In the Netherlands:
- Utrecht. My favorite city in the Netherlands, and I'm so glad I studied abroad here. It's the perfect city in so many respects: size (not too big, not too small), availability of cultural events, architecture, central location within the country. Highlights of my time here include: the Netherlands Film Festival in September, the Holland Animation Film Festival, Morning Benders concert at Tivoli (cool concert venue with two locations, this was at the smaller one). Afterward my friend and I got into conversation with the bassist, we ended up hanging out with the band all night! There are also some really cool cafes, restaurants and bars in Utrecht. I had a great Indonesian rijsttafel at Blauw, and Cafe Belgie and de Bastaard theatercafe are two great bars.
- Amsterdam. I love Amsterdam, just not so much the areas right around Dom Square, which are overrun by the maddening tourist throng. I love just exploring and walking around, it's a large city but most of the museums and "things to see" are concentrated in a very walkable area.
- Den Haag. I've been three times! The Mauritshuis is now one of my favorite museums--it's small, feels more like a house, and features "The Girl with a Pearl Earring," plus lots of other very wonderful and notable pieces like Vermeer's "View of Delft." Also in the Hague is Panorama Mesdag, a 19th century panorama painting of the seaside resort Scheveningen. Oh yeah, and one of my favorite clothing stores, COS, is in the Hague (only location in the Netherlands). Key detail, I know.
- Leiden. Cool city, not too big, not too small.
- Delft. You can walk past where Vermeer's house was, and I had a delicious piece of helva when I was there...I obviously remember the most crucial details. It was raining the day I went.
- Rotterdam. Not so interesting, it has a much more modern vibe than other Dutch cities and feels pretty industrial. We went to the Boijmans van Beuningen museum (modern art) then stumbled upon this weird art gallery opening where a foot fetishist positioned my feet as I was talking to someone and then took a picture. Great.
- Arnhem. There was a music festival going on the day we went, and everyone was singing carols together in this music hall. Cultural activities are very accessible in this wonderful land.
Internationally, it's too much to record everything I saw. So I'll just note one impression for each city.
- Pisa, Italy. It was very, very hot. I remember sitting on a bench in the sun eating an astoundingly delicious cone of stracciatella gelato.
- Corniglia--Cinque Terre, Italy. Lying on a rock in the Ligurian Sea. I found a tiny crack of shade in which to read, spent a couple hours napping, dipping my feet in the water, and watching the people.
- Ventimiglia, Italy. City right near the French border, as much French spoken on the street as Italian. I was here for literally 20 minutes, but it made a favorable impression on me so why not add it to the list? I had (yet again...) an astoundingly delicious cone of stracciatella gelato. And (yet again) this was the most memorable aspect of my visit. I vividly recall standing at an unmanned gelato counter for a few minutes, knowing that I had to rush back to the train station soon. I began to feel desperate--what if the gelato server never arrived? Finally a French family joined me at the counter. We exchanged exasperated glances--this Italian incompetence! The father yelled impatiently, "Est-ce qu'il y a quelqu'un pour la glace?" Finally, the serving girl came and bestowed upon me the aforementioned treat.
- Nice, France. Meeting the guy mentioned in an earlier post. Giving him a kiss on the cheek by means of a goodbye.
- Monte Carlo, Monaco. Not such a fan of this place. Taking a nap in the cactus garden even though this was probably really socially inappropriate.
- Brussels, Belgium. Again, did not like this city. The main square is impressive, but most of the city was not so great, and the raw oder of eggs occasionally pervaded the air.
- Bruges, Belgium. A fairytale town, a la: "It's a fairytale town, isn't it? How's a fairytale town not somebody's fucking thing?"
- Frankfurt, Germany
- Berlin, Germany
- Brno, Czech Republic. I spent one of the days with an American guy and a Czech businessman who my Czech friend Marketa tutors in English. The encounter was random, but interesting. We spent the day driving around in his Mercedes, then visited the site of the battle of Austerlitz. Then we culminated our day with a hot Czech lunch at one of the gas stations he owns. I also got to hang out with Marketa's friends while in Brno. That was cool, a real insight into Czech culture!
- Prague, Czech Republic. Mulled wine, beef goulash, heard the Czech Philharmonic play, I think the pianist winked at me (but he probably didn't).
- PARIS, France. Too much to say! I went with my Hungarian friend Flora, we had espresso and baguette for breakfast every morning. I went to a writing workshop at Shakespeare & Co. Outside of the bookstore, we ran into this guy Flora knew from Budapest. The next day, we met up him at the Jardin des Plantes, he was eating a chocolate bar. On a different day, Flora and I saw a very interesting looking fellow at this speciality coffee shop near Ile Saint-Louis. He wore round spectacles and a grey hat and had a red beard. He was immersed in his reading. Then we saw him again at Shakespeare & Co., turns out he works there! That was cool. But yeah, Paris was amazing, la la la.
