Copenhagen Day 1

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Dad and I flew to Copenhagen last Friday night to visit Dad’s adopted brother and oldest friend, Carsten, and his wife Karen. (Carsten was a foreign exchange student with my dad’s family during their senior year in high school nearly 50 years ago, and they are still great friends!) Carsten and Karen live in Jutland but are former Copenhagen dwellers themselves, and both of their kids live there. They were two of the best hosts and tour guides anyone could want!

Our plane landed pretty late on Friday night, but Carsten and Karen met us at the airport and quickly whisked us onto a train and into our very nice hotel just across from the station. Despite the cold and the rain, we were all excited for the weekend ahead and sat down with a bottle of red wine to discuss plans. Unsurprisingly, Carsten and Karen had several plans depending on the weather the next day.

Saturday morning proved to be just as rainy and chilly as the night before, so we went with plan B: eat a lush breakfast at the hotel buffet (complete with Danish rolls and Spanish chorizo!), then drive north along the coast to see Hamlet’s castle and the Lousiana Museum of Modern Art.

The coastal drive was gorgeous. Despite the weather, the water reflected different tones of blue, and you could look across the water to see Sweden very clearly on the other side. We passed a good number of houses/villas that I would not mind living in but am not likely to have the money to buy anytime soon!

Here’s a shot of Hamlet’s castle and an amazing scene of the ocean that looks more like a painting than a photograph:

 

We spent about two hours wandering around the Louisiana, which isn’t a terribly large museum but has a really interesting collection of modern art. I’m not generally one for modern art (and have a limited tolerance for large quantities of art while touring), but I truly enjoyed this museum. I have three favorite “pieces”. The first was called the Singing Cloud:

This is made of a few hundred microphones which have been reversed into speakers, and it plays a random assortment of sounds: at one point we could hear a mystical voice chanting/singing “I want to fly”; a moment later we heard the sound of rain and running water. It was really cool!

I also liked this message board, which changed about every 10 seconds. I took lots of pictures but condensed a few of the sets into one picture. Here’s my favorite:

But by far the best was an installation “piece” which was actually an entire room. It’s called the Gleaming Light of the Souls. The four of us were just able to fit inside together. It’s a square room with mirrors on all four walls and the ceiling and then just a platform surrounded by water on the floor. It’s totally dark except for colored lights that hang from the ceiling and change colors every five seconds or so. It feels like being in heaven or outer space! I wanted to stay in there a long time.

 After the Louisiana, we drove back into the city and took power naps before setting off for the center and an afternoon in the Tivoli gardens. (By then the rain had cleared up.) Tivoli is an old amusement park located right in the center of the city, across the square from town hall. It’s incredibly charming, full of classic roller coasters and buildings that look like they were transported from another time or place. Here’s my favorite view:

We had dinner at a recently-opened restaurant located inside the park. It’s run by two brothers who come from a theater family, and its decorations were really awesome. Not as awesome, however, as the food, which was classic Danish. Dad and I split an appetizer that involved mini pastry crusts, white asparagus, chicken, and a deliciously creamy sauce:

After that, I opted for the cured veal with cabbage and horseradish, while the others got “small chickens” (cornish hens?):

Last but not least, a Danish traditional dessert: lemon mousse.

Sufficiently stuffed, we walked through a pedestrian shopping area to a jazz club to see Carsten and Karen’s son Jacob perform (he’s a “legendary” jazz musician in Copenhagen – literally, that’s how he was introduced!). We also met their daughter Signe. After enjoying the music (as a former jazz player myself, I always enjoy getting to listen to jazz), we headed out into a plaza for some Irish coffee and took this absurdly cute picture of us wrapped in the cafe’s blankets:

This year’s Christmas card, anyone?!

Mexican Food Abroad…

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About a month ago, CNN Travel put up a list of the top 10 things that Americans miss most while abroad. I don’t remember what the other nine were, but #1 was absolutely correct: we miss Mexican food.

It’s not that Mexican food doesn’t exist elsewhere – it does. But it’s not the same.

Last summer I went to a Mexican restaurant in Kosovo of all places. It had all the usual decorations: sombreros, cacti, traditional clothing, blinking pepper lights, etc. It was playing Mexican music, and they had an impressive menu of frozen drinks. But that’s pretty much where the similarities ended. I ordered my go-to item – a beef burrito – and while what I ended up getting wasn’t bad or in any way unenjoyable, and even though it had what appeared to be the usual set of ingredients, it definitely wasn’t a real Mexican burrito. It just didn’t taste the same.

