Wednesday, June 27, 2012

European Vegas


by Esack

My plans for a feast and a triumphant return to Berlin were almost cut short just days later, when I was nearly killed by a bicycle in Amsterdam. And again in Leiden (30 minute train ride from Amsterdam), and then again and again in Amsterdam. Bicycles rule the streets of the Netherlands. Anthony Bourdain says, even cars fear them, and he’s right. This was one thing I loved about Amsterdam, and Leiden. The bike lanes are neither on the street, nor on the sidewalk. They are their own thing. The street design of Amsterdam in particular looks like something out of a video game like Mario Kart or Frogger. Gameplay would be most similar to Frogger, though. If the bikes don’t get you, a passing trolley probably will, or at the very least a car, lest you forget that some DO drive there. Julia correctly described it as “an obstacle course for stoners.” [Note from J: I also consider the layout of the city as Dutch revenge for hosting so many annoying tourists. Ha!] And there were stoners aplenty, of course. If you spot a stoned person in Amsterdam, you are also spotting a tourist. Despite the relaxed attitude in the Netherlands toward marijuana (though it is NOT legal, important distinction), the rate of use for citizens of Holland is vastly lower than that of the citizens of The United States. I will resist the urge to make any statement regarding current US drug policy or the money we spend on said policy.

The marijuana, stoners and coffee shops aren’t what I will remember about Amsterdam. I will remember how ridiculously touristy it is. Now, as tourist, I realize that I’m not really qualified to complain about something being touristy. So, I will anyway. It’s too much. The city center area, at least. Our host in Leiden, Berry, told me that the concentric circle layout of the Amsterdam city center is designed to keep people walking in… circles. Let me tell you, it’s effective. Just minutes after leaving the train station we wandered straight into the Red Light District. You literally cannot help but discover the most stereotypically-tourist things in this city. Hence, they will always be the touristy things. We wandered past H&M clothing store probably 20 times unintentionally. H&M, by the way, is the business we have seen the most, after McDonalds, in all our travels. Maybe equal to McDonalds, in fact. I’ve never shopped there. H&M that is, I’ve shopped at McDonalds. On this trip, in fact. Out of sick curiosity Julia and I went the Big Mac route in a couple of different countries. I was pleasantly surprised that there are, in fact, differences in both the menu and the quality. Australia had my favorite Big Mac, if anyone is as sickly curious as I was.

We did NOT go to McDonalds in the Netherlands, however.  We didn’t have to, they had FEBO! I’m not putting FEBO in all caps out of excitement. I’m not sure if it’s an acronym, or they just liked the block letters for the logo. Either way, it’s a delightfully bizarre eating experience. The food is prepared by cooks, I guess. You can sort of see them through the little windows in the wall where they put the food. By “windows” I actually mean little see-through doors. Sort of like the wall is lined with microwaves, and you put a few coins into the microwave that looks like it contains the tastiest something-or-other, open the door and there you have it! It’s crazy cheap, and something you have to try in Amsterdam. I tried something that was like a deep-fried peanut-satay-mashed-potato croquette. It was weird, but somehow delicious. The eating habits of the Dutch can tend to be strange. Something I fell in love with was the herring sandwiches. Usually you think of herring as something pickled and in a jar, that you’ve probably only seen your grandpa eat. My love affair with herring started in Russia, made it through Finland, and culminated in Amsterdam. I tried pickled, salt-cured, and fresh. Poor Julia. The fresh herring sandwich in Amsterdam, served on a hot-dog bun with raw onions and pickles, was the best.

