Europe 2014: museums

Among the many things I love about Europe, museums and churches are my favorite. I love history and I love art, more specifically paintings and sculptures from the 13th centuries to19th centuries. Thus, no surprise that most of the museums I've visited during my 23+ days were art museums with a few history museums and other misc type of museums. 

After much research, I decided to get the Museumkaart (  €54,90 ) in addition to the Amsterdam Holland Pass ( Pass 5 at €52 ) for my time in The Netherlands. With the Museumkaart, I can visit more than 400 museums in The Netherlands, although in the end, I've just visited 12 major ones. Below is the list of museums that I've been to, in the order of my visits:

1. Amsterdam (History) Museum
2. Rijksmuseum 
3. Van Gogh Museum
4. Stedelijk Museum
5. Hermitage Museum Amsterdam
6. FOAM Photography Museum
7. Mauritshuis 
8. Museum Meermanno
9. Gemeentemuseum
10. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
11. Maritime Museum Rotterdam
12. Universiteitsmuseum

Museums No. 7 - 9 are in Den Haag, 10 & 11 are in Rotterdam and 12 is in Utrecht. The rest are in Amsterdam. I've been to Museum Boijmans twice because of its vast collections and interesting exhibitions. Also, there are a few more museums that I would like to visit, especially Museum Catharijneconvent and Centraal Museum in Utrecht, but due to my timing oversight and time constraint I had to give them a miss. I did not realize that museums are generally closed on Mondays so my timing was off. 

In Belgium, I didn't visit as many museums as I did in The Netherlands maybe because the Belgian churches are far more majestic than those in The Netherlands. The reason? You can read here. Belgium did not have a card similar to Museumkaart so I had to pay for entry for each of them which came up to almost €80. Anyway, the list of museums for Belgium is much shorter, as shown below:

1. Rubenhuis (Antwerp)
2. Plantin-Moretus Museum (Antwerp)
3. Museum of Fine Arts (Ghent)
4. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Ghent)
5. Museum Dr Guslain (Ghent)
6. Groeningemuseum (Brugge)
7. Cinquantenaire Museum (Brussels)
8. Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (BOZAR)

From the lists above, you can see that most of my time were spend visiting these world-class museums. I must say that I am quite impressed with myself for visiting 20 museums in those 23+ days. These were time well-spent as their collections are extensive, invaluable and unique. Compared to the museums I've visited in Italy, Dutch and Belgian museums are so much more enjoyable as their lighting and layout are optimized for viewing and appreciation. 

I shall write about some of the museums, either because they are my favorites and/or because they are really memorable. So if you wanna see some nice art pieces and sculptures, watch these pages! :)   

Sunday Serenade: why does it always rain on me

One of the many things I've gained while staying with my CS hosts is that I am exposed to different music that may/may not be mainstream. They do not limit themselves to the usual US-centric music/artists/bands. Through them I discover some European and indie bands that I really like. So I will be sharing some of their songs here every Sunday, starting with Travis, a British alternative rock band.

This song kinda described my trip in Europe. It kinda rained almost everywhere and every other day after I left Rotterdam.. :P Anyway, hope you'll enjoy the song!

Why does it always rain on me
I can't sleep tonight
Everybody saying everything's alright
Still I can't close my eyes
I'm seeing a tunnel at the end of all these lights

[chorus]
Sunny days
Where have you gone?
I get the strangest feeling you belong
Why does it always rain on me?
Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
Why does it always rain on me?
Even when the sun is shining
I can't avoid the lightning 
[end of chorus]

I can't stand myself
I'm being held up by an invisible man
Still life on a shelf when
I got my mind on something else

[chorus]

Oh, where did the blue skies go?
And why is it raining so?
It's so cold
I can't sleep tonight
Everybody's saying everything's all right
Still I can't close my eyes
I'm seeing a tunnel at the end of the lights

Sunny days
Where have you gone?
I get the strangest feeling you belong
Why does it always rain on me?
Is it because I lied when I was seventeen?
Even when the sun is shining
I can't avoid the lightning
Oh, where did the blue skies go?
And why is it raining so?
It's so cold
Why does it always rain on me?
Why does it always rain on.... 








Have a productive week ahead! Stay healthy!

