More Spring Things

Morning koffie

To continue from yesterday's post... a balmy 20-degree day arrived in Amsterdam as advertised.

On an ideal spring day with a rare warm breeze, a bike ride down to the Klein Kalfje (Little Calf) restaurant right on the Amstel River was in order. There, an unhurried afternoon (along with the famously unhurried Dutch waiters) was spent as rowers stroked past on the water, a continuous stream of cyclists whizzed past along the pathway, and cappuccino - and later beer and chicken satay - materialized in front of me.

I wish words and photos could convey the feeling better - I just had one of the nicest afternoons I've ever had.

It's a continuously remarkable city, Amsterdam is, with all it has to offer. There are not many places where you can bike 15 minutes from a bustling city center to a pastoral setting, feeling like you're on vacation among the boats and windmills and, of course, the llamas.

Bigrock Oldllama

Seating at the Klein Kalfje

The bar at the Klein Kalfje

Early sunseekers at Sarphati Park, in de Pijp. Three minute walk from the apartment. Later in the day, it was crammed with picnickers and barbeques.

Spring in Amsterdam

It kicked off a few weeks ago, with a few steps back since then. But with today getting close to 20 degrees, it's on.

Spring in Amsterdam is an explosion of smiles, skirts, sloops and (some) sun. Every cafe terrace is packed, with chairs and tables crammed onto every possible inch of canalside territory.

Things bloom here early, beginning in March, and many gardens and public parks already have flowers out in full. The trees are still a bit shy, but they are getting bolder each week.

And even though winter was a lot kinder this year than last, there's still a collective Ahhhh as everyone shakes off 5 months of greyness.

Japan

As new fears of a large radiation leak emerge this morning, the news from Japan has just been brutal.

A fellow Lonely Planet blogger with special ties to Japan has created a post where you can donate to relief efforts, and read more about what this country is all about:

http://www.toddswanderings.com/2011/03/how-to-help-japan-earthquake-tsunami-survivors.html

More Lithuania

As the brief visit to Lithuania came to an end, the quaint little country made me promise to come back in the summer, which would include 25-degree days and visits to the beaches along the Baltic Sea. Will do.

Until then, I will attempt to run off the massive volume of potatoes and cake consumed - including a national dish involving potatoes which are peeled, boiled, ground, strained and then stuffed with either meat or cottage cheese, served with a bacon gravy. Like uber-perogies.

This is called cepelinai, pronounded zeppelinay - yes, after 5 of them in one sitting, my stomach felt more like Lead Zeppelinai. I could barely make it up the Stairway to Bathroom.

In general, life in Lithuania is not very different from the rest of the West. In some areas, it is more rural, but not much different than rural towns across Canada or the U.S. It has also been hit by the economic crisis, so some areas are sleepier than they once were.

Since its independence in 1991, the standard westernization has taken place. Cili Pica is just like Boston Pizza or TGI Fridays, H&M-style fashion is the same here as anywhere, and you'll hear Beyonce on the radio much quicker than you'll hear a Lithuanian artist.

The people are reserved (there seems to be a bylaw prohibiting smiling in photos), but in fact very friendly and genuine, and if you visit a Lithuanian home, you will not leave hungry. The women are all slim and stylish (seriously - I don't know where they put the cepelinai), the men a little less so.

Some photos to round out the trip...

Mid-afternoon snack on a Sunday

The never-ending charms of seeing/hearing English as a second language

You can buy smoked fish in many farmhouses.

Which gives me a bit of remember: everything in Lithuania is smoked and salted - beef, pork, fish, chicken, chocolate (ok, maybe not chocolate). I am thinking of starting a line of tourist t-shirts:

I Went to Lithuania, and I Got Cured

A smoker

On a stroll in Silute

Silute

Silute

Silute

Silute

The seaside town of Palanga

The Baltic Sea

S&M, Lithuania-style

Nate Dogg

Rapper Nate Dogg passed away this week, prompting this tweet by Snoop. Really, I think he speaks for all of us:

"We lost a true legend n hiphop n rnb.... U will always be wit me 4ever n a day u put the g in g funk u put the 1 in 213 n u put yo stamp on evrybdy you ever didit wit...I will c u again n heaven cuz u know d slogan all doggs go to heaven yo homie n baby brotha snoopdogg!!

Lithuanian Matrimony

You've probably woken up many days thinking "I wonder what a Lithuanian wedding is like?"

Well folks, I have your answer. It should be noted that there were several aspects of the wedding I attended last weekend in Siauliai (pronounced "shao-lay") that met with the strict standards of the International Matrimonial Norms, Elements and Regulations Dictates (IMaNERD):

• There must be at least one Mom or Grandma dancing the shoulder-shrug shimmy; often in conjunction with finger-snapping.
• There must be at least one guy who gets loaded and puts a tie or other object on his head (see above - no, that ain't me).
• There must be a minimum of two Abba songs played.
• There must be one uncle who has to dance with every woman present, and somewhat creepily at that.

With these all met easily, the wedding did have some interesting customs that I was unaccustomed to:

• The bus that took us all from the ceremony to the reception stopped at a bridge, whereupon the bride and groom got out and he had to carry the her across it for good luck. Others could follow them doing them same with their respective partners, also for good fortune.

• A "table commander" was assigned to various sections of the dinner table. Among his/her roles were to ensure that everyone drinks and had a full beverage ready when a toast was made. Many toasts were made.

