LONDON HEATHROW—I'm back in London for the moment; Heathrow Airport, actually, awaiting my flight to Amsterdam. For some reason, my computer has issues with the British Airways Club's wifi system. Last time I was here, about a week ago, it took ages for my computer to recognise that any wireless networks were present. It's doing the same thing again. Hopefully, I'll be able to post this before I board my plane to The Holland.
"The Holland", by the way, is now my official new name for The Netherlands, courtesy of Drew Douglas. It's a nod to the fact that the people in that country cannot seem to decide what to call themselves—they're "The Netherlands" but also "Holland". And the people are called "Dutch". This makes no sense. Couple that with the fact that they can't even decide on where to locate their capital (either Amsterdam or The Hague, make up your minds, people), and you get The Holland. Maybe I should build on Drew's initial idea and call it "The Dutchnetherholland", which has a very Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim ring to it (and equally as ridiculous). Anyway, maybe I'll be able to figure all this out once I'm there, have some special brownies and bond with the locals.
I was very sad to leave Paris this morning; I'm not sure when I'll be back. Soon, I hope. It really is one of my favourite cities—probably my favourite of all. I love the people, the vibe, the scene.
One thing I saw today, and this is straight from the "Boy, those French sure can be weird" department, was a dude on the platform at Châtelet-Les Halles station, waiting for the same RER train as me. He was the typical wanna-be hard man: smoking where he wasn't allowed to (this is France, but you still can't smoke in underground stations), listening to music without headphones—some French hip-hop bullshit, which, by default, sucks—bopping his head in time to the beat with a too-cool-for-school look. Two problems with his hard-man image: One, he was listening to French hip-hop. But more glaringly ridiculous was the fact that he was wearing—wait for it—a pink argyle sweater. It's hard to take that seriously. He'd seriously get his ass kicked back in D.C. (This goes for 99 per cent of wanna-be ghetto gangbangers in Australia.)
(By the way, my computer finally found the free wifi signal, a full 10 minutes after I started up. Whee.)
I haven't mentioned much about my trip to Paris, and I promise I'll catch up soon. We probably board in about 15 minutes, so I don't really have the time. But I have posted a few more pictures from Paris, including your obligatory shots of La Tour Eiffel (which I didn't do until Day Five, thank you). I'll have more to come, including some good ones (I hope) from my daylong excursion, via TGV, to Lyon, a city I hadn't visited since 1992.
I've had to switch my brain over from French, too. For the past week I've had it in my mind to open in French when interacting with anyone, and now that I'm in the UK I find myself still wanting to greet everyone with a "bonjour". Oops.
By the way, I was able to watch the season finale of "Lost" finally. Wow. (Stop reading if you haven't yet; I know it won't air in Australia until the day after tomorrow.) Is it me, or could they plausibly have ended the entire show right after the Oceanic Six washed up on that beach? It would have fit, it would have worked. A lot of questions still linger, sure, but it would have worked. (For the record, I'm very glad we have two more seasons.) And Locke in the coffin—I have to admit, I thought it would be Michael. Who got blown up! On the freighter! Whoa! And Walt—damn, that kid is like 30 now.
Well, off to The Dutchnetherholland I go. Still praying for good Heathrow Terminal 5 baggage karma.
3 comments:
Have fun in Dutchnetherhollandsylvania :)
I always found the case of Germany even stranger. We call it Germany, in Spanish it's Alemania, and in German it's Deutschland. I can understand how English speakers can turn Roma into Rome, but Germany from Deutschland by way of Alemania escapes me.
BTW that may be the most anyone under 40 has ever written on Amsterdam in a blog without at least ONE wacky tobaccy or Red Light District reference. So, umm... congratulations?
How about Hungary and Magyarorszag? Yep, me neither. Let me clarify the Holland vs. The Netherlands deal. Netherlands is the country and Holland is a region, in fact, two: Noord Holland and Zuid Holland. Noord contains Amsterdam and Zuid contains The Hague, Rotterdam and my personal favorite Leiden. It's the same as me saying I am from the Midwest or the US...could be the same, but not always. Most people live and travel to Holland so many think it's also the country name. No dice. By now the Dutch are just too lazy to keep explaining it to foreigners. They need to get back to all their hookers and hash ;)
You know, Bradley, I've often wondered why that is. If the Germans call their country Deutschland, then why do we call it Germany? How is that even an Anglicised version? Other people's versions of our country's are usually just translations (les Etats-Unis d'Amerique; los Estados Unidos Americanos), but that's because our country's name is more like a phrase than a word.
Yet, France is France in French.
Colour me confused.
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