Where has the sun gone?

One of the things I've noticed here in Holland is the lack of sun. Not just because of all the clouds, but also because of sunset/sunrise times. At the moment the sun is rising around 8:30AM and setting at 4:30PM. Compare this to where I'm from in Canada, where the sun is still rising at 7:30AM, and setting at 4:30PM. With 15 days left until the 21st, I'm curious how much more day time will be without sun. It's a bit depressing... especially since when the sun is up, it's usually covered by clouds. Why did I come here again? And not to Spain or Italy?

Hyvää Joulua!

On Sunday I went to the Finnish market with some friends. One of whom was Finnish. This was very important for me, because I thought the Danish Market was that much more interesting, because I was there with a Dane, who told me what was good and bad. The Norwegian market was not as interesting because there were no Norwegians to give me guidance. So, I met Marjo(Finnish girl) the previous tuesday, and the first thing I said to her on finding out that she was Finnish, was: Wanna go to the Finnish market with me? Fortunately she was agreable.
There was quite a large selection in the Market to choose from, from food to books to handicrafts. I was most interested in food. Here's the Finnish Seaman's Church, which is where the market was:

Inside the supermarket part, they had quite a selection of chocolates and liquorice.

Marjo bought us some karjalanpiirakka. A very funny sounding word, when you say it, it's important to really emphasize the end: karjalanpiira-KA. Anyways, it was rice wrapped in some kind of pastry with scrambled egg on top. A unique but tasty food.
Next was some glogi and joulutorttu. As I already told my Danish friend, the Finnish Glogi was much better than the Danish Glogg. Sorry... The joulutorttu was also quite delicious.

We also bought some different kinds of liquorice. Yummy!

Overall, I've decided I approve of Finnish food. However, another Finnish friend of mine told me that she had never heard of anyone ever eating all these foods together at the same time...

Day 171-173: Dag Sinterklaas!

This past weekend was the annual Sinterklaas CS meeting in Rotterdam. This was the 3rd year it's been held, all in Rotterdam. It was a fun and grueling weekend. Friday night we started off with some dinner in a restaurent before we moved over to a bar for some fast-paced speed dating. Just to remind us, that CouchSurfing is not a dating site... We were given out random questions to ask our dates. Anything from, 'When was the last time you cried?' to "Have you ever cheated on your partner, and did you confess?'. Then depending on the answer they gave, you had to write or draw something on a piece of paper that was taped to their back. Now everyone knows that I like Elvis, and that apparently i'm a californian raisin and will prune... Some people got quite shocking things written on their back. Just ask the kutwijf... ;)
Saturday we headed out in groups on different activities. My group went on a picture quest. We had to do interesting things like imitating certain statues, or asking a random person to pose for a picture with their bike. It was fun, but damn cold. The hot chocolate we got ourselves at the end, definitely restored things to right. After dinner at a nice Turkish restaurent(and this was decent turkish food not the stuff you find on every corner here in Rotterdam), we went to de Unie for a big party. Zwarte Pieten arrived and showered us with pepernoten, and than the big man himself arrived, Sinterklaas. He directed his helpers(slaves?) to carry some off to Spain, and the rest he distributed presents too. I got some nice Polish chocolates, that I shared out, and didn't last the night. The party didn't go very late, but it was still lots of fun. I conducted a language poll, which I'll talk about later, and also went for a swim in the pile of jackets. Sunday we got up very late and went and said our goodbyes. A great weekend!
Although, I did learn that it seems cigarette smoke is leaking into my room from below, making some parts a bit smelly... :( Fortunately, I don't seem to have a strong enough nose to detect it.
Here's the Couchsurfing band rocking out:
All lined up waiting for Sinterklaas!

The big guy himself! Apparently he's been climbing through some chimney's as well... I never did figure out whether the girl was supposed to be his wife or daughter...

During our picture quest tour, the German dude decided to climb onto a boat.

Speedating!

Dag Sinterklaas!

Metz trip continued...

