Madrid

Madrid: First impressionMios Dios, la chicas in Madrid, Espana es muy bonito. El guapa!!Really got a nice vibe (nice weather, pretty girls, decent vegetarian choices, cheaper prices, etc) from the city upon arrival, but unfortunately that didn´t last long. On the second day lost my credit/debit cards to a crafty pick pocket. There´s a sucker born every second. This one was born 35 years ago. Anyway thanks to a cash advance from the parentals I stayed afloat, but in that situation I decided not to spend any unnecessary cash. Which was a shame because I´m sure I could have had a really good time there. The other problem was timing. It happened to be Easter and in Madrid they take it very seriously. Basically the city shuts down for a whole week. So what could have taken 2-3 to sort out actually took almost 8 days. It was very frustrating knowing that my debit card was sitting for 5 days at the post office. And to add injury to insult I caught a cold. Oh well, I must have accrued some significant negative karma in Madrid during a past life. Hopefully most of it has been neutralized. So I killed time commisorating with Ian (from OZ) who was in a similar situation. His bank card didn´t work in Madrid. Actually the atm ate his card. Fortunately he got it back though. He´s biking thru europe. Good Luck Ian.

On the other hand it was nice that they threw me parades for my birthday and even named it "Holy Day". I felt Sooo Special. The parades aren´t like the thanksgiving parades though. Very slow. Each church congregation has there own little section. In the lead there are people dressed in what americans would recognize as KKK outfits, but of course they are not. Following them are about twenty others carrying their¨"float". A representation of Jesus or their patron saint and pulling up the rear is a band playing somber, yet at the same time uplifting music. They stop the march every five minutes or so and occasionally a round of applause erupts. Not terribly exciting, but I guess that is not the point.
The nightlife is infamous,the city itself is beautiful and you can walk everywhere. Which I did. So much walking on this trip. I´m glad I´m not leasing these legs cause I´d already be way over on my mileage allowance!! The one thing I´d did get to see was the Museo Prado. An Impressive collection inside, but suprisingly boring building architecually speaking. The Durer exposition was there and was very nice and of course many other artists, Spanish, Italian etc. See the pics. The Parque Retiro is a very large park with a lake where people rent row boats. Street performers doing their thing including a very enthusiastic but not at all talented Michael Jackson copy cat. I almost paid him to stop. All in all a nice place to hang and relax which I did alot of...So it wasn´t all that exciting and a bit trying, but it didn´t kill me so I suppose I´m stronger because of it!!
So now I´m in Valencia and not unhappy to leave Madrid behind even if that is a little unfair. Two more pics albums have been uploaded for Paris and Spain. Have a looksy.Adios for now amigos......
PS. Important travel tip.It´s a really good idea to go to the bathroom before getting to the train/bus stations here in Europe. That is unless you like the challenge of doing it while standing up!!! It is however an excellent work out for the thighs :)

Amsterdam!!

