Second visit to Minsk (2/2)

After our second night in Minsk, a night that included some heavy clubbing and way too much cheap vodka, my phone battery died, which included my alarm clock. So no waking up at nine o'clock for me. I didn't wake until it was noon, so I was way too late for the 10.30 meeting.

Fortunately the meeting was about time management and the monitoring of activities by project management, so not that interesting for me. In the afternoon we had an in depth project evaluation which was quite useful and interesting.

In the evening we had to rush to be at the stadium for the Belarus - Holland soccer match. The atmosphere was really great at the stadium, although it was quite cold for us. We had to stand still for almost 2 hours, which is not great for your fingers and toes. The match was quite bad. The Dutch team didn't care since they already had qualified. Belarus was quite enthousiastic though, and since they won 2 to 1, the atmosphere was even better.

After the match we went for dinner, since we hadn't had time before. So we ate around 10 o'clock, of course with a couple of beer and some good vodka. We had 'Rulka', which is actually nothing more than a pig's leg, prepared in a very good way. Lots of meat, very tender, and very tasty.

For some reason, I thought it was smart to not go clubbing after that, so I turned in after a couple of beers at the hotel bar.

Thursday was a long day. We had nothing planned for the day except visiting Khatyn. A very impressing war monument, to remember the atrocities by the Nazis to the Belarusian people. Since only the projectmanager and me had time that afternoon it was cancelled and we had time to do some regular work.

In the afternoon one of Lectric's contacts in Belarus took us to a tech convention in town. It was nice to see how that kind of things happen in Belarus. It looked a bit like a regular convention, but somewhat smaller and more 'Belarusian'. Which more or less means that there are lots of good looking women present to spread flyers and present all kinds of products.


At night we went for dinner at Ptich. A nice restaurant 5 kilometers out of Minsk. The restaurant had a bit of a 'christmas' look and feel, since it consisted of several wooden cabins with tables, it was lit with all kinds of small lights and it was a bit snowy. There we had a nice dinner with more vodka and beer, and shaslik again. The best meal of the week...

After eating we went to a club that one of the team members in Minsk had looked up. There was supposed to be a 'Sexy Style Party'. When we got there it was a bit early, and since the club had a bowling alley, we threw some balls. I really suck at bowling...

The party afterwards was very very good. I think that this was the best night of clubbing in Minsk that I have been involved in. The music was very good. The atmosphere was even better. And since it was a sexy style party, there were male and female dancers around. There were some striptease acts as well. For some reason that is far more regular than it is in the Netherlands. The women were looking really really good and the entire team enjoyed themselves.

Friday was a day of wrapping up. Packing bags, buying souvenirs, going to the airport and finally home. Unlike the flight to Minsk, this one went very well and I was home more early than I expected. It was very good to see Anneke again after 5 days. I think this was the longest time that we didn't see each other since we started dating 4 years and a bit ago.

Second visit to Minsk (1/2)

Last week we went to Minsk for work, evaluation and, of course, serious 'getting to know each other a bit better'.

We left on Monday morning, and had to work our way through rush hour to get to Schiphol in time. We were not flying via Frankfurt this time, but Prague. Before we departed from Amsterdam we already had a delay of about 50 minutes. That seems pretty OK, but not if you only have 45 minutes to transfer in Prague. We got to Prague at the same time our next plane was leaving. Off to a good start.

The transfer desk booked us to Minsk via Vienna, a flight which didn't leave until the end of the afternoon, with us waiting in Prague for five hours. So, instead of wandering aimlessly through the airport, we decided to have a meeting and evaluate things that are happening in the company with a small focus towards working with the guys in Minsk. Our flight to Vienna was not with a trusted Airbus, or a solid Boeing. No, this was in some old Russian propellor plane..

The flight to Vienna took only 45 minutes, and after waiting there for another 90 minutes or so, our flight to Minsk was finally going to happen. The pilot informed us that there were heavy mists in Belarus, so the chance existed that we had to turn back to Vienna if we were not able to land. Good news... not.
So, instead of arriving around 2.30 pm, we arrived around midnight. We went to the hotel bar and had a couple of beers before turning in.

