This video fails to capture the loudness and loudness of whole thing--my ears are ringing. Also, the video goes on a long time (about a minute)--if you watch the first 20 seconds (and then image that, way louder and lasting, I can only imagine, for three or four days) you will get the idea.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Happy People--Alternate Title: "I Hate Celebrations"--Alternate Alternate Title: "I Wish I Could be the Grinch of New Years and Steal All Their Stupid Firecrackers."
The Dutch are very into celebrating and they are especially into celebrating with firecrackers. Football victories, football defeats, a concert, the weekend, a boring evening, all seem to be celebrated with firecrackers. This week between Christmas and New Years has been especially packed with firecrackers---little, poppy ones, whistling screamers, and super loud ones that sound like World War III is just beginning. Daylight and late nights seem equally unable to quell this enthusiasm. As I write this, it is about 9pm and there have been firecrackers going off for at least the last 36 hours without pauses longer than 5 or 6 minutes at any point (and usually much less). Occasionally, you can hear the glass in the windows shake. Since the firecrackers are being set off in the middle of streets or in the small squares between apartment buildings, there is pretty significant echo amplification. Periodically, large firecrackers will set off all of the nearby car alarms, although, the car alarms on my street have only been set off once so far. Its hard to sleep well in what has to be a pretty near approximation of a war zone. I am not amused and I do not feel celebratory.
This video fails to capture the loudness and loudness of whole thing--my ears are ringing. Also, the video goes on a long time (about a minute)--if you watch the first 20 seconds (and then image that, way louder and lasting, I can only imagine, for three or four days) you will get the idea.
This video fails to capture the loudness and loudness of whole thing--my ears are ringing. Also, the video goes on a long time (about a minute)--if you watch the first 20 seconds (and then image that, way louder and lasting, I can only imagine, for three or four days) you will get the idea.
Hotel Bohemians
When I was in Prague I stayed at the Hotel Bohemians. It was cheap, convenient, comfortable, and quiet, which is pretty much all you can ask for in a hotel. The hotel is about 100 yards from tram stops in either direction and is on a fairly busy road, which made it seem reasonably safe, even when I was walking back late at night. If you click on this link, you will see a picture and a map showing the relative location of the hotel. In the photo, the tower in the distance is the Prague Castle.
I asked for, and received, a river view. While it is not as spectacular as the view further up the river, it is still very Czech looking and there was a little castle (well, probably a little church) just across the way.
There is also a view of pretty pastel houses on the side of a mountain--at least by Dutch standards.
The hotel is a Soviet era building, so it is a little older but it is still nice and reasonably sized. The hotel is actually on the second and fourth floors of a large building. I don't know what the bottom floors are used for. The hotel has the old kind of elevator--it was teeny-tiny with a maximum limit of three people. If you had a really large bag, you probably wouldn't even be able to ride up with it. I did the whole trip--Thursday through Sunday--with just my regular, small backpack which meant that I didn't have to worry about the elevator (except for the fact that it always seemed to land hard) and that I was really proud of my ability to pack light. If you click on this link you will see a photo gallery for the hotel, including the rooms and the breakfast buffet (but not including the elevator). In the picture on the top right of the "Hotel Interior" pictures, my room was the first door on the left. I like European breakfast buffets. This one had a couple of kinds of breads (and the Czechs do bread pretty well) cold meats and cheeses, honey, jam, and marmalade, real yogurt (it tasted like homemade yogurt), hard boiled eggs, pound cake, coffee, tea, and a couple of varieties of Tang. They always had a radio playing in the breakfast area which had American music and American Christmas music playing, with Czech and German commercials and Czech newscasts. One thing that surprised me, though, was that I never once heard "Good King Wenceslas" played. I was going to ask if the Czechs like that song or if they had ever heard of it but I forgot. But, since they played almost exclusively American Christmas carols you would have thought that they would have really liked a song about THE Czech king and patron saint.
I almost didn't stay at the Hotel Bohemians, though. I almost stayed on a Botel, instead. Botels (hotels on boats) are apparently pretty popular in Prague, since the Vlatav River goes right through the center of the city. I passed at least four on my way into town every day. I thought it could be pretty neat and kind of a unique experience to stay on one of those and the prices were comparable. I decided not to go with a botel because 1) I was a little afraid that, if it was choppy out, I might get sea sick and I thought that would be a bad way to start each day and 2) in reviews of the Botel I was looking at, everybody loved the experience and then would throw in things like "as you might expect, the rooms were small but the bathrooms were minuscule. I was afraid I would get stuck." And I decided that adding a claustrophobia attack to sea sickness just might take the fun out of the trip altogether. Having been there and seen the locations, I am still pleased with my choice. At least on my side of the river, to get to the hotel, you had to go down a tiny, narrow stairway to get to river level that looked kind of spooky and not very safe. Also, the road that runs along the river is fairly busy and I bet that you can hear a lot of road noise in the Botels (in the Hotel Bohemians I couldn't hear any road noise but I was on the opposite side of the building from the road) which probably wouldn't make for a restful night's sleep. Also, I think one of the big advantages to the Botel would be that, over supper (or breakfast), you could sit on the deck and watch the river and the city--which would be a pretty spectacular view, I admit--but I think you would need much warmer weather to make that worthwhile. If you want to see what Botels are like, here are the websites to three of the ones I passed every day. The Botel Racek is the one I had thought about staying at. It has a virtual tour of the boat (which probably needs a lot of internet speed to make worthwhile) which you can see here. This is the Botel Vodnik and this is the Botel Admiral. Those all link to the English pages, so they should be pretty easy to navigate.
I asked for, and received, a river view. While it is not as spectacular as the view further up the river, it is still very Czech looking and there was a little castle (well, probably a little church) just across the way.
There is also a view of pretty pastel houses on the side of a mountain--at least by Dutch standards.
The hotel is a Soviet era building, so it is a little older but it is still nice and reasonably sized. The hotel is actually on the second and fourth floors of a large building. I don't know what the bottom floors are used for. The hotel has the old kind of elevator--it was teeny-tiny with a maximum limit of three people. If you had a really large bag, you probably wouldn't even be able to ride up with it. I did the whole trip--Thursday through Sunday--with just my regular, small backpack which meant that I didn't have to worry about the elevator (except for the fact that it always seemed to land hard) and that I was really proud of my ability to pack light. If you click on this link you will see a photo gallery for the hotel, including the rooms and the breakfast buffet (but not including the elevator). In the picture on the top right of the "Hotel Interior" pictures, my room was the first door on the left. I like European breakfast buffets. This one had a couple of kinds of breads (and the Czechs do bread pretty well) cold meats and cheeses, honey, jam, and marmalade, real yogurt (it tasted like homemade yogurt), hard boiled eggs, pound cake, coffee, tea, and a couple of varieties of Tang. They always had a radio playing in the breakfast area which had American music and American Christmas music playing, with Czech and German commercials and Czech newscasts. One thing that surprised me, though, was that I never once heard "Good King Wenceslas" played. I was going to ask if the Czechs like that song or if they had ever heard of it but I forgot. But, since they played almost exclusively American Christmas carols you would have thought that they would have really liked a song about THE Czech king and patron saint.
