Friday, March 30, 2007

Friday: last day.


Our last morning here only afforded us enough time to quickly pack our stuff and head on over to the Brood Bakker (bakery) for some breakfast croissant and cappuccino. I stupidly said "I'll have the serveen tiip (serving tip)," because that's what was sitting over the bread. I felt so stupid.

The much touted Schiphol airport proved to live up to its reputation as the best airport in the world. The whole airport looks super-mod and un-airportlike. They've got a cool domed bar and retro lounge areas in sixties shades and sleek design. We did some shopping before our flight, but we missed the airport satellite Rijksmuseum. This sucks, because they had a great exhibit titled "Low-lifes in Dutch art history." Too cool.

late post for Thursday: our last full day here

Okay, it seems I cursed our nice weather by talking about it. Thursday was quite cold and foggy. Thankfully it did not rain.


I feel like this kitty looks: Big smile 'cause I'm having a great time, but I feel dirty and like I'm about to capsize from lack of sleep and too much walking.



This morning we were FINALLY able to get up pretty early (curse you, jet lag!) and go out for breakfast. We hit a much-touted pancake house. The pancakes here are a cross between a crepe and a pancake, and they serve them with whipped cream, fruit, almonds, etc. Ironically, our breakfast of two pancakes and two cappuccino cost us a whopping 33 Euro!! That's more than we spent for dinner last night. Hmm.

Since this is our last full day here (and the Euro doesn't appear to even want to cease kicking our American dollar asses) we've decided against going to Brussels. So we've opted to finally take that canal cruise. View the pics on the Flickr page. There's oodles of them. It was nice finally being able to concentrate on the architecture without fear of breaking your leg on a cobbled street or get hit by a bike or tram. But it was COLD. Uncomfortably so, for me.

Quick nerd note for all the English majors out there: Amsterdam carelessly throws around exclamation points!! As you know, that's a big no-no in English grammar! But they do! They use them for everything! Just as I am now! I'll attempt to find some examples soon and post the pics here to back me up on this. It's really annoying!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Wednesday: Beautiful day for the parks and museums


The weather has been amazing since Sunday (it hits 60 in the day). Europeans love their parks! There were so many bikes out today, we saw a mom on a bike with her kid run into another bike and fall over. The poor baby's head almost landed on the pavement! That kid looked SCARED.

We had lunch at the Vertigo Cafe', which is part of the Filmmuseum on the edge of Vondelpark (a LOT like Audubon park in NOLA). Which brings us to our next traveller's note...

Traveller's Note: menus touting "chicken" on their sandwiches may actually be processed cold cut meat and NOT actual chicken breast. And apparently Fanta is THE drink around here.

Dispelled an interesting myth today: Van Gogh didn't cut off his ear and mail it to a prostitute. He got into a fight with Gaughin, chased him around with a razor, and then cut off his own ear in a self-hating, self mutilating fit. THEN Arturo told me he prefers Gaugin to Van Gogh. Doesn't he know Van Gogh is my homeboy? We might have to get divorced now.

Oh, so all the museums LOVE to have an email kiosk. You get to send a recorded message to someone for free (I'm pretty sure they're harvesting the email addresses). At least the Van Gogh one was more appropriate then the one at the Ann Frank museum.

Had dinner at a super-fantastic restaurant called Ghetto, then witnessed a fight and arrest in the red light district (see flickr pics for more).

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Tuesday



This is a cool cafe that uses decorated cakes as table centerpieces. Very cool.



Cute little drawbridges.

Visited the modern art museum (Stedelijk), but it wasn't all that: They've temporarily relocated while the museum is renovated, and they left all the good stuff (Picasso, Man Ray, etc) in storage. And that's what we were there to see!! So I discovered this new amazing photographer named Ed van der Elsken who did some amazing stuff for their "Mapping the City" exhibit. His plaque read something funny like "Ed had to flee the suffocating optimism of post-world war II Amsterdam and found a home in Paris among the nihilists." Suffocating optimism? Who says that? Who even feels suffocated my optimism?! I love this guy.

Tonight is the Air concert. We tried buying tickets tonight, but the Euro-scalpers wanted 50 Euro a piece (about $130 U.S.), so we didn't Euro go.

