An Unplanned Visit to Belgrade...

While it would have been very helpful to have visited a tourist information office, we didn’t come across one.

There were massive construction sites near the river promising a lot of modernization, but much of the surrounding neighborhoods looked like they could really use a facelift.  

Despite seeing “Go Vegan" signs in many spots, it was difficult to find a restaurant serving anything beyond mammals. Out of desperation, we went into a hotel to find out if they could serve an early dinner. When the desk clerk heard our American accents, she suggested that we might want to eat somewhere else since their restaurant had an American theme.

She directed us to a traditional local restaurant, where I enjoyed a wonderful trout and Jimmy had a Serbian stew.

Of course, we had to try the local liquor.

Jimmy liked the way they served the drinks so much that he couldn’t resist buying some of the glasses at the airport. 

An Unexpected Day in Serbia...

At last year’s Oktoberfest Hash in Amsterdam, we learned that Bun Bandit (aka Scott) had purchased a village in Montenegro, as apparently one can do when living part of the year in Montenegro. Our conversation quickly evolved from suggesting he open a hash commune to hosting a hash weekend at his property. He loved the idea and put together a Montenegro Nash Hash Weekend for late May and over 20 Amsterdam hashers registered. 

We were disappointed when we realized that our flight’s late departure from Schiphol meant that we’d miss our connecting flight to Montenegro and thus we’d miss the Red Dress Hash in Podgorica (the capital of Montenegro). When we discovered that we’d have an unexpected six-hour layover in Belgrade (the capital of Serbia), we hopped on a direct bus into the city center.

As this was an unexpected detour, we didn’t even have a map of the city of over one million people so we just wandered around. Along the way, we saw this unusual wig shop...

....this dodgy staircase...

....this cute shop window....

....and this unusual sculpture made out of brooms.

UrbanFarmers: Vegetable Garden...

The rooftop garden was equally impressive. The eventual goal is to grow 50 tons of organic veggies per year....

....consisting of greens....

....tomatoes of various sizes and colors....

....eggplants....

....and cucumbers.

It was interesting to learn that even covered farms use bees for natural pollination. These might look like shoe boxes, but they’re actually high-tech beehives designed by a Dutch company.

The view from the farm, which was celebrating its one-year anniversary, was pretty spectacular as well.

UrbanFarmers: Fish Farm...

Our next stop was the Urban Farm, Europe’s largest rooftop farm, housed in an old Philip’s phone and television factory built in the 1950s.

The first stop on our tour was the fish farm, which supplies local restaurants with 500 tilapia per week. We looked pretty silly when we donned clothing to protect the fish and veggies from possible contamination.

This closed system was quite fascinating. Baby fish are brought in from another city; bigger fish are housed in other tanks. They’re all fed by the automated green system hanging above the tanks.

The fish will eventually be killed by electrical stunning.

This tank collects the fish poop. Bacteria converts the waste ammonia into nitrates to fertilize the plants grown on the rooftop farm. The plants are grown without soil and purify the water that will be reused for fish production. This ancient and sustainable food production technique is known as aquaponics, which can save up to 90% water usage compared to separate systems.

Exterior of the Ministry of the Interior...

Later that afternoon, we met Kent and Mark in the city center. We had dinner at a burger place. where I’ve come to love portobello mushrooms served in place of a burger patty, and then drinks at the Plein. 

The lighting was beautiful and there was a rainbow after a light shower, so I took a bunch of photos.

Ministry of the Interior...

While Jimmy was in Switzerland learning about super colliders, I was learning about some buildings in The Hague during the Day of Architecture. The first stop was the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, which is responsible for “safeguarding the core values of democracy.” These twin 38-storey towers were completed in 2012, replacing some outdated public housing. 

Despite the fact that the website about the event was in English, both tours that I had registered for ended up being in Dutch. I was extra lucky that I had invited Carlin to come along as it turned out that she’s an excellent translator. 

We weren’t allowed to take photos in the swanky cafeteria or the minister’s offices, but we were allowed to take photos of the incredible views from the café on the 38th floor.

