2009: A Spain Odyssey

I just realized that there was more to Belgium and Holland than a retarded picture that I took. But before I begin, a quick preface: I would like say that I will get funnier as time goes on, but anyone reading this blog who knows me, knows that it isn’t going to happen. So please feel free to skip my posts because even though it may feel like it, you really are not obligated to read them.

Moving along-unfortunately-just got back from the Netherlands and Holland, and by just I mean two weeks ago, needless to say I’m working on my turnover rate. Great experiences but we had a few travel mishaps such as being stranded in the Madrid airport for a total of 15 to 16 hours. We had gone on the last train at 1:30 am at night so that we could make our 6:30 am flight. However we boarded and they realized one of the engines was broken and we were forced to wait a further 11 hours at the airport. Heck we waited so long that the airline began providing meals on the basis of our ticket stubs. But even that wasn’t enough and eventually the hours began to feel like days….

Earlier Dan mentioned that we barely made it out of the airport alive and he was quite right, however it would have been more accurate to say that I barely made it out alive (can’t speak for Jon). You see when locked up in an enclosure and left to fend for ourselves, it doesn’t take much to drive civilized groups of friends into desperate individuals fighting for their very survival. A few days into our wait, I woke up to discover Danny trying to suffocate me so that he could steal my ticket stub and maybe get an extra meal to feed him and the pet rat he had adopted by that time. It was a harsh existence, on a separate occasion I only avoided being ‘shanked’ as they say in prison (he used a tightly rolled-up napkin) by a fellow straphanger by the skin of my teeth- mind you I would eventually lose that too during a separate confrontation.

But I survived and when we got to Amsterdam we had a wonderful time. It is a pleasant city, the people are all nice and we enjoyed ourselves. Many tourists from my demographic go to Amsterdam for one thing in particular but I assure you, there is much more to the city than the soon to be extinct “coffee shops.” Interesting tidbit of information, less than 10% of the Netherlands population actually smoke weed. I learnt many things on my trip such as the fact that while Amsterdam is famous for its Red Light District and coffee shops, it turns out that the rest of the country is quite conservative and they have voted in a party that is steadily rolling back the laws that legalized prostitution and marijuana. There are a variety of reasons for this, too complicated to cover here unfortunately. Here are some other fun facts I picked up:
-The ‘XXX’ on the Amsterdam coat of arms is actually a reference to the dark ages and not the sex industry. Back in the day when all knights wore silver armour it was rather difficult to distinguish them. In Holland there were 7 or 8 duchies and each identified its knights by drawing the corresponding number of ‘X’s on their armour. Three X’s represented the Amsterdam region.(pic not mine)

-NYC is known as the ‘Big Apple’ because in the Netherlands, which used to be a country of traders, there was a common saying, “you got an apple.” This meant that a merchant had made a poor deal, lost money, profits etc. In New York’s case, the Dutch received a Big Apple.

If I remember more I’ll post them up as time goes on, peppering them throughout my stories so as not to lose the reader’s attention completely-god knows these are far more interesting than anything I have to say.

From Amsterdam we took a train to Brussels. It is quite ironic that so many people badmouthed Brussels prior to our trip because I found it to be very pretty. It is a small city but certain sites like the Grand Place were remarkable. I have been to a few cities in Europe but I must say that the Grand Place is the most beautiful square I have ever seen (pic not mine):

We also stopped by the European Union headquarters to check out the architecture, worth a visit (pic not mine):

Unfortunately the Czech art exhibit was closed on the Sunday we were there, I was really looking forward to it-I mean who wouldn’t want to see Bulgaria represented as a toilet? It might warrant a second visit, as long as its before the six months are out. The other downside of the trip, a stupid statue peed on me:

Other than that, we sampled the chocolate, and tasted the waffles and the fries. All in all a good trip.

Back in Madrid now and just had my first day of classes. Beautiful weather but have to focus on school again. Until next time, where I once again promise to make up with quantity, that which I lack in quality.