Ok, let me say right of the bat that if you ever thought you'd like to come to Amsterdam. You will! Do it! First impression: I never seen such crazy traffic!! And I'm not even really talking about car traffic. There must be a million bicycles in this city. It's like trying to pass through a swarm of bees without getting stung. Not too much car traffic but the roads are like knotted spagehetti and they're made of brick as well as the sidewalks. It's difficult to tell which is which. In fact, sometimes the sidewalk IS THE ROAD! Look both ways, look again and maybe 1 or 2 more times, then go. I thought I'd be hopelessly lost, but it's fairly small and I got my bearings pretty quickly.
I checked into the Hostel Anne Marie which was great. Big, clean, cool/helpful people working there and met some great travelers there. Droped off the backpack, got a map and info on what to see and I'm off. The red light district is way across town so I head in that direction. By the looks of things the girls are busy. OK, I know where that is and head back. On the way I stop at a supermarket. Funny thing. Everyone speaks English, but everything is written in Dutch of course. Couldn't stop laughing at my predicament. A label reading American vegetarian trying to avoid meat in Amsterdam. Well, I learned that "met gehekt" means "with meat". So I'm able to pick out some vegetable lasagna (with corn??) and get back to the hostel and meet my fellow travelers. From Germany, Oz, and Virginia. We all hit it off immediately and decided to check out a blues club. But first we had to warm up with 2 bottles of wine, some funny amsterdam cigarettes, and 3 hands of Bullsh*t (the game, not Dung). Turns out that its an open jam at Bourbon Street. So I sign up and play a couple of tunes much to the delight of my new friends. Breakfast the next morning consisted of Coffee, OJ, Bread, and PB & Jelly or something called nut nougart. Afterwards I decided to check out the Van Gogh Museum, but first I need to get in the right frame of mind. Off to a coffee shop. The key word is "Coffee" as opposed to "Cafe". All you get at a Cafe Shop is coffee. I can get that anywhere. So I find Bulldogs Coffee shop, pick out "white widow" from the menu and swap stories with 3 guys from S. Carolina. Off to the museum. Funny Story: When I bought my parka for this trip I knew it was a Dutch Police Parka, but I didn't know that they were still in use. As 2 mounted cops crept up behind me I couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking of me. Here I am basically impersonating an officer after just enjoying Amsterdam's finest. I couldn't help laughing at the irony. Normally in the U.S. this situation would cause instant anxiety. Not here. Didn't care. It's all legal. Well, I wasn't sure about the parka though. They either didn't see me or didn't care because they went right on by. However, the next day I did get stopped. As they hauled me off to jail I quickly realized that it was a problem. Nah, just kidding. They were rather nice. After I told them where I got it and how much I paid, they just said I'd have to stop wearing it. Oh well, so I have to wear it inside out for 2 days, beats jail! Interestingly, the security guard at the museum let me pass through even thought the metal detector went off. I probably should have seen if I could have gotten in for free.The Van Gogh museum is great. You can't fully appreciate the paintings until you see them in person and up close. I was quite impressed. Couldn't take any pics though.On my last night there we all decided to check out a jazz club. Great original quarted (drums, bass, piano, sax). Sat front row. Didn't drink, didn't need to.Amsterdam is awesome, I highly recommend it. Check out the pics page.Coming soon: driving through Belgium to Gay Paris.....Cheers,DJ

Gay Paris

Ok. So after checking in and juicing up Steve and I headed out on the town. I was content to just wander around and check things out, but Steve wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. Of course, we were pretty clueless so we just started walking in what we thought was the right direction. We were cracking ourselves up trying to get directions. Parisians in general do refuse to speak english so with the lingual ability of a three year old I coached Steve on a few phrases and we tried them out. It was hilarious! People looked at us like we were martians with two heads!! I almost got a out the camera just to catch the looks they gave us. A stroke of luck brought us to a bus stop which happened to go to the tower so we hoped on. The Tower is exceptionally striking at night! It´s all lit up and every so often flashing lights go off. Headed back and finished of the last of Amsterdam´s finest and off to bed. If you could call it that? More like a taco shell.

Next morning stopped at a bakery for a fresh pastry and coffee. Excellent bakeries, tiniest coffee. More like a shot. Strolled down to the Seinne River, saw the Louve, L´Opera, the Palais Royal and got to Notre Dame just as Quasimotto began ringing the church bells.

Next day decided to hunt for the Lizard King. Pere Lechaise is a huge cemetary. Took about an hour to find Jim Douglas Morrison´s grave. Very plain and small compared to most of the others. Headed back towards the hostel and climbed up to the Sacre Coeur Church. Probably the highest point in the city. Masses of people around, guitarist playing "Californication" and pretty well. Fantastic view! Hung out with fellow travelers till about 2 am when we decided it was time for a drink. Wound up at a kareoke bar. Parisians don´t want to speak english, but they have no qualms about singing in it! Just kicked it with our $10 pints of beer!