Everything I wanted Amsterdam to be, Leiden was. It had the canals, the beautiful and old architecture, and the bicycle madness. All without the touristy brand name shopping, crowds of people, and the you-WILL-stay-here-forever street designs. We were hosted, as I mentioned, by an amazing young man named Barry. He was a squatter, meaning he occupied a property with a bunch of other people. Squatters don’t own the property, but whoever does either can’t or won’t do anything about the people living there. If I had an extra property I wouldn’t mind having squatters, provided they were the kind of people Barry and his housemates were. Artists, musicians, wanderers, it was a modern-day bohemian paradise. I suppose the situation made Julia and I squatters, as well. I feel good about that, if it puts me in company with the people we met there. We found Barry through an online service called Couch Surfing. A lot of backpackers use it, as well as older non-backpackers. I was really surprised how many people used the service, considering I hadn’t heard of it until the last year. You set up a profile, sort of like Facebook, and send out requests to people living in cities you’re going to visit. If they can host you and they want to, they can put you up, free of charge. I don’t think we would have met someone like Berry otherwise, and that would have been a shame. A very gentle soul, very giving, loving, and accepting [note from Julia: he also taught how to correctly pronounce gouda!  “how-da” who knew? I had an epic tourist moment in a cheese shop asking for the best goooda they had]. One night in Leiden his friends threw a big party to celebrate the shutdown of his old squatter pad. Live music, a bar, great friendly people everywhere. And it was a party, no cover charge, cheap drinks, and a fantastic atmosphere made it one of the best parties I’ve ever attended. Thank you Berry, I won’t soon forget you or your unique lifestyle, if I ever forget at all.

Berry wasn’t the only person I knew in Leiden. A few years ago my family in Iowa City took a foreign-exchange student named Nienke. She was Dutch, and luckily we were able to meet up again in Leiden! She currently attends the University of Leiden. It’s great to catch up with old friends. Nienke took us to her favorite cafĂ©, her favorite Dutch pancake place (tease yourself and see the picture), and took us to her student house to meet her friends. We wound up watching the Netherlands-Denmark football (soccer to you yanks) match. Although the match ended in heartbreak for the Dutch, we met some fantastic people. Not being completely privy to Dutch eating habits, Julia and I brought a bag of apples… yeah I know, if I brought a bag of apples to a Super Bowl party no one would have touched it, either. I should have known better. Ah well. I was invited to play a drinking game with Nienke’s friends. I knew a similar game from back home called a “power hour.” The idea is you take one shot of beer every minute for an hour. This was a football version, played over the 90 minutes of the game. It’s a LOT of beer. By the end of the first half it was already down to myself and a Dutch girl named Marta. We both seemed fine, and ten minutes into the second half we were both still doing great. She was studying English, so she wound up talking to Julia quite a bit. It was because of this that the beginning of the end was so noticeable. In the span of about three minutes, the English started to trail off, and all of a sudden BAM! She threw her glass on the ground and shattered it. I was glad she did, earlier in the game I had knocked an empty beer bottle over and broken it as well. The drinking game was over, and I was happy to call it a draw to avoid drinking a shot-a-minute for another half hour by myself. But I could have, no problem, so be warned, Europe, Americans CAN drink! It must have been the training I did in Australia. The Aussies can drink, oi oi oi! Thank you again Nienke for spending time with us and showing us a bit of Leiden, we loved it. And we avoided getting killed by bikers the entire time!


Love at first bite

Leiden

Pancakes for dinner with Nienke!

Cone of fries with mayo and onions, our favorite low-cal snack

Making friends with the cat who lived on one chair in the courtyard

Being touristical

The streets of Amsterdam, dangerous to stoners everywhere, and the closest thing to a real live video game in the world (I bet...)

Berlin! My Favorite Thing!

by Esack

I’m reminded of a fake diary entry I read recently. The entry was “written” by a dog, detailing its daily routine. Example: Food! My favorite thing! A walk! My favorite thing! (a link, my favorite thing!) I could easily write this post regarding Berlin in a similar fashion:

Cheap hostel in a great location! My favorite thing! Easy metro system! My favorite thing! Cheap amazing beer! My favorite thing!

