Fotos

All the Amsterdam pics are up on facebook. The Spain pictures will go either tomorrow or next weekend.

Fotos and Fascists

I guess a light post has been overdue for a while after you've had to digest lump after lump of poorly written prose for several days. Anyway, I just read on the BBC how Dunkin Donuts had to pull an ad because of how Racheal Ray dresses like a terrorist. Hmmm. Guess her stylist is going to lose her job. I'm not going to delve into politics but post my favorite comments that I found:

Along the same lines, I suppose we should stop showing faces in all advertisements, as it is well known that all terrorists have faces. Clearly, by showing even a single face, we are also supporting terrorism. Shame on Dunkin' Donuts for submitting to the ignorant populous.
Jessica, Beijing, PRC

Look at those eyes, dark brown, very dark brown...makes you shudder. She is a terrorist ..no doubt.
Ross Bingham, New York, New York

The black and white scarf is part of the traditional attire of the Palestinian, Lebanese, Jordanian Arabs. The same way the red and white scarf is for Saudi, Omani, Bahraini Arabs. This is like saying that UPS should change its brown uniform because it pleases the Hitler Youth.
Fuad Khan, Dallas, USA

Phone Number

In case you get the urge to send me a text, here´s my number in Spain:

671-258-203

I´m fairly sure that the number is correct.

Photos and Videos

I will be updating my newer posts with photos and uploading them to facebook as well next Monday when the ISA office is open. If there´s time I will also be doing silly captions and tagging as time permits.

May 18 Amsterdamn it!! Part 2 & May 19 I AMsterdam

Continuing
After Anne Frank´s house, I decided to try my luck in getting to the Tropanco museum before it closed. No such luck. And what made it even better was that the last canal bus was what dropped me off there. So I took a few pictures of ducks and walked back to museum place where the hostel was located and stopped at the first pedestrian bridge in Amsterdam. I was essentially exhausted by dinner and headed over to a nice Chinese place located in the RLD (which I hear is being closed down). Fortunately, the Brits had left only to be replaced by NAZI saluting, goose stepping drunk Germans and I promptly got the hell outta there by tram (I still hadn´t figured out the secret to making them stop. I just got lucky that someone needed to stop at museumplatz.).

May 19
I woke up around 9:00 to the lovely sounds of one of the owners telling me that I had to checkout soon even though I explained to him that I left the next day. I left the hostel around 12:00 mainly to take some pictures of the American International Hotel which is built in the Art Noveau style and where can have a cup of coffee that costs as much as a pair two toned spectators (Birthday present. Hint, hint.) (in English, no place I would ever eat without going Dutch with the bill.). I went back to Rembrandt square to see if I could get a better shot of me being strangled by one of the guards but no dice. From there I went straight to the Heineken Experience which I did not get to experience because it is being renovated until Summer 2008. Disappointed, I headed to lunch in some restaurant where the waiter made me eat my vegetables (I´m not joking.) I also got to eat a Dutch something or other. I can´t remember the name but it´s basically a meat pastry wrapped in bread and dipped in mustard (The description is the result of a very hungry and tired student. A better one will be posted later in the trip if I can remember.) After lunch, I went to the House of Bols which is basically you going through a small history of the company while getting a free cocktail of your choice at the end. (Cool fact: Rembrandt donated a painting to the tavern in order to pay off his tab.) I tried eading to the Tropancoe museum but as luck would have had, the place would be closed by the time I had arrived there and decided to enjoy the canal bus back to my hostel where I later went for some more Chinese at the RLD.

Thus, ends my Amsterdamn Adventure.
Next: Barcelona, Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca

Term: Canal Bus
The canal bus is essentially a form of transportation that you pay 18€ for a day pass that expires at 12:00 the next day. It travels to the most famous museums and monuments. Think of it as the DC metro system but with a tour guide giving explainations in various languages. I used the canal bus to get me to the central station when I left my hostel.

Tickets
From my experience in Amsterdam, buying tickets seem to be optional. The officials don´t check to if you have them and don´t seem to care if you do or don´t. I´d recommend them for the trains that take you from the airport to the central station but I´ve managed to get away with free riding on public transportation since I´ve been putting myself on a tighter budget after I´ve left.

Show me the €€€
Museums are not free. Nor are they cheap. Neither are ATM machines or pretty much anything here in Europe. Spain has been kinder to me because student discounts are offered but compared to the subsidized places we have in the States, there are still not cheap (Private museums such as Newseum, International Spy Museum have been excluded for this comparison.) Furthermore, never use a vending machine in European airports. I´ve been screwed over twice without any warning and I don´t like it one bit.)

I´m also feeling a lot better now and can cut back on things like drinking juice and water which are also expensive.

PS
I still never found out how to stop the f*cking tram.

