St Kitts

Well, St. Kitts isn't a European location, but I went there with Mom and Dad for the Christmas break in the middle of my European adventure, so I guess it's worth a mention. After 8 hours of delays, a cancellation, 3 more hours of delays, a flight to Atlanta, a brief stop at the BCG Christmas party, a flight to Miami and a flight to the Carribean, I finally made it there...

not a bad view

The island itself was really cool as it was basically the tip of a mountain in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean / Caribbean - probably the first place I've been to that's like that. It was a really small island and the place we were staying was at a point on the island that's only ~ 1/4 mile wide, so that was pretty cool.

view of the beach / hotel from the mountain

I climbed the mountain to take the above picture and I also found the other side, which was basically completely green and not built up. You can see the deserted private beach there as well, pretty cool (you can also see the narrowness of the island there too).

We went a bunch of random places for dinner, one of which had a view of Nevis (the other island in the country of St. Kitts and Nevis) and another which had a cool view of the Basseterre bay - I don't have pics of any of those, sorry. Overall a really cool island, with some very nice, warm weather to give a break to the snow in Amsterdam (and Atlanta!).

Yikes

So the hotel that I stayed in just 5 short days ago was getting molotov cocktails and rocks thrown at it by rioters yesterday. The fireball in the very beginning of this video is actually on the steps of our hotel. Most of the fire bombs and rioting that they show is happening in the square which was right in front of the hotel (and also in front of the Parliament building, which I guess is the reason for the location). All of the shots from up high are actually from the rooftop that we ate at and took pictures from.

Really scary to think of how close we were to coming across this... something to be thankful for these holidays.

Opa!

Continuing the streak of travelling cool places around Europe on the weekend, I went to Athens, Greece this past weekend. I was excited to see a new city/country, have some good Greek food and get some warmer weather. The sights were great, and so was the food, but the weather wasn't quite as warm as I was expecting... considering it was snowing when we got in on Friday and pretty much all day Saturday. I think it snows like once every 5 years there, but we managed to get it on the lucky weekend.

While it was cold on Saturday, the weather was actually really nice on Sunday, and it didn't really effect our sightseeing. Becky was a little under the weather (haha ha...  ha...), so we didn't go too crazy walking around, but I think we saw all the good stuff anyways. "The good stuff" included:

the Temple of Olympian Zeus

the original Olympic Stadium (refinished for the 2004 Games)

the temple and the stadium (in the back) from the Acropolis

the Theater of Dionysus

and the Parthenon

We discovered that they didn't charge admission to the Acropolis (which has the Parthenon and Theater of Dionysus in/on it), which I thought was strange. Considering the state of the Greek economy it seemed like they could've used the cash flow...

We also saw some pretty cool stuff just walking around the city - some cool markets, the changing of the guard at the Parliament building, a bunch of little Greek cafes, and about 139847534987 dogs and cats roaming the streets. I don't know what it is about Athens, but there are stray animals everywhere - kind of strange, but I guess kind of fitting for a place whose economy is going down the drain...

this meat market had everything hanging around: whole pigs, cow livers, every kind of olive you could imagine, and even rabbits that were completely skinned except for the fluffy tail sticking off the back

Ruins are everywhere, this was just a random block in a neighborhood

Procession marching towards Parliament (note the stray dog tagging along in front)

ceremonial changing of the guard

dog chillin on top of the Acropolis. I'm fairly certain he was alive.

cat playing around on the Acropolis, they're everywhere I tell you!

We also got pretty lucky that our hotel had an awesome view of the city and the Acropolis. We went to the incredibly overpriced restaurant on the roof a few times just for the view.

view of the Acropolis from the hotel

...and at night

And Fivos, if you're reading this we found your hotel and jewelry store in case you were wondering

ok, so it's spelled differently, whatever

All in all a good weekend. Now it's time to start planning next year's trips!

Ski season!

