The Beautiful Canal City of ... Amsterdam?

Did you know that Amsterdam is a canal city? I certainly didn't. When I think of Amsterdam I think of a seedy place where people just smoke all day. 'Central' Amsterdam (certainly in the Red Light District near the Central Station) certainly tries its darnest to live up to this seedy reputation.

However although this area may be Amsterdam's geographical centre it is certainly not its heart. If you ever visit make sure you head out of this area for a stroll along its many canals just to enjoy the feel of being somewhere where the buildings soar above you on either side and the leaves float down with every breeze and you can just feel like you're somewhere hopeless and romantically European. Or head out to the markets to pick up a second hand book or a few bulbs at the numerous markets around the place. (Dad, I really, really wanted to buy you some Dutch tulip bulbs but I don't think I can get them past customs in Australia :( So Sad :( )

It's also gorgeous heading out of Amsterdam. We took a day trip out to Leiden (the birthplace of Rembrant) and the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. Oh my gosh - these places are so idyllic and serene, you can't help but want to sit down and just wile away the day doing nothing but polishing off a coffee or an ice-cream. Leiden has real authentic Dutch windmills! And on the way there on the train you can see heaps of real Dutch cows! (Mooo!!!) I love Holland windmills, cows, clogs and milkmaids! (Yes, I finally succumbed to the tourish craze and bought a porcelain cow)

But you know something else, everyone here is crazily multi-lingual! The tulip seller spoke at least 5 languages, the milkmaids speak at least 4 and all the tour guides speak like 10. It's crazy! I wish I could speak even 1 more language!

On a darker note though recently I have started thinking about starting a 'reverse' travel guide where you list all the REALLY, REALLY BAD places that you encounter when you travel. At the top of my list would be 'The Best of Holland Excursions' which basically encapsulates everything that is quintessentially bad about tour groups in one single 4 hour tour. They basically took us from one gift shop to another and in between stopped for moments where you can take photos of 'Dutch' things like windmills for 3 seconds from the bus parking lot before getting back on the bus. We went through these gorgeous little fishing villages but didn't get to do anything besides follow our tour guide from one side to the other all the while desperately trying to get just one photo without another person in it (note tried and FAILED)... grr... I hate the tour group.

(Oh and dad, I haven't seen any houses with mini doors :( Very sad...)

Ich Liebe Knut!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Knut, he is the most adorable little polar bear in Germany!

He was abandoned by his mother but adopted by the zookeeper at Berlin Zoo as well as the general Berlin populace with great zeal. But it's easy to see why - just look at how adorable he is!!!

He is only on display for about 2 hours a day and people start queuing more than an hour in advance just to get a 10 minute glimpse of him! Only very young children and very old decript folks are allowed close to the enclosure to see him personally but we stood far away craning our necks for just a glimpse. It was worth it though just to see him tottering after his keeper and rolling around and wrestling... awww.... happy Xin :p

I have just been informed that Knut may be a girl. So just change all the preceding words to 'she', I'm too lazy to.

In the Shadow of the Berlin Wall

If your first glances of Berlin are of the brand spanking new Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and Potsdamer Platz (with its glitzy Sony Centre) you could be forgiven for thinking that Berlin is nothing more than a temple to the uber-modern chic way of life. However scratch this facade just a little and you begin to see a city that is still living in the shadow of a past that is too terrible to remember and too horrid to forget.

I took a walk along the Berlin Wall yesterday and though it was so easy for me to skip from one side to another in true touristy fashion the emotive outpourings in the form of political wall murals are testament to the repression and blood that once coloured life in Berlin. Reading about all the ostensibly mad plans concocted for people to go from East Germany to West you really get a sense of the human spirit and the desire just to live free.

On a completely different note, I love the sausage here. I can see why it is so famous. I love the currywurst and the bratwurst, I don´t know if it is the meat or the sauce or what but it´s uber, uber yummy.

