ICTY Update: only a few more days until the trial!

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I’m overdue for an update on work here, not least because a certain family member keeps suggesting that I am spending too much time having fun and traveling! Let me assure you all that I a) have taken only one day off so far and b) work at least eight hours a day.

The Mladić trial will FINALLY resume next Monday. (Remember: it officially started the week I arrived!) I was supposed to go to Krakow this weekend but have canceled those plans in favor of staying here to help with prepping the first witness. I’m really excited, personally and professionally, for the experiences I’ll get to have over the next week and a half. After eight weeks of reading witness statements, previous judgments, and all sorts of other things in which I learn a lot about everything that happened, it will be so meaningful to actually meet and speak with one of the thousands of victims for whom we’re doing all of this work. The first witness has a heartbreaking story to tell, and I have so much respect for him and all the others who have the courage to recount their experiences in front of the accused and everyone else at the Tribunal.

That’s about all I can say about my case for right now – next week once there’s news coverage again, I’ll have a better idea of what is and is not confidential, and I will discuss whatever I can.

Aside from the Mladić case, I had a pretty interesting day at work last Thursday. I finally went and watched two live court proceedings at the courtroom rather than via live stream at my desk. I say “at” rather than “in” the courtroom because you can’t actually be in the room. Instead, the audience sits on the other side of a glass wall – it’s like being in the same room, except the glass is soundproof, so in order to hear anything you have to use the listening devices (which offer a choice of English, French, and BCS). There are times when the court goes into what’s called “private session”, and at that time you can’t hear what’s going on.

Thursday morning started with the announcement of the judgment in the third contempt of court trial of Vojislav Šešelj, who is a real nutcase even amongst all of the defendants. (The previous record for contempt of court charges was ONE; he’s now had THREE.) He spent a lot of time while the judge read the judgment looking at all of us in the audience, and even though we were pretty far away from him, I’m fairly certain that he made eye contact with me at one point. That was creepy enough, but the ending blew us all away. The judge asked him to stand up in order to hear his sentence, and Šešelj defiantly stayed seated and said (through a female translator) “why would I stand for you? You’re the scum of the earth,” at which point he turned and practically grinned at all of us in the audience. It makes me think that they shouldn’t allow anyone to watch any of his proceedings – he clearly loves to put on a show.

Next up was Radovan Karadžić, the other big bad wolf of the Bosnian Serbs. He and Mladić have very similar indictments, but his trial is halfway finished – the prosecution finished presenting its case not long before we arrived. As a result, we got to watch the judgement for his motion for summary judgement. (Essentially, he submitted that the prosecution had not proved its case and asked the judges to make a ruling on each count of whether or not the prosecution had provided evidence sufficient to allow a trier of fact to conclude that he was guilty – which is not the same as actually finding him guilty). The audience seating for this courtroom is much closer, and from my position I was maybe 10 yards away from Karadžić. Like Mladić, who appearance-wise could have passed for a law professor during our opening statements, Karadžić looks like a perfectly normal guy. He’s representing himself, so it’s even easier to believe – rather than sitting in the usual box for the accused, he was sitting in the area for defense counsel (along with a couple of people who were there as his advisors), and he only had one guard sitting off to the side. It’s worth noting that Karadžić was a psychiatrist before he got involved in politics and became president of the Bosnian Serbs. (This makes all of the atrocities he ordered all the more disturbing to me.) Anyway, he sat there pretty passively as the judge read through the first part of the judgement (during which they said for count after count that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence). After about an hour the judge allowed a 15-minute recess, and I stayed there and watched Karadžić, who stood up and chatted pleasantly with the people around him – smiling, laughing, generally looking like anyone on a coffee break in an office. I made eye contact with him too. So, so weird.

After that I headed back up to my office to watch the remainder via live stream, and I now wish that I had stayed downstairs. We got a real shock when the judge announced that they were going to acquit him of one of his genocide charges – that was not something that ANYONE was expecting, and once again, we didn’t have the opportunity to see the reaction of the accused because the camera mostly stayed on the judge.

That decision has made our work both more motivating and more important. I’ve been working for the last two weeks on exactly the same charge that the judges dropped for Karadžić, so I’m now doing my best to make sure that I’m not only doing my work accurately but also that I’m thinking ahead as much as possible and anticipating ways in which I can be helpful. I don’t want our first witness to relive the nightmares of his youth once again only to hear the judge read  months from now that we weren’t able to prove our genocide case.

the capital of chocolate, beer, waffles, and Europe: Brussels!