The next day was planned full with meetings. We started off with an overall evaluation of the projects of the last six months. After that we decided to delve into procedural issues in the afternoon. This was an interesting meeting, because both the Dutch and the Belarusians had a chance to speak their minds and get something going again.

In the evening a contact of Lectric in Minsk took us to a restaurant where we had some Belarusian food. Blinis and caviar as a starter, and Shaslik for our main course. Of course, we wouldn't be interested in the culture if we passed the vodka, so about 4 toasts later things were really getting nice :)

That night we went clubbing at the most sleazy place we know in Minsk called Max Show. It is something between a club and a bar, with bad music (the same tape they had on in June) and about half the women there are hookers. We had some rounds of cheap vodka there, and I had a couple too many, since I don't remember everything from the end of the night. All of a sudden I was outside, next I am in a cab, and then I wake up way too late on Wednesday...

Peat, all around

Last Friday was the day that Floris, Thomas and I had been living towards for a while. We had a whisky tasting planned at the whisky koning. The tasting consisted mostly of rare whiskies that are very hard to get.

The list:

• Bunnahabhain (9 yo, peated, signatory)
• Port Ellen (some 25 yo, don't know which release)
• Caol Ila (Feis Isle version, undisclosed age)
• Bruichladdich Blacker Still (1986, heavy sherry finish)
• Laphroaig (17 yo, Feis Isle)
• Port Charlotte Evolution (PC5)

Rob Stevens, the owner of the shop started off with a bottle wrapped in tin foil, to surprise us. We had to make all kinds of educated guesses about it's origin. The only thing I guessed, which happened to be correct, was that the whisky was a blend. It turned out to be Black Grouse.

He wanted us to have an unprejudiced taste of it, and I must admit that I liked it far better than I did last week at the Whisky Fest.

After the tasting ended we sat around for another whisky, and some of the people there started smoking cigars. It was a very good evening and we had some very good scotches, which I would probably never have tasted if not there.

The best of the evening for me was the PC5, I really liked it a lot. It was peat all around. The most peated of all whiskies of the evening. The runner up will have to be the Laphroaig 17. That was a very nive whisky, typically Laphroaig, but I with a slight sherry finish to it. The Caol Ila would come in third.

The Port Ellen was the one of the evening that I liked least of all. It is a strange whisky, Port Ellen. I have tasted three different ones, and one of them will have to be the best Scotch I ever had (or at least close to that), while the other three just didn't live up to expectations.

Let's just hope that Rob can get me a bottle of the PC6, which is at least less hard to get than the PC5...

CocoRosie

Last Thursday we went to see CocoRosie live. They played two shows in the Netherlands, and one of them was in Groningen, the other one in Rotterdam. Rotterdam is about 200 kilometers closer to home, but since I had already made other plans for yesterday evening, I had to go to Groningen to see them.

We made a day of it, and went to Gronigen early, to walk around in the city and do some shopping. Groningen is a pretty okay city, with lots of students to lower the average age a bit. They have nice shops on lots of locations, but nothing really extraordinary.

Two of our friends came to Groningen later and we met for dinner. After that we went to see the concert. The opening act was, as usual, quite crappy. Couldn't really enjoy it, since he tried too much to be the new Devendra Banhart, which is quite hard, and not necessary (one is enough).


CocoRosie's show started at about 10.30 PM and took only an hour. They did play all their cool songs, but still I think it was a bit short. It was not too expensive, but an hour could have easily been stretched into 90 minutes with a couple of extra songs.

I really enjoyed seeing them live, and will definetely go again if they turn up in the Netherlands on their next tour. We bought a vinyl LP of them. Not that we have a pick-up, but they were signing records, and we already own their three cds. This will be on display in our living room for a while. I always like this kind of gimmicks.

