today's distressing discovery..

zima has been discontinued.

sally, scotland +.. stuff

we've been home for just over a week and are not missing manchester quite yet. our insane landlady sally [who has a name like sally anyhow?] keeps bringing up nonsense regarding our recently vacated flat.. like the dirty oven or the cracked fridge shelf. anyhow.. having more than two numbers saved in my mobile phone and spending the afternoon sneezing my way through value world beats our fancy bathroom and all the ever-present smell of pasties any day.

our last few days in the uk were spent drinking with wise old men in howarth then exploring rainy edinburgh and glasgow. it was a fitting send off and i will post photos when i figure out where my camera has gone.

now we are both enjoying autum while looking for employment and spending lots of time with henry-dog and lucy-cat.. and friends and family.

and i have been watching a lot of cable and drinking carlo rossi. two of my favorite things.

and this is the worst idea ever.

cologne, amsterdam, brussels, bruges, frankfurt, munich + berlin

this trip actually happened 12-26 august and photos are here. i took notes but they don't make any sense. this might be painful to follow..

day 1
according to my notes we ate tacos for breakfast then went to the bank to pay rent. the first train to the airport was canceled [as usual] but we made it in time to relax and eat boots sandwiches for lunch. i actually remember i got a [supposed] mexican three-bean wrap that had ploughman’s-style pickle on it. very strange. anyhow, since we bought the cheapest possible no-frills tickets with ryanair, our plane was incredibly tiny and cramped.. there wasn't even a seat back tray table. it wasn't bad for peter or i as we are fairly normal sized, but there was a giant 6-5''+ guy next to us that must have been in hell. it only took 90 minutes and we were in bremen [bremen is also known as the "the city of trams", fyi]. we then took a speedy tram[!] to the main train station where we are again, this time sandwiches from the wonderful nordsee. one pickled herring with onions [bad breath city] and one smoked salmon with hard boiled egg. using out very thrifty euro rail passes, we hopped on the first [giant, comfy and mostly empty] train and napped on the way to cologne.

in cologne we stayed at the station hostel for backpackers, about a five minute walk from the station. we made our beds then walked towards the university. there were tons of people riding bikes in cologne. they were mostly between 20 and 30 and adorable. if people were not riding bikes they were walking around drinking beers. it was a tuesday night. i wished for a few moments that i lived in cologne. we sat outside and ate dinner at restaurant magnus. the food wasn't very good [kind of like tgi fridays but less deep fried] but it was in an excellent people watching location. after dinner we bought ourselves some beers and, since it was our only night in town, wandered around for miles. we got rained on, walked along the river front and got lost in a construction site then went to bed.

day 2
for breakfast we bought sunflower rolls and soft cheese and made sandwiches then found then wandered back towards the rhine. eventually we found rhine river stadt, a riverfront park that was obviously designed in the 50s. there was even a very rat-pack-esque bar with lounge-ish beach chairs and stage overlooking the river.

for lunch we went back into town and bought expensive miniature cheese sandwiches and watched the living statues. our favorite was batman.. it looked like a halloween costume from meijer and the person in it was either an extremely tiny adult or a entrepreneurial child. we then went back to the hostel to get luggage on got on a train to amsterdam. when we got off the train it was particularly crowded so we just followed the mob into town. we stayed at the flying pig downtown hostel. it was another of those bar/hostels with a no-shoes-allowed chill area. with lots of strange dangling light fixtures. it made no sense. but we did get a giant wooden double-sized bunk bed so that was sweet.

we wandered a while around town trying not to get run down by the even more beautiful bike-riders. seriously everyone was adorable and there was a lot of double-riding going on as well. eventually we escaped to a quiet-ish road along one of the canals and sat in a coffee shop listening to stoner music and drinking excellent lattes. i do remember a couple of stoners sat next to us playing an unbelievably slow game of chess. it was strange. for dinner we ate at a very crowded moaz falafel place. i hope wherever we end up living has one of these nearby. you pay for a falafel then get to fill and re-fill it with yummy veggies including tomato salad, mixed [real, not pitted] olives, marinated carrots, etc, etc. it is the best idea because you can just keep eating as much as you like.. and i like to eat lots. after that we were so happy we actually braved our hostel for cheap happy-hour beers. we ended up getting free hoegartens and lounged outside listening to more stoner talk. when it got good and dark we wandered out to where it had been madness earlier in the day and enjoyed the tiny shops and amazing houses. before bed we had beers at a tiny, dark belgian bar then shared another falafel and ended the night with a stroll the red light district.

