Final Stop in Friesland

Went for a ride on the ol' bicycle through the countryside one day.

Hey guys, Nathan here, I hope you are all still thinking that we have a travel blog here and not an Israeli/Jewish Historical Education blog after Kevin's last few posts! Haha, Im joking of course, but only a little bit! Anyways, down to business.

While Kevin was sweating and huffing under the hot Israeli sun, Theo and I were a few thousand kilometres away sipping drinks in the warm and green flatlands of Friesland. We left Israel bright and early Saturday (May 28th) and flew back into Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. There we were picked up by two of Theo's cousins, whom he had only had slight memories of, and we headed north to 'the fatherland'.

Tea in the morning...

... Heineken after.

To go into detail about every activity we did every day there would be too painful for both me as well as you. Plus it's also kind of a mashed blur for both my dad and I. But I will share some of the highlights from our 8 days there with family. First of all we were able to visit more family than I thought we would be to. Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Pacas, and Beppes were coming at us fast and furious (so to speak), I had a pretty solid idea of who was who and who came from where. Theo on the other hand, seemed to be having a bit more trouble than me, but by the end I'm proud to say he was able to recall the town we stayed in as well as the cousin's that we stayed at!

Windmills and...

... castle gates.

We saw farms, windmills, dikes, and canals with our local guide(s) and I think it's safe to say we both enjoyed our time there immensely. I could tell right away that my dad was in love with the farmland there, it seemed like no more than 30 seconds went by before he'd say something along of the lines of "boy, there sure is some nice farmland here" or "beautiful country, yap thats for sure".

A good portion of the cousins that we met one night.

The whole experience was very relaxing and enjoyable for the both of us, so if there is any family back in Friesland reading this I'd like to thank-you once again for your hospitality, you made us feel like family! Haha. Well, thats all I have to say, I will try let the pictures speak for themselves and hopefully they'll tell some stories of there own. All for now, thanks for reading.

Lates, N8

Of course I couldn't resist posting this, first time Theo has been on a bike in over 20 years! Or so he says...

Pyramids, Papyrus, and Pushy Camel Jockeys

Once again time has lost all bearing; jet lag, overwhelming experiences, and long waits have collaborated to create what I can only call "time traveling". This experience is common among oversea excursions and leaves the host unable to comprehend simple everyday tasks. Survival mode takes over, giving food, rest, and bathroom breaks primary importance. The last five days are a blur, spinning around my head like fruit in a blender. But I will try to organize what I can and articulate it in a way that bears some understanding.

Lets start with Tuesday. The plane ride over the North Atlantic was with out a hitch. Flying seems to have lost it's excitement although I still cannot find a way to sleep. Landing in Amsterdam at noon on Wednesday was a highlight for Dad I am sure, as it was his first time to see Holland–his parents homeland. A quick rail ride downtown brought us to our hotel located beside the Central Train Station. With only 24 hours on hand no much could be accomplished, however we did swing by Anne Franks house, the Rijksmuseum, and the Dutch Resistance Museum.

An early flight to Cairo got us to the airport first thing in the morning bringing us to Egypt by three o'clock local time. This was my first step out of my comfort zone. Arab countries can be intimidating but I am thankful I took World Religions and Cultural Anthropology last semester to give me a little cultural understanding. Thursday night was spent getting to the hotel and settling in. Friday gave us a first real taste of this amazing place. Because the tour we booked did not start until Saturday we found a guide and car to tour some of the more low key sights. We toured some of Old Cairo which contained the proposed sights of Moses being found in the Nile and the refuge location of Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Mosques and Castles followed along with a interesting trip to the Nation Papyrus Museum where we learned how to make the worlds first paper and had a chance to pick up some awesome souvenirs.

Although the intricacy of King Tutankhamuns Mask equally compares, the vastness of the Pyramids at Giza cast a large shadow over the memories of today. The great sphinx and three famous pyramids lived up to the hype and provided an impressive representation of Egypt's amazing history. Pictures don't do it justice but until you see it for yourself it will have to do. The Egyptian Museum containing over 300,000 artifacts is located right downtown next to the Tahrir square where 2 million protested for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak a few months ago. Protest are still going on calling for peace between Egyptian Christians and Muslims. Yesterday 1.5 million took the streets, so don't be surprised if Theo makes a few jokes about causing a riot when he came to Cairo.

Well that is all I have for the moment, much more to come though, believe me.

-Kevin

Photo Evidence We're Alive

So heres some evidence in case some of you are wondering if I had disappeared because I haven't been in any fotos so far and that Kevin took over the blog stealing my identity. This should prove my existence in Europe!

Here are just some photos from Holland that haven't made the cut in earlier posts. You should be able to click on them to make them bigger.

This is the home that my Paca grew up in when he was younger, before immigrating to Canada and blessing this country with the Huisman presence.

Kevin sittin in front of the Amsterdam letter thingy-ma-giggy in the downtown, next to the Van Gogh Museum.