Had Italian at a cute Italian restaurant in Leidesplein.
Travel tip: getting table water and napkins is like pulling teeth. I did read they had super-polluted water back in the day, so they all just drank beer and spirits instead. Perhaps they never got the water aversion out of their system?

Monday's late poste


Too tired to post yesterday. Here is a pic of those cool automat food vending machines. We haven't actually tried it yet because we can't understand exactly what they're selling (think it's fish, but not sure).

Monday:
Went to the Waag for a drink. The Waag is Amsterdam's oldest surviving gatehouse from the 1400's, making it technically a surviving building from the medieval times, and officially the oldest structure I've ever seen. It's also been a site for public executions, and the place where Rembrandt painted both his Anatomy Lesson paintings there. Now it's a tourist trap...and the site of our first ugly American sighting: we witnessed an older gay "daddy type" and his young boy-toy literally yelling "EXCUSE ME" to the top of his impatient American lungs. It was a real ugly scene, and it really didn't make the Dutch waitress look his way any sooner.

It's interesting to note that "Dutch service" is said as sort of a caveat or apology. They're pretty stand-offish and it takes forever to get someone to take your order or approach you. That's also because tipping isn't really expected, so there's no real incentive to give you good service. One you come to the realization that the poor service is nothing against you personally, it's easier to stomach the whole it-took-one-hour-to-actually-get-my-meal experience.

We finally caught the Bodies exhibit. I must say, I am amazed that with so many things going on in our bodies (miniature gyroscopes of liquid pockets in our brain, etc), I'm shocked we don't all go into daily epileptic seizures. The body truly is an evolutionary wonder. I made a silent pact to be better to my "instrument." I will eat more fresh veggies and exercise more when I return to the states.

The Ann Frank house was sad (of course). But the secret quarters were actually larger than I'd imagined. Oh, plus there was this strange post-exhibit involving voting buttons and suspiciously worded questions for you to vote on. Secret agenda? I didn't stick around to find out what exactly that was.

Overheard a tour leader telling her group to watch out in front of the Old Kerk (Church) area because the junkies dance a jig and pickpocket you. Huh?! So then we noticed that there's a whorehouse literally next to the church! The prostitutes of the Red Light District stand in front of big windows to better aid the Johns in their "window shopping." We noticed the prostitutes get uglier in one direction of the road, and prettier down the opposite way. I'm guessing there's also a direct correlation in their pricing as well. I'd made eye contact with a couple of prostitutes (wearing my best "I'm not judging you or your lifestyle choices" smile), but they would automatically look down at the ground in shame. I felt really bad about that, so I learned to just look straight ahead when walking by. Arturo said they look like they get hassled in the windows a lot, 'cause they got that "don't mess with me" look on their faces when packs of young guys walk by.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Zundag


Sunday!Sunday!Zundag!.......

We slept in late exhausted from the previous day plus we lost an hour due to Daylight Savings kicking in here. First order of the day was to find the right voltage converter after getting some much needed coffee into our system.

Since we are making this post you can surmise the outcome of the search. While trying to track down one of the 3 places suggested to us by the Tourism Office (VVV) I noticed a camera store and thought well if anyone would have one...and they did. The nice Dutch (the nice is extraneous because they all seem nice once approached) salesman even took the 3-4 pound behemoth out of the box to make sure it would work.

Afterwards more street food (nummers for me sad for the wife) and walking before a tram ride back home. While Cindy napped I decided to go for a trek. I forgot to bring the moleskin guide which has been in my pocket the whole time as my main navigation tool. This meant I did not know what tram exit to take. I guessed (incorrectly) and wandered around for a bit.

As some of you may know I love to walk and walk and walk in big cities. (Briefly distracted by the hardcore porn [transsexuals no less} 1-900 commercials on tv Cindy just pointed out.)

Amsterdam is a very walkable city. Though hard to navigate when trying to find a specific destination it is perfect for stumbling onto something you did not expect. I came across a band playing along a canal for no reason it seemed.

Unfortunately like most other music you stumble across here it was pretty bad. At least it wasn't accompanied by some annoying beat like the horrendous techno and rap we have heard everywhere else. Don't be fooled the Dutch love their beats no matter the source or the listener's age. A middle age lady I saw today could not resist tapping her foot to Akon playing in the trinket store we were in. Oh and there is eighties' music playing everywhere else.