day 3
we woke up super early to take full advantage of the hostel breakfast which included warm hard boiled eggs, croissants and coffee [out of a machine, but not terrible]. we then set off to find conditioner for my fussy hair and then the farmers market. the weather was nice so we bought a red pepper, avocado, tomatoes, goat cheese and the most giant and juicy blackberries for a picnic. peter saved the day by finding a fork/knife and we also stopped into a shop for a loaf of seeded bread and a giant bottle of rose. we wandered around vondelpark a bit waiting for the grass to dry then found a good spot in the sun then feasted like hobos and drank wine from tiny cups i had stolen from the coffee machine. while we lounged we watching a giant long-haired dog try to play soccer with a group of teenagers. he most definitely had doggy add because he kept at it [without ever actually getting the ball] for a good 45 minutes.

after lots of relaxing we walked around and eventually back to the hostel where we rested for a bit then had more happy-hour hogarten and used the internets. we spent the evening walking all over the place and out of town trying to find a decent place to eat. eventually we decided to go back into town and have thai at bird thai. it is a teeny-tiny place where you can stand on the sidewalk and watch two cute ladies made food in a miniature kitchen. the dining room was equally miniature [and hot and steamy] and we had to squeeze into our seats but it was worth it and delicious. petey had veggies with tofu and i had fish ball soup with rice noodles and lots of cilantro. after we walked it off and ended up back in the red light district trying to find another belgian bar to pee at but we decided we didn't want to go to after all so we had to pee in good old mcdonalds. we finished the night sitting along a canal and snapping photos.

day 4
woke up early again to munch on free breakfast and got on a train to brussels. on the way we saw moms on bikes with pouty kids on the back.. presumably they were on their way to school. it was so far from what i'm used to.. a mom van full of kids with pop tarts. so, we got to brussels in the early afternoon and it was disturbingly quiet and hideous. really. some of the first people we saw looked like vagrants drinking cans of generic beer in a park-ish square. and we saw lots of cops. probably because we didn't have a map and were wandering into the no-so-nice part of town. we wandered grumpily looking for an open restaurant but there were none. apparently it was some sort of religious holiday [it was a friday!] and every single business we passed was closed.. h&m.. even chi chi's. AND our hostel's reception desk was closed for a couple hours so we were homeless. we did eventually find a shop and bought supplied to make [more] cheese sandwiches, which we ate in another depressing park/square with more down-and-out looking men [one taking an afternoon nap just across from us] drinking beer from cans. eventually we made out way back into town and were able to at least drop our bags off at the hostel, but at this point we were hating brussels pretty hard. after more wandering we bought some peanuts to snack on while we sat in another park and discussed how exceptionally disappointing brussels was so far. it was nearly as dirty as england.. with seemingly pointless graffiti all over the place. there were tons of empty store fronts and loitering drunk men.. and we saw more coppers in the first half hour than we have in the past six months and how everything [except belgian beer] seemed ridiculously expensive, even by UK standards. not to mention the drivers from hell who speed up when they see you trying to cross the street and honk on a whim.

luckily after we checked in the whining stopped. our hostel, 2G04 quality hostel [strange name..] was much nicer than it looked for the outside. our room even had restored, original wooden carvings along the [very high] ceiling and giant windows. we sat in the common room and circled all the interesting things on the very excellent map the hostel provided then ate vietnamese food then explored. our second impression of the city was much better. we did see a guy hop off his bike and take a pee right in front of us [as well as the hundreds people in cars that drove by] but the mix of 80s architecture, abandoned buildings and strangely placed monuments was familiar. after being in perfect amsterdam brussels felt less like disney land and more like what we were used to [detroit].

so, we drank beers in warandepark parc de bruxelles, just in front of the royal palace. a giant group of hippies joined us for a bit, as did a group of local teenagers who [unknowingly] serenaded us through the bushes with guitars and songs sung in french. it was strange but good. after the beers and more wandering and trying to find some place to pee, stumbled upon a giant rollerblade race, then headed back towards the hostel in search of some late night frietkot but sadly everything was closed. we did find a few transvestite-looking prostitutes though. and that was exciting.

