Amsterdam!

Last Friday afternoon, when Brent got off of work, we headed up to Amsterdam for the weekend! Amsterdam is about an hour drive north of Breda. We stayed at a hotel called the Moevenpick Hotel, which I scored a great price for off of Priceline – and it was a very nice hotel! It was about 2 kilometers from the city center (Dam Square) but that was an easy 20-minute walk – and we walk everywhere! On the drive up, we did spot a few windmills, but I didn’t have time to take any pictures. Other than that, it was a fairly uneventful drive…just very flat and green. We arrived in Amsterdam around 18:00, parked our car outside the city (Amsterdam is not very car-friendly) and took the tram to our hotel. We quickly checked in and headed out to meet some friends for dinner! I have a friend from high school (Jonathan) who has lived in Amsterdam for 2.5 years and then another friend (Erin) who was traveling through Europe for one of her grad school classes. We were all on swim team together at Norcross High School. I hadn’t seen these friends in years, but Jonathan and his wife Jennifer were so welcoming and it was great to see Erin as well! Jonathan and Jennifer also patiently answered all of our random questions about living in Europe. :-)

On Friday night, the 5 of us went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant (Puri Mas) and enjoyed what is called a rijsttafel. A rijsttafel is a Dutch word that means “rice table” and it is an elaborate meal adapted by the Dutch from an Indonesian feast. A rijsttafel consists of many side dishes served in small portions, accompanied by rice prepared in a few different ways. Since Brent and I love Indonesian food, we were in food heaven.  It’s a great meal to enjoy with a group and the food was so flavorful! We also tried a few beers that I was never a fan of in the USA (Heineken, Guinness) but Jonathan and Jennifer insisted beer tastes fresher here in Europe – we were both pleasantly surprised. Beer really does taste different over here! After dinner, we headed over to Leidseplein (Leiden Square) to catch the end of a World Cup game and just hang out. It was so fun to catch up with old friends and enjoy Amsterdam together – what a great evening!

Brent and I decided to walk back to our hotel from Leidseplein because Brent had never been to Amsterdam before. I told him he needed to experience Amsterdam at night because it’s crazy! We headed back to Dam Square, split another beer, and then wandered over to the Red Light District. The Red Light District was full of guys, tourists, and gawkers like us. :-) It’s always entertaining to walk around the Red Light District in Amsterdam. At night, Amsterdam really has a very distinct smell to it – Brent is convinced we probably were high just walking around for an hour…I think he’s crazy. Anyhow, Amsterdam is a very cool city at night – the people watching is amazing, it is always crowded, and it’s just a really neat city.

Saturday morning we slept in – Brent had a long week at work and I always love to sleep – and then we headed out on foot to explore the city some more. I was super excited because the sun was shining and it was warm! I even got to wear a sundress. We walked over to the floating flower market (Bloemenmarkt), although it’s really not floating – just happens to be on a canal. I love all of the canals in Amsterdam! It’s a very pretty city when the sun is out and everyone is boating out on the canals! We wandered around the flower market, enjoyed some great sandwiches for lunch, walked around the shopping streets, and then went back to the hotel to change. We wandered around the city for about 4 hours, which was really fun! We hung out at the hotel for about an hour, and then headed back out for dinner and to watch the USA vs. Ghana game! We ate dinner at a restaurant called Sushi Me. Sushi is different in Europe, but it’s still good. In fact, it’s probably healthier because it’s essentially just fish and rice – no high-calorie spicy mayo sauce, no crunchies, and no cream cheese. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d do anything for a Pink Roll from RK Sushi in San Diego right now, but we have to make do with what is offered over here. ;-) Dinner was actually quite good and definitely gave us our sushi fix.

