Innsbruck

Lost sue?

Marksy

It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and I got up early to prepare for our pal Marksy to come stay. I found a single mattress stuffed in one of the communal closets. I pulled it out, and headed off to the train station.

Took a tram to Centraal and hung around to meet up. Eventually found him and took him back home. We dropped his gears off at the Van Eeghenstraat pad and then us 2 lads went for a look around town.



This is the Iguana park. "Hello Colin !?!". These brass statues look very real, especially on a grey day - I've done double-takes on the ma few times. We walked around the shops and then headed back to the pad to prepare for some drinks and food out.

We met up with the Dutch and went to a classic Dutch pub (whose name I dont know). We all tried the local favourite, Amster beer, talked some, sank a few more, talshkd, drinkded, tshalked then ...

then headed down to the cheap Italian pizza! We said goodbye to the Dutch after dinner and had a wander around the red light district. Yes, its actually pretty un-seedy. There are red lit windows and pretty girls in undies. You can wander around and window shop (so to speak). Not really our scene, but novel to wander around and observe.

Sunday we decided to try a few local foods, including some not-very-nice ones. His face says it all...



We all went for a Sunday walk thru the Vondelpark and saw all manner of doggies on their outings. Lots of great doggy-spotting in the park. I read a news article noting that the council here allow sex in Vondelpark; but dogs must be kept on a leash. Make of it what you will.

Mark felt a little ill that afternoon, so we let him rest and have a shower (ask him how he felt). We all had a lazy afternoon watching crap TV - you know, that reality TV that keeps on repeating the same clips over and over. Its like being in a infinite loop sometimes!

For the whole week, I had to go to work :( . Marksy and Princess spent the week together, looking around and taking pictures. You can read his blog post here (http://www.mechanicalmarksy.com/?p=500) and see his neat-o pictures. Some of them are quite pretty!



There is lots of junk food options here, so we sampled lots of new things. One nice treat we found was these "Fatty-Boom-Batty" cakes that are awesome. I don't know their names, but MMmmMmmmmm! We ended up drinking and nerding most nights. Lucky we had 3 laptops!



One night we went for a walk through town past this building I spotted cycling by a few weeks ago. Its all blue-lit and it looks like its hollow. We spent the 4 euro to get into the Sex Museum, and looked at all the weird and wonderful variety in sexual expression thought the ages. Plus its fun to point and giggle..



I know Mark found it amusing.

So yes, lots of computing - its much better then conversation and all that kind of thing. Why talk when we can just instant message? Or skype?



Another geek glamor shot.



This is a nice pic of Marksy checking the street below. Unfortunately he might be smoking a cigarette - thats naughty! I hear that he has given up now - hope so.



I usually take one cigarette out of his pack, out it down my pants and wiggle around a bit. Then I slip it back into the pack and give it a shake. Instant dis-incentive. I think that deep down he appreciates it even if he does get grumpy on the outside. Marksy took some nice pictures around town; check this one out:



...and in the window...



Yes, its as bad as you think it would be. But seriously, some of his pictures are very pretty.



Amsterdam has a style best summed up by my cousin, Scott:

lol, gingerbread houses!

We planned on hiring a bike for Marksy, but while we were looking for a rental shop we stumbeld across some people racing up and down the canal in bathtubs! it looked like a charity event, and looked cold!



I never found any information on why they were doing it, but I'm sure it was something very scouting-like. We got Marksy a bike and took a bike ride around a few local parks in Amsterdam: Vondelpark and Rembrantspark.



We pulled some skids and chirped a wheelie here and there. My bike survived a few bunny-hops and a jump over a ramp. I wasn't confident, but the bike has proven very solid so far.



There is a video that I'll be putting up on youTube soon with us doing some ace skids. Stay tuned. Was awesome fun to have Marksy stay - we had all manner of shennanagins!

Back in Aotearoa

So maybe some of you are wondering what we have been up to?

Well the full blog posts of our recent exploits are on their way, but in the mean time heres the executive summary.

We had Xmas with Sue in Amsterdam, then flew to Geneva for New Years. We traveled with her through Switzerland, taking the glacier express through the Alps covered in foot deep snow. Continued through to Innsbruck in Austria and said goobye to Sue - she traveled onward to Thailand to trek into the hills!

We continued through to Salzburg, and then south to Venice in Italy. Wow - crazy city! From there we headed south to Florence and saw saw the statue of David, amongst the vast amount of art there. Next, down to Rome to see the sites, including the Vatican City, Colluseum etc.

Then we flew to London and saw a few mates. Stayed with Chambers, thanks! Finally a few days in Brighton with Toolmans' Grandma, then on to heathrow and homeward. We flew home via Osaka, Japan - an 8 hour layover so we looked around the city.

Landed in Auckland, and stayed with Princess' Dad for what ended up being around a month. The first few weeks were busy, as the family was planning and then celebrating a wedding! After lots of hard work, the wedding came together magically and Chris (Princess' Dad) and Gillie (Stepmum :P ) had an excellent day. Congrats, guys!

During that time, we went down to Otaki to pick up our stuff stored at Toolmans Mums'. Princess drove the car back, while Toolman drove a truck up, loaded with the big stuff.

We have just found our own (rental) place and have moved in. Now, after some trademe deals, we have pretty much got a fully furnished and operational flat. We have also got a sweet new car...

Princess has started her Vet study, and we have got a Chinchilla cage, so next on the list is: "Aquire Chinchilla".

Now that the house is organised and wired up, Toolman is preparing for employment. We are planning to come down to Wellington next month, so looking forward to seeing all the freinds and family that we haven't seen for a while..

So there you have it guys: back to NZ, and on to the next step.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Hey everybody! Its out last night here in Amsterdam, where did the year go?

Princess' Mum, Sue, arrived just before Xmas. We met her at the airport.



Princess has been looking forward to seeing her Mum for ages!



Unfortunately, we had to say good bye to Heikki the Hampster the next day. :( We found a perfect foster family - Thanks Marco, Maxim and Lois - but we both miss him still.



Our last week involved Xmas with Princess' Mum Sue, and then lots of organizing of finances, travel plans and exit strategies.

We have spent the day cleaning the flat and getting rid off excess cruft. We have packed up our life into backpacks, and leave first thing tomorrow morning for Geneva in Switzerland.

Where ever you are and whatever you are doing for New Years , have one for us! We will be back in New Zealand late January after our travels backpacking through Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

Can't wait to see you all soon;

Toolman and Princess

Toolmans Mum arrives!

Toolmans' Mum has arrived and is staying with us for a couple of weeks. We are luckily able to use our neighbors apartment for Mum to stay in, so we have lots of space.



Mum was awesome enough to bring us snacks! Yes, thats a suitcase full of Shapes, Pineapple Lumps and Burger Rings! Thanks Mum!

We have planned to go and visit Hungary together, so stay tuned for our adventure stories.

Heikki

Look at how cute he is.



Meep!

Kermis

We were invited up to Schagen for the Kermis festival by our Dutchy friends, Marloes and Robert.

We don't know what Kermis is about, but drinking was involved, so we had to go. Before the event, we met Marloes' brother, Erik, and had some drinks at his house. He has a new kitten to play with ...



After the warmup drinks, we headed around to the pub. Unfortunately, we were quite drunk already, and Toolman doesn't remember much of the actual event. This picture explains the general idea:



Kermis is some kind of local village celebration (Spring harvest?). As with most Dutch celebrations, the drinks flowed.

Toolman and Erik toast to Kermis!



Its just beer if you are wondering...

A great night, we think !?!