• Before the wedding, at the house of the bride's family, the groom was blindfolded and had to try to fit a shoe belonging to his wife on the right foot, with a choice of 5 other pairs of feet. So he would feel the others' feet first and would get in trouble if he didn't recognize his wife's own.

• In a big departure from North American weddings, the bride and groom see each other and pre-celebrate at the bride's home with family and friends before even heading to the church.

• There were a number of games throughout the evening which involved drinking. And the party did not stop till 5am. We were among the first to leave at 2am; even a 79-year old grandma stayed till 4:30.

Overall, it was a very nice time, with great hospitality provided to this obvious foreigner. And now you finally know what a Lithuanian wedding is like.

The evening's entertainment. A non-stop odyssey of Lithuanian old-school.

The wait at a ranchhouse while photos and sleigh rides were held outside. Treats included brandy, vodka, champagne, and pastries.

This is not the church where the ceremony was held, but the place where photos were taken in-between ceremony and reception.

The church where the ceremony was held. In English, "The Church of St. We No Pay the Heating Bills"

Bride and Groom. We could honestly see his breath when he said "I do" ("Taip", or Yes)

Hammer time

The rented bus had strict rules, including a rather random "no ice cream cones" policy

You're thinking "Is that woman wearing a makeshift diaper and running away from a man menacingly pouring vodka?" Yes. That's exactly what it is.

Lithuanian Observations

This past weekend took me to Lithuania, for a wedding and a meeting of the in-laws. I would suggest there's no better way to get completely immersed in a culture than heading to a wedding where 49 out of the 50 people in attendance are from that very country.

Lithuania, for the uninitiated, is often lumped in with Estonia and Latvia in regular conversation. A small country of some 3.5 million, it takes roughly six hours by car to get from one end to another.

The country, like so many above a certain latitude, shows its best side in summer, and its grossest in early spring, where the snow needs a wash and trees need leaves.

In that same vein, there were at least a dozen times where I could easily have been driving through Lacombe, Carp, Albany, or any one of a thousand other North American small towns and countrysides.

I didn't make it to Vilnius, the capital, but instead hung out in Silute ("Shi-loo-tay"), a town of about 25,000 people. It showed a few marks of a run-down working-class ex-communist ruled spot, but otherwise it was also similar to any small city.

The entertainment media had some interesting stuff going for it. The language is a complex one, sounding (to me anyhow) as though Italian and Russian languages had a baby. Words have different endings based on their subject; I was able to read the latest on Ludacrisu, Rihannus, and of course Lady Gagos. Some impossibly bad soap operas and an all-day American Idol-type station were on the tube. It was here that I learned Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" sounds even worse in Lithuanian than in English.

More observations next post, from My Big Fattening Lithuanian Wedding (not mine, actually). For now, some photos...

Parts of Lithuania's countryside in the Western part often sees floods in winter and spring, leaving behind this cool-looking ice ring on a lot of trees.

This is a Russian guard tower. Just outside Silute, in a town called Rusne, you can walk across about 100m of ice (or swim it in the summertime) and be in Russia. The dudeski in the tower will have some questions for you though (no joke).

200 Lithuanian Litai equal $80 U.S.

Your standard supermarket wall o' vodka

Labas

More travel posts coming next week as I hit Lithuania for a visit.

For now, some non-travel observations on the English language and phrases to be mindful of, ones which ideally will be stricken from everyday use:

"Last time I checked...": whatever follows this is going to be a douchey, bitchy comment. And the person saying it also probably didn't check anything either.

"No disrespect, but...": the next words will most definitely be disrespectful.

"....., just sayin'": whatever words precede this are normally much less clever and funny than the person thinks they are. Just sayin'.

"I'm not racist, but...": the words following this will make it sound like the person is.

World Press Photo 2011

Have a look at the photo gallery on the link below. And then slap me if I ever complain about a rained-out weekend ever again.

World Press Photo 2011 is on tour now, arriving in Amsterdam in late April.

World Press Photo

Hermitage

With all the events going on in the Middle East, now seems as good a time as any to do some historical digging into the region.

With that, and with a mini-resolution to see more museums this year in the Netherlands, it was off to the Alexander the Great exhibition at Hermitage Amsterdam.

The Hermitage "brand" was started in St.Petersburg, Russia in the 1700's, and still today holds a massive collection of art. After some 324 years as an old age home here in Amsterdam, the building I visited today has been known as Hermitage Amsterdam only since July 2009.

It is a beautiful facility. Outside, it is a little plain to look at as it stares down at the Amstel. As soon as you step into the courtyard (with flowers already starting to wake up - yesss), you get a sense of space and peace (speace?) that this densely populated city rarely offers you.

Inside, the exhibit is very well laid out over two floors. There are huge paintings, ancient scraps of writing, armor, videos and well-plotted maps that show just how much turf AtG covered in his brief 32+ years on this planet.

I previously knew next-to-nothing about the man and his outsized personality - part murderous, part magnificent, part myth.

The highlight of this particular trip (sorry for the lack of photos; picture-taking, even without flash, is not allowed so I snuck some quick shots in when security wasn't looking) was a series of reliefs by Antoine Marie Melotte. Made in the 1700s, they depict a number of episodes from AtG's famous battles, and are carved from some kind of wood. They were amazingly detailed.

Check out the highlights of the exhibit and examples of those reliefs here.

I now know a lot more than the day before, and I had those same feelings I get when visiting any museum - awe, appreciation of history and art, a greater awareness of just how short our time is on this earth, and moderate lower back pain.

"Dammit! These self-tanner instructions are all Greek to me"

The blurriness is due to the contraband, quick-shot covert photo taking