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Eating my way across Amsterdam

26 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Amsterdam, food, My Friend Karin, photography, Spekuloos, The Netherlands, travel

Things I ate in Amsterdam:

– waffles
– one herring sandwich (one was more than enough)
– mini pancakes
– Vietnamese pho
– fries
– almost a full jar of Spekuloos spread
– Spekuloos ice cream
– chocolate shavings (you put it on your breakfast. its a thing.)
– cheese, every chance I got
– lots of beer and lattes

 

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My 1 Year UK-Versary!

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bath, Cambridge, Freiburg, Ghent, photography, retrospective, travel, Valencia

Somewhere in the last few weeks, I celebrated the end of my first year as a UK resident.  The year has really flown by, and it made me realise how much cool stuff I’ve gotten to do in the last year. When Our Friend Liz was here, she asked if we’d traveled much.  We said “oh, a little…” and then reeled off a list that was much longer than we’d even been aware of.  I went to Israel, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, and The Netherlands, plus some really beautiful places in the UK.   I’ve done some really cool stuff in the last year.  Of course, its been hard, too – moving to a new country is a grand adventure blah blah blah but its also stressful, lonely and isolating.  The weather has been terrible, cold in the summer and dark in the winter, and damp all the time.  And making friends is an ongoing challenge.  I’ve met some really nice people and have been lucky enough to get lots of love from the states, but I don’t have a go-to group.  Ian and I don’t have much opportunity to do things spur-of-the-moment if we want to invite other people and we’re not in a position to turn down invitations.  That said, we do get (and reciprocate) invitations, and its rare that we go a week without a social event of some sort.  I’d prefer three or four social events, but its a start.  And its amazing that the desperate things I did in my first days here have paid off – when I accosted a couple looking at the same rental property, I didn’t imagine that we would still be hanging out with them a year later, but we are.

After a year of living here, I feel pretty settled: the fitness instructors at Kelsey Kerridge all know my name (I am immensely proud of that) and we even went out on the town together a few weeks ago.  The guy at the Turkish market with amazing produce knows that I don’t like to use plastic bags (and they have cevapcici! SO EXCITING!).  The girl at the coffee shop knows me because I have a really sweet travel mug that I bought when the local fancy furniture shop was going out of business (they also sold housewares), and she’s jealous of it.  I haven’t used Google maps to navigate around Cambridge in weeks.  When I moved here, I was always finding new cycle paths, but I haven’t found any new ones in months.

There were things about living here that came quickly: I got a bike and a mobile phone and a Network Rail Card and learned to use the currency without fumbling. All of that was a big deal to me – “see? I belong here! I’m legit!” but there have been more subtle recent developments, like the grocery guy recognising me. Cambridge is small and they speak my native language, but nonetheless, I know my way around here.  The city has become mine, in a small way

Ridgeway Walk/My Friend Lauren’s Birthday Celebration

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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archaeology, Avebury, birthday celebration, Chalk Downs, England, holiday, My Friend Lauren, photography, Ridgeway Walk, vacation, Wiltshire

The Ridgeway Walk is an 87-mile trail across Southern England that begins at Avebury, a modest but very cool version of Stonehenge (or at least, a different set of giant stones in an even giant-er circle)  For My Friend Lauren’s birthday, we did 24 miles of the walk, beginning in Avebury, over two days.  It was a larger chunk of the walk than we thought we were doing  (day 1 was 11 miles instead of 6.6…oops) but the walk was beautiful.

The Ridgeway Walk is very cool for a few reasons:

1. Its beautiful

2. Avebury, which is pretty famous

3. Hill forts! We walked through three hill forts and a burial site in two days

4. White Horse Hill, Uffington, a prehistoric sculpture of a horse wherein the land has been scraped away to reveal the chalk below. It’s awesome:

Image courtesy the-history-girls.blogspot.com

Of course when you’re standing next to the horse, you can’t really tell what it is, and its at the top of a hill, so you can’t really see it from below…but you can get a sense of the scale, which is very large.  Apparently if you stand in the eye of a white horse (there are several scattered across Wiltshire), its supposed to make you fertile.  My Friend Lauren said that and then followed it with “Don’t even think about it!”

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, friends.

Southwold Seaside

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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beach huts, holiday, My Friend Jaime, photography, Southwold, travel, vacation

Southwold was both very typical and very idiosyncratic.  It was a purpose-built Victorian seaside town, and in that respect it was pretty similar to a lot of other seaside towns around Britain.  I was particularly charmed by the rows of beachfront changing cabins, but those are kind of iconic and certainly not unique to Southwold; if anything, I think they’re more often associated with the South coast, where the weather is warmer.