Such was also my experience in the ICTY cafeteria today where, to my surprise, they were serving beef burritos. They didn’t look exactly the same (they were very long and had cheese wrapped around the middle), but of course I had to try one and see. I also loaded up my plate with salsa and guacamole, excited for a taste of two of my favorite snacks.

Verdict: the burrito was very good, but it tasted much more like lasagna than a burrito. There was no spiciness or any kind of kick to it. The salsa tasted more like duck sauce than anything else – it was distinctly sweet and not spicy at ALL. The guacamole… well, I don’t know what it was made of, but I don’t think it contained a single avocado.

This, friends, is why when I returned from my first summer abroad in 2005, I went straight from the airport to a Mexican restaurant. Such will be the case in August when I’ve gone THREE months without Mexican food…

all about OSLO

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Oslo was definitely not on my list of places to see this summer. Given that one of my mom’s best friends is Norwegian, I figured I’d get to Norway eventually – and I’d never heard enough about any of the Scandinavian countries to make me think they were worth prioritizing over others in central, southern, and eastern Europe. (I am generally a fan of places that are warm and sunny.) Nonetheless, just over a week ago when I was searching for airfare to about 20 other European cities, I entered Oslo – and it turned out to be by far the cheapest airfare for this weekend. A group of six of us decided to take advantage of the low rate and go.

Now, normally when I travel I do quite extensive research and preparation. At my most ambitious, I will try to learn some of the language, make a Google map on which I’ve plotted everything I want to see or do, and read at least one travel book’s coverage of the place. I had neither the time nor the resources to do any of that before heading to Oslo, but thanks to the founder of World at Play who now lives in Oslo, I had a suggested three-day itinerary. Another girl got the Rick Steves guide to Norway, and we all contributed to a Google doc of ideas of things to do. Still, I don’t think I’ve ever gone to another country with so little idea of what to expect once I got there!

The trip began for me around 3:40 on Saturday morning. Three of the six of us were on a 7 a.m. flight from Amsterdam, so we met up with a colleague’s friend who was taking a cab to the Amsterdam airport from the Hague. The horizon stayed a lovely shade of pink for the duration of the drive, and we arrived at Schipol around 5:30. In stark contrast to my previous flight on which I’d had two massive checked bags and a carry on, it was lovely to go through the check-in and security process with only a duffel bag. Our flight to Oslo wasn’t full at all; I ended up having the whole row to myself, so I was able to get in a decent nap over the course of the 100-minute flight.

The main Oslo airport is lovely – lots of wood, lots of light, lots of modern-looking lighting and furniture in the cafes. We were also surprised to find a 7-Eleven, which are everywhere in Oslo! Navigating through the airport and into the city was almost too easy – we were able to hop on a train about 30 minutes after landing and enjoyed a 40-minute trip through the Norwegian countryside on the way in to the city. Navigation was even easier once we arrived at the central station; our hotel was located on one of the main streets which runs into the train station, so we only had about a 10-minute walk. We passed all sorts of clothing shops, many of which were playing music into the street so that we had a soundtrack as we walked.

Our hotel (one of the nicest I’ve stayed at in Europe, and a Best Western!) was across from a lovely park with several large fountains and many trees. We grabbed a second round of breakfast from a bakery down the block and then settled down in the grass by a fountain to wait for the next round of arrivals. It was a clear, sunny day and about 78 degrees – such a welcome change from Den Haag! – and there couldn’t have been a better way to pass the time. We watched kids playing in and around the fountain and enjoyed surveying the fashionable Norwegians who passed by. (Rolled up shorts and pants seem to be the fashion trend for men in Oslo.) There was also some sort of protest about Iran starting up across the street, so we had quite a bit to observe while we waited. Here’s a pic of our view from under the trees:

Kelsey arrived around 12:30, and since the remaining two members of the group weren’t due for another couple of hours, we ventured the few blocks south to the harbor, which is yet another lovely area with fountains and statues. The water is a beautiful blue, and lots of sailboats wait to carry visitors around the fjord. We walked up some steps to the nearby hilltop park overlooking the water and took some pictures. Lots of Norwegians were lounging in the sun and drinking beer. We got directions to the nearest grocery store and walked over to pick up some food for a picnic.

Our remaining group members arrived right on time, and the six of us sat down again in the park in front of the hotel to eat the varieties of bread and cheese we’d bought. From there, we set off back to the harbor for a look at the Nobel Peace Center, which is right on the water. On the ground floor, we looked at two photojournalism exhibits about Afghanistan: one highlighting the role of women in Afghan society, and one profiling a unit of U.S. marines. The pictures of the women were both inspiring and depressing; the take-home message was that women are still extremely oppressed in Afghanistan despite some significant improvements in recent years.