Next day I couldn´t get motivated to go to either one of the museums that I should have gone to (The Louve and Mussee DÓrsay). Eh, the Mona Lisa is tiny and not that impressive from what I hear. Never cared for it anyway. Walked around taking more pics and enjoying the springlike weather. Later, 13 of us decided to go out to The Frog & Princess. Packed. Had a good time and everyone made it back except one fella who went off with an asian hooker.

All in all, Paris is OK. Reminds me somewhat on NYC without any skyscrapers or Yellow Cabs.
BTW: Paris girls have nothing on the Dutch or English. Wonder what they´ll be like in Madrid....

DJ's world tour

Hey Everyone,

This is London calling. Actually I left London today and I'm in Amsterdam right now.
My dad set up a blog website for me to upload pics and thoughts so this is where you can check it out:

www.whereisdjtoday.com

It has two pages: pics and blogs. There isn't much on it right now, but give me a day and hopefully I'll be able to upload my London pics and thoughts.
You can also leave comments or just say hello. Love to here from you all.
So far so good. London was cool, but I think I'm going to enjoy Amsterdam alot more!

Enjoy and stay in touch.

Peace,
DJ

PS. Yo Tom and Cath

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The ride thru Belgium

Belgium: So through the internet site bugeurope.com I managed to find a ride from Amsterdam to Paris for $20E. It was a tight ride with 5 guys in a mid-size Suzuki, but it wasn't too bad. Franklin our driver who makes the trip twice a month, Kareem (Parisian), Steve (Oz/England), and an Israeli whose name I could not pick up. We talked the way and Franklin even brought along coffee for everyone. He's got the drive down pat. We stopped in Antwerp and sampled some fresh Belgium chocolate. Delicious! And later Franklin took us on a little history tour of Arras, France. Very old architecture. It used to be the Dutch southern capitol before France took over. At about the 6 hour mark we got to Paris and since Kareem lived near Friends Hostel he directed us there via the Metro. Steve decided to hang there for the night so we both checked in, chilled with a little of Amsterdams reminents and went out to check out Paris.......

London Calling

All right, so here I go with my impressions, thoughts, rant and raves...
London: First things first. I need to trade in my sawbucks for pounds. Me: "Please change $170 US to pounds." Her: "Brace yourself. Here is your $67 pounds. Ouch! Somehow I don't believe the U.S. economy is doing as well as our analysts/politicians are leading us to believe.
I hop on to the "Underground Tube" which is great! You can get anywhere. Found the Hostel without much trouble and checked in. Took a walk, but not much to see in the area. Since I hadn't gotten any sleep on the plane and nobody was really keen on going out, I resigned to the jet lag and relaxed for the evening.
Next morning and its time to do the tourist things. I take the Tube to Westminster station and start taking the obligatory pics. Big Ben/Parliament/the Thames/Piccadilly Circus/Green & Hyde parks/ Trafalgar Square and here and there. Checked out the National Portrait Gallery. Every Brit who was every famous. They had a cool interactive library with their past and present collections. Ended the night at the local pub and the next morning I'll be on EasyJet to Amsterdam. 2 days/2 nights. Short & Sweet. Gotta move on...
Stayed tuned for Amsterdam. It gets a lot more interesting!
DJ

Notes About this Site

Hi Folks,

This is Art, DJ's dad. I set this site up for DJ before he took off so
that he could keep us updated on his travels. Here's what he and I will be
doing to keep you informed. DJ will be making blog entries via email. All
he has to do is send an email to an address I set up and it will be
automatically posted to the blog. I'm actually doing that right now with
this message.

As far as pictures go, from time to time DJ will upload a batch of pictures
to a folder and I will post some of them on the site. Though I probably
won't post every picture he sends, I will be archiving them all for
whatever we might want to do with them in the future.

As you have probably noticed, you can add your comments to any blog
entry. If you have any questions or problems at this site, just drop me an
email at awolinsky@3dwriting.com

Later,
Art

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here we go. landed at heathrow and i'm off......

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