were so incredibly lifelike I can't believe it was a painting...but I was not blown away like I was by some of the Van Gogh paintings.  There were some of those where I just had to buy a copy.

• Top middle: An amazing mullet outside of the Van Gogh museum.   For those living under a rock, a mullet is a haircut with business in the front and party in the back. His party is dreadlocks.
• Bottom: MITamsterdam! how great is that?

After the museums Jo and I headed over to the Heineken experience.  We've done the Guinness experience in Dublin and I'll just say that both are fun, but it is a different experience (aside from the beers you get with your entry ticket).  I gave my tickets to Jo, which produced one of the quotes of the weekend.

Jo: Do you want me to see if you can get a coke with you tickets?

Drew: I'd rather watch you pound 4 beers in 20 minutes.

We had agreed to meet the group at a certain time and had 20 minutes to leave...and you can't just throw away beer...someone had to drink it, and Jo was up to the challenge.

After that we did some more partying.  This time we found a karaoke bar.  Anyone who has heard me sing before can imagine how bad it was for everyone that night.  Luckily we were the only four people in there for quite a while...until 20 German high-school boys showed up and joined together in "When You Say Nothing at All"  which is a love song you may or may not know (look it up on youtube).  Quite funny coming from adolescent guys.

• Top right: Donner kabob and Friendly Cat 3.  What more could you want?

Sunday we went to the Anne Frank house because Jo had not been yet and then we drove home.

The don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Europe?

I'm still not sure why, but they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Germany.  Jo, another American from work, and I decided to have a Thanksgiving-esque dinner anyway.  We went with chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, bread, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream.  We kind of threw it together the day of, so we're pretty proud of our effort (I say our like I did anything...I guess I cooked the macaroni and cheese, but really how hard is that?)

• Top, middle, and bottom left: Jo's officemates did not like the sound of greenbean casserole...neither do I...but she took pictures for them.
• Top middle: My boot and Jo's wine glass, after round 1.
• Bottom middle: The Lions (inevitably loosing).
• Bottom middle: The finished product.

Although I do my best to channel my inner Stephanie (my older sister who is a picture nut...averages over 100 pictures a day while traveling) I did not think to get a photo of everyone eating.  I regret this.

Hamburger

Jo and I drove to Hamburg this past weekend and it was so uneventful I almost did not blog about it, but then I figured why not and wrote a quick one.  We wanted to go to a city in Northern Germany and we had heard good things about Hamburg from some other Americans working with us.  The 4 hour drive ended up taking about 7.5 hours because ze Germans once again decided to close a highway.  No signs indicating the closure or why.  Of course. :-)

• Top left: Here you see people walking around, which tells you how long we went without moving.


• To right: My best attempt to capture the lady peeing on the side of the road.


• Bottom left: The closed highway we wanted to take.


• Bottom middle: Our detour took us through pretty farmland.


• Bottom right: With large piles of potatoes and other items I did not recognize (there were hundreds of these piles).

By the time we got there it was quite late so we just went out for dinner and to walk through their redlight district (of course once you've seen Amsterdam everything else is unimpressive).

• Apparently the Beatles spent some of their early years in Hamburg, so they have these fun picture options.

The next day we went to the fish market, which was quite exciting.  Some fruit vendor threw a banana at me while he tried to keep the crowd excited.  The vendors yell at everyone and throw (what seem to be random) things into bags as they slowly lower the price.  When someone finally raises their hand signaling that they want to buy the bag of goodies, the vendor hands the bag to a helper (and the helper deals with the collecting of monies and distributing of goods) so the vendor can start a new bag.  I honestly have never seen anything like it before.



After that we tried to go to the Rathaus (the main government building for the state of Hamburg) which, according to the guidebooks and the permanent sign on the door, claims to be open on Sundays.  A paper sign on the door informed us that there would be no tours on this day.

• No room at this inn.

Seriously disappointed, we wandered the city and then headed home.

• While wandering we saw the outline of the old city wall and part of it was named Johanniswall...when we got there we found no wall...so Jo is leaning up against her fictitious wall.

Once again, the drive home provided the most fruitful pictures.  We had seen these happy face signs on the way to Budapest but did not get good pictures then.   Here they are in all of their glory.  They indicate to the driver what mood they should be in given the amount of road construction remaining.

Cone, phone, dome...all words that rhyme with Rome

I swear, I wrote 3 blogs last week and through a slip of the hand I hit the discard instead of save button on gmail (I write them as drafts so I can edit/write the posts as ideas come to me in my downtime at work...I don't use wordpress because it often has problems).  I will rewrite them this week.  Until then, Rome

This past weekend was my scheduled trip to Rome.  As always, I have a highlight of pictures and will throw in some comments.

