My Archives: September 2008
9-25-08
Amsterdam
Tasty lunch on the plane (served a hot roll for gosh sakes) +1
Bumped up to Business Class +3
Trip to Haarlem from airport (1 stop from Airport) +1
Internet in hotel +1
Leisure stroll around Haarlem +4
Stempels Hotel (breakfast included) +4
View of the Grote Kerk from hotel window +3
Indonesian dinner +6
Band-aid burn –3
Printed Toilet Paper throughout the city – dolphins/clouds/dogs +2
Train from Haarlem to Amsterdam (two stops, first stop was to get to the airport) +1
Central Station +1
Candy (chocolate/gummy pigs) at Central Station +3
Rain during the day -2
No umbrella, did not buy one, we’re tough) +1
Rick Steve’s Guided Walk
Stock Exchange building (Benis) +1
Dam Square, main center of the city +3
Royal Palace +1
Creepy Wax Museum –1
Nieuve Kerk +1
Sinterklass (Santa Claus) (plaque) +1
National Monument (obelisk) +2
Kalverstraat – pedestrian street with shops +2
Too many American shops –3
Hidden Catholic Church – De Papegaai +2
Orphanage – old lockers and old water pumps +3
Bogijnhof – women in need living space, quiet, serene +5
Rokin - Queen Wilhelmina statue –1
Squi Square – said like cow square. +1
Flower Market – buy some bulbs and seeds +1
Red Herring vendor, but it was closed –2
Smartshop – want to buy drugs? – even
360 degree spins +3
Roman Columns -+1
Stone with “Don’t Piss in the Wind” engraved on it. +2
Large chess board +1
Vondelpark – entrance to a park. Steve was a little high. –1
Van Gogh Museum +5
Finding the entrance to the Van Gogh Museum –2
Weird Security Guy shouting “Obama” –2
Train from Amsterdam to Haarlem (2 stops remember this it’ll make sense down the road) +1
Dinner at Pasta Pasta - +2
Learning what that bowl of water with lemon was for, and by accident used it correctly +1
Had a Misty +3
Bubbles/Foam floating throughout the city at night +4
Grote Kerk Gothic Cathedral
Measurement of giant and a dwarf in the church +3
Cannonball in wall +1
Pendulum unable to find –1
Tombs as the floor of the cathedral +3
Three Little Ships –1
Dog Whipper Statue +1
Huge Organ +2
Clothing Market in Square – liked the idea, but really only fabric was sold there (there is a food market on a different day) +1
According to Kelly, cute guy selling fabric +1
Two stops from Haarlem to Amsterdam (really it’ll make sense why I’m doing this) +1
Jordan Walk
Cheery Cheese lady FREE SAMPLES +5
Skinniest House in Amsterdam +1
Rick Steve explains about Gabels – Bell (duh), Point, Neck, Cornise, Spout +2
DUH +1
Mail Boxes Nee (no) Ja (yes) saying how much junk mail you want +1
Public Urinals on the street +1
Bike ramp down stairs – no caring your bike down/up stairs (for the lazy) +1
Anne Frank’s House – the steep stairs is when it gets you +8
St Andrew’s Hoff – women of need. +3
Creepy woman taking picture of someone’s house at St. Andrew Hoff –2
Red Light District
Went the wrong way and got back to Central Station (train station) before we figured it out (30 minutes or so) –2
Rick Steve warned us of anyone asking “Do you speak English?” As soon as we heard it someone comes up to us and asks if we speak English and if he could have any money. Way to go Rick Steve! +1
Sex Shops – not that crazy –1
Chruch Oude Kerk – has bronzed boobs in the sidewalk +2
Red Light District (alley) – sort of creepy, very narrow, Kelly was the only lady (minus the workers). +1
Cheaper “workers” around the corner (possible race issues?) –4
1580 House – Houses right on the water +2
Locks – in the canals, opens and closes throughout the day to flush the water out of the canal +1
Oudezijds Achterburgual – Dirty Sex St.
There are more than one way to serve a banana by a naked woman.
Elephant statue holing itself +1
No large ejaculating penis –1 or maybe +1 I’m not quite sure.
One woman shaking her thing asking if I was interested, but she was not interested in who I really was –1
Train back from Amsterdam to Haarlem (two stops, the stop in-between is the stop to the airport, trust me I’m paying attention to this) +1
Vincent’s eethus – True Dutch food, which is meat and potatoes. Mashed potatoes with “vegetable”. +2
Gelato +2
Went to bed early for a 7am flight to Barcelona via London. Woke up 3:30 (hour earlier than planned) to catch the first train out. Trouble checking out of hotel (1st sign of trouble (rattle snake noise)). Ran to the train station and caught first train.
First stop, every single time we’ve taken this train the first stop is always the stop to the airport. We get off, don’t recognize anything, Man/Woman on train tells us to take a train back to Haarlem and take a bus, train door closes, train leaves.
No taxis, no buses, we are stranded for 40 minutes. Missed our flight, had to wait about three hours. –7
Three hours in Gathway Airport. Reminded me of a small mall. Bad lighting. –4
Nice attendant on the plane who kept telling us “Well done” after we did any little thing +2Total = 88
Posted by fookayooka @ 11:46 AM CST [Link]
9-23-08
A lot has happened while I’ve been gone. I was going to put up a long post about my trip to Tokyo, but my notes were ruined before I could type it up, and I have no idea how to spell anything I looked at. Just so you know Japan scored quite high, since it was my first time out of the U.S (minus Canada).
Just earlier this month I did go on a trip to a few other countries. Here’s another installment of The Points!London
Day off for evening flight +2
Bus ride to train station -1
El Ride -1
Kelly's wound opening up -3
Flight to London good food +2
Flight to London slept 3 hours resulting in no jet lag +3
Figuring out the Tube fairly quickly +4 (the amount of stress I put on myself navigating around a foreign city is ridiculous!)
Staying in Camden Town +2
The Diner -1
London Walk 1000 Year Old in broken down style!
Big Ben/Houses of Parliament +4
Westminster Abbey +4
Sign for an underground bunker from WW II +5
Lunch/Dinner Shepard’s Pie -3
Churchill's Underground Bunker +8
Cranky American woman asking for directions, kept saying her husband always yells at her, saying how far away is something around the corner, saying the amount of time the kind ticket woman was saying it would take to walk there was too long, but not to worry because she's a fast walker, and why oh why did she have to be at a place to take a picture at 7:30 exactly. -4 but +6 because of the jokes she allowed me to make.
Bar in Camden Town +3
Bartender from Austin +1
Guy from London being creepy and sat down at our table and chatted with us and then gave us his card -2
Closer look at Westminster Abbey +2
Shakespeare Globe (actors, set) +5
The play itself Timon of Athens -1
Tower Bridge +1
Tower of London +3
Queens Jewelry +3
Hamburger -2
Rick Steve did sign the wall though at the Hamburger place +5
Canadian Bellboy went the extra mile +2
Ghost Walk -Walk around London’s West End and heard ghost stories. +3
No problem getting to the airport onward to Amsterdam +3
Total 53I'll do more later on Amsterdam and Barcelona.
Posted by fookayooka @ 02:55 PM CST [Link]