Another Heads Up

Internet access is expensive when traveling in Europe so I'll wait until Salamanca to post new things. In the mean time, you can have a partially finished entry on my second day in Amsterdam to satisfy you for the time being.

Nightmare on a Cellular Level

In an ideal world, software would be open source and cell phones would not be locked. It would also eliminate the pain and agony of unlocking a cell phone when abroad. (As of being written, the cell phone and SIM card have been unlocked). Yes, I thought I had the right code when I left the States but I was wrong. Now, several option were left open to me. First, I could call up my parents in the and ask them to do it. Second, I could download a program that would unlock my cell phone without hasseling them. Obviously, I chose the latter and in doing so was forced to endure several days of agony as code after code after code failed to work. Thus, I was forced to do the first option and wait several more daya. Moral of the story: Always make sure you have the right code before you leave.

Hiatus

Just a heads up. You won't get to see any new posts until Sunday night at the latest. This part in due to packing for Saturday's rendezvous with the program at a hotel and me trying to decide whether or not I'm actually sick or suffering from really bad allergies. Though to be on the safe side I'm keeping myself hydrated at all monetary costs. Primarily because I can't find a restaurant that serves juice at price that I don't mind paying for.

May 18 Amsterdamn it!

From the writer
Unfortunately, there were a minor details that I left out from the previous post which I would have liked to include. First, in the Red Light District which covers pretty much all of Amsterdam's center has public urinals located near canals every few yards or so. I'll post a picture when I get my cell phone to cooperate with me. Second, future posts will be summarized giving the broadest of possible details because I really don't want to write everything down and give away everything that might be interesting. Third, there is no third minor detail. Now back to Amsterdam.

About the Dutch
The Dutch are some of the nicest, beautiful people in the world. And I'm not exaggerating either. They really do look like magazine models who wear all fashionable clothing that gives a sort of unreal appearance. But, we all know how beautiful the Dutch can be so let's move in. Everyone in Amsterdam speaks either German, English or French or and sometimes Spanish. So if you get lost and can speak in either in one of those tongues, you should be okay, the Dutch are more than willing to help a lost tourist find his place. Furthermore, the preferred mode of transportation here is bicycle or moped. The streets have areas marked for bicycles but unsuspecting tourists are liable not to notice these and may be run over.

May 18
Sharing a room with someone who has sleep apnea is not fun. The experience can be compared to trench warfare during WWI. First, there's the loud bombardment followed by a moment of silence which is closely followed by the sound of machine gun firing in short bursts until everything is quiet again and repeats as needed. Fortunately, my headphones are noise canceling (dampening more like) and I managed to get at least three hours of sleep. The three Canadians and Australian were planning to check out the following day and move to a better hostel. Personally, I was happy with the location and given the free wifi and breakfast, it was cheapish. After taking a shower, I ate a small breakfast (a sweet multi-vitamin drink that tasted horrible) and headed off to the Van Gogh museum. Unfortunately, there was long line and I figure I could always come back later.

Double Dutch Filling
I headed to the Rijk Museum which was the museum of Dutch culture. In other words, Dutch art and sculptures or sculptures and art owned or created by famous Dutch people such as the fine China owned by William and Mary of Orange (yes, those people). Don't let the tone fool, I actually liked the museum especially the Rembrandt exhibit which featured his famous portrait, The Night Watch. I have a written version of the audio tour in my possession so if you wan to see it, feel free to ask. I returned to the hostel to drop off my purchases and then had lunch with my hostel mates at cafe that was nearby. After lunch, I headed to the Van Gogh museum to see if the line had gotten shorter, which it hadn't. Fortunately, there was another tourist had accidentally bought an extra ticket and was willing to sell it to me at a reduced price of 5 Euros. Now, you may be thinking that the story ends with the ticket being a fake. Well, it wasn't. Once inside the Van Gogh museum, I did what every American tourist would do. I searched for Starry Night. However, I couldn't find it and forced myself to look at his earlier work which was interesting. Especially his work with the peasantry. However, his pointillism era would've been more interesting if I was high.

The Secret Attic (Or better known as Anne Frank's Diary)
After having my fill of art for the day, I left for Anne Frank's House which was located on the other side of the city and the only way (that I knew at the time) to get there was by tram. Fortunately, someone else had to get at the stop nearest the house so I decided to hoof it on foot from there. Apparently the numbers on houses are sort of weird. On one end of the canal are all the evens but on the other side of the canal aren't the odd numbers that go in-between them. Luckily, I know how to use map and used my trusted Black-sense to get me in the right direction.