I Love Copenhagen (But I Hate my *#%*:@#* Suitcase!)

Okay Christine, I admit it, you were right. After one day with my suitcase in Copenhagen I was ready to throw it in a canal. It's too big, it's too heavy, it doesn't fit in lockers AND no one helps you up the stairs (the staff just laugh at you and tell you there was actually a lift AFTER you get to the top). I'm sure everyone who was privy to my crazy suitcase dilemma is having a bit of a chuckle now.

But luckily I only had to cart it around for my last day and all I did was visit an art museum. (I actually had 3 attractions lined up but gave up because the gallery was awesome and because my suitcase was such a cumbersome dead weight I only visited the gallery.) The art gallery in question is the NY Carlsberg Glytotek (yes, it's founded by the same guy who made the beer) and it houses a magnificent collection on ancient sculpture, French/Danish sculpture and French Impressionist art. The glytotek itself is a beautiful piece of architecture adjorned by soaring colonnades, lavishly decorated ceilings and an a lush indoor Mediterranean 'Winter Garden' populated by both modern and classical sculptures. You are stopped by the elegant nlines of the stairwells and the perfectly lined doorways creating the illusion of infinite reflection as much by the emotive statues.

But I think having awesome collections housed in simply elegant buildings is trademarkly Danish (no Chian, I don't mean in the legal sense, I'm not an intellectual property law expert like yourself). I also visited the Statens Museum for Kunst which is also a beautiful building with a stately old wing as well as a modern wing with the most gorgeously pristine lines and floor to ceiling windows offering panoramic garden views.

I suppose sometime soon I will get used to museum buildings being art as much as the art they house but not yet... not yet...

Besides the cool museums and galleries (yes Lilian, I saw more Runestones), Copenhagen has much to love. It has a glorious cafe culture and when the weather is fine the Danes head out in droves to the public squares or gardens or just they just sit by the canal to soak up sun. Mmm... ice cream and hot dogs...

And yes mum, I saw 'The Little Mermaid'. It's pretty, it's bronze, it's small, it's in a totally awesome location. It is on the seaside of this beautiful park and frankly although I wasn't very interested in her (sorry Mr Edvard Erikson) I loved sitting by the seaside with my little bag of sugar coated almonds watching the people and the sea. The best thing about the water in Copenhagen is that it has a life of its own. I think it's because it's so windy here but the water chops and churns in every-which-way and it looks more like a restless animal than a body of liquid.

All in all I can see why Mary Donaldson moved here... (It's not to become royalty, it's just the prettiness of the whole country! Although I'm sure that being royalty has its perks, she's already featured on Danish coins AND the royal treasury has a huge stock of alcohol from the 1600's!)
Currently on the train from Denmark to Germany. Here the train drives onto the ferry for the crossing just like the cars! Which gives you a chance to walk, hang out on the sun deck, have an ice-cream and (if the fancy takes you) pick up a slab of tax-free beer. :p

Sunshine + Ice Cream = Happy Xin!

So after Dublin I headed to the west of Irelands to Galway and the Aran Islands.

I've surmised from these experiences that I need a car - very, very badly.

First reason is that buses in Ireland are really, really bad. And when I say really bad, I mean really bad. I mean much worse than buses in Australia. The bus from Dublin to Galway is supposed to take 3 hours and 40 minutes. It actually took as 5 hours. Partially because the Easter weekend traffic was really bad but more because I had a shitty bus driver who actually got lost and had to ask one of the passengers for directions!!! And even when we were running late he actually stopped by the side of the road and took his time eating a sandwich. Majorly traumatic experience.

The second reason is that I won't have to take all these stupid day tours whenever I want to make a day trip out of a major city. Although these short day tours are not as bad as the ones in China (they don't take you to random stupid factories that charge ridiculous prices for everything and just dump you there for hours) it's still way too much time wasted waiting on other people and doing things that I don't want to do but not getting enough time doinng the things I really want to do.