Europe 2014: flight

As I've managed to get my flight tickets and the conference registration fees subsidized by the Taiwanese government, I was required to take 'local' airlines. This means that I need to take either EVA Air or China Airlines. Through a contact from my dept, I managed to get a return ticket to/fro Amsterdam for less than NT$35,000 (around €880).

arriving at Schipol in the morning

Transiting in Bangkok, my flight departed from Taoyuan Airport at around 11pm after a delay of more than 30 minutes. It was a code-sharing flight with KLM. First a 3-hour flight to Bangkok, followed by a 12-hour flight to Amsterdam Schipol Airport. The transit (waiting) time was supposed to be around 2 hours, but because of the delay in departure, that time was shortened to about 45 minutes. I was surprised that the plane was almost full. After talking to the guy sitting next to me, I found out that some of the passengers, like him, are going to the East Coast of the United States, while many were part of tour group(s). Didn't get much sleep during the flight maybe because I was too excited, but other than that, it was an unexciting journey.

The trip back to Taipei 23 days later was much more eventful. I was seated next to a Thai mum with her 15 month-old baby girl in the bassinet seats. She was traveling back to Thailand to meet her parents with her Dutch-Thai baby girl. I shall write about this in another entry later. :)

My plane left Schipol Airport at 2pm on Jul 16, and arrived at Taoyuan Airport same time the next day. Within a week, three planes (MH17, GE222 and AH5017) have crashed in different parts of the world, either due to human intervention or natural interference, in which almost 350 people perished. One of the planes even departed from the same airport as my flight less than 24 hours later! Although I found out (much) later that my plane avoided the conflict zone unlike the ill-fated flight, I still couldn't help but feel shaken. Life is short and so unpredictable.. Thank goodness I don't plan to fly anywhere else this year. My next flight will be my annual trip home for CNY this coming Jan/Feb.

Europe 2014: CS hosts

I can't write about my trip without first mentioning how grateful I am to all the wonderful couchsurfing hosts who are so generous in welcoming me into their homes. They made my trip exceptionally memorable with the time we spent together, talking and exchanging views/thoughts/insights about everything and anything.

Many of those around me are quite astonished when I tell them that I'll be sleeping on 6 strangers' couches instead of staying in hotels/hostels in 5 different cities. They just can't wrap their heads around the idea that there are (many) people in the world whom are willing to allow 'stranger(s)' to sleep on their 'couch' without getting any monetary returns. As someone who can sleep (almost) anywhere, I don't really care if I'm sleeping on a couch/sofa bed/ mattress/real bed in their spare/living/dining room/kitchen. I want to interact with the local people. I want to know about their daily lives. And I get to do that through couchsurfing.

Stairways up to M's house

Almost two months before the trip, I started writing requests to hosts in the 5 cities that I planned to visit. Diligently, I read through profiles and references of potential hosts as I wanted to make sure we have things in common and can talk about things that we like/love. I would send one request at a time for each city. I then waited for at least 5 days for responses before sending out another one. And all my requests are personalized and tailored because I genuinely wanted to meet them and talk. Maybe because of my sincerity, my 'acceptance-rate' was pretty good. For the 6 couches I needed in 5 different cities, I sent out a total of 23 requests. Some of the hosts didn't respond, while some were kind enough to let me know that they can't take me in. So 6 out of 23 isn't such a bad statistics after all! :)

Also, I kept my plans flexible because I knew I would need to adjust and adapt to my hosts' plans/schedule. All of them gave me suggestions and recommendations about the places I can visit that may/may not be listed in guide books. Some of them took me around to get me familiarized with the city and showed me how the public transport there works. One of them even took me to a castle in her car! Truthfully speaking I enjoyed my stay so much more when I was staying with a CS host, which maybe why I don't like Rotterdam because I stayed in the conference hotel when I was there.

To Merijn, Rob, James, Pierre, Phillips, Olaf, Amy, Ester, Inge, Nadya, Sharon, Wendy, Geert, Sara, Jelle, Maud and Dana, thank you for your hospitality and kindness from the bottom of my heart. I am really glad that out paths crossed through CS and hope to keep in touch for many years to come. :)

Sunday Serenade: gimme some truth

After more than 2 weeks, not much details has surfaced pertaining the shooting down of MH17.. who gave the order? who selected the target? who pressed the button? No facts or truth, just accusations and denials..

So today, I'm gonna share a protest song sang by John Lennon called 'Gimme some truth' which I think aptly expresses what most of us feel..




Have a good week! Be safe!