They have a bunch of these elephants around Amsterdam, I think they auction them off at the end of the year and the profits go to some elephant fund in Thailand.

This is the house in which my Beppa grew up in, its now part of the Okkema farm that I mentioned before.

This is the grave of my great-grand-parents, the parents of my Beppa. Audrie Okkema was very helpful in explaining some of our family tree.

Figure out this Family Tree

Yesterday morning, we woke up to see our ride to our next family was waiting for us. Klass took us to Skitten to meet his family, Tetsie, and there 3 boys: Peter, Hendry, and Erik. All of who are roughly me and Kevin's age, which is nice. We had some nice dutch breakfast and lunch, then Klass took us touring around the countryside. We ended up at a dutch football game, there we meet 2 of my dad's cousins Tenat and Neanka, as well as Tinat's 3 kids, 2 boys and 1 girl. I can't remember what there names we're and even if I did, I would have no clue how to spell it, or even what letter they start with for that matter. We hung out around there house for a bit with some of Peter friends then headed out to this Friesian festival thing. It was like our fall fair, but a hundred times smaller, haha. We all had a good time with a live band and what not. We were able to meet up with one of Tenat's boys who played football, and meet a bunch of new/interesting dutchies.

Today we slept in and headed out again with Klass and Tetsie to see some more countryside. We got to stop at the house where my Paca grew up. We found Audrie Okkema's place and had a good visit with her as well. Thats basically it, oh and we ate some genuine dutch sugar bread and I gotta say, Paul's Bakery brews better bread.

Family in Friesland

Kevin and I packed up our gear this morning after doing a bit more touring around the city, went to the Van Gogh museum (cause we're cool like that) and I gotta say, SOOOO LAMMEEE. Not that exciting at all. Then we had to haul butt to get to the train station in time to make our 1227 train to the north. We missed our train by like 30 seconds, we ran up the stairs and the train doors we're just beginning to close, like we could touch the train as it took off. So we sat around till the next one came and jumped on, we were pretty confused trying to figure out which train to switch off of and get on the next ones, but we made it.

Hattina and Audrie (don't quote me on the spelling of the dutch names) were waiting for us and we got a short tour of the coast by them, went to a small cafe and walked around this small town. We later met up with Jon and his children for some supper, our first dutch supper of the trip and we had "dutch chinese food". I guess it's just the Dutch's spin on regular chinese, still good though. After some supper we went touring again and saw the place were my Beppa was born, as well as the farm and the children who ran the place. They have so much farm equipment there it was unbelievable, at least a dozen massive tractors, tonnes of bailers, multiple hoe's. I was very impressed with it, made me feel proud to be part Okkema. That was basically it for the day, just did some more visiting and I'm still trying to piece together this family tree, getting there slowly but surely.

Amsterdamming

So today and yesterday Kevin and I basically cruised around the city, did a whole lot of walking, and seemed to see the same thing over and over, a canal with a billion bikes and lots of
pubs/coffeeshops. This place is pretty interesting although there doesnt to be a whole lot that Im interested in. Basically we've done a lot of sleeping in the past couple days. We've gone to no where fasinating yet, but Kevin's talking about the Heineken factory tomorrow and the Van Gogh Museum, which will be interesting... I hope. We've meet some pretty cool people thanks to the Hostels, a guy from Israel, this group of girls from a school in Germany, our roommates are from somewhere in France, and bunch of other randoms.

We've got planned to go visit some of our Dutch relatives in Friesland in the next couple days, so that'll be good. Eat some real dutch food and see some real dutch things.

Arrival in Amsterdam

Over the past day and a half I realized and learned A LOT! I made a list actually.

I Realized and Learned That:

• Flying through 5 times zones over a 15 hour period really messes you up if your not used to it.
• Not having English typed out on all the signs can get me really frusterated.
• People in Houston, Texas remind me of people who live in Houston, BC (no offense).
• Kevin and I packed way too much stuff.
• To much stuff makes your back sore, real fast.
• Amsterdam is not as clean as I expected.
• I have never seen so many bicycles, BMW's, and hippies. They cover this place, although I spotted a Chevy on the highway.
• That the R.L.D. can sneak right up on you. It just appeared out of now where!
• I need to get out of my comfort zone more often.
• This is the first time I may have a mid day nap.

Haha, okay so I had to get that list outta the way.

We took off from Vancouver early yesterday morning, arrived here this morning. We had a layover in Houston, Texas which was kind of fun. Saw some really American-esque things: people talking like they were on the Dukes of Hazzard, regular sized pops that made our supersize look like a shot glass, and a statue of George Bush...Sr. We had a 9 hr flight to Amsterdam I was super stoked when were flying over the last part of the ocean anticipating n Holland. It was pretty funny when I did see land though, my first thought was, Where is all the windmills? I still haven't seen a traditional windmill yet. We landed and took the train to the central station, put our bags in lockers, and walked. Amsterdam is quite different then small town Smithers, there are the obvious reasons, but it just didn't seem to impress me that much, I may have to give it another shot.