Category Archives: Countries

Daytrip to Howth, Ireland

Posted on April 4, 2012 | 4 Comments

I know, I know, this isn’t very original material, but we spotted an awesome (double) rainbow by the ocean in Ireland!  No pot of gold or leprechaun though… Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Ireland, Science!

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin

Posted on March 26, 2012 | 5 Comments

About a year ago, my brother Patrick and I entered a pact that if we were both in Europe this year we were going to Dublin for it to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.  This year finds me in Amsterdam and Patrick studying in Budapest so the long weekend with the Irish seemed inevitable, and we’re both very happy we did!

Man, it’s like we’re twins or something… Continue reading →

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Ireland

On Dual Passports and Secret Agents

Posted on March 14, 2012 | 7 Comments

I can’t quite recall if I ever officially mentioned it here, but a few months ago I finally officially received my Hungarian passport.  This statement probably confuses many people who know me in the real world who always just assumed I had it (Hungarian isn’t one of those languages you just pick up usually), but the long and short of the situation is when my twin brother and I were born in 1986 all male Hungarian citizens were required to enter the army.  At the time no one thought the communist government was going to topple in a few years, so what was the point of registering two American-born children for their Hungarian citizenship with a nice requirement like that looming over one of them?

Fast forward about a quarter of a century, and it turned out that one of those twins was getting tired of paying exorbitant visa fees on her American passport, and both of those twins were considering moving to Europe.  So I decided to get that ball rolling, which turned out to be a mess of a process that dragged on for well over a year due to a mountain of paperwork one would expect from a former communist country. Lots of forms in Hungarian that at times made even my mother pause to understand their meaning (to give you an idea, my favorite was one just to confirm I wanted my name spelled “Yvette” instead of the traditional “Ivett”), all of which disappeared into the consulate… and while the process was supposed to take six months, it dragged on to over a year.  Klassz!

But in the end it all worked out, I finally had the Hungarian passport itself in hand in November, and it’s around this time that I discovered my new travel hobby.  Because you see, I now have a passport from a former Soviet Bloc country that is as yet not scanned or marked in any way, on a citizenship that a few months ago did not yet exist on paper…

That’s right, now when I go to the airport I alternate between my Hungarian and American passports when asked for identification to ensure the bad guys can’t trace me.  And I’ve been pretty successful shaking them off so far, except of course for that one gun fight on a speedboat racing through the Amsterdam canals that I don’t like to talk too much about.

Plus hey, my flirtations as an International Woman of Mystery aside, the visa fees to many a country just got a lot cheaper and the E.U. can now never kick me out. Win! As for where it may take me, I will just refer all curious folks to the cover of my passport holder:

→ 7 Comments

Posted in daily life, Hungary

Chamonix Skiing

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 4 Comments

When people ask me why I love living in Amsterdam I always tell them truthfully that it’s because I could do anything I can imagine wanting to do here… except for alpine skiing.  So to remedy this situation somewhat, I took a long weekend to go skiing in Chamonix, France, which turned out to be a most excellent idea-
Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in France, Science!, Skiing

The Strangest Coincidence EVER

Posted on February 2, 2012 | 9 Comments

Daffodils blooming on the Amstel River in Amsterdam- taken Jan 21, 2012

Now imagine the following for a second.  It’s Saturday night in Amsterdam, and due to my birthday party the night before I’m too tired to do anything crazy but a low-key drink sounds like a good idea sort of thing.  No worries, there are a bunch of little cafes around here that I haven’t checked out yet and one is hosting a CouchSurfing get-together, so I head to said cafe to see what I see.

The place is busy, but there’s a spot next to a cute fellow with a German accent who is asking intelligent questions about my research, and it turns out he’s a Physics PhD student in a town in Lower Saxony six hours away from Amsterdam, in town for the first time this weekend to help a friend move.  A geek running into another geek unexpectedly is always a relatively rare occurrence so we spend ten minutes discussing our respective areas of study, and then he mentions offhand that he used to study in Auckland.

“Wait, New Zealand?”  I am momentarily confused, then have a flash of recognition.  “Johannes!  Professor LW’s E&M class, the first half of 2007!!!”  He in turn recognizes me and much hugging and squealing ensues, not all of it coming from me, and we chat nonstop into the wee hours to catch up. (So much for a low-key night!) Because you see it wasn’t just that we were in the same class, we actually did problem sets together- which Johannes recalled in much greater detail and fondness than me, he’s the theorist after all- but I never grabbed his contact information before leaving, so I hadn’t heard a thing about or from him in five years.

Let me repeat this again so we are clear on this: I went into a random bar and sat next to a random guy who was randomly in town… and it was one I last met five years ago, half a world away!  I believe we have now passed from “it’s a small world” to The Twilight Zone- or as another friend put it, I have now officially traveled enough that the entire world is my neighborhood.

What’s the strangest coincidence that ever happened to you?  I’m sure I’m not the only one with such a strange story!

The University of Auckland- taken February 15, 2007

→ 9 Comments

Posted in Amsterdam, daily life, New Zealand, Science!

Artie Aardvark’s Austin Adventures at AAS

Posted on January 19, 2012 | 5 Comments

Gather ’round partners, it’s time for Artie Aardvark’s recap of the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas!

Yee-haw, I am off to the biggest astronomy conference in the whole wide world!  This year it is in Austin, Texas, which is so far from the Netherlands I have to fly hours and hours to get there.  I’m glad that gives me lots of time to look out the window! Continue reading →

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Artie Aardvark's Adventures, ASTRON, Texas

2011: A Year in Review

Posted on December 27, 2011 | 2 Comments

When I think back on 2011 it will undoubtedly go down as the year where I did more in 12 months than most people do in a lifetime.  If I didn’t personally already defend a thesis, become a published author, move to a different country, and explore 20 countries on 4 continents along the way I would accuse myself of lying because I’m tired just thinking about it.  But I apparently did because I lived through all of it! Continue reading →

→ 2 Comments

Posted in 0. The Netherlands, Artie Aardvark's Adventures, China, daily life, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Kenya, Nepal, Ohio, Post-Trip #2, Tanzania, Tibet, Uganda

A Daytrip to Luxembourg

Posted on December 9, 2011 | 1 Comment

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who think that taking a two hour train ride on a Saturday from Paris to Luxembourg just to see what it’s like is a worthy adventure, and those who will sort of stare at you funny when you mention this and have no idea why you would do this.  Fortunately the latter is too lazy to get out of the house in the first place, so my travel buddy Nick and I got to discover that of all the new countries to check out Luxembourg is one of the prettier ones- Continue reading →

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Luxembourg

At A France vs USA Soccer Match

Posted on November 16, 2011 | 1 Comment

Now let me ask you this- can you think of a better way to celebrate 11/11/11, ie Armistice Day, then going to a France- USA soccer match?  Me neither! Continue reading →

→ 1 Comment

Posted in France

An Edinburgh Weekend

Posted on November 6, 2011 | 4 Comments

Because I am still quite the “you mean I can be in another country in an hour?!” shock that comes from living in Europe, last weekend I went to Edinburgh.  Now I’ve actually been to Edinburgh before and left the place rather smitten, so when I was thinking of going on a break someplace I knew and where they spoke English, it was a bit of a no-brainer when the airfare was cheap to boot.  It’s not like I’ve met a Dutchman who didn’t speak English, mind, it’s just incredibly novel to get on a bus and realize you can read all the signs after losing that ability two months prior! Continue reading →

→ 4 Comments

Posted in United Kingdom