Cycling Trip to Muiderslot

We made a cycling trip to Muiden this weekend.
It took like 1.5 hours to cycle to the village and a bit less on the way back to home in Amsterdam. (thanks to the wind!)
In long distances, the effect of the wind is more visible on your stopwatch..
It is smart to face the wind in the beginning of your journey; so after all day’s tiredness, you don’t have to face the wind on your way back..

Anyway, we chose Muiden not because of the wind but because I wanted to see the Muiderslot..
The road we cycled through had water on one side with ducks, geese and swans on it; and greenland with sheep, cows and horses on the other. I couldn’t help and stopped to take some pictures of those cute little fellows at some point :)
And finally we made it to Muiderslot castle in Muiden. (after stopping like 5 times :P)The entrance has a fee around 10 euros per person. The castle has been renovated many times since 13th century..
And now, with the integration of interactive edutainment elements -like games where you try out some real archery, shooting a laser pointer on a crossbow, to a plate with a light sensor in the middle- it seems quite entertaining and educating for families with children. (or maybe people like me ^^)

Having a relaxed day out, I even learned something during this trip: “why the stairs of the castle turn to right while you go up”.
That’s because, it is harder for the invaders who are right-handed to fight right & upwords (they need to bend their right arms to right back) and people who protect the castle fight easier downwards respectively.

Anyway, lets see where we go next..

My New Persocon

This is a test post from my new friend, Sumomo, a black iPhone 3g.
If this post is printed out on tiw.blogspot.com then from now on I will have more chances to post on my blog anywhere, anytime.

Cheers,
tiw

Metal Fence Eater Tree

A few weeks ago my room-mate came to visit me in Amsterdam..
She would stay with me for 5 days, which is just enough time for some people to visit the city..
But we are such a gas couple that we decided to go to Germany to visit another friend of ours for the weekend. (Edit: In my native language Turkish, someone "gas" also means someone egged on about taking a specific action)

We were not satisfied by going to another country but also we decided to visit Drei-Länder-Ecke, which was 50 km far away too. It is a land where 3 countries come together at one spot! The highest point of the Netherlands is also a few meters away from this place :)

Anyway, on our way back, passing by the forest, we saw this poor tree trying to get his freedom by eating the metal fence surrounding him.

I wanted to share this scene with my non-existing readers..

Result of Living in a Small House

Since the houses are too small in Amsterdam, people try to find ways to maximize their utilization from the smallest spaces.

For instance my landlady: has built her bed on the wardrobe instead of ground :)

And as the new dweller of this house, one day, I climbed the bed at night and jumped back in the morning where I finally ended up breaking one of my toes while trying to get back to the ground, it seems that I could not catch the stairs :)

Here is my second little toe broken in macro:

Defences Against Bike-Thieves

After having my bike stolen once, I decided to make some defensive moves to keep the thieves away from my bike.

Now on my new bike:
1- I use 2 locks instead of 1.
2- I used 2 different funky colors to paint it (pink and green), so that it will be recognizable from 32 kilometers away :)

Anyway, lets see how long it will survive against those greedy bike-thieves of Amsterdam and if this one is stolen too, I should find new ways to keep them away.