short entry tonight, just so i can feel accomplished!

thursday feb 16: mayke left to go to work before i woke up so we had our goodbyes the night before, even though i was going to see her in 2 days lol. so i cant remember if i wrote about this or not but when i was in amsterdam and went to the van gogh and rijksmuseum, i had lost my bike lock key (the original one) in the snow so this morning in maastricht i went to a key cutting shop and made a duplicate from the duplicate i had made in leicester. i was hoping it wasnt going to take days like how it did at timpsons cause that guy had to order in a special mould or some crap, but luckily it didnt, the guy cut the key and it works even better than the first duplicate i had made. then i went back to one of the karneval stores and bought some black fabric for my tail. the day before, before i went to the museum i went to aldi and bought some aluminum foil, but i only took a piece to make my tail out of and i gave the roll to mayke. so i didnt hang around maastricht too long because i didnt want to spend my first day in germany under a lot of stress from being lost or whatever other issues i may run into from being unfamiliar with the country. so i left maastricht at 10:34 am and followed the red and white bicycle route signs out of maastricht. they already had german town names on them so i followed them to the border. the first city i came to in germany was aachen, and this is where i ran into problems! First of all, ok it was flat, so that was good, but it was nowhere near as bike friendly as the Netherlands. They did have similar red and white cycle signs so that was good, and actually the mile markers were accurate to the nearest tenth of a mile so that was good too, cause it always drove me crazy in the Netherlands when they rounded to the nearest whole number so it would say 15 km, then 14, then somehow 15 again! But yeah once I arrived in aachen, I just tried to follow the road since I didn't have any cycling atlas. But I didn't know which color on the road signs were for the highway (things to remember In order to be more organized next time!) So I kept checking Google maps but I read it wrong so I circled around this strip of the main road a few times. One thing I did notice was some of the billboards (shops too) were in English, esp Marlboro. And I thought at first it was an advertisement for smoking but I thought oh no that can't be. I'll come back to that later (if I remember). So yeah I finally figured out which way to go and then I was back on track, although I had to now ride in the street. So as I was riding through the center (and its the afternoon) I saw a lot of people in karneval costumes! I thought, damn its only Thursday, everyone is starting early! Don't they have jobs?? as I got more into the center I saw a huge gathering for some type of street party. There I was riding along with my costume on my handle bars (which was real irritating, between getting blown in the wind and rubbing up against my wheel!), I so badly wanted to join them! So I didn't stop anywhere to sight see in aachen, just passed through. I did see though on a sculpture of a life size person in front of an important building, someone put a "Man in the iron mask" type paper mask over the statue, which I found very entertaining. ok ill have you leave you hanging with suspense here cause i am too sleepy to continue!

sydney reunion in maastricht =)

feb 15: so mayke left early in the morning to go to a job interview in the hague, so i did a walking tour that i had purchased from the tourist info the day before (right before i met up with mayke). So it took me to basically the same sights, it just told me more history than what mayke did. although it didnt take me to the old mill, so that was quite a nice hidden gem! i went to more of the city walls that mayke didnt take me to, and i went inside st servaas basiliek church which was quite pretty with its flying buttresses and everything. the church adjacent, saint janskerk, has a red tower so i wanted to go to the top but the door wasnt open even though i was visiting during their so called opening hours. so after wandering around, taking pics of all the churches and the roman remains and the bridges (sint servaasbrug is the oldest bridge in the netherlands!), and parks, i decided to go to a museum, so i tried Museum aan het Vrijthof, which was housed in a 16th century spanish government buiding. it told of the local history, but i couldnt go cause there was construction work going on on the building. so i went over the Maas river and went to the Bonnefanten Museum. it was a mixture of contemporary and old dutch master art. some of the contemporary stuff was a bit bland, but they had a special exhibition on japanese prints, and those were quite cool. and surprisingly, it was in english (the museum texs, not the prints themselves). so after going round the whole museum, i wandered around that side of maastricht for a short while, and then went back to maykes area. she lived right near the basilica of our lady which had a treasury, so i thought id pop in there real quick. when i entered the church it was reallll dark, as if lit by a few candles! and there was a sign in the corner that said pay E1 for entry beyond this point, but there was no one to collect the money and the door was open so i just went in. the treasury was there as well but it was closed off, so i just admired some of the old religious paintings and left. i asked someone in the church if the treasury was closed and he said in bad english that it was closed for the season, so that was a bit annoying. so then i went back to maykes and she was home from the interview. she said it went well but she was upfront with the boss about her potentially going to brazil so the woman told her to go and enjoy brazil and to give them a call when she comes back and she will practically have the job waiting for her. i hope she meant that and was just not saying it! so then we cooked and ate together and i looked up my directions for the following day. this was going to be my first day in germany so i was a bit nervous again, esp since i didnt know what the roads were going to be like in terms of cycle lanes, and cycle routes. but mayke told me that this part of germany is pretty flat and has lots of cycle signs, although not as much as in the netherlands. i was heading to düren in germany because it was in the middle between maastricht and cologne, but closer to cologne because i didnt want to arrive in cologne too late since i needed to get my party on for karneval!! and so i realized when i was looking up directions, that because we dont have umlauts in the english language, we change the names of places (and we change the names of places that dont have umlauts as well). cause i was on the US google maps looking for düren and nothing was coming up until i realized that in english its deuren. how annoying is that!? so anyway after i looked up directions, i skyped with mike so mayke could see him and then she studied her spanish. they had a mini competition, who knew the most languages. mayke won with 5 that she is basically fluent in. i said i am only fluent in english, but i know the bad words in lots of other languages =) but that wasnt good enough lol. but after the skype sesh mayke and i went to bed pretty early cause she had to go to work in the morning and i wanted to possibly go to the fort sint pieter which was a bit outside of town, since there were no casemates tours going on while i was there. 

