Where There's A Waterfall, There's A Way

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

I got to my new hostel today which is near the bus station and I can easily walk there to catch my bus to Cork County tomorrow morning at 8am...

The new hostel has not one english speaking person, I swear.... It took me 5 minutes to get across my point when I stupidly stated "It's hot in here, eh?" to a German girl. She looked at me blankly and the next 5 minutes were spent explaining with frantic hand motions and waving my arms wildly around my head until finally, " Oh... HOTTTT. Jah!" Or something like that.

So I guess tonight I'll actually have some down time and chill or read a book or something. Boring! I know!

Mom and I before I go on the plane!

So I board the plane to Ireland which smells like booze and find my seat. A few minutes later a couple of yellow-teethed, middle aged, drunk Irishmen sit down. I'm seat A and they're C & D. If you know planes that means the seat next to me is vacant... So anyways, the first gentleman sits down (or rather, falls) and the second sits beside me to which is friend says "Mate, your seat is over here" and his friend says "Shuttup, I waont tew sait he-yah"... These guys turn out to be hilarious and we're talking for awhile when I ask them if they're travelling together and Petig says "Yeah, but we're not gay, you know." HAhh... boys are boys everywhere I guess, always confirming their masculinity A couple minutes later Petig tells me he's a butcher and then asks me if I like horses... I answer "Yeah, why?" He says... "Cuz I kill em" and starts laughing...

This morning two guys from my hostel and I walked to the Oscar Wilde Monument which features Oscar Wilde spread out on a rock looking all.. for lack of a better word, sensual O.0 .... So Ben climbs up on the statue and lays across Oscar Wilde's lap just as a bus full of teenage Asian girls is passing through and they're all giggling and covering their mouths, probably saying "Wakachi yang ka fong yo!" or some other interpretation of "Look! Oscar Wilde is spanking some American boy's bum!!!" Bet that tour guide was at a loss of words explaining the statue of Oscar Wilde.

BEFORE he flipped over into the bum UP position!

So Ben saw the tour bus watching him and began blowing kisses and winking at the girls, with them all pointing at him, giggling and blowing kisses back. I guess girls will be girls everywhere... Heh..

Hello! It is sooo exciting here...

I arrived Wednesday morning to a pouring city and arrived frazzled and with frizzy hair to my hostel like 2 hours later. ANYONE that knows me knows that I am super stupid when it comes to directions and generally too proud to ask for directions. So I didn't. Until an hour later after walking many street multiple times. The streets here are CRAZY. They all change into different names along the same road like 5 times within 3 blocks......

I've only got 8 minutes left on this computer so I'm typing like mad.... ignore spelling mistakes or I shall probably put an irish curse on you. I'm kidding, I don't know any irish curses.....

I do know one cool story though....
I went to Dublin castle today and went on a guided tour with a girl and two guys I met from my hostel (americans! BLECK! haha). So anyway, we went on a guided tour (cheesy, I know) through the huge amazing castle and the tour guide pointed out this insane huge carved and decorated table that took this Irish prisoner 7 years to make. Supposedly prisoners sometimes would make gifts for the English queen and if she liked the gift she would keep it and grant the prisoners a royal pardon....

So he presented it and she didn't like it... In the 1800's Ireland was going through a spiritual exploration phase, hypnotism and etc.... The queen assumed that a spiral in the middle of the table was supposed to hypnotize her into freeing the prisoner so she refused the gift and granted the prisoner 4 more years in gaol...

Ick, eh?

Well my time is about to run out... More later today, or tomorrow!

PS: IRELAND IS AMAZING!

Pictures to come.....