I almost didn't stay at the Hotel Bohemians, though. I almost stayed on a Botel, instead. Botels (hotels on boats) are apparently pretty popular in Prague, since the Vlatav River goes right through the center of the city. I passed at least four on my way into town every day. I thought it could be pretty neat and kind of a unique experience to stay on one of those and the prices were comparable. I decided not to go with a botel because 1) I was a little afraid that, if it was choppy out, I might get sea sick and I thought that would be a bad way to start each day and 2) in reviews of the Botel I was looking at, everybody loved the experience and then would throw in things like "as you might expect, the rooms were small but the bathrooms were minuscule. I was afraid I would get stuck." And I decided that adding a claustrophobia attack to sea sickness just might take the fun out of the trip altogether. Having been there and seen the locations, I am still pleased with my choice. At least on my side of the river, to get to the hotel, you had to go down a tiny, narrow stairway to get to river level that looked kind of spooky and not very safe. Also, the road that runs along the river is fairly busy and I bet that you can hear a lot of road noise in the Botels (in the Hotel Bohemians I couldn't hear any road noise but I was on the opposite side of the building from the road) which probably wouldn't make for a restful night's sleep. Also, I think one of the big advantages to the Botel would be that, over supper (or breakfast), you could sit on the deck and watch the river and the city--which would be a pretty spectacular view, I admit--but I think you would need much warmer weather to make that worthwhile. If you want to see what Botels are like, here are the websites to three of the ones I passed every day. The Botel Racek is the one I had thought about staying at. It has a virtual tour of the boat (which probably needs a lot of internet speed to make worthwhile) which you can see here. This is the Botel Vodnik and this is the Botel Admiral. Those all link to the English pages, so they should be pretty easy to navigate.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Czech
Czech is a very difficult language. It is has all kinds of different sounds,
entirely different vocabulary, and a very different grammar. With Romance or German languages you can kind
of make educated guesses about a lot of words because English has derived so
many words from those different branches.
Since Czech is Slavic, though, it has very little in common with English
and I got a chance to experience a little culture shock.
Moreover, Czech, like Latin, has all kinds of spelling
variations for different declensions.
For instance, "one" can can be spelled "dva, dvě, dvou,
dvěma, or dvo" depending on context and the kind of sentence. I had hoped to memorize things like
"pork" and "tripe"
so that I could have an idea about what kind of food I might be ordering but
since the words can change pretty significantly, it became an exercise in
figuring out the root, ignoring the rest, and guessing like crazy.
Even when you figure out a word, trying to say it correctly
is pretty much entirely impossible.
Czech babies might be able to figure these things out but I sure
couldn't. Though to be fair, any
language in which "z" and "v" are words is really just
trying to be difficult. Czech also has a
lot of words without vowels. Apparently,
the way you sometimes say some of the consonants makes vowels unnecessary but
that just seems to be making trouble. I
looked in a few different places and I found two different sentences which are
entirely vowel free (they are tongue twisters so they don't make a whole lot of
sense).
"Strč prst skrz krk" means "stick a finger
through your neck" and
"Smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh" means "a morel
full of spots wetted from fogs"
Being indefatigable, though, I determined to learn some
basic words to show my cosmopolitan nature and eagerness to be friendly. So I
wrote out things like "prosim" (please), and "dekuji"
(thank you) and "dobry den" (hello).
I worked on memorizing them and reviewed them on the plane over. And I made point of thanking people in Czech
when they gave me change, or handed me my room key, or held a door.
"Prosim," I would say, "prosim!"
It wasn't until about half way through my first day in Prague, when I looked up something else in my book, that I realized that I had mixed up my memorization somehow and had been responding to every little action with "please".
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Vaclav Havel Died.
Vaclav Havel didn't die while I was in the Czech Republic (he died 18 December 2011) but his death overshadowed the whole trip, both literally and figuratively.
There was an official period of morning from the 20th to the 23rd. When I was at a theater performance, there was a moment of silence before the start but I didn't understand why until later because, as it was in Czech, I only understood the word "prezident."
Vaclav Havel was a dissident under the Soviet rule over the Czech Republic. He was imprisoned for his seditious views. He was also a playwright and composer. He was a leader in the Velvet Revolution, which ultimately resulted in the release of Czechoslovakia from Soviet control. He was then president of Czechoslovakia and later of the independent Czech Republic. From what I could tell, the American equivalent might be if you mixed up Patrick Henry, Elvis Presley, and Martin Luther King, Jr. into one person and made him president.
He was also an international celebrity and symbol of national self-identity. Madeline Albright, who is apparently of Czech descent, especially liked him. On Friday the 23rd there was a massive state funeral for Havel at St. Vitus's Cathedral (which meant that the entire Prague Castle complex was shut down and under tight security). Dignitaries from all kinds of different countries came to the funeral. Bill and Hillary Clinton came, as did Madeline Albright, as did (I heard) presidents from 17 different nations. I heard that the only major political figures who did not attend were the president of Russia (which people saw as understandable, kinda) and President Obama (which people saw as kind of a slap in the face).
Understandably, I suppose, not everyone was equally as enthusiastic about Havel. The Young Communist party (which I understand gets about 10% of the votes during elections most years) released a statement saying that Havel was an enemy of the people and that he ought not to be celebrated. There are also persistent questions about Havel's rise to power--how did he walk out of jail and into a presidency? and also concerns about corruption amongst some of his friends and the colleagues of his presidency. It seemed like most people, however, were interested in remembering Havel fondly.
There was a large memorial to Havel at the Wenceslas Monument at the top of Wensceslas Square. The monument is a statue of Good King Wenceslas and of the four patron saints of the Czech Republic which made it the ideal place to memorialize a national hero.
The statue and ground all around it were covered with candles and notes.
This note is a quotation from Ecclesiastes 7:1--
"A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth."
This one is one of Vaclav Havel's own quotations--
"Hope is a state of mind. It is a certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
A lot of people included hearts on their notes, or just put up a picture of a heart because, apparently, Havel used to usually include a little heart on his
autographs.
There were smaller memorials all over the place as well. This is a statue of Karel Havlicek Borovsky. Havlicek is the diminutive form of Havel and, since Borovsky was a Czech Nationalist hero during the mid-nineteenth century, there was a connection made between Havel and Havlicek. That is presumably why this statue in Kutna Hora was the background for a memorial.
