Amsterdam

Got the internet sorted - yay! It's not wireless because trying to get that sorted out was toooo much! So now for a bit about getting to Amsterdam and my first weeks here...

I left after a night of late night packing in Berlin. Torsten (my flat mate) helped me to the Station, which was really good because I would never have made it. I left with my big rucksack, small rucksack and bike with bike trailer. More stuff than I would've liked to have, but anyway. Torsten got a picture of it all (und Torsten ich wurde gerne die bilder noch haben!) so I'll post that when I get it. I eventually got on the right train, after chasing my rucksack around the hauptbahnhof (it got left in a lift - I was too slow at unloading), with all my stuff and the trip to A'dam was pretty uneventful. Once in Amsterdam I moved into my room and met my new flatmate (engineer on oil refineries, deer hunter, southerner...). My room is much smaller than my room in Berlin (and more expensive) but should do for now!

On the following Monday (the 19th) I started work. For the 1st day I was shown around and didn't do much work as my computer wasn't set up, but got to meet loads of people who's names I subsequently forgot. I work in a building with about 120 other Greenpeacers. Our offices are in a three story building on the outskirts of Amsterdam. We have the whole top floor (where I am) and half the second floor. We also have archives, a bike cellar and a cafeteria in the basement. The people at work are cool, as one would expect working at Greenpeace. Our campaigns (Toxics and GE) are both being scaled down next year as GP is focusing more and more on Climate Change, so for now there are 2 campaign assistants (myself and Hanna, who was CA before me), but come 2008 it'll just be me. I've also been asked to work 5 days a week instead of 4, an idea I'm warming to.

So now that the job has started I'm just slowly starting to get used to everything here. I've bought a new bike as I was advised not to use my mountain bike as it would probably get stolen. It's a classic Amsterdam bike - a gazelle. Apart from going to a Cat Empire concert last Thursday, I haven't been doing much social, but looks like things will be starting up from next weekend. Also going to go check out some ultimate frisbee on Mondays...

Less internet, less blogging...

As most of you know I still don't have internet access on my laptop, so I'm afraid the blogging is going to take a bit of a knock. Suffice to say that I am LOVING my new job, and amsterdam looks like it's going to be a great city! I've put a link to my map on the right...

Life is so much better than good!

It's been a while and from now on I have no apologies for not sitting in front of a computer and blogging, life is happening!

I've just got back to Berlin's first snowfall from Prenzlau. Prenzlau is a small town (about 20 000 peeps and probably loads of cool animals, some rather aggressive...) near the Polish border, my digsmate (flatmate for our american friends) Torsten comes from Prenzlau and he took me back there for a day and night yesterday. It was awesome. On the car drive there I spoke a lot with his folks about life in the DDR times (Torsten took the train to take his bike). When we got there we went to visit Torsten's grandparents who were celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary. We helped Torsten's grandpa load some large strawbales onto a trailer and played a bit with Barny, the (very beautiful) dog. I WANT A DOG! I also played with a very aggressive Kaninchen (rabbit) and got properly scratched. Also saw the buck rabbit - frikkin huge! We ate kartoffel puffer mmmh. Then we went to visit some other relatives who were renovating an absolutely traumhaft (from a dream) old manor house. The Germans use of coloured glass bricks needs to be addressed though, but otherwise beautiful with strawberry fields and horses. We had a celebratory supper at a beer garden for Torsten's grandparents. It was great, but they did have horse on the menu, which seemed kinda strange to me, but I guess sometimes when I have these moments of clarity, having any animal on the menu seems totally barbaric, even if some of them scratch... My german is pretty much fluent now although my grammar leaves much to be desired. It was great to be able to participate in conversation and understand everything that was being said.

It's funny to hear some German people complaining about how unsightly wind turbines are, but in the same sentence how beautiful the scenery is (which is all fields for agriculture). I think both are a necessary evil if we want to live the high-tech power hungry lives we do and try and feed everybody (or produce sweetened highly processed food - most of the fields were for sugar beet which is made into sugar). We've gotten used to the fields which are essentially biodiversity deserts because they are essential for our way of life, I wonder if my children will have gotten used to wind turbines in the same way? I think it would be great if we could live a bit more in step with gaia. I guess if we don't she'll reject us anyway...