The thing that was totally specific to Southwold was the arcade.  There was a room at one end of the pier that resembled any old arcade: screaming children, screaming machines, epilepsy-inducing flashing lights.  That is not the arcade I’m talking about.  Further down the pier, there is a single room of homemade arcade games.  Actually, “games” might be overstating it – in one, you put a strand of hair in a small petri dish and then watch while it does a “DNA analysis” (for example, it confirms that you’re human, then gives you the likelihood that you’ll eat toast on the morning of 11 June 2038, and then says in 2142, its 98% sure you’ll be dead.  Spot on, I’d say).

Another game involves inflatable rubber gloves “patting you down” – Jaime tried that one.

The hands-down favorite was a really rickety looking photo booth – The Expressive Photo Booth, it was called (see below). The whole thing was made out of plywood. We sat down and moments later, the seat started rocking back and forth.  That was when the machine took the first photo.  Then there was a bright light.  Then a long pause.  Then the seat dropped out from under us (I screamed).  And a few moments later, we got our photo (top right) and I yelled “Let’s do it again!”

I would’ve kept going, too, but I don’t think Jaime was as into it as I was.

You can read more about Southwold’s special somethings, which include a brewery, a new housing development and a water clock, at my other blog.

 

Israel!

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Dead Sea, holiday, Israel, photography, travel, vacation

Because I’m lazy, I had this idea that I would post some of my favoritest favorite photos of the last year.  I’ve certainly taken enough pictures since leaving Other Cambridge. So I started looking at the best ones, and I realised all the photos I haven’t shared with the internet already are photos I’d taken in Israel last November. The ones here are all from our two days in the Dead Sea.  We went hiking in Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, bobbed up and down in the water (which is actually 1/3 suspended solids, fyi), got up early to watch the sunrise, and chased mountain goats around the hostel.  And worried a lot about food. There was no food there – I ended up getting most of my meals at the beach snack bar, but by “meals” I mean “tuna sandwiches” because in order to be kosher, they put a crapload of sandwiches in plastic wrap on Friday morning and called it a day.  It was run by a very friendly white guy with dreadlocks, though, whom we got to know pretty well over the course of the two days.  His English was way better than my Hebrew (I can say: yes, no, please don’t put it in a bag, and some swear words).

The absence of food at one of the most famous tourist destinations was mind-boggling.  But even so, Jaime and I made the most of the weekend.  Ein Gedi was a real highlight, with beautiful hikes and empty trails after the first flat mile.  We met other travelers at our hostel and chatted with them until late at night, and I saw 12 new species of birds.  We went to a kibbutz with a botanic garden (for two urban planners, one of whom used to be a landscape architect, this was Nerd Paradise) and went for walks in places with big signs that said “DO NOT GO HIKING HERE” – because of sinkholes from the shrinking of the Dead Sea.  The places that used to be underwater are still saturated in places and can form quicksand or just totally give way.  There is no local consensus about how likely that actually is to happen (I mean, clearly it does happen but how likely it is to happen to me was what I could never glean), which made me nervous – but I did live to tell the tale.  Jaime, the girl with whom I got into all these antics, is coming to visit next month.  I’m not sure what in England will measure up to dodging sinkholes in the Dead Sea, but I’m going to have to come up with something.

Ian and I had some adventures this weekend, so I’m looking forward to sharing our night at King’s College and our weekend in Oxford as soon as I can get off my bum long enough to find my camera.  Right now its a whole 2 rooms away.

Bath Tourism Highlights

18 Wednesday Jul 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Bath, books, England, entertainment, history, Jane Austen, Persuasion, photography, Roman Baths, travel, UK

Ian and I are headed to Oxford this weekend after attending the Kings College Garden Party (because we’re fancy!).  I am super excited to visit my old stomping grounds – we’re going to hit up the Pitt Rivers Museum, Worcester College (alma mater!) and Ben’s Cookie Bar, because I’m obsessed with that place.  And maybe the botanic gardens and the Ashmolean.

We can really do a tourism blitzkrieg when we set our minds to it – which we proved in Bath.  We got in on Friday, and went to see School for Scandal (as I mentioned in a previous post).  On Saturday, after going to Jika Jika for breakfast, (a bar owned by rugby players) we hit up the Roman Baths (Bill Bryson has his own audio tour, which actually was a disappointment.  It wasn’t funny, although it wasn’t trying to be.  The actual informative audio tour was great.  Two hours (plus 30 minutes spend queuing) well spent.  After a leisurely morning, we went to The Circus for an amazing lunch, and then went to the Assembly Rooms, which also houses the Fashion Museum.  I was particularly excited because the Assembly Rooms are featured in Persuasion, which is possibly my favoritest favorite movie ever (there’s a photo in the montage above). It was so evocative of Jane Austen for me – even more than the Jane Austen Centre.