For example when we got to the AMAZING Cliffs of Moher we only got an hour! An hour! Which is just criminal really because we managed to get to them when there was no mist (a rare event indeed for these cliffs) so we got a crystal clear view and I had no time to do a proper clifftop walk or enjoy the sunshine. Not happy Jan.

Thirdly I just miss driving... zoom, zoom...

But I shouldn't complain because I have been getting the most spectacular weather in Ireland - it's been completely amazing sunshine and not a drop of rain (which is unbelievably good fortune considering what a bad rep Ireland's weather has got).

Plus I visiting the Aran Islands just off the coast near Galway has been such a highlight. Taking the ferry across an opaque blue sapphire sea that reflected the sunlight to create such a jewel, getting lost when riding my bike around to end up as the most desolate cliffs and ruined fort I have seen thus far, it looked like time (and more importantly the tourists) just forgot this place and sitting there almost completely along it is easy to see how time and modernisation could have just complete passed these islands by.

I just want to add that I'm proud that I can still ride a bike after all these years - although everyone who has heard my handlebars round the wrong way story will laugh when I say that I actually did it again! *Blush*

But Galway in general was just awesome. Although I was in the worst hostel ever (the hot water stopped one night and their whole attitude was 'Well it doesn't really affect us so we don't care' and didn't even try to make it up to the residents), for the record it was called Barnacles, the people there were just a great bunch. For our last night there we headed out to the crazy pubs there and made a very big night of it. You may be pleased to discover that I found a beer I liked! Hoegarrden! (I'm sure that's not spelt right) But it actually tastes kind of bubblegummy ... mmm... sweet tooth... :p

And then I flew to Cardiff, Wales. Which was fine, not terribly interesting apart from the crazy decorated buildings there. I think the Welsh must really just go crazy because that Cardiff Castle is something else! Every room has a 'theme' but is just so crammed full of decoration that you can't help but think that the interior designer must have been blind. It may be something to do with the fact that the Castle was never owned by royalty so they did not feel the need to be bound by things such as good taste. Luckily they are architecturally and aesthetically redeemed by their Sennedd (or parliament house) which is one of the few parliament houses I have been to that is actually elegantly simple and functional. Oh and if you ever go to Cardiff, remember that you need exact change for the buses. This is the single more annoying thing in the world especially on Easter Sunday when nothing is open for you to get change!!!

In Case You Had Your Doubts...

I'm definitely not Irish.

How do I know this you ask? How can I be sure when 6 million people in the world are in some way Irish? Well the answer is very simple folks - I hate Guinness.

That's right, it's not only that I have a mild distaste for the stuff, or that it makes me bloated, Guinness is just decidedly dreadful. It's bitter, it's weird and there's just nothing good I can say about it. I don't understand for the life of me why people part with hard earned cash to subject themselves to this truly awful beverage.

I refer to the diagram above.

Now Diagram A shows how much of my pint of Guinness I had before I got sick of it.

Diagram B shows how much I had before I finally gave up. You see, even all the free alcohol in the drink couldn't induce me to finish it. Gah.

Actually the whole Guinness Storehouse experience was kind of bizarre. The dim lighting and the weird placement of odd bits of antiquated machinery everywhere gave a very unsettling 'Alice in Wonderland' kind of feeling and I half expected a crazed Oompa Loompa to ambush me at any given moment. Have you ever seen that episode of Futurama where Fry and Leyla go to the factory of that drink and they put on a weird front where they take them down the river and behind the scenes it was just a huge monster producing excrement? Well if you've seen that episode you may understand the creepy feeling I got going through the Storehouse.

Not that it was all bad - the bar where they 'treat' you to the pint of Guinness included in your entry fee has absolutely awesome views of Dublin city. And (as Forrest Gump would say) that's all I have to say about that.

