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.