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Let me just take a moment, once again, to marvel at the accessibility of other cities and countries in Europe. From the Hague, here’s a random sampling of train times to other cities: Amsterdam = 1 hour, Brussels = 2.25 hours, Paris = 3 hours. You can literally take a day trip to another COUNTRY, which is exactly what I meant to do on Saturday by going to Brussels.

Brussels has kind of a mixed reputation that borders on negative, mostly because it’s rumored to be boring. That makes a certain amount of sense: after all, it’s the capital of the EU; it’s the seat of European government and bureaucracy! At the same time, Brussels is arguably THE place to get chocolate, beer, waffles, and fries. (I had three out of those four and chose to save mussels for another visit when they’re in season.)

I did a bit more research for this trip than I did for my previous trips this summer and arrived in Brussels with a list of things to see and do. After meandering through an outdoor market that reminded me of Eastern Market in DC, I arrived in Grand Place, which is the central square of the city center. It’s flanked on all four sides by beautiful, stately buildings like these:

There are also chocolate shops everywhere in this area. Godiva’s main store is right in the corner of Grand Place, but there are plenty of others with names unfamiliar to us in America but still quite famous in their own right. I bought some from this store, which is right next to Godiva:

All of these stores have chocolate of all shapes, sizes, flavors, textures, and color. I bought about $10 worth from two stores and have only tried two pieces so far (must savor it, Charlie Bucket style!). If you are a chocolate addict, Brussels would be the perfect pilgrimage.

After admiring the grandeur of Grand Place for a few minutes, I walked south in search of Mannekin Pis. This little statue has become the symbol of Brussels, and unlike the statue of the angry little boy that symbolizes Oslo, this guy is totally adorable, for a number of reasons. First of all, and most important in terms of making him famous, he’s peeing (he’s a fountain). Second of all, people have taken to dressing him up. I was not at all upset to find him wearing clothes rather than being naked. How cute is this?!

I spent the next hour and a half strolling through the busy shopping streets north of Grand Place and enjoyed reacquainting myself with French. (I got into a nice little linguistics discussion with the owner of one store, and I loved walking around and realizing that I still know quite a bit of French even if I don’t speak it very well anymore.) I eventually bought a waffle from one of the many vendors and sat down to eat it in the Place des Martyrs, a smaller version of Grand Place with a big statue in the middle.

From there, I set off in search of Delirium: the bar that holds the Guinness World Record for the most number of beers available in one place: 2,004 in total! (It also includes a tequilería with 500 types of tequila.) I got there around 2, so there weren’t many people. I sat down at the bar and asked the bartender (in French, obviously) which of the beers on tap was his favorite. He wasn’t terribly friendly at first, but eventually he answered that it depended on the type of day, and have gave me a sample of Monk Stout, which is a bit darker than I normally drink but was still really good, so I got a glass of that and had a chat with a Spanish woman who was buying a bunch of beers for her group. (More about Delirium in a bit – I went back and stayed much longer!)

After my little rest at the bar, I pointed myself east and started wandering in the general direction of the main EU buildings. On the way, I passed through and hung out in the Parc de Bruxelles – a huge park containing lots of art honoring the things Brussels is most known for: beer, chocolate, fries, mussels, and one I hadn’t remembered: Brussels sprouts! Like the animal statues project that lots of different cities in the US have (where different business all decorate their own), these sculptures were all the same shape but with different decorations. Here are my three favorites:

(Note that this is Mannekin Pis on top of the Brussels sprout):

This says “reach the unreachable”:

After passing through the park and reading for a few minutes on a bench (across from two guys sunbathing, hehe), I continued walking east, away from the touristy area, and eventually wound up across from the European Parliament building… which was not nearly as exciting as I expected it to be. I figured I might as well head north to see the European Commission even if I wouldn’t be impressed; what followed was another hour of walking around without a particularly good idea of where I was. I passed through some less-than-cute areas but did stumble upon another, smaller park which is ranks as #2 on my list of most romantic spots in Europe (#1 is in the Parque del Retiro in Madrid):

Here’s what that cave-type thing in the back looks like closer up: it has waterfalls!

After wandering around for another couple of hours, I met up with my friend/coworker Arthur (Brussels was a popular destination among ICTY employees this weekend) and went back to Delirium. By this time it was after 6, so it was significantly busier.