So I'm about to leave for work which will be the start of my last week in Berlin. It has been an amazing time. Berlin is now securely my second favourite city, edging out Istanbul. CT first of course. I'm really going to miss a lot about my time here, and probably most of all the amazing variety of people I've met and friends I've made. I'm sure I'll stay in touch with many of them (facebook has to have some use!) and can't wait to introduce some of them to Cape Town and South Africa.

I'm looking forward to Amsterdam, and getting going at Greenpeace, I think it's going to be a really good feeling to be putting my energy into something I really believe in! And of course there will be new friends to be made there, as well as deer hunting flatmates to deal with!

Life is beautiful!

Oslo-a-go-go

Back from Oslo, and it was an awesome time! Here's kind of how it went:

Thursday - got on the bus at 21:00 and left berlin. A couple of ferry rides, a stop in Kopenhagen and a 19 hour journey later I arrived in Oslo at 16:20 on friday.

Friday - got off the bus and as per em's sms went to find the tourist info. Found out about Cabins in the area and was boffed by Em. Happy meeting! Then followed her outside to find Al "hovering" in the rental car. Finally got to off-load my backpack (holding 17 bottles of beer to escape murderous Norwegian alcohol prices) and we set off in search of our cabin about 30min outside Oslo. On the way we stopped off at a supermarket to get some supplies, and the first bought of (much) hilarity started when we had to ask the 7/11 man where a proper supermarket was (after getting lost in the industrial area). We got the supplies after much discussions over the type of bread that was right for us and very little discussion over a small fillet of reindeer that would have cost R490. We proceeded on to the site of our cabins, found it and picked a good one and then went to the Hotel to pick up the key, where we found we could also use the hotels facilities including pool - nice.

We made our way over to the cabin, unloaded and had a couple of beers. Em gave me the marmite and a couple of other presents from people back home. We then cooked supper and ate. After that we got an early night.

Saturday - We got up late to find ourselves in an awesome area with mountains behind us and fjords in front. Norway is a beautiful country (and had some similarities to South Africa I thought). We went for a walk up the mountain (hill maybe) behind us to kings view and where warned about the slipperyness, which I laughed at, only to find out all about on our way down. We got to the top in the rain, walking through forests with moss on the ground . spectacular. The view wasn't the best with the rain, but Al "the scot" Simpson, Glen "the German" Tyler, and Emily "the Saffer" Tyler made the most of it. We walked/slid down again to the hotel where we took full advantage of the swimming pool, jaccuzi and sauna as well as the beers on call (as one does). After warming up and drying off, we bought some more supplies at the Joker and headed back to the cabin for an afternoon of beer drinking, reading and hearts playing. Supper was a stir fry of sorts followed by hot chocolate and bed.

Sunday - we got up and had a nice cooked breakfast with a killer omlete and then packed up the cabin and cleaned it. After dropping off the keys we headed off to Oslo to our (well Em's with me and Al freebootin') Hotel. Very fancy and a breakfast buffet to get stuffed for. We settled in (checked out the facilities, planned the next day's sightseeing, drunk beer and made sure we knew where all the important tv channels were. We finished off the sandwiches and snacks from the weekend, watched hitch and then went to bed.