day 5
woke up early [it is hard to sleep in when you know the hostel showers will be covered in someone else’s hair if you dare] and drank too much horrible [complimentary] machine-coffee from the hostel and headed to the vossenplein flea market at place du jeu de balle [i don't know what that means but i took it right from my excel spreadsheet, so it should be accurate]. it was the coolest flea market i have ever seen. just lots of people with tables full of old goodies that filled up an entire square. one old man had a huge collection of old sun and prescription glasses, glasses cases, pipes, pipe cases and amazing old keys. sadly i did not purchase anything. afterwards we bought pastries and wandered around the neighborhood. we found a carnival where an old carnie was hanging out with his enormously overweight pup. then.. we went back to the flea market because i wanted a second look but still couldn't find anything.. and i was afraid of speaking my broken french.

after lots of rummaging we stared a sight-seeing walking tour [following our map, not a tour guide] ad walked a long long way.. found a few vintage shops from my spreadsheet and then sat on a bench and ate our first real frietkot from a cute little stand near botulism pond. that's not what it is really called, but you get the idea. while we were sitting a little boy peed his pants as his mother carried him, arms outstretched, towards the nearest patch of grass. it was funny. the kid had no idea what the big deal was about either. next we checked out the farmers market that ran along the pong and bought more ingredients for a picnic.. tomatoes, strawberries and yummy marinated lives. we also picked up some bread, cheese, beer, framboise and the cheapest box wine [1euro 79!] from a shop then headed towards parc leopold [which also had a botulism pond]. it was super sunny so we found a good spot away from duck poos and ate and drank. an older lady disrobed [not completely] and sunbathed next to us. it was cute. we didn't stay very long because we had forgotten to bathe peter in sunscreen, so we continued on our walking tour until we eventually ended up back in the tourist area, and joined the herd to see the gigantic flower carpet. it was very crowded and i got the pedestrian version of road rage.

after that we had to take a nap so it was back to the hostel, but not before i found a very cute white and blue polka dot 80s ruffle shirt/dress [which i wore pretty much every day for the rest of the trip] at sussies. we drank post-nap beers at the caravan bar then went back to eat fresh rolls [our homemade rolls were way better..] and some pho at the vietnamese place from the night before. after that we weren't sure what to do so we decided to check out the free view of the city.. this involved taking a rickety old elevator to the top of a parking garage. it was strange. eventually we ended up back at warandepark where we finished off the box wine and had a photo shoot. that night there was some sort of dance event at the pavilion so there was loud bid bad music playing and we sat and reminisced about the good old days [it was almost our one year wedding anniversary, so we were allowed]. we eventually headed back to the hostel after some nighttime sight seeing and ate more fries on some dirty garbage stairs.

day 6
for some reason some of our hostel-mates had a difficult time shutting the door / going to bed, etc. so we got poo sleep and slept in a big. we are leftover picnic cheese toast with tomatoes and strawberries for breakfast then caught a tram [with leather interior] to the train station then a train to bruges. please see this post...

day 7
so, we get on the train to frankfurt and manage to find the only two unreserved seats and are thankful because it is a four hour journey. of course our sandwiches taste like death but we had eaten A LOT of free toast and coffee at the hostel in bruges so it wasn't so bad. we both napped until we got into town and checked into the colour hotel. it was strange. every floor was a different color [there were only five i think] and our bathroom/shower was across the hall, but we had our own room with a tv and big bed so it was fine by me. we relaxed for a bit until we were starving then set out to find good foods. we were about three blocked from our hotel when we saw this scared looking lady back into a doorway to TAKE A HIT OFF HER CRACK PIPE. it was about two in the afternoon and we were in the financial district of frankfurt, so men in suits were all about. about two minutes later we are standing next to two chatting business men, waiting to cross a busy street when a guy drinking a beer/riding a bike rides right up to us. he gets crazy eyes and starts yelling at the business men, spitting and repeatedly calling them swine. they mostly stay quiet and laugh to each other a bit, but i for one was freaked out. apparently this must happen to men in suits quite often [i'm sure not] because the drunk biker rode away and everyone pretended nothing had happened. i'm just glad we didn't get angry man spit all over us.

peter had spent three weeks in frankfurt when he was still working for continental in the winter of 05 so he supposedly knew how to get around. but, after looking for a mysterious thai place for 45 minutes we gave up and ate more nordsee sandwiches for lunch. there was lots of wandering until we finally found the thai place near sachenhausen and ate foods. there was also small a polka festival [just guessing] where lots of over 65's were enjoying beers, sausages and loud music in the street. also walked around museum district and sat by the river main to watch the friendly swans and rowers. after a bit of resting we walked back into town to see the opera house lit up at night and through the red light district where we didn't see any girls but tons of coppers. then we had a sober night and watched funny over-dubbed american tv and soft core porn commercials until we passed out.

