A not so Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and due to forces of the universe out of my control I was unable to celebrate in any way this year.  We had hoped to only be in Lille for a short time before we went on to Spain for the weekend, but there are several things going on at the moment that would not make our travel possible.

1.      It is a school holiday in France. So all the kids got this last week off of school.

2.      November 1^st is a national holiday which means that it’s a 3 day weekend for everyone. And what do all Europeans love to do on holidays? Travel. And how do most Europeans travel? By train.

So when we tried to book a train a week in advance, they were already booked up in our price zone. We checked flights as well and it was the same story.

3.      There was a change in the law this week regarding retirement age. It went from 60 to 62 and that upset a lot of French people, most of which are government workers. So there is a national strike going on at the moment and it has made it a little more difficult to travel in and out of France. Cancelled flights and trains and buses and such.

So when we tried to get a train in another country, like the Netherlands or Germany, they couldn’t help us because they could not book any trains going through France during the strike.

4.      My passport was stolen and I wasn’t sure if I could get a new one right away or if I would have to wait 2 weeks.

So we had to face the facts that we were stuck in France for the weekend. We were stuck in a country that doesn’t celebrate Halloween. You might be able to find a couple of costume stores in other cities, but in Lille I couldn’t even find a pumpkin to carve. The best we could do was pumpkin soup and I must say it was a little bland. C’est la vie.

            We did do a little bit of exploring on Halloween, so Iza could have some time in her flat by herself. We discovered a little carnival and circus in town, but just walked by. We also found the zoo, which was surprisingly free. So we walked around there and saw some very cute animals like the Red Panda (looks like a raccoon sort of), and Lemurs. It wasn’t a large zoo but they had a pretty good variety of animals.  

            I guess I will just have to live without a traditional American Halloween this year. I guess that’s part of the adventure, doing things differently. 

Red Panda

French Protest at the Lille train station.

I’m Sorry Rick Steves

On the train back to Lille I became a statistic. We took the train from Amsterdam to Antwerp where we switched trains to head back to France. When we got on the train I threw my backpack in the compartment overhead and plopped in my seat. It was a full car with a loud child right behind us so I put in my ear phones and closed my eyes while Randy started to read his book. We had gone through a few stops when I looked up at our bags and saw everything was still there. I tried to relax and get comfortable as we head on but the car got louder with talking and the child started crying so I turned up my music and continued to find a comfortable spot in my chair. Eventually Randy put his arm around me and I leaned into him, resting my head on his chest and I closed my eyes. On the next stop before Lille most people got off and the once full car was almost empty. The train conductor woman came to ask us if our destination was Lille, because if it was, we need to move to the first three cars. So we got up and as I’m putting on my coat Randy says “Where’s your bag?” I’m thinking ‘what do you mean’ because I know it’s up there, but as I look at our bags and see the empty space between his backpack and our food bag, where my backpack used to be, I panic. “Oh my gosh, where’s my bag?!?” “Oh my gosh, my passport was in my bag!”

First we went through denial. It must have been taken by mistake, someone thought it was theirs and grabbed it. Maybe they left it in lost and found. Then I asked the woman what the odds were that I would see my bag again and she said this happens often and I would have to file a police report when we arrived in Lille. I was so mad at myself because I had been wearing my stupid money belt during our entire trip, and that day I didn’t even think to put it on. I saw it several times in my bag pack but no red flags went up.  Rick Steves would be so disappointed in me.

I have a lot of mixed feelings on the issue. On the one hand Randy and I are both very grateful that it was my bag and not his, which has much more valuable things in it. And I know that everything in that bag is easily replaceable, but we didn’t need the extra financial burden to replace those things. Not only do I have to replace my driver license and ATM card but I have to replace my passport at full cost after I just got it in August.  I had just bought new shower stuff too, two days before Amsterdam, which I now have to buy again. Not to mention the stuff I had brought with me that was supposed to last for the whole trip which I will have to repurchase as well. The blowdryer I bought for the trip is gone and now I will have to wait for my hair to air dry before going out in the cold weather. My favorite pj bottoms and the only sweater shirt I brought are now gone. On top of that, the only charger to my mp3 player is gone as well, so no more music or language learning guides. The backpack itself was a commodity since luggage space is very limited on this trip. On the upside, I hated the pair of jeans they took and was planning to burn them as soon as we were ready to come home. So although I am down one precious pair of jeans, I couldn’t be happier to be rid of them. 

