Meeting Deborah Harkness in Amsterdam

Hey guys :)

I used to do more personal, get-to-know-me posts on Sundays and I'd like to take that habit up again. This week, I'd like to tell about what I did on Saturday last week. A very dear friend of mine moved from Switzerland to Belgium almost a year ago, and during the summer we decided it's time I visit her again. We'd agreed on some time in August, but then she heard that Deborah Harkness, author of A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night, would be signing the last book in the trilogy, The Book of Life, in Amsterdam on the 6th of September. So I postponed the trip, and she talked her boyfriend into driving all of us from their little town near Antwerp all the way to Amsterdam. Because he is a great boyfriend, he agreed.

Well... not all went as planned. We took off with time to spare, but the GPS lied - you couldn't go 120 km/h on the highway, only 100. So instead of a bit over two hours, the trip took us at least three. Traffic was bad. We also couldn't park where we'd thought we could, and we weren't sure how to get to the bookstore. We were supposed to be there by 1:55 pm at the latest, as they'd lock the doors then. After a mad dash through the inner city of Amsterdam, we arrived at 2:08. We'd already kind of resigned ourselves to the fact that the trip was pretty much in vain, but we rang the bell. And one of the employees opened the door for us!!! :D Thank you, kind Dutchman, whoever you were!

So we barged into the room sweaty and out of breath, but it was so worth it! Deborah Harkness was so nice! The event was less a reading and more of a Q&A, and I was glad that there were no weird silences where nobody asks a question. The questions, too, were not just run-off-the-mill stuff but really interesting, relating both to how she came up with the idea of the series, her non-fiction research and writing, combining her academic and fiction-author careers, and whether or not she plans and outlines her books. I can't give you a detailed rundown because I didn't take any notes, I was too busy listening and soaking up the atmosphere. I was also really glad there were no spoilers for book 3, since I haven't read it yet.

After the Q&A, the whole party moved over to the actual bookstore (the main event was at a different building owned by the store) and there was a desk set up on the square in front of the store, where the line for the signing formed. I ran into the store to buy my book while my friend kept my space in the line. It moved slowly, but that was because Deborah took the time to talk to everyone a bit instead of just signing and smiling in an assembly-line kind of way. I'm always a bit nervous when I meet authors (not that it happens very often) but she put me at ease. We both took a picture with her together and got all our copies signed. There you go:

After that, we browsed the amazing American Book Center, or ABC, whose fantasy section was, well, fantastic, and bought some more books. Then we miraculously found the car and took the long road home, including several turn-arounds because the highway we should have taken was closed off. But that was okay because we had great music and were singing along to stuff from the 80s to My Chemical Romance and basically having a car party ^^

Despite the car trouble, it was an awesome trip! Thanks again, amazing friend and her boyfriend who has to suffer our bookish moods, for taking us!

Have you ever taken a trip to meet an author you admire? Do you feel nervous when you meet them? Or do you, for whatever reason, not like this type of bookish event? Let me know in the comments :)

Get To Know Me: that time I went to Dublin and accidentally met an author

Hey guys :)

As I announced last week, I want to keep giving you a little glimpse into my life and stuff I like on Sundays, even though the Know Me Better meme hosted by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer is on hiatus at the moment.

Last week, I talked about favorite TV series (I'm now caught up on Game of Thrones, by the way, and can't wait for the new episode!). This week, I'll tell you about a Dublin trip I went on in October 2011. Why Dublin and not some other city I've been to? Well, I'm reading Karen Marie Moning's Fever series at the moment and it's set in Dublin, and I've been feeling nostalgic. So there.
Note: this post includes quite a few pictures, and they were all taken by me. Don't re-use them without permission. Click them to make them bigger.


Oh Dublin. I'd been meaning to visit you for a while. Then a total coincidence happened. A band a I follow on Twitter retweeted a tweet from a girl from my country being sad about not being able to take part in a video competition because no one else she knew was a fan. She was from Switzerland (and lives really close to where I grew up). I tweeted her. We talked. We met. 10mins later, we decided to go to Dublin together. Two months or so later, we did. She's now my BFF. She's one of those rare people who share both your taste in books AND music!