day 8
we slept in until late-ish and ate more cheese sandwiches from a bakery for breakfast. the weather was poo so we went into every shoe store we could find in search of some new sneakers for petey. we eventually gave up and found the modern art museum where there was a nice bernard buffet. the building was strange and had lots of overlooks and cubbyholes and weird notes written in corners. we like it. for lunch we ate thali style at an empty indian place and saw a car accident [just a rear-ender] which was out entertainment. it kept raining so we went to see a turkish cartoon exhibit at another small museum. too bad for us the cartoons were in turkish and only translated into german. it kind of stopped raining so we headed towards the university where it rained some more. we had lattes then walked lots, found parks with outdoor ping pong tables and tried to get in the botanical garden but it was not free so we changed out minds. eventually we bought bread, incredibly cheap smoked herring, cucumber, cheese and wines to eat for dinner back at the hotel.. then more tv and sleep.

day 9
caught an early train to heidelberg where we are leftover sandwiches and bananas for early lunch. we walked through town and saw a billion bakeries and some excellent second hand stores. there was also a spanish family singing incredibly loudly. like yelling loud. we found the castle and climbed lots of stairs to see [peter's favorite] giant keg and the scenic view. back in town we stopped to eat pastries then got back on the train to munich.

on the way we watched city of men which passed the time nicely. our hostel in munich was another wombats so we were sure not to stick around. luckily there was a reasonable sushi place where we ate dinner and watched as people continued to line up until the line was all the way out the door. we were happy we didn't have to wait because when i'm hungry i get angry at the world and we would have had to ditch sushi for more cheese sandwiches. after yummy dinner we walked around and got somwhat lost but finally ended up at the ginormous hofbrau house and drank giant beers. our entertainment for the night was a group of japanese tourist who had befriended a professional-wrestler-ish german drunkard. it brought back warm memories of our night at the hofbrau house in chicago where our ginger friend dan broke a beer glass then got us kicked out of a friends apartment by trying pee in a closet. on the walk home we ate falafel then went to bed. we also had a sassy british roommate [and two spanish roomies too] but i cannot remember much about her.. just wanted to note that for posterity.

day 10
woke up early again and ate hostel breakfast. i would like to note the vast selection of speads we have encountered: nutella, fake nutela, honey, butter, cheese spread, herbed cheese spread and potted meat spead. it was very impressive. we also drank lots of good coffee then took and train then bus to dachau. there were lots of americans and dachau was hideous, but i guess that is expented, considering its purpose. we wandered around lots and wondered why some tourists felt they needed to take photos of cremation ovens. back in town we ate stolen apples [from breaskfast] with fake nutella spread and tried to figure out where to have late lunch. our hostel map said led us to an imaginary restraunt [number 2!] but luckily we found a tiny korean place across the street where a cute old guy made us yummy lunch.

after foods we walked around the universtity areas a bit looking for cool shops but it was mostly really quiet but really pretty. also meandered through englischer garten where we saw an entire family of nude sunbathers plus plenty of other extra-tan nudies frolicing around. we also saw an older man wearing liederhosen ride by with a live pet duck on the back of his bike. there was also a scary-fast river where people apparently surf. it was gorgeous. next we went to pinakothek der moderne museum. it had the coolest bathrooms i've ever seen. i wanted to take a photo but was too embarassed as there were other ladies in there with me. besides the toilets, there was a good mix of exhibits including one on 50s architecture, photographs of [mostly hate-] crime scenes around germany, a nazi themed francis bacon and the special exhibit called "girl problems." lots of good female-themes art with some trannies and drag queens mixed in.

it was 8-ish when we left and getting cold so we had to go back to the hostel to put pants on and then we were starving so started walking towards paulander beergarten. we got pretty lost so asked the only people we could find for directions. this happened to be a 12-year old boy who assured us he spoke english. he [kindof] told us to go up a road then over something.. then we were supposed to "tick-tock".. we still don't know what that means, but after another half-hour or some we found it. it was much classier than hoffbrau with candles on the table and elivator music outside. we drank beers and ate sausages, sour kraut, pretzels with mustard and reclette. a cute older couple sat near us took several after-dinner-shots and we wished we were as cool as them. after we walked some more then went to bed.

