Halloween

Couple hours after I got home, Kelly, Sylva, and Pricilla came over with my costume. I was Dark Lily… whatever that is. And Sylva and Kelly had something similar to mine which was cool. We then went over to Anton and Yosh’s for Halloween/Hector’s B-day party. It was a good time, although there needs to be more creativity with costumes here. There was a lot of food, and Hector was dancing away as usual. At end of the night, Kelly got sick and we went home.

Going Home

Sasha gave me a ride to the train station where Lukasz was waiting for me to help me with my luggage. He already had train tickets for me, and we hopped on the 0930 train to Schipol. We piled my luggage at the back of the car, and sat in the back row facing the center. 3 minutes later, I turned around and my fucking backpack was gone!!! The train hadn’t left yet so Lukasz ran out looking, but I think it was long gone. We got off the train to make a police report, but there was no police to report to at Central Station. We ended up catching the next train to Schipol and filing a report there. Unlike Mimi, who missed her plane last Sunday, we got there a good 2.5 hrs early. But, because I had to get through security, I had to go in early. I was doing so well when we had to part… smiling and all. Soon as I lost sight of him tho, I lost it and started crying. I am going to miss him….

The flight was painless. Decent food and decent movies (I watched Batman Begins and Fantastic 4). The flight even arrived like 30 minutes early. I was also able to get a standby flight on an earlier connection back to Norfolk so I got home like an hour early. But my luggage stayed on the original flight so I had absolutely no luggage with me when I got home (I didn’t feel like waiting around for it at the airport).

Last Night

At 3, I had everyone down in the comput bar for drinks. Most people only stayed a bit, but Lukasz and Theo was around for a while. In the end, Joe came back, and Lillian also showed up. Just when I thought about wrapping up, Dario showed up. Theo and I left work around 7, or bit after. He walked me to the bus station. I went home, ate dinner, watched TV, fiddle around, and packed.

Basketball

Lukasz usually plays basketball couple times a week. This week, there was an inter-agency tournament so I went to go watch him play. The games were held at European Space Agency. They had a really nice facility and everything there was cheap. Why can’t we have a facility like that?!? Anyways, I watched Lukasz play. He was better than most people on his team, which didn't say much. His team really sucked, and lost the first two games. They one the last one though, so I was happy for them.

Crazy Pianos

Lukasz, Gorik, and I went over to Cedric and Isabelle’s tonight for dinner, and then we went to Crazy Pianos. Cedric, Isabelle, and Gorik had never been there. Also I wanted to buy people from work drinks. But I did not expect anyone to show up at 10 on a Tuesday night. Joe, Thomas, and Ronald did stop by for a bit though. Crazy Pianos was also not as crazy tonight. But I still had fun. Also, poor Cedric had broken up with his girlfriend the day before, so he was in need of some attention.

Hanging Out

Surprisingly, I got up at 10ish despite having another late night yesterday. When I got up, Mimi was actually up packing, which was good since she is supposed to leave any minute now. She didn’t end up leaving the house until 11:30 tho, and she had a 1:30 flight. And it’s about a 45 minute drive there. I hope she made it. Since I haven’t heard from her yet, I assume she did. I didn’t have any real plans today. Lukasz is going to be hanging out with his Polish friends today. I first went for a run, and then gave Cedric a shout. I was supposed to meet up with them in centrum for late lunch, but turns out Marco had locked himself out of his house so they could not get there for lunch. I ended up eating by myself at KFC and then stopped by Gorik’s place to see how he was doing. I brought him some food, and he seemed to be doing alright. By then, I guess Marco solved his problem and was at the Buddha Bar with Cedric so we went to go meet up with them. The place had nice décor, but no hot chocolate. We wanted to play pool so we went to Fiddler’s, but they had some other things going on there so we could not play. We walked around a while looking for a place to play but couldn’t find one, so we just called it a night.

Going Away Party

Since last night was a late night, I didn’t get up until like 1pm today. I had planned to go to watch Lukasz play soccer at 2:30, so I got ready, ate lunch, and rushed out a bit after 2. I ended up not being able to figure out the right bus stop and missed a bus or 2 so I got there quite late. I also had a hard time finding the entrance to the park but I bumped into Rune luckily, so he gave me a lift to the right field. They did not have an actual game today because they were short people, but I still got to watch Lukasz play. (Even if he missed 3 of 4 goals while I was there). Rune gave me a lift home afterwards, and I chilled for couple hours until it was time to go to our going away party at Trond’s. Lukasz came here first to pick me up, and then we walked over to Trond’s. Quite a few people showed up – Me, Lukasz, Mimi, Dario, Marc, Sunny, Trond, Lars, Loanna, Thomas, Christa, Joe, Theo, Gorik, Marco, Cedric, Isabelle, and Rune. Trond cooked for us, so we had a really nice meal with champagne, wine, the works. Afterwards, we ended up doing a bit of karaoke. I was awful as usual. Lukasz actually sang pretty well tho. The karaoke died down after a while, and people trickled out. Right about when Mimi and Dario was about to leave tho, Gorik apparently had gotten sick all over the corridors in the building. They gave him a lift home and Lukasz and Lars ended up cleaning the corridors. A few of us sat around chatting for a while after most people left. Maybe around 3 or so, I finally started getting tired and headed home.

