Five weeks out of a suitcase

We have had this 5 week trip planned for months, and it's hard to believe the time has arrived. It was not our intention to take such a long trip, however, it is bookeneded with two conference that Chad is attending in Innsbruck, and Naples (Florida).

So for the week between, we are going to stay in Pittsburgh, Wheeling, and Morgantown to spend time with the fam. The original reason for our trip, too, is Meagan's bridal shower. And, I get to tag along for the rest and explore Austria and sit on the beach in Florida. Poor me... I don't know how I'll manage. Then, we'll cap it off with 3 days in South Beach, Miami, where we will also celebrate our 4th anniversary!

Our epic trip started with a long day of travel: train from ROT to AMS, flight to MUC via CPH, then train to Innsbruck.

Our flight to Munich had a layover in via Copenhagen. Even though we were just in the airport, this might be my only trip to Denmark, so I wanted to try something Danish. I saw everybody eating these little open-faced sandwiches, called Smørrebrød, so I gave them a try.

They had strong flavors, but they were actually pretty tasty.

Chad had a burger, fries, and beer. All together, while we were in the CPH airport for about 2 hours we managed to spend around 60 Euros! on lunch, coffee, and a bottle of water.

It's true what they say, Denmark is one of the most expensive countries to visit because of the currency conversion. I hope to one day we'll be able to make a proper trip to Copenhagen, but I think we should wait until we are making a little more dough first.

In stark contrast, after we landed in Munich and were waiting for our train to Innsbruck, we bought dinner for both of us at the Munich train station for only 10 Euro! Keep in mind that this 10 Euro bought us a half a chicken, potato salad, a giant pretzel, and two beers.

We heart Germany!

And so our trip began... stay tuned

-S

Patients is a Virtue

(but the Dutch beg to differ)

There are always going to be some cultural differences when you live in a country other than your own. One of the things that I have now grown used to, but still don't care for, is what I can group under the term "impatience," but it manifests itself in several ways.

You didn't push it properly!

When waiting at a crosswalk or elevator, the need to push the button repeatedly cannot be resisted. This always makes me think of Ellen Degeneres' stand up routine, when she describes waiting for an elevator. When you walk up to an elevator where people are waiting and see that the button is already lit up, you still push the button again because, obviously, they didn't do it properly. Then, when the person after you comes to wait, and they also push the button, you think "idiot, can't you see that I've already pushed it." haha.

When eager bikers area waiting on their green bike light to turn, you can almost see the anxiousness in their fidgety bodies. They repeatedly check to make sure their peddles and feet are in the proper position to not waste any time when the light turns green. If it does not turn in the amount of time they think is 'normal' they press it again, or simply look at the button or the light with confusion or anger, as if it must be broken, or just lazy and by their gaze they will wake it up and it will say, "oh yeah, sorry... here you go... green."

Maybe you didn't hear me: Ding Ding Ding!

When biking in Holland, you quickly become aware that people are not afraid to use their bike bells. The bells can have many meanings. One ding from behind could mean "look out good sir, I am coming up behind you on your left," whereas two or more dings means "get the h^** out of my way!"

The impatience also becomes prevalent when people are squished around a tiny are waiting for a crosswalk sign to turn green. As more people come to the stop, they try to squeeze their bike tire in to any little open spot, even if that means almost leaning entirely against you (which they also sometimes do). When the light turns green, the real go-getters peddle like mad men to show the rest how proficient and "snell" they are.

You know the light is turning green next, just GO!

I am extremely happy, almost every day, that I do not own a car, or need to drive in Holland. This would surely bring out the worst in me. People will not only cut other cars off like the best of New York City's elite, but they will literally drive up on a curb to go around someone they think isn't jumping the gun on the green light. In more normal situation, if you don't hit the gas immediately upon the light changing to green, you will be greeted with a barrage of horns and arm waving.

The Dutch are also notoriously bad parallel parkers. Perhaps they don't know how to properly park, or perhaps they just think it's a waist of time to make sure their car is lined up so that it does not stick out into traffic or (infamously) halfway up on the sidewalk.

You don't mind if I reach over you, do you?

In the shops, there is also a different etiquette that you quickly become aware of. If you are in a clothing store looking at a rack of clothes, it is not uncommon for someone to come stand so close to you that they are pushing you with their shoulder, and flipping through the clothes right next to your hand. You might even occasionally have someone reach right over the piece of clothing you are looking at, to look at something on the other side of you.

Also, this does not really fall into the category of impatience, but while on the subject of shopping, I can note one other distinct difference. Don't ever expect a sales person to come up to you in the store to ask if you need help. Quite the opposite. They will even appear to be dodging you or running away from you if they see you walking over to ask a question. They very much have the "is my shift over yet" mentality. Yes, admittedly we can go a bit overboard in the US, but 'Customer Service' is very different in Holland.

