LA and the US Open of Surfing

July 24 - 27, 2009

This weekend I went to Los Angeles to do a little work, hang out with some friends and go to the US Open of Surfing. I didn’t have much time to blog, so here are the highlights of the trip.

I stayed with friends in Manhattan Beach and had an awesome time. They live a few blocks up from “The Strand” so each morning my friend and I would get up and go for a walk along the beach and then get breakfast at Noah’s bagels. Each morning I had egg on a whole wheat bagel. It was scrumptious. I also learned that if you order your breakfast to go, even if you plan to eat it in, you don’t have to pay sales tax. Thanks for the tip Marg ;~)

On Saturday I went down to Huntington Beach with my friend Lauren and a few of her friends. It was a blast. The surf was unusually high and the surfers were insanely talented. The size of the event was bigger than I was anticipating. It was estimated that over the course of the event more than 100,000 people would attend. As part of the festivities Hurley (the surf company) brought in musical acts to play free concerts on the beach. Beachside concerts are awesome. I would highly recommend them to anyone who has the chance to experience one. The concert we saw was particularly fun for Lauren and me because it was performed by Mat Kearney, a native Eugenian and fellow Axeman.

Sunday was a very relaxed day that included shopping and a really fun dinner with friends. The friends I stayed with, Chris and Margaret, had six of us for dinner. Guests included Marg’s sister Alex, her boyfriend Frank, Lauren and myself.

Monday consisted of meeting with a client, having lunch with another friend and hunting for a basketball hoop with the Hollywood sign behind it. I would term that hunt mediumly successful. I took a picture I am fairly happy with but there is one hoop that I would like to try to photograph again in the future. The only complication is that I will need a ladder to take it properly. I’m not sure how I will manage that... but at some point I will...

Until the next trip,

Katy

“I Am The One Who Buys That!”

Day Three 6/07/09
“I Am The One Who Buys That!”

Even though we went to bed a little earlier last night we were still pretty tired. We slept in until 10ish and then packed up our stuff. We had skipped breakfast so when we left the hotel around 11:30 A.M. we decided to go and get lunch. We again headed downtown on the lookout for a brewery. We were trying to go to the Flying Dog but evidently it is out of business. Instead we ended up at the Breakenridge.

Breakenridge Brewery was a super cool place. One of the best surprises was when we walked in the door they were showing the Prefontaine Classic on a 100” screen. I had forgotten I was missing the meet while we were in Denver so this was a super welcomed surprise. The pulled pork sandwich I had was fantastic. I tasted Amanda’s beers and not surprisingly I wasn’t a huge fan. She liked them though and we both liked the pint glasses. We ended up getting four glasses for ten bucks, which we thought was a pretty good deal.

After a long and leisurely lunch we decided to spend our remaining two hours or so exploring more of downtown Denver. We went to see the classic “Denver” sign located on the 16th street mall. We browsed around a few shops on the promenade and then wandered into a big festival that had been causing us traffic detours for days. The event turned out to be the “People’s Fair of Denver”. It was actually kind of cool. There were tons of food and arts and crafts booths. The people watching was fantastic. Two highlights included a large man roller blading in spandex and full pads and a girl who appeared to be wearing a thin terry-cloth tube dress that was not hiding ANYTHING from the imagination. I also enjoyed one of the amusement rides. It looked like a large jumpy chair for adults. I’ve always wanted one of those. When I make my version of Neverland Ranch, I am going to have one. I’ll post a picture of it at the bottom of this post.

Our trip out to the airport was quick and efficient. Denver has a nicely located gas station right by the airport so filling up the rental car’s tank was no problem. We loaded the Avis bus and were in the terminal an hour and half before our flight was scheduled to leave. On the way out we had a little trouble with the location of the seats, so I decided to head straight for an agent this time. I was hoping to upgrade us with e-coupons, so I decided to get in the 1K/First Class line. This was not technically correct but the agent was super cool about it. She couldn’t confirm any upgrades for us but she did put us on the waitlist. She thought the odds of us getting one upgrade was good but two was unlikely. Again it sucked that we were on separate itineraries because if we were on one, this would have all been easy.

My first stop once getting through security was Wolfgang Puck’s. On our way to the restaurant my phone rang. That is never a good sign when one is in an airport. It was United calling to tell us our flight was a half hour delayed. It could have been worse I guess. We continued on our way to find my secret treat for Mandy. The Wolfgang’s in the Denver airport has the most incredible vanilla pudding with berries on it. Just typing this makes me hungry. I heard about it from my friend Joel and now I get it every time I am in Denver. Amanda is now a huge fan too.

The departure time boards within all of terminal B were malfunctioning. This obviously prevented us from knowing the status of our flight, which was pretty annoying. We decided it best to just go out and hang at the gate. When our flight was finally posted on the board I decided to go and ask the agent about the possibilities of upgrades. While I was in the line she paged me to the counter. I cut the line, told her my name and she said I had been upgraded. I told her I was also traveling with a friend and I asked her if Amanda was likely to get upgraded as well. She said no, there were going to be two more names called and her’s was the third on the list. I decided to take my upgrade anyway. Amanda had never flown first class and seemed as though she really wanted to try it. I didn’t mind sitting in coach by myself, so I took the one seat and went back to Mandy. Within a few minutes we boarded the plane with the first batch of passengers.

I was seated in 10C which is two rows behind First Class. I could see Amanda climb into 6A. A few minutes later I saw Amanda move to 1D. It looked like a gentleman had asked her to move so he could sit next to his wife. The plane continued to fill but the two seats next to me were remaining empty. One of the last few people on board sat in the middle seat next to me. Her husband sat in the middle seat across the isle. She seemed to me like the type of old lady who was on her way home from a lifetime of smoking in Vegas. She was whining in her raspy voice about all of her delays and yada, yada, yada. In an attempt to lift her spirits I told her that I had upgraded my friend to First Class, so the window seat was likely to stay empty and her husband could probably move into that seat. She liked this idea and asked the flight attendant if he could move yet. The flight attendant wanted to make sure no one else boarded before allowing the shift. She also wanted to know why I upgraded my friend and if I would be willing to upgrade her. I laughed a bit and said I would but I couldn’t because there wasn’t even a seat for me to upgrade myself. At this point the flight attendant told the old guy he could move over. I got out of my seat to make it easier on him. His wife got up too and he shuffled across the aisle. I sat down again and started to get comfortable. At this point the gate agent came on the plane with the passenger manifest and said something to the flight attendant that I couldn’t hear. She then came over to my seat and asked me if I “wanted to ride upfront”. I said, “Why yes thank you, I do.” I stood up and grabbed my backpack from under my feet. The old lady said, “where are you going now?” I said, “I’m going up front.”

The flight attendant told me to grab “the empty seat”. Both 3C and 3D were empty. I set my backpack under 3D and then went to grab Amanda out of 1D. I figured if 3C was empty also she might as well sit with me. So after three moves for Amanda and two for me we were both comfortably seated together in First Class. Not a bad deal.

One nice thing about going First Class from DEN to PDX is that they serve you dinner. Amanda had the ravioli and I had the roast beef. I enjoyed mine and believe she enjoyed hers. I also believe she enjoyed her wine, bloody mary, vodka and cranberry, and whatever else I missed in between.

After dinner I worked on the blog and Amanda read the “Skymall” catalog. Every so often she would tap me and show me a crazy item. The first, fittingly, was a floating pool bar. She thought we needed it for the yard. I can’t really disagree with that. I would enjoy a Diet Dr. P. while swimming. The next item was a traction device for a person’s neck. It had a hilarious picture of a guy hanging in a doorway. Even better was the sumo looking doll table. I should have taken a picture of this. It looked like a sumo wrestler sculpture hunched over with glass on top. When Mandy showed me this I had to ask her. “Who buys these things?” We pontificated that for a while and got a good laugh out of it. Another ten minutes or so passed and she tapped me again. This time she pointed to an item in the lower right hand corner of the catalog. When I saw it my eyes lit up. I said, “I am the one who buys that!”. It was an air gun that shoots marshmallows and yes I am in fact the proud owner of such a gun. We both started laughing hysterically.

Before we knew it we were on the ground in Portland. Chris was waiting directly outside the doors of baggage claim for us. I wasn’t sure when we left Denver if I wanted to sleep at Chris and Amanda’s or drive back to Eugene. We ended up getting back to their place by 9 P.M. so I decided to drive home.

It’s now late and I’m tired from a super fun action packed three days. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from a weekend with Mandy Moore, OAR and Red Rocks. Until the next adventure…

Katy

I’ve always wanted an adult jumpy chair.

Garden of the Gods

Day Two 6/06/09
Garden of the Gods

Even though we went to bed super late last night we decided to get up at a decent hour to make use of our time in Denver. We ate breakfast, got ready, and set out on our adventure to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs was about 60 miles from our hotel so we anticipated an hour drive. About 20 miles outside of our destination we ran into a ton of traffic. There was bridge construction on the highway so Amanda and I decided to go on a detour. With the help of Mertle we saved ourselves a solid hour of stalled highway time.