It was a beautiful clear day and we could see to the North Sea.

Although I’ve stepped down as Editor of Going Dutch, Jimmy and I have offered to continue helping with the cover, so this is likely to be a cover in the next year. 

A Tour of CERN...

Hey! Jimmy here as a guest blogger. What an amazing time I had visiting CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) hosted by Freya, a hash friend from Brussels who happens to be one of the most senior scientists at the CMS particle detector that sits on the world’s largest supercollider ring. 

It’s amazing that detecting particles that are smaller than almost anything man has ever imagined takes equipment as large as this. This shows a cross section of the CMS detector. Since the accelerator was in operation, we were not able to see the experiment itself; this picture is actually a huge canvas with a life-sized image of the experiment that lies directly 330 feet (100 meters) below.

The trip was the perfect mix of science, sport and socializing. The highlight of the sport portion of the trip was an incredible hash run at CERN. We weaved between and around buildings and even ended up hashing through several CERN buildings, including one with a small accelerator and into a labyrinth of steam tunnels. Pictured above is our hash pack at the end of the run straddling a demonstration portion of the accelerator tube, which is probably one ten-thousandth of the length of the accelerator ring that is buried directly beneath where we were sitting. 

A nice place for a beer break. We stood in the shadow of giants as we enjoyed our brews in the shade behind this portion of an earlier generation particle detector that was used to discover several groundbreaking particles.

As for the science portion, that was absolutely fascinating! Packed in this elevator with 15 hashers, we went down, down, down 330 feet (100 meters) underground to visit the CMS particle detector. 

Above ground the two Gauss meters I downloaded to my iPhone which measure magnetic fields looked pretty normal as seen in this composite picture.

After descending into the bedrock, my phone was feeling something that I clearly was not as the gauges here show... the one on the right is “off the charts” (this app does not go to 11). That’s a lot of Gauss, and yet somehow I couldn’t feel a thing. 

If the readout on my phone was not warning enough, this sign is a pretty clear indication not to fool around with magnetic objects near the accelerator ring and even a half-baked president wouldn’t try to go through this door (or would he?).

Finally, there was the socializing. On Sunday after our hash trail through the CERN grounds, we walked through a few farms to a local wine festival. It was an incredible warm, sunny day and the wines were delicious.

After a long weekend, I was rewarded by amazing views of downtown Geneva.

We were so fortunate to get a private tour with great friends at CERN. The good news is you don’t have to join the Hash House Harriers to score a tour of the facility. The public is welcome to register for tours. If you are in Geneva, I highly recommend this as an incredible opportunity to get close to science.

Ashlynn’s 17th Birthday...

Poor Ashlynn began her 17th birthday by taking the first of her eight AS exams for her four subjects (Biology, Food Technology, Geography and Math). She wanted me to make her a vegan cake, which was a scary endeavor, but I somehow pulled it off.

Ashlynn requested that we order sushi and have a picnic in the park with her best friend Sophie. After a threat of rain, we decided to have our picnic on our terrace instead.

Sophie had a huge surprise for Ashlynn: tickets to go with her to DisneyParis in September to celebrate Sophie’s 18th.

Inside Zaanse Schans...

After lunch, we visited a few of the buildings. The Weaver’s House was quite interesting as we learned how starting in the 18th century and ending at the start of the 20th century two families would have lived in this house among the five large looms used to make sails. Ironically, this woman giving the demonstration was from Texas.

Inside the spice windmill were some of the original old grinding wheels. Clearly this was one relatively young.

The view from inside the windmill was nice as well.

The Albert Heijn Museum depicted the origins of the largest Dutch supermarket chain which dates back to 1887. In 1952, Albert Heijn introduced the self-service store to the country; since 2012, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed never having to stand in lines as I use their advanced system to scan items as I shop.

We ended the day with a walk through the Zaans Museum and Verkade Experience, which focuses on the history of the region plus a replica of the chocolate and cookie factory that was founded in the area in 1886.