There were also smaller memorials around the city, set up in neighborhood announcement sites.
This one looks like it was made out of someone's scrapbook pages.
These flags were flying in front of a Czech Ministry of some kind. The red, white, and blue flag is the Czech national flag. I assume that the black flag is flying in memorium for Havel.
Shortly before his death, Havel had a photo shoot to commemorate his 75th birthday. In fact, when I looked at a list of "things to do in Prague", there was a photo exhibition of the photos from this shoot which was set up in the end of October. The giant photo which is being mounted on the front of the museum at the top of this post is one of the pictures from that display. There was also another photo which was displayed everywhere. It is a picture of Havel walking away, across a beach, just leaving his footprints behind. It is quite evocative.
There was an official period of morning from the 20th to the 23rd. When I was at a theater performance, there was a moment of silence before the start but I didn't understand why until later because, as it was in Czech, I only understood the word "prezident."
Vaclav Havel was a dissident under the Soviet rule over the Czech Republic. He was imprisoned for his seditious views. He was also a playwright and composer. He was a leader in the Velvet Revolution, which ultimately resulted in the release of Czechoslovakia from Soviet control. He was then president of Czechoslovakia and later of the independent Czech Republic. From what I could tell, the American equivalent might be if you mixed up Patrick Henry, Elvis Presley, and Martin Luther King, Jr. into one person and made him president.
He was also an international celebrity and symbol of national self-identity. Madeline Albright, who is apparently of Czech descent, especially liked him. On Friday the 23rd there was a massive state funeral for Havel at St. Vitus's Cathedral (which meant that the entire Prague Castle complex was shut down and under tight security). Dignitaries from all kinds of different countries came to the funeral. Bill and Hillary Clinton came, as did Madeline Albright, as did (I heard) presidents from 17 different nations. I heard that the only major political figures who did not attend were the president of Russia (which people saw as understandable, kinda) and President Obama (which people saw as kind of a slap in the face).
Understandably, I suppose, not everyone was equally as enthusiastic about Havel. The Young Communist party (which I understand gets about 10% of the votes during elections most years) released a statement saying that Havel was an enemy of the people and that he ought not to be celebrated. There are also persistent questions about Havel's rise to power--how did he walk out of jail and into a presidency? and also concerns about corruption amongst some of his friends and the colleagues of his presidency. It seemed like most people, however, were interested in remembering Havel fondly.
There was a large memorial to Havel at the Wenceslas Monument at the top of Wensceslas Square. The monument is a statue of Good King Wenceslas and of the four patron saints of the Czech Republic which made it the ideal place to memorialize a national hero.
The statue and ground all around it were covered with candles and notes.
This note is a quotation from Ecclesiastes 7:1--
"A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth."
This one is one of Vaclav Havel's own quotations--
"Hope is a state of mind. It is a certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
A lot of people included hearts on their notes, or just put up a picture of a heart because, apparently, Havel used to usually include a little heart on his
autographs.
There were smaller memorials all over the place as well. This is a statue of Karel Havlicek Borovsky. Havlicek is the diminutive form of Havel and, since Borovsky was a Czech Nationalist hero during the mid-nineteenth century, there was a connection made between Havel and Havlicek. That is presumably why this statue in Kutna Hora was the background for a memorial.
There were also smaller memorials around the city, set up in neighborhood announcement sites.
This one looks like it was made out of someone's scrapbook pages.
These flags were flying in front of a Czech Ministry of some kind. The red, white, and blue flag is the Czech national flag. I assume that the black flag is flying in memorium for Havel.
Shortly before his death, Havel had a photo shoot to commemorate his 75th birthday. In fact, when I looked at a list of "things to do in Prague", there was a photo exhibition of the photos from this shoot which was set up in the end of October. The giant photo which is being mounted on the front of the museum at the top of this post is one of the pictures from that display. There was also another photo which was displayed everywhere. It is a picture of Havel walking away, across a beach, just leaving his footprints behind. It is quite evocative.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
I got a package today!
It smelled wonderful (and tasted wonderful) and now I look like a Netherlander!
And Judah, that is a well-armed soldier and now my kitchen smells like cinnamon. Mmmmm. Thank you for the lovely package you Clarks, you. That was a pretty fun surprise.
And Judah, that is a well-armed soldier and now my kitchen smells like cinnamon. Mmmmm. Thank you for the lovely package you Clarks, you. That was a pretty fun surprise.
The Prague Trip
For my Prague trip I got a transportation pass which, for about $7 a day meant I could hop on and off any of the buses, trams, or metros of the Prague public transport whenever I needed. I probably could have saved a little money by buying tickets only when I actually needed them but apparently it can sometimes be hard to find a ticket stand, so the convenience and security factor made it definitely worthwhile to have the ticket. I also got the "Prague Card" which gives you free, or discounted, access to all kinds of museums and monuments in the city. It can save you a lot of money, if things work out right, but it really turned out to be a complete waste of money for me. Some of the sites were closed because it was off-season, which I knew ahead of time, but because of the state funeral for Vaclav Havel, a former Czech president and national hero, a lot of other stuff, and especially the stuff I really wanted to see, was closed. As it is, I have a very expensive souvenir for my scrapbook. If you want to see the stuff you can normally get into with the card, including pictures and brief descriptions of the sites, you can go to the official Prague Card website here.
When I flew into Prague, there was snow on the ground. And it smelled like snow. And it there was more snow predicted for the weekend. We didn't get any snow and, on Saturday and Sunday, the temperature was about 33 degrees and it sleeted. But the snow hopes were nice while they lasted.
It was funny how different things are, so close to the Netherlands (it was only a one hour flight). I only saw one bike shop the whole time I was there. I saw this, as well, which you would never see in the Netherlands, which forbids biking in a park. Also: weirdest looking bike ever.
Also there are hills and mountains in the Czech Republic Everything was in Czech, of course, but a lot of advertisements, television, and the occasional instruction where in German. One funny thing I saw was that in German McDonald's they now sell some special premium sandwiches, including a chicken and Camembert sandwich. In the advertisement, the gooshy cheese is oozing all over the sandwich. You can see a picture of it, here. If you go here, you can watch the commercials (which are kind of entertaining). From what I gather, there is a fancy chef who keeps astounding the McDonald's guy with the amazing new recipes he is creating for the store. The Camembert chicken ad is labeled "Teil 3". The video labeled "Teil 1" advertises the "Big Rosti" which is a hamburger, chicken, bacon, cheese, and cheese sauce on one sandwich.