A little while ago a friend of mine from work mentioned he was going skiing in Austria, so I decided to join him and his other friend Chris (who also works at BCG, but in Munich). We were originally going to go to Zurich and ski in Davos, but a winter storm ended up making it too difficult to get there (the snow was good for skiing, but not so much for travelling) so we ended up flying to Munich and then driving to Fügen, Austria.

View of Fügen from the hotel 

Nick, my BCG friend is based in Dubai, but he's currently working in Australia (where he also grew up) and I worked with him in New York - but despite our travel resumes neither of us really speak German so it was good we had two other German speakers with us to help navigate. After flying into Munich Friday afternoon, we drove out to Fügen that night and got settled into our hotel. The snow the previous week really did help us out as it was the first weekend of the season but there was already plenty of fresh powder and open runs.

winter wonderland

Nick and (other) Chris, with the valley in the background

We ended up getting pretty good weather on Saturday too, with it being sunny most of the morning and then getting a little more snow in the afternoon. After a full day of skiing we rested for a bit, then got dinner and went out to the only club in the valley, whose name apparently translates to English as 'Bathtub'. Not the most promising name for a place of nightlife, but we ended up having a fun time. Fun enough that none of us were able to get up in time to ski the next day... It ended up working out well though, because we just headed back to Munich and me and Nick were able to do a little exploring in the city. This time of year they have a huge Christmas market sprawled throughout the central area of the city, so we strolled through that, checked out the shops, and got some tasty German treats.

The Christmas Market goes right through Marienplatz, in front of the city hall

After a few hours of that we met up with another of Nick's friends who lives in the city for a bite to eat, then headed to the airport and to our separate destinations. Another good weekend in the books.

Dining in the dark

I was a little lazy about posting the last two weeks, so time to update on a few happenings.

Last weekend all the associates in the office went to this restaurant that does dining in the dark, and it's basically exactly what it sounds like. After rounding up your group, they have you stand in single file with your hand on the person in front of you's shoulder, then they lead you past a series of thick drapes into a completely dark room. And when I say completely dark I mean COMPLETELY dark - I couldn't see anything. As a matter of fact it was weird because I kept kind of seeing things, kinda like when you close your eyes and you can kind of see little bits of color, but nothing was actually there. Hard to explain.

Anyways, they then proceeded to serve us a 3 course dinner. All the waiters at the restaurant are actually legally blind, so they are much more comfortable walking around with plates of food in a pitch black room - so that was a cool twist. The point is supposed to be that you focus more on the food and appreciate it more when you aren't distracted by what you're eyes are seeing, but I think it may have just distracted me more with what my eyes weren't seeing. It's also quite difficult to eat things off a plate when you can't see them, as you might imagine. It was a cool experience, though probably not something I would go out of my way to do often again.

After that we all went out to a club in Amsterdam. It's set in an old newspaper factory, so it was basically a huge warehouse, with random printing presses and other printing materials strewn about. It was also the first club I've ever been to that said I was dressed too nice to get in - this is definitely not New York...

All in all a good weekend.

The streak ends...

Yesterday I saw my first bike accident in Amsterdam. I guess it was bound to happen eventually, especially with all the ice on the roads, but still pretty amazing that I was able to go a month without seeing one.

This poor girl that was riding her bike last night put on the brakes right as she was going over an icy patch, the rear wheel slid out from under her, and she completely bit it. Ouch. Let's hope I stay away from the same fate.

Barcelona

Last weekend I went to Barcelona to meet up with friends, use some free Starwood nights and get some (slightly) warmer weather. When I got in it was cold and wet, but ended up being pretty awesome weather the rest of the weekend.

not a bad view from the hotel

not a bad view of the hotel

Becky made the trip down from London, and we did some obligatory sightseeing during the day.

la segrada familia

the huevo building (ok, I made that one up)

a naked dude

OK, we didn't really come here looking for that last one, but we ended up seeing plenty of them regardless. I'd heard of the whole topless beach thing, but never got wind of the bottomless part. For some some reason only old men seem to take advantage of it. We decided to get some cava to take our minds off of it.

cava on the beach

very picturesque

Shashank, who I worked with over the summer, is studying abroad in Barcelona, so we met up with him that night. He brought along some friends and we all went out with Shashank showing us the town.

the ladies at dinner

the guys

this seems to be a theme...

