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Into Africa Part I: Utrecht

Like most people, I have a list of places I’d like to travel to in this wide world. An African safari has never been on that buckle list. Yet, somehow, on Valentine’s Day, Jason and I found ourselves in route to South Africa. How did this happen? How do you find yourself on the way to Africa without long-term intentions to do so? Here’s the recount of our unanticipated journey.

The company Jason works for bought another company with a facility in Cape Town a year or so ago. Jason needed to go to this Cape Town office, along with some of his coworkers. So, a trip to Cape Town with a safari extension in the not-too-far-away Sabi Sand Game Reserve was offered up to us like a golden lion on a plate. We took it; golden lions are shiny.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Spending Valentine’s Day on a plane made the holiday nearly invisible, but it reappeared in our hotel room in Amsterdam.

When undertaking an expected or unexpected safari, planning is paramount and a little overwhelming. You’ll have to get shot up with vaccines and loaded with malaria pills. The green and khaki items in your closet will multiply faster than leprechauns on St. Paddy’s Day. Despite a preparation to-do list we added lines to on a daily basis in the month leading up to our trip, 104 lines in all, we found ourselves up to 3:00 AM the night before our flight packing and arranging. Yes, we started our trip exhausted and just kept adding layers of fatigue in way of jet lag, overnight flights, early game drives, etc.

Miffy's Traffic Light
Miffy is kind of like a Dutch Hello Kitty. In Utrecht, she has her own traffic light and rainbow crosswalk.

South Africa is about as “other side of the world” as you can get. It certainly felt like that when we were voyaging there. Within 11 days of travel, we packed seven flights, over 30 hours in airports, and 53 hours in the air. Crisscrossing 18 time zones messes with your internal clock in a big way. We were fortunate to get a 24-hour respite in Amsterdam both directions. Our day in the Netherlands on our outgoing journey is the focus of this week’s post.

Although we never expected it to be the case, we’ve been to Amsterdam enough times in recent years that it feels familiar. Hence, we thought it would be an excellent place to dodge planes without being drained further, and it was indeed.

Utrecht's Domtoren
Utrecht’s Domtoren is the highest church tower in the Netherlands. We stepped to its historic top.

We’ve learned from experience that when you are trying to force yourself to stay awake for 27+ hours in an effort to acclimate to a new time zone, museums are a poor choice of activity. Thus, we bypassed the many fantastic museums in Amsterdam and took a train to the town of Utrecht, the fourth-happiest city in the world according to BBC Travel. Utrecht was founded by Romans in AD 47, but it’s a lot livelier than most 1,972-year-olds. We liked its relaxed yet cultured vibe. St. Martin’s Cathedral, tasty fish and chips, and quaint medieval architecture all kept our senses engaged and our eyes open. Before returning to Amsterdam, we climbed to the top of the Domtoren, the tallest church tower in the Netherlands with 465 steps. Both Jason and I became dizzy and had difficulties staying conscious as we spiraled up the stairs of this belfry. In retrospect, maybe it was a poor choice of activity for the severely jet lagged too.

canal cafes
Utrecht is unique among canal cities in that wharf terraces were added to many of its waterways almost a thousand years ago. Now, they serve as cute cafes and shops.

Amsterdam’s canals, oddly enough, seem customary and comfortable to us now. That friendly city, and its accessible neighbors, was the perfect stop on the way to an exotic continent. Next week, I will explore our explorations in Cape Town, the subsequent stop in our global escapades.

Rachel March 29, 2019 No Comments

Being Flakey

Sometime after it stops snowing each year, I recount all our snowboarding escapades. But did it ever start snowing last season? Now, with the 130 inches of the 2018-2019 season softening the disappointment of 2017-2018, let us remember the pitiful powder that came before.

Waiting for snow during Utah’s last ski season was like waiting for a snail to complete an Ironman. Jason and I hit the slopes for the first time near the end of January on a base of only 59 inches. Pathetic. A storm had just dropped about 10 inches on Brighton, so we took advantage of those meager flecks. It hadn’t snowed enough to bring in the crowds, but it was enough powder to make the mountain agreeable.

perfectly acceptable
Our second day on the slopes was entirely adequate.

We didn’t go out in February. There were a couple decent storms during that month, but it was always ungodly windy during and after them. When we went again in mid-March the base depth was only 68 inches. Although there was no new fluff, the pleasant 40-something weather pulled in the snow-starved crowds. We had to vulture to find a parking spot in Brighton’s lot. The snow was peppy despite being ancient; it was forgiving and fast.

lift drench
It’s a strange sensation having streams of frigid water run down your snow pants and pool in your boots.