There were a lot of police. It could have just been because of the Christmas Markets or it could have been because of the funeral, but there was just a huge police presence. I alternated between figuring that at least there would be someone within call if there were problems and wondering why on earth they needed that many police. I watched some "Alaska State Troopers" a little while ago and, from what I remember of those stories, they policed giant snow mobile events while outnumbered 1 to 1,000,000 and people hardly ever died. I am left with the impression that, either, folks in Alaska are more honest or their criminals are less effective. To be honest, though, Prague would be an easy city to be a pick-pocket in. It is a ridiculously beautiful city and you find yourself walking around staring up at the buildings and the sights and forgetting to watch out for your bags.
If you go here you can look at the Google map which I put together with all of the places I wanted to see. If you click on the name of the site, or the little blue balloon, you can usually zoom in or see the street view of the area.
To get into the city, I took a bus from the airport to the metro, and then took the metro into the city. When I got off the metro, I couldn't figure out where I was exactly. But, since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to just look around and see what was going on. I walked down a couple of streets and then turned a corner and had to stop to let two horse-drawn carriages go past.
Then I walked to the edge of a square and was right in the middle of a Christmas Market. It was ridiculous. This was my first view of Prague's Old Square and I think this was when I knew that I was going to have a ridiculously good time.
When I flew into Prague, there was snow on the ground. And it smelled like snow. And it there was more snow predicted for the weekend. We didn't get any snow and, on Saturday and Sunday, the temperature was about 33 degrees and it sleeted. But the snow hopes were nice while they lasted.
It was funny how different things are, so close to the Netherlands (it was only a one hour flight). I only saw one bike shop the whole time I was there. I saw this, as well, which you would never see in the Netherlands, which forbids biking in a park. Also: weirdest looking bike ever.
Also there are hills and mountains in the Czech Republic Everything was in Czech, of course, but a lot of advertisements, television, and the occasional instruction where in German. One funny thing I saw was that in German McDonald's they now sell some special premium sandwiches, including a chicken and Camembert sandwich. In the advertisement, the gooshy cheese is oozing all over the sandwich. You can see a picture of it, here. If you go here, you can watch the commercials (which are kind of entertaining). From what I gather, there is a fancy chef who keeps astounding the McDonald's guy with the amazing new recipes he is creating for the store. The Camembert chicken ad is labeled "Teil 3". The video labeled "Teil 1" advertises the "Big Rosti" which is a hamburger, chicken, bacon, cheese, and cheese sauce on one sandwich.
There were a lot of police. It could have just been because of the Christmas Markets or it could have been because of the funeral, but there was just a huge police presence. I alternated between figuring that at least there would be someone within call if there were problems and wondering why on earth they needed that many police. I watched some "Alaska State Troopers" a little while ago and, from what I remember of those stories, they policed giant snow mobile events while outnumbered 1 to 1,000,000 and people hardly ever died. I am left with the impression that, either, folks in Alaska are more honest or their criminals are less effective. To be honest, though, Prague would be an easy city to be a pick-pocket in. It is a ridiculously beautiful city and you find yourself walking around staring up at the buildings and the sights and forgetting to watch out for your bags.
If you go here you can look at the Google map which I put together with all of the places I wanted to see. If you click on the name of the site, or the little blue balloon, you can usually zoom in or see the street view of the area.
To get into the city, I took a bus from the airport to the metro, and then took the metro into the city. When I got off the metro, I couldn't figure out where I was exactly. But, since I wasn't in a hurry, I decided to just look around and see what was going on. I walked down a couple of streets and then turned a corner and had to stop to let two horse-drawn carriages go past.
Then I walked to the edge of a square and was right in the middle of a Christmas Market. It was ridiculous. This was my first view of Prague's Old Square and I think this was when I knew that I was going to have a ridiculously good time.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Going to Prague
Over this Christmas break I went to Prague. I flew out on Thursday morning and stayed for three nights. It was an awful lot of fun. To get to the airport I took the metro and then a bus to the Rotterdam-Den Haag airport. Flying out of Rotterdam ended up being significantly cheaper and more convenient than going to Amsterdam.
Taking the bus to the airport was interesting because we went out through the suburbs of the city and I got to see a different side of the Rotterdam. One of the little towns looked an awful lot like Aitken. Just a quaint little residential area with little shops on the ground floors. In another area, they were building what looked like multi-layered pedestrian and bike over-pass, which was kind of funny and fragile looking.
I flew with transavia.com, which is a Dutch budget airline. I thought they had a pretty nice service. The best thing, though, was the departure lounge. It was the most comfortable departure lounge EVER. It was all set up like a comfy lounge with giant wing-back club chairs; long tables that could seat eighteen or twenty people; little cozy nooks with booths that fit two; high bar counters with tall, square, white stools; low ceilings, and big, white, chunky chandeliers, all done in black, gold, and light oak. This is a new renovation, actually, it was barely a month old. If you look at this link here (just "x" out the little request for survey answers) you will see the apology for the construction and a picture of part of the lounge.
The very best thing about the whole airport experience, though, was that I saw someone with the best, biggest, fluffiest eyebrows ever. They made Dad's eyebrows pale by comparison.
It's kind of like comparing Samuel's beard to Brian Blessed's (although both of these guys do have pretty sturdy eyebrows).
Monday, December 26, 2011
Prague Christmas Love
I thought it only fair to mention that I did not feel homesick this Christmas. I barely even missed you guys at all and I certainly didn't pine for you.
You might have stood a chance of standing out in my thoughts if there wasn't snow on the ground when I flew into Prague. And if it hadn't smelled like more snow. And if they weren't selling roasted chestnuts out of little wheeled carts. And if the carts weren't right next to little stands that sold hot chocolate. And if those weren't right next to stands where they baked traditional Czech donoghts on sticks over beds of coals. And if you couldn't take carriage rides around the city with your choice of matching pairs of horses. And if some of those pairs of horses didn't have matching pink and purple ear-warmers. And if the whole city didn't light up at night, like a fluffy, twinkly, sparkly, fairy-tale land.
But as it was, you didn't stand a chance.
Well, on my way home, at 11 o'clock at night, after a long afternoon at the airport, when I was already tired and cold, while I was riding the bus back home through the suburbs and saw Christmas lights through warm family-room windows, then I felt a little misty.
But, the rest of the time, you guys were pretty much eclipsed.
Prague was A.W.E.S.O.M.E.
Although, in retrospect, I think you are supposed to peel roasted chestnuts before you eat them.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Christmas in Prague
Over Christmas I will be going to Prague! It should be pretty fun. Prague (Praha in Czech) is known for having loads of very old buildings, for its impressive music and opera scene, and for its impressive Christmas Markets. If you click here, you can see the Google search result for pictures for Christmas in Prague--pretty impressive, eh? It is supposed to snow over the weekend as well, which is exciting.