Garden of the Gods was very cool. It is place that is clearly better described with pictures than words. I will post a picture or two after this blog entry. One thing I really enjoyed was the diversity of people wandering around the garden. There were singles, families, school kids, old people, asian tourists and everything else in between. Mandy I spent roughly an hour and half taking pictures and exploring the gardens. During this time I realized she has an irrational fear of rattle snakes and any noise coming from the wilderness. I’m certain at some point in the future I will take advantage of this knowledge.

After our hike we were both a little hungry and really thirsty. Conveniently it was a little after 2 P.M. which meant happy hour had started at Sonic. We both thought slushes sounded amazing, so that was our next stop.

On our way back from Colorado Springs we stopped at the outlet mall in Castle Rock. We both purchased a dress for Ms. Jones’ upcoming wedding. We also each purchased a few other clothing items. Once we completed our whirlwind tour of the mall we were hungry yet again. We decided to hit another of Mandy’s favorite Denver restaurants. We went to a cool retro 40-60’s place called Steuben’s http://www.steubens.com. I ordered what the waiter recommended which was this strange beef dish. It was phenomenal. I’d definitely go there again the next time I am in Denver.

We finished eating dinner around 8 P.M. and we were both beat. We thought about going to a comedy show or something but we decided that we would rather just go back to the hotel and watch a movie there.

We are in the hotel now and it is super cool. Our 42 inch plasma lists the most popular youtube videos as part of our on demand programming. We have spent the last 45 minutes watching some of our classic favorites like “Charlie” and “Evil Eye Baby”. If you haven’t seen those, you should surf over to youtube and watch them.

We are now going to watch the Ben Stiller movie Heartbreak Kid on HBO. I have a feeling we will both be asleep before too long. So I am going to sign off until tomorrow.

Sleep well!

Katy

OAR Live at Red Rocks

Day One 6/05/09
OAR Live at Red Rocks

3:30 A.M. felt extra early this morning. Our goal was to leave for the airport by 4:15 A.M. so I wanted to have enough time to take a shower as well. Chris, Amanda’s boyfriend, was nice enough to get up and take us to the airport. Her friend and neighbor Adie also had an early morning flight so she rode with us as well. The trip in from Beaverton was quick and we were to the airport a little before 5.

Mandy and I chose to just pack carry-ons. We checked in at the automated machines but ran into a problem. I had called a few weeks ago to get Mandy seated in Economy Plus with me. When she pulled up her reservation, she was seated in 23E, which is not only a regular economy seat, but a middle economy seat at that. Unfortunately there was no way to fix this problem on the computers, so we had to get in a different line where an actual agent could help us. Fortunately this didn’t take too long. The agent was able to put us together in 9E and F which are nice seats on a 757.

Within 30 minutes of our arrival at PDX we were through security and sitting at our gate. They kept announcing that the flight was super full and that some passengers would need to gate check their rollaboards. I wonder if the guy who decided to start charging for checked baggage realized the increase in carry-ons the fees would cause? Mandy and I boarded with the Executive Premiers and had no problem storing our stuff. Even better, we ended up having an open seat in our row. We chatted for the first little but of the flight, and then in typical Katy fashion, I fell asleep.

After landing a couple minutes early in Denver we made our way to the rental car bus stop. It was sitting there just waiting for us. Mandy took care of booking our car and got us a fabulous deal with Alamo. I typically rent with Hertz but this experience made me want to rent with Alamo again. As previously mentioned we didn’t have to wait for the bus at all. There were popcorn and lattes free for the taking. The service was friendly and efficient. We even got a nearly brand new Subaru Legacy all for $14 a day. Who says there is not a silver lining to a down economy?

Before long Myrtle, my portable GPS system, was hooked up in the Legacy and we were on our way to the hotel. We found a pretty sweet deal at a Hyatt Place at the Denver Tech Center. The hotel included parking, wi-fi, breakfast and a very large hotel room for $80 a night. I had never stayed at a Hyatt Place previously but I would certainly stay there again.

Amanda and I were both pretty hungry from our travels, and lack of breakfast, so after checking in we decided to go to a brewery in downtown Denver called the Wynekoop for lunch. Mandy likes her beer and her sister, who used to live in Denver, said this was a fun place. We sat at the bar and had fun chatting a little with a handsome bar tender. I had a pulled pork sandwich that hit the spot. I don’t remember the beer Amanda ordered but I believe she liked it. Her salad looked pretty good too. I purchased a pint glass to commemorate the stop.

Post lunch our lack of sleep caught up to us and we decided that a nap before the concert would be a good idea. We went back to the Hyatt Place, took naps, and then cleaned up for the show. The show was scheduled to start at 7 P.M., so we decided to go to the cute little downtown in Morrison for dinner. It is clear on concert nights that the town is rocking, so parking was a little bit difficult. Needless to say though, we eventually drove to the front and parked. We lucked out and got one of the last tables in a cute little Mexican restaurant called The Morrison Inn. The service was fast and the food was good. It was just what we needed.

Before we knew it we had parked our car and were marching up a rather large hill to “Red Rocks”. The views were truly remarkable. I will post a few example pictures at the end of this blog.

One of the first things I wanted to do once getting inside the venue was purchase a limited edition poster made exclusively for this show. I like to get concert posters and they are particularly cool when they are limited edition. We decided to hit the merch booth at the top of the venue so we could both buy our poster and check out the view from the top of the amphitheater. Just as we were getting helped with our posters a massive Denver lightening storm blew in. It was seriously like God turned on a faucet. Fortunately I had on a gortex trench and Mandy had her super Target blanket that had a vinyl like side. I brought a tube with me to keep the posters nice while we were at the concert but it turned out to be a good moisture barrier as well. The guys helping us did their best to keep the posters dry. They needed a little guidance in this area but I did my best to do it tactfully. Just as we were walking away from the tent half of it blew over as did both of the tables located to our left. We decided to seek shelter at a nearby tent/beer garden that was a little more substantial. We made friends with the couple closest to us and within ten or so minutes the storm was over.

The opener for the concert was a fellow named Brett Dennen. Sadly for him he is not the most attractive guy in the world but he has an incredible voice. His music can be heard here http://brettdennen.net/. He played for roughly an hour and I honestly found the whole thing quite enjoyable.

The OAR performance was amazing. Red Rocks is the biggest venue I have seem them play to date. Their sets were much more elaborate than I am used to and I enjoyed the additional elements. Another highlight was their cover of U2’s Bloody Sunday. In the four previous shows I had attended I had never heard them cover another band. The fact that they chose one of my favorite songs by an incredible band was an awesome perk. The only negative thing about the concert was the drunk and high guy next to me. He kept trying to dance with me. My personal space was being violated on a constant basis. I was doing my best to ignore it… and then he grabbed my ass. That was the last straw. I threw his hand off of me and told him, “you need to keep your drunk ass hands off of me. It would be impossible for me to be less attracted to you. If you touch me again, you are going to have some serious problems.” He didn’t touch me again but he did continue to get in my space. Mandy wanted to take him on but thankfully she didn’t. She did yell at him once which was kind of funny, but no punches were thrown.

After the concert Amanda and I decided to wait a while to exit because there were going to be 9,000 drunk people marching down the hill and we were in no hurry to join them. We also weren’t in a huge hurry to sit in traffic behind them so we took a few more pictures and went to the bathroom. OAR offers recordings of their concerts on thumb drives roughly 15 minutes after their shows end. I decided that I wanted to get one of these so Amanda and I got in the back of the line and waited for the last batch of thumb drives. By the time we started hiking down the hill it was after 12.

On our way down the hill we saw the band’s bus. When OAR played in Eugene in January of ’09 Amanda and I met most of the band. We even went out with Michael Paris and Benj Gershman after the show. As we passed the bus we saw that Richard was talking to some fans. He was one of two band members we hadn’t met, so we decided to stop and introduce ourselves. I also wanted him to sign a poster that I had the other guys sign in Eugene. The only band member we had left to meet was the drummer Chris. We decided to hang out and wait to see if we could catch Chris on his way to the bus. While we were waiting Michael came by. To my shock and amazement he remembered Amanda’s name from our night out in Eugene. We had fun talking to him for a little while until he had to go and meet up with his cousin. Shortly there after Benj came by. Benj too remembered us from Eugene. We talked about the show. Amanda told him it was all awesome except for the drunk and high guy grabbing my butt. Benj then checked out my butt and said he understood the guy trying. I thought that was pretty funny and Amanda enjoyed it too. I told Benj we were waiting for Chris so that I could finish my poster. He offered to go and get him for us. Within a minute Chris was there. Like every other member of OAR, Chris was a super nice guy. It is really easy to love a band that creates awesome music, puts on a great show and treats their fans like they are long lost friends.