Near the beginning of April, we ventured to Brighton again. Even though we went on a Saturday, the resort was the deadest we’ve ever seen it. The chair lifts were mostly empty. Why you ask? Rain. Not just a few drops here and there but a complete downpour that didn’t let up for hours. The showers only transformed into flakes above about 10,0000 feet, close to the top of the mountain. We boarded approximately an hour and 45 minutes, our shortest stay on the slopes ever. We got drenched in that little span of time. Our gloves were so soaked on the inside that they felt like dumbbells. They had to be dried out using hair dryers over a series of days. We had rivulets streaming down our legs into our boots and finished with sopping crotches. The rain-topped snow behaved odd. It was slow and sticky in spots at the top and extremely slushy at the bottom. The ground made slurping noises as we slid across it like your annoying coworker probing for the last dribbles of his Big Gulp. The bizarreness of the situation gave us a good laugh though, and we loved having the mountain all to ourselves.

A snow crow?
Jason called this pose the “soggy scarecrow.”

The last day we boarded was the closing day of the season. We have to get at least one good day of spring boarding in every year, and this was it. The weather was perfect, in the mid-50s with plenty of sunshine. The parking lot was completely full, but the slopes didn’t have many people on them. Party in the parking lot? Around 3:30, half an hour before closing, the Snake Creek lift lines expanded more than we have ever seen, but no one was on the runs. Apparently, all those folks were trying to reach some celebration at the top. I was trying to reach some snow at the top. It was a nice day to end the season on.

heaps of sunshine
Heaps of snow can be replaced by heaps of sunshine in the recipe for a delicious boarding day.

Chione was displeased by our sporadic visits to her wintery shrine during the 2017-2018 season. Only going boarding four times is shameful and the least amount we’ve done in probably a decade. Fortunately, the current season has got the powder power that 2017-2018 lacked. I will cover that another time, hopefully less than a year from now.

Rachel March 24, 2019 No Comments

The Risk of Sundance

Jason and I attended the Sundance Film Festival again this February. Surprises are frequent at this festival and one of the best things about it.

Here are some examples of the types of exclamations of surprise you may encounter at Sundance:

  • Boy, that random show we picked was way better than expected.
  • Boy, I didn’t know that movie was going to be about Nazi necrophilia.
  • Boy, I got to meet all those actors I never thought I would.
  • Boy, I learned a lot about that controversial subject I didn’t even know was controversial before today.

Every year, we make a list of the movies that sound interesting to us out of the over 100 screening at the festival. This list has to be absurdly long because we often don’t get tickets to our first, second, or even tenth pick. This year, it was more like twelfth. Despite having to dig down into our list to find available tickets, we thoroughly enjoyed all four of the shows we saw. Some of these films have been making waves since their debut at Sundance.

The Edge of Democracy, a documentary, takes the political turmoil and corruption plaguing Brazil to a personal level. Admittedly, I knew little about the issues currently facing that country before watching this film, and I didn’t realize how recently Brazil was run by a military dictatorship. The similarities between the exploitations happening in Brazil and the ones occurring in the US are alarming. Petra Costa, the filmmaker, was on hand afterward for an interesting Q&A.

grains in the gloom
One thing that’s never surprising at Sundance is how horrible the pictures turn out thanks to low light and no flash.

Cold Case Hammarskjold, another documentary, starts out a murder investigation and then takes a disturbing turn into a much broader treachery. The director, Mads Brugger, won the Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary. This film is now stunning crowds with the ghastly conspiracy it unravels, amid excellent reviews. We got to enjoy the complete shock of the show’s twists as we were amongst the first to see it in the world. One of the producers was on hand following our screening to answer questions.

Blinded by the Light is the unlikely story of a second-generation Pakistani immigrant living in the city of Luton, England in 1987. That teenager, Javed, becomes fixated on Bruce Springsteen’s tunes. This movie turns into a bit of a musical with all the fancy foot maneuvering and dramatic darting that go along with that. It’s nostalgic, warm, and occasionally a little cheesy. Oddly enough, its unlikely story isn’t that unlikely. It’s based on the memoirs of a real British journalist that’s seen Springsteen perform 150 times. Blinded by the Light premiered at Sundance and was quickly bought for $15 million, one of the biggest purchases Sundance has ever seen. The director, Gurinder Chadha, is the filmmaker behind Bend It Like Beckham and Bride & Prejudice.

Troop Zero is a cute, wistful show that will be appreciated by anyone that ever felt like an outcast as a child. I think that’s most of us. It’s a touching reminder that there are more people that care about us and support us than we realize, even if we aren’t the “cool” kid in town.

Sundance is full of surprises. This year, they were of the pleasant variety, but that isn’t always the case. Good or bad, the unexpected adds to Sundance’s independent atmosphere. Taking a few risks is part of the festival experience. Those surprises keep us coming back year after year.

Rachel March 13, 2019 No Comments
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