Sunday we hit of the Jane Austen Museum and then did a small tour of Bath crescents.  The Royal Crescent is the famous semi-circle (crescent) of Georgian buildings; they were actually built by the George who gave his name to Georgian buildings because he was the first monarch to get really into spas and taking the waters.  The crescent shape caught on, and there are a few of them scattered around the city. We were also able to work in more of the sets from Persuasion – there is a gravel path where Anne and Wentworth walk together (one of the only places they would have had any privacy, apparently – the picture of me was taken there, during the five minutes that it wasn’t raining); one of the less fashionable crescents where Anne’s family took rooms (it looks pretty down-at-heel today, to be honest).  And it turns out that our hotel was immediately adjacent to the place where Jane stayed on her first stay in Bath.  She wasn’t ever very happy in Bath – she grew up in the country – but as the setting of many scenes from her books, it still comes alive.  There’s Georgian stuff everywhere.  There’s plenty in Cambridge, but its a whole other thing in Bath.

The best part about the ramp-up to Bath is that Ian and I considered many potential destinations before settling on one, so we’ve got a backlog of fantasy holidays locked and loaded.  Bring on the adventure!

 

 

Bath makes for a pretty sweet weekend destination.

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Bath, England, Great British Summer, photography, Roman Baths, travel, UK

The Circus is one of the most famous sets of buildings in Bath, just down the street from the Royal Crescent.  Like so much else in Bath, its quintessentially Georgian.  I particularly liked the intricate carvings above the door – there were a couple dozen different designs, and though some of them were replicated, I couldn’t figure out a pattern or logic.

Ian and I talked a lot about the appeal of Bath – would you want to live in one of the houses on the Circus, or the Royal Crescent?  The Royal Crescent seemed particularly unappealing.  Sure, you live in a beautiful building with a great view and a giant park as your front garden, but you have yahoos like me always trying to peer in your front windows.  What’s more, while Bath isn’t that big, you’re not close to grocery stores or fitness centers or really anything except museums, a couple really good restaurants, and a lot of tourist schlock.

Although I’m not convinced I’d want to stay there, Ian and I wrung everything we could out of the weekend. We had originally planned to go to Portugal, but decided we’d rather wait for bird migration season, and so we chose Bath because we figured most of the good stuff to do is inside, anyway (and it poured pretty much the whole time we were there, so that was smart thinking). In two days, we hit up the Roman Baths, the Fashion Museum, the Pump Rooms, the Assembly Rooms, the Jane Austen Centre, the Royal Crescent, the Royal Bath Theatre, the Pretentious Coffee Shop, the Bar Owned by Rugby Players, the Unassuming Local Pub, the Shmancy Restaurant with the Best Food Since Valencia, the Yuppie Furniture Shop Where We Bought a New Coffee Table, the Disappointing Bakery and the Banana Republic, where Ian got a new t-shirt.  Not all of those are the actual names.

Things we missed: the Holborne Museum looks worth a visit, as does the Building of Bath Museum.  Honestly, though, if we were to stay longer, the thing I’d most want to do is drink more lattes and eat more food. There are a lot of restaurants and coffee shops I didn’t get to go to.

Graffiti is awesome

27 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

art, design, graffiti, photography, Spain, Valencia

I first went to Spain while studying abroad, and while I was getting lost in Barcelona for six straight days in a week, I saw some really amazing graffiti.  The street art in Valencia was equally impressive, and this time I had the good sense to record a bunch of it.

It was particularly common to see it on garage-style shop doors that closed for siesta (things seemed to be closed a lot in Valencia, actually).  There were also some really intricate murals that covered the entire sides of buildings, but those were more difficult to photograph.

The picture of the bull (the simple outline drawing) is my favorite – it seems very Spanish, what with the legs like a Salvador Dali painting and the fact that its a bull.

Do you have a favorite?

Strasbourg!

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Tags

cathedrals, France, photography, Strasbourg, travel, vacation

Strasbourg is a small city in France with two rivers (or really, two branches of one river) winding around a central island.  Like many other places in that part of the world, it is full of old, crooked half-timber houses that are super cute.  There is also a gorgeous cathedral, a bazillion picturesque marcaron vendors, some lovely public spaces and lots of places to eat tarte flambee, which is basically just pizza with more fat.

Although the whole place was beautiful, the cathedral was the real highlight. I think Sarah was more enamored of the city than I was; while Strasbourg obviously has its own distinct character, but at that point I was a little tired of wandering around really beautiful small cities of a certain era.

The Apotheosis of Cantabrigginess

25 Friday May 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Cambridge, England, leisure, photography, punting, travel

Today something awesome happened: I was able to take advantage of the absolutely gorgeous weather by finagling an invite to take the King’s College punt (one of several) out for a spin.  The Cam was choked with inept assholes (I include myself here) trying to steer unwieldy boats around the very narrow river with lots of trees and bridges and the occasional blind corner.  It was a perfect afternoon.

(Felix and Klara, I owe you a drink).

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