Fiddler's and Clubbing

Tonight Mimi had plans to meet with people from PGS (soccer league) at Fiddler’s. I went first to meet up with Lukasz, Cedric, and Isabelle for dinner. Then we went to centrum where we picked up Marco and then went to Fiddler’s. We played pool mostly while there. The balls are smaller on this table tho, and they are red and yellow. I played like crap. At about 1, the bar closed, so we moved on to a club of sorts. The music sounded jazzy at first, but it turned out to be a good place to swing dance for a bit. I danced a lot with Cedric, and did a bit of swing dancing with Rune. Later on, other types of music came on so we all danced more. We ended up leaving the place at like 0330.

Dinner with Thomas & Christa

Since Mimi was leaving this weekend, Thomas and Christa took us out for dinner after work. They took us to a Chinese-Japanese restaurant. There was a buffet, and Mongolian style barbeque. It was a good dinner. Today was also the last day of exercise. All went well, and it looks like I will get to come back in January if the contract comes through.

French Party… sort of

Ay yay yay… what a mess last night was. I didn’t last too long, but I did have fun. Anyways, I was so weak this morning when I got up. Mimi had been put in bed next to me and she was probably feeling worse than me. We made it into the living room where Lukasz was sleeping and Marc was eating breakfast. I grabbed a shower, we ate breakfast, chatted a bit, and then went back to bed. Around 1245, Lukasz had to leave for a soccer game. I wanted to go watch, but I did not want to go so early. His game was at 1430. I was also feeling really weak still so I debated on going at all. Around 1430 tho, I finally woke up after another nap and wanted to go. Mimi got up too, and we tried to catch the second half of the game. But the 14 bus took forever to come, so we could not get home in time to get back out in time to catch much of the game. Instead, we went to centrum and ate KFC for lunch. And walked around a bit browsing some shops. Later on in the evening, there was supposed to be a party at Cedric’s – a housewarming party for him and Isabel. I met up with Lukasz before hand and we walked over to Cedric’s & Isabel’s. They lived on the beach, a bit past the Kurhaus. There, it was Cedric, his girlfriend Karin (flew in for the weekend), Isabelle, and Daniel (another dude from work). Not too long into the night tho, Cedric got news that his grandmother had just died, so he had taken off with Karin to go for a walk or something. Mimi also was not feeling well and never made it. So the rest of us chat around for a bit and then took off to go dancing in a club in centrum. It was hot as hell in that club, and lot of the music was technoish. It wasn’t until around we left that they started playing some fun music. I was also not in the greatest of moods today. I was actually home sick for the first time this past Thursday.

Shot Night

A girl from work, Melanie, had wanted to do a shot night tonight. The plan was to do a pre-party at Lukasz’s, and then go to Mambo’s at around 10. When Mimi & I arrived around 8:30, it was Trond, Lukasz, and Marc there. Melanie showed up around 9:30 or 10. We started off playing cards – asshole, bullshit, and shithead. Then we started playing Jenga. In the course of about 2 or 3 hours tho, I probably had like 5 shots, and I got really really drunk – after the last shot, the room kinda spun around once. I thought, “Oh shit, I’m done.” I should’ve known better than to drink so much. Anyways, I went to the bathroom, puked my guts out, and was probably there a good couple hours by the sounds of it. I remember I just kept puking and puking – into the sink and shower (thank god not the floor). Lukasz and Mimi came by to check on me but there wasn’t much they could do. Later, Mimi insisted on being let in, so I let her in. We talked a bit (i.e. “How are you feeling?”, “Like shit”, “It could be worse”, “How so?”, “It could be coming out of both ends.” She had a point.) Anyways, after a while, I think I had puked everything out. I wanted to just go to sleep right there but it was getting kinda cold. Mimi had already started puking by then (in the tub) so I asked her if she was alright. No response. So I walked out to the living room, told the guys Mimi needed help, and went on to the bedroom to sleep.

Vaal and Dinner at Sol Beach

Gorik and I headed out first thing in the morning. Our plan was to stop in Maastricht and then back home in time for dinner with everyone. We got to Maastricht tho, and found that it wasn’t a small quaint town that I expected. It was a city. So we left and went to Vaal, a place where Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg meets. There is also a labyrinth there so we went through it. Took us like 30 minutes to get through.

We got back fairly early (we were too tired to do much exploring today) so I went for a run before dinner. Gorik picked me, Mimi, and Martin up and we all went to dinner at Sol Beach at 8. Cedric also came, as did Lukasz, Theo, Joe, and Nadira (Joe’s ex-gf) who had just come back from Greece like an hour ago.

Beaufort, Luxembourg

I was supposed to take the train yesterday to Brussels to go to Gorik’s place, but there was a train strike in Belgium. I had to go to Roosendaal, last stop in Holland, and Gorik drove like an hour to pick me up. I stayed the night at his place, and in the morning we got up early and took off for Beaufort, Luxembourg. It was about a three hour drive, during which time I subjected the poor guy to my bad music and bad singing. To make matters worse, he was sick but I dragged him on a 6 hour hike (although it was more like a walk) once in Beaufort. As I said, it wasn’t so much of a hike as it was a walk through nature trails, but it was still nice.