On the next floor up, we learned about this year’s three Nobel Peace Price recipients (all women!). I was particularly inspired by the profile of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia. I spent about 10 minutes listening to her acceptance speech, and I need to see if I can track down a copy of it – she had absolutely amazing things to say about the roles of women and education in promoting a more peaceful world.

The last part of the exhibit was really cool: they provided pieces of paper and pencils and asked visitors to write down what they felt were the important ingredients for peace. You then attached your paper to this long spiral and watched it spin its way down to a barrel one floor down. I went to take a look at some of the others after writing my own. They were in all sorts of languages. To me, the most touching said (in Spanish) “make sure every child has enough to eat.”

We spent about 20 minutes looking through the gift shop, which had a number of very interesting books and some creative things, like a beer coozy (sp?!) that said “keep peace cool”. We all contemplated buying shirts that said “Future Nobel Peace Prize Winner”, but at $40 a pop, we decided our money was perhaps better spent elsewhere.
Here I am in front of the Nobel Peace Center:
From there, I led the group on a 20-minute walk towards Frogner Park, home to an incredible series of sculptures and also to what seemed like every resident of Oslo. There were hundreds of people spread out on the various grassy surfaces, and many of them were cooking on makeshift, portable grills! We’ve decided to try to replicate that on the beach here in Den Haag.
Back to the sculptures: the artist, Gustav Vigeland, made some sort of deal with the city and spent a solid amount of his life making the 212 statutes that cover a fraction of this HUGE park.  One in particular has (strangely and inappropriately, in my opinion) become famous and symbolic of Oslo:
Apparently, Vigeland gave the model a piece of chocolate and then took it away. I don’t understand why such a beautiful city has become known for a statue of a little kid throwing a fit! I’m much more a fan of this one (and the many others):
Did I mention that ALL of the statues are naked?
From the park, we made our way back down to the harbor for drinks and dinner. We ended up sitting outside at a place called Beer Palace and bring over take-out pizza from Peppe’s Pizza next door. Both options were delicious, but sadly, my stomach was not as much a fan, and a couple hours later I checked off another item from my general travel bucket list: get sick abroad. I’d never thrown up outside the United States until Saturday!
Fortunately, I had what I think was a fairly mild virus, and although I stayed behind from the group hike and trip to the National Gallery on Sunday, I was able to rally and join everyone again around 5 pm the next day for a walk to the Opera House, which is an amazing piece of architecture and so cool:
This is the view of it from the boat trip we took yesterday. It was built in 2008, and you can walk all over it – we got some great pictures from the roof as well. You can also sit right on the water, and I took that opportunity to dunk my feet in the fjord, which really wasn’t that cold! It’s amazing how even that far north, the water feels about how it would feel at Virginia Beach around this time of year.
I really liked this sculpture that’s about 100 yards away from the opera house:
Apparently, it’s called “She Lie”, and it’s something about a sheep dying? I’m not sure that I see that, but I thought it was pretty cool.
After hanging around the Opera House in the early evening sun (I think we were there until about 7 pm, which in Norway looks like 2 pm), we walked north towards the Grunnerløkka area, which has a very international mix of restaurants. We’d gotten a recommendation for a Spanish tapas place, and I think it may have been the best Spanish food I’ve eaten outside Spain. (My still-recovering stomach thought it was a bit of a bold mood to eat Spanish tortilla, papas bravas, chorizo, and other typical and delicious tapas, but it was totally worth it.)
We wandered back towards our hotel around 10:30. The moon was out but was completely superflous given that the sun was still providing plenty of light. (We’re convinced it doesn’t get truly dark in Norway during the summer – it only gets dim.) We managed to catch the last inning of the Red Sox game at the very conveniently located Boston sports bar right next to our hotel. By midnight, all of us were tired and headed up to get some sleep before our last day.
Here’s our hotel:
On Monday morning, we got up and enjoyed the veritable FEAST laid out by the hotel at its breakfast buffet. They had all sorts of breads, pastries, cheeses, meats, fish, fruit, vegetables… ANYTHING you could want, and plenty of things we couldn’t identify. My stomach was perfectly willing to handle the heart-shaped waffles among the many other things!
Our last activity in Oslo was to take a two-hour cruise around the Oslo fjord. What is a fjord, you ask? We had the same question. Essentially, it’s a valley that was carved out by a glacier and subsequently filled with water. Oslo is built on one, and there are many very charming islands that form “suburbs” of the city on the mainland. We boarded this boat and cruised around with a very funny Norwegian tour guide:
The scenery was incredibly beautiful, and we all decided we needed to save up to buy a summer house on one of the islands. (They’re all painted bright colors and are the picture of tranquility.) It was really hard to imagine the fjord freezing in the winter – apparently people who stay on the island literally ice skate back and forth to the mainland!
We had just enough time to pop into a few souvenir shops before heading back to the hotel, grabbing our stuff, and heading back to the airport. We spent the rest of our time together talking about how awesome Oslo is and wondering why it is that no one in America seems to know or talk about that! It’s like people truly don’t know about it, or there’s a conspiracy to make sure it stays a secret so it doesn’t get too overwhelmed with tourists. Either way: I wouldn’t mind going back! I’d repeat the weekend in a heartbeat, stomach flu and all! I HIGHLY recommend Oslo to anyone reading this.

