adventures in holland

ok peons, prepare yourselves for the most important update to hit the blogosphere since rick astley first rolled onto the scene.

our romantic dutch honeymoon is admittedly a little bit blurred in my head now, but i'll do my best to bring some parts it into focus for the benefit of you all, my dear friends, family, and hired henchmen.

so after that first harrowing evening, our time in the dam became decidedly more docile. our first day in the city we went on a quest to locate some of the coffeeshops that had been recommended to us. we tried the grasshopper first, a trendy but overpriced shop in the heart of the centrum, the central district of amsterdam. there we sampled the baked goods, baked a little bit ourselves, and marveled at the weather outside as it shifted from snow to blue skies and sunlight to hail to everything in between.

after the hopper we walked around the city and took in the beautiful architecture of dam square and the old church -- we went into the church to see the exhibit they were hosting on afghanistan, not so much to cross cultural boundaries as to purchase a couple pairs of sweet afghani gloves that meg had told us could be had for quite cheap. so while we were browsing around the gift shop we found another item of note in addition to the stylish gloves -- a certain book. the book was in dutch, but we didn't really need command of the language to understand it: it was a "Where's Osama?" book that was created after the fashion of waldo! in an afghani culture exhibit. heinous? yes! hilarious? also yes!

so it was about that time when we discovered abraxus, our favorite coffeeshop in all of the dam. we had heard from multiple people that it was great, and the guidebook recommended it so of course we dropped on by -- and wow! the food and shakes were terrific and the atmosphere was really nice too. there was a lot of wood finishing and an upstairs with nice benches to sit on, smoke, and socialize.

afterwards, we went for pastries at a delicious bakery just down the road and also got some coffee and read at a cafe for a while. we ended up divvying up most of our time between smoking in coffeeshops and drinking coffee and reading in cafes -- the days start to blur together on this count, but suffice to say that it was one of the most relaxing times i've ever spent in my life!

so that's how we filled our days. of our nights, we spent several of them with great company over at an apartment complex east of the city center called funenpark. these lovely apartments were inhabited by none other than mac students studying abroad at the university of amsterdam, and their friends whom they'd met on the program! ej and i quickly developed a rhythm with tim -- go to albert heijn's (the grocery store), pick up some ingredients for dinner and many bags of a delicious treat called stroopwaffel for dessert, go back to his place to cook, smoke, eat, and generally hang out, and then smoke and watch mr. show, and then smoke and whip up some playlists for each other to listen to before bed. so we became fast friends, bonding over our shared love of food, TV, and music! we also hung out with our new friends sarah, halley, and christy, two of whom we knew a little bit from macalester and one of whom we had never met. but we got to know each other over a delicious burrito dinner that sarah cooked, and a few bottles of albert heijn's house red and a few (not albert heijn's) bowls.

so besides all the coffeeshopping, cafe-ing, and funenparking, we did only a few other things. we had a wonderful time seeing the van gogh museum -- we spent quite a while there and enjoyed it immensely. we became regulars at a place called "eet-cafe de valk" between the centrum and funenpark and we spent lots of time there. we thought the place gave elliott and tim food poisoning -- they both ordered the "spicy chicken sandwich" against my advice ("the dutch don't know how to do spicy..."). also, ironically, i ordered a sandwich (as had become my custom) called the healthy roll that had ham, egg, gouda, and 'salad' (veggies) as the brits would say. but later we found out that some brand of evil dutch flu was responsible for all the subsequent vomit fests.

also, the red light district was amazing! the prostitutes stand at glass windows with red lights behind them showing what their mommas (and likely in some cases, science) gave them. we wandered around bleary eyed in amazement and in a haze -- really, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. at one point we got a little bit lost, and e arbitrarily chose a direction to go -- one that led along a canal, and one in which the sidewalk began to slowly disappear, giving way to a sandy embankment alongside the water. we kept walking, finally along one narrow strip of concrete and eventually emerged back onto a main road next to a bridge -- it was at that point that e looked at me and said, "did you SEE her?" and it was at that point i realized that i had totally ignored a (apparently gorgeous) prostitute who had been banging on the glass to get my attention, but obviously, i was too classy for the likes of her.

so! that is a selection of stories from our time in amsterdam. we relaxed. we met great people. we enjoyed the beauty of the city. there are other stories to tell about the swedes at our hostel, seeing our friend marlene, and a hellish day of travel but i'll leave those for the next update.

so good night dear readers, and stay tuned for the next (final) installment of our dutch holiday.
and you should know a few things more too:
Were no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do i
A full commitments what Im thinking of
You wouldnt get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how Im feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

ya'll just got ROLLED
-jp