(no subject)
Well now, I am back from Europe, moved into my new apartment on the east side near Garafolo's (and thus near a bunch of dumb crack addict social rejects and rednecks) and have no internet there. I am in my dad's office right now milking the internet connection for all it's worth. This will be long so I will save you all the trouble of scrolling past it if you're viewing on a "friends" page, and cut it here.
St. Bavo's Cathedral - built in 976AD. Right next door, literally across the street, from the hotel that we stayed at. Note the arrow slits in the wall of the tower! FUCK YEA FOR MEDIEVAL WARFARE!
A hilarious picture of a doggy urination station.
I don't really know what to write or where to start, so I guess I will start with Europe. It was an amazing experience, and I'll never forget that second night in Gent when I was sitting at the bar... well, I'll forget parts of it... but I started off with a few friendly repeats of beers I had already had before (most of which are triples) and then ordered a Palm, Rochefort 8, and Westmalle Triple. We had met these 50 year old guys, Pete and Alex, who are brothers in law from Holland (ishn't that vierd?) and we were talking to them about our class (they spoke English reallly well) and Amsterdam and all sorts of stuff. They ended up buying us a round before they retired to their room or the next bar, something like that, and gave my friend Kyle and I each a Justus von Mourik hand rolled cigar... it was a symphony of deep rich tobacco flavor in my mouth mixing with the second Westmalle Triple I had. Anyway, the point of that story is I ended up drunk on 6 or 7 beers and I was like, "How in hell did that just happen?" Then I realized that they were all double and triple beers, and I learned my first lesson in Europe. The beer there... DOESN'T SUCK! So actually, here is a complete list of every different beer I had.
I suppose I should also clear up before you read this list that when I say "triple" and "double," it means that for a double, they use double the amount of grain for the same amount of water in the mashing process, giving the yeast more sugar to ferment into alcohol, a triple is triple the amount of grain as a normal beer.
-Hoegaarden
-Orval
-Bellevue Kriek (pussy cherry table beer, but absolutely delicious)
-Bellevue Geuze
-Rodenbach (still my favorite brand since going over there)
-Rodenbach Grand Cru (in my opinion the best beer in the world, even though I had the beer that is considered to be best in the world. I prefer Rodenbach Grand Cru).
-Rodenbach Red Kriek
-Westmalle Dubelle
-Westmalle Tripel
-Palm
-Rochefort 6
-Rochefort 8
-Brugse Zot blonde
-Brugse Zot dark
-Ciney Bruin
-Kasteel bier blond (11%!)
-Gouden Carolus Triple (9%)
-Tuborg (a danish beer) - light, very good
-Speciaal Katje - a local dark sweet beer from Ieper, but not too sweet. smooth. delicious.
-Kapittel Tripel Abt (10%) light triple, tastes delicious and wasn't too sweet as most triples usually are
-Hommelbiere ("hommel" means hops. it was a pretty hoppy beer, darker but still blond colour, very good)
-Jan van Gent (by Liefman's)
-Gulden Draak (10.5%) - a delicious red triple
-Judas (8.5%) top fermented blond beer
-Watou's Wit biere - a pale ale, good, but not that impressed
-Westvleteren 8 (brown, 8% double. a good beer, but I like Rodenbach more)
-Westveleteren 12 (supposedly the best beer in the world... I prefer the 8, and I prefer Rodenbach to both. 10.5%... still a good beer, but not the best)
-Leffe Bruin
-St. Bernardus 12 (10.5%, same recipe as Westvleteren... they used to brew westvleteren's beer for them, that's why)
-Cantillon Gueuse (brought back a bottle of this... very sour wild fermented beer. I love it, some wouldn't).
-Cantillon Kriek
-Vieux Temps (4.5% amber, deliciously refreshing if weak)
-Hoegaarden Julius (8.5% double, delicious)
-Fresh Heineken on draught AT the heineken brewery (it was actually a good beer when it's fresh!)
