more than
tea and scones
Friday, September 02, 2005
Why I love Amsterdam!
There is so much more to Amsterdam the liberal attitude and the narcotics. If you come for the drugs, you end up missing out on so much of this beautiful city. There are canals everywhere and the architecture is just gorgeous. I cant get over how clean it is! The Dutch actually clean up after themselves and don't litter so much. They also don't pee all over the streets like those Romans and Parisans...ew. I love it here!First off, the food! The Dutch aren't afraid of fat and sugars...everything here is fried, baked and covered in some form of sauce. It's fantastic. I love french fries and mayo...its such a brilliant combo! Just wait until I bring home some stroopwaffles, seriously I can't get enough of them. I hope Canada is ready for the stroopwaffle.
The parks! Every road here leads to a park, and not the junkie infested parks, like real parks where nice people hang out. Today I found Vondelpark, it was beautiful. There were ponds, fountains, sculptures and an outdoor stage for concerts (unfortunately Vondelpark gets a little sketchy after dark). It was quite a lovely place to spend my afternoon.
The people! They are all so sweet. They actually approach me begging to help when I pull out my map. Most of them are so friendly and they always are smiling. I approached some hotdog vender and told him that I was terribly lost, he told me to sit down and grabbed me a cup of water. Then gave me detailed directions on how to get where I wanted. It was all very nice. Unfortunately some are too friendly and they become just annoying...
The shopping! This place is vintage heaven. Its filled with flea markets and flower markets and cheese markets. I found some amazing vintage clothing at this flea market, and shoes for 20 euro...I didn't buy those amazing shoes because I just don't have any more room in this back pack. You can get some really good buys at the markets, I love it.
IM camping at this beautiful lake, but this lake is man made. One day the government realized that there are many unemployed people, so he decided to create this massive lake in order to up employment levels. This lake is up to 80 feet deep and filled with fish the size of people! There are all these islands in the lake, and all of the islands were built with the sand from the lake. The islands are all surrounded by sheet metal held in place by massive wood poles (to keep the sand from just falling back into the lake). Its so brilliant. These Dutch are so inventive. They are running out of land to put houses, so they just create more land by digging up the ocean. Geniuses!
Another reason to love this place is, "Urine FM"! URINE! Can you believe it? There is actually a radio station called UrineFM...yea, we giggled too...
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Location: I don't know, Im headed towards the city center.
Wearing: my snazzy new bamboo bracelet and whatever clothing smelled the least
Day's Activities: find Vondelpark, find internet, find city center
Thing you miss: a soft sleeping surface and heating
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jenny at 4:14 PM
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
I love my tent...
Ack! 10 days until my return, I hope Canada is ready for me. I love it here so much, I've even taken a liking to the 5x5ft tent that is home. The weather has been absolutly beautiful, clear blue sky, sun, no rain and beautiful sunsets.Yesterday I made it into Amsterdam, finished off most of my gift shopping and splurged for TWO brand new pairs of socks (2pair for 1euro! Cheers to markets!)...I've been having quite the sock crisis...and now a shoe crisis (I wander the campground barefoot because my infected oozing feet cannot tolerate being enclosed in shoes). Last night I had a barbeque with these three fantastic British travellers (Cheers to Mike, Joe and Alex when you read this!). We gorged and binged on kabaps, sausage, burgers, fantastic bread, chocolate, chips and these 'stoopwaffels' (its like a biscuit made of maple syrup. Everyone will be recieving their very own stoopwaffel upon my return).
Today I'm going to the lake, this time I hope to submerge more than my knees (that water is just TOO icy!!)
Downside...this morning we just got a delivery of sod (they're doing construction in the parkinglot), I hate that smell. It reminds me of Rona...its so suffocating and rank, its like rotting apples.
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Location: Lucky Lake Amsterdam
Wearing: ha...the same thing that I wore for the last post...sans shoes
Day's Activities: wake up, bid farewell to the Brits, lounge, tea, internet, beach
Thing you miss: washing machine
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jenny at 11:46 AM
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Still in Amsterdam
Its lovely here. The Netherlands is one place I would love to live...I think it tops the list. Everyone here is so liberal, friendly and sweet (bonus: they're all blonde like me so I dont attract excessive attention...they think Im one of them!) Im also a big fan of the language...for example, right up the road there is this sign saying "slagboom sluit"...it makes me giggle because the first time I saw it I misread it.-------------------------------
Location: Lucky lake
Wearing: Vintage (NEWISH!) shirt over my cleanish pants (no socks...they're being washed)
Day's Activities: laundry, play at lake, find grocery store, discover that the grocery store has been raided and only carries citronella candles, expired milk, Heinekin and some boxed/canned crap, wimper over lack of groceries
Thing you miss: going to my washroom and finding only MY hair on MY sink (and not someones long black icky hairballs)
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jenny at 5:25 PM