Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Brighton revisited
My second Brighton trip was even more interesting than the first, Greg, Amelia, Sarah and myself all headed down to friendly Brighton for fellow kiwi Leonie's birthday, Leonie and flatmate Rebecca both used to work on Brampton island with Greg and Amelia and had just moved to Brighton.
Upon arrival I noticed things seemed to be even busier than my last visit...and there also seemed to be more flags up in the windows..and seeing as the world cup was well and truely over this did seem a little out of place, though to be fair even if the world cup was on I would't be too sure what countries they represented.
Leonie informed me that the plan was to watch the parade have afew drinks then head into town, innocently enough I asked what parade?
No sooner had I said the words that I clicked and all the pieces fell together
Friendly Brighton
Pink union jack
Many very close friends holding hands walking down the street
...and newspaper stands with the headline Brighton's Pride Parade!
Anyway great day, real eye-opener, initially it was a little bit weird suddenly finding yourself as a sexual minority, but really once you get over seeing the odd flamboyant clothing and.... hairy man in g-string, you soon realise that there is really nothing to be uncomfortable about....excluding of course hairy man ass.
Anyway bring on the photo's!
First the Parade
The beauty of this pic (for me anyway) is that there we have a whole float-load of blokes who spend entirely too much time at the gym and yet pose no competition for the ladies
Then On To The Party
Sarah/Amelia/Greg/And Myself
Anyway another great weekend in Brighton, and thats not even mentioning the carnival rides on the pier, the bloke who tried to throw me over the pier, sarah's woman attracting feather, gregs unfortunate incident in the pier public toilets resulting in a lost cellphone and a scar above his eye, the "tea-cups-on-acid" pier ride that ended most of our nights and of course Gregs first ever come-on by a man..a hairy man..
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
amsterDAM! Part Twee
Righto where was I...oh yeah the show, there might be a rumour going around that I made my stage debut, I'm not going to confirm or deny, though if I was going to deny it I would blame Amelia entirely!
After the show we had a bit more of a wander around the district before, having another traditional McDonalds feast and then deciding to try and go and find some dutch pubs/clubs. Unfortunately we had some real trouble finding the non-red light district and after eventually stopping and asking a couple of friendly dutch girls we realised it was probably a bit late anyway so we called it a night.
The following day we funnily enough found ourselves right back at the red light district this time with Margaret to show here some of the sights she missed the night before. Things are very different in the day time, I would go as far as to say its quite seedy. There are still ladies dancing in the windows...doing the day shift I suppose...but they sure as hell didn't look anything like the ones from the night before and seeing as Amelia noticed this as well and she doesn't drink then I don't think it was just sobriety kicking in. You also are more aware in the day time of the public urinal's..or more specifically the public urinal smell, and the drug dealer on every street corner, and I'm not talking coffee shop drugs either.
We visited a coffee shop, actually for coffee's too!, and made our plan for the rest of the day. The girls were going to go and see Anne Franks house, while us boys decided to go and see the famous Sex Museum, we were then to meet back up at the large church which was ironically right in the red light district.
The Sex Museum was quite a sight, not exactly what I was expecting, kinda thought there would be abit more history regarding all things sexual, there was a bit of history but I think all the displays were designed to make to laugh or be shocked.
After the museum we went off to the church to meet up with the girls in which time we discovered that the alley-way's in the red light district during the day were very much reminiscent of the red light district at night...so on the way back to the church we did our best to take as many alleyway "shortcuts" as possible, we also discovered that the smaller the alleyway the better the sights on the way.
After meeting with the girls we took a tour up the church tower with our very lovely guide Elda or something...(doesn't really matter) who told us all about the church's origins, from on top we were treated to a pretty grand view of Amsterdam..and also a red light district window...
Anyway that was pretty much our Amsterdam trip, absolutely fantastic time and would recommend it to anyone, you just have to be abit open minded..or drunk
After the show we had a bit more of a wander around the district before, having another traditional McDonalds feast and then deciding to try and go and find some dutch pubs/clubs. Unfortunately we had some real trouble finding the non-red light district and after eventually stopping and asking a couple of friendly dutch girls we realised it was probably a bit late anyway so we called it a night.
The following day we funnily enough found ourselves right back at the red light district this time with Margaret to show here some of the sights she missed the night before. Things are very different in the day time, I would go as far as to say its quite seedy. There are still ladies dancing in the windows...doing the day shift I suppose...but they sure as hell didn't look anything like the ones from the night before and seeing as Amelia noticed this as well and she doesn't drink then I don't think it was just sobriety kicking in. You also are more aware in the day time of the public urinal's..or more specifically the public urinal smell, and the drug dealer on every street corner, and I'm not talking coffee shop drugs either.