-Duvel (double around 8%)
So there is my beer list. I also had premixed Bacardi and Cola in a can. What a great idea. Pre-packaged rum and cokes. *Swoons at remembering Europe*
--!!! ADD PICTURES FROM RODENBACH TOUR !!!--
Also that second day we went and toured Rodenbach's brewery, and I swear even though the tour was amazing that is not why it is my favorite beer from over there. But here is the tour description. First we got there and they proceeded to feed us two courses and then a desert of white chocolate moose. Bottomless beer, and it's my favorite beer in the world. Bottomless. Like seriously, I must have had 5 beers with lunch. All for 16 euro. Another 3 euro got us the tour of the brewery, complete with taste testings, and at the end of the tour, more bottomless beer, of everything they make. It was amazing.
The entrance to Rodenbach Brewery
The bar facilities where we were served lunch
course 1
Course 2 (those are tater-tot sticks! WEIRD!)
dessert... mmm tasty.
We went and saw a parade on Ascension Day in Brugge, that was cool. An hour and a half long procession that depicted the life of Christ and climaxed with the displaying of their holy relic, a chalice they claim contains a drop of Christ's blood. The parade had all sorts of fun stuff, like a fake head of John the Baptist, Jesus was bleeding and looked like hell when he was on the cross as he should, no more of this "he's nailed to the cross but he's still presentable!" bullshit, they made it realistic. It was an awesome parade.
Ieper (Ypres if you're frenchie) was amazing too. I didn't have my camera with fresh batteries until the last day and night there, so I went wild taking pictures. Let me show you some pictures before I tell you any more about Ieper.
Of everything that I have shown you here, the only thing that remained standing after WWI left the Ypres Salient was the original gate. Everything else was flat. Literally. It was all gone. All of it. They rebuilt it in 10 years, and built a new gate as a monument to the lives of all the soldiers lost, as you can read in this photo.
The walls have over 50,000 names easily. Easily. They are covered inside and out.
Every night at 8pm they have "the last post" in honour of every soldier that died defending Ieper, even if the city was destroyed, they still appreciate it. A Bugle call, and just a nice ceremony with singing and such. I experienced it our last night in Ieper, after we had earlier that day gone to the Flanders Field Museum. I will now post a direct transcription of my journal entry I wrote while I was there.
28 May, 2006
Watching the breakdown of deaths with photos of the soldiers over time is pretty heavy. Hard to drag myself away from staring at this screen. So many dead and just because of politics. Nothing more. Add on WWII's deaths to WWIs also. I've watched from 45,000 dead in the Ypres Salient to 114,000 now. It would be disrespectful to walk away before the counter hits 45k again. For sake of time though, I should... Okay, it restarted. Time to move.
"I died in hell. They called it Paschendale." I wish I had remembered to put Iron Maiden on my iPod for that song right now.
The exhibit towards the end with the flashing lights to simulate artillery and movie screens with sounds and sights of war I'm sure is enough to give any war veteran flashbacks. It put me into survival mode a few times, like I should have a rifle and be running through trenches.
A heavy day. time to head to St. Sixtus for beer.
We had all sorts of fun. When we got to Brussels, we toured Cantillon after we checked into our hotel... The Hotel Mozart. Um.... There are no words to describe how nice this place was, but I will tell you it was a fucking labyrinth. Here are a few photos. All of these are from the lobby because I am lazy, but maybe eventually I will post my video tour of the hotel also. Everything is either just as nice, if not nicer than in the lobby. So fucking ritzy!
Nick S. chilling in the lobby. The chairs were mad comfy.
some cool chalices on display
Sarah, Andy's girlfriend, also chilling in the lobby.
Andy eating a "Euro" which is pretty much a wrap with delicious meats and spices and veggies, etc.
Here are some cool pictures from "La Grand Place," aka the central square of Brussels.
The only thing with Brussels, is we went from blatantly gothic architecture to blatantly Frenchie architecture. Oh well, it was still beautiful! Other than the people outside every restaurant that will all but drag you in if you make eye contact with them. I got followed down the road. The best part is when they started speaking to me in English, I'd tell them I don't speak English in german. If they tried to talk to me in German after that I'd just say "NEIN!" When they spoke in french, I said I don't speak french, in German. The first night there, my dad, Nick S and I went out wandering and ended up in this bar called the "Drug Opera." Despite its name, it was a very ritzy upscale bar with a lot of respectable middle-aged people.