What a great Valentines day present :-)

So mayke showed me the usual stuff, the churches, the market sq which had a pretty town hall and a statue of Jan pieter minckeleers who was a native that invented gaslight. So there is a flame in his hand that is always lit, even when its snowing! And mayke told me this story like some students tried to put it out and they were badly punished by the university. I forgot the whole story but it was something along those lines! So we went to the old city fortifications from Roman times, the helpoort, the city gate from the 13th century and the oldest in the Netherlands apparently. Then she showed me where the natural history museum was and we walked along some tree lined avenue which was a bit scenic. Maastricht, like most dutch cities, had lots of sculptures on the streets, so I took a pic of me on a donkey. She also showed me a fancy hotel which had like Roman remains in it, and a bookstore which used to be a church! so the ceiling and paintings on the wall were not like your average Barnes and noble! We also went across the bridge to the more modern part, which had a museum, an aldi and a building where I think the eu was born, as the official date the eu started was written on a brick in the ground. Then she showed me an old water mill, which was like a little secret cause it was on a small street and probably not very well known so that was quite cool. So yeah all the while we were walking around checking out the sights, we also went to 3 karneval shops. I wanted to buy demon wings, a devil tail and horns, and some type of black and seductive outfit to wear. So I got the wings and horns no problem from the first store, but couldn't find a tail so I decided I will make one out of fabric wrapped around aluminum foil. Then we went to a cheap clothing store and there I bought some black velvet pants, and a corset type top, so with that my costume was nearly completed. Mayke also showed me the university campus, who recycled some old the old cloisters and buildings around town and now they house a few faculties. and she also pointed out a typical person from maastricht, which was an older woman all dolled up in a leopard print outfit and hat, walking her fancy dog. I guess a lot of rich, snoody people live in maastricht!? And We also went to HEMA so I could try tompouce, super yummy! And we went food shopping after all the sightseeing and karneval shopping. I felt like we were married!! And we decided to go out for dinner this night so we went into a restaurant near campus that is cheap and popular with students, so we could make reservations for the night, but it was all booked, probably because it was Valentines day! So we went to a nearby pub and tried there. When we walked in, mayke goes "oh look who's here" and we go over to a group of people and one of them comes over to me and says "oh hi michele, how have you been!?" And I'm thinking who is this guy, he looks like someone who I met at NU but obviously this isn't him! So I just played cool like I knew who he was and I just assumed he was her brother anyway, and I was right, so awkwardness diverted there! But mayke and I made the reservation and stayed and talked with them for a little bit and then left. I said, "you're brother was skinnier when I met him in Sydney", hoping she wouldn't take offense, and she said "yeah he got fat from too much beer drinking!" So she agreed lol and then after we saw all of maastricht we went back to hers for a bit and I showered, and then in a few hours time we went back to the pub and continued to catch up. So she had gone to Mexico for her studies, I forget how long but maybe a year. And she really liked it out there, so I think that's where she got the idea to then go work in Brazil (even though they speak Portuguese and not Spanish) . And at the moment she is doing a masters in some topic relating to management and helping humans in developing areas so that's quite nice. And she works part time in one of the offices at the university, so she is quite busy! She told me I hadn't chAnged much, in looks or personality. She said carmen changed in personality but not looks and I agreed there lol. She also told me she will see andre and Connie in dusseldorf at Andy and sophies at the end of march. I got a bit jealous cause they see each other regularly, but its so hard for me to see them since I live so far away! Damn that Atlantic, why does it have to be so big!? also i had mentioned something about the lady she lived with in sydney and she said she didnt like her, and i knew she didnt like her in sydney but i forgot the reason so i asked her again and she said she wasnt very friendly and probably didnt like the idea of her coming home late from partying, and she was like acting like a mother figure, saying "oh dont you ever study?" so i think that got on maykes nerves. and she told me that she said to mayke after she met me for 10 minutes that i was a typical new yorker! not quite sure what she meant by that because if she ever did meet some other new yorkers she would know i clearly deviate from the mean, but i was in fact dressing up and painting myself green to go to a party as the statue of liberty when she met me, so maybe that had something to do with it ;) so After dinner we went to a bar and had some drinks. I was happy no one was smoking inside like in Amsterdam. She told me this story of when she went driving around australia with andre and Connie in the campervan, they had parked in a caravan type park one night and she managed to lock the keys inside the car! Andre and Connie were nice about it, but not happy!! So they tried to pick the lock to get the door open and to break the windows but they were pretty secure so both methods didn't work. then they started asking other campervan drivers in the park if they could borrow their keys to see if it would open their door, and they had several of them but none worked, so they were going to go up but they asked this one last person and it worked! So they were relieved but also a bit weirded out that some campervan keys work on multiple vehicles! Kinda makes me not want to rent one when I go back! She also told me that when she was in Mexico she was telling her friends how she wasn't religious and how she believes in evolution and they all laughed at her, saying how could you actually Think we evolved from monkeys!? So clearly science isnt a fundamental subject taught in Mexican schools..what a shame! So anyway we stayed there for a bit but went to her place. when we were getting ready for bed mayke was explaining the raunchyness of carnival. she said that there is a lot of cheating going on and drama. she said the percentage of people from eindhoven who cheat on their partners is 25% whereas in maastricht, its only like 14% or something. and i just remembered that when i was at patrick and anne marie's, patrick told me some crazy stat that in july there are more babies born in germany than any other month, and thats because of all the debauchery that goes on during oktoberfet! i cant remember the exact figure but something involving 80% lol.but anyway, so mayke and i went to bed cause she had work in the morning! 

