I was going to first post a small video montage of the holiday I've just come back from, but due to technical difficulties and technology-rage, that will have to come at a later date. Also, this will come as a spoiler alert, because it concerns the holiday and the fact that I was in Spain.

Update... It is an end-of-year miracle, and the video is up. Have a look, or not. It is mainly photos of the sights, and not of the many museums we went to. (It was winter, not really the best time of the year to hit the beach-clubs.)



Basically, in my last few weeks of being in Ho-Land, I would spend most of it in Spain, while the rest of Europe was buried under snow. Not a bad trade-off really. And even though you might think that it was a waste of my last moments in Holland, one of the best things about Holland is its close proximity to other countries. Yeah, that's a back-handed compliment (like dating a girl because her mother is hot), but also kind of true.

(The song used for the video was "Me Gustas Tú by French/Spanish aritist Manu Chao. The song may be familiar from the brilliant soundtrack to Once Upon a Time in Mexico.)


Stupid Observation:

So, we were situated in a small seaside town called Vilanova which is between Barcelona and a small town called Sitges. I was unfamiliar with Sitges so I googled it. This was the screen-cap:

Hmm... My suspicion was a little (a) roused.

Then I wikipedia'd it, and in the second paragraph I came across this sentence:

"Nowadays it is a popular destination for gay and lesbian travellers, as it has become one of the most gay-friendly places in the world."

Now, I've been living in Holland, which I've been told is gay-friendly. But then, people in Holland don't seem particularly friendlier than other countries. Maybe I don't seem gay enough, which is good because it's the kind of the impression I try to give off. But a town that is 'one of the most gay-friendly places in the world'? I was a little afraid to go there. But since Vilanova is manwiched between Barca and Sitges, we divided our time between the two. Why choose just one? You never know, you might like it.

It was a very pretty town, like many other Spanish towns, and not much about it seemed particularly gay to me. keep in mind that I have a finely-tuned gaydar from 5 years of all-boys eduacation.

Here are the only real clues I got to the gayness of Sitges:

• The unusually high ratio of shoe stores. If Will and Grace has taught me anything (and I sincerely hope that it hasn't), it's that the gays love their shoes.
• There is a street called "Calle de San Francisco."
  
• Many of the people walking past in the street spoke French.
  
• The quiet bar we entered had guys ordering cocktails.
• The bar, which had only one (male) bartender, played a Cindi Lauper song.

But that's pretty much all I can think of. Of course, being winter, it wasn't exactly great weather for assless chaps and rollerskating in lycra. But for a place that the Wikipedia gods deemed to be 'one of the gay friendliest places in the world' I was, frankly, a little disappointed. It was a nice city, but not as fabulous as I was misled to believe. Nobody saying "yoohoo". Nobody partying as if WWII ended the day after Don't Ask Don't Tell was repealed. Nobody trying to blow me - I mean, not that I wanted to be blown by a dude, but it would have been nice to have been asked.

Anyway, that was honestly a tiny part of the holiday. A great way to spend the waning parts of the year. I hope that 2010 was a great year for all of you, and I hope that 2011 is extremely friendly to you, no matter what the preferred orientation of your genitals happens to be.

I'll leave you with a ponderance that came across me during this above holiday:

What is a holiday, but time,
Time that you try to enjoy
More than you usually do?

Be safe, be happy, be the best you can possibly be. If you can't do that, just try to copy me.

Beached





Yes, this does mean that Back 'n Dutch is winding up, but I think we all knew that was coming. Never fear, it surely will be reincarnated for the new year.

Training Home

I love trains. In fact, off the top of my head, I can think of three songs about trains that I love.








Also, there is this terrible J-pop song which was always hilarious to sing at Karaoke.


I probably love trains because growing up there were only two in the town I grew up in. One was a miniature train that went around a small lake - and this one wen't the furtherest. Trains are great because they just show up and you get on without having to worry about the driver. Being in Japan for all those years made me learn to expect that trains come on time. The only times I were held up was for earthquakes, suicides and extreme winds, and even then, I wasn't always pleased when they weren't on time.

However, in Holland, not only are delays almost inevitable, but there are delays so frequently that you wonder why. A few weeks ago, there was a fire in the building which deirects the trains into Utrecht, the central station in Holland. Thousands of people were stranded and had to sleep on makeshift beds for the night.

That's why I wasn't feeling too optomistic when I walked into Amsterdam central station and saw that it was full of people. Because of 'extreme weather conditions' all traffic had to be routed through Utrecht. Extreme weather conditions? Really? Because sure there was a nice layer of snow, but nothing that Holland shouldn't be accustomed to by now.
This is the official photo used to show the 'extreme weather circumstances'.

Hell, I remember a news item from Japan how a train driver had to apologise after he tried poughing through more than a metre of snow to avoid making the train arrive late, making the train derail killing 8 passengers. I mean, sucks for those 8 passengers, but I like the attitude. And in comparison, this snow in Holland was just a sprinkling.

After half an hour I was able to get on a train, however it was announced that there was no driver. We had to wait. The driver was probably stuck in traffic. Oh the irony. Another half hour later and we were off. Slowly. And then we had to wait for several other trains to drive into Utrecht because there was a traffic jam of trains.

Luckily I was able to mosh my way through the crowds at the station to make my connection just on time. My travel time was only doubled. But all that extra time has made me seriously reconsider my stance on loving trains.