 

 

and the beachfront club

On Sunday we just hung out, recovered, got some paella, and headed back to our respective cities. Not a bad weekend.

my blog is big business

I decided to put ads on this site, not because I actually think I'm going to make any money, but more because I'm curious as to how much traffic one requires to get a check. I'm almost certain I won't have enough to get even $0.01, or whatever the minimum is that they'll write a check for, but why not...

I hope my vast horde of followers that's reading this isn't too annoyed (ha).

biking to work

So today I had my first experience ever biking in a suit. These are the things that happen when you move to Holland...

That said, it worked out perfectly fine, so maybe they aren't all too crazy.

Bikes, bikes and more bikes

Probably the most striking thing about Amsterdam is the shear number of bikes that you see. They're everywhere - you can't find a street that doesn't have dozens of them on bike racks, on the sidewalk, chained to lightposts and around trees.

The rush hour in Amsterdam is quite a sight. Imagine a regular rush hour with lots of car traffic, plus hundreds of bikes flying by in every direction. The city is really well designed for bikes with separate bike lanes and bike traffic signals, but it's still pretty hectic (even for me who bikes a lot and biked around Boston for 4 years).

Biking is so ingrained in the culture here too. People are so natural on their bikes, and they do any number of things while they're cycling - carry someone sitting on the rear wheel rack, talk on the phone, carry an umbrella...

carry their kids (that's one on the front and one on the back you see here)....

and you even see a bunch of special bikes that are built for carrying groceries, babies or whatever cargo you need to bike with (that's a kid carrying an umbrella in the basket of the one below)...

Some intersections will have multiple roads, multiple bike lanes and multiple tram lines intersecting, but everyone on bikes just kind of rides wherever with no discernible traffic rules, it's kinda crazy. With all the people listening to iPods and talking on the phone and carrying babies and/or groceries while they're riding around it's amazing that I haven't even seen one accident yet after over two weeks. Plenty of close calls, but not one collision or fall. We'll see how long that lasts, but still pretty amazing regardless. I'm secretly hoping that the first accident I see involves someone riding into a canal... and that person isn't me.

So to fit in I had to get a bike of my own. Behold the vehicle that I purchased, which looks like it might have been manufactured any number of decades ago:

It's funny though - for all the bikes around, they pretty much all look like this. They all look really old and beaten up, and they're all cruisers - it's pretty rare to see a mountain bike or road bike, which is all you see in the US. Despite the look of it, my bike seems to be holding up pretty well, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way....

Apartment!

I was lucky to find an apartment that I could move into only 4 days after flying over. After looking around at about 6 places I decided on this one.

It's definitely more room than I need, but it was also the cheapest place that I looked at... so that worked out. That said, it's definitely still expensive - especially compared to Atlanta, yikes! It's ok though as it's a great location from everything I can tell and it'll have plenty of room for when people come and visit.


View Larger Map

And it's a good thing the place was furnished, because I would not want to be moving furniture up these stairs...

Anyways, I'm happy to have found a good place and be settled in - now I'll just have to do some exploring around the neighborhood...

Een Blog!

Hey folks!

For those of you that don't know I'm living in Amsterdam, Netherlands for the next 9 months with my company's Associate Abroad program, and I've decided to write a blog to chronicle my time here. Chances are I'll start off posting a lot and then it will trail off as time goes on (like every other one of these blogs ever...), but I'll try my best to keep it up.

So follow the blog and keep up with what I'm doing!

(oh, and the title of the blog is Dutch for "I'm living in Amsterdam for a year..." in case you were wondering - though it's entirely possible that it's not grammatically correct...)