Disclaimer: No, I did not drink solely Belgian beer at Delirium. That may or may not be a wasted opportunity depending on your perspective; from mine, it was an opportunity to do a little traveling vicariously through drinking.

I started with the Floris Cactus, which actually contains some cactus extract and some “green lemons”; it was fruity and refreshing:

We drank our first beer on the main floor but then headed down to the basement, which is where they keep all of the bottled beer. The “menu” looks more like a catalog – it’s easily 40 pages long – and we spent some time looking through. I started with a Cruzcampo in honor of Spain’s impending Euro 2012 final against Italy (which was last night), then when we learned that they were out of the Croatian beer Karlovačko (so disappointing!), I ordered a Cuban beer, since I figured that’s not something I can drink in the United States:

Eventually, because we’d had enough beer and I still had a train to catch, we left Delirium and sat down for dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. Delirium is right off this little street that’s crowded with restaurants (not unlike some streets in Dubrovnik), and it’s utterly European and charming.

So, the verdict on Brussels: GO! I think it’d be a fun place to spend a few days – aside from the beer and chocolate, there’s a lot of stuff to see! I plan to go back sometime when mussels are in season and see a lot more.

Around Holland: Utrecht, Gouda, Delft, and Rotterdam

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This weekend I joined up with my friend Iva, an intern from Croatia, to see a few of the nearby Dutch cities. Trains here (and in all of Europe) are blissfully frequent and always on time, making it very easy to travel around efficiently. We had no particular agenda for any of these cities other than to arrive and wander around.

Utrecht is a charming city about 45 minutes east of Den Haag. To me, it seemed like a larger version of Delft: it’s home to many canals (wider than those of Delft) and buildings whose architecture reflects the age of the city  – it’s one of the oldest in Holland.

After navigating our way out of the central station (which is also a sizable mall), we exited into a square filled with stalls of clothing and food (the smell of waffles wafted through the air, making us hungry). We found our way to a church and took a look inside before walking along one of the larger canals. We contemplated renting a canoe but opted for sitting on a bench near a man strumming a guitar and singing in Portuguese. Here was our view:

People live right on the canals in little buildings right under the main street. Except for the threat of flooding, this seems like the perfect set-up to me:

I also FINALLY saw someone wearing the famous Dutch wooden shoes. I almost bought a pair today, but they seem like the ultimate example of something you want to buy but really shouldn’t. Here’s what one looked like on my foot:

Anyway, after a couple of hours in Utrecht, we hopped back on the train to go back to Den Haag and took a quick detour to Gouda, home of the famous cheese. Let me take a moment to announce that we’ve all been seriously  mispronouncing “Gouda”. It’s not GOO-da; it’s HOW-da. (One of the few things I’ve managed to figure out about Dutch is that g’s sound like h’s.) Gouda is another charming little town; we walked down a pedestrian shopping street towards the main square, and about halfway down I realized that the orange things hanging over the street were not the ubiquitous orange soccer decorations but instead wheels of cheese:

Once in the main square, we found a cheese shop but didn’t buy anything. Here’s your Dutch word of the day (one of maybe six that I know): “cheese” is “kaas”.

There is also a cheese museum, but we didn’t visit:

Today Iva and I headed southeast to Delft and Rotterdam for some shopping. I’ve written about Delft already; it was just as charming today despite the cold rain that we put up with until mid-afternoon. We went into around six souvenir shops along the main square, and I bought some wooden tulips for my apartment:

I noticed something new this time in Delft. At random intervals along the brick sidewalks, there are the famous white tiles with blue paint instead of bricks. They all say the same thing (I think the word for “earth” in a number of languages):

On our way back to the train station, we grabbed some “hot dogs” from a bakery. They were quite delicious, although they also had some of the sweet brown sauce that frequently appears in Dutch cooking (I’m not a huge fan).

We arrived in Rotterdam about 15 minutes later. Rotterdam is the second-largest city in Holland, and unlike the rest, it’s full of skyscrapers. Apparently, nearly the entire city was destroyed during World War II, and Dutch developers took that as an opportunity to build a modern city. Here’s one example:

There’s quite a bit of touristy stuff to see and do in Rotterdam, but Iva and I stuck to the shopping district near the central station. (Rotterdam, unlike the Hague, has fully embraced the American tradition of shopping on Sunday.) We went into a bunch of stores, and I ended up buying a lovely sea green “leather” jacket, which will serve my needs of both fashion and function here in still-chilly Holland.

