Monday, May 29, 2006

Edinburgh


Last weekend I visited Edinburgh for the first time... and already it has made it onto my top 5 cities in the world. More updates on this entry to come shortly but I need to get some work done first.


and back again, I just typed all the info one would want to know about a weekend in this great city and I lost it all... What a bummer.

The city is fab for so many reasons, culture, beauty, walkable, and just stock full of Rebus references.
We started by arriving on Friday to a really nice a bright day, found our hotel and headed into town for a look around. Already you could tell like the rest of Britain it was being invaded by students of the ESL persuasion. But no matter it was impressive from the get-go.
Each morning we would leave our hotel and walk up the street to the large multinational coffee shop for our fix, and wandered on from there.
Staying in New Town was a great central location and quite easily the best place to access all that Edinburgh has to offer.
We walked around New Town, Old Town, up near the castle, the citadel and even up Authurs Seat to nearly be blown off the top. But what a view! Leith down one side and the castle and city jutting out on the other. On the way down the hill we went past the new Scottish parliament building, apparently a very sore subject due to the cost of the project.
We tried to go for seafood in Leith but found it was some bank holiday (a concept almost unknown to the Dutch government) and could not find a place to go, so headed back into town to eat at the hotel, which actually turned out to be a really fantastic meal, 4**** at least!
We found some great curry and even some mediocre pub food (you win some you loose some)
Took the whisky experience for what it was and explored under the city in Mary's Kings Close. What a crazy thing to have whole city streets buried beneath your feet. On a note for those whisky tasters out there, I recommend going to a good pub and asking for some recommendations, the tour was really hokey and touristic. We also visited the Scottish museum which was fantastic as well, only it was too big to take in all at once and we barely got past the Neolithic and Roman times before it was decided outside and the current history was beckoning.
One of the highlights was coming across the final parade of the Scots guard. This prestigious company was being decommisioned and this was their final march down Princes's Street after a 350 year old history.. It was emotional and fantastic to watch.
On the Sunday we wandered along Leith walk to the modern art museum, I found the walk to be much more exciting but hey it was so beautiful outside it was well worth the trudge. And before you knew it we were on our way back to the lowlands. A fantastic weekend break, a walkable city, so you don't need a car and more than a zillion pubs and eating establishments to choose from.
I really hope to explore more of Scotland in the future, it is a wonderful country full of history and

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The New Pornographers

Over a week ago I went to the Tivoli de Helling in Utrecht to see one of my favorite Vancouver bands, The New Pornographers. I was really excited to have the chance to see them as I really love their happy sound and play their CD's on a pretty heavy rotation on my iPod.



I liked the fact they were all so relaxed looking, and found it funny to watch the drummer Kurt Dahle do his magic when remembering the last time I saw him was many many moons ago when he played with Age of Electric on the Vancouver/ Canadian scene.


And A.C. (Carl) Newman the lead singer/ guitarist I have not really heard since my brother sent me a Destroyer album ages ago.. but very cool anyway. They played a great set, full of energy and had a whole lot of people dancing and jumping to the music. I was very sorry that I missed them the next day when I was in London, but at least I got to see such a nice dynamic show for a Sunday evening.

I won't go into the details other than to say it was sad that so many people were there because they thought that Neko Case was going to be playing with them as she was on the CD's. But as I discovered fairly quickly she was on her own tour of Europe. In fact I saw her 6 days later in Rotterdam Nighttown Theater. It was a very sweet show and I loved the fact that none of her songs were over 2 min long.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Banksy

Check out this website, and buy his book if you like graffiti and intelligence mixed into one. He is really great! And it is a good read too!

Ministry of Sound

This last weekend I flew to London to attend a birthday party of someone I have never met, but who's reputation had well proceeded him from his time spent in The Netherlands.
Arriving Friday night it was enough to find the hotel, grab some grub and hit the sack.
Sat was a beautiful day and window shopping was in order, walking around Oxford street buying some sketchers and generally enjoying the time and company. I even got a temporary tattoo and was told that it would last up to 7 days, it looked pretty real but sadly I am not sure if lasted 7 hours, so if you are ever tempted by a temporary tattoo on Oxford street give it a pass or make sure it is not one of the bigger ones.
The plan for the evening was to go and meet everyone at a tapas restaurant Salvador and Amada
have some food and drink and then move onto the Ministry of Sound, where Ryan had arranged for a VIP room for the group. The tapas bar/ restaurants was full of party goers but fun non the less. And we were signaled it was time to leave when one of the friends got on the table and gave us a dance...
I have never been to a large club like that before, but have to say if you are going to do it, do it right. VIP room, hostesses and the ability to get away from the very loud speakers on the dance floors. The DJ of the night was alright, apparently a old favorite from the beginning of techno/ house scene but I can't say I was all that impressed.
But the evening went on until it was time for us to go and beat the sun as it was rising, a few hours sleep before having to check out and spend a few more hours wandering around the city. At least the sun was out. We walked a huge loop from Holburn, around Covent garden, up Neal Street, found some breakfast, down Shafsbury Ave, up Tottingham(sp?) Court Rd, some more shopping for Eugene and then popped into the British museum for a peek. Ended up at the aboriginal Peoples wing with lots of Northwest Coast Indian artifacts which was really nice to see, a little taste of home. Afterwards we went to find food and ended up at The Ultimate Burger, which was good when we ate but somehow was still with me hours later. Oh well, all in all a really nice weekend, very relaxed atmosphere and great company.