Europe, Baby!

Yesterday was rather uneventful. I spent most of it posting pictures from Vegas trip onto Facebook. The rest was spent on doing some practice on note spelling and got a couple of songs done while tinkling the ivories. The note speller book is the coolest thing ever in the history of me learning the piano. Back in the days where I took the organ course the teacher didn't give enough homework for me to learn enough. I now feel more prepared doing a sight reading after going over pages of note spelling. Kind of cool.

Speaking of piano, the thought of getting an upright/spinet/console (acoustic) piano came across my mind. And I have actually been browsing over Craigslist to find a local bargain. Well, Glen's friend bought a hundred year old piano for his kids at a garage sale for $300 -1/3 of what we paid for my digital piano. And it turns out that there are plenty of offers on upright/spinet/console pianos for that price and above on Craigslist. And I can pretty much do something about it (like buying it). However, I am a bit concerned on buying an aged piano. Most of these pianos are at least 60 years old. Yeah, good pianos last that long. If you regularly tune it (twice a year, typically costs anywhere from $100 to $150 each time) and store it in a right temperature inside a non-smoking place it should last for a lot of decades (easily 100 yrs). You Guys heard stories about haunted piano right? Yeah, this is exactly why I will think a hundred times (at least) and do a lot of research before buying a piano that's more than 50 years old. Man just the thought of being in the house alone at night with the big stinking piano makes me nervous. What if the previous owner who loved it so much passed away already and follows the thing's where-about? What if it starts playing by itself? I got a hundred of what if type of thoughts in my head. For now I really am just happy with the digital one that I bought brand-new; it's maintenance-free & relatively easy to move (will have to disassemble it first though), no tuning needed and I only need to dust it once in a while. I can use an earphone and play all I want without worrying if the noise bugs next door's neighbors. Having two pianos sounds too greedy already. Getting an acoustic piano is definitely a thought for the future, like in five years or so. We'll see.

Wheewww, it was not my initial intention to write quarter way though on the damn piano buying thing. I know I am excused though. LOL.

Musee Rodin

Okay, we're going to do a flashback on my trip to Western Europe this time. Being the first trip outside the US after I moved there in 2008, it was very special (damn, I had to fly to San Francisco just to get my Schengen visa). It was actually our honeymoon! Wow, like seriously, I never dreamed of having a European honeymoon so I was totally over the 'honey' moon. It was the most gorgeous plan I could ever think of. Actually I got to pick where to go for the honeymoon and I immediately thought of Paris. How more romantic can you get than that? Paris.. yeah, like PARIS! Our trip was from November 12-25 2008. I can still remember how excited I got when we landed in Charles de Gaulle that morning. Our Parisian leg of journey involved Eiffel Tower, Napoleon Tomb, Musee Rodin, Palais Royal, Trocadero, Arc de Triomphe and Musee du Louvre. Perfecto!

Musee du Louvre!

Oh goodness, the Louvre is the most impressive museum I've ever seen thus far. You gotta buy me on this. And I am hopeful that you get a chance to go one day. Well, I encourage you to. The place is huge, and you can spend the whole day checking out artifacts, paintings, and other types of art. Over 40,000 items I think. The louvre contains thousands of priceless national masterpieces, those from the prehistory until 19th century. This thing is mega.

You gotta know this one

Eiffel, taken from the top of Arc de Triomphe

Needless to say, Paris was awesome. Eating out was rather pricey though (talking about regular sit-down restaurants here), and typically you don't really get much for what you pay for. No wonder I didn't get too see too many overweight people in Paris. We were staying at this hotel called Valadon  on 16, rue Valadon (find them on www.hotelvaladon.com) . It has a homey, contemporary atmosphere; The Eiffel tower was also within a walking distance. Not exactly close but not far enough that you need to take the metro. Our room was rather small yet adequate. The only thing I was nervous about the place was that the lady owner Maria had a cute (according to other people) dog that seemed to like me. The dog followed me to the breakfast room and hang around my legs pretty much every other morning. What a company. Maria's husband, Victor, made the best jam ever. Had cranberry jam every morning at their hotel with a buttery croissant or two. Okay, it got me confused here, now you tell me how those French stay so slim?? Heaven knows.

 Brugge

We took the Euro rail to four different cities in four different countries. The sequence of our journey was Paris-Brussels-Berlin-Amsterdam-Paris. The pass for all these five trips cost us 450 Euro/person, which wasn't bad. While in Brussels, we were able to do a day trip to Brugge, a very unique old town that's only about an hour away by train from Brussels. We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Brugge and sampled the delicious frites (deep fried potatoes/known as French fries) at a small cafe called Pickles. The Belgians often eat their fries with mayo. It sounds fattening, I know. But it tastes good. By the way, Pickles' chicken wings were also to die for. Belgians are also known to make yummy waffles. Unfortunately we're not really fans of waffles so we passed.

