May 2006

Here I am in Malta, waiting for my plane to Cairo. It seems a little crazy to me that I've already made it this far without any major problems or mishaps.....

...well except for falling in the lake last night while riding Jolanda's brother's bike. Just wait til you see the picture that was taken after it happened... (featured soon.. haha)

So here's the story...

No one felt like riding their bikes with me so I decided, you know what? I'll go by myself! I need a little independence.... but little did I know I would independently fall from the bike and in to the murky, swamp behind her house. Europeans are tall. Her brother is probably about 6'4 which means he has long legs. Following so far? Long legs mean the seat and the pedals are VERY far apart, which means my short little body and legs don't quite reach the pedals....apart from the tips of my toes.
Add a narrow bridge in the middle of a nasty, fishy swamp to the mixture and the recipe equals disaster. A smelly, wet, girly disaster.

When I realized I wasn't going to be able to turn the corner on the narrow bridge because I couldn't reach the pedals, I freaked out (not wanting to fall in the swamp, you see) and tried to jump off the bike and onto the bridge (no, not into the swamp). I missed and landed in the lake. The scenario was not as gruesome as it could have been even though I did come out with a fairly large bump on my head when the bike...well... landed on my head (sheez this is embarrasing). I managed to land somehow in a bed of nasty, slurpy, swampy seaweed and only one side of my body was at one point, fully submerged in sickly Holland swamp water. The other side was, YAY, dry. So I pulled the bike out of the water with seaweed hanging from the handle bars and ...yes... walked back to the house where I was laughed at by Jolanda and her family... of course.

Anyway, I recovered... physically, although maybe not completely my pride and somehow I made it to Malta.

The title of this post was to assume = doom and I presume everyone would be happy if I stopped babbling and got on with it. I've assumed a lot of things in the past couple days some of which have gotten me into more trouble than others:

1. I assumed Kijelt (Jolanda's friend) wouldn't drink a whole bowl full of thick sweet onion and chili sauce, meant for dipping food in, for 5 Euros. It took him awhile, but I lost that bet.

2. I assumed I would be able to ride a bike that I could barely reach the pedals

3. I assumed that I was in Valletta, Malta when I got off the bus in a very populated, yet small metropolis. Only an hour later when I read the sign that said "Paolo Police" did I realize that I was still 20 mins outside of the city I actually wanted to go to. No wonder the map didn't make any sense and I couldn't find the Ocean! Holy embarrasment, batman!

... and just in case you're ever in Malta and riding public transport, the bus drivers like to honk at each other on the rode which often scares the bejeezus out of us country folk who are unfortunately stuck in the circumstance of riding formentioned bus...

4. I assumed because Malta was an Island it would have BEACHES. I packed my sunscreen, bikini and towel in my carry on so I could just hike to the beach on my layover. I start talking to the couple beside me and we get talking about how I'm only in Malta for about 7 hours and I tell them I'm gonna find a beach and go to it.... They respond with "A beach? It's all rock. There's only a couple beaches in Malta and none of them are around Valletta." Here I'm thinking, oh blah... what do they know.... UNTIL we approach Malta from the air and I see that INDEED, the ENTIRE exterior of the island is beautiful, solid, ROCK lined shores. Oh, blah.

And now my internet time is running out so I leave you with the moral of my story:
Don't assume..... or your vocab will be reduced to two words, like mine: OH, BLAH

Much Love
Krysten

Hello everyone!

Yes, yes I know it's been awhile. I've just been having way too much fun!

This weekend we went to Amsterdam and Jolanda and I met up with Erin from Canada who's on co-op in Germany. We had tons of fun and stayed at Jolanda's uncle's place who is only 26 and well... gorgeous. Haha. E-ron and I:

So here we were in Amsterdam shopping in the markets and I see this stand specializing in tea... and I think to myself, ".I have a friend who likes tea!" So I go in there and I buy some loose tea mix and a metal tea thinger that you put the tea in and then ya put in the water. Following?