But I know what you've all been waiting to hear about, so without further adieu...
First we toured the Heineken brewery...
a shot up the side of the archway of bottle caps.
a shot down the bar, with Heiny bottles lined the whole way.
Andy from my class on the left, Thai from the University of Florida who we met at Heineken and walked with to the Van Gogh Museum. Thai is a special guy, see, and I'll tell you why. Not 30 seconds after Dr. Raymond and my dad delivered the "this is why we can't let you guys go into coffee shops and get stoned" talk, I was really angry. Thai noticed this and says to me, "Don't worry about it man, I've got a joint in my pocket." So Thai, Andy, and myself, stayed a bit behind the group and each smoked a cigarette to mask it, and we passed a joint of some of Amsterdam's finest. Or maybe it was Amsterdam shwag, either way it beat the piss out of American herb. 4 hits later, and I was blazed retarded for the Van Gogh museum, which was awesome. And before anyone gives me grief for posting about how I smoked pot in Amsterdam, I was in Amsterdam where it is legal. If I didn't smoke pot in Amsterdam, I'd have been a failure to every stoner ever.
My favorite paintings that I saw in person were (I'll just give the english names instead of the dutch):
-Small Pear Tree in Blossom
-The Harvest
- The pink peach tree
-The White Orchard
- The sower
-Snow-covered field with a harrow (after millet)
-Pieta (after Delacroix)
-Undergrowth
-Almond Blossom
-Wheatfield with Crows
-Wheatfield under thunderclouds
-Landscape at Twilight
I also got to see and really enjoyed...
-Dupre's The Sunken Way
-Rousseau's The forest of Fontainebleau
-Camille Carot's Sovenir of Les Landes
-Monet's Coastal Landscape
-Monet's La Corniche near Monaco
It was a really good time.
On to more pictures:
The Old Dutch Pancake House... at least the trees near it! :)
near the Van Gogh museum
and I leave you with this photo for the end of my Europe section, since it's hysterical.
So I left a lot out, but you'd be bored if I told you everything, and then I'd have nothing to make conversation about, so that's the end of my Eurotrip... other than upon landing in JFK, my carry on bag (by the way the limit is 39 pounds apparently, no one told us though we just found out later) which weighed about 60 pounds the overhead compartment of Delta's 767 decided to open, and my 60 pound bag almost flattened a one and a half year old child that was sitting in front of me. My friend Danielle, sitting next to me, was alert and screamed, "Jason, save the beer!" and with lightning reflexes I reached up and save the beer and the child from their respective deaths. I couldn't hold it much longer from my buckles in position, so I yelled for Nick S who was sitting next to me to unbuckle me, and he did. I stood up and closed the compartment as the flight attendant is yelling at me to sit and buckle in, and that she'll get it. Honestly, she couldn't have lifted it I'd bet, so I'm glad I acted quickly. Thank god Danielle was alert.
Non-Europe stuff
As I am losing my will to drug myself stupid, I still managed to try opium for the first time this weekend. It was marvelous. Nothing too impressive, but it was definitely really relaxing and music is a big thing when on it. It was a decent time. Another big thing lately is Katie. My lovely Katrina. I miss her like hell, and I haven't seen her in a while. She is coming up when she gets back from New Hampshire, where she is off touring breweries and other things, and we will have drunkfest this Saturday when she comes up. That should be a fun time.
Have you ever met yourself in another person? I have, but it's crazy. It's the same person having chosen two different paths. She is a musician, but she's an animal science major. I love animals and love to talk about them with her, and she loves music and loves to talk about music with me. It's perfect harmony. We've been talking pretty much every night. There were a few nights when I couldn't talk to her in Europe, because for some reason the hotel didn't like my phone card in Ieper, but it was good. In the short time we've known eachother, it feels like we've known eachother forever. I'm overcome with an urge to grow up a little bit and make something of myself.
I've also got to find a job this week. The college decided not to hire me back, but to hire back a bunch of kids who would go to work high and not do ANYTHING. I'm kind of in shock, but there is no use in complaining. I just have to go find some fucking work I guess.