Dinner in Delft

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On Friday night, two other interns and I took the tram down to Delft for dinner. Delft is where Vermeeer (who did Girl with a Pearl Earring) lived, and although at that time it was a city distinct from the Hague, it’s now essentially become a suburb. It is worth every second of the 20-minute tram ride, and I will absolutely be going back!

The best part about Delft is its canals:

It’s a like Venice with a bit more dry land! It’s absolutely lovely to stroll along the canals. I would also like to live THIS guy’s life (look at the water):

We ended up eating out in a big plaza whose cafes had merged in the center to form what was essentially a giant biergarten. Among other things, we enjoyed these very patriotic meatballs:

We had to get home rather than linger (given that I had to be up at 3:40 the next morning to leave for Oslo!), but I am definitely going to go back – we passed a lot of live music (both indoors and outside) on our way back to the tram stop. Delft seems to be quite busy – not at all a quiet little town!

Hague Bucket List, Item #1

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We found out earlier this week that the Dutch painting with which we’re all most familiar is only going to be here in the Hague for the rest of this week, and it happens to be at the museum that’s between my apartment and the ICTY. As a result, we took a little field trip today during lunch to go see Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer.

I’ve seen the movie and read the book about two months ago. Seeing the painting was, unsurprisingly, a bit anticlimactic. It’s about two feet tall, and were it not for the book and movie, it’s not the kind of thing I would have paid any attention to had I just happened to pass it in a gallery. Still, it’s always cool to see something famous like this, and it’s a good warm-up for when I finally get to Paris this summer and see the Mona Lisa.

Week 2 at the ICTY

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It’s hard to beat the excitement of last week, but this week has been anything but dull. We’ve spent the last four days waiting for the new start date of the trial and found out this afternoon that it’s resuming on June 25 – which is great news for us interns because it means we’ll still get to do meaningful things with the trial while we’re here.

Again, confidentiality prevents me from disclosing many details of what I’m doing at work, but I’ll try to be as specific as I can. This week we’ve been working on witness preparation. We each have responsibility for two, and I’m lucky enough to have the very first one. We’ve mostly been reading through the witnesses’ statements. This is both very interesting and very intense – one of my witnesses was only 14 when the war arrived in his hometown, and what he experienced subsequently was awful. My other witness had a completely different experience that was less horrible for him as an individual but no less difficult to read. I’m grateful to be doing something that has such a direct connection to the case and that also provides me with an opportunity to really broaden and deepen my knowledge of what happened in the Balkans during the 1990s. I have only a very, very broad understanding, and it really helps to see even one individual perspective.

I also got to draft a motion today – which is a really big deal even though there’s a pretty standard format! Can’t say much more, but reading all the motions that come through my inbox every day definitely helps to highlight some of the more important rules of procedure in the ICTY as well as how the lawyers on both sides use them strategically.

 

 

life on the seaside

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It’s 9:30 Thursday night here in the Hague, and as I sit here in my apartment, the sounds of people celebrating today’s truly fine weather waft through my open window along with the breeze. Across the way, I can see a group of people gathered on a roof, grilling, drinking, and generally enjoying each other’s company. Patrons of the bar on the corner have taken their beers outside into the 80-degree air, and undoubtedly, the children responsible for the 130-square game of Hopscotch I saw on the sidewalk yesterday are just going to bed after an exhausting round of outdoor activities in one of the Hague’s many parks.