So, even though I didn’t visit any museums or go on any tours, I had a lovely weekend seeing a bit of the nearby cities! I doubt I’ll have a chance to go back (although Rotterdam’s shops are open until 11 this Friday…), so I’m glad I got to see them even briefly.

SIX weeks in the Hague?!

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Yes, this is my sixth week here! It’s so hard to believe. It feels like I’ve been here a lot longer (in the best possible sense), and I’m already dreading the day when I’ll have to leave!

This week has been wonderful. After enjoying nice weather both days last weekend, I closed out  my Sunday by joining a friend at one of the beachfront bars to watch the Dutch soccer team make their last stand in the Euro 2012 tournament. After losing their previous two games, there wasn’t much hope for this one – but nonetheless, the residents of Den Haag were decked out in orange and glued to various tv screens. We sat on a couch and watched the game on a giant screen outside (with the sand behind us) – which is pretty much the best way to watch tv of any sort. Here was our view:

This bar (called Blue Lagoon) also provided a DJ for the time before and after the game as well as during halftime, when an adorable toddler danced to LMFAO’s “Sexy And I Know It” – I caught about a minute of it on video, and it’s practically a YouTube sensation in the making. Anyway, Portugal won (to my great pleasure; I was wearing orange but rooting for Portugal!), so that’s the end of the orange wave here. By the way, they’re SO into this tournament that this sand sculpture is right at the entrance to the beach:

On Tuesday I left work a little early along with several Croatian colleagues to attend a (random) celebration of Croatia’s entry into the EU on July 1 of next year. This took place at town hall and was a TON of fun. We got to drink imported Karlovačko beer and took home quite a few souvenirs, including pouches of lavender, Croatian chocolate, the red wooden hearts that you can buy in Zagreb, and a wide range of tourist material, including a DVD. There were many Croatians there, and as one of them said after meeting me, “being here is like feeding your soul!” We also enjoyed a performance by a beautiful, young cellist from Zagreb and met her right before we left. She liked my name so much she said she would name her daughter after me! I also got a picture with the Croatian ambassador to the Netherlands:

After this, I joined two other ICTY lawyers (one from Bosnia, one from Ireland) for dinner and then went with them and an English lawyer to an Irish pub to watch the England vs. Ukraine game. Several other Bosnian guys from the Tribunal were there, and I spent most of the time talking with them. I’ve now got quite a group of BCS speakers who are willing to help me  learn a bit more of the language! (These guys have all greeted me in BCS when they’ve seen me in the last few days.)

Yesterday was my friend’s 25th birthday, so a bunch of us interns went back to Blue Lagoon for an evening of celebration on the beach. Fortunately, the weather cooperated; it was about 70 degrees yesterday! I ate some raw oysters (with beets, quite good!):

but I could have ordered this guy:

By the end of the night there were about 20 of us there, and six of us ended up going down onto the beach shortly before midnight. Given that it was summer solstice and we were already having a great time, it seemed to me only appropriate that we go for a swim – so we did! It was still a little light outside even though it was so late, and the water, far from being freezing, was just the right temperature – brisk but refreshing. Four of us stayed in for about 20 minutes. It was the perfect way to end the night, and we’ve decided to try to go as often as possible for the rest of the summer!

This weekend I’m hoping to go to Utrecht (another Dutch city) with my Croatian friend and then perhaps back to Amsterdam to see more! But if the weather is as nice as it was last weekend… might have to go to the beach. Here are some pictures from recent morning walks:

In summary: life is good. So very blessed!

Amsterdam Trip #1: the Red Light District & Medieval Centre

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I took advantage of a second day of gorgeous weekend weather and went to Amsterdam for a few hours this afternoon. It’s less than an hour away by train, but it’s taken me five weeks to make it there! I decided to focus solely on the Red Light District and Medieval Centre, which comprise only a small part of the city and are adjacent to the train station.

I crossed the street from the train station and started off down a major street next to the canal where most of the boat tours launch. Within a block, I reached the Sex Museum. Most of the tourist book reviews I’ve read seemed to find this place underwhelming, but I just don’t think you can pass on something like that when you’re in Amsterdam. I paid the 4 euro entry fee and stepped inside into what seemed like another world.