It's been good updating everyone, now maybe I can go read your updates! Remember, I have no internet at my new place on East 8th and bridge as of yet since I have no job to pay for it, so if you want to get in touch with me, you will have to cell it. Same number as always.
Peace and love,
Jason
St. Bavo's Cathedral - built in 976AD. Right next door, literally across the street, from the hotel that we stayed at. Note the arrow slits in the wall of the tower! FUCK YEA FOR MEDIEVAL WARFARE!
A hilarious picture of a doggy urination station.
I don't really know what to write or where to start, so I guess I will start with Europe. It was an amazing experience, and I'll never forget that second night in Gent when I was sitting at the bar... well, I'll forget parts of it... but I started off with a few friendly repeats of beers I had already had before (most of which are triples) and then ordered a Palm, Rochefort 8, and Westmalle Triple. We had met these 50 year old guys, Pete and Alex, who are brothers in law from Holland (ishn't that vierd?) and we were talking to them about our class (they spoke English reallly well) and Amsterdam and all sorts of stuff. They ended up buying us a round before they retired to their room or the next bar, something like that, and gave my friend Kyle and I each a Justus von Mourik hand rolled cigar... it was a symphony of deep rich tobacco flavor in my mouth mixing with the second Westmalle Triple I had. Anyway, the point of that story is I ended up drunk on 6 or 7 beers and I was like, "How in hell did that just happen?" Then I realized that they were all double and triple beers, and I learned my first lesson in Europe. The beer there... DOESN'T SUCK! So actually, here is a complete list of every different beer I had.
I suppose I should also clear up before you read this list that when I say "triple" and "double," it means that for a double, they use double the amount of grain for the same amount of water in the mashing process, giving the yeast more sugar to ferment into alcohol, a triple is triple the amount of grain as a normal beer.
-Hoegaarden
-Orval
-Bellevue Kriek (pussy cherry table beer, but absolutely delicious)
-Bellevue Geuze
-Rodenbach (still my favorite brand since going over there)
-Rodenbach Grand Cru (in my opinion the best beer in the world, even though I had the beer that is considered to be best in the world. I prefer Rodenbach Grand Cru).
-Rodenbach Red Kriek
-Westmalle Dubelle
-Westmalle Tripel
-Palm
-Rochefort 6
-Rochefort 8
-Brugse Zot blonde
-Brugse Zot dark
-Ciney Bruin
-Kasteel bier blond (11%!)
-Gouden Carolus Triple (9%)
-Tuborg (a danish beer) - light, very good
-Speciaal Katje - a local dark sweet beer from Ieper, but not too sweet. smooth. delicious.
-Kapittel Tripel Abt (10%) light triple, tastes delicious and wasn't too sweet as most triples usually are
-Hommelbiere ("hommel" means hops. it was a pretty hoppy beer, darker but still blond colour, very good)
-Jan van Gent (by Liefman's)
-Gulden Draak (10.5%) - a delicious red triple
-Judas (8.5%) top fermented blond beer
-Watou's Wit biere - a pale ale, good, but not that impressed
-Westvleteren 8 (brown, 8% double. a good beer, but I like Rodenbach more)
-Westveleteren 12 (supposedly the best beer in the world... I prefer the 8, and I prefer Rodenbach to both. 10.5%... still a good beer, but not the best)
-Leffe Bruin
-St. Bernardus 12 (10.5%, same recipe as Westvleteren... they used to brew westvleteren's beer for them, that's why)
-Cantillon Gueuse (brought back a bottle of this... very sour wild fermented beer. I love it, some wouldn't).
-Cantillon Kriek
-Vieux Temps (4.5% amber, deliciously refreshing if weak)
-Hoegaarden Julius (8.5% double, delicious)
-Fresh Heineken on draught AT the heineken brewery (it was actually a good beer when it's fresh!)
-Duvel (double around 8%)
So there is my beer list. I also had premixed Bacardi and Cola in a can. What a great idea. Pre-packaged rum and cokes. *Swoons at remembering Europe*
--!!! ADD PICTURES FROM RODENBACH TOUR !!!--
Also that second day we went and toured Rodenbach's brewery, and I swear even though the tour was amazing that is not why it is my favorite beer from over there. But here is the tour description. First we got there and they proceeded to feed us two courses and then a desert of white chocolate moose. Bottomless beer, and it's my favorite beer in the world. Bottomless. Like seriously, I must have had 5 beers with lunch. All for 16 euro. Another 3 euro got us the tour of the brewery, complete with taste testings, and at the end of the tour, more bottomless beer, of everything they make. It was amazing.
