Jessie's Visit

Jessie is an old Portland chum that swept through Amsterdam last weekend.

We did so much stuff, that rather than try and eloquently write it all out...I'm going to utilize bullet points.

Friday Night:

• Grabbed Pizza and wine at my favorite spot around the corner from my place. Pazzi!
• Went to my favorite brown bar, t'Smalle, for a drink.
• Showed off the Red Light district, and a few other places, that I can't seem to recall at the moment.

Saturday:

• Delicious breakfast at Cafe Nielsen
• Trip to Noordermarket for some groceries and tried our first Poffertjes. Delicious!
• Lunch on canal from Foodware, just below my apartment.
• Quick (or slow) stop for a drink with Cari along the Amstel.
• Went to an art show at Gerrit Rietveld Academie. Saw some very amazing student work.
• Snoozed by the canal. Ate some food. Had some refreshments.
• Met up with fellow former Portlander, Rachel Mays, for a delightful dinner at Koevoet.
• Randomly witnessed the coolest horse and buggy event. Happens once a year. A club of 30-50 horse drawn carriages paraded the streets of Amsterdam. All participants were perfectly dressed in early 1900's attire. It was amazing. And I have no good shots to do it justice.
• Ate delicious apple pie at Winkel 43.

Sunday:

• Brunch at La Place.
• Did some city touring.
• Stopped by a book market happening in Dam Square.
• Little bit of shopping.
• Lunch and a snooze in Vondelpark. Got in some solid dog-watching.
• Went to Ivan's going away party in Westerpark.
• Learned how to make tacos at Cari's for dinner.

Some photos of the weekend:

Breakfast at Cafe Nielsen:

Photo shoot on the way to Noordermarket:

Poffertjes in the making. Like tiny fried pancakes served with powdered sugar:

A sort of "flower coat check" for the Academie graduates.

Paper sculpture:

Amazing ceramics piece:

Snoozing by the canal:

Delicious drinks, with lovely labels:

Dinner at Koevoet:

Random horse event:

Jessie at the book market:

Cutting onions for tacos. The blingin' sunglasses were unsuccessful in blocking the tears:

Learning how to make fresh tortillas:

Delicious!

It was good seeing you Jessie, and thanks Cari and Rachel for a couple lovely days/evenings.

The Other Morning

Sometimes I wake up to the garbage truck slowly making its way down my street. The other morning I heard a truck idling outside my window. I kept thinking...any minute now, it'll stop. Aaaaany minute. It never did. Eventually other sounds of machinery joined in the chorus of noise. When I finally got out of bed to see what all the ruckus was, this is what I encountered.

A crane. It arrived on a large truck, and slowly unfolded itself to it's full monstrous size. I guess they were hauling fridges into some apartments within my block or something. Something too heavy for the average hook-pully-system they usually use.

This is what the hook-pully-system looks like. I missed getting the last piece of furniture mid-air, but you can see they've been successful with some rather large furniture with that rope.

(Click image to enlarge).

My Time Machine

I've attempted doing laundry with it as well.

Blauwe Theehuis

Vondelpark has many little eating/drinking places scattered throughout that I've been meaning to try. Last night after going to Foam to look at some amazing photography, we headed to Blue Teahouse (located in Vondelpark). It was a very charming place, and so, of course, I had to take some pictures for your viewing pleasure!

A little side note:

Amsterdam is full of parakeets. I only remember to mention this because the above photo had tons of them in that tree to the right. Some think they escaped from the zoo. Others like to think the source was some breeder that let them loose. I just looked it up on the oh-so-very-forever-accurate Wikipedia, and this is what they have to say on it. How these birds that seem so tropic, manage to survive Amsterdam ice and snow is beyond me. Looks can be deceiving I suppose.

Happy 4th of July!

The very lovely, and very distressed Rachel Mays loves the 4th of July. It is her absolute favorite holiday. But she was very distressed because she discovered mid-day that she had absolutely no plans for it. Oh no!

After some emails flying around, it was determined that we would throw a 4th of July BBQ at her place. She got food, I got sparklers. And we had ourselves a party.

I also wanted to do some decorating, so I got some balloons. I decided to blow them up pre-party, but then I needed a way to get them from Point A, to Point B. I tied them to my backpack and was off! Nothing like biking around a city with 9 balloons flowing behind you. I received many-a-smile. And I'm sure every little kid was thinking, "follow that girl!"

I really need to do that more often.

This is the view from Rachel's terrace. Quite unfortunate, right?

Our American spread. Delicious! If you are at all familiar with the Dorito chips called "Cool Ranch," you'll be happy to know that in Holland they're called "Cool American." I guess "Ranch" is not in their vocabulary.

There was a lot of eating, drinking, and merry-making. We kept going well into the night, and I would say the impromptu party was a success!

Lazy Weekend

Time to catch up on posts!

I want to call it a lazy weekend, but now that I think back on it, I actually did quite a lot.

On Saturday I started the day going to the market for my groceries. Another good haul, but I posted pictures last time, and I'm sure you don't need to see my groceries every time.

Then it was off to see a couple apartments and grab lunch with friends. We ate at this great Italian place called, Today's. I love it. It's my new favorite spot. The food is amazing. The owner is amazing. I'll need to get a picture of him at some point. I didn't have cash the first time I went, and his response was, "That's fine, don't worry about it, you'll be back again!"

Love that guy.

The below is a picture taken in their eating area. It's just one big table. It's like eating with a big family.

When this shot was taken, I was planning on making a face...but my timing was off. So I'm mid-making-a-face.

Then the lazy part of the day began. We headed to Nacho's place to watch movies the rest of the day. Nacho's apartment is beautiful:

We tried to set up a projection to watch our movies. It wound up not working, and we had to view our movies in a more traditional form, but it was worth a try.

After the movies, we all crawled up on the roof to enjoy this beautiful scene:

SUNDAY:

Westerpark has a craft/stuff market, I believe every Sunday. It was fun to wander around and see some art.

I need one of these:

A mobile "ice" skating rink. Made of a hard plastic.

Pom pom making station:

Indoors there was an expo fair of sorts. Lots of booths inspired by sustainability. Like this very very beautiful all-wooden bike. I'm not convinced that it's the most sustainable mode of transport, but it's still nice to look at.

There was a kite-making booth. They give you the supplies, direct you in what to do, and it only costs €2. So of course we had to do it!

As you can see, we're very proud of our work. This was before we made the crushing discovery that there is absolutely no way to make this thing fly. I suppose bamboo is not the lightest weight material.

I barely got a shot of this girl. By the time I took out my camera, she was half-way across the field. She's a walking info-desk. I couldn't imagine carrying that thing around all day!

The day concluded with 6 of us enjoying some pizza at a great little restaurant near the park. Good solid weekend.

Cari's Birthday

Last night was Cari's birthday! Cari is a fellow Portland studio transplant that moved over here last fall and has been just amazing at showing me around and being an endless resource to my endless questions.

So, the evening started out as getting a couple drinks with some co-workers. The popular bar fare here is called bitterballs. They're basically fried gravy. Very greasy. A little slimy. I can't decide if they're delicious or disgusting...so I think I'll just go with delicious.

After a beer and a couple butterballs I headed to Festina Lente, for the birthday celebration. This bar is right next to where I'm staying, so I've been meaning to check it out. It is super cozy and has a great atmosphere.

The bartender smiled for my picture :)

The local brew. This beer is made in a windmill across town. It is very good.

Upstairs seating. It's like you're in a very old, well-loved home.

Hello bathroom advertisement! I have no idea what you're trying to tell me, but judging by the girl in the background, it looks fun!