short but sweet visit to belgium, until i return in a few weeks time!

so more about patrick and anne marie: he said he would really like to visit NY, their daughter went on exchange to the US. i forget where, but i think it was somewhere in like tennessee. she studies psychology although she doesnt want to work with it (dont we all). she is really into music, hence why she went to tennessee and i think she visited new orleans too. she wants to be a producer or something, and patrick told me that she is "in" with like a celebrity crowd and goes to VIP parties or whatever. she went to the birthday party of some jeans designer. yeah i wasnt all that impressed, i could give a crap about that stuff! but he had never been to the US so i said I would show him around. Anne marie wasnt fond of long distance traveling so she said she wouldnt go =( and then i said i was studying in england and patrick took out a map and said he wanted to do some traveling there so he was asking my advice on places to visit. i said manchester and liverpool were nice. and he asked about birmingham and i said he could miss that one! oh and they also know some famous tennis player, named kim K... who was like the best in the world a few years ago, but we checked the rankings this night and she was like 33rd. and anne marie was telling me that kims dad died a few years ago from cancer and her mom has a new boyfriend now but kim doesnt like him and her mom had cancer too, so i think she is on disability so she doesnt work or at least not that often, and kim is a multi billionaire and so she told her mom, if you leave that man i will give you all the money in the world. but until then, you get nothing. and her mom has chosen to stay with him and remain poor. but she is quite broken hearted because she is torn between choosing her daughters respect and staying with the man she loves! i only found that story interesting because you hear about celebrities all the time in the news and see their faces on tv or whatnot, but we forget that they are human beings just like normal everyday people, so some of them can be sweet and kind hearted, and some can be pricks. and clearly kim in the latter. oh and just as we had the news on, there was a story about a pedophile, and i immediately thought, "wow, maybe what joost said about all the pedophiles in belgium was true!!" or maybe just an eerie coincidence lol. then we were talking about my trip so far and stuff. patrick is into cycling but not like long distance. so i asked him if i can take my bike on any ferries leaving belgium and he said zeebrugge possibly. and i also said how i will be riding through 3 countries in 2 days, and how that is unheard of in the US and he said you could ride through 3 countries in 1 day if you go from belgium, over that skinny part of the netherlands and into germany! crazy to think about!! so after some yummy dinner, i dont even know what it was, it had ham in it but i was too hungry to care, and some dessert, i showered and went to their daughters room. she works for some local music festival that is apparently a big thing every year, they have blues and rock bands, some of them internationally famous going there. so she had posters of the festival. she also hung on her wall, post cards and collectibles from all the places she visited in the world, which gave me a nice idea =) so then i went downstairs and patrick let me use the computer to look up directions to maastricht. i was hoping to write in my blog but the keyboard was so different i was typing really slow, so i thought it might be easier for me to use my phone instead! and i was tired anyway, so i pretty much went to bed right after.
tuesday feb 14: valentines day!! so i had plans to stay with mayke for 3 days and then meet her up in cologne for the carnival weekend. so anne marie had already left for work but she left me a good bye note =) so patrick and i had breakfast together. i set off a bit early because mayke got out of class at like 1:30 pm so i didnt want her waiting around for me. the night before annie marie told me to get to maastricht it was easy,  i follow the canal that i had taken for a short while that night, the whole way into maastricht. but there were parts that i needed to cross over bridges and continue on the other side so she showed me a cycling map of the region with the flemish cycle network, which looked exactly like the dutch one. so it looked very straight forward. so after breakfast patrick and i got lance out of the shed, and i forgot to mention but my screw where my rack fits into my fork fell out the day before, so for most of the ride the rack was rattling a bit. so patrick saw and he said he had a workshop on his farm, which