This has been a good week. I’ve been to the beach every day, starting on Sunday with my afternoon spent next to a fire pit on the boardwalk and continuing with morning and/or evening walks along different parts of the waterfront with Kelsey. Last night we packed some vegetables, cheese, and beer and set off on a trek through the harbor (which is very, very cute) to the other end of the commercial beach, where we encountered a surfing club of some sort that had, strangely, some exercise machines that appeared to be open to public use – right there on the boardwalk! We walked inside and talked to a female bartender, who informed us that they were there to encourage everyone to be active and take care of themselves. (Then, in what I’m coming to understand is the true, friendly fashion of the Dutch, she told us to feel free to make ourselves at home; “you’re family.”) A bit further down the beach a big group of people around our age were playing on several beach volleyball courts, and about 15 people were surfing at the far end next to the jetty. (I didn’t see anyone actually stand up on a wave – they’re pretty small, and the water was particularly calm yesterday.) We walked all the way down to the other end where the pier is (and where we’d spent Sunday afternoon). Once we reached the pier (which, we discovered, is home to a casino perched over the water), we plopped down on the sand, cracked open a beer, and sat there savoring the simple joy of sitting on sand, facing the ocean, watching the sun slowly start to sink down towards the water. As we looked around, we wondered two things: if the residents of the Hague always spend time at the beach, and if they realize how good they’ve got it. We get the sense that they truly value the beach – it’s clearly a place for everyone. Kids are running around or building sandcastles; young lovers are holding hands and kissing; older couples stroll together along the surf. We’ve even seen people in wheelchairs on the boardwalk.

This morning we decided to walk out onto the jetty, which is long enough that it’s about a five-minute walk from one end to the other. At the far end, we found a few men in their 60’s fishing. They didn’t speak English, but they seemed pleasantly amused at our presence and seemed to have no problem with us watching them. One guy even managed to snag a flounder while we were there! I’ve decided that at some point we’re going to bring croissants with us and try to make friends with these guys. (I will study up on some key Dutch phrases beforehand.) We figure that they probably have a) wives who’d be willing to make us a real Dutch meal and/or b) tall, attractive sons around our age. Either way, it’s a win.

 

 

UPCOMING TRAVEL! Norway, Denmark, Portugal!

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Get excited folks – I’m going to be in three different countries over the next three weekends!

This weekend we have Monday off, so a group of us are going to Oslo. (It was the cheapest airfare I found out of the 15 or so cities I searched.) We are thrilled about seeing a fjord and enjoying what promises to be beautiful weather – even warmer than here in the Hague! There’s irony for you.

The following weekend (June 1-3) my Dad and I will be in Copenhagen visiting Dad’s old friend/adopted brother Carsten and his wife Karen, who I know are going to be amazing hosts.

And the weekend after that (June 8-10), I’m heading down to Portugal to meet up with two friends from World at Play! I’m meeting them in Lisbon and then traveling down to Faro/Algarve.

laundry fail.

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Who knew it would be THIS hard to do laundry in the Netherlands?

The past 24 hours have been an exercise in futility when it comes to doing laundry in my apartment. My washing machine is located in my bathroom (more precisely, in my shower), and I thought the main challenge would be figuring out how to connect it. That turned out not to be terribly complicated – per my landlord’s instructions, I connected the machine’s hose to the sink faucet and then plugged the power cord into the (hidden) outlet in the bathroom. So far, so good. I felt quite proud of myself.

I loaded the machine with clothes and liquid detergent, shut the lid, and pushed the power button. All looked good: the lights went on, and I heard some sort of sound. It was not, however, the sound of water filling the machine. I confirmed this by turning the tap and discovering that quite a large amount of water escaped from a gap between the screw and the hose. Still, I thought: okay, maybe I’m supposed to turn on the water myself. I let it run for a while and continued to hear noises that sounded like SOMETHING was happening.

Still not satisfied that the machine was working, I did some googling and managed to track down the owner’s manual for this particular machine. Although it helped me to understand the meaning of the various dials and buttons, it shed no light on the problem. (It listed “machine doesn’t fill with water” as a problem but offered no suggestions on how to fix it – great.)

I decided to give up and just hope that things would work out. (European washing machines can take two hours to run, so I figured by the time I woke up, maybe it’d be done.) When I woke up this morning, everything was exactly the same: all the lights, all the noises, etc. I turned it off, still worried that maybe it would be locked until it finished the cycle, and was relieved when about 30 seconds later I heard it unlock.

Well, friends, absolutely NOTHING had happened. My clothes weren’t wet at all except for little spots of detergent. After nearly 12 hours, I had dirty clothes that now smelled a bit fresher thanks to the detergent’s floral scent.

I’ve been emailing back and forth with my landlord (who does not live in the Hague), and he as of yet does not seem to understand why I have a problem. I have never considered myself to be exceptionally mechanical or skilled in this type of area, but I do feel capable of getting this to work – which is why I am so frustrated right now! I have tried EVERYTHING and still there is water squirting everywhere.

UGH!