We visited a coffee shop, actually for coffee's too!, and made our plan for the rest of the day. The girls were going to go and see Anne Franks house, while us boys decided to go and see the famous Sex Museum, we were then to meet back up at the large church which was ironically right in the red light district.
The Sex Museum was quite a sight, not exactly what I was expecting, kinda thought there would be abit more history regarding all things sexual, there was a bit of history but I think all the displays were designed to make to laugh or be shocked.DAM SQUARE
There was one particular room, which had porn magazine pictures on all the walls divided into different themes. I won't go into detail as to all those themes but needless to say I'm sure as hell not going to look at dutch girls the same again, its funny how in one country images can be a tourist attraction, yet in another country the same images can be enough reason to send you to prison.
As for the funny things, there was a bowl of penis's (not real), male robots that flashed you when you walked past, and fairly hideous looking prostitute female robots tryng to grab you as you walk past...then there was also the unusual furniture...
And funniest of all was porn from the 1840's!, and no I'm not talking "Wow look she's showing abit of ankle!", these were photo's taken pretty much as soon as camera's were invented with images as explicit as you would see in today's porn magazines (um...so I'm told mum) except of course the facial hair of the time with the curled up moustache's etc.
After the museum we went off to the church to meet up with the girls in which time we discovered that the alley-way's in the red light district during the day were very much reminiscent of the red light district at night...so on the way back to the church we did our best to take as many alleyway "shortcuts" as possible, we also discovered that the smaller the alleyway the better the sights on the way.
After meeting with the girls we took a tour up the church tower with our very lovely guide Elda or something...(doesn't really matter) who told us all about the church's origins, from on top we were treated to a pretty grand view of Amsterdam..and also a red light district window...
Anyway that was pretty much our Amsterdam trip, absolutely fantastic time and would recommend it to anyone, you just have to be abit open minded..or drunk
Thursday, August 03, 2006
amsterDAM!
Righto finally a post with photo's! Found a nice net cafe which although charges a little more actually have computers that at least have the specs to run XP properly.
Anyway as you all know our merry band of five flew off to Amsterdam Friday after work.
In tow were myself, Mike, Greg, Amelia and Margaret...oh yeah our guide Olga or something..her name doesn't really matter...
Now I know when I first mentioned this trip I mainly focused on the commonly held stereotypes that people mostly think of when someone mentions Amsterdam, after visiting however I've come to realise if anything those stereotypes are completely underated
CANALS, COFFEE SHOPS, BICYCLES AND HOOKERS as far as the eye can see!!!..
and the nose can smell...
Ok that might be a slight exageration, but only slight mind you
Anyway here's a canal
And here's a "coffee shop"
And here's a bicycle
And here's a hooker
...well actually its me with shorts on..it was very very frowned upon to take photos of the "window girls", but for a mental image its very much like my red light photo I posted earlier, except there are like a couple of hundred windows and the ladies could in a lot of instances be fashion models
Well we arrived pretty close to midnight on the Friday night after a reasonably uneventful and ridiculusly short flight. The girls all decided to hit the sack (no offense mike), while me and Greg wandered into town for a bit of a look, after a couple of beers we walked randomly around town taking in the sights..after about three hours of still failing to "accidentally"stumble into the red light district we got hungry, and had a nice traditional Dutch meal of...well..McDonalds.
The next morning refreshed after about 3 hours sleep we endeavoured to head to the Rijksmuseum to see some of Rembrandt's work...10 minutes into that idea tiredness took over and I slept for a couple more hours. Instead woke up a little later and thanks to some of my friends at www.thesilverfern.com I was already armed with a map to a pub in Amsterdam that would be playing the rugby. After an unusual but not at all bad Dutch breakfast of bread, meat, cheese and yoghurt, we took off to "Coco's outback Pub" stopping only to give directions to other kiwis wandering around lost in their all black tops..and of course stopping to take afew thousand canal photo's.
Next to the pub was a 3D sculpture of Rembrandts' most famous work "The Nightwatch",
After the game we decided to hit the Van Gough museum, which I suppose would normally be fairly interesting but unfortunately I was so tired from the night before I pretty much sleep walked through it, and the three of us guys after leaving the museum found a nice paddling pool to sleep by.
After our mid afternoon kip we headed for a canal cruise, which was pretty interesting,
though I think this was all really just biding time for our night exploits visiting the Red Light District.
We headed back to the hostel to change, have afew beers...and 4 shots of 160 proof absinth each that our friendly American room mate left us.
Where Greg and I despite our best efforts the previous night could not get anywhere close to stumbling into The District, Amelia however not only knew exactly which direction it was but also the exact tram to take..and those tram timetables are in dutch...so that girls really got a gift.
Now its a real shame that I didn't take my camera out to the Red Light District, and not just because it'd be funny to you guys hearing about me getting beaten up by a gang of prostitutes who don't like having their photo's taken, but rather some of the stuff you see out there really can't be adequately explained with words.