I anticipate that I will try the traditional Czech Christmas Eve menu of sauerkraut soup and baked cod. I will, however, try very, very hard to avoid tripe soup, which apparently is a popular dish in the Czech Republic. I looked it up on Google Translate and there are three Czech words for tripe (which is really way too many for any one language) and while I can in no way pronounce any of them, I will avoid any menu items which include any of these words: dršťky, šmejd, or droby.
If you want to see what kinds of things I will be seeing, the official Prague tourism website includes three live webcams of Prague. You can click through them all but the one that this link opens, is of the Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River, beside which I will be living. The bridge is pretty famous and also pretty famous for being beautiful. It is worth seeing at night, especially.
I anticipate that I will try the traditional Czech Christmas Eve menu of sauerkraut soup and baked cod. I will, however, try very, very hard to avoid tripe soup, which apparently is a popular dish in the Czech Republic. I looked it up on Google Translate and there are three Czech words for tripe (which is really way too many for any one language) and while I can in no way pronounce any of them, I will avoid any menu items which include any of these words: dršťky, šmejd, or droby.
If you want to see what kinds of things I will be seeing, the official Prague tourism website includes three live webcams of Prague. You can click through them all but the one that this link opens, is of the Charles Bridge, which crosses the Vltava River, beside which I will be living. The bridge is pretty famous and also pretty famous for being beautiful. It is worth seeing at night, especially.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Dutch Fashion
Since Jael is talking about coming to visit me, she was all "Tell me what fashions are like. I don't want to look like a tourist." And I was like, "Silly girl, you ARE a tourist!" But since I am a good sister I have been keeping an eye out for what is hot in Rotterdam fashions for her.
And, since my note to her was getting so long, I thought that I would post it here, so you can enjoy it as well. That way, if you come visit me, you can be all fashionable, or, even if you are still at home, you can be on the cutting edge of fashion anyways.
For starters, the eighties are back. They really, really are. If you find your most ridiculous left-over outfit from the eighties and bring it back, someone is probably already wearing that exact thing. Parachute pants, acid washed jeans, overalls with the straps down, wearing suspenders but having them hanging down around your knees, Michael Jackson outfits (as in sequined Member's only jackets, black shoes, black pants that stop at the ankle, and white socks), giant t-shirts with the collar cut out so that they hang off of one shoulder, side ponytails, midriff sweatshirts, those giant puffy high-top tennis shoes (usually in neon colors), wearing cuffed jean shorts over tights, all of those really horrible, awful things are back. It is very sad. Also, the fact that I wore some of those outfits the first time around makes me feel sadder and also very old.
It is things like this that makes me especially glad that I was home-schooled and that, if I did fall victim to these terrible fashions, at least they aren't commemorated in any year-book photos. I do vividly remember making tight little cuffs at the bottom of my pale blue, acid wash jeans (because when they were loose enough to get over your heel they were just too loose) and knowing I was just soooooo cool and those are back now, too.
I almost feel like some fashion folks are just doing this so that their kids can't laugh at their old year-book pictures. There is really no other reasonable explanation for why this website includes detailed instructions on how to get this hair-do which it calls "great for parties" and "edgy and sexy". I personally find this very traumatizing.
Okay, well, if you want to start from the non-80s side of things you need these things:
1. Scarves. Any kind of scarf, any color, any length, any knot/wrap, any material, just so long as you have something wrapped around your neck. This goes for guys as well, although theirs tend to be shorter and (usually) less sparkly.
2. Hoods. Everyone's jackets have hoods. If it doesn't have a hood, then they are probably wearing a sweatshirt underneath it with the hood pulled out over the jacket. Sometimes people even have more than one hood. This is, by the way, a very practical solution for a place where it often rains and where winds often make carrying an open umbrella impracticable. I would say that 70% of people have a hood on their jackets, 20% have two or more hoods at the same time, and 10% have no hoods.
3. Boots. Everyone is wear boots. Any kind of boots, any height, any color, any style. The majority are flat (the better to walk places and ride bikes) or a wedge shape. Uugg boots are really in: I counted in a subway car on the way home one evening and of the 9 pairs of female feet I could see (including mine) 8 were wearing boots (I was the unfashionable one) and six of them were wearing Uuggs. But, everything from little ankle boots to little ankle boots with giant puffy fuzzy trims, to knee high boots, to thigh high boots are out there. Really, this is fairly practical, considering the weather (okay, maybe not the ones that come to mid-thigh, but the rest of them are).
4. Jackets. Probably a no-brainer, but people wear jackets a lot here. They tend to be one of two kinds. First, military-inspired--pea coats, etc. Second, shiny, plasticky, puffy jackets. Most of these jackets, of whatever style, are black. I would say that 80% of the jackets you see people wear are black, 10% are brown/tan (and most of these are leather or an equivalent), and 10% bright colors (I have only seen one navy-blue coat since I have been paying attention).
5. Fur. Fur. and more Fur. I don't know if it is real of fake (maybe its a mix) but the vast majority of jackets have fur trimmed hoods. Also, a lot (a LOT) of boots are trimmed with fur as well.
6. Fur-trimmed ear-flapper hats. Believe it or not, this is the in thing. They advertise them in fashion magazines and people wear them all over town (although they tend to be worn by guys, they are still pretty popular with girls, too).
Honestly, though, I really cannot see the need for as many as I have seen, seeing as I don't think it has dropped below 40 so far this year. Had I known it was so trendy, though, I might have brought my own ear-flapper hat, just because I am rarely a part of such a big fashion trend. I bet the silage smell would wear out before too long. Hats, in general though, don't seem nearly as popular, with the recent possible exception of knit caps, probably also because of the wind.
Well, there you have it. You are now ready to dress like a Dutch fashion super star!
And, since my note to her was getting so long, I thought that I would post it here, so you can enjoy it as well. That way, if you come visit me, you can be all fashionable, or, even if you are still at home, you can be on the cutting edge of fashion anyways.
For starters, the eighties are back. They really, really are. If you find your most ridiculous left-over outfit from the eighties and bring it back, someone is probably already wearing that exact thing. Parachute pants, acid washed jeans, overalls with the straps down, wearing suspenders but having them hanging down around your knees, Michael Jackson outfits (as in sequined Member's only jackets, black shoes, black pants that stop at the ankle, and white socks), giant t-shirts with the collar cut out so that they hang off of one shoulder, side ponytails, midriff sweatshirts, those giant puffy high-top tennis shoes (usually in neon colors), wearing cuffed jean shorts over tights, all of those really horrible, awful things are back. It is very sad. Also, the fact that I wore some of those outfits the first time around makes me feel sadder and also very old.