By the time we made our way down the windy road to our car it was 1 A.M. There were not many people left in the area at this time but we did pass one group of people. There were five guys and one girl playing beer pong. As we walked by they asked Mandy if she wanted to shotgun a beer with them. Anyone who knows Mandy knows the automatic answer to this question was yes. We ended up hanging out for roughly two hours with mostly Matt and Brian. They were Airforce guys that came from Colorado Springs for the concert. I had fun talking to Matt about his experiences in the service and Amanda had fun keeping us all entertained with lines like “My jeans are sweating!” and “Want some coooooooookies?”

When 3 A.M. rolled around I realized I was pretty dang tired. I think Amanda was getting a little tired at this point too so we decided to say goodnight to our new friends. We walked the rest of the way to our car. We had parked next to a porta potty and Amanda was super excited to use it. Once she completed her business we got on the road back to the hotel. We arrived at the Hyatt Place around 3:45 A.M. exhausted from nearly 24 hours of activity but very pleased with our action packed day of fun.

Until tomorrow,

Katy



OAR playing “On My Way” at Red Rocks on June 5, 2009.

The view from the top of the Red Rocks Amphitheater before the show started and the sold-out crowd filled in.

Itching to go…

Day Zero 6/04/09
Itching to go…

I’ve worked in an office for the last two weeks. For those of you who know me well, that has to be some kind of record. I’ve only been home for two and half weeks since my last trip but it’s time to roll again. Tonight I am driving up to Portland to meet my friend Mandy Moore, and no, not that Mandy Moore, an even cooler one. We are off to Denver in the early A.M. to see one of our favorite bands, O.A.R., live at Red Rocks amphitheater. I’ve heard lots of really incredible things about this venue, so I am pretty stoked to have the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands there. We are going to spend the whole weekend in Denver, but the show is tomorrow night. I’ll write tomorrow about all my adventures and to let you know if Red Rocks lives up to the hype!

Katy

A Few AMS and LON Pictures

As promised here are some of my favorite pictures from my quick jaunt to London and Amsterdam.

Katy


The Hotel Bellevue in Amsterdam thought they could outsmart me with their power saving device. My Borders giftcard and I showed them!


They don’t use or serve ketchup in US size quantities in Europe. I had to use this ketchup wisely while consuming my “bitterballs”.


Who knew I had peanuts named after me?


I liked these guys standing in front of the Palace of Westminster. They seemed like a bunch of classic looking British Gents to me.

Home to NOT My Own Bed

Day Twelve 5/21/09
Home to NOT My Own Bed

My flight home was entirely uneventful. I slept from PHL to SFO and SFO to the EUG. I made it back right as scheduled at 12:15 P.M. and in time to start my Cooper Dog babysitting duties. I’m a little sad that I won’t be able to sleep in my own bed tonight but I’ll get over it. Cooper paid for my trip to London and he’ll probably provide me another trip before I know it. Overall it was an action packed and super fun 12 days. I’m sure I missed a few great stories and I also have some pictures that I would like to share. I’ll do my best to get those posted soon to conclude the PHL/LON/AMS/LON/PHL adventure of 2009.

Katy

City of Black and White

Day Eleven 5/20/09
City of Black and White

It had been a while since I had slept in or slept for at least eight hours, so I decided to sleep in today. I had made plans to go to lunch with Granny and Pop so I could spend a little more time with them before heading west. At noon on the button we left for lunch at Perkins. I think I was the only person in the restaurant that was under 80 but thoroughly enjoyed myself nonetheless. Our conversation was nice and the food was pretty darn good. The fair is like a much nicer Shari’s for my readers on the west coast.

After lunch I tried to meet Beck at the mall to help her return something, but the timing didn’t work out well for the kid’s naps. I did, however, run into Nordstrom’s because it was having its half-yearly sale. I bought a BCBG shirt that I think would make both Bailey and Joyce proud. I made a quick stop at Costco on the way back to Granny and Pop’s. I then freshened up quickly and was out the door to pick up Ben and Leah for dinner and the concert.

I picked the kids up around five at Ben’s house. Ben’s present was dinner and the show, so he got to pick where we ate. The problem is Ben isn’t always super opinionated or super decisive. I thought we would eat somewhere in downtown Philly and then head to Upper Darby. Ben couldn’t come up with a place he really wanted to go, so we decided to head to the concert venue and just find a near by place.

GPS systems are one of the best inventions since ever, but sometimes the “fastest routes” take you through interesting and sketchy places. It turns out Upper Darby is a sort of ghetto place. It is also happens to be surrounded by A LOT of ghettoness. We found the Tower Theater pretty easily and got a great parking place since we were two hours early for the show. We then set out by foot to find a place to eat.

I have never been to a concert venue where there were not myriad nice dining options in the immediate vicinity. I guess there is a first time for everything. We walked a lot of blocks through this suburban Philly neighborhood and couldn’t find a dining option better than Wendy’s and Wendy’s was a solid 10 blocks away. This was kind of unfortunate because I wanted to take Ben to a nice dinner but what can you do?

We made it back to the Tower Theater just in time to hear the opener, Helio Sequence, play its first song. The venue was pretty amazing. It was built in 1927 as a movie theater and still retains much of its original charm ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Theater_(Upper_Darby,_Pennsylvania) ). The acoustics were surprisingly good as well. Our seats were in row DD of the left center orchestra (roughly seven rows from the stage and slightly left of center).

I was hoping to make this night extra special for Ben by arranging a meet and greet with Mat. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work my connections well enough to make that happen before the show. However, towards the end of his EXCELLENT set, he announced to the crowd that he would be signing his newly released (it came out yesterday) CD, City of Black and White, at the merchandise table for those who purchased it. I had given Ben a copy of the CD yesterday when I told him about the surprise, however, I decided to get him another copy, so he could get it signed. I think that Leah, who also bought a CD, may have been even more excited about this than Ben… but I was still pretty pumped that I would be able to introduce them to Mat.

We were a little slow getting to the merchandise area and the line to meet Mat was quite long. It didn’t really matter though because the stage had to be changed for Keane and we had nothing better to do. I could see the anticipation building in Ben and Leah as we got closer and closer to Mat. Finally when our turn came around we stepped up to the table and I said, “Hey Mat! Katy Polansky, how are you?” He looked up did a double take and said “HEY! What the heck are you doing here?” We then proceed to have a nice chat where he wished Ben a happy birthday. He also signed their CD liner notes. However, he signed the second one to me, when it was actually Leah’s. It was pretty funny. The cover ended up saying, “To Katie… It’s really to Leah. Mat Kearney.” I think Leah actually got a pretty big kick out of this and may even like it better that way. As our conversation wore on a bit the tour coordinator with Mat told him he needed to move on to the next people in line. We wanted to take a picture with Mat too but the tour guy wouldn’t let him. Evidently he had to complete his signings before the crew completed the set change for Keane. Mat seemed to think this sucked, so he just told us to wait until he was done and that he would take it then. True to his word, he did. We talked for a few more minutes and then returned to our seats to watch Keane.

The Keane part of the show was surprisingly good. I wasn’t super familiar with them as a band but enjoyed the show nonetheless. The lead singer has a very good voice and is quite the performer. Ben and I especially enjoyed how he said “THANKYOU” (I meant that to be loud and look like one word) with an emphatic thumbs up after most of the songs. That, of course, is now how we greet each other.

The show ended around 11:30 pm. I then took Leah and Ben home and arrived back to Granny and Pop’s around 1:30 am. My flight the next morning left at 6 am, so my intention was to stay up all night. That being said, after I got all of my stuff packed I was REALLY tired. I decided to take a nap from 2 to 3:15 am. I got up, took a quick shower, and was on the way to the airport by 3:45. Which leads us to day 12…


Mat is pretty popular. Maybe when he gets really, really popular people will start spelling his name right.

24

Day Ten 5/19/09
24

While I was in Europe I missed the season finales of many of my favorite shows. Beck hadn’t seen the finale of 24, so we met up this morning to watch it. It was good but I found the ending a little annoying. I’ll stop there because I don’t want to ruin it for any of you who are yet to watch it.

After lunch I went to Panera to work on my blog and grab some lunch. Post lunch I did some shopping for Ben’s birthday present. In the evening the family minus Jane, Pete and Ben, went to Friendly’s for dinner. I had an especially nice time talking to Judy and Granny. Andy was also super entertaining. The girl likes to eat. At one point she had an apple slice in both her hands and in her mouth.

At 9 p.m. I met Ben, Leah, Mike, and Chelsea at the bowling alley. It was fun to finally meet Chelsea, Ben and Leah’s best friend. I’d heard a ton of “Chels” stories, so it was fun to finally have a face and personality to put with the name. Ben and I also did our best to put on a bowling show for the people on the lane next to us. They were convinced we were in some kind of league and the funny thing is neither of us really bowled that well.

Another fun part of bowling was finally being able to give Ben his birthday surprise. For Ben’s 18th birthday I planned a surprise trip to see Mat Kearney live with Keane in Upper Darby, PA. He and Leah seemed really pumped about the show and I am equally excited. The concert is tomorrow, so I need to call it a night.