During the hike, we kept getting lost because the sign postings were really bad and did not match up to our maps much. So what shoulda been a 4 hour walk turned into a 6 hour one. Once done, we checked into our hostel, showered, and went to a nearby town for dinner & desert. Luxembourg has a lot of cute towns.

Dinner... again

Martin came today for a few days to be with Mimi. We went to dinner after work with Thomas, Christa, and Sasha at a Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood. Good food, good conversation, good night. Work is going good. All’s well.

Tennis

It’s been pretty fucking boring since everyone took off for Greece. I didn’t do much all weekend. Got my haircut, worked out, and tried to shop. There were too many people out shopping, and everything is expensive here. I bought one sweater that I can wear over all my shirts and decided to make do with what I have for the rest. On Sunday, Mimi and I went over Gorik’s for dinner and internet. Not much went on Monday – just some running and hanging out at Gorik’s again. Today, I got to play a bit of tennis with Cedric. Quite expensive tho – 12 euros to rent a court for 45 minutes. Must find new place to play. I actually ended up getting back home quite early, so I did laundry and other chores around the house and called it a night.

Dinner with Housemates

Lukasz and a few others from the office are heading out this evening for Greece for a week. I was pretty hungry by the time I got home, so I ate dinner, but I went out again with Sasha, Mimi, and Aihua since I had nothing better to do. We first stopped to back Sasha up on a visit to one of her lodgers. Then we went to the usual Chinese-Indonesian buffet. Aihua and I did not eat tho, since we already had dinner. I had couple of hot chocolates, and we had some interesting conversations all around.

Dinner at Thomas's

Mimi, Lukasz, and I were invited over to Thomas's for some real German home cooked dinner. Started around 7, and we got some yummy soup (chicken noodle like), some meat thing, noodles, and cabbage. Most of it was pretty good. We had tiramisu for desert, but I did not like it because of the coffee. I had avoided it all these years because of the coffee, and finally I tried it and confirmed I do not like tiramisu. But there were cookies and chocolates too. And very good champagne. It was good food overall, and good conversations, and a good night.

Sports Day In Brussels

Today was sports day in Brussels!! Mimi could not go, but Lukasz, Isabel, Cedric, and Marco all went. I sat next to Lukasz on the ride up and we played cards with Cedric and Isabel. Once there, we grabbed lunch with a few other people. Lukasz then went for a swim, and I went to bowling at 2. They were so unorganized tho, so by 3 o’clock, I’d only played one game. I think the lanes were pretty crappy, because I played so horribly. Anyhow, at that point, I took off to go play table tennis. Didn’t win, but I did pretty good for not having played in ages. And I had fun. After table tennis, I went to the field to run, but soccer was still going on. Lukasz and Isabel were playing. I saw Lukasz in action here and there, but he was also chilling a lot on the ground. I guess he was going to go for a swim again, but I did not have my swim suit and was planning to run. He and Isabel took off and I did about 10 laps around the track for some exercise. Afterwards, I borrowed Cedric’s tennis rackets to play with Lukasz and Isabel. I first hit a bit with Lukasz, but he couldn’t get the ball in the court much. Then I played with Isabel. Seemed like we were on the same level so that was good. Then Cedric came along and took over Isabel. He was about my level too. We played until about 5:30, at which point I had to go shower so we can be at the bbq at 6. The bbq wasn’t really a bbq but more of a buffet. Lots of wieners for dinner. By now, I was starting to fade. I was tired from last night. I pretty much slept the whole way back on the bus.

Belgian Party

Tonight was a party at Gorik’s place. He lives pretty close to me, about 4 tram stops away. He’s got this huge 2 floor, 3 br place all to himself – paid for by the company. He even gets wireless and a cleaning lady!! Anyways, there weren’t a whole lot of people there but it was still a good time. Just enough for some card games. The French cadets brought this game that involves grabbing this stick in the middle of a table depending on what cards are flipped. If two people grab it at the same time, they have to fight over it. It was a pretty exciting game. I almost got my head knocked off a few times tho sitting between two people who had to duel. It was usually Marco and Gorik. After that, we played shithead and asshole for a bit and called it a night at about 1:30. I ended up staying over at Gorik’s for the night since Mimi had already gone home earlier. I was too tired and drunk for a bike ride home, and I think Lukasz was too.

Berlin, Germany

It has been a pretty quiet week since Lukasz left on Wednesday to go home to Poland for the weekend. So I went to lunch with Andre, Marc, and Gorik on Thursday to the beach. The weather had been great the last couple of days, and they said it may be the last time they get to go out for lunch. They are pretty cool bunch of guys to hang out with. I didn’t realize Andre was a Scientist. He wants some cheap labor too, so in addition to Thomas & Dario, working for him might be an option in January. And he says he’ll let me go on the ski trip…. Anyhow, since I had absolutely nothing to do this weekend, I decided to go to Berlin this weekend instead of next. It was my last Eurail trip. I took half day off from work & headed out on a 2:48 train. I was supposed to get in at like 9, but an accident in Rheine caused a delay in our train. Fortunately, I met a cute German boy – Timor – who kept me company and up to date on the announcements. We took the rest of the trip together, and it was like 1am by the time I arrived at my hostel…. I was so tired.