It is things like this that makes me especially glad that I was home-schooled and that, if I did fall victim to these terrible fashions, at least they aren't commemorated in any year-book photos. I do vividly remember making tight little cuffs at the bottom of my pale blue, acid wash jeans (because when they were loose enough to get over your heel they were just too loose) and knowing I was just soooooo cool and those are back now, too.
I almost feel like some fashion folks are just doing this so that their kids can't laugh at their old year-book pictures. There is really no other reasonable explanation for why this website includes detailed instructions on how to get this hair-do which it calls "great for parties" and "edgy and sexy". I personally find this very traumatizing.
Okay, well, if you want to start from the non-80s side of things you need these things:
1. Scarves. Any kind of scarf, any color, any length, any knot/wrap, any material, just so long as you have something wrapped around your neck. This goes for guys as well, although theirs tend to be shorter and (usually) less sparkly.
2. Hoods. Everyone's jackets have hoods. If it doesn't have a hood, then they are probably wearing a sweatshirt underneath it with the hood pulled out over the jacket. Sometimes people even have more than one hood. This is, by the way, a very practical solution for a place where it often rains and where winds often make carrying an open umbrella impracticable. I would say that 70% of people have a hood on their jackets, 20% have two or more hoods at the same time, and 10% have no hoods.
3. Boots. Everyone is wear boots. Any kind of boots, any height, any color, any style. The majority are flat (the better to walk places and ride bikes) or a wedge shape. Uugg boots are really in: I counted in a subway car on the way home one evening and of the 9 pairs of female feet I could see (including mine) 8 were wearing boots (I was the unfashionable one) and six of them were wearing Uuggs. But, everything from little ankle boots to little ankle boots with giant puffy fuzzy trims, to knee high boots, to thigh high boots are out there. Really, this is fairly practical, considering the weather (okay, maybe not the ones that come to mid-thigh, but the rest of them are).
4. Jackets. Probably a no-brainer, but people wear jackets a lot here. They tend to be one of two kinds. First, military-inspired--pea coats, etc. Second, shiny, plasticky, puffy jackets. Most of these jackets, of whatever style, are black. I would say that 80% of the jackets you see people wear are black, 10% are brown/tan (and most of these are leather or an equivalent), and 10% bright colors (I have only seen one navy-blue coat since I have been paying attention).
5. Fur. Fur. and more Fur. I don't know if it is real of fake (maybe its a mix) but the vast majority of jackets have fur trimmed hoods. Also, a lot (a LOT) of boots are trimmed with fur as well.
6. Fur-trimmed ear-flapper hats. Believe it or not, this is the in thing. They advertise them in fashion magazines and people wear them all over town (although they tend to be worn by guys, they are still pretty popular with girls, too).
Honestly, though, I really cannot see the need for as many as I have seen, seeing as I don't think it has dropped below 40 so far this year. Had I known it was so trendy, though, I might have brought my own ear-flapper hat, just because I am rarely a part of such a big fashion trend. I bet the silage smell would wear out before too long. Hats, in general though, don't seem nearly as popular, with the recent possible exception of knit caps, probably also because of the wind.
Well, there you have it. You are now ready to dress like a Dutch fashion super star!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Rileykins
This is Riley.
So are these: (Co-staring, and photo credits to, Walter, Huldah, and Ben)
This is the kind of thing that makes me feel like we aren't getting the most out of Riley.
Friday, December 9, 2011
December 5--Sinterklaas, Part Three
The best part of the Dutch holidays is that they get THREE Christmas-type days.
First, they have Sinterklaas on the 5th.
Then they have Kerst (Christmas) on the 25th. This is not such a big thing as it is in the US, although it is getting bigger, but they do have all kinds of newspaper advertisements centered around it in the papers, as well as different kinds of wrapping papers and other holiday paraphernalia, although I gather that most of the stuff just goes up in the middle of November and then serves for both holidays. The funny thing, though, is that for Kerst, they have the regular, old, familiar Santa Claus, with a floppy hat and flying reindeer (or, at least, that is how they decorate their Christmas advertisements).
Then, to top it all off, the Dutch have Tweede Kerst--"Second Christmas"--on the 26th. This is equivalent of Boxing Day in Canada or England. Lars, my Dutch informant, said that you don't get presents on Second Christmas, it is mostly just a day to see family that you didn't see on First Christmas and you usually have another big traditional meal. I think that I could live with that--it sounds like an excellent plan, and also a good way to work out holiday sharing with the in-laws. The 26th is also gaining a reputation as being a big shopping day, too, kind of like a Black Friday thing, although on a smaller scale, which makes it seem a little less family centered, and probably makes it harder to make another giant meal.
Next year, we should start doing multiple Christmases. When you think about it, just about every other former English colony ended up with Boxing Day, which is almost as good as a Second Christmas. If you do Hanukkah, you get 8 days. If you do Kwanzaa, you get 7 days. If you are from Ye Olde Englande, you get 12 days. And here we are, stuck with one measly Christmas and then a day standing in the customer service lines to return stuff. I think that it is time to change this.
I would like to point out that the U.S. Consulate in the Netherlands has figured out a pretty good way to do these kinds of things--they just celebrate the national holidays of both the U.S. and the Netherlands. It just seems friendly to take the day off when other people are having a fun celebration. (You can see the calendar of official U.S. and Dutch holidays here.) We could extend it a little, too. If you go here, you will see the Wikipedia list of all kinds of countries and then pick fun holidays to share. (I thought we could start with countries with which we have a connection--Germany was disappointing and doesn't do any extra fun stuff. Ireland just takes off the first day of June and the first day of August, for no apparent reason. The National Day of Sweden on June 6th (we could eat lefse and argue about whether herring is actually edible). I think this is a pretty good plan.
I vote that next year we do Sinterklaas and Tweede Kerst, at least. It will be like I am an ambassador for celebratory multiculturalism and diversity. I am also perfectly willing to compromise and switch to 12 days of Christmas, instead.
First, they have Sinterklaas on the 5th.
Then they have Kerst (Christmas) on the 25th. This is not such a big thing as it is in the US, although it is getting bigger, but they do have all kinds of newspaper advertisements centered around it in the papers, as well as different kinds of wrapping papers and other holiday paraphernalia, although I gather that most of the stuff just goes up in the middle of November and then serves for both holidays. The funny thing, though, is that for Kerst, they have the regular, old, familiar Santa Claus, with a floppy hat and flying reindeer (or, at least, that is how they decorate their Christmas advertisements).