We arrived at our hotel in Dublin at about 11pm on a Tuesday. We dumped our stuff and headed out again, despite the drizzle and cold. I was really glad to be with someone who already knew the city fairly well. We headed strait for the Temple Bar district, to the actual Temple Bar bar. Despite the weather and being quite tired, I loved the atmosphere! It was quite packed but everyone was happy and in a good mood. There was a live band playing and soon we found ourselves sitting on old wood barrels somewhere near the front, enjoying our drinks and unable to keep our feet from thumping the beat on the floor. I felt like I'd arrived properly, like the city had welcomed me. I didn't want to leave, but we eventually did sometime around 1:30 or 2am, I think.

The band was taking a break.

Temple bar in the morning.

The next morning, we did some sight seeing, visited Trinity College, went to the wonderful library there, and looked at the Book of Kells. I had an intense moment of damn-I-want-to-study-here-it's-so-much-prettier-than-Zurich. Unfortunately, I realize I didn't take so many campus pics, my friend mostly did and we never really exchanged them. Here are some shots from the library that I do not own, because taking pictures was forbidden to protect the books.

Trinity College Campus

Courtesy of National Geographic

The Book of Kells was written around the year 800 in is known for its beautiful illustrations. Image source.

Let me tell you, this city is full of book stores of all kinds!! The biggest one we were at is Eason's, and there we had another lovely surprise!

Seriously you guys, I NEVER get to go to any author events because hardly any I read ever come to Zurich!! And I was so sad to have missed Sarah Rees Brennan by one week and that Cassie Clare would be there about 2 weeks after we left. In that very store. Ugh. So when we saw that Becca Fitzpatrick would sign the next day, we talked the book store lady into wizarding up two more tickets even though the event was sold out. Neither of us had read the hush, hush books yet but I'd seen them around and been debating whether or not to read them for a long time. So we bought them at the event the next day and had them signed. I'd post a pic of the signed book but I've already packed it into one of my moving boxes...

Meeting Becca. I'm on the right side.

 Of course I also bought a great deal of other books. 3 for 2 bargains don't exist over here. Also, books cost more than twice as much in Switzerland. I guess you know what I fill my suitcase with when I go abroad :P

Another author I 'met' was James Joyce. I've read most of Ulysses and a couple of his short stories in Dubliners, and finding his statue on the way to our hotel was awesome! One day I want to go to Dublin on June 16, the day Ulysses takes place. It's called Bloomsday and all over Dublin people dress up like characters from the novel. There are also tours and readings of the book and of poetry and it's generally an awesome literary event!

Me & Mr Joyce

Later that day, we also went to a shopping mall called St. Stephen's Green (I think) and I loved the architecture of that place!

St. Stephen's Green

We also made an excursion to the peninsula of Howth because I wanted to look at the sea. It was really cold so we stopped by the Bloody Stream pub too. Here are some shots.

Harbor

More harbor

Two fishermen

Unfortunately I don't know what this commemorates

Bloody Stream

We did A LOT of walking around over the two and a half days we were there! On the last morning in the hotel, another guest and his wife gave us their tickets for a hop-on-hop-off tour of the city. They were leaving and couldn't use them anymore, but they were valid another day. So we jumped that bus and drove around some more, also through Phoenix Park and some other places. We left early in the afternoon after buying some more souvenirs and stuff. It was quite a short visit and I would have loved to stay longer! I'm thinking about going back for a short trip in the summer, but we'll see. Below are some more random shots of the city, some taken on foot, some from the above mentioned bus. I hope you enjoy :)

The Olympia Theatre

This might be the Halfpenny Bridge but I'm not sure...

That needle was so high I couldn't get it on the pic properly.

That pole is the needle from before. Also, Jame Joyce statue from the back.

O'Connell Street

I love how the buildings along the river blend old and modern architecture.
Lots of brick, lots of glass.

Some more shots from the Temple Bar District:

No such thing as strangers in the Dub.

Street Art

Molly Malone statue. And a Leprechaun.

Irish bilingual street signs.

Hall of Mirrors shop.

So... I hope I could give you guys some sort of impression of the city, but I'm not sure I succeeded. I didn't take all that many simple street level shots, and I'm never sure what to include. The way the shops and all that looks is really different from here and I think it looks interesting, but it might be completely mundane and boring for other people. I also realized I don't have any big shots that give you an overview of the city. And many pics look bleak because of the weather. But I hope you enjoyed those I put there, because I had a great time!

Any comments on the pics or the author event? I kind of bombarded you ^^' Do you even like this kind of travel post? Would you like me to do another city? I've got lots from London, south England/Cornwall, Paris, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Florence... Or I could do more stuff with favorites. Feel free to suggest a topic :)