Monday - We got up at 7 and proceeded to the buffet that would be the scene of some of the biggest breakfasts eaten over the next couple of days. Rolling out an hour later we made our way to our car and headed off to town, picking up a Taiwanese woman on the way who joined us for the first part of the day. We got to the Statue Park early which was amazing with lots of larger than life statues (unfortunately none with a toe as big as emily's head) which we proceeded to impersonate, looking as much like tourists as we could, and probably having something to do with our Taiwanese guests running like mad from us as soon as we had got her to town on the pretence of finding lunch. After the park we checked out two museums, a Norwegian Volksmuseum, with some great houses and things that the locals used to live in, as well as some very poor reasons for why the alcohol is so expensive. We also took in a Stave Church, which was very impressive, or at least it was before Emily tried to break the door down to get inside. The next Museum was a viking museum with three viking boats. Very good as there was not too much to take in and all was explained quite well (unlike the last museum). We then took the car back and went off to explore the town centre. However we didn't get very far before Em realised she had left her wallet in the car, something that would become a recuring theme with em and al for the next couple of days. Our first stop was a Mövenpick ice cream shop where we ate rather large, delicious soft serves, and saw the brute force of the Norwegian police (they hunt in pairs, one native one immigrant) and a very suspicious looking woman in an orange top abducting innocent women from the pavement. With our tourist mode being rather played out (well mine at least) and me professing that I prefer to get lost and then find my way back we proceeded to wander around Oslo looking for a castle, which we found, speculated about the guards and lazed in the sun on top of the wall. To our credit, we did try and go into a museum about the Norwegian resistance to the Nazi's, but it was closed. After the castle we walked through town to a Scottish pub for a pint and did some fantastic people watching. We then walked to our restuarant of choice for a slap up meal as it was the last evening before Em started her conference. After baulking at the prices (something that took place before buying anything in Norway, regardless of how long we were there) we thankfully didn't decide just to get a pizza (we were all quite tired) but stayed and ate supper there, drinking a fantastic French white wine, eating superb food and being waited on by one of the best waiters I have ever been waited on by. After supper we made our way back to the hotel via train for a little while.


Tuesday - Emily's conference started, so she was up early. Al and I took a more leisurely pace, and made it to breakfast at 9:15. I put in my most impressive performance on the buffet table, managing 5 courses - Ian would have been proud. After breakfast Al and I headed up the Olympic ski jump for a really good panoramic view of oslo, as well as a look at the ski museum. We then took a ride on a ski simulator, which I think is obligatory for tourists. After managing to hold on to our breakfasts we went for a walk in the woods which was really great. Once we got to a good vantage point we stopped (still in the sun - the weather was amazing) and cracked a couple of beers. After the beers we walked back and started what was a very long and perilous decision making process for supper. We decided pizza was out as two medium pizzas and the short train journey to get there would have cost in the region of R400. We checked out a restaurant near the hotel, before going back to the hotel. We went to the fancy hotel restaurant and asked to see the menu, seeing the price of a main being about R290 Al asked if they had reindeer. When they said no, I told Al that the other hotel restaurant did, complete a cunning get away without looking cheap. Little did we know we wouldn't be laughing too long! We got to the other restaurant which was in the same place as the breakfast buffet. Judging by the breakfast quality, we didn't think we could go too wrong. Oh how wrong we were. Not thinking it suspicious that we were the only people in the restaurant (maybe the rest are just eating later...) we ordered a beer and the first of a series of terrible mistakes. The meals all came on very small plates and were literally what the said. If you ordered a reindeer patty, you literally got one reindeer patty in gravy with no veg. The service wasn't much better, with the waitress brining Al something wrapped in tinfoil and saying "I hope it's fish". Somehow we ploughed through four of these entrées each before realising that things just weren't going to get better. The food made airplane food look like haute cuisine. It was ugly. Anyway, we had another drink with Em who was back from her conference dinner and then retired to our room, vowing that we would be back to visit our retribution on the breakfast buffet.


Wednesday - Our day of leaving, and I said my goodbyes to Em as she left for her conference. Al and I went to breakfast, came back and packed. Em popped in again for a final goodbye and then Al walked me to the station to catch a train to the bus station. I spent my last kroner on padkos for the bus and then boarded for a trip through the stunning Norwegian country side and the 16hr (minus the 3hr wait in Copenhagen) trip to Berlin.

It was an amazing holiday, with things seeming to all go right for us. The best part of it for me was getting to spend time with Em and Al. Lots of good laughs.

I'm now back in Berlin and have my first shift in a couple of hours.

On bicycle bells and winning the world cup

If we are serious about winning the world cup, and it appears so, I have a fool proof plan. Replace our 2nd centre (sorry, don't know who this is) with a middle aged german woman with a small dog, and give percy a bicycle bell to ring.

I promise the resulting sidestep will be deadly...