Katy

Fast Flights and Fast Cars

Day Nine 5/18/09
Fast Flights and Fast Cars

Last night Nicole and I mapped out the best way for me to get to Paddington to catch the express back to Heathrow. As previously noted London shuts down at night. The Tube is closed from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. I wanted to catch the 5 a.m. train out of Paddington so I had to take a bus to the station.

The check-in line was a breeze, as was customs, and I was in the international line within 20 minutes of arriving at Heathrow. The food in international lounges out of the country is always better than international lounges within the country. I had a really good “healthy” cereal. It was sweet grainy, nutty, goodness. And then I also had a bowl of Coco Krispies. The only knock I have on this lounge is that its soda cans were of the 4 oz variety. I am pretty sure that I could have built a house of cans with a longer stay in the lounge.

The flight home was awesome. First class was full, business class was full, and steerage class was full. Steerage class is what I call coach, coach. There is also Economy Plus coach. Fortunately, I was seated in Economy Plus. Economy Plus has eight rows of seven seats (2-3-2) for a total of 56 seats. Economy plus had eight passengers on our flight. It was great. I hopped in a three seat section, flipped up the arm rests and slept for the majority first of the flight. If I could always have three coach seats, there would be no need to fly business or first ever again.

We arrived in D.C. about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I intentionally booked an extra long layover so that I could go to lunch with a friend in D.C. After clearing customs, rechecking my bags, and a quick stop in the Red Carpet Room, I was off to meet Preston.

Since Preston is the D.C. resident I let him pick our destinations. The only thing I would have REALLY wanted to do was hoop hunt in downtown D.C. but we didn’t have time to go there and get me back to IAD for my flight to Philly. We first went to lunch at a place called CheeBurger CheeBurger. It was really good. It’s a fun menu because it’s basically just a ton of ingredient choices to mix in match in burgers, shakes and sodas. According to Preston peanut butter is really good on burgers. I stayed with fairly conservative ingredients like cheese, lettuce, tomato, pineapple and ketchup. For my soda a had diet pepsi with sugar free raspberry syrup. I thoroughly enjoyed both.

After lunch we had roughly another hour and half before I had to be back at the airport. Again, that wasn’t enough time to go too far but fortunately for Preston one of his favorite places in the world was located near by. We went to the Ferrari and Lamborghini dealership. One of Preston’s dreams is to own a Lambo. I can’t say I completely get this because even if you have say $100M, $250K for a car seems excessive. However, the cars were beautiful. Preston visits the dealership fairly often so he knows his way around. One of the Ferrari’s in the shop had Virginia plates of “Player One”. Preston was fairly certain that was “Agent Zero” aka Gilbert Arenas of the Washington Wizards car.

Going back through security in IAD I was behind the legendary basketball coach John Thompson. I am pretty sure he has a lot of replacement parts. He knew as soon as he walked through the X-ray he was destined straight for the extra screening area. It seemed like the wand went off over all of his body. Or he may just have REALLY big replacement hips that cause the wand to permanently hum. Regardless watching this giant man with stretchy elastic waistband pants get wanded made my wait through security much more entertaining.

Since I was technically still on my international trip I was allowed to use the Red Carpet Club one last time. I was really annoyed because this club didn’t have any diet soda in the self-serve cooler. They had random stuff like root beer, Fanta, and Cherry Coke, but nothing diet. Joel and my dentist will be happy to know that I settled for water.

I slept for the entire short flight to Philly. Upon landing I grabbed my checked bag which had clearly taken an earlier flight. My name was not in lights at Hertz, so I had to go inside the Hertz Number One Club Gold office. For some reason the reservation didn’t get processed with my membership number. The guy was pretty efficient and had me on my way within a few minutes.

After stopping to get some pizza at Levita’s I went to Granny and Pop’s house. I had a nice time catching up with them and telling them about my trip. Becky had written to me earlier in the day to see if I wanted to go to movie that night. I didn’t know if I would have the energy but it turned out when the time came I thought it sounded like fun. We saw “I Love You Man”. It was hilarious. I highly recommend it. After the movie I went back to Granny and Pop’s and went straight to bed.

It was another great day.

Katy

Rebel with a Cause

Day Eight 5/17/09
Rebel with a Cause

This morning Nicole had scheduled to Skype with her parents and brother all of whom were in Shanghai at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m. she was going to brunch with a friend from school named Tomi and she wanted me to tag along.

I didn’t mind having a later morning because as previously mentioned I was a little tired from the frenetic pace of the trip. I woke up around 10:30 a.m., took a shower, said hi to Nicole’s family, and then went to brunch with the girls.

We ate in a place that reminded me of Dean & Deluca in NYC. It had a trendy and cool feeling market with a little cafe upstairs. I had a fairly traditional English breakfast of scrambled eggs and wheat toast. The conversation was fun and easy and I think a good time was had by all.

After brunch Tomi needed to go back and study. Nicole tried ardently to get her to join us on our visit to Primark but she could not be convinced. I had never been to a Primark before but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Nicole described the atmosphere as that of a bridal sale with all types of clothes. That description was fairly accurate. The pace of shopping was somewhat frenzied. The styles range from crazy couture to wardrobe staples. The best part, however, is the the store is insanely cheap. We are talking like Wal-mart prices. If you want to check it out, go here http://www.primark.co.uk.

After our Primark adventure we walked back to Nicole’s flat. She had some homework to do and I wanted to go on another hoop seeking adventure. Since I had spent 5+ hours walking around London on Thursday without finding a great hoop, I decided to do some research before this departure. After spending a considerable amount of time doing research on-line I had a nicely marked up map to use as my guide on my journey. I felt like one location held the most promise for success, so I set off for there first.

In an ideal world the perfect London hoop would probably have Big Ben behind it. Unfortunately London is such an old city that many of it’s coolest looking things are located smack dab in the center of buildings that have been standing for 300+ years. Big Ben is not a super high tower and site lines to him are tough. I’m 95% convinced that a currently standing hoop and Big Ben could not be captured in a single photo frame. Other London sites that I still thought would be good were The London Eye (the giant ferris wheel), London Bridge, Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Other items that would do included a traditional red phone booth, double decker bus, or pub.

The London Eye is by far the tallest of any of the buildings I was hoping to capture so I decided to start with a hoop that I thought might have that in its site line. I took the Tube, followed my map and found the court with no difficulty. The court was in a park and surrounded by a cage like fence. I found the door to access the court and unfortunately it was locked with a pad lock. Adjacent to the court was a playground which had a roughly nine-foot high fence around it. I noticed that the court doors were actually opened to the playground, so I decided to try and see if there was a different door to access the playground. Turns out the playground was attached to some type of little community center. The center’s door was locked and its hours were listed as 3:30 - 6:30 p.m. Wed -Fri, which did me absolutely no good. I continued to walk around the enclosed area. I wanted to find out if there was even a good shot and if I could possibly take it without needing to get inside the cage.

As I approached the opposite side of the court, I realized that this was truly a great shot. You could see the London Eye in the background and there was a traditional looking pub in the foreground. The court also had some very bright and fun looking graffitied boards as decoration. I saw a lot of graffiti art (not just tagging but real pictures) around London, so this seemed fitting as well. The only problem was all of those elements could not be captured in a single frame without getting on to the court. A decision had to be made. I knew I wasn’t going to find a hoop better than this. And the likelihood of my getting back when it was unlocked was VERY unlikely, and certainly not going to happen on this trip. I decided to continue my trip around the court to see if I thought there was a place where I could climb the fence.

At about 90% around the fenced area I found a spot that I thought could serve as a point of entry. Really, I was very certain that I could get in. However, this particular entry point would NOT be a suitable exit point because there was nothing to use as leverage to climb back out on the other side. I did notice a place I thought I could get out on the other side, because I looked longingly at it on the way around, wishing it was on the outside so I could use it to climb in. A smart kid would have gone around to the other side to check that out again before making the decision to climb the fence. I on the other hand never claimed to be smart. I remembered the warning sign on the other side of the park that said “use when closed at your own risk”. It didn’t say “no trespassing”. I slid my bag in between the fence posts and climbed over. It was a surprisingly graceful effort that included a quick stop on the top of a dumpster. I actually really wish I had video of it. I was inside the park and experiencing quite a rush.

I spent about 10 minutes trying to capture the exact shot I wanted. Most of the day had overcast skies but there were occasional sun breaks or changes in the clouds that would make for better shots than others. I didn’t have a great grasp on which way was east or west, so it turned out when the sun broke through that it was right behind the hoop. This wasn’t going to give me a better photo than what I had, so I decided it was time to figure out an exit strategy.

It turned out that the fence was WAY HIGHER at my planned exit point than I had thought. I looked at it, laughed a little bit, and thought what the hell have I gotten myself into. It’s also funny to note that I was wearing a pretty nice BCBG blouse on this adventure because I was going out to dinner with Adeline in a few hours. Anyone who saw this decently dressed, twenty something American girl climbing this park fence was certain to have been entertained. After one less than perfect effort, I made it over the fence. In a day or two I will post the entry and exit points so that you can all be impressed by my athletic prowess ;~)

After getting out of the fence I was still pretty much on a high. I had a little too much fun being a rebel and I was very pleased with the picture I took. I decided that I was no longer in a hurry to find another picture. I’m not certain that I could take one that is more iconic and I certainly couldn’t have more fun getting it. The process wasn’t quite was adrenaline filled as East St. Louis but it was pretty dang good.