The entrance to Rodenbach Brewery
The bar facilities where we were served lunch
course 1
Course 2 (those are tater-tot sticks! WEIRD!)
dessert... mmm tasty.
We went and saw a parade on Ascension Day in Brugge, that was cool. An hour and a half long procession that depicted the life of Christ and climaxed with the displaying of their holy relic, a chalice they claim contains a drop of Christ's blood. The parade had all sorts of fun stuff, like a fake head of John the Baptist, Jesus was bleeding and looked like hell when he was on the cross as he should, no more of this "he's nailed to the cross but he's still presentable!" bullshit, they made it realistic. It was an awesome parade.
Ieper (Ypres if you're frenchie) was amazing too. I didn't have my camera with fresh batteries until the last day and night there, so I went wild taking pictures. Let me show you some pictures before I tell you any more about Ieper.
Of everything that I have shown you here, the only thing that remained standing after WWI left the Ypres Salient was the original gate. Everything else was flat. Literally. It was all gone. All of it. They rebuilt it in 10 years, and built a new gate as a monument to the lives of all the soldiers lost, as you can read in this photo.
The walls have over 50,000 names easily. Easily. They are covered inside and out.
Every night at 8pm they have "the last post" in honour of every soldier that died defending Ieper, even if the city was destroyed, they still appreciate it. A Bugle call, and just a nice ceremony with singing and such. I experienced it our last night in Ieper, after we had earlier that day gone to the Flanders Field Museum. I will now post a direct transcription of my journal entry I wrote while I was there.
28 May, 2006
Watching the breakdown of deaths with photos of the soldiers over time is pretty heavy. Hard to drag myself away from staring at this screen. So many dead and just because of politics. Nothing more. Add on WWII's deaths to WWIs also. I've watched from 45,000 dead in the Ypres Salient to 114,000 now. It would be disrespectful to walk away before the counter hits 45k again. For sake of time though, I should... Okay, it restarted. Time to move.
"I died in hell. They called it Paschendale." I wish I had remembered to put Iron Maiden on my iPod for that song right now.
The exhibit towards the end with the flashing lights to simulate artillery and movie screens with sounds and sights of war I'm sure is enough to give any war veteran flashbacks. It put me into survival mode a few times, like I should have a rifle and be running through trenches.
A heavy day. time to head to St. Sixtus for beer.
We had all sorts of fun. When we got to Brussels, we toured Cantillon after we checked into our hotel... The Hotel Mozart. Um.... There are no words to describe how nice this place was, but I will tell you it was a fucking labyrinth. Here are a few photos. All of these are from the lobby because I am lazy, but maybe eventually I will post my video tour of the hotel also. Everything is either just as nice, if not nicer than in the lobby. So fucking ritzy!
Nick S. chilling in the lobby. The chairs were mad comfy.
some cool chalices on display
Sarah, Andy's girlfriend, also chilling in the lobby.
Andy eating a "Euro" which is pretty much a wrap with delicious meats and spices and veggies, etc.
Here are some cool pictures from "La Grand Place," aka the central square of Brussels.
The only thing with Brussels, is we went from blatantly gothic architecture to blatantly Frenchie architecture. Oh well, it was still beautiful! Other than the people outside every restaurant that will all but drag you in if you make eye contact with them. I got followed down the road. The best part is when they started speaking to me in English, I'd tell them I don't speak English in german. If they tried to talk to me in German after that I'd just say "NEIN!" When they spoke in french, I said I don't speak french, in German. The first night there, my dad, Nick S and I went out wandering and ended up in this bar called the "Drug Opera." Despite its name, it was a very ritzy upscale bar with a lot of respectable middle-aged people.
But I know what you've all been waiting to hear about, so without further adieu...
First we toured the Heineken brewery...
a shot up the side of the archway of bottle caps.
a shot down the bar, with Heiny bottles lined the whole way.