Bananas

In a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), on March 14 Chiquita Brands International agreed to pay a $25 million fine after admitting it paid terrorists for protection in a dangerous region of Colombia. The payments, made between 1997 and 2004, continued despite the company's knowledge that they were illegal. The company was allowed to continue profitable production during the investigation. The U.S. government's action is inconsistent with standards and procedure used against charities, which have had their assets seized and frozen while investigations are pending. Six U.S. charities have been shut down on the basis of much less evidence than the direct payments to which Chiquita admitted. The Chiquita fine is unlikely to affect its operations, as the company has annual revenues of approximately $4.5 billion.

Isn't the world banana's?

Pics

Oh, and while I fell behind on the blogging, I carried on taking pictures, most of which are up on my photo site (see link on the right), so take a look if you get a chance.

Hit and Run Kino

Last Wednesday me and Sylvia (a fellow tour guide) went to hit and run kino (cinema). It was super cool. We met at Janowitzbrücke Sbahn station with about 60 other people, walked about 10 minutes to an abandoned factory and "broke in" (climbed in through a window). There were too cinemas set up, literally sheets hanging from the ceiling, plastic chairs, speakers and a video projector. Everyone got a beer or wine and a cup of peanuts, and we settled down to watch Warriors (old school movie about gangs in New York), surrounded by graffiti and rubble. Nice.

Was a cool experience, and there are some photos up on my photo album.

G8

Tomorrow (morning at 3am) we leave to go and protest against the policies of the G8. In the run up to the conference the German government has, amongst other things:

• taken away accreditation from critical journalists,
• begun controlling european citizens crossing the border into germany, in contradiction of the schengen convention. people have been turned away at the border,
• built a 12km long steel wall around the hotel where the conference will be held,
• given police the power to ban identified people from being in a specific radius from a specific place without any judicial proceedings,
• held raids on ngo's and private homes in berlin without any specific reason other than the people involved in the raids may have fallen under article 129a (new terrorism laws recently enacted in germany). computers, seminar lists (from professors) and other information was confiscated,
• enacted a new law banning any demonstration from taking place within 6kms of the security fence,
• built a temporary prison for 14 000 people at Heiligendamm,
• declared a "security area of 50km around Heiligendamm.

I'm going to Heiligendamm not only to protest against the policies of the G8. There is a choice between living in a world with these measures, and with this level of state violence, and a better world, were people feel empowered, and feel they have the opportunity to make their voices and opinions heard. I'm going to Heiligendamm to exercise my right to protest peacefully.

Time is of the essence!

The new job is going great guns, so it's full steam ahead. Leading my second tour tomorrow. German course is great except my grammar is REALLY letting me down - now is when I wish I had paid attention in school!

I've posted some new photos - some taken by me for a change! Check them out (follow the link to Glen's Photo Album on the right)

Love and respect,

Glen

New job!

So yes, I've got a new job, hooray! Working at Fat Tire (yes, american) Bike Tours www.fattirebiketoursberlin.com. Not working for them essentially, they're starting up a non-profit company called Mosaic Tours to run a tour to the Saxenhausen Memorial (Concentration camp used by Nazis and USSR). I'm helping to research and script the tour and will then be one of the 3 or 4 guides running the tour. I'll also be working in the two shops, one at the TV tower at Alexander Platz and the other at the Zoo.

So all good really.

Poland revisited (already)

So I'm back in Poland - I liked it that much! Left on Saturday for Katowice. Rob Szabo (friend of mine from Rhodes) is teaching English here (I'm typing this from his office while he takes a lesson). It's been great seeing him again, and he's looked after me really well. On Saturday, I stumbled off the buss (which broke down 50m from the bus station - nice!) and was immediately whisked off to THE best vegetarian restaurant I have ever been too (granted they don't do breakfast, so Lola's on Long street is still winning there) amazing food with lots of bakes and lasagne's. 14 Zlotys (about R40/4Euros) for a piece of one of the bakes and two salads and a glass of juice (apple and mint was the last one I had - was there again today- but also cinnamon, clove and orange and others!).