Surprisingly, I was up around 8 and out and about by like 9. It was a beautiful day in Berlin. Absolutely gorgeous weather. I first walked through Potsdame Platz to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. The Reichstag had a huge long line so I didn’t bother going in. I hung around the gate area a bit, getting a donut, and chilling, enjoying the weather. At about 1045, I joined up a walking tour, led by Matt – an American. It lasted until like 1430, with a 30 min lunch break. He took us all over the place, giving us a little history of each place. Very good tour, and it was free!! But of course, we tipped him in the end. The tour started in the gate and parliament area, and then moved on to Hitler’s bunker & the wall. Then to Checkpoint Charlie, Babelplatz, museum island, and so forth, to Alexander Platz. I walked back from the end point to the hostel, stopping here and there for a break. It was like 5 when I got back, and I had been out and about walking for like 8 hours! I was so beat, especially since I didn’t get to bed until late last night. So I took a nap, got up about 7, ate dinner at an Indian place, and then came back to the hostel. I was going to read a book for a bit, but a stupid American girl turned off the lights. On top of that, another stupid fat girl snored the whole fucking night. It took me forever to get to sleep. You could hear other girls tossing and turning and sighing too. I shook the girl awake a few times but she fell right back asleep and started snoring. Uggghhh.

I didn’t have much of a plan for the last day here. Thought about heading home a bit earlier since I couldn’t be bothered to lug my backpack around and walk a lot today after yesterday. But I did go back to the gate area, and realized, hey, the Berlin marathon is today. You could see bunch of people, kids and adults, running around warming up for the race. The race starts at 9, which I was there in time for, but I decided to head to Reichstag to see if the lines were shorter today. Sure enough, I got up right away to the cupola. Nice view, but I would not have waited more than 20 minutes to come up here. I saw from top tho that the race had started, so I headed down and over toward the gate. Turns out the finishing point is near the gate, and it would be a while before the first runners got there. But, the kids and paraplegics got a head start or a shorter leg or something so they were coming up on the finish line. It was pretty cool to see these kids and paraplegics giving all they have to this race. I cheered on a few, and then grabbed a donut again at the Dunkin Donut around the corner (they have free bathroom). Around 1030, I decided to stake out along the fences since the first adult runners would be by in about 30 minutes. A few party favors to cheer on the runners were being given out. I got a flag from Kenya and Japan. I think the male lead was from Kenya and the female lead was from Japan. They run the 26 miles, or 42 km, in about 2 hours. Incredible. That’s like a 4 minute mile. I couldn’t do a 4 minute mile if a mile was all I had to run. Anywas, I also picked up a balloon clapper, a thumbs up poster, and a whistle. I was running out of hands to hold all this crap. I stuck the flags in my hair to free up some hands. I stuck around until close to 12 to watch and cheer, but I think majority of the runners came in well after that. Anyhow, I took off for the zoo station, still looking like a spectator with flags in my hair and clapper and whistle in tow. One dude wanted a picture with me. I guess I looked pretty silly. Anyways, I managed to catch the 1256 train, got all my connections, and made it home by 8.

Quit Your Day Job

I woke up around 12, and Lukasz had gone out to get breakfast and a toothbrush for me. Marc had come home by then and joined us for brunch. Nice way to spend the morning… er, or the afternoon. Lukasz also let me call home (mom and Jason) from his house. Then I got tired again and took a nap, and then another nap. I don’t know why I was so tired. I guess I didn’t really have a whole lot to do so I couldn’t motivate myself to be productive. I finally got up and went home around 5, only to shower and come right back out to meet Lukasz at the Central Station to go to Amsterdam. We were going to go watch Quit Your Day Job in concert. They are a Swedish band with these really short (max 2 minutes) lyrics like – “Look, a Dollar!”, “Sweden, We Got a Problem,” etc. (See www.quityourdayjob.com). We had dinner first, and showed up to the concert a few minutes before it began. There was like 20 people there… if even… ha ha. I enjoyed it anyways. It’s pretty funny. It lasted 30 minutes only, which was enough. We got a t-shirt on the way out (and wore it to work the next day).

Movie Night... again

I had a very lazy day… Of course I slept in after 2 nights of partying in a row. I kinda enjoying lying in bed listening to LOTR soundtrack. I forced myself out of bed eventually tho and went shopping and running. Then I met up with Lukasz to watch “The Skeleton Key” at Pathe. Afterwards, we went back to his place and watched The Ring, Dog Soldiers, Rat Race, and Code 46. We were up until like 4 am watching movies….

