Lille, Brussels and Amsterdam

After the sensational Paris, I decided to sojourn in France one last time. My friend Fabien whom I met while he was working in New York, heard I was traveling with scissors and invited me to come stay with him in the north of France in exchange for a haircut. He lives in a fabulous house walking distance to everything I needed. He has great friends and family that were more than generous to me. We had traditional northern French food which consisted of carbonnade(beef in sauce), welsh cheese(similar to cheddar) and porc with mariolles cheese, salad, bread and wine. Can you think of anything more decadent? Lille is a great little city, I wish I could say the same about Brussels.
Belgium. I just didn't get it. Do I need to know a local there to find the cool things? Was it because it rained all day? Their claim to fame is the statue of the little boy peeing, chocolate, the center square(beautiful but not worth going for), beer and fries with sauce. They have a ton of sauces to choose from. I liked the andalouse which was like a spicy mayo. It was suggested to me to accompany the fries with beer but I really hate beer. I want to love beer, I really do. I want to be the cool chick that can sit around with a bunch of dudes and drink an ice cold brewski. As a teenager, I would force down 40oz's waiting for the day my taste buds would acquire the flavor but the day never came. It's annoying that when everyone is drinking we have to make a special stop for me to get wine or vodka. I'm just being true to thine self. Besides the fries, there is literally nothing to write home about. A lot of people suggested a cool town close by called Brugges but I had enough of Belgium, I was ready for the bad boy: Amsterdam.
When I meet someone new and talk of travel ensues, I always ask their top destination. There is much you can learn about a person. Caribbean resorts? Safaris? Jersey Shore? It's absolutely vital, especially for potential significant others. If your a foodie, it's impossible to travel with someone who's looking for a Subway sandwich right? When someone says their top destination is Amsterdam, they immediately lose points in my book. They usually don't even know where it is on a map so I test them. This is one of a series of tests I give to people when I first meet them. I'm kidding! I don't do that. Maybe sometimes, just to trim the fat. It's one thing to go to experience everything and another thing to go to get high and hire prostitutes. Not hot. There were tons of men here just for that and could care less about anything else. Amsterdam is truly a unique place and does have legalized prostitution and marijuana but also so much more. The bicycle culture might be my favorite aspect. 500,000 bikes, 20,000 stolen, 10,000 found in the canals every year. This is the epitome of a bicycle friendly city. I was became captivated by the ebb and flow of the cyclists and ended up staying five nights.
Standing in the room where Anne Frank wrote her diaries had an enormous impact on me. Already a compelling story, being able to go behind the bookcase and up the hidden stairs to where these people suffered so badly brings so much awareness to me. This was only ONE families story. Anne's dream of being a famous writer came true when her father Otto, had her work published after her death. Otto said he realized he never knew his own daughter after he read the diaries she kept. I read this in school but I can't wait to reread and learn from this young girls story of courage, prejudice, family, strength and faith.
Some European cities offer a free walking tour funded by the government. Not only because the Irish guy Bernard who gave the tour was hilarious but I also made a new friend, Georgette. She is Brazilian/Dutch and ran out of money while traveling and is getting herself together living with her aunt out in the boonies in the Netherlands. She comes to Amsterdam on the weekends to hang out with the guy she's seeing and her cousin. Her cousin has a sweet loft right on one of the canals. We hung out all day and had food in Chinatown. Her boyfriend insisted on paying because the dutch are notorious for being cheap and he doesn't want the reputation. Hence the expression 'going dutch'. She is so beautiful and exotic but would not let me take her picture. We learned so many cool things on the tour. I won't bore you with too much history but it's so intriguing. Did you know New York was first named New Amsterdam before England renamed it? Does Bouwerij, Breukelen, Haarlem, Greenwijck, Staaten Eylandt or Konijanen Eiland sound familiar to you? He also told us about how they used to execute people here before the guillotine was invented. For the women, they would put them in a bag and threw them in the water with stray cats, so not only were they suffocating and drowning they were also getting scratch by an innocent kitty who was also fighting for its life. For the men, they would cut their heart of their chest and hold it before them as they bled to death. This was punishment for something like public nudity. Yikes.
The canals are constantly being replaced with new water from the ocean so it doesn't get stagnant like in Venice but they still have a rodent issue because of it. Everything was stored in the very top of the houses to prevent the rodents from getting to it. They would bring it up with a pulley, but the rope would swing too much and break the windows. To prevent this they started building the houses to slant forward. They did this until someone had the brilliant idea of making pulleys that extended a little further from the house. Perfect example of people being in charge that shouldn't be. Changing the architecture of the building when could have done something so simple. This is why I am skeptical of so-called 'experts'. They are usually self proclaimed for one thing. Modesty is something I admire, people who brag about themselves usually suck at what they do.
