the great german doctor search!

It all began when I ate that pig leg... the next morning I didnt quite feel myself and by nightfall I was wuite dizzy, had a fever and couldnt swallow very well. Strepthroat! Easy to diagnose and a little penisilan to cure... however in germany they di thinkgs alittle differently. I styed in bed the next day to gather strenth for the great search. On Wednesday I was ready. At the call shop I contacted my insurance company (well dad did, thank papa) and asked a 'local' if he knew where I could find a doctor. 'Theres one around the corner, i can take you' offered a man how I would latter know as Thomas. Sounds good to me and I followed. Thomas was a funny friendly guy in his mid twenties I think. He nearly peed his pants when I asked him if he was from Germany, I guess there arent any black germans. Thomas and I searched for these doctors he knew of only to find out that they were dentists! He took me down a few other streets and on a tram ride but all we found were chirpractors, sports therapist, eye nose and throat specialists and a couple of family doctors that werent open on wednesdays. This is when thomas and I parted ways... he did invited me out for coffee, but I reminded him that I was ill and contagious and should probably be in bed.

I wasnt ready to give up however and walked to the nearest hospital. I was examining the site legend map thing when a friendly German asked if I needed help. hesitantly, 'Yah' I replied. Through broken english we decided it would be best if I went to a private doctor, not one at the hospital. He knew where one was and we began to walk... and everything began to look vaguely familiar... past the dentist shop, past the chiropractor and the spports medicin guy and the eye nose and throat specialist and in the mean time the friendly german mentions that he is a doctor of alternative medicin and that antibiotics are a bad idea and that if I would just come over to his house he would give me some alternative medicin. ... now I'm thinking 'ok buddy, you are twice my size, I'm not going into any building wih you, but If you could point me towards the doctors that would be great' Then he continued on about natural medicin which I think is great, but I really wanted some antibiotics... and through the broken english yogurt was what I understood. Yes, yes I promissed him if I insisted on taking antibiotics I would indeed eat lots of yogurt (lactobasilis I think is what he was truing to suggest)! Well after a long walk we arrived at the doctor but they wouldn't be open of 2 hours - cool, I'll go home and have a nap and come back.

fast forward two hours. I knock on the clinic door and they say that they are not open (the small print under open monday to friday sais, except wednesday!!!) but all I need is a quick presciption, ' sorry there are no doctors here.'

Home I go. the next day I arrived at the clinic the next day and there is a doctor on. Yes the woman I spoke with the night before was indeed my doctor, I would have said something, but I think my sarcasm would have been lost in the languae barrier, plus I really wanted some medicin. Five minutes with the doctor and she concluded that I had strep, surprise!? And ten minutes later I had a treat bag from the drug store - they put throat candies and mini klenex in my package as well as medicin!

Tomorrow I leave for Berlin - on the Autobahn!!!
(no spellcheck, spelling is particularily bad)

LEG OF PIG!!!
Dad, you will love this... (Randy and Kim, you might not want to read this part)

Josh, Jason, Dustin, Alicia took me out a the oldest beer hall in Dusseldorf for a leg of pig. They wouldn't let me order anything else (they have all tackled the leg of pig previously) it comes with potatoes and red cabbage apple sauce. I really though that I could do it... but in the end I almost threw up - good thing there is a puke sink in the washroom! Yes thats right a puke sink! It;s like a sink, but it flushes like a toilet! I opted not to need the puke sink and I passed over my leftovers to the boys, good team work kids! we did it!

Dusseldorf hasn't been all party though, there's been some architecture to see as well. Josh and I went out to Essen to see this old coal mine that has been transformed into an exhibition space. The ogange stairwell is the central circulation, with balck void beyond, it was like a beautiful skary dream from childhood! We spent all day there and we saw a fraction of the site! bought the book though... more to carry about...
On sunday Alicia and I set out on out bikes to the industrial area turned architecture nice waterfront space. Saw some ghery and lots of great stuff that I had never heard about before... and alicia played soccer with some kids on the street! She's becoming very integrated!

There are little christmas markets everywhere with gluiwine (sp?) and cookies and carved wood and wool socks and festive spirit! Santa, or Nicolas rather visits too, he wasn't around but we took a group shot in his chair anyway (josh and me from canada, ester and ester from spain and katrine and sam from belgium!)