The museum requires that visitors be over 16, and for good reason. Immediately upon crossing the threshold, you are surrounded by paintings, statutes, and even mannikins and animatronics engaged in some sort of sexual act. A mere 10 yards inside the door, there is a display of two animatronics inside what I think is one of the public urinals that are common in the Netherlands. The woman uses one hand to pull back her skirt – revealing everything – and another hand to grasp a certain part of the man’s anatomy. Her hand moves, if you catch my drift. There are also sounds to go along with this.

The museum boasts an impressive array of black and white pornographic pictures from throughout the last century so that you can follow the evolution of sex throughout the decades. There are also pieces of art from much further away in time and space, including some of the familiar pornographic paintings that I saw in Pompeii ten years ago. You are allowed to take pictures, but I didn’t really feel the need (what would I do with those pictures?!). I did start giggling with random strangers at times (two girls were taking pictures of themselves sitting on giant penis statues), which made me wish I had come with a big group of people – we could have made a good game out of seeing who could keep a straight face the longest.

From the museum, I made my way towards the old church, which is ironically now the sort of centerpiece of the Red Light District. The Prostitution Information Centre is located on the same square as the church, and there are indeed prostitutes looking out from doors and windows right across from the church. Here is a picture of an empty window:

I’m not really sure what to think about the prostitutes themselves. On the one hand, their situation is a lot better than that of prostitutes elsewhere because it’s legal in the Netherlands; on the other hand, I’m not sure that based on the prostitutes I saw that there’s any higher level of respect involved. You can’t take pictures of them, but frankly none of them inspired that kind of memorialization.

Mixed in with the windows, of course, are the coffee shops, aka the places where you can smoke pot. Marijuana smoke is the perfume of this part of the city. I passed countless coffee shops and places designed to lure in their exiting customers (see below; excellent marketing):

The Red Light District is also home to a couple of museums about marijuana, including one called Cannabis College where you can learn everything you’d ever want to know about pot. (Apparently the people who work there train the people who run the coffee shops.) I would have gone in, but it wasn’t open when I passed by. Here it the other museum:

The third part of the Red Light trifecta is the sex shops. Anyone reading Fifty Shades of Grey who wants to purchase some of Christian’s playroom accessories need look no further than this part of Amsterdam. One shop, appropriately, was playing “S&M” by Rihanna when I passed by.My favorite was the Condomerie, which sells condoms of all shapes, sizes, colors, textures, flavors, etc.

And this may be the best window display I’ve ever seen:

I wandered alongside a canal down past the Royal Palace (where the Queen technically lives although really she lives here in Den Haag) and sat in the square to enjoy some shwarma (which is also plentiful in the Red Light District). From there, I set off for the Spui, a square lined with bookshops, including one with only English titles and another with used books. I spent some time milling around but didn’t find anything worth buying.

I headed back up towards the train station and stopped into various shops along the way. I saw some pretty cool (non-sexual) stuff but didn’t end up buying anything other than an amazing waffle covered in chocolate:

So that’s my introduction to Amsterdam – I figured even if for some reason I don’t end up having time to go back (not likely), at least now I’ve seen the most famous part! What a wild place.

One Month in the Hague!

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As of today, I’ve been in the Hague for exactly one month. I can’t believe I’m already 1/3 of the way through the summer! At the same time, it’s hard to believe that I’ve ONLY been here for a month. I fell into personal, professional, and social routines so easily and immediately that I feel like I’ve been here much longer.

That being said, this is going to be my first real weekend in the Hague! The only other weekend I was here (the weekend after I arrived), I worked all day Saturday and then was still so tired the next day that I didn’t do much except hang out at the beach. I still haven’t seen a lot of the city; I think Dad managed to see more in his one afternoon here than I have seen in the last month! Last night I was reading through the Lonely Planet’s couple of pages on the Hague and realized that very little of its contents looked familiar to me. Clearly, I need to take my bike and venture a little further afield!

I’m generally enjoying the Hague; my only major complaint (and that of everyone else here) is that the weather sucks. Today the sun is out, but that’s unfortunately the exception rather than the rule. It’s warmed up slightly, meaning that the temperature has reached its likely peak of highs in the low- to mid-60’s. Fingers crossed for nice weather this weekend so I can spend a bit more time on the beach!