I met up with Mo early Friday morning and we headed to the Vatican.  We missed the turn to the museum entrance (it was a tiny brick sign in a brick wall) and ended up in St. Peter's square and almost missed our guided tour, but we made it with 1 minute to spare.  Luckily the Vatican is smart and the first thirty minutes of the tour is a discussion of history and an explanation of some of the top sights, so you could be late and still make your tour.

• Top left: You can see the empty seat next to me.  Sad times for Drew.  Jo was scheduled for this trip, but recruiting called her elsewhere and I had to fend for myself.  I was excited...and scared.


• Top right: Met up with Mo early Friday morning.


• Bottom left: You know the drill.  See a cat, make a cat pose.


• Bottom right: Not many pictures from inside the Vatican.  They have no picture rules and Swiss Guards.  Swiss Guards come with Polearms (spear-like weapons).  Enough said.

We missed going into St. Peter's because as Mo and I tried to find the entrance (there is a path for people on guided tours so they can go straight to St. Peter's and don't have to get back in line) and an employee assured us we wanted the path on the left.  This led us to the Tomb of the Popes and then outside.  Oh well, we decided to head to the Colosseum and catch St. Peter's the next day when the lines were shorter.

• Top left: Cool model that shows how the elevator system there worked.


• Top right: Thankfully they had a nice model to help you envision how the Colosseum looked.  Over the years, people have looted the marble from the building so all that is left is the skeleton (and even that is amazing) so the model shows you what went on top of that skeleton.


• Bottom middle-left: Not quite a lion in the arena, but close enough.

And my best attempt at a panoramic shot from inside.  Of course I have a nice postcard of this (I buy postcards because they are always better shots than I can take) but I do not have a scanner.



After that, Mo and I went back to the hotel to meet up with Becca and then to dinner.

• Top middle-right: I ordered liter cola, the girls ordered wine.


• Top right: Italian wiring.

After dinner we got a bit lost, and after consulting a map next to a large brick building (remember this building) decided it was better to walk out the way we walked in.  Rome is pretty good about labeling their streets.  Problem is, the streets are so old and not continuous, that there is not enough room on a map to label a majority of streets.  you just keep walking until you find a street that is labeled on your map.

We planned to take a hop-on hop-off style bus to the Catacombs, but we ran into a few problems.

• What you have here is the front and back of a metal sign.  Not a sign with a plastic insert that someone forgot to change.  A metal sign that was printed this way.  If you look closely at the sign, you will notice that the start time and intervals between buses do not match.  You've gotta love Italy.

After waking up nice and early for the 8:30 bus, we found out that according to the other side we had to wait until 9.  Ok, fine.  At 9, the bus arrived and informed us that because of a protest today near the main train station (we were wondering why they were setting up portable toilets in the area) the bus would not be making the runs in the afternoon, thus stranding us at the Catacombs.  We instead opted for a taxi.  Not many pictures from inside the tombs.  It is not allowed.

• Top right: The fact that there is a sign there telling you not to make out because this is in fact holy grounds, means that it was happening enough to merit a sign.  You've got to love the Italians.

Next we took a cab to St. Peters.  Wait, that is not fair to Becca or the situation.  It would be better to say we were incredibly lucky that a cab even showed up at the Catacombs.  Becca had a list of about 30 cabs companies, and it is a good thing too.  The first 6-7 companies hung up on her when they discovered that she spoke English.  Finally she spoke broken Italian well enough for someone to understand where we were and what we needed.

St. Peter's was well worth the trip back to the Vatican.

• Top left: Apparently the Vatican does not allow yellow spaghetti strap dresses or pink overalls.  I don't blame them.  I've been told that if you wear a tank top (and think about how hot Italy is in the summer) they make you put on a paper dress.  Awesome!


• Bottom middle-right: I had to take a picture of St. Andrew, since that is my name.


• Bottom right: Could not catch the wedding quick enough, but not a bad place to get married.

• St. Peter's Basilica is unbelievably big.

• St. Peter's Square, also quite large.

After that, we just sort of wandered the city.  We got a different hop-on hop-off bus and did a loop, listening to the history of some of the buildings.  They also had route problems due to the protests, so when the bus deviated from the normal path and the audio did not match the scenery, we just changed the language to something else.  Always fun.

• Bottom left: The Tiber is a very shallow, dirty, and unimpressive river.  Apparently it floods and that is why so many things in Rome were just covered and built over as the city declined over the ages.


• Bottom right: The protests.


• Middle middle: Awesome mullet spotting.

The last thing we absolutely had to see before it got dark was the Pantheon.  As we worked our way over to it, we again got lost.  We finally stopped, very confused, next to an old brick building...no idea where we were.  We kept walking around the building and realized we were in the same spot where we got lost the night before.  Then we realized that the old building we were standing next to twice, each time declaring that we had no idea where we were, was in fact the Pantheon.  Oops.  It turns out, that when you rob all of the beautiful marble from a great building like the Pantheon (aside from the giant marble columns that are only in the front) the Pantheon looks like an old brick building.