First of all there is a misconception that the Red Light District is just a really seedy area, with prostitutes dancing in the windows enticing seedy men who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
In reality however, the Red Light District is just a really big party type atmosphere, with very attractive prostitutes dancing in windows enticing both men and ladies who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
So yeah similar except, for a couple of distinct points
*Not really that seedy
*Plenty of woman around also"partaking" in Amsterdamian entertainment
After doing a couple of "laps" of the main red light area, taking in the sights, we decided to take in a show, at a place called "Moulon Rouge", it cost us 25 euro each, though I did manage to get three large beers and a diet coke inside for only 4 euros total as the bar lady screwed up my change. Anyway the show was pretty explicit though explicit in a public place while quite drunk is actually more comedic than erotic..especially when the stripper asked for a volunteer from the audience....
But that will have to wait till my next post as I am bloody hungry and its late
Anyway as you all know our merry band of five flew off to Amsterdam Friday after work.
In tow were myself, Mike, Greg, Amelia and Margaret...oh yeah our guide Olga or something..her name doesn't really matter...
Now I know when I first mentioned this trip I mainly focused on the commonly held stereotypes that people mostly think of when someone mentions Amsterdam, after visiting however I've come to realise if anything those stereotypes are completely underated
CANALS, COFFEE SHOPS, BICYCLES AND HOOKERS as far as the eye can see!!!..
and the nose can smell...
Ok that might be a slight exageration, but only slight mind you
Anyway here's a canal
And here's a "coffee shop"
And here's a bicycle
And here's a hooker
...well actually its me with shorts on..it was very very frowned upon to take photos of the "window girls", but for a mental image its very much like my red light photo I posted earlier, except there are like a couple of hundred windows and the ladies could in a lot of instances be fashion models
Well we arrived pretty close to midnight on the Friday night after a reasonably uneventful and ridiculusly short flight. The girls all decided to hit the sack (no offense mike), while me and Greg wandered into town for a bit of a look, after a couple of beers we walked randomly around town taking in the sights..after about three hours of still failing to "accidentally"stumble into the red light district we got hungry, and had a nice traditional Dutch meal of...well..McDonalds.
The next morning refreshed after about 3 hours sleep we endeavoured to head to the Rijksmuseum to see some of Rembrandt's work...10 minutes into that idea tiredness took over and I slept for a couple more hours. Instead woke up a little later and thanks to some of my friends at www.thesilverfern.com I was already armed with a map to a pub in Amsterdam that would be playing the rugby. After an unusual but not at all bad Dutch breakfast of bread, meat, cheese and yoghurt, we took off to "Coco's outback Pub" stopping only to give directions to other kiwis wandering around lost in their all black tops..and of course stopping to take afew thousand canal photo's.
Next to the pub was a 3D sculpture of Rembrandts' most famous work "The Nightwatch",
After the game we decided to hit the Van Gough museum, which I suppose would normally be fairly interesting but unfortunately I was so tired from the night before I pretty much sleep walked through it, and the three of us guys after leaving the museum found a nice paddling pool to sleep by.
After our mid afternoon kip we headed for a canal cruise, which was pretty interesting,
though I think this was all really just biding time for our night exploits visiting the Red Light District.
We headed back to the hostel to change, have afew beers...and 4 shots of 160 proof absinth each that our friendly American room mate left us.
Where Greg and I despite our best efforts the previous night could not get anywhere close to stumbling into The District, Amelia however not only knew exactly which direction it was but also the exact tram to take..and those tram timetables are in dutch...so that girls really got a gift.
Now its a real shame that I didn't take my camera out to the Red Light District, and not just because it'd be funny to you guys hearing about me getting beaten up by a gang of prostitutes who don't like having their photo's taken, but rather some of the stuff you see out there really can't be adequately explained with words.
First of all there is a misconception that the Red Light District is just a really seedy area, with prostitutes dancing in the windows enticing seedy men who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
In reality however, the Red Light District is just a really big party type atmosphere, with very attractive prostitutes dancing in windows enticing both men and ladies who crowd the streets up, to pay for sex, and drug dealers prowling the streets trying to make a quick buck.
So yeah similar except, for a couple of distinct points
*Not really that seedy
*Plenty of woman around also"partaking" in Amsterdamian entertainment
After doing a couple of "laps" of the main red light area, taking in the sights, we decided to take in a show, at a place called "Moulon Rouge", it cost us 25 euro each, though I did manage to get three large beers and a diet coke inside for only 4 euros total as the bar lady screwed up my change. Anyway the show was pretty explicit though explicit in a public place while quite drunk is actually more comedic than erotic..especially when the stripper asked for a volunteer from the audience....
But that will have to wait till my next post as I am bloody hungry and its late
