"Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark"

Life’s tough—I’ll say. I’m so tired! “Why is that, Paloma? Have you been spending too much time in coffee shops?” No, no, I’m tired because I just spent four days in Denmark, with a brief stint in Sweden (besides, you cannot spend “too much time” in coffee shops!...kidding mamma ☺). Anyway, back to this business about my weekend…so Sharon, Katie (“the australian”) and I ventured north this weekend to see all Scandinavia had to offer, well at least Copenhagen anyway. The title of my post is actually very misleading because KÖBENHAVEN was a really beautiful city, although a lot more cosmopolitan than I expected. After dropping off our stuff at our hostel, we made our way to this church that has a very high spire you can hike up for the most amazing view of the city and the harbour. I have to say I really love the idea of these wind turbines in the middle of the water…functional without being a scar on the landscape. We pretty well spent the rest of first day just wandering through the streets, taking in the view, you know the usual the old and new architecture and the people, or more specifically the men. They were very attractive, nay, GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, BREATHTAKING. I have never seen so many beautiful specimens—they were everywhere, I think I may strained my neck trying to take them in all at once, it was almost ridiculous how attractive everyone was. But, who am I to complain?

The next day we visited “Christiana” a hippy commune literally in the middle of the city. Apparently a group of our peace lovin’-pot smoking-long haired-stickin’ it to the man-friends started squatting on this piece of land about 35 years ago and the government decided to let them stay as a “social experiment.” Initially, the police weren’t allowed into the area and it was all “free love man” but eventually that stopped and according to the habitants have been a thorn in their side ever since. They even have a billboard with a running tally of the police visits for that day and the cumulative total since 2003 when they started counting. It was a really strange and wonderful place to visit, although I wasn’t allowed to really take pictures of the main area, affectionately called “Pusher Street.”
It’s a self-contained unit, you don’t even feel like you’re in a city, you enter and there are shanty houses everywhere, people partying, smoking, drinking, random animals running around. Then you stroll around a bit and come to these huge river and its so gorgeous…reminded me a bit of Thunder Bay actually. One of the locals we spoke to said that “the right wing government” was trying to shut them down even though they pay taxes now…taxes equivalent to 200 Euros for each inhabitant of the area per year. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal for prime real estate in one of the most expensive cities in the world, but hey man, leave the hippies alone! Besides, this “social experiment” is quite a cultural anomaly in the west and maybe we can learn something about community values from our long-haired friends…did I just write that?!...living in liberal Amsterdam must be getting to me…

Anyway, that night, we met up with David, a friend of Katie’s who lives nearby and we went out for dinner and to a café/club…cool music, chill atmosphere. The next day we set off for Sweden, I mean we were half an hour away, why not? We spent the day visiting Lund, a cute university town, and Malmo, albeit most of the time there was spent on the beach just snoozing.
You can see Copenhagen in the distance in this photo. We also searched everywhere for meatballs and came to the realization that this is an IKEA myth…we endured more than one strange look from locals when we asked where you can get “meatballs” so we finally gave up. Our last day we headed to Elsinore to visit the setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (ironically we did catch a glimpse of the famous brooder roaming the fields near the castle). Here are the secret passage ways under the castle.



So I have to say, despite being so pleased with the opportunities I have to travel over here, I love coming home to Amsterdam. I’m also a little weary of leaving the city every weekend, there is so much to see and do here, I’m worried that if I spend too much time abroad I won’t really appreciate what it is to “live” in this city. We are staying in Amsterdam this weekend and next weekend we’ll head to Texel Island, north of Holland for a few days. Other than that, things are good. I can’t believe I’ll be home in less than three months…Hope everyone is doing well. Keep the emails coming, I really love hearing from everyone.

Officially a Member of the Quarter Century Club

In case you didn't believe my previous post...note the stiletto. This is my bike "White Lightning."


First things first, I wanted to send out a big THANK YOU for all my birthday greetings, whether via phone, text message, email or regular mail. I can't tell you how nice it is to have received all of your messages when I'm so far from home, so thank you very much- very much appreciated. Secondly, I have to also say thanks to everyone in Amsterdam who made my 25th so special-I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate.

We started out an indian restaurant in an area known as "De Pijp." Then I was whisked away to a surprise location....although, in this photo I look a bit like a prisoner at Guantanamo, I was very pleased to discover that I was escorted to a canal where we were all going to have our own private boat tour. Thanks especially to Sharon and Dunny for organizing this--it was amazing! Amsterdam at night is beautiful.

A night out in A'dam: Heels on Wheels

So a few of us went out last night for my upcoming birthday (thanks for a great night Paola, Emma, Hannah, Crystal, Dunny and for ALMOST showing up Frank, Andrew and Jordan!). In any event, a night out in Amsterdam is a slightly different experience. So Paola (my roomate) and I headed out at about 10:30. Normally, I would jump on a subway, car or cab--not in Amsterdam, here you get on your bike. That's right, Paloma and Paola in 3 inch stilletos jumped on their bikes and headed to other side of the city to meet up at Frank's place. So we're biking along, trying to see signs through poorly lit streets, not entirely sure where the hell we're going and all of a sudden I hear a terrible crash. Thinking the stillettos had taking vengeance on my roomate, I turned around to see a fountain of beer showering Paola. Well I may be exagerating slightly, but her feet got wet because the bag of beer we were bringing to Frank's got caught in her spokes. One bottle shattered and another one was still spraying beer because it was stuck in her wheel. A bit of a dilemma...before she managed to unwedge the bottle, we had to endure many a dirty look for the shattered glass on the path from the dutch cyclists riding by. We finally arrived at Frank's before deciding to once again jump on our cycles, this time all 9 of us, to venture once again to the other side of the city to go to the club. Half way there, we're stopped by the police who inform us that this is a pedestrian area only. WHAT? I thought bikes ruled the streets here! At this point, half of us split up and each went in different directions before finally meeting up at the club, minus Frank, Andrew and Jordan who "mysteriously" disappeared...possibly into a coffeeshop along the way. So the remaining went to a club called Sugar Factory and danced for the next few hours before (that's right) jumping back on our bikes to go home. Funnily, we were talking about how convenient it is to not have to find your way home, via cab or otherwise, at the end of the night and about how necessary a bike is in Amsterdam when upon arrival home, my other roomate Elisa, informed us that her bike had been stolen from outside our door. Terrible! Bike thefts are very frequent here, junkies steal them and sell them for 10-15 euros. I hope no one steals my bike "white lightning" --I can't afford to buy another one (unless of course I decide to buy one off a junkie...). Anyway, I had a great time last night and look forward to my next excursion.