was just a few meters down the road, so he could find a new screw for me. so we were riding together and he pointed out the houses of his neighbors, and the majority of them were dutch. he said a lot of dutch people move to the flemish part of belgium, esp his area cause its so close to the border, because in the netherlands there are strict rules on building houses, and what it can look like, so those that want to build a house in their own style just move to belgium lol so we went to his farm and within a few minutes he found a screw that fit the hole in the fork so i was really happy about that. and what he actually does for living is runs a poultry farm. i dont know the details but apparently he receives chicks (his exact words were the chicks come from the machines then onto his place.. that made me a bit worried!!) and then he raises the chicks until they are old enough and then sells them off to the butcher or wherever. he didnt actually tell me where he sends them off to, but i can imagine. so he said oh i just received some chicks yesterday, would you like to see? so we went into the coop(???) and wow was it warm in there! and as soon as he opened the door, 1 million 1 day old baby chicks starting chirping away and running towards the other side of the room. they were soo cute!!! but he lets them roam around, so they arent like caged or anything so that was a relief to hear! but then i was off, and he came with for a short while. we rode along the canal and he pointed out more houses (really big and nice ones too!) owned by dutch people, and then he left me and i continued on my way. i had only been going a few minutes when i hear someone calling my name from behind and i turn around and its patrick! and he came back to say that he forgot to tell me that the first bridge i come to i need to cross over cause the bike trail on my side will soon vanish! so that was real nice of him to come back and tell me and i was sure glad he did because i saw from the bridge that the path turned to dirt, and if i hadnt known any better i may have just continued to follow it thinking it was the cycle network!! so going to maastricht was real easy from there, i just followed the canal the whole way. it was nice weather so that made it a pleasant trip. there was one point where the canal split so i had to go on another bridge and cross over to the other side to follow the correct canal. so i was riding along and there were these snow geese alongside the bike path, and as i was about to turn the corner to go up the bridge, one charged at me, with wings flailing and beak open! i lifted my leg as i rode by cause otherwise i was afraid it was going to bite my foot off! so i crossed over to the other side because there was an industrial estate on the side i was on, and then rode down further and came to the fork in the canal and actually i missed the other bridge to take me to the canal on the left, which was what i needed to follow so i thought oh if i follow the one on the right maybe there will be a bridge soon enough to take me over and i can get back to the one on the left and follow that one, but there were a lot of trees in my way so i couldnt see very far, so i decided to turn back around, and go to the last bridge i past under and take that. good thing i did that, cause it wasnt long before i came to a bridge and i crossed it and then made my way following the left handed canal, but this path was through some woodland which was quite nice. i followed that all the way to the border town of  smeermaas, which looked a bit pretty cause it was on a hill and the canal cut right through it. I didnt spend any time there cause i was running late with my plan to meet mayke. but i did get a bit confused cause i didnt know whether to continue following the canal or not, cause the canal path turned into like a towpath which was unsuitable for a bike, so i took the streets, saw the netherlands border sign, and continued on the road until i got to the center of maastricht. i arrived at the markt place and was amazed by the town hall so i instantly took a pic. then i asked someone where the tourist info was and this was the first time i came across someone who was not old (aka middle aged) and didnt know english too well. but he figured out what i was saying and managed to give me decent directions. so i got there and bought a little walking tour and then called mayke and she said she was at home so i went to her place which was very central so quite convenient! so it was great to see her again, she looked the same except with longer hair. so we simultaneously caught up on each others lives, while going shopping for my carneval costume, while she gave me the tour of maastricht!