ChrisMerriman.com

Jan 28 2012

Amsterdam – 9th January

Category: Amsterdam,Friends,Personal,Pictures — ChrisM @ 9:28 am

This was our last day in Amsterdam, but as our flights weren’t until 9pm-ish, we had plenty of time to slowly get our stuff together and head on a bus back to town for the last time. I still had a wide variety of supplies to finish off, some herb crushing equipment that I’d not have time or energy to properly clean, and a bunch of pre-rolled empty cones that after experimenting with, I knew would find a better home with someone else. We grabbed a few stools at Voyagers, and got down to the serious business of finishing everything off. I grabbed a couple of space cakes (or they might have been left over from last night, I forgot to include our trip to Hunters when searching for a CS still open in Amsterdam that sold decent enough edibles. Anyway, Cisco and Gapie turned up, and HB was serving at one point. I’d remembered to take a few photos of the houseboat and the surrounding area, and I think there are some videos hiding somewhere that I need to upload to YouTube. I’ll try and get around to writing at least one proper post on some of the finer details of this trip – the houseboat, the GPS files and the shortlist of strains and CS I’d created/updated just prior to the trip.

Almost 360 Panorama From Our Sundeck

What You See As You Enter The Houseboat

Exit & French Door

Kitchen Portholes

Dinner Table

Kitchen Panorama

Mind Your Step & Your Head!

Dresser With HiFi

Door To Second Bedroom

Warm Radiator & Step For Bunk

TV & Sofa

Main Bedroom's Portholes

Corner Of Living Room's TV Stand & Main Bedroom's Double Bed

Stairs Up To The Kitchen/Sun Deck

Depleted Supplies

2nd Bedroom's 1st Bed With Light & Porthole

2nd Bedroom's 2nd Bed

Toilet, Towel Rail & Porthole

Sink, Mirror & Table

Our Apartment Was At The Stern

Levantkade With Ideal II (Our Houseboat) In The Background On The Right)

ChrisB

ChrisB, Possibly At the Local Bus/Tram Stop

Didn't Make Time To Properly Checkout The Local Area 🙁

Another Panorama Failing Shot Of Levantkade

Levantkade - Where We Were Moored(?)

Our Floating Neighbours

Our Houseboat In The Background

One More View From The Houseboat Across The River

Another View From The Houseboat Across The River

View From The Houseboat (Auto-Panorama Failed In PS)

Voyagers' Artwork. I think.

Tags: Amsterdam, Bus, Cisco, Gapie, GPS, herb crushing equipment, Highly Blessed, Houseboat, Hunters, Space Cakes, Voyagers

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Dec 30 2007

Couldn’t Stay Away

Category: Kazakhstan — ChrisM @ 2:11 pm

Whilst fiddling with back room stuff for this site, wanted to try a few things out, so here is the next section on Kazakhstan.

If someone thinks you look a little different to the accepted norm for a Russian or Kazakh person, they will simply stare at you. This shouldn’t be taken as an insult (or an invitation to get to know one another ;>). It is just if they want to cop a look, they won’t be subtle.
People have different coping mechanisms for this behavioural trait. Some avert their eyes, others pretend not to notice. Still others will decide to turn it into a juvenile game. Whoever breaks the stare first loses, and you can keep a tally through the whole day you are out. Once you are up at the end of a day (18-3 for example), you can assume you’re no longer feeling like such a wimpy foreigner. Ummm, or so my friends tell me ;>

Whilst we may all joke about English manners and overly polite social standards, standing in line for something over here is an experience you’re not likely to forget very quickly.
You’ll also be likely to quickly re-appraise your understanding of the term line or queue. People will have no shame, nor should you, about pushing their way to the front of what could have been a perfectly civil and organized wait for the bus/ticket desk/shop assistant/train/you get the idea.
I still draw the line at elderly/young people, other than that, its every queue jumper for themselves, ultimately. (This does tend to mean most elderly/young people get served/on the bus before me, but I have this thing against trampling over brittle bones/people smaller than me.)

Upon arrival/exiting the country, be it 8.30pm, 3.45am or 3pm, you’ll likely find yourselves being greeted with a small (OK, more likely a table laden with more stuff than you’d normally see for a ‘light’ meal) snack and some drinks, to celebrate your arrival/time in the country.
You might not feel exactly like wolfing the lot down, but if you take your time, with the food and the drink, you should do fine. DON’T feel obliged to down shots of Cognac/Vodka each toast. Unless that’s your adjusting mechanism to the flights & time difference ;>

Tags: Bus, Cognac, Drink, English, food, Kazakh, Kazakhstan, Manners, Queue, Russian, Train, Vodka

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