A few more pics from Belgium

Royal Palace-Brussels, Belgium
Palais de Justice, European Court of Justice-Brussels, Belgium
Street in the Sablon Neighbourhood-Brussels, Belgium
Canal-Bruge, Belgium
Palais de Justice-Antwerp, Belgium

And so it begins....

I've decided to heed my brother's advice (for once) and avoid mass emails. In lieu, a blog, filled with whatever verbal diarrhea I decide to post and you decide to read at your leisure. Truthfully, I will attempt to document my travels or experiences here in the dam---but you all know how good I am at sharing feelings, so don't expect too much. I welcome comments or emails.

With that said, its already been two weeks, so I have a bit of catching up to do.

So initial impressions: I arrived on the morning of August 29th, 2006 to rainy weather and overcast skies. I expected this much, so I was only slightly bothered when this pleasant weather continued for the next ten days. Thankfully, the charm of this city is not dependent on the weather. In fact, it's a bit like visiting London, something about the grey days adds character to the buildings. I don't think much could detract from the quaint houses that line the canals here-it really is charming. The Dutch have been so far among the nicest, most down-to-earth people I have met; always willing to go out of their way to help you out or explain something to you, like for example, what meat I was buying in the supermarket today (let's just say it wasn't beef as I had presumed).

The first few weeks were busy getting settled in and participating in the International Student Network orientation activities. I'm living with Sharon (my schoolmate from home) and two other international students. Elisa, hails from Berlin and speaks better English than I do, and Paola is an attorney from London, who (I think) may share my sarcastic sense of humour (love those brits!). We all get on really well and I'm sure that will be helpful in the months to come, should homesickness develop (unlikely but possible). Oh and we get BBC1, so I have officially starting watching Eastenders again. Woo Hoo!

Classes have begun, although technically I'm not registered in any because somehow the administration at the universiteit van Amsterdam faculty of law managed to forget or something.... Seriously, here's the culture shock: the school's adminstration staff office hours are 4 per week-- Tuesday and Thursday 10-12. If you have class during that time-tough luck. Nobody likes to respond to emails either, so it should prove interesting. When I realized that I wasn't registered in any of the classes I was supposed to be registered in, I approached the international student co-ordinator. This woman is a character and she's exactly the way I pictured her. She's probably in her mid-40s but looks like she's smoked the last 35 of her years on this earth, kind of dishevelled blond hair and smeared lipstick. She wears some funky glasses but is still the most frazzled person you've ever seen. Apparently, I wasn't the only one thrilled with her organizational skills but she reassured everyone in the same way, whatever the problem- "don't worry, it will all work out." Let's hope that is the case.

So, leaving school aside, Sharon and I went on our first weekend trip to Belgium last weekend. We hastily organized our travels to Brussels, Bruge and Antwerp when classes were suddenly cancelled on Thursday and we realized we had a four day weekend. Belgium was beautiful. Brussels was a gorgeous city and we managed to finally find "Mannequin Pis" by the end of our day in the city. Its the most disgracefully amusing statue I've ever seen. We also had the a really nice meal with Jean-Pierre, a director of documentaries from France, and Nick, the token Australian backpacker from our hostel. (Incidentally James, I swear this french guy could have been your brother...or well mine too I guess.) I also, proudly, enjoyed my first Belgian been and I say enjoyed because I have yet to do that in any other country. Next we headed to Bruge, a beautiful little town but FAR too touristy and expensive. Apparently, there was some military parade and Prince Philip was there, although we didn't see him (too busy getting ripped off). For all its charm, we were anxious to head to our next destination-Antwerp. Unfortunately when we arrived, we realized my hostel-booking skills were not so stellar and I landed us right in a ghetto. But, as I say, you don't come to Europe to sit in a hotel room, so off we went to explore the city. The funny thing is that neither Sharon, nor I had really done very much research on our impromptu destinations, so we didn't really know what there was to do anywhere. Once in the downtown, I realized that our hostel location was not representative of this city's atmosphere. I ended up really liking Antwerp, it was a hip city but still with the old buildings and beautiful squares. We wandered around the city, saw a few interesting museums and took in the sites before returning back to Amsterdam.

Coming back to Amsterdam on the train really felt like coming home, despite the fact that we've only been here two weeks. The city has a certain comfort to it and its easy to get used to, even though I am (still) constantly losing myself in its winding streets or "straats" (hey, I'm picking up some Dutch!). Anyway, we've decided to stay here this weekend and enjoy the nightlife A'dam has to offer. We've booked our tickets to Copenhagen for next weekend. Should be good. I promise not to make my next post, so bloody long. I'm boring myself. I hope everyone is well.