day 11
ate more hostel breakfast and made extra cheese and mustard sandwiches for the road then got on a train to berlin. we started watching season one of the wire and the kid sat in front of us kept peeking over the top of his seat to see what was going on. we had headphones on but were worried he might see a stripper so tried to shoot him dirty looks as much as possible. it was a long train ride so we also ate sandwiches and napped. after the train ride we waited at the bus stop with some scary looking characters then took a bus into town to the circus hostel. they gave us a tiny, illegible map so we went to the wombats hostel to steal one of theirs then wandered around the riverfront and monuments and sat to eat one more cheese sandwich. after some more wandering we were caught in a downpour so we got ice cream and hid under a bridge until it let up.

next we checked out some shoe shops then got a beer at marcus-bräu brewery. there were lots of plastic plants and it was depressing. we had hoped to eat there but the menu read like a school cafeteria so we walked in circles trying to find someplace to eat. we tried and failed to find a thai place but got desperate and popped into a tiny italian deli/restaurant. the people sitting at the picnic tables out front looked happy and had clean plates so we went off that. we bought a 3euro bottle of wine and two bowls of pasta for a total of about 12euro. we then sat outside where they corked and poured our wine and we feasted on the most delicious pasta. it was actual italian food from an italian mom and dad and it was the best food we ate all trip. we were happy so went back to the hostel bar and drank beers then went to bed.

day 12
we planned to get brunch at a very good sounding place so we skipped hostel breakfast and set out walking. we found the street the restaurant was on and began to look for #60. we walked and walked and 10 or so blocks later the road ended at #59. we asked a man walking his dog for help and he said we had to go back to the beginning of the road as the addresses above #59 went in the other direction. ha! so we has to walk all the way back. there was a kids fun park and lots of pretty residential streets on the way but we were starving. i ate a packet of fake nutella. when we finally found the restaurant it was excellent and spent a couple hours drinking coffee and orange juice, eating fruit, cheese, eggs and a giant basket of bread.

after stuffing ourselves we spent the early afternoon visiting lots of vintage and second hand shops. there were some good stuff but it was ridiculously expensive and it just made me miss home and real thrift stores. for a lunch/snack we shared currywurst and fries at the very same stand anthony bourdain ate at - konnepke's. it was a deep fried hot dog with ketchup and curry powder on top. i don't quite get the hype, but i'm not known to turn down a hot dog under any circumstances.

i forgot what we did after currywurst, but in the evening we walked down to see the berlin wall then took the train back and ate more italian food at the deli/restaurant. after that we bought beers and wandered around downtown and in the jewish memorial. we ended the night back at the hostel bar where a large group of french teens were drinking beer from a giant two liter boots. then to bed.

day 13
we ate a giant breakfast at the cafe attached to your hostel.. caprese salad, hard boiled eggs, fruit and bread. the weather was poo and it poured constantly on our walk to the judisches museum. once there we had to wait in line then we stayed inside for a good four hours. after that we warmed up with ginger and mint tea and spicy foods at monsieur vuong. we also wanted to visit rogacki like anthony bordain so we took the train and a long walk out to west berlin to find it was closed. back in town we finished our trip with a final german-tastic dinner at weihenstephan that included pretzels, schnitzel. sausages, kraut and beers.

day 14
we took the train back to bremen for one night. not much to mention here. by this point we were ready to be back home in manchester and this pretty much made us hate bremen. we sat in bed and watched the wire for three or four hours then went to sleep and flew home! hooray!

bah

last weekend was out second-to-last british weekend. we were supposed to go to the west coast on the train but the weather was awful. instead we stayed in town, ate cheeseburgers, toured salford and took photos of our favorite places for posterity.

today we ate this and that for the last time [maybe] and i bought five pairs of tights at primark. i figure now that we're moving home i don't have to worry that every 17-year old girl i pass will be wearing the same 8pound dress i have on.

and.. i found this list of brittans top 100 most annoying things. it is good to know americans [#66] are not as annoying as constipation [13] or diarrhea [42]. phew.

at this moment we are in the midst of picking out what things we can do without for the next week so they can be shipped home ahead of time. because i this i need to recycle the million museum pamphlets and maps from vacation.. so i am going to attempt another long winded play-by-play...

oh, and my absentee ballot came on saturday so i have officially voted. thank goodness.