My trip to Metz was pretty cool. We set off from Rotterdam Friday evening around 5:00PM. The trip was not too bad, we ran into a bit of a traffic jam around Brussels, but it didn't slow us down too much. We stopped for gas in Luxembourg, which was great, because it means I can now add another country to my list. We arrived in Metz around 11:00PM and after some circles around the city, we found some parking near the Cathedral. The Cathedral, called St. Etienne, is really impressive. We found the other Couchsurfers, and my host and I headed to his place to get some rest for the next day.
On Saturday we went to the Fort of Mont St. Quentin. To get there we took the car up into the hills around Metz. We went through a really beautiful village called Scy-Chazelles. When we arrived at the meeting point, we had to wait around for awhile. There were some people who were quite late... but, i got to know some of the other Couchsurfers. Aside from the ones from Holland, there were some from Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, and of course France.
When we finally arrived at the forts, I was really amazed. They're still quite intact, and offer a maze of corridors, rooms and tunnels. Large moats travel alongside walls several stories high, with many gun ports. We discovered steel cupolas, that stuck out from the ground a foot or so, and offered an excellent view of the surrounding countryside. The forts could be dangerous too. Once you ventured inside, away from the windows, it was completely dark, and you needed your flashlight, or you would be stuck. We also had to watch for holes in the floor, which could lead down to another floor, or who knows where... Also, there were low roofs(my nemesis) and random pieces of metal hanging from them. But, we all survived and made it out safely.
The last fort of Saturday was at the top of the hill overlooking Metz. It had a very interesting warning sign outside it's barred gate. It warned you of the dangers of the fort, that an adult and child had already died in it and than proceeded to tell you that the fort had absolutely no interest for the public... Well, it was certainly wrong. After we went down into the valley alongside the fort, and climbed up the side, we went into the fort. It has this amazing room, that is painted, almost like greek or roman paintings, such as you find in Pompeii. As far as our guide knew, it was done by the original inhabitants of the fort. It was quite impressive.
Saturday evening we went to the Metz Christmas Market. They had all kinds of interesting things to see, eat, and drink. We had some Gluhwein, and ate some Poele de Noel(some kind of meat stuffed in a bun) and then some tasty chocolate bread. We also visited the Quebecois stall, that was run by a fellow Couchsurfer. It had the usual maple syrup for sale... After we went to a local bar, and I tried a couple of beers made in Lorraine, the region where Metz is located. Noiraude and Loroyse they were called. After the long day, I was really tired, and had a really good sleep. The next morning we headed out to the Fort du Bois la Dame. This one was much more difficult to get too. We had to drive up a muddy, pitted road to get to it. On the way we noticed some people dressed up in camouflage, and we though, oh, some people out doing paintball... Until we got closer and noticed their FAMAS(semi-automatic rifle) and hand grenades they were carrying around. So, we smiled, and drove past them quickly. The group this morning was about half as large. Apparently we were down to the hardcore, while the rest stayed and visited Metz. This fort had some impressive tunnels, some right down into the bedrock. After lunch, we split up into groups. Some went 30km away to Verdun to visit the Maginot Line. Others, went to another fort in the area, and my group went to visit the old Roman aqueduct at Jouy-aux-Arches. This aqueduct brought water from the hills near Metz to the city. After visiting it, we went back to the city.
By this time, it had begun to snow. By the time we departed Metz around 5:00PM it was snowing even harder. By the time we had made it to Belgium, traffic was almost at a standstill. There were cars in the ditches, parked in the middle of the road, and snow completely covering the road. Our top speed was 30km an hour. We finally got going again, about half way to Liege, and made it to Rotterdam by just after midnight. There was some snow in Rotterdam too... but it promptly melted under the onslaught of a rain storm, that also soaked me on my bike ride back home. Ahh, it was great to be back home.
Some other comments I have. The Belgians are really weird. What other country has two names for every city? One in both Flemish and French. They have Anvers/Antwerp, Brussel/Bruxelles, Gent/Gand, Luik/Liege, Namen/Namur, etc, etc. And you have to know both, if you're in Flanders heading towards Wallonia, it will only give you the Wallonian city names in Flemish, and vice-versa.
The French were really friendly, although I noticed they're a lot less willing to speak english than the Dutch are.
I still think Couchsurfers are often the coolest people I meet.

Day 164-166: Some first thoughts about my weekend in Metz

1. It's nice to be in a country again, where I can understand everything going on around me.

2. If you can tell anything about Luxembourg from it's gas stations, it's a very nice country.

3. The French make the best croissants.

4. Playing in the mud and snow is fun.

5. I have been now been to three Christmas markets in three weeks.

6. French forts are way cool.

7. I spent way more time in Belgium than I wanted to.

8. I had a great time!

Day 158: Ik heb Sinterklass gezien!