I hate to say this but I was largely disappointed with the Anne Frank museum. This may have been because the place was under renovation but it all was bare rooms with display cases filled with reproductions instead of the originals. there was also the overpriced gift shop which didn't help any with my expenses. The thing is that the place felt bare and sterile compared to the other museums. There were a few pictures and documents about the Franks as well as the people who helped them but it felt empty to me for some reason like there was so much more that could've been said and done. (To be continued some other date and post.)

May 17-20 Amsterdam

This trip is going to have to be split up into several posts for each day because of the amount of pictures and things that I have to say about Amsterdam. Also, I am not posting every single picture that I took on this blog. You'll have to see my facebook for all of them. Why? There are over 130 of them for Amsterdam alone. Some duplicates, but that's still a lot.

May 17: Sex, Drugs, and Public Urinals
This morning Lucho and I left for Barcelona International at around noon and got there with plenty of time to spare. After saying our goodbyes, I left for the terminal where nothing remotely interesting happened to me even as I got on the plane. We boarded late but still managed to arrive on time at Amsterdam Schipol because of a very generous tailwind. Now this is where things go real fun for me. And by fun, I mean confusing.

Amsterdam
I had stuffed all my clothes into an overnight bag, so that I could skip the baggage claim and went straight for the exit. Apparently, I had to buy a train ticket to Amsterdam Central Station and the terminal that sold them was giving me grief over a pin code for a credit card. Credit cards do not have pin numbers except to withdraw money from them. They have security codes. (looking back, I should have tried that. After finally trudging my way to the customer service desk, I finally bought my ticket and later boarded the train to Amsterdam Central. And this where things got so much fun, I nearly cracked.

I do not speak Dutch. Nor do I speak German or French. I speak English, Spanish, and to an extent Japanese. Outside of Amsterdam Central all of the signs were either in Dutch or German. Needless to say, I was confused. I knew that I had to take the Number 5 Tram to Museum place and look for a street located across the stop. I bought a map of the city which was extremely detailed and came in handy more than once in Amsterdam. Looking back, I should have learned German instead of Japanese or at least kidnapped one of my German speaking friends to translate the signs for me. Fortunately, it all worked out in the end. I was only thirty minutes late to checking in and the area just happened to be nearest to several museums.

Hostelities
The hostel was comfortable. The place provided free Wireless and wired internet as well as a free breakfast which wasn't too bad. The stairs were pretty narrow and I nearly fell down them two or three times. I was put on the third floor which is a pain considering how heavy my overnight bag was. My roommates were by far some of the most interesting people. I shared a room with a horny Australian with sleep apnea, three Canadians who just graduated from Waterloo, a Brit whom we all thought was a serial killer, and two other Americans from Texas. The Australian was essentially going on a global culture tour during his three month vacation and talked about his travels to an FKK club (if you really want to know, I'll tell you in a private setting) in Germany and other places. He also talked about a few good places to go shopping and places to visit in Barcelona which I may get to at the end of my study abroad here. We all were hungry and decided to go to the Red Light District for dinner.

Red Light District
We walked around a bit and each had a falafel in the Chinatown portion of the RLD. The Canadians wanted to find some weed and we spent time searching for a bar that would let us smoke. I didn't smoke but I did inhale since the bar was open air and I was in the way. I'm pretty sure I didn't get high. After that we walked around the RLD some more and stared at the hookers. I couldn't take any pictures of them out of respect for privacy and local laws. We ran into a mob that was swarming a car trying to turn an extremely narrow corner. AS it turns out the mob was in fact a bunch of drunk Brits who just happened to be in Amsterdam at the moment. Advice: Never piss off a drunk Brit. We all know what happens after Manchester United loses. Our Australian friend left us for an amorous encounter with Amazonian hooker while we were considering whether or not to see a sex show. I opted out since the cost was 60 Euros without drinks and 45 Euros if you buy at least 4-5 drinks (How stupid do you think I am? Whiskey and Gin do not come cheap.) Besides, a hooker only costs 50 Euros. Why watch something when you can have it for cheap? Also, the sign said "Splash Zone. First three rows." I headed back to the hotel but sorta got lost on the way. In other words, I couldn't get off the @#$%$#%@$ tram at my stop or even tell when my stop was. I wandered around for about an hour and half until I said to hell with it and took a cab back. Fortunately, I had the address written down and got back cold but fine.

Sort of.

Expect Day 2 and Day 3 in the near future.

May 15-17; Departure and Arrival. Then Departure Again

May 15
I didn't do much today in way of preparation for my trip to Barcelona. My regular dentist told me that the x-ray had gotten it wrong and that all I had was a small chip where the last dentist said I had a cavity. I spent most of the day fixing up my carry on and not much else than watching the end of Meet the Robinsons. It was the usual Disney fare so I wasn't too impressed. I guessed that the kid was somehow connected to the Robinsons. So I wasn't surprised when it turned out to be exactly it.

