Justin's 30th / Techno Pilgrimage / Euro Trek

Home. Just back from Amsterdam.

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 13:41:37 -0700

Home. Just back from Amsterdam.

Back in the States

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:03:22 -0700

After the hip hop show I showered, packed and took a taxi to the airport, flew through Heathrow, half asleep, and finally got on a plane to Boston around 10am. I don’t remember much of this since I was dozing off the entire time, but my staying up let me sleep for 6 hours on the way home, effectively killing a bad jet lag situation. I woke up, went through customs super quickly, and hopped in a car with my dad, who’s visiting from Phoenix. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner, and it’s great to be home.

Dilated Peoples @ Melkweg

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:57:27 -0700

Dilated Peoples @ Melkweg

Beat Junkies: Babu, J Rocc, Rhettmatic

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:56:49 -0700

Beat Junkies: Babu, J Rocc, Rhettmatic

Not a fixie in sight

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:54:52 -0700

Not a fixie in sight

excellent birthday advice

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:53:03 -0700

excellent birthday advice

birthday veggie breakfast feast

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:51:37 -0700

birthday veggie breakfast feast

Day 13

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:49:56 -0700

It’s the last day in Amsty, and it’s my birth date. It feels good, and I think this trip has gone as planned, enjoyable in every way.

I started the day at a lovely vegetarian restaurant close to the hotel and got the kitchen special - a sampling of all sorts of delicious veggie foods. I rolled on through the city and stopped at a cafe to strike up more conversation. I ended up sitting next to a Finnish hip hop producer and beat freak named Aappo. We played each other a couple of our tunes with our iPhones, and he took off to the record store, and I took off to ride around some more and get back to the hotel area to return my bike.

I looked up a local hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant, and went for a nice, quiet dinner. In a fun turn of events, their vegetarian dish is very close to my favorite meal to cook at home on a regular basis - pasta and broccoli. Dinner was delicious and nostalgic; I got a red wine and chocolate mouse for dessert. It was just me and a couple other tables of old people, and a friendly waitress. Belly full, feeling good, I headed back to the hotel to figure out how to get to the club without a bike.

Turns out the club was a fifteen minute walk from my hotel. I got to see The Beat Junkies and Dilated Peoples, who I used to love back in 1998. It was a fun way to wrap up the music portion of the trip.

30, just woke up

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:48:01 -0700

30, just woke up

Day 12

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:44:22 -0700

First things first, walked to a bike shop on the corner of my block and rented a sweet cruiser for 10 euro a day, which seems totally reasonable to me. I pumped up the tires, got some advice from the shop manager, and rolled out. Pretty quickly I almost got taken down by a tram rail, so I’ve been more careful about those things. I rode towards the city centre and kept following wherever the bike paths took me. I quickly got a good feeling for the riding, and am very impressed by the orderliness and utter chaos of the whole system. It’s nice to ride among others who can appreciate and follow the rules, cars included.

So I rode around pretty much the whole city center, and decided to stop for a pineapple juice. It was nice to rest the legs, and I sat down next to a few Brits who live in the country outside of Manchester. They were a strange bunch, but nice to talk to. The girl in the group was missing at least 6 teeth, but they were all very friendly. I packed up and hit the streets again, riding around town a bit before I stopped at my favorite new fast falafel joint close to the hotel - Moaz.

Having munched down, I made it home in a bit of rain, and within an hour Jasper, my bandmate from Brim Liski came to meet me for dinner. It was nice to meet in person, and we had a good meal at a local pub. Jasper knew people that worked there and he helped with the ordering process.

We ate and drank a beer, and then Jasper drove us back to his apartment in a village 15 minutes down the highway. He had a nice place with his very nice girlfriend of 4 years, Lenneke (like Monica, with an L), and we shared a bunch of our recent productions with each other. He’s a great producer across a bunch of different styles, and it was cool to talk about our different influences and musical tastes. We chilled for a couple hours, drank tea, and then he brought me back to the hotel around midnight.

They’re digging a subway and some of the houses are...

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:42:33 -0700

They’re digging a subway and some of the houses are sinking. Not sure if that’s happening here, but it’s definitely got a gangster lean

brains

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:40:56 -0700

brains

trusty steed

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:40:27 -0700

trusty steed

Amsterdam, biking around

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:39:19 -0700

Amsterdam, biking around

Amsterdam, biking around. Nemo in the background.

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:38:05 -0700

Amsterdam, biking around. Nemo in the background.

Amsterdam, biking around. waterfront

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:36:47 -0700

Amsterdam, biking around. waterfront

Amsterdam, biking around

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:35:34 -0700

Amsterdam, biking around

canals

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:34:28 -0700

canals

Day 10

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:32:53 -0700

I walked home from the party, took a shower, and hit the hay. Woke up, packed, cleaned, left Heidi a couple thank you notes, and got in touch with Lesley for a rushed goodbye lunch, which was nice since we didn’t all get to go shopping yesterday. I walked across the street to the Gare du Nord, hopped on my train, an am en route to Amsterdam.

Final France thoughts: it’s an amazing place, with so much history and so much influence on our American lives. The food, language, art, music, ideals of human rights and so much more is transparently integrated into our own culture. It makes me sad that some people in America talk shit about France. They should visit and study up, because there’s so much to appreciate. The quality of life here seems great, and whatever you’re into, you’ll find it here. Everyone that I met was incredibly friendly, save for some service industry workers, but that’s to be expected, no? I’m sad to leave, but happy to move on and see some new things, especially my family later this week.

Made it to Amsterdam, the train ride was pretty decent. Though the guy next to me kept spilling over into my area and was playing some game on his iPad the whole time, waving his hands around as he thought about making his moves, which I found totally annoying, but I’m trying to be cool and accept that people are people and despite the many ways that we can suck, we’re also pretty amazing to have gotten to where we are as an organized, civilized species, so, I digress. I got some cash at the Amsterdam-Centraal station and caught a cab to my hotel to avoid needing to figure anything out. The driver wanted 20 euros, but following Markus’s lead from London, I asked for 15, and he settled on 16, which I think was still too much, but whatever - I’m feeling lazy at the moment. The hotel room is small but decent and cheap, and the staff is friendly. I’m stretching my legs to hit the town - I’m in need of dinner.

I started walking and immediately found a veggie falafel spot and got an amazing fresh falafel. The icing on the cake was that I could add my own ingredients, one of which being green olives. Yum. I munched that down and walked further towards the city center. I stopped and got a hot chocolate and ended up sitting next to Marc, a French guy that lives on a boat. We chatted for a while, and had a bunch of laughs before I took off for more strolling, and eventually made my way back to the hotel to rest up for tomorrow. It seems like a beautiful city so far, with the most attractive aspect being the insane number of bicycles, bikers, and bike lanes. First thing tomorrow, I’m finding a bike.

Amsterdam windmill

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 10:31:33 -0700

Amsterdam windmill