Josh introduced me to Currywurst- a crazy combination of ketchup and curry on sausage... it was so delicious! You can also get it over fries!

out and about in Dusseldorf, we tried to make an H for Halifax, but it just kind of looks like the boys are saluting a famous german who shall remain nameless!

us at the R+S house, it's alot smaller than i had imagined. It was a great time in amsterdam, thanks to blaine and mark and dave for letting me sleep in their space!

on sunday,
blaine and mark and i headed out to Utrecht to play at the rietvelf schroderhuis and the university. It was great except the only map we could find indicated the location of all the Macdonalds restaurants and nothing else, but since it was sunday morning and the city was dead, we decided brunch at macdonalds would be a great way to spend the morning. macD is good every now and then, and we have the local dish too, a goulash thing breaded and deep fried!
The university was great fun, I got a library card to check email and we hung out on there great spongy seats they have!

amsterdam
on saturday Blaine and I headed out to discover the gret borneo islands (really peninsulas) we biked for hours and saw a ton of buildings. the picture with us together, you might notice that our coats match the bottom two color panels exactly, it was so exiting. I think I understand facade a little better after this adventure.

Bruges, Belgium.
a great little historic town, that doesn't have a whole lot going on was a really nice break from the cities. This place has more chocolate than cars and more bikes than tourist! I loved it! This image was taken in the market at the end of...

THE GREAT WAFFLE ADVENTURE

After sleeping through the break of dawn I rushed through the morning excersises of hygene and fasion and wisked out the door, onto my California cruiser in search of the fames 'Belgium Waffle.' I didn't want to see too eager or glutonous and so I perused the cana;s and side streets when i stumbled upon a market with unbounding hunger. A snack. Yes, one cannot pursue a great waffl;e adventure on an empty stomach ( and if frodo can have a few breakfasts on his way to save his people and his land, that I can have a few snacks on this my great waffle adventure!) The market proved a winning journey and I continued my search with a basket full of bounty. Hours later and fading fast and, I hesitate to admit, lost again, I made the call to forgoe the waflle hunt nd return to the hostle for left over dinner and a nap.

Awoken by the sixth snooze I was ready again with my waffle goal set in mind- it was game time! Out I went, undertered by the sunset over the canal and the delicate lace in the windows and even ubut the chololate tool set tied up in silky ribbon. But all I could find was take out, unhospitable spaces and high prices. And so i did waht all great travellers do in these times, I headed off to the grocery store. Here I purchased a jar of non name Nutella (i'm sorry mom) and a package of factory made waffles filled with preservatives and all! BUT WAIT.... there is a fresh backery section where you can buy a waffle for 1euro20 ($1.80) The cashiere did not speak english and my flemish is weak, and so he mimed to me how delicious these waffles really were. I was sold! The next thing I new I was the prowd owner of a belgium waffle and the cashere even warmed it up for me in the staff room! What a lorious cashere! Moments later I was enjoying my treasure in a small square when I discovered that my waffle was filled with apple and spices! and not fake canned apples, but real ones, you could taaste it! A few boys walked by and called out something that I probably didn't want to understand, but it sounded like 'smart girl' to me, Yes I am a smart girl, and I settled in to enjoy the last of my frugal adventure!

Paris wasn't all wine and cheese though, There were so many buildings to visit (the arch de triumph among my favorite) these images include st chapelle, the end of gothic with so much light and color you felt like you were in heaven itself. The candles are from notre dame, which is actually quite grey inside, but lovely, minus the hoards of people! and finally and L'institu du monde arabe, the windows have tons of apertures that close and open depending on how much light they need in the building! supper cool. Many sketched and friends later, I tore myself away from Paris... I'll go back for sure, maybe to live next time!

Paris was good to us, crepes for breakfast, who could complain about that!? well done ladies!

Biking in the city!
Penny (you might remember her from such adventures as knights fight at a castle) and her great friend Charlie (from New York) came to play in Paris with me. Our first adventure was a bike ride through Paris... passing lots of great sights , but by far the best moment was when we all biked into the back courtyard at the louvre silouetted as a dozen of us bicked around the cobblestone courtyard! The boat ride with wine on the siene river was pretty hot too! And well, we were all decked out in high fasion - my vest was neon yellow!

Welcome to Paris!
This was the view when i finally arrived in Paris, after an over night bus ride complete with pass port non scence over and over again, and missing the tunnel train and a crying baby, and a really cool girl from poland I arrived. It was so beautiful!

London, harrods.
Gen this one is for you.