In terms of other aspects of European life, I’m gradually starting to figure things out. I succeeded in opening a Dutch bank account last week (though I am still figuring out how to actually put money in it). I got my washing machine properly hooked up to the faucet of my bathroom sink (though now I don’t know how to remove it, so I’m now brushing my teeth in the kitchen). I am still experimenting with the settings of the washing machine – clothes often come out, paradoxically, either too wet (and often still a bit soapy) or too dry; ultimately, I have to do some serious wringing out of everything that goes through, so clearly the spin cycle leaves something to be desired. I think I’m going to continue taking a few articles of clothing to be professionally laundered just so I can be assured that they’re truly clean (not convinced anything is; it just smells better) and not wrinkled and/or oddly stressed out as a result of all the wringing! I think laundry is really the only thing I truly miss about the U.S. at this point.

My internship continues to be great. The other interns are 100% awesome – we’re a fun-loving group of people who also happen to be very smart and committed to the work that the Tribunal is doing. I look forward to lunch every day when we can hang out in the cafeteria (or on rare nice days, on the terrace) and just chat about things. We’re still making lots of plans for travel and other activities; for example, tomorrow night a group of us is going to Delft for dinner at a tavern that is like a more authentic version of Medieval Times, complete with rentable costumes. (Pictures absolutely forthcoming.) Every Monday morning is a time for catching up on everyone’s travels over the past weekend. I’ve gone to three countries over the past three weekends, and I am not alone in that record!

The other Tribunal employees are really wonderful as well. We interns are truly treated like lawyers; sometimes we have “grunt” work to do, but it’s work that the lawyers are doing too, so I don’t find it at all annoying. Everything, no matter how small or how tedious, is an important part of the work to bring Mladic to justice and help to provide some sense of closure to the victims as well. All of the attorneys I’ve worked with are warm, friendly, and good-natured, and they’re not afraid to give us real work. I got to draft another motion on Monday, which was pretty great. I’ve been doing a wide variety of work, both a combination of proactive (scheduled) and reactive tasks depending on the needs of the team.

I think this is the first time I’ve truly had no complaints about a job. Teaching was obviously tremendously rewarding and challenging in a good way, but it was also emotionally draining and exhausting. Working for the DC school system was a lot like the experience here except that there were so many issues of management and very little structure, so it was very frustrating. Consulting was just boring; I was under-utilized and uninterested in the work I did receive. Here, I’m learning a great deal about the Balkans conflict (which I’ve wanted to do for years), getting an inside look at the international justice system, and applying a lot of my innate and learned skills in order to further work that I fully believe in. I feel very, very lucky.

Portugal!

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I flew to Portugal on Friday morning for a long-awaited World at Play reunion with Dani, our fabulous Portuguese teammate who celebrated her birthday on Saturday. Lib, our friend/sister from Wales who now lives in Spain, also joined us. We missed the rest of our World at Play family, but the three of us had an amazing time!