On my way back to the Tube I did a little window shopping and picked up a few presents for people. I had about an hour to kill before meeting Adeline for dinner so I decided to swing by Piccadilly, the London equivalent of Time Square, to buy some post cards and look for my obligatory country tchotchke. I had success on both fronts but got a little soaked in the process.

Adeline and I had planned to meet at the entrance of the Liverpool Station at 7 p.m. Since I didn’t have a cell phone I was a little nervous about this plan because I had no idea how big the station was or how hard it would be to find someone. As my train pulled into the station I could tell it was going to be big. I followed the “way out” signs. It wasn’t obvious when getting in the main part of the station which entrance would have been the “main” entrance. I decided to just head for one and see if Adeline was there. As luck would have it as I started moving I spotted her walking towards me. This was seriously SUPER lucky and I was very thankful that we spotted each other.

Before getting a bite to eat Adeline gave me a walking tour of East London. I particularly enjoyed this because I had never been there. Our first stop was the “Ten Bells Pub” also known as the “Jack the Ripper Pub” http://www.casebook.org/victorian_london/tenbells.html . The pub that Jack the Ripper evidently used to frequent is still serving drinks today. We stopped by, had a drink and then continued walking around for another half hour or so. For dinner we ate in a great little spot in the newly redone and super trendy Spitalfields Market. For my last meal in London I had Shepards Pie. It was delicious.

By the time Adeline and I finished eating and chatting it was already 10:30 p.m. We walked back to Liverpool Station and said our goodbyes. I decided to make one final stop on my way back to Nicole’s. There was a Tube station with a friend’s name in it, so I decided to take a ride over to it and take a picture. On the way I passed the “Wembley” stop. There was an awesome very modern looking stadium in the background. I’m assuming this had to be “the” Wembley Stadium. This reminded me the next time I am in Europe I need to attend a soccer match.

Upon returning to Nicole’s it was about 11:30 p.m. I planned to stay up all night to make sleeping on my early morning flight home easier. I packed my stuff, took a shower, and blogged a bit. That leads us to now. It is 4:15 a.m. and time for me to head to the airport. I’ll write again from the other side of the pond.

Katy


This is the sign that led me to believe hopping the fence would not technically be trespassing… it would just be “at my own risk”.


The point of entry.


The point of exit.

I'm On A Bike

Day Seven 5/16/09
I’m On A Bike

I didn’t have any set schedule for today. My goals were to rent a bicycle, ride it around town, visit the Anne Frank House, find an Amsterdam basketball hoop photo and make it back to the airport on time for my flight.

Bikes are EVERYWHERE in Amsterdam. It is by far the most prominent form of transportation. This is so much the case that in many places they have roads adjacent to car roads with lights specifically designed to control bike traffic. In places where this isn’t the case it can sometimes be confusing as to who has the right of way. When you add pedestrians into the mix it can get downright messy at times. I wouldn’t want to drive a car in Amsterdam because I am certain that I would hit a bike rider. It is also interesting that virtually no riders wear helmets. This includes the multitude of little kids who are riding around in seats on their parent’s bikes.

The bike shops open at 9 am and my goal was to be there when they opened as to not waste my limited time in Amsterdam. I did decently well, making it to the “Yellow Bike” shop by 9:30.

Renting the bike was a fairly painless process although it took forever because the employees at the place were in no hurry to register me and take my money. Eventually I got my giant old Schwinn looking bike and began on my adventure to explore Amsterdam.

As previously mentioned the site I most wanted to see in the city was the Anne Frank Museum. The home where the Frank family hid during WWII and the majority of Anne’s diary was written is located in downtown Amsterdam. It is set up as a museum and viewable to the general public. Anne’s words are displayed throughout the home and poignantly describe what the reality must have been like to live in constant fear and such a confined space. The home itself really was not that small. Their secret hiding place would have actually been an okay sized flat in London. The problem of course is that they could NEVER leave. Additionally the windows were covered in black out. This of course just served to make the space feel even smaller.

My favorite parts of the museum included the stairways, hidden bookshelf, attic and height wall. The stairs were incredibly steep in this house. One stairway runs from the ground floor to the third floor and I would guess that it is at a 65 degree angle. After the Franks had been in hiding for a while the couple who owned their home decided that they should put in a bookshelf to hide the passageway to the secret rooms. I can’t believe anyone would have ever found the secret space without first knowing it was there. The attic was another cool place in the house. This had one window that those in hiding could access to see a tree and some blue sky. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have that one window as your only window to the world. Finally, my most favorite part of the museum was that the Frank family kept a height growth chart for the kids on the wall. This really drove home how long they were in hiding because the kids legitimately grew a few inches. Personally, I also think height walls really represent home and family. I have great memories of our family’s wall. It is just so unspeakably sad that the reality of their home and family was confinement and fear.

Overall I would highly recommend this museum to anyone visiting Amsterdam. It is laid out well, full of interesting short little movies, quotes and artifacts. Experiencing the actual site really allows a young girl’s words to come to life in a way that nothing else can.

After completing my trip to the Anne Frank Museum I had to run back to the hotel to check out of my room. I decided to spend the remaining four or so hours I had just riding around town checking out the sites and looking for basketball hoops.

My overall feeling on the city is that it is gorgeous. The canals are relatively clean, have very pretty boat traffic and the architecture is spectacular. I really had no idea how pretty it was going to be. In general I felt the signage around town was not very good. Unlike many foreign cities I found the English signage to be quite limited. I was surprised by this too, since everyone in Amsterdam speaks English. I also didn’t find the streets to be set up in a very intuitive manner. I’m sure this a byproduct of both navigating around the canals and the age of the city.

My first stop on my bike was through Westerpark. It looked like a fairly big park on my map. I figured it might have a court and at a minimum would be a pretty ride. It was a pretty ride but it was also pretty frustrating. According to the signs in the park there was supposed to be a “korfball” court. This is a game described as “a lively hybrid of netball, volleyball and basketball… where players ultimately target a 3.5m hoop” in the Lonely Planet. I wanted to see what the hoops looked like so I spent way too much time trying to locate the court. I suppose I could have stopped and asked someone but the odds are quite good they would not have been helpful anyway. Eventually I located what I am 95% sure to be the “court”. Conveniently there were not any hoops erected at the moment. Basically I had just wasted a good hour looking for something that appeared not to exist.

At this point I decided I was hungry. I stopped in a trendy looking bar located in the park. The menu wasn’t in English, which again I found surprising. The only word I recognized for certain was as “Bitterballs”. Bitterballs are evidently a traditional Dutch food consisting of minced meat and sometimes cheese and potatoes. The mixture is then rolled into a ball and coated with a chicken nugget like crust. Then, of course, they are fried. I liked my bitterballs ;~)

The waitress in this place was unusually friendly, so I decided to ask her if she knew of any basketball hoops. She thought about it and came up with a place. She also said that there were quite a few around town, she just couldn’t specifically remember where. I was comforted to hear this because in my previous 24 hours in Amsterdam I hadn’t seen any.

The path I rode to the waitress’ recommended court was beautiful. The majority of it ran along a canal filled with neat old boats and surrounded by pretty architecture. Along the way I spotted a couple hoops that I documented. They were good but the one the woman recommended was the best. It was located in front of the Rijksmuseum which is obviously a very famous museum but also an incredibly beautiful building. To see the building click here: http://www.essential-architecture.com/EUROPE/HOLLAND/AMS-M01.htm .

I had about one hour remaining after visiting the Museumplein. I didn’t have any specific points of interest remaining so I chose to ride my bike around to see more of the city. As I was riding near a park in an area with no car traffic I started to hear a whining motor behind me. It didn’t sound like a motor scooter but it was definitely mechanical. Within the next second or two a large women on a “Rascal” passed me. A rascal is the infomercial name for the scooters that they have in stores for handicap people or if you prefer, the one George rode around on in a classic episode of Seinfeld. It was hilarious. I am certain that when she passed me she cursed me out in Dutch. I may have been in an area designated for pedestrians as opposed to bikes, but as I previously mentioned, to a foreigner that distinction is not always easy to make. She was also hauling butt. I was moving at a pretty good clip (15 mph or so) and she flew by me. Who knew a Rascal could go that fast? Maybe she had the governor removed. She seemed like that type of woman ;~)

At around 3 p.m. I decided I should probably start heading back towards Central Station to catch my flight. I had taken a couple bicycle only roundabouts (yes, they have such things in Holland) and I had no idea which way to go. The roads aren’t really set on any sensible grid and there isn’t anything super tall in the horizon (ie mountains or really tall buildings) to use as a guide. I decided to just stop and ask someone. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “You are really far from Central Station. It is at least an hour ride from here.” I didn’t think I could be that far away. I thanked him and set out riding the direction he told me. After five or so minutes of riding I asked another person which way was Central Station to be sure that I was still moving in the right direction. Her reaction was, “I’m pretty sure it is that way (she pointed) but it is really far from here.” I said thanks, grinned and continued riding the direction she told me to go. After another ten minutes of riding I checked with a third person to make sure I was still going the right direction. She looked at me like I was nuts. Said it is “Over there. But it is a long way from here.” At this point I was like, “it can’t still be THAT far away.” I was confident I was moving in the right direction. Within five more minutes of riding I started to recognize buildings and I knew where I was. Within 25 minutes from when I started I was back to Yellow Bike. I wanted to go and tell the first guy I asked for directions that unlike most Europeans, Americans do things with purpose. In this case that meant peddling at more than the typical leisurely Dutch pace.

