home again home again jiggety jig

i arrived in amsterdam monday afternoon and walked around waiting for folpmer to finish work. i got a nice stroll around the canals, basically just wandered about and stopped in places that looked interesting. i saw the rembrandt house, which they had restored to look like it had when he lived there - a very nice house and well furnished. i also saw the oude kerk, the oldest church in amsterdam. good stuff.

the next day i went to the reijksmuseum and the anne frank house after getting gloriously lost in southeast amsterdam. in the evening folpmer and i made dinner (delicious!) and went out with his friend irving to a couple of nice bars (you can walk in and order "three beers" like in the movies! you get just a standard pils unless you ask for something special) and had a generally good time.

wednesday was more wandering, i started off late and didn't stay out long because it was fiercely windy and raining - i got caught in a couple of downpours and spent most of the day being rather damp. i found a neat little catholic church hidden on a canal and enjoyed being the only person in there and dried off for a bit before i faced the weather again. i did get some shopping in though - a couple of pairs of nice slacks at h&m for 15 euro each. the euro is much kinder to my wallet than the pound! which is nice because i paid about 10 euro to get into every museum and church in amsterdam, where all the public museums in britain are free.

wednesday evening after a much needed nap, folpmer and i went to a very amsterdam style 'brown cafe' which refers to the dark and cosy interiors, and had a traditional dutch dish of smoked sausage and potatoes mixed with a spinach-type vegetable. very good! folpmer made me read the menu in dutch and translate - a fun exercise!

my last morning folps went into work for an hour, then i met him in town and he gave me a lovely walking tour of insider places. there are so many little streets and as much as i thought i had walked all over, i missed a ton of stuff! i really enjoyed the tidbits he had to offer. then we had croquettes - another dutch treat - and were off to the airport.

here are the dancing houses - some of the most prominent examples of houses settling due to the 400 year old piers.

and here is the Night Guard in 3D! pretty awesome.

a HUGE thanks to all of my hosts for making my trip so comfortable and fun!

Brian and Jacqui, for making me feel like one of the family always,

Neil, for letting me decorate his Christmas tree,

Keith, for pouring the strongest drinks,
Richard, for literally sawing off the AC converter so I could charge my camera battery,
Folpmer, for sharing his lust for life,
and a huge thanks to my parents, for all their help and support before, during, and after my trip.

it's a shame we don't live in the same town because i would love to see all these people all of the time, but our paths will all cross again soon. it's nice - and weird - to be home, and i'm looking forward to hanging with all my seattle friends!

love,

mcnabbs

blown away!

ok, by the wind. it was rather blustery today! i went to the rijksmuseum today (tons of awesome dutch painters represented) and the anne frank house (really amazing to put something like that in perspective - i've read the book several times since i was 10 or so but to actually see where it happened is cool) and got gloriously lost all over the city in between. then folps and i went shopping and bought all sorts of delicious things to cook for dinner, which is forthcoming. then i think we'll go out tonight. fun!
love, mcnabbs

amsterdammin' it

hi kids!
today i arrived in amsterdam and actually left the airport for the first time (this was my 7th or more time in schiphol). amsterdam is really interesting, i walked all over today waiting for folpmer, my host, to get off work. the canals are beautiful and the houses are really interesting. many of them date back to the 1600s, and have settled over the years so a lot of them are diagonal on the face. i also accidentally walked through the red light district! i guess i wasn't as surprised to see it here as i might have been in Seattle, but it was definitely disconcerting to all of a sudden see an almost naked lady hangin' out in a window. good times.
folpmer, recommended by the gorgeous, talented, and charming miss monica, is awesome. in case you were wondering.
more tomorrow.
love,
mcnabbs

help me, betty ford!

so today is my last day in Scotland. sad times! last night we went to a party at stuart's parents' house. keith and i went halvsies on a bottle of jack, i told him he could keep whatever we didn't drink. imagine my surprise when i finished my first drink and he poured my second - and the bottle was empty! note the level of JD in the pint glass, foreground:

needless to say, i feel like absolute crap today. i was still drunk when i woke up. yikes.

on our agenda today was a trip to st. andrews, which was lovely despite my serious hangover. the cathedral ruins there were totally awesome! here is one of the pillars:

and the view from the ocean:

then we went down the road a bit to anstrother, for the best chippie in the country. it was the best fish and chips i've ever had! very fresh and delicious.

now i'm back in perth packing up all my things. sad! i leave bright and early tomorrow morning for the drive to edinburgh and my flight to amsterdam, i'm quite looking forward to experiencing the city, but i'm also ready to be home again. can't wait to see everyone in seattle!

love,
mcnabbs

panto

hey guys!
today we went to the pantomime! it was actually really fun. the story was Cinderella and there was lots of audience participation - i could almost handle all the screaming kids! good times. then fish and chips for dinner and a quiet evening in. i FINALLY finished uploading my London pics, and got a little flickr widget over on the right there. neato!
i'm off to watch tv and drink some whisky - i've only gained 7 lbs back so far! well done me.
love,
mcnabbs

p.s.