I flew TAP Portugal, which like other European airlines is incredibly nice relative to what we have in the states. We got actual meals on the three-hour flight, and TAP wins the prize for best safety video. It features wooden people (a la Pinocchio) and jokes such as “for the 99.99 percent of passengers who aren’t made of wood, life vests are located under the seat.”
Aside from seeing Dani and Libby, I was of course excited to hear and [attempt to] use Portuguese. I took a semester of it when I was living in D.C., and that served me very well in Brazil – partially because my professor was from Rio. As Dani had demonstrated last summer (being half Brazilian herself), Portuguese in those two countries is quite different. In Portugal, they speak almost incomprehensibly fast – so despite the fact that I regularly read (and understand most of) the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, I was quite linguistically challenged in Portugal! Still, I was at least able to say “obrigada” (“thank you”)…
Dani and Lib picked me up in the airport in Lisbon, and we had a nice screaming and hugging session there in the arrivals area. From there, we drove into a very old (read: charming) neighborhood where Dani’s boyfriend Rui runs a social club/pub. He presented me and Lib with souvenirs (I now have a Portugal football scarf, just in time for the Euro 2012 football tournament!) and then made sure we had some cold Minis (smaller bottles of beer) and some excellent beef (made from parts you don’t want to hear about, see previous post in Portuguese food). In other words, the weekend got off to a great start!
We said good-bye to Rui and set off on the two-hour drive to Algarve, the southern region where all the beautiful beaches are and where Dani grew up. We passed scenery that reminded me a lot of Spain (shocker!) and included a few castles. I’ve really come to appreciate the vast landscapes of Europe – I’m just not use to seeing the same thing in the U.S., mostly because the drives I most frequently make – up and down I-95 and I-64 – aren’t particularly scenic. I love seeing the flat land dotted with trees and livestock.
We arrived in Silves around 6, and Lib and I spent about half an hour gaping at the loveliness of Dani’s home and the amazing warmth and welcome of her parents. They live in a gorgeous house situated on a hill above the town, and thanks to Dani’s dad who owns a landscaping business, their villa contains lush green grass, a pool, and a fountain with a waterfall. They have giant patio doors that open to let in the breeze, and the whole house just feels relaxing. They also have two dogs, who also gave us a warm (and wet, with more than the customary two kisses!) welcome.
One part of Dani’s backyard:
Before heading out to the pool, we sat down with Dani’s parents for an early evening snack of special bread from northern Portugal, several types of cheese, fruit salad, and yogurt. (We were pretty full after this, but apparently the Portuguese are pretty good at eating large amounts of food!) We didn’t end up spending much time at the pool because the sun had moved off that part of the yard, and the water was pretty chilly. Instead, we sat out in the grass and played with her dogs for a while. I’d forgotten how great it is to have dogs around!
We had a typically long, leisurely dinner (see previous post) that lasted for several hours. We had a lot of laughs with Dani’s parents and eventually met her brother Gui. After lots of food and lots of drinks (see previous post!), we rang in Dani’s birthday at midnight with candles and champagne.
Yesterday we got up at 9:30, had some breakfast (including much better coffee than I’ve had here in Holland), and left for the beach. We picked up one of Dani’s friends in town and then drove about 15 minutes away to a not-too-crowded beach that boasted one small restaurant and then rows of umbrella huts, wind shields, and chaise lounges. We staked out a territory and settled down into the sun. (I was all too conscious of the fact that given the weather here so far, this may be my only opportunity to get tan.) A number of Dani’s childhood friends joined us over the course of the day, including her friend Suzi and her adorable four-year-old son, with whom Libby and I had lots of fun in the water. (We did all of the typical lifting above the waves, holding him while charging into the waves, etc.) I also played some tennis with him on the sand (with zero successful back-and-forths), and we had a really cute conversation (in Portuguese) in which I asked how old he was and then proceeded to tell him that I was from America and didn’t speak very much Portuguese. He said “oh, so you speak lots of English then” and proceeded to start counting in Portuguese (fortunately  I was able to join in!). TOO CUTE.
Midway through the afternoon we went up to the restaurant and got salads with tuna to tide us over until dinner. After that we had another two or three hours on the beach and ended the day with a full-on nap on the sand in the setting sun – it was, as Libby would say, “lush”.
We got back to Dani’s just as the Portugal vs. Germany game was starting, so we kept an eye on that while getting ready for dinner. (Sadly, Portugal lost, as did Holland. It was not a good day for my teams!)
Portuguese flag on the mantel + Cristiano Ronaldo on the screen:
All of Dani’s family plus all of her childhood friends ate together at a little restaurant a couple of towns over. Details of our food are in the previous post. It was DELICIOUS and so much fun to be with all of Dani’s friends. They’re all really wonderful (and speak great English), and I hope very much that I’ll get to come back and see them again.
Dani’s family left around 12:30, at which point we drank a bit more (since at that point the restaurant was closed, and we were just there with the owners who were also friends) and had our own little pregame dance party before heading out to the area with all the clubs. And man, what a place this was. It was like a miniature Miami right there off the beach. There were about 30 clubs all right next to each other with windows and doors wide open so that everyone there could move about with ease (none of that pesky ID-checking we do in the States). I think the highlight of my night was in the first club when Macarena came on, and Dani, Lib, and I proceeded to lead the rest of the club in the dance. We also heard this year’s super popular Portuguese song “Ai Si Eu Te Pego” five times in the course of two hours and danced to a number of other familiar classics, both English and Spanish. There were people from all over the place there, but I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the Iberian men. I’d forgotten how incredibly good-looking they all are!!! (It’s been seven years since I was in Spain.)
Unfortunately, I had to leave all too soon, so Dani and I left for the Faro airport around 9:30 this morning. It was a great weekend with her and Libby and all of my new Portuguese friends and family. (All of us in World at Play are already family to each other, and now that I’ve stayed with the families of three of my team members, I truly have adopted family in both Wales and Portugal. Dani’s dad, whom I loved, told me to think of their house as my house. If only I lived closer!)

Portuguese Food!

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I’ve eaten some amazing food in the last 48 hours… let me take you through some of the menu!