Today I visited Newgrange which is a neolithic passage burial mound just out of Dublin. It is the only properly excavated mound in the area open to the public despite the fact that there are some 40 odd such passage burial mounds in the area. It was actually quite an impressive experience. Much better than Stonehenge. Because it is actually an enclosed structure they let you in in very small groups and simulate for you the light show that occurs only at dawn on the winter solstice when a shaft of light pierces the passage. (In neolithic times this would have been the only time in the entire year that the light penetrates the inner chamber of the tomb) And thinking that this incredible structure was made 5000 odd years ago is just mind-boggling. Personally I think this is much more impressive than Stonehenge (and Newgrange predates Stonehenge by around 1000 years) because the tour allows a much more intimate connection to develop between you and the structure. Plus it helps that because you never heard of the place before you don't expect it to be impressive.

But apart from the actual mound the scenery was just amazing. You can see so far into the distance not necessarily because it's on a high hill but just due to the lay of the land.

The Leprechauns Made Me Do It!

I've learned quite a lot about the jolly Irish since I got here:

1. A brief history of the Irish struggle for independence from the British which has ripped apart Belfast for the last 30 odd years. (I did a political walking tour along Falls Rd in Belfast)

2. That everything cool in Dublin happens after the sun goes down. (And in the morning apparently everyone has a hangover so nothing happens till about 10am)

3. That the Dublin tourish office is the most unhelpful place in the entire world unless you want to buy something. Instead of giving you information they would rather just sell you a crappy 2 euro guide.

4. Nothing made in China lasts. Okay, while that strictly has nothing to do with the Irish I'm just pissed off because the glasses I got in China broke on the ferry crossing to Ireland.

5. Motion sickness baaaad... Okay, so that also has nothing to do with the Irish but I was so awfully motion sick on the ferry to Ireland, I spent most of the time banging my head against the table wanted to die (although apparently that uses up 150 calories an hour so maybe I'm a good deal skinnier now... but whatever...)

6. You can blame anything on the leprechauns here! :p (Or at least that's what the sign on the hostel wall tells me)

So as you can see (or maybe you can't but it's true!) I've been doing a lot since my last entry. And so I blame fatigue for the disjointed nature of this entry.

While I don't want to bore everyone with the tedious details there are two highlights worth
mentioning.

Firstly a trip up to the Giant's Causeway. For those of you who have never heard of it see the picture. Although the actual Giant's Causeway is not as romantically inspiring as I would have imagined (although the photographers do indeed love it and are out there in droves with tripods and lenses bigger than their heads) the scenery there is utterly stunning. People travel hundreds of leagues there just to be utterly enthralled by the cliff top walk which delivers some of the most awe-inspiring views (especially the Chinese tourists who point and ooh and aah because they have never seen the ocean before). However I loved these beaches less because they were uniquely breathtaking and more because they just reminded me of home. It made me realise how lucky we are to have such incredible scenery on our doorstep just a stone's throw away. I mean I reckon the Great Ocean Road is just one of the best journeys you will ever make (unless you happen to be on it when some drunken pirate is playing chicken with the other crazy driver... I name no names...). But what I'm trying to say is that going there made me really nostalgic and homesick and I just miss all you guys at home so much!

But if you ever do head up the Irish east cost (which is amazing in its own right) make sure you stop off at Carrick Island which can be reached by the crickety Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge and just sit for a few minutes to enjoy some solitude and the incredible views and wildlife you get there. I even saw a dolphin!!! Yay!

Secondly Irish dancers are amazing. Makes me sad I never saw Riverdance. But the stamina and the energy required to keep jumping and tapping away like that just astounds me. I went and saw a short performance at the Arlington Pub here in Darlington and was just delighted by
these incredibly rhythmic and powerful dancers. You have to see it for yourself sometime! (And no, seeing Leo Di Caprio in Titanic does NOT count!)

Alright I'm going to go out and get a (half-)pint of something (I can't finish a pint of anything!!! It's pathetic and un-Irish I know!). But if I can't get up tomorrow I'm going to blame it on the leprechauns.