My over arching feeling on the train ride out to the airport was that I wish I had a few more days in Amsterdam. If I had been there longer, I would have taken one of the guided bike rides out into the country, taken a boat cruise along the canals, gone in a few more of the museums and eaten more waffles. I didn’t expect to get to see the whole place in 36 hours but I also didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Amsterdam is definitely a place which I plan on returning.

Believe it or not absolutely nothing noteworthy happened on my flight back to London. This is also a shocker. I slept the whole flight. Being that this was the second time I had arrived at Heathrow in less than three days, I was pretty familiar with where to go. I took the Heathrow express to Paddington, hopped on the Tube to Baker and was back in Nicole’s apartment within an hour of landing.

I wanted to take Nicole out to dinner on Saturday night as a thank you for letting me stay at her place. I let her pick the restaurant. She picked a trendier and slightly fancy pub in Prim Rose Hill called the Engineer. The place was very charming and the food was surprisingly good. We split a chicken pate for an appetizer. Nicole had a lamb dish that she said was good. I had a sirloin served with “baker fries.” Baker fries were what Americans would think of as really thick cut fries. They were basically small potatoes cut in quarters and fried. It’s pretty hard to go wrong with that.

By the time Nicole and I finished dinner it was 11:30 p.m. I was exhausted from going nonstop since my arrival in Europe, so I voted for an “early” bedtime. Nicole decided to come back to the flat as well. Which leads us to now… I am tired and calling it a night… I’ll write again soon!

Katy

This is the bike I rode around Amsterdam. I constantly had two songs in my head while pedaling. The first was from the Wizard of Oz. I kept hearing the theme music for the Wicked Witch of the West… “duhn duhn duhn na na, duhn duhn duhn na na.”

More recently a popular “digital-short” from Andy Samberg of SNL has spread around the Internet. It’s called “I’m on a boat”. In my head I kept hearing that but instead the lyrics were “I’m on a bike.”

AMS & Nike’s European Headquarters

Day Six 5/15/09
AMS & Nike’s European Headquarters

This morning I had to be up at 6 am to catch my flight to Amsterdam. London has three major airports and today I was leaving out of Gatwick. Getting to the airport was fairly painless. Public transportation is really quite good in London. I took the Tube to Victoria Station and then just took an express train to Gatwick. I arrived roughly an 1:45 minutes before my flight and was feeling good about the progress of my morning.

At the British Airways checkin there were lots of self service machines available with no line, so I decided to use one of them. I had no trouble pulling up my record. When I went to print my ticket it said that I needed to see a customer service agent. So I grabbed my bags, the stub it printed out for me and headed over to the counter. I didn’t like the look on the woman’s face when I gave her my receipt. She made one of those “sucks to be you faces.” She called someone on the phone and had a discussion in virtual code. When she hung up the phone she told me. Amsterdam is a very popular weekend destination for Londoners and my flight was in an oversold situation. I said, “well okay, what do we do about this?” She said she was still hopeful that something might open up but for now we just had to wait. I’m looking at my watch and thinking I have 55 minutes until my flight boards and I have to go through customs still. She then tried to encourage me by saying, “Well I know this doesn’t mean much to you but at least the flight is only oversold by one person.” I knew getting mad at her wasn’t going to do me any good, so I just asked, “If I can’t get on this flight, what is my next option.” The next flight from Gatwick wasn’t until the evening but there was one from Heathrow in approximately four hours. In some instances that wouldn’t be a big deal. However, my total trip in Amsterdam was only going to be 32 hours, so losing an eighth of it to an oversold flight didn’t sound great to me. I told her that in the event I DID get on the flight I RESERVED I would need to use the restroom first. So in the interest of using time more economically I went while she continued to try and “create” a seat for me.

I was gone roughly ten minutes. When I arrived back at the counter the woman was helping someone else. Her coworker spotted me waiting patiently, grew a big smile and passed me a printed boarding pass. They found me a seat and it was in BA’s “business” class. That worked for me. I was finally on my way through customs.

At my gate I saw something truly great. There was this very homely looking little Jewish man with his trying to be stylish homely looking Jewish wife. I know they were Jewish because he was wearing a yamika. What made this great is that the back of the the black yamika said in BRIGHT YELLOW thread “Really Gorgeous”. This man and his wife were sooooooooooo far from gorgeous that I was truly dumbfounded. I wanted to ask the guy why it said this but I was worried I would be offending him. Have any of you ever seen a yamika with writing on it? No less one that says “really gorgeous”?

My trip full of fun plane characters continued as we were unloading in Amsterdam. I was seated in a window in row five. When the arrival bell sounded a large guy (6’ 2” - 230 lbs) seated in row six started taking out the two guys from the aisle of row five in an effort to get to his stuff. The dude was legitimately pushy and totally in the way. As the people from the front four rows starting deplaning one of the dudes from aisle five, a nerdy looking 5’9” 160 lbs Asian guy, called the pushy guy “a prick.” The big dude turned around, dropped his bags, got right in the Asian guy’s face and said, “What did you call me?” The Asian dude looked like he was going to crap his pants and then apologized. Finally, the big guy turned back around and got off the plane.

Customs in Amsterdam were a breeze. They don’t even require any landing paperwork. The guy basically just looks at your passport and stamps it. Makes sense I guess since virtually nothing is illegal in Amsterdam.

On the flight into AMS I read in my Lonely Planet guide that the Dutch are typical fairly rude and not very customer service oriented. It didn’t take me long to experience that first hand. I asked a customer service agent where an ATM was and he told me with a deadpan expression and no hand gestures at the end of the hall. This would have been fine if we weren’t at the center of circle with eight halls.

Evidently in Europe all of their credit cards are issued with pin numbers. The pin numbers are now used as identification as opposed to checking signatures or ID’s. This concept is kind of cool, unless of course you are from the States and don’t HAVE a pin number. All of Amsterdam’s rail system requires a pin to use a credit card. The only other option, which is only offered on roughly one third of the ticket issuing machines, is coins. This of course means you can’t even use paper Euros to buy tickets. One would think that coin machines would be readily available throughout the train stations. One would be wrong.

Once I finally procured a train ticket my ride into Central Station was painless. I followed my map and easily located my hotel. It was roughly 1 p.m. when I arrived and fortunately my room was ready. It was a very standard European in the sense that it was tiny. However, it was very clean, came with free wi-fi and was in a super convenient location, which is the primary reason I selected it. After freshening up a bit I went back to Central Station to catch a train to meet Felix out at the Nike European campus.

I was surprised how small the campus was. This is the headquarters for all of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It is basically the size of five of the smallest buildings on the World Campus in Portland. I showed amazing restraint and only purchased two things in the employee store, one of which very well might be a gift. That was probably in part a reflection on the size of the store (it was fairly small).

After completing our tour of campus Felix and I headed to downtown Hilversum to grab a drink at a local bar. The place we chose had a bunch of outside seating adjacent to a primarily pedestrian street. I say primarily because there were also quite a few bike riders on the road. Most people in Holland ride bikes as opposed to driving/riding anything with a motor.

I had a very nice time catching up with Felix. He is always easy to talk and is obviously super knowledgeable about European culture. We also chatted about the economic realities Nike is currently experiencing. On Tuesday of this coming week it will be laying of 5% of its staff worldwide. Felix is feeling okay about his position but it was obvious on the campus that there was an air of uncertainty around the place.

After we finished our drinks and appetizers we moved on to a different place for dinner. Unfortunately we chose the exact wrong time to move. The sky opened up and dumped absolute buckets on us. We were both wearing Gortex coats but we still got soaked. I’m pretty sure my jeans are still wet. We ate at a little Italian place that had surprisingly good service.

Felix and I called it a night after dinner and I headed back to Central Station on the train. I was pretty tired at the end of the meal. By the time I returned to my hotel room it was roughly 9:30 p.m. I thought about falling asleep but then I realized I was in Amsterdam for so little time that it was probably better for me to go out and see a little more, especially since this was my only night in town.

I’m pretty sure that on my walk I saw a little more than I bargained for. Most of you probably know that Amsterdam is know for its pot and its prostitution. During the day I hadn’t smelled too much pot but in the evening I certainly smelled it radiating from the “coffee” shops.