First of all, shortly after landing in Lisbon, I ate some delicious beef (made from parts you don’t want me to name) prepared by Dani’s boyfriend Rui:

Later that night, at a very long and very tasty dinner, I had some traditional Portuguese soup called caldo verde (which I forgot to take a picture of). This soup has chunks of sausage and green vegetables in a slightly creamy, meat-based broth. Very good! After that, we had chicken with veggies and rice:

Meanwhile, Dani’s dad made sure I always had something to drink. I started with water and beer, switched to red wine, and then ended up with a trio for dessert: a mini cocktail of almond liquor and lemon juice (which may have been the most delicious drink I’ve ever had!), a shot of firewater (which is second only to Chinese bijou in terms of disgusting taste and burn), and a flute of champagne at midnight when it officially became Dani’s birthday. Here was my cup line-up before the champagne:

And here’s the delicious almond liquor:

For Dani’s birthday dinner last night, a big group of us went to a restaurant owned by one of her friends. The specialty of the house is fish, but everything was amazing. We started with bread and pate, olives, and of course, sangria:

The first dishes out were grilled squid and cuttlefish along with potatoes and a very Mediterranean salad of tomatoes and peppers, drenched in olive oil and with a generous sprinkling of salt:

After that we had three courses of fish. I think the salmon (the first) was my favorite – hands-down the best salmon I’ve ever had – but the others were delicious as well. The second picture is of the third dish, which is Dani’s favorite.

And last but not least, we had a birthday cake… which was so, so good and full of chocolate.

Bottom line? THERE IS AMAZING FOOD IN PORTUGAL!

Copenhagen, Day 2

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Sunday in Copenhagen provided us with better weather than the day before, so after another excellent breakfast we set off on foot from the hotel. We passed a charming park with a pond, weeping willows, swans, etc (all of which seem pretty standard in northern Europe) and eventually arrived at the old fort where the Danish military is still headquartered. We walked around its embankment that overlooks the water and also visited the new memorial to fallen Danish soldiers, many of whom gave their lives recently in Iraq.

 
 From the fort we continued towards the water. At the entrance to the waterside avenue, we saw a statue of the Norse goddess who supposedly created the landscapes of Scandinavia by dragging pieces of land behind her chariot. We also got a nice view of the royal yacht, which looks like it would be the ultimate way to travel.
A few hundred yards down from there, a crowd of tourists alerted us to the location of the famous statue of the Little Mermaid (the Hans Christian Anderson version). Carsten and Karen warned me that many people find it underwhelming and unimpressive; they don’t understand why it’s such a big deal. Undeterred, I made my way through the swarm of Asian tourists and managed to take a good number of photos of the statue, which I found to be intriguing and charming. Perhaps it helps that “the Little Mermaid” (the Disney version) is my favorite of the animated classics, and despite the fact that the two stories are quite different, I found it very cool to see a statue of any mermaid!
(The graffiti written underneath her reflects the view of most Danes and many tourists: “what’s so special about me?”)
From here we headed towards the courtyard formed by the four royal palaces. The queen wasn’t home, but the prince was. The buildings were lovely, and of course I enjoyed seeing the royal guards on duty in front. (they wear the same big black hats as the English royal guards.) The nearby cathedral has a beautiful green and gold dome, which complete the great scenery from this spot.
We walked on past the new theater and eventually turned onto one of the main canals, formerly home to hard-partying sailors in search of hard liquor and easy women. Beautiful wooden ships were moored along the sidewalk, and we sat down for a coffee to rest and admire the general atmosphere.
After this it was time for our canal tour, so we loaded into a long, low boat for a two-hour tour around the different canals. We saw some really awesome pieces of both original and new architecture, including a series of former ship factories that have been transformed into apartments that practically sit over the water.
We had a late lunch at a smaller restaurant owned by the same brothers as the place we’d had dinner the night before. Dad and I opted for the cured salmon, which was absolutely fabulous (although Carsten’s herring three ways looked pretty great too). And, finally, we had some Danish beer!
Our last stop of the day before it was time for the airport was the Round Tower, which was formerly used for astronomy and is now attached to a church. We walked up the wide, spiraling ramp and after about 10 minutes came out on the top to a wonderful 360-degree view of the city. The tower isn’t that tall, but Copenhagen is a bit like D.C. in that it doesn’t have many tall buildings.
After that it was time to go. Carsten and Karen drove us to the airport and walked us in, ever the attentive hosts. Thank you two so much for a wonderful weekend!!!