IJ-Hallen & Museum Nacht

IJ-Hallen

After several months of attempting, I finally made it to IJ-Hallen, the once-a-month mega flea market that happens on the other side of the water. 

It was amazing. So much old stuff.  And vintage stuff. And general junk. I made off with a coat rack, small table, dress, rug, and some tiny trinkets. The most expensive thing I bought was the table...for €3.50, not bad! I saw a tape measure made entirely of metal. Some swords. Some smurf figurines. Lots of old wall-mount coffee grinders. Old cameras. Train sets. A doll that looks similar to the one I received from Nana after her Holland trip a couple decades ago. Cups. Vases. Pea Soup. Sausages. Pots. Pans. Typewriters. Microwaves...it goes on and on and on. The warehouse it was housed in was massive. I have a feeling my sister, Heidi would have been a kid in a candy store in that place.

After the market closed for the evening, we decided to pop over to Noorderlicht cafe for a coffee before heading back across the water. The cafe is great. It looks like it's in some sort of old greenhouse. I definitely want to make it back there. I guess they have music during the summers.

Ran into Nacho and Edu, later joined by Chiky at Noorderlicht:

Museum Nacht

After digging through our treasures and making some dinner, Rachel and I headed out to Museum Nacht. 45(ish) museums open their doors for this once-a-year event. You buy a €18 ticket and you can get into any of the participating museums. Some of the places even have music and serve drinks. We made plans to meet with some friends and we hopped from one place to the next.

 We first visited Museum Van Loon—an old Dutch home of a founder of the Dutch East-India Company (early 1600s). Much of the house was closed for the evening, but they did have the back garden and coach house open. They had a Halloween-esque display in their windows:

Next we headed to FOAM—photography museum.

Then off to another old Dutch home— Museum Geelvinch Hinopen Huis. This one did have a bit more activity happening in it. They had a ton of people dressed up in proper 18th century style. In one room they were giving dance lessons, in another you could make sachets, or nibble from the dining table. It was fun to see. 

Next stop was De Hortus Botanical Gardens. They had a full-on party here. Great band, a burlesque dancer, and later a DJ rolled up in this weird van/wagon contraption.

We were going to head to the Planetarium next, but the line was a bit too much for us, so we went around the corner to the Artis Aquarium. Before tackling the Aquarium, we tackled some hot dogs that were sitting conveniently outside:

 

The aquarium had some stuffed animals too. I spent some time laughing at this guy:

A replica of our canals (I think they forgot the 12" of sludge and murky brown water):

After the Aquarium we headed North to NEMO— the children's science museum. I've been meaning to make it in this place. It's basically a giant play ground. Lots of different contraptions to play with from a Rube Goldberg Machine, to playing with huge bubbles, to 'this is where babies come from' booth.

Oh yes, and they had a bit of a party as well:

Giant pulsing heart on their roof terrace:

After NEMO we headed to Lime Bar for a night-cap and Pringles. And that is where I ended the evening. It was after 3 at this point and I was ready for some sleep!

Sunday was perfectly uneventful. Spent most of the day sleeping and did a little laundry. Saturday had all the activity I needed for one weekend :)

Chocolátl

Last night I spent the evening with a group of ladies sampling chocolate. Not a bad way to spend a Thursday night.

Chocolátl is a beautiful little shop located at Hazenstraat 25. The owners, Leslie and Eric (whom I later found out are from Portland), spent the evening teaching us all about chocolate. Or at least some of the basics. I retained enough info to now think I know something about chocolate...but I'm in no hurry to test my skills/knowledge on a real chocolate connoisseur.

Some things I learned:

How to taste: You start by looking at the chocolate. Look at the color and texture. Is it smooth and consistent? Then break the piece and check the color/texture within. And smell the chocolate. When you pop it in your mouth, let it sit on your tongue and allow your taste buds to experience all the flavors from the beginning, middle, and end. Very similar to wine tasting.

A little something about percentages: I learned that the percentage doesn't really mean a whole lot. It sounds like an accurate description of how much chocolate is in your bar, but it isn't necessarily. Within that percentage, part of it is cocoa, and the other part is the cocoa butter. So, say you have a 75% chocolate bar...some portion of that is actually cocoa butter. The ratio of cocoa butter to cocoa does not have industry set standards. So, you could have two bars (from different makers) with 75% chocolate, but the two bars actually will have different amounts of cocoa in them. The 75% definitely gives you something of a marker, but isn't an exact measurement of the pure cocoa. I hope that was a fairly accurate description...

Chocolate-Makers vs. Chocolatiers: Chocolate-Makers create chocolate straight from the bean. Many chocolate-makers also roast their own beans. Chocolatiers, on the other hand, create their chocolate masterpieces from existing chocolate.

Environment: Most cocoa beans in the world are grown in the belt 20 degrees above and below the equator.

The bean: Cocoa beans grow in a pod. You crack open the pod, and will find around 40 seeds within. At this stage, they get roasted. Once you crack the seed open, you have the small amount of cocoa within that they use to make the chocolate. At this raw form, there is no sugar in the cocoa (or at least none that humans can taste), and is not sweet at all.

All right, enough jibber-jabber. Lets look at some pictures!

Leslie & Eric:

Guinea Pigs:

Some of what we sampled:

The large roasted seeds, and it's form after you crush it:

The store is beautiful. I want a wall of these shelves in my house:

Thank you Brea for organizing! 

Yellow & Orange

There are perhaps two other titles for this post that would be more appropriate:

(1) "Yes, it's another fall post" OR (2) "That photo is rubbish. Put a filter on it!"

As alternative titles suggest, I took some more pictures of leaves, and the pictures didn't really do the scene justice, so I got all iPhonePhotoshoppy on them. I apologize. It's just too much fun.

So here we go. Some shots out the window at work:

Leaf Depositories:

Sporting a Christine Wilson masterpiece :) I get lots of compliments on this hat, Christine.

 

Succulents on a drainpipe, advertising a shoe store?:

Ride home the other night:

And now for something entirely different. Below are a couple random happenings from the past week. First off, the mystery pig. Is it cheese? I don't know. But I've seen it at the grocery store twice now.

Pumpkin carved at work:

Krentenbollen! A doughy doughnut sort of thing consumed during the holiday season.

Delicious!

Random graffiti:

If you're lucky enough to find an ATM in this city, at least half the time it'll be out of service:

This is a very blurry, very dark picture of a middle-aged woman biking in front of me a few evenings ago. When I initially saw her I immediately was a little shocked by her bright color choices. I've come to expect leopard-print hats, coats, pants, shoes, socks, etc., that Dutch woman love to adorn, but this was different. Her backpack was hot pink, bright purple, and turquoise, coordinated with a perfectly matching bright purple jacket. Wow. And then it hit me, these were the exact colors I chose when I first got my braces. I wonder what happened along the way to turn me into a purple/pink/turquoise lover to a black/gray/brown lover. I suppose I left the 90's. Like a lot of people. Well, props to this lady for keeping it alive!