Ok, so we left on thursday night, taking an overnight train to Switzerland. We had a few transfers, but when we finally got to Switzerland it was about 9 am.
- Hold on, I'm leaving something out. OH YEAH!
It's Carnival here, and that means drunken debauchery among the locals. On the way to Geneva, we had an hour layover in Cologne, Germany. If I tried to count all the drunken people in wild outfits... well I would've needed one of those clicker-things.
107 *Click* 108 *Click*
anyways, it was a little funny to see - halloween in the middle of winter, in the train station. There was music, and old people making out, and laughs all around. Then of course, they followed us onto the train... all million of them. We sat in the dining car for a little while, then I moved up to first class since 2nd was all filled up - Gen and Jenna were less than willing to join me, thinking I'd get kicked out.
I Did NOT get kicked out. (Victory!)
Anyways, back to Geneva. We wandered the streets for a while after checking into our hostel, Seeing the UN, a couple museums, some sandwich shops, etc.
Then we realized we'd done more than half of what could be done in Geneva. In 4 hours.
Anyway, knowing that we'd be staying a whole 'nother day, we decided to take it easy and explore the streets. We found some cool cathedrals, winding streets and basically we enjoyed our days out. The next day we went into the older part of the city and explored more, before Jenna and I had to get back to Amsterdam for a special Sunday edition of my Visual Society class.
For Class, we went to Amsterdam's photo-museum, FOAM - where they were exhibiting the works of two american photographers - Taryn Simon and Wee Gee. Wee Gee was a prominent photojournalist from the 30's and 40's, specializing in crime scenes - his name derived from his almost paranormal ability to get to the murder scene, often as soon as the cops did. His pictures were pretty amazing - but personally I preferred Taryn's. She did a collection of photos of places across america that were hidden or forbidden to enter. Among many others, she took pictures of the CIA headquarters, a nuclear test site in Nevada, and a Zoo where they had an inbred white tiger. There was even a letter from Disneyland politely declining her entry to the underground tunnels, stating that they wished to preserve the magic for everyone. Furthermore, her photos were so vibrant, so colorful and full of life... it was truly impressive.
to see more of her work, go Here
From here we traveled unto the coveted "Red Light District" of Amsterdam, learning about prostitution at a center devoted to education about the sex workers industry. No Dad, it was NOT first hand experience.
From here, I took a train back to the castle and arrived around 8 o'clock, just in time to go out again for carnival at the linden. I was dressed in a costume of my own, of course, and I looked damned good.
Overall, another successful weekend.
Don't forget, Dan's adventures in Hungary next week - same Dan Time, same Dan Channel.
(Time and Channel subject to change.)
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