Aaaaand you get it, I loved Berlin. Ever since the first day in Australia, I found that most travelers I met were from Germany. Knowing I would soon be in their home country, I always asked for their advice on which city would be the best to visit. I’d estimate 90% of them answered Berlin immediately. From my point of view as a young person, I understand why. It’s a great feeling to be able to go into a grocery store, pick any random beer off the shelf (because every German beer is great), and open the bottle up AS YOU PAY FOR IT, take it outside and drink! They often provide bottle openers in checkout lines. But I DID get to cut my hand several times trying to use my hostel key to MacGyver the bottles open. I used to think I understood why drinking wasn’t tolerated on the street back home, but now I have no idea. It wouldn’t work because we have different drinking cultures, blah blah blah. It’s an awesome idea! You don’t see drunken idiots wandering everywhere, discarding empty bottles and cans here and there. It happens more at home where it ISN’T legal on the street. Go figure. Germans can drink on the street, Americans can buy 30 cans of beer for ten bucks. Both have their advantages.

I reject the notion that enjoying oneself in Europe needs to be an expensive affair. Hostels are key. Street food is key. I don’t think we spent more than 5 euros on any single dish while we were in Berlin, and oh goodness was it delicious. Famous for currywurst (a German sausage covered in curried ketchup sauce, usually served with fries [get mayo on the fries]), the street-gastronomy of Berlin has much more to offer. BUT, currywurst IS incredible. To avoid turning this into a food blog, I’ll just give honorable mention to Mustafa’s. It’s a little food stall serving up what Europeans call the doner kebab. It would probably be called a gyro or something like that back home, because it’s a similar idea. Meat and toppings inside a flatbread or a tortilla [note from Julia: but these were not your typical veggies, it was peppers and eggplant that was amaaaazing, cooked perfectly, and the whole thing topped off with fresh lemon juice… I could eat Mustafa’s every day]. You see doner kebab places quite literally everywhere in Europe. In my limited experience, Mustafa’s gets my vote for number one. If you go to Berlin, you must try this. Oh, they have a vegetarian option too for you veggie people out there (like you Mom).

We received great advice on a few must-visit areas of town from Jeanette, the partner of Julia’s father. Her advice led us to many things, but for some reason my favorite was called a Turkish pizza. It was only 1 euro, and so tasty that Julia and I hunted them down in the Netherlands. We found it in one of these areas of town Jeanette recommended, actually while we were looking for a taco truck I looked up online. We didn’t find the tacos, but the Turkish pizza was an excellent consolation prize.

We did a bit of sightseeing: the Berlin wall, and the Jewish museum. I give Julia credit for the Jewish museum, apparently she had heard of it in an architecture class [note from J: it’s the Daniel Libeskind one, the museum itself is better than the exhibits]. Not surprisingly, the design of the building made me feel like I should study it in an architecture class. A very interesting and informative museum about the holocaust and the history of Jewish people in Germany, as well. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie, but didn’t visit the museum. Our hostel was just a few blocks away, but we never got around to the museum. I did get some pictures of the area, and I also grabbed some perspective. In high school I though the West side of town was hostile, because they were the “other” high school. Silly high school me. But still, go Little Hawks, you know who you are.

The hostel itself was nice. Great location, but otherwise unspectacular. The most notable experience came in the form of our four Lithuanian roommates. They were two couples traveling together, and I’d be hard-pressed to think of nicer people we’ve met so far. Equally nice people, yes. I hadn’t hardly put my bags down when one of the men introduced himself in what I considered very passable English. He humbly insisted his English was not so good. On that subject many Europeans are embarrassingly humble. Not embarrassing for them, but embarrassing for myself. Man, if they think their English isn’t so good, what did the Germans and Italians think of my attempts at “I would like the… [word in English]… Uh… that one? No, uh… [points and smiles] yes, thank you.” Ugh. I digress, the point is that I now plan to visit Lithuania someday.  Thanks to these fantastically nice people.

I will return to Berlin someday soon, to eat my bodyweight in currywurst and Mustafa’s. Oh, and this roasted chicken place we found, also on the street, also for 5 euros. Okay… must remember this isn’t a food blog.