The bed and breakfast we booked was pretty okay. Nice breakfast, clean rooms, but a bit expensive... The strangest thing was that the price was calculated per person and not per room. So, if I went alone I would have spent half as much money on the room, since they cannot let someone rent half a bed. So, for a second breakfast you pay the same amount of money as for the room and the first breakfast. Weird.

Now I am preparing for my second trip to Minsk. We are leaving on Monday morning and have planned a week full of meetings, cultural trips and lots of fun. The temperature is about 15 degress (celcius) lower than it is here, so that will be a shocker.


We are going to see the European Championship qualification match between the Netherlands and Belarus on Wednesday. I usually don't like soccer at all, but these kinds of event tend to be fun anyway.

It has already been snowing, so the beautiful Belarusian women will probably be wearing a lot more clothes than they were last summer... Too bad.

Whisky Live Leiden

Last weekend was the annual Whisky Fest in Leiden. It is the biggest whisky festival in the Netherlands, so we had to go. We bought tickets for the Saturday afternoon, since we had to go by train, the evening session would be too late.

We were right on time, and after a 5 minute concert of a single bagpipe player we were allowed into the Pieterskerk. The Pieterskerk is a church, which is not in use anymore, except for things like this. The ambiance was very ok and the atmosphere was right from the very beginning.

The afternoon session took four hours and since we were in 5 minutes after opening, we had time to look around and make a list of things we'd like to taste.

We walked around for a bit, and started of with a Penderyn, a Welsh whisky. After that we went to the Springbank stand and bought a Hazelburn 8 and a 9 year old Springbank Marsala finish. The latter one was the best for the festival thus far.

I went there with my two whisky friends, Thomas and Floris. Since we are novices at whisky tasting, we liked to taste as many different whiskies as possible. Most of the drams were shared by the three of us, except if we really, really liked it.

The list of drams we had:

• Penderyn
• Hazelburn 8
• Springbank 9 Marsala
• Highland Park 25
• Highland Park 30
• Macallan Fine Oak 21
• Macallan Fine Oak 25
• Macallan Fine Oak 30
• Bowmore Old Darkest 15
• Ardbeg Mór
• Ardbeg 10
• Port Ellen 1982 (24 yo, Berry's Own)
• Goldlys 10 (Belgian Rye)
• Connemara 10
• Connemara Cask Strength
• Bladnoch 16
• Brora 23 Cream Sherry Finish (chieftain's)
• Compass Box Oak Cross
• Mackmyra .05 (swedish single malt)
• Great Outback Rare Australian
• Amrut Peated (indian single malt)
• Yamazaki 18
• Port Ellen 28
• Laphroaig 15
• Laphroaig Quarter Cask
• Black Grouse (blend)

From the list we only knew a couple, (quarter cask, penderyn and ardbeg 10). Most whiskies were very good, except for the following (the worst whiskies): Goldlys 10, Great Outback, Black Grouse and the Yamazaki.

The very very best of the festival was the first Port Ellen we had, the 24 year old by Berry's Own. It was affordable and simply the best. The other Port Ellen was an original bottling by Diageo, which was too expensive, and just wasn't as good as the other one.

The runner up was the Macallan Fine Oak 25. I liked it better than the 30 year old, since this had a bit more of an edge.

The biggest surprise of the festival was the peated Amrut. We really liked that, and we almost missed it, since it was more or less hidden between much much bigger stands.

I pre-ordered a bottle of the festival whisky, which was a special release of a 9 year old peated Bunnahabhain. Very nice indeed.

We are definetly going again next year, and maybe a bit earlier to the festival in Eindhoven, in March.

Whisky tasting

Last Friday, we had ourselves another official whisky tasting at the Whisky Koning. It was called the Stocknews tasting, which means as much that we tasted 6 all new whiskies that have been released the last six months.