I thought I was coming to terms with everything until I discovered a couple days later that my new blackberry was in the bag as well. Like lemon juice to a paper cut, it stung. As I said, it’s all insignificant things that can be replaced and I’m grateful it wasn’t a worse situation but I can’t help but be a little angry still. But they say time heals all wounds, and as each day goes by I think about it less and less.

We went to the embassy in Belgium and got an emergency passport. We filed a police report but basically it’s just to say that my passport was stolen. I wasn’t asked for any description of the bag to try to recover my stolen property. If any bag is found with some sort of identification saying it belongs to a U.S. citizen it will be sent to the embassy and be taken care of from there. So, the chances of ever seeing my belongings again are slim to none. I hate petty thieves.        

What Happens in Amsterdam Stays in Amsterdam

            We were planning to take a day trip to Amsterdam while visiting Lille, but our friends said we should really go for a night to get the most out of it. So on Tuesday we headed north for the Promised Land.  I would describe Amsterdam as the Venice of the North. Not nearly as confusing and maze-like but another beautiful city flourishing along a network of canals. Most of the local shopkeepers are very cordial and happy to help you, despite the large number of tourists they meet each year. Randy unknowingly cut off a person in line and when he apologized for his mistake the man’s reply was, “It’s ok; you are our guest.”  The response was astounding. The one place you are most likely NOT to find courtesy is when you are a pedestrian. From my observations I concluded that the order of importance on the road is as follows: Boat, Bus/Tram, Car, Bicyclist, pedestrian.  A good rule of thumb in Amsterdam and most large European cities, stay out of the bike lane and always look for cars before crossing any street (unless, of course, you are in Switzerland where pedestrians always have the right of way).

            We stayed in a boat hostel which was pretty cool. The water was very calm so we never really noticed a difference from being on a boat and land. Our room was the size of a walk in closet, with a built-in bunk bed, a sink and a small coat closet. It was hard to move around in there but we were out in the city most of the time. We took the canal bus, which was a hop on, hop off type tour boat. We saw most of the city that way but eventually became annoyed with the amount of time in between each bus pick up (which was usually 2 hours for the same line). The city isn’t very big so we managed to see most of it and we even got to walk through a couple of regular street markets. I love the street markets in Europe. I’m going to see what kind of equivalent I can find in the states when I get home.  Anyway, the next morning the rain caught up to us and despite our effort to stay dry and still see the city on the canal bus we ended up getting soaked when we walked back to our boat hostel and then the train station. The distance we had to walk wasn’t far, and the rain wasn’t falling very hard but being in constant wetness for 15-30 minutes will get everything thoroughly soggy.

            Hoping from country to country has made it difficult to communicate at times. By the time we pick up one language we have to start using another. It takes a day or two to stop using the first language by accident and pick up the new keywords/phrases. By the time we are using the correct language it’s time to go to the next country and the cycle repeats itself.  Then we come to the Netherlands where we don’t even begin to know the language.  We don’t know a single Dutch word or even have any sort of language guide or reference book. Thank goodness everyone speaks some form of English (Which has not been the case in France).  

Fun Facts about Amsterdam:

            -There are no tall buildings in Amsterdam because all of the houses were built on soft foundations (planks of wood driven about 34 km into the ground). If air gets into the foundation the wood begins to rot and the house begins to sink.

            -Most of the buildings were designed to learn forward so that the pulley would not damage the building when lifting goods or furniture.

            -The house didn’t have numbers on them until the 18^th century. Before that most houses were recognized by the style of gable and stone face. The style of the house and gable usually told the origin and religion of its occupants. 

            -The length of the total canal network would stretch 63 miles long.