One thing any first time visitor to Amsterdam should do to completely experience the place is walk through the Red Light District. The Red Light District is the part of town where the prostitutes sell their services. It is so named because the ladies all stand in front of glass windows that are all lit up with red lighting. My guide book said that the red lights are used because on the whole the light makes the girl more attractive, particularly when mixed with black light that makes white features (like teeth or lingerie) glow.

The whole experience is really hard to describe. The mix of people on the street was very interesting. There were plenty of people who, like me, were just there to see the scene. There were the obligatory bachelor parties found in any seedy place anywhere in the world. And then there were people there to use the services. In all honesty I can’t understand in this day and age of sexually transmitted disease how this industry still exists.

I was also surprised on the whole of the attractiveness of both the prostitutes and the patrons whom on occasion I would see leave. For the most part these weren’t bad looking people. I am certain that they could have had plenty of sex for free. Obviously one would argue that the women do it for the money. If you are wondering what they make, again my tour book said on average it is 40 Euros for an encounter. Currently that is in the neighborhood of $54. I don’t know how many guys on average a girl could do in a “shift” but based on traffic flow on the Friday night I was in Amsterdam I can’t believe it is more than one or two. That puts a yearly salary, assuming a 30 hour work week (it’s Europe, there is no way they work 40+ hours), between $80K - $160K. I recognize that is a nice salary but when you see what these women are doing it is not nearly enough.

My overall feeling while walking back to my hotel was one of sadness. I felt sad for all of the people involved in the whole charade. Even though the women in the windows put on their happy face, the majority of the them seemed to have very sad eyes. Frankly, the men leaving the establishments never looked overly happy either.

Something else random I noticed that I had never seen before was that Amsterdam has urinals on the street corners. It is totally random. I guess public urination was such a problem that someone decided it would be better to just put up a stand where guys could hop in and go. It is really strange to walk by four guys standing in a makeshift plastic bathroom on a bustling street corner. Thankfully the urinals themselves didn’t seem to smell.

As I approached my hotel I realized that I was pretty hungry. I didn’t really want a meal, I just wanted something that I could grab and take back to my room. Waffles are supposed to be semi-traditional in Holland, so I decided to get one from a little local shop. It was truly amazing. Probably the best waffle I have had. It was similar to what we would think of as a small Belgium waffle covered in icing and rainbow sprinkles. It was warmed to a perfect temperature and literally melted in my mouth. It was a great conclusion to an enjoyable action packed day in Amsterdam.

Until tomorrow,
Katy

You know you are in a good country when the javelin throwers get a little love.

A Self Guided Walking Tour

Day Five: 5/14/09 Part B
A Self Guided Walking Tour

…Nicole had a meeting for work that she expected to last to 10 am, so I decided to take a shower and a power nap while she was gone. When she returned we decided to go for a stroll around her general neighborhood. We walked primarily through Regent’s Park and the neighborhood of Prim Rose Hill. The park had a few very pretty gardens that mom would have enjoyed. The streets were also fun to see. For those of you who haven’t been to London, you can picture the street scenes from the movie Notting Hill. While we weren’t in Notting Hill, the store fronts and pubs etc. all felt similar to that. On our way back through the park we decided we were hungry, so we stopped at a little park restaurant and had “pork porkers” which was basically a hot dog.

We had to be back to Nicole’s around 1 pm because she had an interview with NBC Universal regarding a summer internship at 2 pm. I decided with the remainder of the daytime I would just walk around London and take in the people and the sites.

London is a pretty city. The old architecture, differing building facades, parks and gardens can make for a nice walk. When you add in all of the colorful British characters it becomes downright fun. British people as a whole are not a particularly attractive bunch. They do, however, take fashion very seriously. Most of the men I encountered on the street were wearing handsome suits with winning shirt and tie combinations. Unlike say NYC, the men wear lots of color in their shirts and ties, which I enjoy. I commented at dinner about how I liked how the men dress here and it was quickly pointed out to me that “clothes are only packaging. Once they are off, they are still unattractive British guys.” Regardless I enjoyed looking at the packaging throughout my walk.

Just for posterity’s sake I walked down Oxford street, through SoHo, the theater district, around West Minster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye and down the Thames. I stopped at a little collection of market like shops called Gabriel’s Wharf and an amazing savory crepe. Typically the English are knocked for having bad food, but this was REALLY good. The crepe itself was delicious and it was filled with chicken, ham, sweet corn and salsa. I hope to get back to try one of their desserts crepes.

After my crepe I walked across Blackfriar’s Bridge. As I was waiting for the light to change at the end of the bridge a cop came flying up on a motorcycle and told me I was going to have to wait a second. There weren’t any other pedestrians around. There were a few cars but not a ton for a Thursday during rush hour. About 10 seconds after the cop pulled up he said something like “the bridge is secure” into his little helmet walkie talkie. Not five seconds later a motorcade approached. It included three cops on motorcycles, a cop car, a very fancy car, a cop car, and three more motorcycle cops. The fancy car in the middle had two tall white men in the backseat. The car was moving around 30 mph but it is entirely possible that the person sitting closest to me was Prince William. I have no idea how he travels around town but the entourage seemed to fit a Prince. Oh yah, and the man looked a whole a lot like him. The only thing that gives me doubt is if I were Prince William and I was driving around London I would use a car with tinted windows.

After the passing of the motorcade I continued on my way to St. Paul’s Cathedral. On my previous trip to London I saw the outside but I didn’t remember going inside. I wanted to see the inside in person. I was not disappointed. It is truly a beautiful church. Many of you have likely seen the inside, as this is where Prince Charles and Princess Di were so famously married.

At 6 pm I returned to Nicole’s apartment. She wanted to me to attend a “Sundowners” social her school was hosting to celebrate their victory in some European MBA sports competition from the previous weekend. Her sales pitch was that it was all the free alcohol one could drink. Clearly this wasn’t a huge selling point for me but I did think it would be lots of fun to go see more of her school and meet some of her classmates. She said everyone was going to be wearing their “red” school supplied shirt and that I had to wear one so I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t wild about the idea, but she wanted me to wear the shirt, so I did. Low and behold we were two of the ten out of 200 people who wore the red shirt.

My favorite NON-RED shirt at Sundowners was worn by another student. It said “when the sun goes down everyone gets hotter.” You know you are in an MBA program full of partiers when the school MAKES shirts that say that.

Nicole and I left Sundowners a little early because I made plans to meet another friend of mine named Adeline who lives in London. We went to a very fun little pub within walking distance of Nicole’s flat. We all had burgers and “chips” aka fries. The food was good and the company was even better. After we finished our meals a friend of Nicole’s named Don stopped by the pub to drink with us. Per the usual I was nursing a coca-cola light. Adeline and Nicole had a bottle of wine and when Don arrived they ordered another.

After the second bottle of wine was finished (which included Nicole chugging Adeline’s nearly full glass) we decided to head to a different pub a little closer to the flat. At this point I think all of my cohorts were feeling pretty good. Adeline didn’t order another drink at the Volunteer. Don and Nicole had beers and I had a glass of water. At the conclusion of Don’s beer, he decided it would be a good idea to put his empty glass in Nicole’s shirt. Don is Nicole’s best friend at LBS and also gay. I think the placement of the glass was just a way to annoy her more than anything else. The struggle that ensued resulted in the glass in Nicole’s hand getting broken and all of it’s contents spilling all over me. I am certain I was wearing at least 12 ounces of beer. Fortunately I had on my Northface Gortex Trenchcoat. Thankfully not only do Northface’s repel water but they repel beer as well. At this point we all decided heading home might be a good idea.

After we returned to the flat another LBS friend of Nicole’s came over. His name was Fardeen. He also clearly had been out enjoying the pub life of London. I’m not sure why exactly he came over. I think was to trying to talk someone into doing his Econ homework for him. That or he was there to check me out. Nicole said he had asked earlier in the week if her friend was “cute” or something like that. We all spent a while chatting and much of the conversation was not appropriate for this forum. What I can tell you is that it would be more likely for hell to freeze over than for me to date Fardeen. He was a nice enough guy but our beliefs on things are at seriously opposite ends of the spectrum. For instance, I “HAD to smoke dope” when I went to Amsterdam because “you only live once” and you have to try everything! More than anything I think this evening reiterated two things for me: 1) the reason I don’t yet have a guy is that most of them in my age demo are immature tools; and 2) I have mad A LOT of really good choices in my life and someday I will meet a guy that appreciates them.

I’ll write again from tomorrow from Amsterdam.

Katy

Really Leaving?

I have now been attempting to get to London for roughly 15 hours and 30 minutes. I have only made it about 180 miles. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that things are about to change. It is 4:15 pm Eastern Standard time. I am about to leave the Red Carpet Club AGAIN and head to the gate. Wish me luck and I’ll write to you from the other side of the pond!