After we were well fed we went on a tour of all the cafes and clubs in Katowice, which merged seamlessly into meeting all Rob's friends and going out on a great pub/club crawl. Needless to say it ended with Rob, J and myself (all SAan) in Spiz eating slap chips on the dance floor and getting disapproving looks from pretty much everyone. Fantastic. Get home at 6.

Next day we walked through one of the biggest parks in Europe and had lunch at one of the restaurants in the park, we then walked back to Katowice (rob lives in a small town just outside), and bought some of the biggest ice-creams I have ever seen. Watched a video that evening. (well watch is not quite right, we laughed at the nautical terms most of the time).

Today I took myself of to Auschwitz, which was harrowing. What really did my head in is that it is now in the middle of an ordinary town. I imagine this would not be the case if it was in Germany, or if the Poles were the perpetrators.

Tomorrow I'm probably going to go to Krakow, and have a walk around. I head back to Berlin on Wednesday.

I'll also be starting my new job on Monday - scripting and taking tours of a concentration camp near Berlin. Working for a non-profit company set up by a tour guide company (I'll also be working in their shop). www.fattirebiketoursberlin.com

My day off

I've been on the job trail today... went to the arbeitsamt (state employment department thingy...) to register as looking for work. Felt very unemployed! I didn't have the right documentation from the Burgerampt (I think), and ended up getting the forms for the dole. Good. Nice to know my german is serving me so well!

However, while not doing very well trying to find a way to earn money, I am doing incredibly well at spending it. Bought the most amazing piece of tiramisu today from an Italian guy outside Hackescher Markt. Nice.

A poem...

Sometimes when I am on my bicycle,
I feel like an icicle.

(composed in situ on the streets of Berlin)

Shelf

I built a shelf in my room for a total of 6.50 Euros. The thing is that I used mayonnaise buckets from work. There's a picture on my photo pages of it. Every day we throw away (well, put into the recycling dumpster - whatever that means°°) at least two of these or the tomato sauce buckets. It's really hard for me to see them go, not just because I love using things that would otherwise go to waste, but more because of working in the townships of Cape Town. There people share communal taps and anything that can hold a reasonable amount of water is very valuable. Something that can hold water and has a lid is even more so. In their first life, the ones here aren't even used to hold paint or other toxic chemicals...

Even in the schools we worked in there, a container like the ones here were super valuable. From using them as watering cans to growing saplings in.

So, I'm glad I could use them for something useful, even though we've got a shower, bath, basin and kitchen sink all with fresh water, hot and cold, at a turn of a tap in our flat.

°° I hope they are recycled, but even if they are, there is all the energy to think of that the process of breaking them down to plastic pellets that can then be used to make more plastic things uses.

Ultimate

So I'm back playing ultimate, and it feels so good! Playing in a hall is crazy - no wind and laying out is a bit more painful. Keep remembering when horizontal in mid air that there is no grass underneath me. Impresses though when you pull it off!
I'm playing in a beginners group, so am nicely in the middle of the skill range. Maybe going to a friday night game as well which is training for a team, so could be more intense!
Best thing about a hall - no wind! You've never seen a long huk fly so straight, frikkin magic!
It's raining at the moment, and I think it's starting to stay light for longer - ooh 4 o'clock, great...
I'm off to my german class now, so aufwiedersehen und all that....

back to the craziness...

Okay, so I decided life was not busy enough, so now... I'm playing ultimate with a team in Berlin. The people seem nice, which would follow from my experience of ultimate in Cape Town. The german course is going well, although it's FLIPPIN hard! To give you and idea... this is an oberstuffe course which is basically D1 (although it's not classified as such, because the classification only goes up to c2 - by which stage you are fluent). My german training to date consists of my course in Cape Town which was... wait for it. A1.1 i.e. half of A1. I still theoretically have to do A1.2, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2. Good.

Also going to a south african stammtisch tonight (south african club meeting). So yeah, it's all happening! Despite a short bout of "what the hell am I doing with my life" I'm loving Berlin, and generally having a great time. It's got really cold and it snowed properly today (no snow storms here though!). Ice rink is also getting bussier though.

I've put some more photos up, so check them out if you get a chance (I've been meaning to put them up for ages!).

Love to all!