            -They say the canals are 3 meters deep. 1 meter of mud, 1 meter of water, and 1 meter of bicycles. (lol).

            -Almost every single resident owns a bike, so there are roughly a half of a million bikes in Amsterdam alone, and 60-70,000 bikes are stolen each year.

Wining and Dining in Lille

Well, we set off for Lille (which is near the French and Belgian border) on Wednesday, and should have arrived on Wednesday. But after 7 hours on the train, somehow we ended up in Basel, Switzerland (which is no where near the French and Belgian border). I have no idea how that happened, but it did, so we had to wait a few hours in Basel to get a night train to Amsterdam. After a 12 hour night train (sleeping in a reclined chair) we arrived in Amsterdam. From there it was another 3 hour train ride to Lille. We finally arrived and were met by our friends François and Barry.

             François and Barry have been wonderful to say the least. They have welcomed us into their home, and their sister’s home, and their brother’s home, and their mother’s home. We are staying with Barry’s sister, Iza, who lives in the center of Lille, because they live in the country and thought it would be easier for us to get around in the city.  We could not be more grateful to Iza for opening her home to us to giving up her bed.

François’ family owns a couple of restaurants and a large catering company, so we have eaten like kings since we’ve been here. Our first night here we went with his family to a very nice restaurant where we ate our first grand meal. We started with a small cup of crab meat covered in saffron; then appetizers which Randy and I had Foie Gras (goose liver) with diced green apples in sauce; then main course which I had suckling pig with garlic mashed potatoes and Randy had the fillet of skate; which was all delicious. Of course, you can’t eat any meal without dessert and it usually involves chocolate. I’m afraid both Randy and I will have an addiction to chocolate after this trip because every country seems to love it and we have had some very delicious Belgium chocolate since we’ve been here.

            On Saturday we headed to Brussels (Bruxelles), Belgium, with François, Barry, and Iza. The rain managed to catch up with us that day so our sight seeing was limited due to unpleasant weather. But we did stop by the famous peeing boy fountain and we ate a delicious lunch before we set out to see some museums. The first museum we saw was the Museum of Chocolate. Here I learned that Christopher Columbus was supposedly the one to bring back cocoa beans from his fourth trip to the New World. The Aztec chocolate drink he brought back was originally too spicy for European tastes. It had to be refined with sugar cane and other ingredients before it found favor in the royal courts. It was also originally only taken as a drink, hot chocolate, and it was served in its very own designated china cup accompanied with a glass of cold water.  It wasn’t until the mid 1600’s that they started to bake with chocolate and then later introduced eating solid chocolate and then much later (1800’s) made milk chocolate. A lot of the very first chocolate companies started in Belgium, which is why chocolate is such a big deal in their country and it also explains why they are so good at making it. The history of chocolate is a bit more extensive than what I’ve mentioned and is rather interesting, so if you ever care to look it up I would suggest it.  

            We also went to the comic strip museum where I learned that TinTin and the Smurfs were originally Belgian cartoons. There were probably other cartoon comics there that some of you might recognize, but I’m not a big comics fan so those were the only two I could recall from my childhood. It was a fun museum to take pictures in.  After that museum we headed back to Lille and ate another fabulous dinner at one of their restaurants.

            On Sunday we headed to Bruges, where we had planned to take a walking tour through town. That was until we arrived in Bruges and were met by a hail storm. Randy and I felt it was our bad luck that brought the bad weather since hail was very unusual and we seemed to have bad weather following us. The streets, cars, and buildings all looked like they were covered in snow, but it was in fact just small balls of hail about the size of a pea. So we drove through town and turned around. On to plan B which was a large, traditional, winter lunch at François’ mother’s house. I have never eaten so much food in my life. We started our meal with smoked salmon on toast while we waited for lunch to finish cooking. When we sat down to eat we got a large serving of cooked vegetables (I’m talking large, fresh vegetables, cut into quarters; not anything you would get in the frozen food section), veal and pork, and of course bread. I was foolish enough to think that was all we would be eating so I ate every thing on my plate. I was surprised to have my plate cleared and then replaced with a new plate. We then had salad and a variety of cheeses to eat. And then we had dessert, which was a variety of fruit and chocolate pastries. Needless to say I was not hungry for the rest of the day. In fact, I think the meal carried over into the next day, but more on that later. After lunch we said good-bye to his mother and went for an afternoon walk through the country. It did rain a little off and on but it could not damper our cheerful spirits when looking at the beautiful scenery. 