As I mentioned above, it is only natural that things will be different from country to country, and I don't want the above to sound like a list of complaints (though unfortunately it sometimes does sound this way). Rather, it is just a set of observations that I've made over the past couple of years. A lot of the time, I can look at these behaviors as endearing, though every now and then (more often than I wish) it does get on my nerves.

You get used to these differences after such a short time, that it's easy to forget that people aren't like this everywhere. I figured that it also won't be very long after we move back to the US that we forget some of these subtle differences. So, thought I'd write them down while they are still fresh in my mind.

-S

Long live the Queen Bea!

Beatrix that is, the Queen of The Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands.

As you may remember from previous years, on April 30 the Dutch celebrate Queen's Day. Across the Netherlands, people dress in orange and party in the streets. It is also a big day for yard sales, so everyone drags their crap into the streets and tries to sell it to other people who collect crap (strange, I know, but this is what they do).

We are more interested in the 'orange' & 'party' aspects of Queen's day, rather than the yard sales, so we head to the big cities to take part in the festivities. After the hectic trip to Amsterdam last, we decided to try out Utrecht this year. Utrecht is a great Dutch city, with a unique main canal that has a lower level. This level used to be used as docks for shipping, but is now lined with terraces for restaurants, pubs, and clubs.

This is one of the many party boats that cruise the canals all day.

The streets are packed with orange. There are several plazas and areas throughout the city that have live music playing, and of course there are plentiful beer and food vendors.
One of my favorite parts of Queen's Day is people watching. There are some great outfits, hats, and costumes, all in orange of course.

Such as these pretty ladies, who look like they are on the prowl for an Orange mate.
Wait, I think I found some candidates...

It was a fun day, and the weather was beautiful and sunny, which is reason enough to celebrate in Holland.

-S

- More pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanickmoses/sets/72157626512292999/with/5682803513/

More visitors!

We have been fortunate to have many visitors during our three years in Holland. This time, my Aunt Pat & cousins, Nick & Nicole, took the long journey across the pond to come and check out the tulips and windmills (and beer and pretzels in Germany). We showed them all around Amsterdam, Rotterdam & Delft. Then, they took off to explore Berlin for a couple days.


We had unusually warm and sunny weather during their visit, which was great. So, they think we are bluffing when we always complain about the cold, cloudy & rainy weather in Holland. However, they experienced (several times) first hand the poor Dutch customer service in restaurants, so they believe our crazy stories there. ;) It was all definitely a new experience for them, but I think they really enjoyed their time in Europe.

-S

Rotterdam Marathon

The annual Rotterdam Marathon was this Sunday. Once again, we enjoyed the convenience of our apartment location, and walked down to the bridge to cheer on the runners with the thousands of other spectators.


This is generally a marathon that produces some of the fastest times, predominately because the entire course is so flat (after all, this is Holland). It is fun to stand with all of the people cheering. But I have to laugh when I see people drinking beer and smoking and cheering on marathon athletes, haha.

There were sooo many runners.

They also had bands playing to encourage the runners. We liked this band that was standing on a typical American yellow school bus.

And, the usual suspects in the leader pack returning across the bridge.

Notice his teammate cautioning him to slow down, since he was picking up the pace because of all of the cheering, and the slight decline coming off the bridge. This clearly wasn't their first rodeo.

The winning time was 2:05:27 for the men, and 2:24:20 for the women. Wow!

- S

*Some more pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanickmoses/sets/72157626482666632/with/5612763955/

Dublin, March 2011

My Irish eyes were definitely smiling in Dublin! I think Ireland has to be at the top of my list of favorite places that we have visited. We spent a long weekend in Dublin, with our good friends Chris and Brandi, and their son Austin.


Dublin is a wonderful city, and what I imagined an Irish city to be like. The side streets are cobble stone, lined with pubs that have cool names and well-kept colorful storefronts. The food and beer were great, and the churches were beautiful. The people were very friendly, too. Even the customs guy at the airport smiled and told us to enjoy our visit. We were pleasantly surprised, because we Never get this in Holland.

Chad and I arrived the night before the Taylors, so we spent the first night, and next morning strolling around town checking out the local pubs in the Temple Bar area, and the campus of Trinity College. The first pub we went into Wednesday night had a band playing, and shortly after we sat down they began playing Country Roads. :)

After the Taylors had arrived, we went to dinner at The Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland. I ordered Bangers and Mash, which was served inside a Yorkshire Pudding bowl. Chad had Irish Stew.


On Friday, we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was pretty large, with beautiful stained glass windows and a more impressive colorful tile floor. I also liked the small wooden chairs that each had a handmade kneeling pillow hanging from the back.

Then finally the long awaited moment had come: the tour of the Guinness Storehouse.

I've never seen them this happy.

The huge facilities of Guinness span a couple of city blocks. Inside the Storehouse, they have a well organized tour that takes you through the brewing process & the history of Guinness. But, the best part by far was that we got to learn how to Pour the Perfect Pint by pouring our own Guinness Draft, instructed by a proper Irish bartender!