Beach Party

I guess twice a year – at the beginning of summer and at end of summer – the international organizations hosts a party that everyone can intermingle at. There was one tonight on the beach. It was a typical party – drinking and dancing. I took a nap after work for a bit, then joined Mimi and Dario for dinner. Luckily, Dario drove there so we were able to avoid the long walk. The place there was packed!!! And it was five fucking euros for a Smirnoff. Anyways. We danced. Mimi had a soccer game early next day, so we headed back around 2. I could stay longer, but I wasn’t really in the mood for heavy partying today. Lots on my mind I guess… about the job situation and otherwise.

Party at Lukasz's

Since Lars was going to be gone most of the last two weeks that I am here, we made plans to have one last party tonight before I leave. Turns out though, I could stay an extra few weeks if I wanted to. Although that would mean leaving my job back home because they probably would not extend my LOA. Not that I would mind quitting. Anyways, so the usual suspects, as well as Andre, Gorik, and the French Cadets – Cedric and Isabel, were all there. We played asshole most of the night, and migrated to karaoke, and then Jenga. I was so horrible at karaoke!! I knew I was bad, but I was especially bad tonight. Quite embarrassing, but karaoke was my idea…. Last time I make a stupid suggestion.

Bowling

Tonight was the first night of a new bowling season at work. Mimi and I are subs, but we got to play today. We were on the same team – Spare Us. We played with Norbert and Mary. Theo was on another team, and Lars was on the team next to our lane. Thomas and Joe were there also. Lukasz came, but he did not sign up to play so he cheered us on and drank with us. I played pretty shitty on the first game. Barely broke a 100. I did really well on the second tho – 160. And shitty again on the last one – 116 :P But I suppose I at least broke a hundred in each game so it wasn’t too bad. Not much went on afterwards. Joe, Theo, Lukasz, and I walked over to King’s Arms, but no one was there so we chatted outside a bit and called it an early night. We have heavy partying to do on Thursday and Friday, so I suppose it’s best to take it easy.

Antwerp, Belgium

Boy, was I tired. I guess the late nights have finally caught up. I got up about 11, and caught the 1:05 train to Antwerp. I had just missed the bus tour, but just as well since Antwerp is small enough to walk around. It was about 15 minutes walk to the historical center where Cathedral of Our Lady and the Town Hall is. Couple blocks down is also the river, and another couple blocks from the center is the St. Paul’s Church. Today is like open monument day or something, and most places were open to visitors. The weather was kinda crappy, so I walked into the church and found it to be, probably, the most beautiful church I have ever been in. It wasn’t gray and dark inside like most churches were. Instead, it was bright with beautiful paintings and sculptures. After checking out the different areas of the church, I sat in the pew and listened to the organ playing for a little while. It was peaceful. After the church, I stood in the line to tour the Town Hall. The line was considerably shorter by now, but it was still a good 20 minute wait I think. The tour wasn’t in English tho, so I broke from it and walked around a bit myself and took off. Just in time to buy more chocolates, eat Japanese noodles for dinner, and catch the 1830 train home.

Brussels, Belgium

Lukasz was going to a concert in Dusseldorf this weekend so I figured it was a good weekend to travel again. Mimi had soccer, and didn’t have any Eurail days left, so she could not join me. I initially planned to go to Luxembourg and Brussels, but there doesn’t seem to be much going on in Luxembourg and it’s a five hour train ride away, so I decided against doing that trip. Instead, I decided to do a day trip to Brussels. Fortunately, I actually got up in time to catch a 9:05 train, getting me there by noon. Anyways, once in Brussels, I immediately got on a hop-on/hop-off tour bus. I was pretty beat from staying up late last night so I wasn’t in the mood to walk around too much. Besides, I had no idea where anything was, or what there was to even see. The tour was pretty good. It was an open top and the weather cooperated, so I got to take whole bunch of pictures from the bus. Half-way through the tour, a family came on, and the one woman who sat next to me was actually from Williamsburg! I hardly see Americans as it is, but what are the odds of the rare American sitting next to me and being from my area. I didn’t chat with her too long though as the tour ended shortly afterwards. She continued on to the rest of the tour, and I headed over to the center area – the Grand-Place Grote Market. There is a nice gothic cathedral here. There was a band playing today in the plaza, and there was some sort of a parade in the streets. Many many tourists too. I also managed to find the peeing-boy by accident, and it turned out there was some special ceremony going on there at 4 today. Many tourists were there waiting for the pee boy to be revealed. I don’t understand why this little peeing statue is so famous. I guess they change the statue’s dressing/clothes every now and then. When the statue was finally revealed, everyone got all happy. All it did was pee, and squirt people once in a while. How silly. Reminds me of the massive number of observers that the clock in Munich gathered. At the end of the day, I picked up a box of chocolates for people at work, and headed home.

Havannah's

I finally got some time after work to do some laundry and go running. I also took a short 30 minute nap and ate dinner before heading out to meet Lukasz at 10 in the city center. We went to Havannah’s next to Pathe. I was pretty tired tonight tho after being up all night last night watching movies. Didn’t eat much of a dinner so I was getting drunk pretty fast. Couldn’t finish the second shot…. We danced until like 0130, and he gave me a ride home on his bike.