Later that night we had the opportunity to see a couple of buildings François’ family business uses to cater parties in. One of the buildings is an old cathedral. There was a lot of controversy over using the church as a party hall, but if it wasn’t being used it would be torn down. Because church attendance is down in most countries, it is becoming more popular to find new uses for old buildings rather than tearing them down. And let me tell you, it is one very cool building to imagine an elegant banquet in. Unfortunately, they did have to cover the stained glass windows and any other religious objects to avoid upsetting patrons. But after walking through a dozen Catholic cathedrals like this one, it was a phenomenal experience to get to walk through every part of an empty cathedral.

On Monday we got to take a tour of their main catering kitchen. It was very large, with a lot going on from prep to storage to clean up, and an extensive warehouse storage area for decorations, alcohol, waiter uniforms, and linens. After the tour we went to eat lunch at their other restaurant, Le Forte, which is located in an old fort. This fort was designed with a garden/forest built on top of it, so you couldn’t tell it was a fort.  The fort today serves as more of a community center with a library, outdoor theater, and a trail through the rooftop garden, but also houses a couple of business and restaurants. The city owns the fort because the cost of upkeep is very expensive. The roots from the roof top garden have started to break through the brick, so when there is a crack in the brick they have to take out the plants, repair the crack, and then replant. Basically it’s not a quick fix. Anyway, because of the location, this restaurant attracts more of the business type crowd and it doesn’t go by your typical order of operations. It was set up so that you pick your main course from the menu of the day (about 6 options) and then eat your appetizers and desserts from the buffet. Now, don’t be mistaken, this is not a Home Town Buffet, these appetizers and desserts were worthy of a fine dining menu, and enough to eat alone for lunch without a main dish. Unfortunately, I was still full from the lunch the day before so after trying most of the appetizers I couldn’t finish my lamb shank or even try dessert. My stomach wanted to explode. Randy tried a couple of desserts and assured me that they were very delicious.      

Made of Chocolate!

Ich Liebe Berlin! (I love Berlin)

           Berlin is a city with a lot of history and a lot of museums. We didn’t really get to see any of those museums because, although we really wanted to know all the details of the city’s history, we didn’t really have time to get lost in a museum for 6 hours. We didn’t get to see anything on the holocaust but we did see a lot on the Berlin wall, which was incredible.  For those of you who know your history, you can probably skip down to the pictures. For the rest of you I will share with you a bit of what I learned. Again, this will be my reader’s digest version of history but here it goes: After WWII, Berlin was split into four parts; the East was put under the control of the Russians, while the West was split between France, the U.K., and the U.S.A. Within the next decade or so, there was a huge migration from East Berlin to West Berlin, making the East lose about 1/6 of its population. The government freaked out which led to a wall being built on Aug 13^th, 1961. The wall blocked its citizens off from the West by way of the streets, the river, and the metro stations. Every time someone escaped they would reinforce the wall, leading to what was known as the “death strip”.  Basically you had to get over a first wall, lined with barbed wire, then run across a barren patch of dirt perfectly lit with street lights and patrolled around the clock by gunmen on foot and in a guard tower. If you made it that far you still had to scale the final wall which was something like 12 feet high. And if that wasn’t enough, they eventually upgraded the final wall with a rounded top so you couldn’t really grasp the top and pull yourself up. (That was a very vague description, I know, but you can check out the pictures.) If you were caught trying to escape they would not try to catch you, they would just shoot you dead. To make matters worse, about a third of the victims were children. Just makes you wonder how the government could possibly think that locking their citizens inside the city would make them want to stay there. The wall was finally torn down in November, 1989, only 20 years ago.