Brussels city center

I was a bit surprised learning the contrast between Paris and Brussels. Something I noticed right off the bat was that Brussels' train station was a bit run-down. Paris is huge and metro is a terrific means to venture the city. On the other hand, Brussels is quite walkable. They have buses but not the underground subway/metro. To my surprise, there were quite a few Thai restaurants downtown Brussels. We went to one. It was almost like a hole in the wall kind of restaurant, and the cool thing was we got to see the chef cook. It was not like a show or anything, it was just because their kitchen was so close to the dining area and that they didn't use much barrier. The food was just FABULOUS. You're happiest when you expect the least of something y'know. Certainly applies when it comes to dining out, I think. Oh yea, the lady host at our B & B in Brussels was super friendly. She did not speak much English so communicating with her had to be cute -with all the gestures that we did, if you know what I mean. Fun time. Her breakfast was also pretty awesome.

The panda we saw at the Berlin Zoo

What's next? Ah yeah, Berlin. I think our train from Brussels took about 6-7 hours to get there. Unlike in the previous cities, we got picked up by someone at the train station. He's a Berliner friend of mine that I met back in Indonesia. Not gonna mention a name here cuz last time he was a bit pissed when I tagged him on Facebook. He didn't want his potential girlfriend to see our pictures and got jealous. Eeek, what's there to be jealous about, eh? Not a single time that my cute husband got jealous with me and my friend. Hmm.. or it could have been that he wanted to keep his cool. Whatever. Anyway, he loaded us for free to his place. Haha, now I feel like I am some meat packed in a lunch box, loaded into someone's bag. My generous friend's place was an old flat with a vintage look. Nothing fancy really, but we got a convenient place to crash before exploring the capital of Germany the following 3 days -as well as a free guide. Initially, Berlin wasn't part of the plan, Cologne was. But my friend kept insisting that Berlin's a much better choice. Being German, he must know better.

Pergamon

Berlin is huge and interesting. Dining was not as expensive as it was in Paris, so we got broader options. Just like in Paris, we did a boat tour and hit a bunch of museums. Pergamon museum with the Greek temple inside was the coolest one. During the trip, we munched on Schnitzel at some restaurant downtown Berlin, savored Japanese dishes, also grabbed a bite at a Thai restaurant close to my friend's place. Terrific time. :)

Glen at Sama Sebo. It's located near the Van Gogh Museum.

Amsterdam was our last city before heading back to Paris. Indonesian restaurants are popular there. Surprise! Well, it really was a surprise for me -am not being sarcastic as in any other posts. I always knew that having colonized Indonesia for 350 years, Netherlands must have a strong connection with my homeland. But I never actually got to feel that bond until I visited Amsterdam, like for real. The rijsttafel (read: rice table) style meal seems to be the popular culture there. We went to two Indonesian restaurants. One was called Pelangi on Rembrandtplein 16 (a major square in central Amsterdam), and the other was Sama Sebo. Learnt one thing there: You say 'Indische' for 'Indonesian'!

The Amsterdam man-made canal 

We made the most of our four days in Amsterdam visiting various places. As far as I can remember we hit Van Gogh Museum, Jewish Museum, Van Loon House, Photography Museum, Rijks (Masterpiece) Museum -not in an orderly manner, by the way. We also roamed around the man-made canal on a tour boat, attended a jazz concert, and checked a haunted house attraction called Amsterdam Dungeon. That Amsterdam Dungeon was the best thing ever!! First of all, I was surprised by how fluent the Dutch spoke English; they did pieces of performance (kind of like a play) in which they set us up in a couple of scary rooms, so they got to interact with the audience. It was mesmerizing. Very talented people.

Me at the Van Loon House

London also has this Dungeon thing, which we also went to while visiting the city in March 2010, but I think the Amsterdam one was a little more inspiring than the one in London. I guess it also has to do with a 'first-time' sort of effect. After experiencing a thing once, the next time may not be as impressive as the first one. Bet you know what I'm talking about. If you're ever stranded in Amsterdam, by the way, get the best deal by purchasing Iamsterdam card. It was 43 Euros/person; very well worth it. The card was valid for three days and earned you a pass to ride the tram for 72 hours with no additional fee. You'll also get several free passes and discounts to the local museums and other sites. Beware that there are a lot of 420 activities going on all over the district by the man-made canal. You may also watch out for the red-light district; there, is all about prostitution and all other sex-oriented businesses. It's all legal, Dude. But those things are not for some people, us including. :D