Katy

Asian Invasion

I am now in the Red Carpet Room in DC. I am getting a kick, yet again, out of the people around me. There is a group of Asian men to my right that is having an excellent time discussing the merits of whether or not Donald Trump should have “forgiven” Miss California for her risque photos. Headline news was showing them one by one and the men had very pronounced opinions on each. For instance, “it just looks like she is brushing her hair in that one. The photographer may have snapped her photo when she fell out.” The thought they put into the dissection of this particular subject was hilarious to me. I also found a different Asian dude to be very entertaining (I think the Asian invasion was due to an imminent Beijing flight). He was quietly and methodically filling his Brooks Brother’s shopping bag with everything he could get his hands on. He put at least ten magazines in his bag and a solid five pounds worth of food. He had cheese, crackers, chips, Kit Kats, and fruit. It was impressive how smoothly he loaded his bag with no one seeming to notice but me. I still have a solid three and a half hours to go before I board my flight, so I am going to head out and look for some lunch.

In Transit

Day Five: 5/14/09 Part A
In Transit

I am relieved to finally be in London after taking 22 hours to get here from the East Coast. The trip was LONG and obviously made more complicated by the fact that my first flight was cancelled. That, however, didn’t stop me from continuing to have fun with my people watching, even while on the plane.

While I was in the Red Carpet Room in DC I noticed a man who looked like he was in his fifties traveling with his mom who could have been anywhere from 70-85. There was something about the dynamic between them that made me notice them. I’m not sure what it was but the bottom line is I noticed.

When I boarded my flight the son was talking to one of the flight attendants. It looked like he was trying to finagle an upgrade (he was probably shot down like I was by the Red Carpet people). I noticed his ticket said 7A on it, which meant he was already in business class. On United 767’s the new international configuration is great in business. It’s a flat bed. First has a few more toys and the seat is a little wider but I wouldn’t spend the money or the miles to go from business to first on that equipment (that means plane in business ;~) )

I proceeded back to my seat and worked on getting settled. I was disappointed when I arrived at 23C because there was a coat covering 23D and 23E. This most certainly meant that I didn’t have the whole row to myself and it possibly even meant the row would be full. That of course, was my worst nightmare. The guy with the jacket eventually showed up back at his seat. He was a friendly enough fellow and sharing a row with him would have been alright. Unfortunately one of the last passengers to enter the plane came straight to our row. I’m guessing she was seventeen. She was not tiny and not quiet. She was on the phone when she arrived at 23D with her hands full of Wendy’s. Fortunately she didn’t have a ton of luggage. She tried to climb over me, but I quickly offered to get up. I sort of stumbled in the process because she didn’t want to back up out of my personal space to allow me to make room for her. Having a middle seater that is unaware of personal space is NEVER a good thing.

When the flight attendant announced that the door would be closing shortly I started scoping the joint. It happened that the row behind us only had one guy, who was seated directly behind me. My access to the open seat was terrible, so I asked the man in our row if we would be willing to hop back a seat so we could all have open middle. He said he would “just for me”. At this point the girl in the middle offered, after he moves I’ll move to the aisle. Mentally I was thinking, “uhm, yes, that would in fact be the point of me asking him to move and then saying we all COULD HAVE AN OPEN MIDDLE.”

As the doors were closed the nice man jumped back a row and the girl in the middle moved to the aisle. She quickly established, however, that she thought all of the middle seat should be hers by putting all of her reading materials and uneaten Wendy’s on the seat. This was better than having her pillow and elbows in my space like they were two seconds before, so I just counted my blessings and moved on. This was made easier by the fact that my attention was distracted by something else.

There was a relatively cute but short guy sitting alone in the row of 24A&B. I think he was Australian, so the short part (maybe 5’8” would make sense). We “noticed” each other when he got on the plane but I was too tired and he was too short for me to make too much of an effort. As the plane started to taxi out of the gate, however, we shared a moment. The girl in my row who had proceeded to make another phone call of no importance and everyone else on the plane must have been in a trance because the Aussie and I seemed to be the only two people who noticed grandma from the Red Carpet Room walking down the aisle toward us. Keep in mind we are TAXIING on an ACTIVE runway. Usually when a person just stands in his/her seat on active runway a crew member goes nuts on the intercom. They either have terrible sightlines on the 767 or just weren’t paying attention at all because she made it from the first row in coach passed us before I hit my service bell for someone to come and find her. When the flight attendant finally did see her she had a conniption, running up the aisle to guide her back to her seat. I’m still not sure where she was going or what she was looking for. Perhaps it was her son. If so, she was heading the wrong direction since he was in business class.

As soon as the plane took off I put my seat back and fell asleep. I woke up some four hours into the flight to use the facilities. I came back to my seat with a cup of ice I snagged from a flight attendant for a soda I brought from the Red Carpet Room. If you’re wondering why I brought soda on the plane, United doesn’t serve any caffeine free diet soda on international runs. The Red Carpet Room had cans of Dieta Sierra Mist at the ready, so I grabbed two for my flight. After consuming my soda and eating a Luna bar I worked on falling asleep again. My eyes were closed but I wasn’t asleep yet when I got a weird feeling on my leg. I opened my eyes and realized that personal space girl had decided to lie down on the middle seat. Her head was towards me and 90% of her hair was flipped on me. I was wasn’t wild about the idea of her taking the WHOLE middle seat with her stuff, or with her body for that matter, but her hair all over ME really was too much. I did my best to put it out of my mind and fall asleep again. I must have succeeded because the next time I woke up getting hit with an elbow. The thing about this is that it wasn’t the girl from my row that hit me. Evidently she was traveling with other people and invited one of them to sit in our row. When I woke up I also noticed my shoes that were previously sitting under the middle seat were under my legs. Yet again I was annoyed but decided to just internalize it and try to sleep. I succeeded and the next thing I knew we were on our approach to Heathrow.

As I exited the plane one last funny thing happened. As I stepped into the jetway the wandering grandma was taking a seat in a wheelchair. As I walked past I heard her son’s opening words to the pusher of chair. They were simply “Good Luck”. I should have stuck around to hear the follow-up but I was anxious to get on my way.

Customs was fairly uneventful as was getting my luggage. I did experience a little difficulty with the ATMs however. I tried a few of them in the airport and all of my requests were denied. I never use my cash card at home, so before I left the Philly airport I checked to make sure my pin worked. It did, so I found this situation particularly frustrating. I decided that maybe the airport ATMs just didn’t like me and that I would start my adventure without any currency. I purchased a ticket on the “Heathrow Express to Paddington” as instructed by Nicole and was on my way.

At Paddington Station per Nicole I hopped in a cab. Fortunately it wasn’t too hard to find one that accepted Visa. My driver was a super nice guy and that was helpful because Nicole has a weird address. Her address isn’t a street address but rather a “house” or apartment building. It’s easy to find the cross streets but the actual building was harder to spot. On our third pass and after an unsuccessful call to Nicole on the cabbies cellie, he spotted the building. I hopped out and made my way to the front door. The address Nicole had given me was 1 Ridley House. The doorbell box on the wall only listed addresses for numbers 20-40. I wasn’t sure what to do. After much deliberation I decided I would just start ringing flats. I clearly upset a person or two. Not sure if this was because the people were unfriendly Brits or because of the early hour (it was roughly 7:30 am). After unsuccessfully ringing all 20 flats I decided to sit in front of the building on a bench hoping that Nicole might peak out the window looking for me. After a few minutes I decided that plan sucked, so I hauled my stuff over to the London Business School (LBS) to use its phone in an effort to get ahold of Nicole. If it isn’t clear yet, the Blackberry I have doesn’t work in Europe, so I am stuck in the late 80’s / early 90’s as it relates to mobile technology.

There were a few guys working at the main desk in the school and I talked them into letting me use the phone to call Nicole. I dialed and she didn’t answer. I got voicemail but it was of the nondescript variety. I left a message saying I was at LBS and it’d be great if she would just wander over whenever. Within a few minutes I saw Nicole heading across the street. I was relieved to have found my “home” for the next few days and am looking forward to taking a nap…

Let's Try This Again

It is now 9:35 am and about time for me to leave the Red Carpet Room yet again. I have officially been in the PHL airport for nine hours and thirty minutes. I’m off to the gate. Here’s hoping I actually get on a plane this time!

7:32 and Counting...

Ahh… so much for writing when I got to DC… It is now 7:37 am and I have been at PHL for 7:32 minutes with no sleep. My flight to IAD got cancelled for some mechanical reason. The worst part about this is I now will misconnect in Dulles, meaning that I won’t arrive in London until 5:55 am (instead of 9:55 pm). This also sucks because my day flight in coach turned into a night flight in coach. All of dad’s hard work securing the best coach seat possible is now out the window :~( I was counting on sleeping the whole way there and then getting a good night’s sleep to change my clock. Now I am going to get there and need to try and stay up all day. And I can’t sleep in on Thursday night (now my first night in London) because I have an early flight to Amsterdam. I tried my darndest to persuade the lady in the Red Carpet room to upgrade me to business since I now have a night flight that I wasn’t anticipating. She claims there is no way for the system to let her do this. She did tell me though that there were seats available in business. I am going to try and talk some Red Carpet person (here’s hoping for a guy) in DC into doing this. I’ll have 6 hours there to work on them and I am going to give it my best effort.