Perfection!

We walked across town to Trinity College, we went inside the Long Room of the old library. I absolutely loved this room. It has so much history, with the huge wooden bookshelves, and old leather books with cracking spines. The Book of Kells is also on display in an exhibition area below the Long Room.

(Snagged this photo from the internet, since they didn't allow cameras)

Near the campus is my new favorite cafe on Earth: Cafe en Seine, with it's beautiful Victorian decor.
For dinner, we stopped by Burdock's, the best Fish and Chips in Dublin according to Anthony Bourdain, No Reservations.

Saturday, we rented a car and drove north of the city to see some of the country side and to visit Trim Castle. Chris took on the brave task of driving on the opposite side of the road, and the right side of the car. Our first stop was at the Hill of Tara, which is an area where they used to crown the Irish Kings. You could see wonderful views of miles and miles of Irish country side in all directions. There was also a tiny, old chapel on top of the hill, too, that had a cemetery around it.

I would Love to come here and tell ghost stories on Halloween.

This amazing ruins of Trim Castle are large and much of the original tower and walls still exist. You can tour the inside of the main structure, where they explain where rooms used to be located, and what they were used for. In recent times, Trim Castle is most known for being a location where they filmed some scenes from Braveheart. Brandi was prepared for this, and brought Mel with her for some photo ops that were well worth the strange stares we received from other people.

FREEDOM!

We also drove over to Newgrange, which is a huge Neolithic tomb. Tours of the inside had already closed for the day (sooner than advertised... grrr), so here's a nice shot of the outside.

To top off our road trip, we got to see a bit of the Irish coastline as we drove back down to Dublin.

We really enjoyed Ireland. It's green, it's quaint, and everything I imagined it would be. And, this is officially the first place I have been where my ancestors came from. I could feel the ol' Carnahan spirit still alive here, haha! I hope that we will have the opportunity to visit again sometime in the future.

Sláinte!

-S

Full set of pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kanickmoses/sets/72157626295922344/

The Taylors also have the pics from their camera on Flickr, so check them out, too: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twoandahalftaylors/sets/72157626140219661/

Biking to the gym

One of our favorite parts of day to day life in Rotterdam is our gym. It's our saving grace. It is somewhere we can go to get in a good workout, relieve stress, and even relax and rejuvinate. It is a great facility located right on the Maas river between the Erasmusbrug and Willemsbrug (ironically just across the street from my Maersk office). My favorite part is the Les Mills classes (Body Pump, Body Combat, Body Step, etc).

An interesting added element of our trips involve biking to and from the gym. Of course we don't have cars, nor do we need one to get to the gym, as it's only a few minutes bike ride away. The plus side is that it adds a good 10 minute cardio to the beginning and end of your workout. The downside comes in when the weather does not cooperate.

Always with the wind...

The worst has to be the wind; and, this is Holland, so there is a lot of it. To get to the gym, we bike down a road along the riverfront that has a "flag museum" with a flag from each country in the world. In my 2+ years here, I have almost never seen these flags laying still, as there is always a wind coming from some direction. I didn't realize how much harder biking can be with the wind in your face. Sometimes it feels like it's blowing in our face in both directions (and it probably is... constantly swirling about us).

This is especially hard after a really tough workout. When you are already fatigued and you then have to fight the wind on the way home... let's just say it is not fun.

Rain Rain Go Away...

Biking in the rain is an event. We were not prepared the first couple times, so we would have to take an entire extra set of clothes and shoes, as we'd get soaked on our way to the gym. Now, we are fully equiped. We have water proof rain pants, & a hooded rain jacket. For the heaviest downpours, I also have a pair of waterproof boots. That way, I am covered from head to toe, with only my face that gets soaking wet.

In the winter, though, the rain turns cold. It is typically not cold enough to snow, but it is close, so that freezing rain can really cut to your core. In this case, we'd also have to add layers underneath our water proof gear, plus gloves.

The Perfect Storm

Of course, nothing is more fun than when we are blessed with both a combination of the two: a heavy downpour, and a strong wind. This is truly the ultimate kick in the face from Mother Nature. I think I've even shouted "WHY" into the air before. haha. But ultimately, after we've pushed through and made it home, we feel a great sense of acheivement. Then we dump all of our wet gear in the bathtub, & hang things up to dry, so we can do it all again the next day.

Unusual Snow

A couple times last winter, Holland got an unusually large amount of snow (meaning a couple inches). They are not very good at clearing the roads, because they normally don't need to do it. The major bike baths were initially scraped and salted, but after a couple days of light sprinkling of snow, the couldn't keep up. I tried to bike to work a couple times with this bit of snow on the path, and let me tell you it's not easy. The tire tracks that form in the snow really grab your tire and jerk your handle bars. It's not much easier to walk, though, as they don't touch the sidewalks, and they become icy. Let's just hope that this winter is a mild one!

Yep, really looking forward to that car again...

-S