Everything is peachy until I see Jolanda and show her what I bought. She takes a double glance at the package and suddenly bursts into laughter, "You bought BATHSALTS" she manages to get out between gusts of laughter. So basically, I was going to poison my friend with bathsalts instead of tea, cool. We ended up going back to the shop where Jolanda explained to the shopkeeper that I didn't understand Dutch, watched the shopkeeper also stifle his laughter and then was able to switch the bathsalts with actual tea. Heh.

Later on that night we went to the red light district which was so surreal. Skinny little girls standing in windows the size of a door with a tiny narrow room behind them would wait for guys to come up to their window. When the curtain was shut it meant a guy was in there with them. Sex was everywhere... it was pretty crazy.

Amsterdam is jam packed with canals throughout the city, so every corner basically looks like the last with a canal thrown in just to confuse you a little bit more. It's VERY pretty though and VERY packed full of tourists and well... people.

Tall houses characterize Amsterdam and allow the city to just pack more and more people in on top of each other. The houses are so narrow that little hooks exist on the top of each roof so that you can attach a lever system to lift things to the higher Bringing a couch up those stairs would simply be impossible.

Bikes are EVERYWHERE and the older and more junky, the better. Granny bikes, they call them. Biking paths are everywhere and watch out, they have the right of way!

So I'm off to Egypt tomorrow with a 8 hour stop in the island paradise of MALTA! So hopefully I'll get out of the airport with just enough time to lie in the beautiful foreign sun! Heh.
Ah yes, and my hair is a completely different colour; getting used to it is proving to be quite difficult. I'm hoping I look a tiny bit more like an Egyptian with my hair dark, although I'm sure when I speak absolutely no Arabic they'll realize I'm just a silly North American...

See you all in Egypt!

Much love,
Krysten

My goodness, my goshness.
You should SEE what I bought today.

Alright, so you know how the whole European Union goes wild when they hear the mention of soccer? Well, the World Championships are coming up as you should know and every country goes nuts. Orange, The Netherlands national colour is on EVERYTHING and party favours, orange clothing and etc are everywhere already.
So here I was in the store today and I saw "NEDERHOSEN" Politically incorrect, of course; though hilarious, all the same. They are bright orange leiderhosen which directly mock Germany. Perfect, as the dutch aren't too fond of Germans. A picture will follow in only a couple days time... when we get up the courage to actually put them on.

So basically days in Katwijk (a town in the Netherlands) go by hanging out with Jolanda's friends, touring the town of Katwijk, eating and me pointing to something everÿ two seconds and saying "Vat is dat?"(Dutch for what is that? Hard, I know!)in an attempt to learn more Dutch.

The Katwijk museum was great. A little town on the sea, Katwijk is famous for sending its men off to sea while the women wait for them and make their fishing nets. Of course while not to the same extent as in the past, Katwijk still survives mainly based on its fishing industry.

Here I am 100 years ago, strangely modern, with the ladies making nets. What a good wifey I'd be...

Oh, and pumping water to make dinner. Sheesh, I'm fricken'amazing, eh? No cake mixes here!

Of course Jolanda had to demonstrate how old fashioned dutch boat toilets work....

And I accidently got a 30 minute history lesson in the dutch dialect of Katwijk when I unknowingly sat on a bench sensor in a makeshift beach hut (scattered all over the beach of Katwijk and are intended for you to leave your belongings in while you swim) which activates the very loud story. Basically, the whole museum staff glares at you when you set off the sensor.

The bench in the beach hut:

and the silly dutch it read from for a half hour:

Oh, and then we went on a three day cruise to Africa. The Captain died so Jolanda and I had to steer the ship there and back...

I lie....

Last night we went to The Holland Casino in The Hague. On the way through The Hague we passed landmarks such as the World's Supreme Court of Justice and the infamous Prison which holds criminals such as Hussein and the now deceased Milosovich. It was pouring too hard to get photos unfortunately and frankly the buildings weren't too exciting. The Prison was only high brick walls with a single black, heavily fortified door.