After dinner, we wandered over to a bar called Coco’s Outback Pub to watch the USA game with my friends. The bar was packed out with Americans! I was surprised how many people showed up – and a bit jealous too since we haven’t made many friends in Brussels yet. Granted, we’ve spent more time in the Netherlands than in Belgium, so that could be why. Oddly enough, a guy that Brent had talked to on the phone while still job-hunting in the USA is friends with Jonathan, so Brent got to meet this guy he had talked to forever ago while looking for a job. Small world! This guy was very happy that Brent had found a job with PWC as he also works for PWC. The way Brent found his job was through major networking – he talked to about 8-9 people overall, each one giving him a different name/number of someone in Europe to call until Brent eventually talked to a girl who was leaving her job and said she would give Brent’s resume to her boss. Lo and behold, that is how Brent got his job in Belgium. He was extremely persistent and whenever he talked to anyone in Europe, each person almost always said, “Oh, you should try this person, maybe they know of a job opening!” Anyways, the guy in Amsterdam was near the beginning of the chain of people Brent talked to and he was a very nice guy. Ok, so back to the game! It was really fun to watch the game with such a large group of Americans! Even though the USA lost, we had a really good time talking to everyone and meeting new people – watching the World Cup in Europe is a really cool experience.

While at the bar, we met a really cool couple that is friends with Jonathan and Jennifer and after the game, they invited us out on their boat for a bit to ride around the canals. It was super cool of them to invite us when they had so many other friends there! So the 6 of us headed out on their boat. It was so beautiful being out on the canals at night in Amsterdam – and so cool seeing the city from that perspective! We went all over the city; it was a very pretty night with a full moon, the water was like glass, and there were even swans out! We really liked just talking with friends, cruising around, and looking up at all of the people out in Amsterdam. Afterwards we thanked Jonathan and Jennifer for such a wonderful time in Amsterdam and assured them we’d be back. We really had a great experience because of them and their friends! Brent and I walked back to the hotel again after the boat ride – it was a really nice night and it was a fun walk. I think we walked like 15 kilometers on Saturday, so it was nice to finally get back to the hotel and sleep!

Sunday morning, we headed out for more exploring, but this time we had more of a plan. We ate breakfast/lunch at a place called Pancake Bakery. The Pancake Bakery boasts more than 75 different kinds of pancakes and omelets. We got there right after they opened at 12:00, so luckily we only had to wait a few minutes to be seated. This restaurant gets pretty packed out! The pancakes are more like crepes, but they were delicious. I had a pancake with ham, cheese, and pineapple in it; Brent had a pancake with bacon and apple. They had yummy maple syrup jugs on the table too – which obviously didn’t taste good on mine, but it was great on Brent’s! I highly recommend the pancake bakery if you’re ever in Amsterdam! After lunch, we wandered around the city some more and we went on a canal boat tour at 15:00. The canal tour was really cool and we got to go all over Amsterdam. I took tons of pictures, see column on right. I loved seeing the city from the water – Amsterdam has a lot of old churches, crooked houses from the canals, and there are flowers and bicycles everywhere. Everyone has a bike here and it’s basically the only way to get around. I wish more cities were like that – I have really enjoyed not having a car in Europe! After the boat tour, we went to the Anne Frank house. I think this was my 3rd trip to the Anne Frank house, but I always love it and Brent had never been. It’s just fascinating and so sad that she spent all of that time cooped up in that house and then died a month before the liberation. The Anne Frank house is the only museum we went to in Amsterdam, but it is my favorite. We spent about an hour touring the house/museum and by then it was about 17:30, so we headed back to the hotel to get our bags. We dropped our bags at our car and then took the tram back into the city to eat dinner before heading back to Breda. We ate at an Argentinean restaurant (there are tons of Argentinean restaurants in Amsterdam!), took the tram back to the car, and headed back to Breda. We had a really great weekend in Amsterdam – it was so fun walking all over the city, shopping, going out on boats on the canals, spending time with friends, trying new restaurants, and just hanging out in the sunny weather. When you all come visit us in Brussels, we’ll take you to Amsterdam – it’s only about 2 hours by train. :-)

So now it’s Wednesday and we’re in Breda. Monday was fairly uneventful, I hung out at the hotel most of the day, caught up on emailing, and did some preparing for our Africa mission trip next week! Tuesday, I had to rent a bike to go into town to do laundry, which was not so fun. The laundry made the bike heavy and then I had to sit there and wait for the laundry, which was kind of boring. Plus trying to figure out how to actually do the laundry was interesting because the instructions were in Dutch. I think Brent and I are both very ready to get back to Brussels in 2 days. We have a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our Africa trip – we leave one week from today!

I can’t believe we’ve already been living in Europe for a month – time sure does fly!