I spent the first day in the country side (saw the chitty chitty bang bang windmill) and the second day gracie took me for an adventurous day in London, most notably to see WICKED!!! we cried and laughed, it was soooooo good! and to add to the exitement Idina Menzel was Elpheba (the wicked witch) and she is the original(the one from the sounds track) to top off the day we had dinner at Barrys club and i tried wild boar and root mash (parsnips included!!!) and sticky toffee pudding!!! so delicious!
The next day the wandered london on foot (the image is the sunset over the river, the tate modern tower in silouette) I went to see john soane and it was crazy strange to be inside my my text books, it's so different to walk around a space than see it in pictures!

London was brillaint mostly due to the gracious hospitality of Gracie and Barry (my name sake, and good friends of the family) They live in a 350 year old house!!! in the living room (in the picture) there are old hull pieces form a ship as joist, curves and all, they are beautiful! The whole house is plaster and wood, a little bit like my sambro project! Gracie took me out from some fancy events and since i only have travel clothes I had to borrow clothes from her daughter - and what beautiful clothes she had (pls I was just so happy to have more than the three tshirts I am travelling with!) Her wardrobe included manola b. shoes!!! They were all lace! I tried on eon for the photo (we have the exact same size feet!) but then they went right back in the box.

Ok i'm back in business!
I'm going to back track and post pictures and stories that I have been compiling for a little while now. Please excuse some of the spelling as well, I can't spell and this kez board is a little funny!

sorry the posts have been weak and no existent. The free computers at the library don't have usb ports and you can only use them for half an hour a day. I'm trying to stay away from the internet cafes, they charge an arm and a leg! (2$ for 15 minutes!) Hopefully I will have more access when I get to Dusseldorf!

Aurevoir mon Paris!
So sad my last night in Paris... I have had such a great time so far that I could go home now and be happy (sorry for the tease maman et papa) but I can only assume that there are more magical (yes magical) adventures ahead! I'm loving everything new and mysterious and miss all that is comfortable and farmiliar! and so I'm off againn, to brussels tomorrow to meet victor horta!... (well he's dead, but i'll be going to his house!)

The bus ride from edinburgh to London was only 30 dollars and you get what you pay for as always. The bus was forty minutes late. no big deal. And we transfered half way onto a double decker YEAH but the ordered 'move to the next bus, this is not a break, do not enter for services, do not worry about your luggage, do not pass go, do not collect 200$ !' And so of course, they forgot to change our luggage from one bus to the next! So we doubled back and after thirteen hours I was safely and warmly in Gracie and barrys kitchen! (a beautiful brick and flint house with wood and plaster interiors ~ old ship wood, so it curves. for anyone that knows my sambro project...} Ilove cheep bus rides!

I can't put up pictures yet, form the last little while, but soon.

Ben you are brilliant!
Guy Fawlks night was such a highlight! After a lazy morning and a tour of Rosslyn chapel (site of Da Vinci code movie) We headed up Carleton Hill for a fire works display over the city! What a sight! Thank you so much to Jamie and Keith, you made staying in Edinburgh quite cozy!

oh saturday!
sleeping in, dance class, porridge at the market (with honey and wiskey!) a tour of the parliment and a beautiful day, a hot shower and drinks with friends, what more could a girl ask for??? ...spending my last pounds on a peice of jewlery and then getting lost for an hour at dusk I could have skipped! It was actually a nice way to see the city, but lesson learned, always have local currency, even if you think you know the way home! The porridge was really good though! yum!

Edinburgh yeah!
I love it so far, lots of walking and getting lost. There is a castle on an od volcano in the middle of the city, so as long as I keep that in view I'm good. Can you imagine a castle on an od volcano as a city center??? At home we have the confed center! Everything here smells of malt and the drivers give you the right of way (most of the time. Some of them speed up if they don't think you should be on the road!)

Glasgow was a big hit, mostly due to my beautiful hosts - thanks to Penny and Nick!

Glencoe.
The site of the bloody Campbell-MacDonald massacre seemed an obvious destination for me (I'm one quarter of each) I remember I grandmother telling me the story when I was little. So off to Glencoe I went for the day, it was so nice to be out of the city. Like home, people say hello on the street! There was hiking, stone houses with heather roofs, real Christmas holly, lots of coffee, reading, browsing, cold soup and bread by a beautiful lake with some rust colored birds and fighter planes, out of no where! It was a lovely day! I felt like I was in a heritage commercial!

The image is of a small loch (lake) it was built by a Scotsman for his 'red Indian' wife (that's what the man said!) from Canada. I think he meant Native American. She was homesick and so he built her a lake! What chivalry!