Dulles International
Back to the trip, I left for Dulles and exchanged some money there in case the dollar dropped any further while I was over here. So far it hasn't ($1.57 for 1 Euro). Anyway, British Airways is the greatest airline I have ever traveled on. It has been a long time since I've traveled abroad but unless the standards have stayed the same BA has to have been the most comfortable flight that I've had in a long time. The seats have a retractable footrest in front of them and you get to choose what movies you want to see. Yes, that's right, you actually get to choose what movie you want to see instead of the summer blockbuster from five years ago. It's not just movies but games and television shows as well. I saw I Am Legend for the first time and I have to say the Will Smith can act, although the movie was a bit choppy and could have delved even deeper into the overall theme. I also thought the ending was corny as hell with the human race finding a cure and then taking over the Earth again, wiping out those that had Kippendorf's Syndrome. I tried watching Sweeney Todd but I was feeling really tired and decided the sleeping would've been a better idea. Unfortunately, my neighbor did not seem to realize that his reading light was still on and keeping me awake. I didn't want to wake him up so I just placed my complimentary night mask (BA also gives complimentary toiletries on long, international flights.). I wished the flight had lasted longer so I could watch Sweeney Todd but all good things come to an end when schedules are involved.

May 16
London, Heathrow
Since my flight left 11:00 PM EST, I lost six hours of when I normally sleep but made some of it up during the flight. If there is one thing that college prepares you for, it's being able to function mechanically without sleep. The plane landed in the early afternoon at Heathrow where I zombie walked to the check-in desk of my connecting flight at Iberia Airlines. Fortunately, I had nearly five hours between landing and my next flight so I quickly settled down for a quick bite to eat (two Twix bars, a small bag of chips, a small Pomegranate flavored Tropicana with 100% Real Juice). I tried to buy some internet time but after purchasing a 30 minute session, my laptop battery decided to magically go from 97% to 4% in the blink of an eye. In other words, fail. Pissed, I decided to just get my tickets for my next flight.

After passing security and heading to the BA check-in desk, I lost my luggage receipts and ticket stub from my last flight. Lucky for me, the lady at the desk was helpful and gave me the luggage numbers and directions to the Iberian Airlines check-in desk.

Interesting but Pointless Fact
Now, the thing about Iberian Airlines is that it is a discount airlines that flies all over Spain and then some. BA owned a minority stake in Iberia at 49% because EU law prohibits competing airlines owning more than half (personally, I think in Iberia's case that market forces should be allowed to go forward.). Discount airlines tend to have more flights per destination than regular airlines and are essentially no frills airlines which is bad when you suffer from allergies or dehydration.

Barcelona
I landed at Barcelona around six in the evening and met up with my cousin Lucho and his girlfriend Pati.

Aren't they cute?

We had dinner at decently priced restaurant before we came back to their tiny apartment. That pretty much sums up my first day in Barcelona.

Traveling Plans Update 2

Amsterdam
Done. Still alive and mostly in one piece. See blog post for excruciating details tomorrow night (night for you guys, early morning for me).

Paris
Scrapped. Heard the place was horrible. That and the hostels sucked.

Rome?
I am technically Catholic. Will check monetary status after the end of the first session and go from there.

Spain
I'm too tired to care right now. Buying Spain SIM card tomorrow. Will put new cell number on blog. May visit a few places in Barcelona if I still have the energy.

Travel Planning Update

Amsterdam
Everything is in place. Only thing left is for me not to screw it up.

Herrang
Scrapping it this time around. The trip is possible but too many things can go wrong and leave me stranded.

Paris
Meh. I'll take care of it in June.

Of course, there'll be mini trips all over Spain for me during the trip (Granada, here I come). Note to self: Get Chris his dirt.

The Innocent Itinerary

Here's my travel schedule for May:

May 15: Leave Dulles International for Heathrow.
May 16: Arrive at Heathrow. Transfer to Barcelona. Arrive at Barcelona.
May 17: Leave for Amsterdam.
May 18-19: Tourist adventure in Amsterdam. Pray I make it out alive.
May 20: Return to Barcelona.
May 21-23: Watch Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and tourist stuff in Barcelona (Swing maybe?)
May 24: Leave for and arrive at Madrid.
May 25 Day trip to El Valle de los Caídos and El Escorial.
May 26 Guided tour of El Museo Reina Sofia and El Palacio Real. Arrive in Toledo.
May 27 Guided tour of Toledo in the morning.
May 28 Leave for and arrive at Salamanca.

The Not-so-innocent Planning

Anyway, I've been trying to work in Stockholm, Amsterdam and Paris into my trip to Europe for various reasons but I'm a little too disorganized at the moment to get it done right. My itinerary puts me somewhere for the first week of my trip, Madrid for my second and Salamanca for the rest of it, more or less.