Flashback to Hawai'i '06?

Remember when I lived in Hawai'i and one day it started raining? . . . and the sun didn't come out for another 44 days? This is the fear we have about our duration in the Cook Islands. I received an email from Air New Zealand this morning with the standard, "Get ready for your upcoming trip!" info such as flight times and a weather outlook. As you can see, things don't look great. My only hope is that, like many places in Hawai'i, it rains everyday, BUT it is also sunny every day. Weather on pacific islands is difficult to predict, so I'm really hoping we don't find ourselves stranded in our hut the whole trip whilst fighting off mosquitoes and malaria.

What's cookin'?

Has it really been almost two years since my last post? Traveling has been difficult the last year due to work schedules and availability. This does not mean that we have been completely grounded. In fact, last year we went to both Sacramento AND Omaha. That's right. Things got crazy!

Back in late November, while most people were in a frenzy at Best Buy or breaking into fights in Wal*Mart parking lots, Nicole was on the hunt for cheap airfare. She called me to let me know there was a crazy deal to the Cook Islands. At that time, I didn't know much about this place, or actually where it was. See map...

That being said, all I did was google image search "Cook Islands," and said, "Ok, let's book it." This was maybe the least amount of research I've ever done before booking a trip. These islands could be full of ebola . . . or ISIS . . . or headhunters! (See below)



You have to admit, those google image searches and the clip from 20,000 Leagues look awfully similar.

Of course, after doing just a little bit of research, we discovered that people do actually visit these islands as tourists. However, compared to nearby islands in the pacific such as Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, or Samoa, the Cook Islands receives the fewest visitors annually. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I guess we will find out soon enough. There are very few guidebooks or information online about the Cook Islands either. Unlike our previous trip to Europe, this is not one that received much planning. After all, there are no trains to catch, museums to visit, or vast distances to travel. The islands are small and we are both eager to explore them.

T-minus 13 days.

Reflections on Familiarity

When I started this blog over two years ago to document my trip to Southeast Asia, I capped off the trip with an extensive analysis on what I learned. The following year, I did the same for Greece. This year may actually prove to be the most challenging analysis because places like Paris and Amsterdam are hardly as exotic as the Mekong Delta. In a sense, that's what makes it interesting. As a traveler, western Europe is very "safe." You don't need to brush your teeth with bottled water or pop pepto-bismol before every questionable meal. Let's break each region down -- one by one.

As stated in the very first entry of this trip, I had been to Paris before, but never on my own. I had my parents to guide me through the metros, and more importantly, to pay for my food and admission to museums. For having such a sprawling network of subway and light rail lines, we were able to easily navigate the city. The advent of phone apps made this an extremely easy task. I didn't even need to carry a metro map with me, thus making us look that less touristy.

While I wouldn't claim to sound like a native-speaker, my french is pretty decent. I used it a fair amount while in Paris, and one of the most interesting things about France to me, is that nobody ever initiates in English (and this includes all the major tourist spots). Paris is probably in the top 5 international destinations for tourists, and one would think English would be the go-to language at these sites. Yet, despite my accent sounding more Milwaukee than Marseilles, there wasn't a single time in Paris that someone switched over to English to "help" me whether it be buying Versailles tickets, ordering a sandwich, or checking in to our hotel with my unfortunately German sounding last name. It's just an interesting cultural pride thing that seems unique to France. Obviously, it's their country and their language, so I can't fault them too much.

It wasn't long ago that Americans were wearing Canadian flag pins on their clothes in an attempt to lie low in countries like France. This seems to be an outdated perception of French attitudes toward us. They probably still think we're a bunch of idiots, but we seem to be far less obnoxious and rude in groups than the Eastern Europeans. Nobody was terribly friendly to us, but they weren't hostile either. That's pretty much like the entire northeast U.S.

Moving on to Belgium, I received a lesson on just how divided a tiny country can be. Wikipedia tells me Belgium is no bigger than the state of Maryland. While in Brussels, people spoke french, so I spoke french back. In fact, I probably used more french here than anywhere else, as I had to explain to numerous people that the ticketing machines for the tram weren't working. After a short (and emphasis on short) train ride from Brussels to Bruges, I assumed (incorrectly) that people would still be speaking French. I ordered a waffle from a small stand one morning and the worker immediately asked why I was speaking french. I wanted to ask what language I should be speaking, but rather than sound ignorant, I told him I was practicing. He responded by saying that people in Bruges know at least four different languages and that people in the south (aka 40 miles away) are too stupid to learn anything besides French. From then on, we just used English. Apparently they speak Flemish up north, which is like Dutch, but . . . different.

