Ahoy Deutsche land

Where to even start....

Maybe with the part about having the nicest, most accommodating and friendly relatives in Holland EVER.

If you read this, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!

The plan was to stay a couple days to see the Bokkers family in Holland as I was almost the only one who hadn't been to the country and visit. Well a couple days turned into a week and a half of royal treatment and fun.

Getting to Putten involved my first and only near miss with the train system so far. Had the Miley Cyrus obviously cranked on my iPod and didn't realize I was in Rotterdam and had to transfer, so was a bit slow getting off. Then I realized I had forgot something on he train, resulting in a panicked run back on with the buzzer going, and jumping out sideways, sucking in my stomach as the door closed and started to roll away, yikes!

Point form may be the best way to bunch up the days:

• Got initiated into the dutch culture with a brief 37km bike ride to the October '44 war museum in Nijkerk, along a dijk and back to Putten, with a delicious stop for beer and a toasti in the town market

• Spend 11:11:11 11/11/11 eating apple gebak with Maaike
• Visit the location of the Battle of Arnhem, appropriately on Remeberance day
• Dutch food, yum

If you know anyone at home who is from Holland, are are curious why they bike so often, you will understand if you see the people here. Everyone bikes Everywhere! And for good reason, it's cheap, easy, "green" and efficient. I wish we had this amount of access to bike paths at home. Furthermore, I can't remember seeing a single obese person.. Coincidence?

Did some shopping in Amersfoort and witnessed the dutch tradition of Sinterklaas in the shopping area. Interesting how different countries have different was to celebrate Christmas. Zwarte Piet, is an intruging sidestep from our traditonal Christmas at home. Instead of the little elves that help Santa, they have Zwarte Piet, who spanks naughty kids, and sometimes even "puts them in the bag and being taken back to Spain", as old songs mention.

• Fries and Mayonaise, yum
• Dutch Kroketten, ask Nikki Leyser

The area was nice, and the food was a plentiful, so the two dogs, plus MOHAMMED the cat, went for a stroll. Never before have I taken a cat for a walk, until then. Let alone a cat named Mohammed?

Did I mention how flat this place is? No downhill skiing resorts here, thats for sure.



Always wanted to try one of these bikes, as well as wear very tight clothing?



Getting access to a computer is proving to be tough with the time it takes to write on here, "Amsterdam" will have to wait...

A dogs life

PARIS Pt. 2

Aimlessly wandering around the Louvre for an hour or two, slowing down in areas where people were more crowded (surely they must be looking at something important that I had no knowledge of?), eventually turned into more exercise than worth.

This led to the best discovery of the day; I left the world famous museum and headed towards the front grounds and garden areas and came across a large perfectly landscaped area where a group of 10 or so dogs were doing what they do best. I only spent enough time infront of the Mona to ask a kind old Asian woman to snap a goofy picture, but here I sat watching Labs, retrievers, German shepherds, and boxers playing fetch and rolling around for a solid hour and a half. I probably looked like that creepy guy sitting on a park bench at a playground that didn't have any kids of his own to watch over. I guess in a way though, it reminded me of home.

Ya, that creative...

Next best part of the day:Continued to walk around and came across a well known chalk artist in Paris, doing his thing. Guys got talent!

Some teenagers on roller blades were playing the most intense game of tag I had ever seen, coming within inches of colliding with tourists and eating a face full of colorful chalk covered asphalt.
Low and behold, I stayed and watched for another hour as they set up obstacles to 360 over and preform some of the most intricate footwork on inline skates I will probably ever see. Traveling solo, it's easy peezy pumpkin squeezy, doing whatever you want and not give a sheezy.

Notable happenings to conclude the French adventure:• Watching a intimidating 6'4" black security guard in a full black dress suit, black shades, black leather gloves and ball cap chase down (while on a not-so-intimidating cruiser bicycle) a young teen boy for soliciting tourists for money while on Louvre property.
• Seeing a homeless man sleeping in the metro, with his dog curled up in a ball sleeping on his chest. Mildly cute, but sad.
• Mass at Notre Dame church
• More crepes

Next stop, the Deutsche Land

Let the European Vacation begin

There's still a lot I feel like a need to write about Africa, to decompress in a way. However since I got off the plane in Paris 2 weeks ago, it's felt like go go go and get out there to see things.
Better catch up instead...