Andy from my class on the left, Thai from the University of Florida who we met at Heineken and walked with to the Van Gogh Museum. Thai is a special guy, see, and I'll tell you why. Not 30 seconds after Dr. Raymond and my dad delivered the "this is why we can't let you guys go into coffee shops and get stoned" talk, I was really angry. Thai noticed this and says to me, "Don't worry about it man, I've got a joint in my pocket." So Thai, Andy, and myself, stayed a bit behind the group and each smoked a cigarette to mask it, and we passed a joint of some of Amsterdam's finest. Or maybe it was Amsterdam shwag, either way it beat the piss out of American herb. 4 hits later, and I was blazed retarded for the Van Gogh museum, which was awesome. And before anyone gives me grief for posting about how I smoked pot in Amsterdam, I was in Amsterdam where it is legal. If I didn't smoke pot in Amsterdam, I'd have been a failure to every stoner ever.
My favorite paintings that I saw in person were (I'll just give the english names instead of the dutch):
-Small Pear Tree in Blossom
-The Harvest
- The pink peach tree
-The White Orchard
- The sower
-Snow-covered field with a harrow (after millet)
-Pieta (after Delacroix)
-Undergrowth
-Almond Blossom
-Wheatfield with Crows
-Wheatfield under thunderclouds
-Landscape at Twilight
I also got to see and really enjoyed...
-Dupre's The Sunken Way
-Rousseau's The forest of Fontainebleau
-Camille Carot's Sovenir of Les Landes
-Monet's Coastal Landscape
-Monet's La Corniche near Monaco
It was a really good time.
On to more pictures:
The Old Dutch Pancake House... at least the trees near it! :)
near the Van Gogh museum
and I leave you with this photo for the end of my Europe section, since it's hysterical.
So I left a lot out, but you'd be bored if I told you everything, and then I'd have nothing to make conversation about, so that's the end of my Eurotrip... other than upon landing in JFK, my carry on bag (by the way the limit is 39 pounds apparently, no one told us though we just found out later) which weighed about 60 pounds the overhead compartment of Delta's 767 decided to open, and my 60 pound bag almost flattened a one and a half year old child that was sitting in front of me. My friend Danielle, sitting next to me, was alert and screamed, "Jason, save the beer!" and with lightning reflexes I reached up and save the beer and the child from their respective deaths. I couldn't hold it much longer from my buckles in position, so I yelled for Nick S who was sitting next to me to unbuckle me, and he did. I stood up and closed the compartment as the flight attendant is yelling at me to sit and buckle in, and that she'll get it. Honestly, she couldn't have lifted it I'd bet, so I'm glad I acted quickly. Thank god Danielle was alert.
Non-Europe stuff
As I am losing my will to drug myself stupid, I still managed to try opium for the first time this weekend. It was marvelous. Nothing too impressive, but it was definitely really relaxing and music is a big thing when on it. It was a decent time. Another big thing lately is Katie. My lovely Katrina. I miss her like hell, and I haven't seen her in a while. She is coming up when she gets back from New Hampshire, where she is off touring breweries and other things, and we will have drunkfest this Saturday when she comes up. That should be a fun time.
Have you ever met yourself in another person? I have, but it's crazy. It's the same person having chosen two different paths. She is a musician, but she's an animal science major. I love animals and love to talk about them with her, and she loves music and loves to talk about music with me. It's perfect harmony. We've been talking pretty much every night. There were a few nights when I couldn't talk to her in Europe, because for some reason the hotel didn't like my phone card in Ieper, but it was good. In the short time we've known eachother, it feels like we've known eachother forever. I'm overcome with an urge to grow up a little bit and make something of myself.
I've also got to find a job this week. The college decided not to hire me back, but to hire back a bunch of kids who would go to work high and not do ANYTHING. I'm kind of in shock, but there is no use in complaining. I just have to go find some fucking work I guess.
It's been good updating everyone, now maybe I can go read your updates! Remember, I have no internet at my new place on East 8th and bridge as of yet since I have no job to pay for it, so if you want to get in touch with me, you will have to cell it. Same number as always.
Peace and love,
Jason