A very effective and haunting installation at the Jewish Museum to commemorate victims of violence

At Checkpoint Charlie, just down the street from our hostel.  

Attacking my Mustafa's with gusto!


Sunday, June 3, 2012

Mockba, St. Pete's and Finlandia! Ja!

I (Julia) am writing from a train headed to Helsinki, Finland at the moment.

Two weeks ago exactly Esack and I flew from shanghai to Moscow. And let me tell you, the way I felt about Russia from then until now has COMPLETELY changed!  I was absolutely terrified to get to Russia when we first arrived. To be fair, while we were in china Esack and I talked to a friend of Trevor's named Peter, who has spent a lot of time in Russia, and after hearing of our plans to spend ten days in Russia his response was: "oh, you're definitely going to get robbed."

 Nice.

 So with my base knowledge of Russia from American movies, I figured that 80% of Russia's population is made up of KGB assassins, and the other twenty of babushkas who look like life size nesting dolls. Well I was wrong, apparently, the other twenty are there to rob us.

As you can imagine, I really was wrong. About everything. Our first interaction with a Russian was our taxi driver, hired to take us to the Moscow hostel for 1700 rubles. I'll let you figure out how many dollars that is. Fine, 35. He was a large man named George who expressed his love of American music very enthusiastically by cranking up the billy Joel, Celine dion, aretha franklin, and Barbara Streisand for the ride home. He gave me a giant bottle of iced green tea to keep me occupied while he and Esack grunted to each other in the front seat. It's really lucky Esack speaks fluent Male.

The hostel was homey and had free tea. We met some friendly Kazakhs and Nepalese guys. Then the next day we were scheduled to be picked up by a driver to take us to an apartment owned by my friend Varya, who I know through my dad. She and her husband live in st. Petersburg but offered to let us stay in their apartment in Moscow that they use when in town for business. It was a luxury having a place to ourselves even for just 36 hours or so! We cooked, watched Police Academy dubbed in Russian, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We hit the major tourist attractions of Moscow: st. Basils, red square, and of course, saw lenin's embalmed body. Creepy.

 Then we took an overnight train to st. Petersburg. We slept well and awoke to watch the obese Russian man across from us eat half a chicken and guzzle vodka. Like it was water. But he was nice and helped us order tea, which is some word like "cha" which is how you say tea in Chinese. Wow. Cultures colliding!

 Varya picked us up on the platform and drove us back to her home in st. Petersburg. Esack and I both liked her right away and really she's wonderful! Friendly and intelligent and so welcoming... Really we could not have been luckier to know someone like her in Russia.  We stayed with Varya for a week. Her children were at their summer home in Finland with their nanny, so we stayed in their room. She encouraged us to spend our time sightseeing while she worked during the day and then she cooked us amazing meals in the evening. Varya's husband Kirill came home a few days after we arrived because he was in finland as well.  Both understand English very well but he didn't seem as comfortable speaking as Varya was. Esack and kirill really seemed to connect though.

 So we did see the sights in st. Pete's. We went to pieterhof (the Russian Versailles sort of), Peter and Paul's cathedral, church of Christ on spilled blood, Nievsky prospekt (main st), artillery museum, and spent a whole day at the hermitage. We also walked around on the city's birthday, so there was a celebration with music and dancing and food. We saw two adorable kids doing traditional Russian dancing, and this really strange contemporary dance where this guy wearing a beige sheet and a helmet danced with a giant gold ball to a Tool song. The fair was a great place to people watch too... We noticed that Russian women really love to dress glamorously. They wear high heels always! It doesn't surprise me that a lot of models come from Russia. We also saw a lot of women pose really dramatically when having their photos taken. We started doing it for our own photos :) Varya told us a Russian saying that basically says, even in the morning, Russian women are dressed for the night. Oh and apparently it's very stylish to be taller than your man in your heels.