It was at this point in the trip, where we found out just how difficult it was to find a meal that didn't contain ham. This is something I hadn't noticed before on my trips to Europe. All joking aside, this was a legitimate problem. Compared to menus at restaurants in the U.S., Bruges, in particular, had the worst selection for food. While there were numerous restaurants, they all pretty much had the same over-priced, non-appetizing food. Belgium is known for mussels, and I am known for not liking such things, especially when they cost €30. The first night in Bruges, we ended up eating at an "Italian" restaurant. It's in quotes because, for unexplained reasons, European countries struggle with replicating food of their neighbors despite their close proximity. The moral of that story is that the pizza Nicole ordered had generous slices of ham on it. I found an online forum where someone had asked why people in Belgium/Lux./Netherlands eat so much pork, and the best response I found was, "There are other kinds of meat?" I guess it's just a regional preference. I thought maybe they had a strong pork lobby or something.

Rounding out the trip, we have Amsterdam -- a city known for legalized marijuana, legalized prostitution, and a penchant for ham. The trifecta of sin. While there was a lot of activity on the streets with drinking and smoking, it didn't seem to be a dangerous city. The city, in many aspects, was a bit of a disappointment though. It seemed that everyone I knew who had visited this city had wonderful things to say about it. The canal shown here kind of summarizes the unexpected views we were afforded. And perhaps part of our problem was that we had just come from Bruges -- another town with (much more photogenic) canals. My description above may make Amsterdam sound like hell on earth, but surprisingly enough, I did enjoy my time there. The day we rented bicycles was possibly my favorite day of the trip. It wasn't a particularly nice day in terms of weather or photography, but I felt that we were experiencing the city as Amsterdamers do. We biked to a park that probably few tourists know about. I ordered falafel from a stand and we played midget golf. Basically we spent the entire day with the Dutch as opposed to other tourists, and that's what made it unique.

All in all, we visited three very different places. The first is a major city full of countless things to see and do, the second is almost the opposite. Bruges doesn't necessarily have any sites, but the entire atmosphere of the town is special in that it gives you that feeling of being in Old Europe, as if you were in Epcot. And our final city was a cross between Portland, Venice, and Las Vegas: a deadly combination, but we were able to experience it safely. And that's what I always try and strive for in a trip -- to experience things as people in that country do. In Belgium, we dipped our fries in mayo instead of ketchup, in Paris I ordered a glass of red wine (the sacrifices I make), and in Amsterdam we used bikes as transport. (I bet you thought I was going to say we smoked a lot of pot. Hmph.) And let's not forget that we also ate lots of ham (no matter how hard we tried to avoid it). There are just some things they don't tell you in the guide books.

Last Night

After extensive research on yelp and tripadvisor, we ended up at an Irish pub for dinner. I had fish and chips and Nicole had a chicken pot pie with potatoes. Little did she know, the potatoes had bits of HAM in them! I am actually not making this up. It is like a cruel joke.




After that, we wandered a bit. We walked through De Wallen area, which is better known as being the Red Light District. There were, in fact, actual red lights. It's hard to imagine anyone actually being a customer, unless they are shameless enough to enter one of these places in front of a Chinese tour group. It's all very fascinating to see a place where prostitution is legal and essentially a tourist attraction. I guess it gets shadier when the sun goes down . . . which takes a while in the summer.




And that's that for Amsterdam. We are now packing and ensuring everything is set to go for our flight tomorrow. We fly to Newark, which should take us about 9 hours. We are both looking forward to a good, ham-less meal.

Location:Nieuwe Looiersdwarsstraat,Amsterdam,The Netherlands

When in Rome, errrr . . . Amsterdam

After having pancakes for breakfast, we rented some bikes and rode out of the center of the city and to a place called Amstel Park. It was a pretty relaxing ride considering the chaos that we saw yesterday. After about 25 mins, we arrived at the park and decided to explore.

