Some culture...maybe.

The last two days have been really great. On Wednesday, we planned a cultural outing, starting with Fish and Chips from Master's, the best in the city, so we've heard. The fish is bought fresh every day and was just as good as the rumors, I didn't get a picture of the actual food, but, we stopped to sit and eat it.after stopping to smell the roseswe ended up at the Imperial War Museum. We only intended to stop by but we were there for almost three hours. The lobby is amazing. They have allied and Nazi planes hung from the ceiling and every type of tank and tank destroyer used in both world wars.we stumbled upon a ceremony for some D-day veterans who were saying that for the anniversary this year they were going across the channel on a boat.There were some amazing things like a giant missile from the Royal Navy.and a copy of Little Boy, the A-Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which was actually pretty terrifying.and there were open interiors of planes where you could go in and walk around. They had voices of pilots talking to each other playing in each plane so it really felt like you were flying. we then went up to the second floor where there was a huge exhibit on the Spy industry, beginning with World War I. It was one of the most fascinating things I've ever seen and that's what took up the bulk of our time. There were explanations of the creation of Britain's MI5 and MI6 and what they do and all of the different kinds of spies and agents that were used during both wars. In WWII, Britain killed 16 German spies in the homeland, and turned 47 others into double agents. Another man, Oluf Reed Olsen, escaped his native Norway to become a pilot in the Norwegian core of the RAF, then was recruited by MI6 to be a spy. He was sent back to his home country and used German informants to transmit information back to the UK and was never caught.

Wednesday night, we went out with AJ's cousin Harry who's a chef in London and feels just as passionate about food as Mom and Laurie do. He took us to an Indian place on Brick Lane, the best, which he took us to last time we were here where the food is amazing and the walls have paintings of Princess Diana and centaurs having sex. But, the food is unreal, so delicious.

Yesterday, he took us to Vietnamese food which was also amazing. Then we went to Camden to the Stables, which is a giant converted stable that's now all vintage shops and food stalls.

WHAT'S THIS BALL DO?

Sorry for the delay! Staying at Nan's apartment has been really fantastic. Aj's friend Casey got here on Monday and we walked him all over London trying to stave off the jet lag. We ended up in St. James' park and came up close and personal with some very friendly geese.We realized we wanted to get a cheap European hair straightener so AJ took us to Argos, which is what I can only imagine is Dad's heaven. Instead of waiting for the ads on deals from best buy every Sunday, this place just has binders full of them and you go in, sift through the binders, decide what you want, write down the number on a piece of paper, pay, and then wait for them to bring you item up from the basement stock room. Dad, for you. We walked by all the great monuments including St. Paul's cathedral.We usually end up back at the apartment around sunset to change or eat some dinner and then go out again, even though we go out and do stuff all day. This is the view from Nan's apartment when we usually get back.Yesterday we went to the Tate Modern and played around in some crazy interactive exhibit.

What's this in Celsius?

Loving London, partly because it is fabulously and unexpectedly warm out! It's been 75 and sunny this whole time and it's supposed to remain fairly the same our whole trip. Take that, Los Angeles! Let's not even mention Boston. On Friday, AJ and I rendez-vous'ed at Nan's apartment in London and just spent the afternoon walking around. We stopped into Marks and Spencer to look at bras and got a little distracted.

It's Ascot season. My friend The Spartan had me bet one pound on a horse race today. I chose a horse named Fliegendehollander (get it?) and ended up winning four pounds. On Saturday, we woke up early (10 am for us) and had a heaping big breakfast of beans and toast, after which, we went to meet up with The Spartan. He and his friends took us to a pub in Richmond and then on to a Rugby game between England and the Barbarians at Twickenham Stadium.The Army did a little flag dance before the game started, which was really strange.

And the rest of the day I won't detail since it is so soaked in beverages. But the evening ended with all in high spirits. Sunday we relaxed, and Monday is a new day.

Salzburgers

I took the most roundabout way to get here. I flew from Amsterdam to London Heathrow, where I had a very nice pint of Cider, then from there to Zurich, and then from Zurich i flew on a 20-person little toy plane to Salzburg. I was one of only 3 women on the flight, the other two being a businesswoman and the flight attendant. The plane was a dual propeller plane

meaning we didn't fly very high, affording me an amazing view of Austria as the sun was setting.

Salzburg smells like horse shit. Really. It's everywhere, on every street, in front of every church and plaza. Despite that, it's one of the most beautiful cities I've ever been to. I was here once when I was 15 with the Harvard-Westlake Chamber Singers, and I remember having a great time, and it did not dissapoint. The city is overlooked by a giant castle built into a mountain, one of many that surrounds it.