The Van Gogh museum was impressive but it was hard to enjoy because it was so crowded. They take you through all the phases in his career, including his Japanese phase which was my personal favorite. I didn't see Starry Night because you guessed it, it's in New York.
While working fashion week in New York, I met a guy named Tommy who comes to work fashion week every season. He owns a salon in Amsterdam that also doubles as an art gallery. The mirrors hang from the ceiling and slide around in a track to they can be easily moved for exhibitions. We sat and drank tea and talked until he had a client. It was good to see him, I felt so inspired by his studio and also his enthusiasm for the salon, editorial work, art and fashion. It's good to feel gumption again for my former career before I burned myself out. Somewhere along the way I lost myself through work politics, failed relationships, and finding my way through the labyrinth of New York. Sometimes it feels as though it's gone like dust in the wind never to be found again. Lately I've felt a wave of passion crashing over me.
Prostitution was started here because of it being a major port. Sailors would do what they needed to do, then head to confession after and all was forgiven. It got to the point where the church would sell 'indulgence cards' that you could buy before you sinned so it would eliminate the need to confess after. Really guys? un-friggin-beleivable. I walked through the red light district with people from the hostel and let me tell you, these women are gorgeous and there are numerous to choose from. They look like dolls and they are standing in the windows beckoning men to come inside for the meager price of 15 minutes for 50€. I talked to a guy that says it's a bargain, he pays much more than that to take a woman out on a date. However you get your kicks.
The "coffee shops" are everywhere. When you enter, they give you a menu of all the different types of marijuana. They also sell mushrooms, hash and stimulant pills. Prostitution and marijuana are not really legal. They have laws with many gray areas. If you live under a rock and have not seen one of the best movies of all time, Pulp Fiction, I will let Mr. Vincent Vega explain it to you in "Royale with Cheese":




And they do drown em' in that shit too!ugh. In the next two years they are shutting down a lot of the red light district and many of the coffee shops, so if that is your main priority here then I suggest you come soon.
Dutch Wonderland is an amusement park for children in Lancaster, Pa. They have rides, games, show, mini golf and a camp ground. So I hear. I never went. Let me give you a little vignette of my childhood. Vinny and I wanted to go to Dutch Wonderland so badly so mother set out on a quest to take us. I wore a pink and gray dress for the occasion. My mom is very intelligent but lacks an internal compass. I was about eight years old holding the map in the front seat. My mom would pull up to an intersection and ask me what way to go. We drove all day and never found it, so my mom did the next best thing she could think of and pulled into a Dairy Queen and let us eat as much ice cream as we desired.
Oh, I went to Dutch Wonderland alright. It wasn't my intention, but I got high every day. It's unavoidable really. Mark my words: I am NEVER smoking again. I was smoking the weakest they offered and it was still too much for me. I ate a spacecake and it was all over. Anxiety city. I'm too old for this shit. So if we are ever hanging out and it's present, remind me of how much I loath it. In fact, just punch me right in the face if I attempt it. Really, just do it. Remind me of how I thought it was never going to end and walking through a maze trying to find my hostel with street names like, Valkenburgerstraat, Nieuwe Uilenburgerstraat, and Kloveniersburgwal. The mere thought is making my head spin. Trees are not my thing, I really don't know what I was thinking.
I did try some new foods. A popular street food is raw herring with onions and pickles, sounds strange but it was delicious. I splurged and got rijsttafel my last night, which means "rice dishes". Amsterdam has a huge Indonesian infulence. They bring out about 15 little dishes with saffron chicken, coriander beef, Indonesian salad with peanut dressing, two types of rice, different types of vegetables and battered and fried banana for dessert. The flavors are similar to Thai food, it was so yummy.
I finally finished Dracula and it was incredible for so many reasons. Not only was it beautifully written, to me Mina was the perfect example of how female power is sometimes in the submission. My next book is called Holy Cow, a true story about woman who travels to India and hates it, then she got her palm read by an airport beggar who tells her that she will return to India. She screamed "never!" and gives him and the country the finger. The prophecy comes true and moves there for love 11 years later. I'm looking forward to this one, if you have ever spoke to me, you know that I have an obsession with India. There were bookstores galore in Amsterdam. Books are better then people sometimes, and so are animals. I miss my little Juneaux tremendously. I bought my guide books for India and southeast Asia. My plans for Asia are still larve at this point but I'm getting the ball rolling. I'm having a wonderful time abroad but I miss everyone terribly already. sigh.