Then, to top it all off, the Dutch have Tweede Kerst--"Second Christmas"--on the 26th. This is equivalent of Boxing Day in Canada or England. Lars, my Dutch informant, said that you don't get presents on Second Christmas, it is mostly just a day to see family that you didn't see on First Christmas and you usually have another big traditional meal. I think that I could live with that--it sounds like an excellent plan, and also a good way to work out holiday sharing with the in-laws. The 26th is also gaining a reputation as being a big shopping day, too, kind of like a Black Friday thing, although on a smaller scale, which makes it seem a little less family centered, and probably makes it harder to make another giant meal.
Next year, we should start doing multiple Christmases. When you think about it, just about every other former English colony ended up with Boxing Day, which is almost as good as a Second Christmas. If you do Hanukkah, you get 8 days. If you do Kwanzaa, you get 7 days. If you are from Ye Olde Englande, you get 12 days. And here we are, stuck with one measly Christmas and then a day standing in the customer service lines to return stuff. I think that it is time to change this.
I would like to point out that the U.S. Consulate in the Netherlands has figured out a pretty good way to do these kinds of things--they just celebrate the national holidays of both the U.S. and the Netherlands. It just seems friendly to take the day off when other people are having a fun celebration. (You can see the calendar of official U.S. and Dutch holidays here.) We could extend it a little, too. If you go here, you will see the Wikipedia list of all kinds of countries and then pick fun holidays to share. (I thought we could start with countries with which we have a connection--Germany was disappointing and doesn't do any extra fun stuff. Ireland just takes off the first day of June and the first day of August, for no apparent reason. The National Day of Sweden on June 6th (we could eat lefse and argue about whether herring is actually edible). I think this is a pretty good plan.
I vote that next year we do Sinterklaas and Tweede Kerst, at least. It will be like I am an ambassador for celebratory multiculturalism and diversity. I am also perfectly willing to compromise and switch to 12 days of Christmas, instead.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
December 5--Sinterklaas, Part Two
I was talking to a Dutch classmate about Sinterklaas and he told me a lot about Sinterklaas that I hadn't known before. (His name is Lars but he said that he was genuinely Dutch, he just has a Swedish name.) He said that Sinterklaas is a great holiday as long as there are little kids around.
As long as there are little kids in the family who believe that Sinterklaas exists, everybody gets presents and puts them in a bag and then gets a neighbor to ring the doorbell and then run away, leaving the bag of goodies on the doorstep. This wows the little kids--Zwarte Piet just left their presents and they almost saw him!--and everyone is happy.
Once everyone is all grown up and doesn't believe in Sinterklaas anymore, though, the holiday gets burdensome. Everyone gets everyone else in the family a little gift but (and this is the part that apparently the whole nation finds stressfull) you have to include a little heart-felt poem inside the presents as well. I had never heard of this before and was pretty intrigued. Well, after class, that very same day, I had to go pay my rent and, while I was waiting for my turn at the counter, I flipped through one of the newspapers lying on the table and what should appear but a comic strip about the stresses of making Sinterklaas poems! I couldn't take the paper with me and I havevn't been able to find the strip on the internet but I think it was called "Heinz de Kat" or something like that. In the first panel, Heinz sits at a table with a pen and some paper and says "This year I will get all of my Sinterklaas poems done ahead of time!" In the second panel, he hasn't written anything down and has little angry squiggles above his head. In the last panel, he is sitting in a bar, still looking grouchy and he hasn't written anything at all.
Lars said that you could find poem-making engines on the internet to make it easier. I looked it up and if you go here, you can find the "Sinterklaas Gerdichten Generator"--the Sinterklaas Poem Generator. It works pretty much by sticking the name of the person (and sometimes the type of gift) into a bunch of preset lines which seem to be primarily moralistic poems with a rhyming structure akin to "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue" but I suppose that you can't expect too much from a magical poem maker.
I made a little practice poem for Otis (the best name for Grace's little babykins if he's a boy) in case I were to get him a little teddy bear.
The best poem I found was:
Weet dat hij veel van Otis houdt
Uitvluchten laten hem Siberisch koud
Hij hoopt maar dat dit cadeau hem niet berouwt
Dit is een teddybeer voor een iemand met een hart van goud
(I dare you to try to sound it out. If you want to hear what it sounds like when I say it, you can click on this link below.)
The gist of the poem is something like:
Knowing Otis as he does,
Santa probably ought to leave him in Siberia.
So he hopes that he doesn't regret giving him this present:
This teddy bear is for someone with a heart of gold.
Poor little Otis. I am SURE that he deserves a teddy bear.
As long as there are little kids in the family who believe that Sinterklaas exists, everybody gets presents and puts them in a bag and then gets a neighbor to ring the doorbell and then run away, leaving the bag of goodies on the doorstep. This wows the little kids--Zwarte Piet just left their presents and they almost saw him!--and everyone is happy.
Once everyone is all grown up and doesn't believe in Sinterklaas anymore, though, the holiday gets burdensome. Everyone gets everyone else in the family a little gift but (and this is the part that apparently the whole nation finds stressfull) you have to include a little heart-felt poem inside the presents as well. I had never heard of this before and was pretty intrigued. Well, after class, that very same day, I had to go pay my rent and, while I was waiting for my turn at the counter, I flipped through one of the newspapers lying on the table and what should appear but a comic strip about the stresses of making Sinterklaas poems! I couldn't take the paper with me and I havevn't been able to find the strip on the internet but I think it was called "Heinz de Kat" or something like that. In the first panel, Heinz sits at a table with a pen and some paper and says "This year I will get all of my Sinterklaas poems done ahead of time!" In the second panel, he hasn't written anything down and has little angry squiggles above his head. In the last panel, he is sitting in a bar, still looking grouchy and he hasn't written anything at all.
Lars said that you could find poem-making engines on the internet to make it easier. I looked it up and if you go here, you can find the "Sinterklaas Gerdichten Generator"--the Sinterklaas Poem Generator. It works pretty much by sticking the name of the person (and sometimes the type of gift) into a bunch of preset lines which seem to be primarily moralistic poems with a rhyming structure akin to "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue" but I suppose that you can't expect too much from a magical poem maker.
I made a little practice poem for Otis (the best name for Grace's little babykins if he's a boy) in case I were to get him a little teddy bear.
The best poem I found was:
Weet dat hij veel van Otis houdt
Uitvluchten laten hem Siberisch koud
Hij hoopt maar dat dit cadeau hem niet berouwt
Dit is een teddybeer voor een iemand met een hart van goud
(I dare you to try to sound it out. If you want to hear what it sounds like when I say it, you can click on this link below.)
The gist of the poem is something like:
Knowing Otis as he does,
Santa probably ought to leave him in Siberia.
So he hopes that he doesn't regret giving him this present:
This teddy bear is for someone with a heart of gold.
