we head downtown and spot a possible american. he's carrying a SIM card package, has longer hair, scruffy 5 0clock shadow, and an actual butt. dany notices the butt right away. dutch boys are really tall and skinny and are nearly always clean shaven, or not able to grow facial hair, i'm not sure. we tail the possible american but lose him in the crowd. oh well.
i get an awesome coat from a local store. it was too expensive but i'm in love with it. the coat is the #1 most important thing here. i figure it is a good investment. dany got her sqin jeans and we are looking like europeans. we high five each other. no boots yet, but i'll get some.
the market is awesome. everyone from delft is there. got some fresh fruit and veggies, wonderful bread and cheese. my goal for next week's market is to learn the dutch names of what i will buy.
we get pancakes at a restaurant in the square and listen to the church bells. acutally i got one pancake. it was one really big pancake, thicker than a crepe but thinner than an american pancake. it was really big, maybe like 18 inches in diameter. it was on a special big plate. i put butter, powdered sugar, and syrup on it. i folded it up and hoped i was eating it correctly. dany got some small pankcakes which looked like little biscuits. those were really good too.
we head back to the apartement, grab out backpacks, and headed to amsterdam. dany's dad got us a hotel room for free (he travels 6 months out of the year so he has loads of points). we check into the executive suites at the hilton, drop our bags, and head to town.
outside of the train station, there are about 5,000 bikes parked. maybe more. probably more. the bus depot and tram depot are right outside the train station as well. trams and busses run all round the city. you ride the trams and busses with a blue Stripper card. i dont know who came up with that name but how fitting for amsterdam. we rent some yellow bikes to get around town. biking is insane. its like mr. toad's wild ride. there are bikes whizzing everywhere through traffic. loree probably would have cried. dany and i had many near collisions with other bikes, cars, buses, trams, whatever. i'm comfortable with riding in traffic and genuinely like that the bike is king around here, but dany is kind of apprehensive and seems a bit shaken up.
we go to the heineken experience, which is a history of heineken in a really cool way. it was just re-done and just re-opened last week. heineken is huge here. there is a history portion with old brass mixers, ingredient descriptions, old stables, old bottle labels etc. there is a really cool ride that takes you through how the beer is made and bottled. the ride has a moving platform and other effects it was so cool. there are two tasting rooms spaced apart on the experience. after the first tasting room there is a big techno room with big lounge chairs and images projected on the cieling with techno music playing. the images consist of all the product placement in movies and tv and past heineken commercials. the second tasting room has these really cool touch screen table tops. when you set your beer glass on the table it opens up all these things on maps and fun facts about heineken and different world cities. the heineken experience was way cooler than i'm describing trust me.
we head back to the hotel, grab a pizza donner on the way. my feet hurt. we get ready to go out, wearing our sqin jeans of course. we look perfectly european. i have my sqin jeans on with black heals, a black shirt and my new jacket. my hair is long and straight and looking especially shiny tonight. we take the tram (dany refused to get back on the bikes) to the main square downtown. theres an ice skating rink and open-air urinals in the middle of the square. theres about a zillion crazy people. we hit up a promising bar in the square with the objective of meeting some brits to teach us some songs as shonna had suggested. after a bit we met some fake brits. they all live in london but each was from a different place. will was from brazil or bolivia not sure. krum was from bulgaria. ben was from australia. ben was super cute. they didnt know any songs, but they were fun nonetheless. i met some other folks from the US, one was from santa barbara and worked for shell. small world huh?
the bar had amazing music. it was like being in a time warp to an 80's/90's wedding. they played vintage whitney houston, montell jordan, michael jackson, village people, mixed in with some amy whinehouse and katy perry. our fake brits went crazy when the amy whinehouse song came on. we stayed there for awhile. i got a pen and we wrote rediculous notes to each other on the backs of coasters. a perfect form of scandalous communication since the music was so loud. hilarity ensued. so many laughs :)
we headed to a dance club across the square with the fake brits. awesome techno music, we danced and had so much fun. i disappeared for awhile with ben but somehow dany was able to keep herself entertained. we parted with the boys around 3:30AM, and gave me thier phone number, appropriately on the back of a coaster. dany and i headed to the train station, which was CLOSED! we were told by reliable sources that the trains ran 24 hours per day. we grabbed a bus back to the hotel and got there at 5:03AM. we were so tired.
woke up the next morning. i felt pretty good. dany didnt feel as good as me. we went to our bikes and rode over to the anne frank house. which was phenomenal. really well done. the living quarters were much larger than expected, but still very small to live in with 8 people for over a year and never leave. we got some lunch, walked around a bit, returned the bikes, and headed home to delft. we met some local delft guys on the train ride home. they were coming home from a football game (soccer) and were especially rowdy. they seemed like a fun group. i gave one my email address and told him to contact me as i will be living here for 3 months. we got back home around 6:30 and i fell asleep on the couch at about 7PM. dany still had to pack for her flight home the next day. i wish i could have stayed up and hung out with her more. we had so much fun together and i'm really sad to see her go.
note: i'm having trouble uploading photos. i;ll try again tomorrow.
1 comment:
Awww Techno! I wish I was there that would have been sooo much fun!
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