After scooping up the Mrs. back at the apartment we headed back into the center of town to locate some food. Since it is Sunday not much was open much less open late, so we had to opt for street food this time again. Tomorrow we hit the museums in earnest as well as check out the Bodies exhibit we missed at home and never visited in Las Vegas. Plus with our voltage concerns taken care of there will be more pictures. One picture from the Flickr set.....I got to pee in the middle of a crowded street yesterday!! But not in what you see above but another smart Dutch solution to life's little dilemmas. I really cannot stress how so many things have been planned out to work for the citizen's benefit and not their hindrance here.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Saturday: Learning to Adapt--with close calls



Outlet Converter
Today was a mad hunt for an outlet converter before our electronic devices completely ran out of juice. Turns out they're kind of hard to find. We found one place, only they sold us the wrong one.

Close Call
This morning, we got up at 10:30 and grabbed the tram toward the central part of town. We stumbled onto the famous Albert Cuyp market in the Pijp (trendy hipster hood), so we hopped off to walk around and grab breakfast. we stopped for a coffee and some freshly squeezed raspberry juice on the outskirts of the market and we started walking back toward the booths to shop. I heard a loud commotion right behind me, so I turned around just in time to see one of those teeny mini cars about ten feet behind us, out of control and barreling right into the market right at us. I started running away, yelling for Arturo to run. The mini plowed right into the market, and crashed into a produce stand. One guy dove out of the way, but the car ran right into this woman just behind me and knocked her right off her bike. Her bike was completely under the mini, and she lay there crying and stunned in pain. The driver of the mini was a guy in his seventies. I kept thinking of that old person who'd ploughed through a market and killed several people a year or two back. We left the scene shortly thereafter, but it seemed like the woman would be generally ok (save for a broken leg, maybe).
And Arturo had just wondered aloud how many bike-related accidents there may be here.

Friday: First Day Here





No posting yesterday due to a serious case of jetlag.
We walked around for a couple of hours yesterday. I was cold (it was about 48 degrees) and I turned into a tired, fussy baby. (Confirmed by Arturo).

14 hours of sleep later, and I feel like a functioning human again.

We noticed at the airport that the bone structure of the Dutch is so vastly different from that of the general masses in the U.S., so we can't help but stare. They all sort of look like Van Gogh. Even the women.

Oh, ate frites (basically steak fries served in a paper cone) and they EAT THEM DRENCHED IN MAYO!
Today I will practice using some Dutch phrases in an attempt to not be that ugly American who ASSUMES you must surely speak my language, and heck, I won't even attempt your freaky Dutch stuff! Oh, and we desperately need one of those converter things for our appliances. And a wristwatch.

Posting some first day pics on the Flickr site (link to the right) in a few minutes, so check it out.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Tomorrow: Amsterdamned



We leave for Amsterdam tomorrow. We got a way cool apartment that allegedly has internet access, so we intend to update the blog and post pics on our Flickr page on a daily basis. Not even a massive pet food recall can stop us now (the vet said Shakes and Cletus are fine, thank you for asking). I should have known that beef chunks in gravy was too good to be true. What am I supposed to feed my husband now?!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Music & Crafts

Music:
Lots of shows in town this week and next. Here is a wee list of what's going on, if anyone cares. 'Turo promises pics IF he can get closer to the stage (last night's show sold out).
Crafts:
New business name for craft booth: "Craft-O-Rama." It really should have been "crafturbator," but that one might come with problems. So crafturbator will just be on the t-shirts and totes we sell at the booth (taking early orders now). T-shirts should look something like this:





Tuesday, March 6, 2007

New Beginnings

This picture of a rising sun represents Cindy & Arturo's new blog in all its saltiness, hot air and inherent ability to rust out that car you're so proud of.


Pictures of the beach always remind me of when I was a kid and got stung by a jellyfish. I started screaming, "That jellyfish stung me with its testicles!!" And my mom and Sassy Aunt Irma (SAI) laughed.so.hard. Um, excuse me, but don't we all get metaphorically stung by life's testicles AND tentacles? Am I right?