Poor little Otis. I am SURE that he deserves a teddy bear.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
December 5--Sinterklaas, Part One
In the Netherlands, as I've mentioned before, everyone gets way more Christmas related action than we do in the US. On December 5th, Sinterklaas comes with the Zwarte Pieten (he has several helpers, usually) and provides treats and presents for good childeren and coal, beatings, and even kidnapping and enslavement for naughty ones. Nowadays, this threat is apparently mostly representational as you can buy Sinterklaas bags of goodies which includes a bag holding gift shaped candies (they are kind of like those hard, orange, marshmallowy "circus peanuts") which comes inside a larger bag holding "kruidenoten" (or "spice chunks") which are kind of like miniature (quarter sized), hard ginger-snaps which are representative of lumps of coal.
David Sidarus, a frequent comedic contributer to a variety of NPR programs, has written a really delightful essay on gun ownership and Dutch Sinterklaas traditions. Someone on YouTube has put the audio of Sidarus reading that essay in three parts, together with a bunch of pictures of Dutch Sinterklaas celebrations and related "funniest home video" moments. The whole thing is about 15 minutes long and it is definitely worth watching. I have attached all of the videos here so that you should be able to click on the picture to watch it here or you can click on the link underneath, which will open the video in a new page. I think the fact that he is an NPR employee should be sufficient gaurantee of both his sense of humor and his class (although I gather that some of Sidarus's other essays do include occaisional vulgarity so you might use caution if you want to look up some of his other stuff).
David Sidarus, a frequent comedic contributer to a variety of NPR programs, has written a really delightful essay on gun ownership and Dutch Sinterklaas traditions. Someone on YouTube has put the audio of Sidarus reading that essay in three parts, together with a bunch of pictures of Dutch Sinterklaas celebrations and related "funniest home video" moments. The whole thing is about 15 minutes long and it is definitely worth watching. I have attached all of the videos here so that you should be able to click on the picture to watch it here or you can click on the link underneath, which will open the video in a new page. I think the fact that he is an NPR employee should be sufficient gaurantee of both his sense of humor and his class (although I gather that some of Sidarus's other essays do include occaisional vulgarity so you might use caution if you want to look up some of his other stuff).
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Kijkubus
One of Rotterdam's notable attractions is its wild architecture. Everything in Rotterdam is curvy, or spiky, or weird just for the sake of having cool architectural designs. One of my professors called it a disease, it is so prevalent. One of Rotterdam's major sights is just such a thing. The Cube Houses, which are located by Blaakplein--which is where the Blaak Markt is held every Tuesday and Saturday. The Cube House complex was one of the first Rotterdam landmarks I saw when I arrived. According the the official Cube House website, which you can find here in English, the architect wanted the buildings to look like trees.
The Kubuswoning were built in the '80s as part of an integrated living arrangement (like Windhurst) which also served as a pedestrian bridge over the rather busy road that runs through this part of town.
The buildings include businesses on the lower levels and apartments in the cube shaped top parts. One of the cubes is a student hostel with a hostel company that specializes in having hostels located in unique or historical buildings. One of the cubes is set up as a museum. It is called the Kijkubus which kind of a play on words since "kijk" is root of the Dutch "to look" and "kubus" means "cube".
The second floor includes a bedroom and a little den area organized around the central column of the house where the stairs are located. There are shelves all around that central column. These shelves are full of all kinds of little trinkets and books.
There were also shelves and shelves of Tolkien character busts, Tolkien books, and other SciFi type books.
The third floor was set up like a little sitting room but was unbelievably hot, even with a dedicated air conditioning unit. This is not really surprising considering that the top floor was set up kind of like a green house. There were loads of cactus up there and they seemed to be thriving.
On the left below are the stairs leading down from the third floor to the second. Note the walls. On the right is the view from the third floor, across the other cube houses out to the Williamsbrug.
I found this sign entertaining. Since the door is on one of the walls that is leaning in at a 45 degree angle, I suppose it would be pretty painful to let the door slam on your fingers.
The Cube House complex is actually a large group of buildings which covers a pedestrian bridge over a major 6 lane road. Inside the complex there are little pedestrian complexes and there are businesses in the "trunk" sections of the buildings. There were accounting businesses, several nail and hair places, and at least one tattoo place. There were lots of potted plants and little miniature-sized work equipment.
 |
| This is a scale model of the Cube House complex and the Blaaktoren showing nearby buildings and the location of the canals, etc. |
The buildings include businesses on the lower levels and apartments in the cube shaped top parts. One of the cubes is a student hostel with a hostel company that specializes in having hostels located in unique or historical buildings. One of the cubes is set up as a museum. It is called the Kijkubus which kind of a play on words since "kijk" is root of the Dutch "to look" and "kubus" means "cube".
 |
| This is the very compact, but kind of cute, kitchen. Notice how the walls are slanting out at an angle. |
The house is very tiny, with itty-bitty stairways. There are three floors in each house (and they are all flat) but the layout is such that there really isn't very much room.
 |
| This is the dining area and the beginning of the kitchen plus part of the living room. |
 |
| This is the living area/little gift shop area that makes up the rest of the first floor. The stairs are on the left, just past the monkey, as is the teeny-tiny bathroom. They were installing a new shower door on the door I was there which is one of the main reasons that I think that the museum curator also lives in the house. |
The second floor includes a bedroom and a little den area organized around the central column of the house where the stairs are located. There are shelves all around that central column. These shelves are full of all kinds of little trinkets and books. |
| There were all kinds of little collectable things. Like these little pieces of dollhouse furniture. I do like the little elephants, though. |
 |
| This is a chess set made out of famous Rotterdam landmarks. You will notice that the King is the Euromast, the Queen is the Erasmusbrug, the Bishops are the the World Trade Center, the Knights are the Shipping and Transport College, the Castles are the Maas Tower, and the pawns are little Cube Houses. I really, really want this chess set. |
There were also shelves and shelves of Tolkien character busts, Tolkien books, and other SciFi type books.
The third floor was set up like a little sitting room but was unbelievably hot, even with a dedicated air conditioning unit. This is not really surprising considering that the top floor was set up kind of like a green house. There were loads of cactus up there and they seemed to be thriving.
On the left below are the stairs leading down from the third floor to the second. Note the walls. On the right is the view from the third floor, across the other cube houses out to the Williamsbrug.
I found this sign entertaining. Since the door is on one of the walls that is leaning in at a 45 degree angle, I suppose it would be pretty painful to let the door slam on your fingers.The Cube House complex is actually a large group of buildings which covers a pedestrian bridge over a major 6 lane road. Inside the complex there are little pedestrian complexes and there are businesses in the "trunk" sections of the buildings. There were accounting businesses, several nail and hair places, and at least one tattoo place. There were lots of potted plants and little miniature-sized work equipment.
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