I stayed at my voice teacher Sara Arneson's apartment with her goddaughter, as she and her husband George were on their annual teaching/concert tour of Japan. I was lent a bike (thank god, I could not have negotiated the crazy bus system) and let loose for the day, which was great. I went to the beautiful Mozarteum, the music conservatory here, and sat in on some lessons with Martha Sharp and her dog Hannah.Then, I went exploring on my bike to some of the places I remembered, like the Dom, the big church where we sang when I was here before. On my way there, I discovered another little church with a beautiful graveyard.Then I went exploring down the back roads into the countryside, which was the way that Sara's goddaughter had showed me to take home.
I found this door in the mountain
and this house on the river
and this pretty river that extended for most of my ride through the suburbs back to Sara's apartmentAnd the mountain! There's a lot of snow on it and apparently you can take a 20 euro tram to the top and have a coffee. Which seems extravagant, but ok.Then I went on a bike ride through the forest.
That night, Meredith (sara's goddaughter) took me a traditional Austrian restaurant for dinner where I had a strange salad with giant hunks of fried goat cheese and then a "Fiaker Goulash", or a farmer's style stew which came with giant hunks of beef in a rich sauce with something that looked EXACTLY like a matzo ball in the midle, covered by a sunny-side-up egg and a half of a hot dog cut to look like the legs of an octopus. Yummy, but gave me a really bad stomachache. And then, this morning, I got on the plane, and flew out on such a beautiful day. This is the view from the tarmac. Ill.

Grote Markt

Last night we took a little romp around town and went to Grote Markt, a part of the city with a few bars surrounding a little Piazza (for lack of a Dutch word). While a lot of people drive, it seems just as many people bike here and everyone rides the same big black cruisers (I only saw two road bikes my whole trip) and a lot of them have little seats right behind the handlebars for babies, which is so funny, they look like they're riding a chariot. Our bike ride to Grote Markt was a little perilous as we only had two bikes for three people, so Laura "dinked" Caroline on her bike

and I rode the other bike on my own, trying to remember how to pedal backwards to stop.

Mostly on this trip, we took the tram around town, which has little signs at every stop telling you when the train is coming! ARE YOU WATCHING MBTA, LOOK HOW IT'S DONE RIGHT!Amazing.
This morning Caroline took me to a traditional Dutch breakfast of Pancakes. These are not your momma's pancakes, though, don't be fooled. They're as big as a crepe and a little thicker, but not as thick as an American pancake. Into this, goes anything you could ever possibly think of, though it goes directly into the batter and is served flat, not folded up. Caroline told me she once got the Child's Pancake with a Surprise (that's the full name on the menu) and it came with ice cream and strawberries on top. Personally, I'm a big fan of pork, so I got Bacon in mine. When I ordered the waiter said "Good job! This is very traditional, you ordered the right thing! We will call you "Dutchie" now!" Thanks? Aside from my weird new nickname, the breakfast was such a treat! I was informed I had to put cane syrup on it to achieve the proper sweet:salty ratio and it was truly delicious.

NO PHOTO!

Pictures of our Mexican feast last night.

Yummy guacamole!

Today, Caroline, her rommate Laura, and I went into town to visit the Conservatory where they go to school (Caroline is a singer, Laura plays the recorder, both in Historical Performance. Yes, you can get a degree in playing the Recorder). The building their school is in is based on a piece by Schoenberg. It has five floors representing the five staves and then small portions of each floor jut out to look like musical notes. In theory: awesome, in practice: not so much.
The trams that we've been taking everywhere are clean and fast and in parts of the city they're elevated on beautifully designed tracks.
In the school, there's a statue of Schoenberg (the mascot of their school, I guess) which looks EXACTLY like Han Solo when he's put into Carbon Freeze. The guards yelled at me for taking a photo, but it had to be done.The city has been pretty gray and rainy since last night, but it's small and quaint and everyone has been very friendly to us, except our waitress at the Chinese place where we had lunch today. When I asked her to break our 10 euros into two 5's she yelled "NO!" and walked away.

Caroline's little apartment has a lovely balcony they share with the Thai Prostitutes next door. A family with little children lives on the other side and we currently have their baby monitor on the table in the living room as their parents are out to dinner. The architecture isn't all that exciting, but every once in a while, something nice shows itself.

Tonight we are going out in the city center with Caroline's Danish boyfriend Simon and his friends from the Hotel School where he studies. Fun awaits!

OOO OOO OOO

I arrived this afternoon in Amsterdam to heralds of "Thank you, Ms. Kalinoovski, have a nice day." The Dutch people seem to be able to correctly pronounce the 'w' in my name as a 'v', and yet are mysteriously adding an 'o'.

I took the train to The Hague to meet my friend Caroline Bruker.

And once there went to her really cute apartment whereupon i discovered that the shower is in the living room, and the toilet is in a closet.
"This is very typically Dutch," said Caroline. The door closes so close to the toilet, you may as well just leave it open.
She and her roommates and her boyfriend and I cooked a delicious dinner of.....burritos. I come all the way to the Hague on a glorious adventure and what do I make? Guacamole. Hoping to encounter new culinary frontiers, I'm set to mashing up avocados and squeezing limes. Maybe I should have just gone to L.A. and finally eaten all of the Tacos Por Favor I've been craving.
Our plans to go out on the town were foiled by an incredible thunderstorm, which of course merited a good romp through the empty streets in bathing suits, since it's so warm outside.
Apparently you can get ticketed for lack of pants in public. So the adventure was short-lived.