PARIS
No better way to start a morning in paris then a warm croissant or crepe.
I'm hardly the first person to visit this tourist packed city so there's not much point explaining what it's like to be up the Eiffel tower or see the Mona Lisa. Most have been there done that, but hey, just a couple more things to check off the ol'  "Life Experiences List".

We were given a kind warning about the large number of scammers and "Please Suh, could you spare sum change?" type of folks that prey on the touristy type in Paris. The engineer we worked with in Africa warned of a particular scam involving a gold ring. Within the first 10 minutes of our see-the-city adventure along one of the canals headed towards the Eiffel tower, a man walking past eyed John (co worker who I spent the first day with) and I up as potential prey. He bent over as he walked by and found a nice 'golden' ring that magically appeared.
His game plan: Offer it to us, and ask for a LITTLE change in reward for his kind actions.'... How do you say "Shove it" in french?
300m further down the canal we saw two asian men gladly handing a couple bills to a similar looking man. The puzzled look on their faces as they walked away from the kind samaritan and started to realize they were dooped was priceless...

Crepe with nutella and banana before going up Eiffel Tower: Check

Not knowing a single other piece of famous art besides the Mona Lisa at Musee de Louvre: Check

Sit at the top of the stairs below the Sacre de Coeur and listen to a man play Hallelujah on his harp: Check, and easily the most relaxing and peaceful start to a morning in months

First night in a hostel as a solo traveller was almost exactly as I expected. Sit in a room and drink too much french wine with young girls and guys from Tokyo, Texas, Australia, Boston, Norway, Italy, Sweden and Whales. Cold orange juice and a baguette on a canal side patio is a great start to the end of a morning after headache. Maybe a ham and cheese crepe along the way to the next hostel across town too. Man those things are tastey.

Next stop, bed.

Nearly 2 weeks of stuff-i've-been-up-to to throw on here regarding Paris and Holland, but a train from here (currently at family in Putten, Holland) to Munich, Germany in 6 hours means its time to stop hitting the keyboard and start hitting the pillow.

Anxiously awaiting the do nothing but sit and look out the window kinda day it shall be...

So long Africa, it's been a splash

Well that went by fast..
Time flies when your in the sun. After a month and a half here in west Africa, I'm getting the boot and its off to Europe for who knows whats in store.

It's probably no secret I've had some pretty wild and unique experiences here, and I couldn't have asked for anything more (Well, except maybe some meat in my airline flight over).

During the last week here we tried to stuff in as many extra curricular activities as we could. I made a Philipino buddy here who goes "pishing" here almost every night so I bugged him to let us tag a long on Thursday. Boy, do they ever know how to fish. Tony, went 3 for 4 casts right away. Bing, Bang, Boom, 3 fish. Whats the secret?
CONDOMS.
Believeit or not most of the Filipinos tie cut up pieces of green condom to the fishing fly as the makeshift bait. I guess they just like to practice safe fishing.

Instead of being satisfied with the fish he caught the first 4 tries, they use these reasonably sized fish as bait for bigger fish. The result: A medicore sized baracuda that was a disappointment compared to his 5ft long cuda he caught a week or two ago.

With some excellent timing, we ended up finishing here with our last night as a Christmas Under the Palms party at the management clubhouse. Food, charity auction, local children singing group etc..










I should post more on Africa later, but in the meantime it's best not to miss my flight off this continent in an hour or two to Paris for some much needed time off, and maybe a little cooler weather....

Avarice is always poor

After a few trips into town it has been made very clear that you either have money, or you don't.
Most don't.

70% of the people here live on less than $2 per day, and others in power live like this recent National Post article --> "Dictator's son blows $100M on lavish living"

"According to court documents, Mr. Obiang's cars included a US$2-million Maserati, and two Bugatti Veyrons worth US$2-million and US$1.3-million. He also owned eight Ferraris, seven Rolls Royces, five Bentleys, four Mercedes, two Lamborghinis and an Aston Martin.
In June, 2005, he bought two high-performance 15.2-metre speedboats worth US$2-million and had one shipped to Hawaii so he could use it on a visit there. It capsized and had to be salvaged at a cost of US$400,000.
In what would have been his most lavish expense, he commissioned a German company in 2008 to design a "mega yacht" worth US$380-million, nearly three times what Equatorial Guinea spends on
health and education in a year."


It's a bit frustrating that this goes on while little Aboobua down at the market has to suck on a chicken bone for one of his only meals of the day, but hey, I guess the way things happen in some countries.

"If youre not greedy you will go far, you will live in happiness too... like the oompa.... loompa.... doompity do."