• Top left: During the renaissance, they could not figure out how the Romans had built the dome, so they cut a few freaking holes in the side (notice the black spot to the right of the arch, and then a similar spot one level above it).  Great job engineers.  Bravo.


• Bottom right: Mo figured out that if you put your finger in the faucet, it turns into a drinking fountain.


• Bottom middle: Worth every penny it cost to get this guy to do the MIT with us in front of the Pantheon.

On the final day we checked out some of the old ruins before leaving.

• Top left: Cat pose.


• Middle left: Actual cat.


• Bottom right: Time to fly home while trusting my life to Italians...who, as I mentioned several times in this post, you gotta love.

FL/GA - Still the World's Largest Cocktail Party

Since I had to come back to America last week, I decided to swing through Jacksonville for the annual Florida/Georgia (or Georgia/Florida depending on which colors you wear) football game.  As the title of post says, I don't give a crap what the stupid UF President Bernie Mac's anti-drinking/anti-fun policies say or about him forcing Jacksonville to remove the title of "World's Largest Cocktail Party" from the event.  Everyone there knows that it is still the Worlds Largest Cocktail Party.

For those of you unaware, the annual Florida/Georgia game is a football game between the two school that has been played in Jacksonville every year since 1933 (except 94 and 95 when they were rebuilding the stadium in Jax).  As the following pictures show, it is quite a weekend.

• Top left: The hockey teams square off the night before, so I had to drop in to see my boys.  Yes, they beat Georgia.  Starting to make a habit out of beating them.


• Middle middle: A healthy Gator themed breakfast.


• Bottom left: Celebrating our getting the TV to work after over an hour of messing with it.  Turns out a remote control is helpful and practically required.  Also turns out that if you walk around a tailgate long enough and leave your wallet with someone who has a TV of the same brand, you can borrow a remote control that will work with your TV.


• Top right:  The start of the tailgate, a calm group of about 16 with some casual beer pong.


• Bottom right: You party through the injuries!


• Top middle: This is just the liquor table.  This does not include the keg, bottles, or Margarita blender.

As the day wore on, the tailgate grew.

• Top middle-right: These highly intoxicated gentlemen saw our liquor table and offered to pay us for a drink, but you don't charge fellow Gator fans.  Especially Gator fans with blow-up dolls wearing Georgia colors.  People of that caliber drink free.


• Bottom middle-left: I snapped a picture when the tailgate was starting to pickup.  I would say we had a good 40 people at one point.


• Middle middle: Thankfully, someone had the decency to dress a bulldog in a good looking color (blue).  I just feel bad for those dogs whose owners dress them in red or black.  You wonder if they would be better off at the pound?


• Middle left: At the game, after the win.


• Bottom left: After all was said and done (don't worry, we picked up our trash).


• Top right:  My older sister and father graduated from Georgia and my wife, myself, and my younger sister graduated from Florida.  Needless to say, each group lets the other group know what we think about the opposing school and their fanbase.  Typically, each group counts the number of opposing fans spotted wearing Jean Shorts (Jorts, which Florida is famous for) and sporting mullets.  It is best to keep score on the back of a car with window chalk.  We did not do that this year, but I must ashamedly admit that the best haircut spotted was the rat-tail on on this Florida fan.  You must commend this guy.  A rat-tail that long has been growing for more than 2 years...and that means that either no one has told him how ridiculous he looks, or worse...everyone he associates with thinks he looks fine.


• Middle right: After a late Friday night partying and getting up at 7 AM to start tailgating by 9 AM, naps are not unheard of.  Don't worry, they rallied later in the day.


• Bottom right: To quote Wayne's World, "You're partied out...again!"  This guy missed the game because he had to be taken to the hospital.  Don't worry, he was fine.  After they got some non-alcoholic fluids in him, he came back to the tailgate...wearing his hospital gown (which is all that you have to wear when the paramedics cut your shirt off of you).

• Nice view of the stadium.  They split the fans in the stadium in two, Florida on one side and Georgia on the other.  You can see the color change on the left hand side of the picture.

I have to commend the Georgia fans for their ability to party and the spirit that they bring to this game.  Georgia came into this game with 4 wins and 3 loses to play the undefeated, and ranked #1, Florida Gators.  You would not have known the records from walking around the tailgates and seeing the number of Georgia fans.  After Florida's victory this year, the Gators have won 17 of the last 20 games.  A Bulldog fans under 30 probably can't remember a time when they had a legitimate shot at winning this rivalry game, but the Georgia Faithful trek down to Jacksonville every year.  They party hard and cheer hard.  And, to be fair to Georgia, they have a nice lead on the overall series (46-39-2) and they have a 15-5 run in the 70's/80's.  But the fact of the matter is that in recent years, the Gators own the Puppies!  I'll end this extremely classy post with a very serious question.

Do you know why the St. Johns river flows North?  Because Georgia sucks!