On Saturday, the moment I had been waiting for all my life happened. I saw Sinterklaas. Well, not actually the real one... Apparently the real one was in Almere. But, still, it was a moving moment. I suppose my non-Dutch readers are asking who is Sinterklaas? Well, he's not Santa Claus, as Dutch people will constantly remind you. It's best if you just read the Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas
He arrived in Rotterdam on Saturday, and had a little parade. Here's one of his helper's, Zwarte Piet. (Black Pete) They were handing out peppernoten(candy) to the children.
Some clowns and their crazy bikes:

More Zwarte Piets! They were everywhere.

Not quite sure who they're supposed to be, but they looked nice.

Children waiting for Sinterklaas, with their candy bags.

Here's the old guy himself! All the way from Spain.

Day 157: Norwegian Christmas Market

The past weekend was the Norwegian Christmas market at the norwegian church here in Rotterdam. It was interesting, but I was a bit lost. Obviously, it's better to go to these things with someone who knows what it's all about. but, I did find some quite tasty chocolate. Lekker! This weekend, the Finnish market!

Day 155: Bergen op Zoom

For November 11th, which is Remembrance day in Canada, I decided to visit the Canadian War Cemetery at Bergen op Zoom in Noord-Brabant. Remembrance Day is a day to remember the sacrifices of soldiers and civilians in times of war. It's celebrated on November 11th at 11:00AM because that is when the armistice for World War I came into effect. The cemetery I visited contains 968 Canadian graves, mostly from September, October and November 1944. These lives were lost during the difficult fighting in the south of the Netherlands. Intense battles were fought for the Breskens Pocket, Walcheren, South Beveland, and Woensdrecht all with the goal of clearing the Scheldt so that the Port of Antwerp could be opened up. October 13, 1944 is a very common date to see on the grave stones. That day, a friday the 13th, became known as 'Black Friday' to the Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment of Canada. 56 dead, 27 captured for a total of 145 casualties... I happened to meet a Canadian man at the cemetery who was visiting the grave stone of his cousin who had died in this attack. This is the same regiment my Uncle was part of. He fortunately survived the battle, but was wounded later on Oct. 31.

Commonwealth cemetaries can be found all over Europe, and in fact the world. They generally have a similar design for the headstones and the layout.

This is the Cross of Sacrifice found at most Commonwealth War Cemeteries.

This is something unique I found at this Cemetery. It says: 'Aan onze Canadeesche bevrijders', which means, I think, 'To our Canadian Liberators'.

Here's a typic grave stone for a Canadian soldier. His service number, name, regiment, date of death and age plus a short quote. Not all stones have crosses, some have a star of david, a crescent or nothing at all.

I find stones like this especially impressive. It may be hard to read, but this soldier, a private, was 39 years of age when he died. This was a true volunteer. He was too old to be conscripted, and would have not faced the same kind of peer pressure that younger men would have faced. It says: 'To my sweetheart. Love's greatest gift. Remembrance.'

You also come across many gravestones such as this next one. Ones that only say 'An airman of the 1939-1945 war.' This means that a body was found, but as a result of the way he died, it was impossible to identify the body. The phrase 'Known unto God' was proposed by Rudyard Kipling.

It was a very nice cemetery. I recommend to all people, that they should visit one.

Day 152: Æbleskiver and Gløgg

It looks like Christmas is fast approaching. The first of what appears to be a series of Scandinavian Christmas markets was on Saturday. First up? The 'Julemarked' or in Dutch the 'Deense Kerstmarkt' or in a civilized language: The Danish Christmast Market. I got to visit the market in the Company of a Dane, and two Icelanders who enjoyed speaking their weird form of danish in loud obnoxious voices. However, it taught me the secret to speaking Danish. Just mumble gibberish while pretending to have a potatoe in your throat.
Anyways, the Danish Christmas market was selling lots of different goods. Various Danish food, clothes, decorations, etc... After wandering through, we sat down to enjoy some Æbleskiver and Gløgg. What is this? Well, Æbleskiver is some kind of waffle and Gløgg is an interesting drink, to say the least... It is many kinds of alcohol, such as cognac, and snapps, mixed with almonds, raisins, and cinnamon. The cinnamon gives it a really nice smell, unfortunately, I can't quite say the same for the taste. It wasn't bad, but I certainly didn't go for seconds. The Æbleskiver was quite tasty though.
With my Æbleskiver and Gløgg:

Day 124: CS Bike Tour in Rotterdam

On saturday I went on a bike tour organized by some local CS'ers. We went over to Delfshaven, through the Maastunnel to Rotterdam Zuid, and then back across the Willemsbrug into the centre of Rotterdam. Here are some pictures. A prison!!!
Delfshaven:
More Delfshaven:
A building in Rotterdam designed to look like periscope:
Looking across to north Rotterdam from the south.
It was a fun trip. I got to see some of the city I hadn't seen before, and also hear some interesting stories I had never heard before.