city hall was pretty awesome too.

and did you know that 30 st. mary axe was built by skanska? good going, guys!

whew!

hi kids -
here are a few of the better snaps from yesterday and today in london. i can't find a suitable map to draw my route on electronically (i have a tangible copy that i drew on yesterday and today at the end of the day to help support my feeble taylor memory) so that will have to wait, unfortunately. i'm sore from all the walking! i really should see how many miles it was... and how much dessert i can negate...
today i started out in northampton, took the train to london, walked all over, took another train to gatwick airport, flew to edinburgh, and rode to perth on the neil express! how often do YOU get to four cities in one day?

here's a wholly unimpressive picture of the outside of the british museum.
a rather artistic shot of the gherkin, if i do say so myself.

whatever building they were putting up next to lloyd's was awesome.

no. 1 poultry

i quite liked this view along the river, including the new globe and the tate modern - someone please tell me what the building on the far left of photo is.

this picture does not do the view justice - each step looked to be a different color of granite (kind of like the end of my desk at work...) but they looked way cool just a bit damp like they were. along the river walk.

a cool view of the millenium bridge from inside the tate modern

this building was in an area (a road?) called more london, opposite the tower of london. the buildings here were really cool. i just liked this view.

and a cool shot of big ben from the gates as i scurried past to catch my train this morning with literally one minute to spare.

i'm back in perth for the weekend, going to the pantomime tomorrow!

love,

mcnabbs

link-tastic! clickety click!

hi kids!

i just walked allllllll day around london (this one, not any of these). last night i wrote myself a little index card with 4 destinations on it and the streets required to arrive there - three museums, 50 pictures, and 10 hours plus 3 hours' r/t train later, i'm back at richard's and enjoying sitting down. i bought a map of london and drew a wee line on it so i remember exactly what streets i was on for your enjoyment later. i'll photoshop it or something i guess. i left my camera cable in scotland so you'll have to wait a couple of days for the pics but you can do that, can't you? i knew you could. here's a rundown:

1) started out at euston station and walked to the british museum - awesome. the new roof they put on in 2000 is WAY cool. the interior space is huge and bright and just... cool. one of the special exhibits was "the past from above", photographs by Georg Gerster. it's pretty much what it says, aerial photos of archaeological ruins. it was great - covered all six inhabited continents and was very thorough. they also had a ridiculous amount of greek and roman sculptures (very controversial), and assyrian/egyptian sculptures, including some glorious passageway lion/griffin thingies. amazing.

2) walked down holborne past st. paul's cathedral to see the lloyds building and the "gherkin". good stuff. also noticed that there is quite a lot of construction going on in london. lots of cranes and scaffolding.

3) walked across the london bridge and west along the south bank of the thames to the tate modern. that place is HUGE. they have quite a lot of exhibits going on, i didn't pay to see the special exhibits but there was still plenty to see. i think my favorite part about that museum (besides the awesome twisty slides in the huge open space at the back of the building!) was (were?) two books i saw in the museum shop - toilets of the world and f*** this book. i don't know if i'd want them for me but i quite enjoyed looking at them. also i got a cool snap of the millenium bridge from the galleries.

4) walked back east on the south side of the thames to the design museum. they had an exhibit on alan fletcher, which i quite enjoyed, and a whole bunch of 70s and 80s design firms with logos and letterheads and things. soooo up my alley. i was just disappointed with the non-representation of the exhibits in the museum shop - though i did come away with a super awesome mouse pad.

5) still on foot, i went across the tower bridge and back along the thames back to the london bridge, where i hopped the tube back to euston station and, after some train delays, home again home again jiggety jig.

i only have two regrets for the day: one, that i got a jolly blister dancing my ass off new year's eve and it's still horrible, made me hobble a bit around town; and two, QUITE sadly, that due to the last minute nature of this trip, i missed seeing the gorgeous, talented, and charming joanie baloney. i miss you and we'll have to hang out soon somewhere in the world!

tomorrow i'm back to london for the morning then back to perth via gatwick and edinburgh. whew!

love,
mcnabbs

london

i'm in northampton right now, i drove down with richard today. tomorrow i'll take the train into london and spend the day, then thursday i'm flying to edinburgh, driving into perth for the weekend with neil and heather, then off to amsterdam on monday!

i didn't get all the pictures from new years eve uploaded yet, i apologise for that - but i'll put them and my london pictures up when i get back to perth on thursday. so hold tight, have a good week, and enjoy this article:

"official says britons like to drink too much"

good times.
love,
mcnabbs

happy new year!

yeah! we rang in the new year in style with dancing and a ceilidh band and tons of good times. it's been a long time since i was that drunk. see flickr for the photos.