The Casino was a bust of course, Jolanda and I limited ourseleves to $20 Euro and spent most of our time on the penny machines to make ourselves believe that we weren't actually spending the money that should in fact be feeding and clothing us. Haha... The highlight of our night was probably when a guy walked away from his machine with a balance of 140.00 Euro and we convinced ourselves he wouldn't come back to which we began planning our future on 70 Euro each. Of course, he came back... Blah.

Tomorrow Jolanda and I are going to Amsterdam for the weekend! Yayyyyy. Erin is meeting us at the bus station and the weekend should be fun, fun, fun!

And of course I must end this with a picture of my wonderful hosts! Jolanda and her mum!

Hai!

Ik ben gut! Ik ben in Katwijk in de Nederlands!

We have been very lazy so far! Jolanda picked me up from the airport and I had bought her Irish chocolates from Ireland but surprise, surprise... I forgot them on the plane! Just like I always forget everything on planes!

I have also forgotten my passport on the plane in Australia (thankfully I ran back to get it in time and had to search through the garbage! Yeck!) and my Nike running shoes on my flight back from Haiti. At least I didn't lose my plane tickets this time! That would be the ultimate nightmare.

Today, Jolanda and I made a chocolate cake! They don't have chocolate cake mix here though so we had to make it with a vanilla cake mix and put cocoa in it... sweeeeet

Gas here is INSANE. It averages about 1.40 Euros per litre which is more than $2.00 Canadian per litre!

The beach is only about a kilometre from Jolanda's house...

Tomorrow we are going to The Hague where Sadam Hussein is on trial and then to the casino at night! We're planning on going to either Germany or Belgium sometime this week as well, so soon we will be busy, busy, busy!

Hopefully everything is well with all of you and you all are having a great summer! I almost wish I were in Canada now because the weather is so cold everywhere I go! Hah...

Love
Krysten

What a brilliant and rainy country Ireland is!

It has rained every single day at one point or another and usually for the majority of the day! Although it seems that every time I've really wanted to see something the weather is just good enough to go out. It's awesome how it's been working out.

The past couple of days have been quite a blur!

I went to Cork county and kissed the famous Blarney Stone! Yes, folks... I now have the gift of gab. Oh gawd, you're probably thinking, "She's going to talk MORE?!" My answer to that is YES!

So there I am. Legend has it you have to lean down and arch your back ridiculously while someone holds you (appointed by the government) so you don't fall to your death and the government won't be sued. I think falling face first from the Blarney castle could be quite possibly the worst way to die.... :S

Beautiful, eh? Blarney Castle at it's finest...

Cork was alright. On Friday night at the hostel, an American and I proposed Scrabble. English Scrabble. We were the only English speakers. It was hilarious! Half of the Germans, Austrians and Polish kids had no clue how to play and would try to build words upside down so reading top to bottom it said "ERIF" and we'd be all up in their faces "That's not a word! That's not a word!" and they'd say "Yes! Look! FIRE!"

On Friday night we went out to a traditional Irish bar for a bit and I tried Guinness which I believe may be a thick brew of fermented guinea pig. Just a thought. It was great fun with my hostellers! Yes.. this is our version of "We are Chinese tourists!"

On Saturday, Andreas (A German guy travelling alone) and I went to Kinsale

which was about an hour from Cork city and went on a 20 km hike out to Charles Fort, an old military fort used to defend Kinsale Harbour.

The trek was ridiculous at times, so we named ourselves team Canger (Canada-Germany) to make it through the rough, narrow, smelly, prickly parts with enthusiastic encouragement from me!

"You can do it Andreas! Just a little further... but um.. uhh... don't look up!" "There's no mud up here, I *coughs* swear! It's only a bit farther!"

It turned out to be incredible though when we finally got to the very isolated tip. It felt like no one had ever been there before. We talked about how much we missed our boyfriend/girlfriend and how nice it would have been to have them there! I missss my boyyyfrieeeennnddd....

And now I am back in Dublin... preparing to fly out tomorrow morning to see Jolanda in Amsterdam and am staying in the SKETCHIEST hostel EVER! I'm trying to waste time so I don't have to go back!

Mucho Love!
Krysten