Day 123: Sustainable fashion show

Yeah, so I went to this fashion show all about sustainability. Using recycled materials to make new clothes. It was interesting... Though I always wonder why people in fashion shows always seem to wear clothes that no one would ever wear...

Day 121: Schiedam

Wednesday was such a beautiful day, I decided to go for a bike ride to Schiedam. Schiedam is an old town just to the west of Rotterdam, and is pretty much a suburb of the city now. The town is mostly known for its windmills and distilleries. The town used to be surrounded by 19 giant mills used for grinding grain for the distilleries, but now only five(among the tallest in Europe) remain. There are also only five distilleries remaining out of once was over 400. The distilleries make Genever which uses juniper berries to get its particular flavour. The town was very nice and had some beautiful canals:
Here are two of the windmills, with the genever warehouses across the canal.
Again:
The main church in Schiedam:
I can't remember what this was... Maybe the city hall, or another church.

Day 107: Bike Repair 101

Since my bike is my primary and very important mode of transportation around the city and to work, it's essential that it works properly. My bike is pretty old and used, and I've had some trouble with it since I bought it. It needed a new brake, a new power generator for the light and the tube for one of the tires had to be replaced twice(the second time for free thankfully). So, i've had to spend more than I would have liked repairing it. A few weeks ago I was complaining about all the money I had spent to a Dutch friend. She went on to tell me that the prices were a ripoff and a real Dutchman would repair it himself. So, I said if she knew so much about bike repair, that next time I had a problem I would give her a call, and she could show me how. Apparently they teach this stuff in some Dutch high schools. Yesterday, when I discovered a flat tire on my bike, and a 5cm wire sticking out of it, I knew who to phone. With her help, I set off to learn how to 'lekke band plakken'. First I had to buy my own repair kit, a 'Bandenreparatiedoos'. Inside is included '3 kunststof bandenlichters', 'tube solutie', 'bandenplakkers', 'ventielslangetje', 'schuurpapiertje', and a 'buitenbandplakker'. The first step is to take the tire off the frame with the 'kunsthof bandenlichters'. Here is the instructor demonstrating:
Then the 'binnenband' has to be removed from inside the 'buitenband'. Once the 'binnenband' is out it needs to be pumped up so you can find the leak. We discovered the leak with a very ingenious method. The instructor had a small container containing plastic beads, and a grate on the bottom. By moving this device over the tire we could locate the leak by noticing when the beads started to move. I really would like to know who spent the time inventing this thing. Once the leak was located, we used the 'schuurpapiertje' to clean the hole. Then the 'bandplakker' is applied to the hole, and held in place for 5 minutes. Here is the finished result:
The 'binnenband' is pumped up to see if the 'plakker' is holding, and then the leak is fixed. Next, deflate the 'binnenband' and stuff it back in the 'buitenband'. Finally, reinflate the tire:
Finished! I took the bike for a test drive, and everything seemed to be back to normal. I can now hopefully fix my own tire the next time I get a puncture. I'm feeling more Dutch already...

Day 97: Boat trip

Saturday night I went to a birthday party in Hilversum. It was lots of fun. But, it never ceases to amaze me how easily the Dutch can switch to and talk fluently in English. And often it's not a problem, they're happy to do it! Here is an almost completely bilingual country, that only has one official language. What Canadians could learn from this...
Sunday afternoon I went with my roomate and her boyfriend on a boat tour of the Rotterdam harbour. Something I've been meaning to do for awhile. We picked a great day. It was a little cool, but super sunny which made for a great view of the port.
Here are a couple pictures looking back at the city:

Here is the S.S. Rotterdam, the former flag ship of the Holland-America trans-atlantic line. Now it's a multicultural centre.

A cargo ship on the river:

Some of the many containers that are everywhere along the side of the river:
Pictures of parts of the port:

Nice trip!