Mimi's Soccer Game

Lukasz picked me up near home today so we can go watch Mimi’s soccer game. It was a long ride to Kijkduin on his bike. The game had already begun by the time we got there, and we cheered Mimi on rest of the game. The PGS league that her team was in was playing against Marc’s team. Marc’s team won 2-0. During half-time and after the game, Lukasz and I kicked a soccer ball around. That was a lot of fun. We then joined the soccer players in the bar afterwards for couple of drinks and then headed back. We did the 3 man bike ride again to the tram stop….

Work Dinner

Work is still going well. I have been working with Ronald to create some libraries to decode/encode KLV metadata from media files. I am getting a lot of Java experience.

After work, we had dinner with some people from work, initiated by Thomas. It was him, his wife, Mimi, Lukasz, Dario, and Thomas’s German friend. We ate at an Italian restaurant, which was okay. Nothing too exciting went on tonight besides the dinner.

Mosel to Cochem

Our Eurail tickets gets us on the K-D line from Koblenz to Cochem for free, so we took advantage of that. The boat departs at 0945 and is 5 hours to Cochem. Along the way, we saw many other towns, churches, ruins along the Mosel. We also went through a few locks. The five hours went by pretty quickly, and we were in Cochem by 1500. We spent some time walking up to see the castle and getting a view of Mosel/Cochem from a top, and then through the streets of Cochem. We popped into a restaurant for a late lunch/dinner, and then realized after ordering that we were going to miss our train. Woops. We had to catch a later train back, which got us in around 0030 in Den Haag Central.

Koblenz, Germany

Lukasz and I were drunk, drunk, drunk by the time we left Crazy Pianos. We had a tequila shot to start, and I had a bottle, or two, or three of Smirnoff Ice. Lukasz mixed drinks, and beer. The other guys from work kept buying us drinks too…. Anyhow, I ended up staying at Lukasz for the night, but because we had a 7 am tram to catch from my home, we had to get up at 0530 to bike over to my place so I can wash up and grab my stuff. We got there in just enough time for me to do all that, and grab Mimi, and we were on our way to Central Station.

The ride to Koblenz was like 4 hours with a change over in Utrecht and Cologne. We stopped once in Cologne so Lukasz can see the cathedral, and so Mimi and I could look for Birkenstocks. I found a pair. Once in Koblenz, we found a place to stay for 85 euros all together. Not bad considering all the events going on in the area at the time. We spent the rest of the day walking around Koblenz taking silly photos. There are a lot of basilicas. Another point of interest was where the Mosel meets the Rhine. Later in the night, we ferried over across the Rhine to check out the Fortress. There was some Goth party going on, but we didn’t go in. The view of Koblenz from the fortress at night was pretty nice tho.

Wedding Crashers and Crazy Pianos

TGIF. After work, there was a plan to meet up for a movie (Wedding Crashers) at 9, but Mimi never showed up so it was just me and Lukasz. Afterwards, I had no intention of staying out, but I decided to tag along with Lukasz to Crazy Pianos. I planned to stay only an hour since we had an early start tomorrow, but we ended up staying there until 2am. There were several other folks from work there, and it was a really good time. The songs were mostly the same ones as before, but nonetheless, dancing with Lukasz was a blast.

Soccer

I joined Mimi in soccer practice today. It was a bit of a schlep getting out to the western part of Den Haag, but we got there just in time for practice to start at 7pm. We spent about an hour doing various drills, including using our heads to hit the ball – ouch. I did okay tho – about what I expected. The coach then went over some rules of the game for us newbies, and then the night ended with a practice game. I actually scored a goal… woo hoo.

Peace Palace

I got up around noon today – about as expected after last night. Not in the mood for any long trips, so I headed out to catch a photo of the Peace Palace, and then headed over to the center (Gravenstraat) to do some shopping. Picked up some shoes, a shirt, and the Mimi showed up. We grabbed a drink and some snacks and then I took off for home. Mimi headed to Sols to chat/IM with Martin. I took it easy the rest of the day.

Party with Lukasz... again

Mimi and I met up with Lukasz for dinner at Popocatepetl. Afterwards, we went to a bar so Mimi can meet up with some people she met from the soccer team. We went to another bar afterwards where people danced and stayed out until 4 am drinking and dancing. Lukasz had started the night off with Tequila shots, but luckily I stopped after the first round and stayed with sippers. That was lots of dancing tho…. And at the end of the night, Lukasz insisted on giving us a ride home on his ‘taxi’. Can’t believe we did the 3 man bike ride thing again… at 4 am… half drunk. It wasn’t a short ride home either.

Amsterdam

I made plans today to meet up with Stephen, a Dutch guy who gave me a lift from Queenstown to Milford Sound in NZ. We met at 1145 in the station, and I was pleasantly surprised that Matt had shown up too. He was the other guy who was traveling with Stephen when I met him. He was doing the actual driving and got a speeding ticket in NZ. Turns out they had chased him back to Holland and he ended up paying like 300 euros in fine….

Anyways, we walked around Amsterdam a bit, had a chat at a café, and then we went on a canal ride. Matt had to leave in the afternoon, but Stephen and I spent rest of the day walking around Amsterdam. We walked through some festivals and street shows, and most of the neighborhoods. By 6, I had walked enough and caught the train home. But the day wasn’t over yet.