The list was the following:

• Glenkinchie 12y
• Balvenie 17y SherryOak
• Benriach 15y Madeira Wood Finish
• Macallan 1991 15y Blackadder Raw Cask
• Springbank 1997
• Ardbeg Airigh Nam Beist

A set full of differences, but all six are nice whiskies. My personal favorite was the Macallan. It was a strong whisky, with over 60% ABV but nicely rounded and a full taste.

The Balvenie was nice, but a bit too sweet with too much of a sherry finish to it. It is way too expensive too.

Ardbeg usually makes kick-ass scotches, but the Airigh Nam Beist (shelter of the beast) is one that is a bit too soft for me. Especially after the story about its origin: the water used to make this whisky comes from a spring near the Ardbeg distillery, and in that pond you can find all kinds of dead animals. Sounds great, but a soft whisky, compared to regular Ardbegs.

The Springbank is in Floris' collection and I already knew what it tasted like. Very good!

One of the other people at the tasting gave us a very nice surprise by pooring us all one from his own collection. A Glengyle of only three years old, but with a surprising smoothness and complexity. I like these kind of surprises!

No opening act ?!

Yesterday I went to see Hooverphonic in the 'Willem 2', our local pop venue. It started at nine o'clock with it's opening act, called The Go Find. I thought that was strange, since it was a week night, and to start at nine with an opener, it means that Hooverphonic would not start till somewhere near half past ten.

So, the opening act started playing, and we thought it was very good. Exceptionally good, since usually opening acts suck, and even more so at those cheaper venues. Our moment of enlightenment came when they started Hooverphonic songs that I actually knew. No opening act. I felt somewhere between surprised and stupid.

But, after all is said and done, the show was good, the music even better and it was very much worth it. We had fun, and a couple of beers, of course. I wouldn't mind seeing even more bands.

Finally

After my last 'busy' post, things did not calm down a bit.

Work did not calm down, I had lots and lots of stuff to do and the whisky cabinet still had to be finished. Of course, there is the small things called 'getting married' as well.

Last Friday, I went to see God is an Astronaut with two friends. We had dinner together and after that we went to the 'Willem 2'. We knew we went to a festival (although it is a small one), but we did not expect that GiaA wouldn't start till 0.15 hours. That was kind of a bummer, especially since the other bands turned out to be nothing above mediocre. It was worth the wait, becuase GiaA rocked. Of course, live music and beer are the same thing, so we had one too many.

The next day we went to Anneke's family to celebrate her aunt and uncle's 12.5 year anniversary. Not too heavy, but a nice dinner party and it was held at the same spot that Anneke and I are planning to get married next year. This was the opportunity to test it.

Sunday was a family day with a visit to Anneke's grandma, an aunt and uncle, and finally my sister in Amsterdam. We were quite tired when we got home in the evening.

The entire week was packed with things to do. We had several friends over for dinner or coffee/drinks, we had a party at my friends new house and we had to work on the cabinet.


But that last thing is finally over! We finished today by painting the last bits, and putting shelves and bottles in it. It was quite a hassle, since the glass shelves were not wide enought to fit (how did they fit before...) but we fixed that by adding some more wood, screws, nails and glue. It all looks quite cool and I am very happy to have all my bottles on display in our living room.

After all, this cupboard has cost us about three times the money we planned to spend on it, it took us a grand total of four months to get it where it has to be. But now, when all is over, it has been worth it.

Today we had a day off from work, because we had our "intended marriage" made official. It was necessary to have done that before we could book our wedding location, and since it is mandatory by law, we thought to do it as early as possible. Today was that day, and now we are officially registered as 'Intending to get married'. It was quite a big step in doing the marriage preparations, and it feels like we are getting in control of things that have to happen.

So, several things off the todo-list, and this might give us some more time. Time which I can spend looking at my whisky cabinet and drinking some stuff from it.

Not this weekend though. Tomorrow we are going out for dinner with a lot of friends. Two of those friends are going to South America for three months next week, and this is going to be the goodbye party.

On Sunday we are having a small birthday/graduation party for the both of us. We have lots of things to do, clean the house, doing heaps of groceries, laundry, dishes from a week...