brunette

rated PG13... I was in Amsterdam

Queens Day was a riot. Seriously. Ridiculous.
First of all I have never seen so many people in bright orange since I last flew EasyJet .

Second of all, I have never heard so many different house beat going on in such a small space, all competing with each other, all equally as predictable and cheesy. Mind you, most of these "beats" and people in orange were riding on "Party Boats" that float down Amsterdam's canal in ultimate Lazy River fashion. Most of the boats are themed. Some are pirate themed. Some rugby themed. Some Playboy themed.



Besides the main canal, the streets had their own canals: beer and urine. Basically, chaos everywhere.
We tried to walk around like civilized folk and see the sights. People were selling junk on the streets but it turned out that most of it was really just JUNK plain and simple. Trash.
Luckily some people were also selling food on the streets. That is when I ate my first rollmop. Pickled herring wrapped around pickled onions and pickles on a bun. Basically heaven.


Oh wait, this was heaven, sorry. I mistyped...

The most cheese I have ever seen in one place in my entire life!

Luckily, in all of the hubbub, we made it to the Red Light District. Which was, disconcerting, awkward, uncomfortable... to say the least.


But don't worry. My time in Amsterdam was not just playing spectator to too much debauchery. I also got some culture, went to the museum, and learned that the dutch love boats.


and who can blame them.

I will leave you with these last couple of photos and let you come to your own conclusions about my trip, Queen's Day, and the Dutch people in general...

Spring Break!

I feel like so much has happened but there is so little to report. I went to EuroDisney. And then I went to Croatia with Chris. And we were there for 9 days but still did not see enough. And then I went to Greece, where I lazed around on the island of Mykonos and went to the Acropolis in Athens. And now I am finally back in Paris. And I have photos here that date all the way back to Kait and Julia's visit. So I am going to make this entry a photoblog. I hope you will enjoy.

Oh and tomorrow I leave for Amsterdam (also known as Hamster Jam) to see the Queen's Day Festival. Oh boy!

This is Zagreb.
I chased pidgeons.
There were many statues of old, important, grumpy, Croatian men.


We met a very large man who owned a collector's shop. He insisted that this photograph be taken. I think he had self-painted miniature figurines of every single character from Lord of the Rings in his shop. He was very friendly.


Next we went to Korcula, a little island off the coast of Croatia. A 12 hours bus ride away from Zagreb
Chris tried to teach my to skip stones


a few times.

Here is the entrance to the town.



And here is the view from the hotel!


And then we went to Split on an overnight ferry boat. Split is the most beautiful city we went to. It is right on the water. There I went to a seder that merely covered the bare minimum in order to call itself a seder. But it was held within the walls of the Diocletian Palace.

And this pizza strayed me from maintaining my passover diet.

From Split I continued on to Greece via Italy.

First we spent one day in Athens and visited the Acropolis:



...But it was under construction...

Finally we got to Mykonos

Where we went to the beach

and relaxed a little.



And then we went home. Back to Paris...



where they have places like these.

And now it is spring and it's good to be back.

craving fulfillment

(see tory's latest posts for a eurodisney update and PICS, mine will not be right now)

I just ate what the French call a "new York bagel": pastrami, mayo, israeli pickles, more mayo, and a tomato on a poppy seed bagel. I mean, it's no Bagel Bob's but it definitely did the trick. And though I spent a little more at Hollywood Bagels, Paris than I wanted to, it fulfilled a craving that was, until now, unceasing.

I leave for Croatia in twenty-four hours and I am so excited. I have a new guide book and I have learned of all the wonders of Croatia. Its many steaks stuffed-with-pork-and-oil specialties and its many clothing-optional beaches.
I haven't even had a chance to get excited for Greece, which is only ten days away!

Today, to prepare for my trip I bought a box of egg matzos and a box of chocolate covered matzos. The former is for my enjoyment. The latter is a thank you gift for the Croatian rabbi who will be welcoming my goy boyfriend and I into his home for his Passover Seder.

All in all I have a feeling the next few weeks will be pretty exciting.

"I thought you were supposed to be in Paris" "I am in Paris" -Blowup

So I finally saw the movie. The poster hung on my wall for months. And now I have given that some validity. It was good. I sat down in the packed movie theater (first showing of the new print) and a couple of American girls sat down a few seats away from me. Then a nice old man with a bow tie scooted past the girls and sat next to me. The girls were chatting in English, and the old man rolled his eyes at me. I kind of laughed and he said in French:

Pour quoi tous les etrangers parlent tres fort?
Why do foreigners always talk so loud?

My feelings at this comment were mixed: I was flattered, he really thought I was french. But also slightly offended. Mostly I did not know how to respond. So i replied in my best french that I didn't know why. I think he figured me out.
I suppose there is some truth in what he said. But I would probably phrase it differently:

Why is it that French people talk so quietly?

I really don't know. He chalked it up to the fact that the Upper Class French have better manners than everyone else.
If you were wondering, he liked the movie, though he thought the end was too abrupt.

Daylight Savings Temps Temps

Suddenly time seems to be speeding by. Kait and Julia were here and we were in Berlin and then they were gone. And then, suddenly Dad was here. And we went to lots of museums and ate too much and then he was gone. And then, to add to it, we turned the clocks forward. And in six days (according to my Disneyland Visit Countdown clock Widget) I will be at EuroDisney with Dave, Hanly, Kyle, Leila, Tory, Elika, and the millions of other people who will go to EuroDisney on a Sunday in the spring. And then, 5 days later I will find myself in Croatia. Really. Fast.

So let me take a hint from Kait's earlier comment, and slow things down a little...

Kait and Julia were here and it was wonderful. Kait new exactly what I was missing, and she brought me Kraft Mac n' Cheese (which I am eating RIGHT NOW. It's great- nothing like it. Really.) and bagels. Bagels! We went to the first museum I have visited since my arrival in Paris: the Palais de Tokyo. There, we saw a lot of contemporary art which was... uhm, contemporary.
it looked like this:

We took some pictures and made some miSteaks...

Dad was just here. And we continued the tradition of going to museums. But this time we stayed away from contemporary art. Instead we stayed closer to my neighborhood. We went to the Jewish Museum, the Picasso Museum, and the Louvre. The winner for me was the Picasso. Lovely, really lovely.
At the Louvre I finally saw this:

It was underwhelming. But don't tell Leonardo or Dan Brown....

It is really lovely to see Paris with visitors. It is a very nice city in which to be a tourist. There are suddenly a million things to do, a million places to eat, and maybe four hundred museums to visit.

Ever since the clocks have moved forward, though, it has been a whole new Paris. It was 8:30 pm and the sun was still shining. I have ceremoniously removed the lining from my winter coat, and I had to wear sunglasses all day today. There are many a picnic in my future.

Soon there will be Croatia. In Croatia there will be a Croatian Passover, some exploring, and some beautiful beaches. But more on that later. I still have more time...

I hope this update was thorough. The sun is shining and there is a million things to do.

V

i went to berlin. the most important thing i learned was THIS .
my visitors leave soon and i am pretty sad about it.