Deuce Bigalow, European Male Gigolo

Met up with Lucasz and Mimi to watch Duece Bigalow, European Male Gigolo, at the Pathe in Scheveningen. It was about as funny/stupid as the first one, but the novelty of the movie idea was gone after the first one. It was funny to see this film while here in Holland tho, since the movie was based out of Amsterdam. It also played on all the typical stereotypes of different Europeans, and Canadians.

Simonas and Pool

This Thursday wasn’t so bad as the last two. Mimi and I met up with Lukasz by the Harbor to eat some seafood. Afterwards, we went to a pool place nearby, but it was crowded. So, Lukasz had this bright idea of putting both of us on the bicycle and going to this other pool place near the beach. One of us sat on the bar in front of the seat, while the other sat on the seat. It was quite uncomfortable trying to hang on for both Mimi and myself, but Lukasz must’ve had a bit of a work out cycling with 400 lbs on the bike. Anyhow, at the pool place, Theo showed up so we played doubles until it was time to catch the last tram. We missed it tho, and we took a ride home on Lukasz’s ‘taxi.’

Utrecht

Mikael, a French guy I met while in NZ, and I made plans to meet up tonight for dinner. Somehow there was a bit of miscommunication and I was at Den Haag Central while he waited for me at Utrecht. After about 30 minutes of waiting we realized what happened and I took the next train over to Utrecht. We walked around the city center area while chatting. The area had many canals like Amsterdam, and a big Cathedral. The area where we were was quite dead tho and nothing was open. We found a pub that had reasonably priced food and decided to eat there for dinner. I had Salmon, potatoes, and veggies, and it was probably the best meal I’ve had since arriving to Holland.

Mikael was here working, or training, in Amstelfoot for two weeks. He works for a railroad company back in France as an engineer, and is here to learn about the Netherlands railroad system. Sounds like he is enjoying his job. It’s almost two years now since we first met. Pretty cool that we got to meet up here.

Kinderdijk and Rotterdam

Mimi and I went to Kinderdijk to see the windmills today. The place is named a Unesco World Heritage site and has 19 windmills lined up along both sides of a canal. It was pretty neat. After walking around for an hour, we headed back to Rotterdam and walked around there a bit. We also got dinner there at a Chinese restaurant.

Lars's Party

Lars was moving soon to a new apartment so he decided to have a few people over to help him get rid of the alcohol in his current place. The usual suspects showed up, plus Trond… their manager, another Norwegian. The party started off innocently. Mimi and I brought our laptops to take advantage of the unsecured wireless in the area so we spent a bit of time messing about on the computer while trying to be social at the party. She was chatting to Martin mostly. I chatted a bit, updated stuff on my computer, and burned some music from Lars’s CD collection. I started off with couple of screwdrivers, but somehow as the night progressed, I was doing shots of vodka thanks to Lukasz. Er, yeah, I was drunk, and (I hope) everyone else was too. I dealt a deck of cards to a few people... and the rest of the story is classified Cosmic Secret.

Munich and Dachau

My initial plans today was to go to Dachau and then to some museums. Turns out tho that once I got to the train station, I could not easily figure out how to get there. It shouldn’t have been difficult, but I didn’t have much time to fool around. Instead, I checked out Alte and Neue Pinakothek first. They housed many European art works. There weren’t many I recognized, so I pretty much dashed through them so that I could catch the Glockenspiel (mechanical clock) play at 12. A silly thing of Bavarian jouster fighting a French one, followed by Coopers dance. But it attracted loads of people in front of the Marienplatz. I cannot believe how many people were actually out here waiting just to see it. (Nevermind that I was one of them.)

I grabbed a quick lunch after the clock finished playing and met up with the walking tour at Marienplatz for a guided tour of Dachau. Dachau is the first concentration camp in Germany, and was the one all others were modeled after. I’d heard and seen stories of the camp before – perhaps at the Holocaust museum, or at the Ann Frank house. But this was the first time I’d been to an actual camp, and it was a somber reminder of a terrible past. The tour lasted all afternoon, and our guide was actually an American, Eric, but he was quite knowledgeable.

At the end of the day, I grabbed some Indian food for dinner and chilled for couple hours until I caught the 22:40 train back to Holland.

Neuschwanstein

I cut Friday pretty short to come home, shower, and catch the night train at Utrecht (about 30 min from Den Haag). The train arrived in Munich around 7ish, and I went straight to the Wombat hostel to drop my luggage off and caught the 7:51 train to Fussen. By the time I got there tho, there were already loads of people and the bus to Hohenschwangau was packed. I booked it to the ticket off where there was a 20 min queue. I got to the cashier by 11, but my tour did not start until 1:15. I grabbed currywerst and fries for lunch, and then started the walk up to the castle. It’s a pretty steep walk – more like a hike. Took about 20 min or so, and another 10 min up to the look out point at Marienbrucke (Mary’s bridge). This bridge hung pretty high over a gorge, and it was full of tourists. I wondered if it would ever collapse under the weight it often bears. After getting my photos, I still had time so I hiked down the gorge about 10 min and back. Nice walk, and I could’ve gone further, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take to go back up the steep set of stairs.