            This bit of history should always be a reminder of how the government can use fear and propaganda to keep its people in check (sound familiar?). They have constant reminders of those dark times (the wall and the holocaust) all over the city, because they don’t want to forget and repeat history.  If you want to watch a German film that takes place in East Berlin during this time I would recommend “The Lives of Others”. This movie isn’t so much about people trying to escape but more about the Stasi (State Security who had one informant/spy for every 66 citizens). When the wall fell, the Mfs records that were being kept on citizens were released, exposing most informants who were co-workers, friends, spouses, and relatives (which torn society apart). Again, it’s a German film with subtitles but it’s a good story.

            Other than the sobering memorials, the city is very upbeat and young; In fact, you are not likely to find a dull moment. Besides the monuments and museums, there are a ton of night clubs and bars that are open until early morning, so the trains and buses run all night long too. We had no problems finding a midnight snack and doing a bit of late night sight seeing, which was perfect for us as night owls.  We tried the local’s favorite snack, Curry wurst. Basically, it is wurst (sausage) sliced and covered in a curry sauce and seasoning. Mit Pommes (with fries), you get a pile of french fries on top of your Curry wurst smothered in ketchup and mayo. They really love a giant glob of mayonnaise and ketchup with their fries. Anyway, Curry wurst is so big in Berlin that they have an interactive museum all about the history of Curry wurst. We did not visit the museum but I’m sure it is a blast. Back to food: There are a lot of Turkish people in Germany so there is a lot of Turkish food available as well. We tried a Döner gyro which is mutton (I believe) with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, sauce and some herbs. Very delicious!

            Everything is relatively inexpensive in Berlin, which is just another reason to love it. If you take the metro just a few stops from the city center you are able to get two Curry wurst mit pommes and a drink for around €5. Amazing! We may just have to spend the rest of our trip in Berlin. Then we might be able to afford a museum or two J

            We stayed at another hostel but it was nothing like our last experience. This hostel was huge (900 beds) and very modern (like living in an Ikea catalog). And this time we tried the mixed dorm experience (where you just rent a bed in a room of several beds). So we shared our room with two girls from Italy. They were very nice but we hardly saw them because we didn’t spend much time in our room. This hostel tried to be very trendy with parties and events for their guests to go to (for example: bingo night, walking tours, themed parties, pub crawl, etc.). We went down to their bar on our last night to play some pool and it was pretty busy, especially on the dance floor. Randy made some friends with an odd mix of Europeans who had met the night before. The group consisted of 1 Dane, 1 Pole, and 1 Welshman, two of which had come to Berlin to look for jobs. Our overall experience at the hostel wasn’t bad at all. Except when I did laundry, something in my load gave all my whites a blue tint.

            We did spend one day visiting the medieval city of Magdeburg, which is a 1½ hour train ride from Berlin. I was on a mission to see the water bridge in person. Years ago, when I was at work, I received a chain letter e-mail (office people, you know those kinds of chain letters I’m talking about) that showed pictures of a new water bridge that had been constructed to carry cargo ships and boats over a river. The water bridge works similarly to the Panama Canal, but it’s much cooler. ‘Water Bridge, Magdeburg, Germany’; Google it.  Well after finding the tourist office in Magdeburg we were informed that it is almost impossible to get to the bridge by foot or public transportation. After months of built up anticipation, my dreams of seeing the majestic water bridge were dashed.  So we went shopping instead.  I actually needed new boots. Although I Scotch guarded my boots before this trip, it seems I did not do a good enough job because I can only walk for about 30 minutes in the rain before my socks are wet. And I must constantly be on watch for puddles. So I found a nice pair of rain boots and now I can run around in the rain to my hearts content.

            Alas, all good things must come to an end. On Wednesday morning we set out for Lille, France. It’s a good thing we left that day because a storm rolled in and it was raining all day.  I think this storm is following us because each country we arrive in the weather is perfect for the first two days and then a storm rolls in. At first we weren’t staying in one place long enough to really be effected, but when we stayed for one entire week in Rome, it rained almost everyday we were there. So we will see if the rain will follow us to France or Spain.