Our friend Peter also kindly sent us a huge list of Russian food that we had to try. We showed it to Varya and she took it on to help us try everything! She made incredible homemade borscht, which we drank with frozen vodka.  We had several kinds of pickled fishes, including sturgeon which only comes from st. Petersburg area.  We had two kinds of blini, sweet and savory with salmon caviar, piroshkee or dumplings, shashlik (meat cooked over open fire), buckwheat, Russian black bread, kvass which is bread soda and kind of tastes like sweet nonalcoholic beer and so many more things! If you are reading this Peter, thank you for the list, and I think we did you proud! I didn't really understand Russian food before, or at least had heard it was nothing special, but that's totally untrue! It's earthy and wholesome and so delicious.

 So then, towards the end of our stay with Varya, the four of us were sitting around their dining room table drinking wine. Varya and kirill were leaving for Finland the next day and we had a train scheduled for Helsinki, where we were going to spend a few days then take a ferry to Rostock and then Berlin. Working through the logistics we realized it was going to be a little complicated, and Varya suggested we just trade in our rail tickets and spend the weekend with them in Finland and then go to Helsinki and fly to Berlin from there!

 So that was that and we drove to Finland the next day.  They have a beautiful wooden cabin on a lake. It's next to their friends who also have a cabin. The two cabins are secluded among a forest of beautiful birch trees.  One of the best things about staying the weekend was getting to spend some time with varya's children, Tima and Gregory, ages ten and two. Tima is smart and well mannered, and totally relished his time with Esack. They played chess and soccer together. Tima loves to eat and one night he agreed to workout in order to have extra scoops of ice cream for dessert and so he and Esack did push ups together! Tima speaks excellent English and we had a lot of fun with him. Gregory, who everyone calls greisha, is funny and loud and very energetic. For some reason he really took a liking to me... Varya often told me he would ask "where is Julia?" in Russian when i wasn't around. He was shy around me, but Warmed up slowly. He would climb up on the couch between Esack and I and get cozy. It was really nice to be around kids for awhile.

 Our first night in Finland kirill made salmon that was grilled on a cedar plank so it partially smoked, and was the most amazing fish I've ever eaten! It was so moist and juicy and had tons of flavor! Kirill was also very generous with his extensive liquor collection. I tried port for the first time, we had lots of different whiskeys brewed different ways, and good Cointreau drizzled over ice cream! It was so luxurious to spend a weekend this way, especially since Esack and I have been trying to be conservative with money since we are traveling.

But possibly the MOST amazing part of Finland was the sauna. Both Varya and her neighbors have their own sauna houses. So Esack went with kirill, Tima, and misha (the nanny's husband) and I went with Varya's friend anya, her friend Alissa, and a girl named Olga who is my age.  The saunas were about 80 degrees Celsius and the process was basically: go in the sauna as long as you can stand it, then run and jump in the lake, Get out and drink some water, spend a few minutes outside, then back in the sauna. I think I went four or five times. They also do a special practice where they dry birch branches and do and combination of fanning someone and hitting them with the leaves. Anja did it to me and it was intense but felt good! Esack said kirill did it to him too. The best part was the smell the dried birch emitted... Like the best pine tree in the world!  Doing the sauna was the most relaxed I've felt in months. It felt so nourishing too... To go from super hot to super cold. Anja said they even do it in winter, cutting a hole in the ice which can be up to a meter thick.  Yikes.

And so here we are.  On the train to Helsinki. Esack and I have a busy six weeks in front of us but we are so excited and ready for an adventure. We sent a bunch of stuff home while we were in china, so our packs are light, and we are well rested. We are over halfway through our trip now and plan on moving every five days or so in Europe.  Our plan is helsinki, Berlin, Amsterdam, Leiden, Barcelona, Italy (cinque terre, Florence, parma, maybe Siena), Switzerland, maybe austria, trier, and finally Paris!  

Europe, bring it on!

Love,