Bicycle Diaries

Our third day in Holland, we rented bikes. We rode the bikes through a huge field called De Bussumse Hei (Hei refers to the purple Heather plant in Dutch). We made a stop to get near some cows that were roaming around on the field. Then, we rode our bikes to a restaurant called La Place, where we met my aunt and uncle, Ineke and Wim.

After eating lunch we biked on to the Poffertjeskraam. It is a seasonal restaurant that only opens in the summer. It is a portable wooden building that used to travel around to different cities during the year, but now only stays in one spot. The restaurant only has two things on the menu: poffertjes and wafelen. Poffertjes are like mini-mini-pancakes and wafelen are big waffles. The oven where the waffles are baked is 100 years old. After they are made they are topped off with a slab of butter and tons of powdered sugar. Mmm...

Later that evening, after taking a long nap to recuperate from the biking we went to work with my dad. My dad wanted to show Matt the studio he works at where they record the news. He showed Matt how everything works. We even took pictures on the set.

Northern Holland

Our first full day in Holland we took a "road trip" to Northern Holland. We made the following stops, starting in Bussum (where my dad lives): Bergen, Bergen aan Zee, Schoorl, Afsluitdijk, Workum, Sloten, and Urk.


We made a complete circle around the Ijsselmeer, a fresh water lake that was created by blocking off part of the North Sea (salt water) with a man-made dike that was fully constructed by 1933. The dike is 20 miles long and is called the Afsluitdijk. Also, on the east and south of the Ijsselmeer (lake) there is reclaimed land, Flevoland (South) and Nordoostpolder (East) as a result of the dike. We drove along the Afsluitdijk and made a stop on it to climb the tower that has a view of the dike, the lake, and the North Sea (England is across the sea). On the satellite map you can see the long, straight line is the dike in the middle of the top-half.

We stopped at two beaches, Bergen aan Zee and Schoorl. Both were extremely windy, but we wanted to give Matt a feel for what the Dutch coast looks like. Then we went to a couple small towns and had traditional Dutch pancakes. On our way back we stopped in a little town called Urk that used to be an island until 1939 when the dikes and land reclamation connected it to the mainland.


We had a great time driving through all the different cities especially because we listened to a radio station that featured the top 40 hits from November 7, 1998. It was fun because Matt and I knew all the songs like Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" and Savage Garden.

El Rastro, Part II

Today, Matt, Albert and I went to the El Rastro flea market. I went mainly to take pictures for my photography final project. We walked up and down the streets crowded with tons of people and performers. There were a lot interesting people with mullets, dreads, and various other not-so-stylish styles. We had a great lunch at a pizzeria on one of the side streets. It was a hot day, but we still had a great time people watching and enjoying our last Sunday in Madrid. Boy, how time flies!

Six days until Holland!

Evian Roller Babies

Annie Leibovitz

On Friday, Matt and I went for lunch at the Hard Rock Café. It was delicious! I was so excited for my chicken tenders and Matt got a burger. I really felt like I was in the US (except for the awful service).

After Matt left, I went to five photography exhibits throughout Madrid called PHotoEspaña. My favorite was definitely Annie Leibovitz’ exhibit. Her work is amazing! It ranges from silver gelatin prints of family members to color portraits of celebrities to photos of genocide in Rwanda. I admire her work because she can take any situation and create a beautiful photograph of it. You might recognize a few of her photographs:

Brad Pitt

Demi Moore in 1991 pregnant with her daughter, Rumer Willis (father, Bruce Willis)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono

When I got back I googled her and found that she is the one behind the beautiful Disneyland ads I’ve seen in magazines. She took celebrities and dressed them up as Disney characters for her “Disney Dream Portrait Series”. Her photographs were in magazines in 2007 advertising Disneyland’s “Year of a Million Dreams”. Do you recognize the celebrities?

Jessica Biel as Pocahontas

Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan
Giselle Bündchen as Wendy
Tina Fey as Tinkerbell

Beyoncé as Alice
Oliver Platt as the Mad Hatter
Lyle Lovett as the March Hare

Julianne Moore as The Little Mermaid

Scarlett Johansson as Cinderella

David Beckham as Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony as Jasmine and Aladdin

Annie Leibovitz also did a beautiful fashion spread in Vogue called Alice in Wonderland. It's an artistic take on Lewis Carroll's classic. This collection features Russian model, Natalia Vodianova, as Alice.

Vodianova in Dior Couture

This reminds me... I am so excited for Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland movie to come out in March of 2010.

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter

Helena Bonham Carter (Burton's wife) as Queen of Hearts

Gay Pride Parade & 4th of July

On Saturday it was the Fourth of July in the US, but we also brought it to Madrid …and the Gay Pride Parade. A big group of us all dressed in red, white, and blue and represented good ol’ Amurica (a lot of us talking with hick accents). This included singing the Star Spangled Banner obnoxiously loud in the metro and drinking Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey (not me though, no thanks). There was a huge parade during the day, but to avoid the crazy crowds our group of friends just decided to take the metro to the gay district called Chueca. Matt stayed in that night. The Gay Pride celebration is a week-long event in which the parade is the last night. Matt had gone to the first night of the festival and said he couldn’t imagine it being any crazier.


We all had a great time dancing to music and taking pictures with strangers. Americans, Spaniards and various other foreigners wanted to take pictures with us because all of us matched with the 4th of July theme. There were a lot of “interesting” characters there to say the least. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…

-Laila

Motorcycle Accident

This morning I witnessed an awful motorcycle/pedestrian accident that I will never forget. The face of the pedestrian that was sprawled out unconscious in the intersection is an image that is permanently engrained in my mind. I will never forget that woman’s face with that blank, lifeless expression. I walked over to help the passenger of the motorcycle and as I was rubbing her back I watched her as she wiggled her toes and fingers covered in blood. It wasn’t until she turned around to see the woman that she had hit that it really hit me. As I was holding her she was asking in a trembling and panicking voice, “¿Mueve? ¡¿Mueve?!” (“Is she moving? Is she moving?!?”). It was so surreal. We both looked over and the pedestrian, with her eyes open, wasn’t moving and was just staring at the sky. I put the lady’s arm over my shoulder so she could hobble over to the woman lying unconscious on the asphalt. By that time the police had already arrived and encouraged everyone to step asid.

It was so crazy to be walking to school and all of a sudden see three people flying through the air directly in my line of vision. I panicked, but at the same time it seemed like everything around me stood still. The intersection that minutes before was filled with speeding cars was all of a sudden filled with people flocking the scene. I was very shook up after this situation, and since my help was no longer needed I realized I had to keep on my way to school. The metro ride to school was a strange experience because I kept wondering about that woman’s condition.

I have always been afraid of motorcycles and other accidents. Some childhood friends of mine’s father died in a motorcycle accident, a student from my high school died in a skateboarding accident, my friend’s aunts/uncles/cousins got in a fatal accident on their way to a theme park, and some students from my high school got in a car accident on their way to a school dance. I think a lot of these incidents have contributed to my fear of driving. Being responsible not only for the people you’re driving but also those around you just seems so scary to me. I guess I should start practicing so I can get good at it and not worry. Easier said than done though.

-Laila