Stuck Like Glue

Sometimes I like to hear myself type, the soft thud of the keyboard is strangely appealing. So just keep that in mind as I write the obvious in order to hear myself type.

Kat and I have spent virtually every moment of our day together since I arrived in Copenhagen on May 25th. We sleep side-by-side in a small tent, we read over coffee together every morning, we talk a lot about anything and everything. We don't really interact with many people other than ourselves in the course of a day while cycling. This must be what it feels like to have a twin sibling, there's just not a lot of separation.

And the amazing thing is that we don't really get on each other's nerves at all. There are times when I'm tired and grumpy and vice verse, but we've learned each other's moods and how to take it all in stride. It's been a long while since I've learned the ways of someone other than a family member so thoroughly. I can not imagine how this trip would progress if we didn't get along as well as we do; that field we traversed beside the autobahn would have been the absolute worst experience ever. So, traveling companions--chose wisely.

What To Tip When There Are No Cows

Rather boring subject:

There comes a time at the end of a meal, or in our cases a rather extended reading/coffee date, when you must pay.  Easy enough, taken care of.  Then what?  Do we just saunter out into the Dutch sunshine?  Or do we leave a tip?  Frankly, this has been super stressful trying to figure out what to do.

So, we've asked around and this seems to be the case:

Denmark--tips are built into employees paycheck and you only tip a little if you "want to be nice"

Sweden--same

Germany--comparable to tipping in the US

Holland--again, built in to paychecks and it's usually the tourists who tip.  Totally acceptable to saunter away without another thought. 

Greece--you tip on the dollar.  So if your meal is 7.40 then you only tip 60 cents!  It's true.

Dutch Dollhouse

Kat and I have been taking it super easy for the last two days.  It's amazing how tired you become by simply being in a foreign country.  When my sister was getting ready to study in Spain all last year, they warned her about being rather fatigued the first couple weeks from the stress of not knowing the language or the customs.  It's true.  Fatigued.  

Kat's sister is frantically completing her graduation design project that is due next Friday.  We have the house to ourselves and we've been taking full advantage by cooking Bratwurst and watching movies from her absent roommate's small video collection.  Last night it was War of the Worlds and the night before was The Contract, both of which got Kat to passionately yell at the screen "Run away you morons!  Giant alien is going to kill your asses!  Runnnnn!"  We were drinking a lot of 2 Euro wine that night.

During the day we went to the Rijksmuseum which is undergoing a huge restoration project for the main building and only a small portion is on display until completion in 2010.  They have the creme de la creme of their collection on display such as paintings by Vermeer and Rembrant.  One of my favorites was the ink on canvas below The Battle of Terheide by Williem van de Velde.  You can see the large version here.  Freaking amazing because it's this large scale canvas that is done with tons of little lines and it's just simply beautiful.  

The other amazing thing we saw were the Dutch dollhouses which are a history lesson in economic classes in themselves.  Popular during the 17th Century, they were commissioned by house owners, to be a direct replica of their own home and not playthings of the young.  Everything was exactly recreated to miniature scale: spoons, porcelain from China, wallpaper, clothing, dolls, heating pads.  The largest dollhouse they have on display right now was ordered by a wealthy Amsterdam woman who spent as much on this one replica below, as would cost to buy a nice home on one of the canals here in town.  You can see a larger scale picture right here.

Apparently the more dolls (down to the servants) and items you had in miniature, combined with the level of skill with which they were executed, the more wealthy you were. The dollhouses seem to be a more direct reflection on your yearly income then your actual house. There are more detail photos and more info about them here.

Oh, art travelers tidbit: Depending on how many museums you want to go to, it might be worth while to get the MuseumKaart which gets you into the Amsterdam exhibitions for either free or really cheap.  The catch is that to get it dirt cheap you have to be under 25 and a student, in which case you'll only have to shell out 15 euros.  They are valid for one year if you plan on coming back to this fair country for art hopping.

I Am Your Information

Berlin is a slightly difficult place to navigate. The same damn road has possibly three different names within a 7 block span. Crazy. Even if you are say, 3 blocks away from an information center on your rather small Berlin map, if may take 30 min to find it: 10 min per block, seems like a lot...hahaha, it rhymes! Anyhow, today Kat and I found a way around this conundrum--just stop in any nice hotel in the area and pretend to be a guest who is terribly lost, which is partly true. Even in our state of bike disarray, they take pity on us and say, ´Why yes, but I am your information center. Where do you try to go?´ To which we reply, ´Why, we have been searching for H&M for ages. Where shall it find itself?´


Bottom Line: Nice hotels, saving grace for lost, weary travelers.

Side Note: We ended up going to four H&M´s all over Berlin today, and yet we found nothing to help us feel girlie. Sigh.

Biking: Not Always A Cheap Ride

The original reason we decided to bike around Europe was to save money. We figured the main costs would be plane tickets, food, and entertainment which would all be minimal. We planned to camp and couch surf along the way to reduce housing costs. Both of us have tried out couch surfing in the States, having had several people stay on our couches for a couple nights at a time, and while you are technically letting total strangers stay in your house, there is a lot of opportunity to check them out before they arrive in order for you to get a "good feeling" about them or not. Essentially, we were trying to Frugal Traveler it up.


However, let me just say now, loud and clear, the upfront cost is sooo not that cheap. There is all the travel gear to purchase:

Tent, compactable sleeping bag, sleeping pad, bike, saddlebags, headlight

backlight, travel towel, bike shorts (big old diaper), etc, etc

Luckily Kat's brother-in-law and my friend , Jen, have let us borrow most of the camping/biking gear, so we didn't have to dole out a ton.

Then there's the problem of transporting the bike overseas. From all the bike blogs that we read, it seemed that between shipping it and taking it with you on the plane, the plane option was the best. Apparently lots of people have had issues with the bikes taking three months to get to their destination, or showing up all battered, and also being rather expensive to ship. So, to the plane it is. We found that it was $80 per leg of your journey to stow a bike below (haha! rhyming!). Although when Kat went to the airport Delta had instated a flat bike fee of $300. Seriously. Kill me now.

Plus, since we've become overly ambitious in our travels, there is still the additional stowing fee per each flight we're going on...hahaha, our frugal planning frame of mind got whacked out somewhere along the way.

So, in conclusion, I'm still totally stoked about our trip, and I welcome the physical exhaustion we will inevitably experience in the coming months. However, I wouldn't recommend choosing to bike around solely based on trying to save money.

Oh! The bikes we're taking...

This is mine. Conner and his brother built it for me! We got a mountain bike frame from the pawn shop and then turned it into a hybrid (thinner tires, lowered handlebars). I don't know if it shows up that well, but I have a girl seat. It's amazing! There's a hole in the center of the bike seat so all the pressure is on your bones and is sooo much more comfortable for riding.

This is the type of bike, a Cross Check, that Kat has. Apparently they are the best touring bikes out there.