The tour through the castle was brief (35 min) but good. Pretty impressive décor. After the tour, I was pretty beat, but I took a stroll around Hohenschwangau, and then caught a bus back to Fussen. I walked around a bit more in Fussen, enjoying the traditional Bavarian clothes shop from the window, the band playing in the streets, and the beer fest like atmosphere in one of the squares. I then grabbed some dinner and caught the 5pm train back to Munich.

I showered after checking in to the hostel, and spent some time chatting with the girls in my dorm. I then started reading Angels and Demons by Dan Brown and fell asleep pretty early. The sleep I got on the train last night was not really that good.

Crazy Pianos

Mimi, Martin, Lukasz, Lars, Rune, Theo and I went out to dinner on the beach and caught the fireworks at 10 & 11. Afterwards we went to Crazy Pianos (piano bar) and did some singing and dancing. It was such an awesome time. Rune got me swing dancing, and Lukasz was loads of fun to dance with too. I hadn’t had that much fun in a really long time. We didn’t get home until 3 am….

Trier, Germany

We went to Trier today from Köln. It was much more interesting. It is the oldest city in Germany and has a lot of Roman influence. Much of the architecture was destroyed during the French Revolution but some ruins remain. The rebuilt part of the town was very charming. We had a long ride home from Trier all the way back to home. I borrowed the Da Vinci’s code from Theo last week and have gotten quite into it.

Cologne, Germany

Mimi, Martin, and I got up early and took a train to Köln (pronounced Cologne). We got there about mid-day and walked around to find a hotel and look for Mimi’s sneakers. We also went into the Köln Dom (cathedral), which was pretty nice. We took a tour in the afternoon that cost a whopping 14 euros for 2 hours. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes of it. I guess I was tired from walking a lot. There wasn’t anything memorable in the tour though.

Hump Day

I finally got a goodnight’s sleep. Work was productive – made some progress with Mimi’s help. I got a test case working. Now I need to clean up the code quite a bit and make it generic.

I stopped by Central Station on the way back to validate my pass and reserve a seat to Munich for the holiday weekend.

Second Day of Internship

Today was more of a productive day. I spent most of the day brushing up on DIS stuff and setting up my working environment. Lukasz helped with a lot of it. Felt bad that I was taking up his time, but he was a trooper. By the time I left the office, I was ready to begin working (i.e. coding).

The evening was spent working out and just chilling after eating and showering. I need to get a good night’s sleep tonight. I haven’t had one since Saturday night.

First Day of Internship

I left the house in the morning with Mimi, but 10 seconds on the tram, she had to turn around because she forgot her ID. I managed to find my own way there by continuing on tram 10, and catching bus #5 at Central Station. The office was another 5 minutes walk after getting off the bus. About an hour commute total… not very pleasant.

The whole day was spent getting to know people and sorting out admin stuff. Everyone is just nice and laid back. I think I will enjoy working here.

After work, we went back out to dinner with Lukasz and Theo from the office. We went to an Argentina restaurant, and then couple bars for a drink. I did not sleep so well last night, so I was beat, but I had a good time nonetheless.

Second Day in the Hague

I went to bed by 10pm last night, but I did not get up until 1pm in the afternoon today!!! I did not sleep much on the flight over, and I guess between that and jet lag, I must’ve been pretty beat. After waking up, I realized it was raining, but I had nothing to do anyways. There was not much I could do with no money…. I did find out there is a park nearby though, so I went for a run later in the afternoon. (There’s a lot of dog poop on the sidewalks here – ick.) I was also getting sick of eating peanut butter sandwiches, so I bought some cheap noodles for dinner. It was disgusting. I cannot wait to eat some real food.

In the evening, Mimi and Martin arrived. We caught up a bit, and they went out and I spent the evening reading papers for school. Fun….

Arrived in the Hague

I left Norfolk in the afternoon of the 29th on United and had a short layover in Chicago. I was pleasantly surprised to find out I had been upgraded to business class for the international leg of the flight. Woo hoo! It was a 9 hour flight – left at 6pm on Friday and arrived at 0930 on Saturday. I skated through customs – not a single question!! No customs form to fill out either. Sweet.

Thomas from work picked me up at the airport and took me to my apartment in Den Haag. I met the apartment owner, Sasha, and spent some time settling in. I finally got out in the afternoon for a walk around. I had 2 objectives – food and money. Unfortunately, I realized after hitting several ATMs that my card isn’t working and I am screwed. I have no money, and the grocery store does not take credit cards. No money, no food, and after a look around, there are no pay phones!! I wanted to call my bank, but so much for that thought. I thought I was going to have to starve and fill my stomach with the Hershey’s kisses I brought with me until Mimi showed up tomorrow. However, I got an American to trade me US$20 for 16€.

With my newly acquired cash, I hot tailed it to the grocery store and picked up milk, cereal, bread, peanut butter, OJ, and chips. I even had a few Euros left over for the tram on Monday. I wonder if I can get an advance on my pay…. I need money for rent too.