The main reason I made Nicole do this with me is because I did extensive research on the locations of windmills in the area. If I'm going to go to the Netherlands, I expect to see windmills! If I'm going to be deprived of seeing people wearing wooden shoes, so help me, I will find that windmill. After breathing a sigh of relief when it came in to view, we walked in to the rest of the park.

There definitely weren't as many tourists here as in the city. I got some falafel from a stand. Nicole (and her stomach) cringed at the large amount of hummus dumped on my plate. Despite passing a stand that sold ONLY ham, she opted for a granola bar to snack on.

Nicole had done some research last night and saw there was a place in the park called "Midget Golf." This was clearly something we had to try. Apparently it's just a politically incorrect way to describe putt putt, but do you see that windmill?! Two in one day! I narrowly edged out Nicole by a couple strokes. There was a sand trap that did her in.

We had to return our bikes by 5, so we headed out. Now we face the daunting task of finding a place to eat. It is, however, the last time we will have to do this. I thought Nicole might fancy a nice ham, but it seems she is now on a kosher diet.

Location:Nieuwe Looiersdwarsstraat,Amsterdam,The Netherlands

Touring Amsterdam

We spent the afternoon seeing the sights. Our first main stop was Anne Frank's house. It wasn't really what I expected. I personally felt that too much of the original building had been changed to accommodate the museum. It was, however, interesting to see the original bookcase that hid the stairwell to the annex where they hid. And I was surprised to see that they had her actual diary on display, so that was neat.

Amsterdam itself is a little different than I expected. I think perhaps because we just came from Bruges, Amsterdam doesn't really have that quaint feel to it. There seems to be chaos everywhere with pedestrians, cars, and cyclists flooding all crosswalks and intersections. And who would have thought that nobody here wears wooden shoes?

Then we paid a visit to the Heineken Experience. It's no longer an actual brewery, so they decided to make it an overpriced interactive tour. Nicole and I had our picture taken in their green screen section. Of course we are supposed to pay for a copy, but that just seemed silly, so I took a picture of the picture.

During the actual beer sampling, one of the workers was trying to explain how to best serve and drink Heineken. First he said to smell it. Nicole thought it smelled like a skunk. Then he explained how to drink it to better enjoy the taste. I thought it tasted like moldy water. So there you go. Heineken: the Miller Lite of Europe.

We had dinner at a pub near one of the canals. It was probably the best dinner we've had thus far. At least it had some variety. The only downside was that it was freezing out. As soon as the sun begins to go down, the temperature seems to plummet. I was shaking. The situation was further exacerbated by the fact that everyone in Europe seems to smoke, so I got caught in a cloud every few seconds. Other than that though, . . . it was a decent meal. Losing feeling in our bodies, and dripping from our noses, we elected to head back to the hotel to try and warm up and plot out our activities for tomorrow.

Location:Nieuwe Looiersdwarsstraat,Amsterdam,The Netherlands

Gosh, what a morning . . .

Our first train was at 9 this morning, and we had to catch two others -- one in Antwerp and the other in Rotterdam -- before ultimately arriving at Amsterdam's Centraal Station. We had close connections each time, but it all went off without a hitch (other than being busted for sitting in first class while holding 2nd class tickets, but we were able to feign ignorance as we are just simple tourists). In our defense, the train cars aren't labeled clearly and first and second class basically look the same. It's not like there was a piano bar in there.
Anyway, the trouble began once we actually got to Amsterdam. Our hotel is in the southern part of the city, which would have been about a 1.5 mile walk through crowded streets while carrying our luggage. We opted to take a tram, but the maps at the station were useless, so we didn't know which one to board. The ticket machines were also not working, so we had to take a number just to wait to buy a single fare ticket. After about 20 mins of mulling, we got out tickets and the man told us the best way to get to out hotel was to take a bus. Having an aversion to this mode of transportation, I still figured we'd chance the tram. Ultimately, we boarded basically the first tram we saw, not knowing where it was even headed, but since the water is to the north, and we had to go south, we felt it was a fairly safe bet.
So here we are at our hotel . . . finally. We plan to walk to Anne Frank's house and explore the area. It's much more congested here than Bruges, so it will take some adjusting. Since I haven't taken any pictures yet today, here's a collection of shots of Bricole!

Location:Nieuwe Looiersdwarsstraat,Amsterdam,The Netherlands