Giddy for Gidsy!

My absolute favorite thing about travel is meeting people who live in those destinations and if they take me somewhere they love to go... well I'll just be giddy from such luck!

That is why I thing Gidsy is PURE GENIUS!!!  Think Etsy but for Activities!!!!

I tell you a secret.  Once upon a time when I lived in NYC, I wanted to start a walking tour company.  Then I took a huge shotgun and shot myself in the foot about 38 times.  (Over thinking things like, nyc tourism activity permit, insurance, taxes, etc, etc, etc...)

Now for example, you're on your way to Amsterdam and you're walking around taking in the sites.  You come across one of the many picturesque canals and see lovely house boats.  You lean accross the bridge railing wistfully thinking... "Oh if I only knew someone who lived on such a boat, they could invite me over and I can see what it's like inside..."

Well GUESS WHAT!?  Few clicks on Gidsy and you're in!!!!  I myself have not used it yet, but the next time I'm going somewhere I can't wait to give this a try!  As for the house boat dinner, a total MUST quintessential Amsterdam.


Eat Dutch stew with houseboat crew! by Mark & Cynthia V. on Gidsy.com

Security declaimer: of course the jaded New Yorker in me is screaming not to go into any stranger's house as it could end in a bloody mess.... but I realize that it's a personal problem to work out privately with my team of psychologists so for now I tell the voice to shut it, and enjoy life ;)

Where would you take a tourist to in your town?

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Take the plunge!

I'm so lucky I love nasty weather.  The grayer, the rainier the better! It gives me energy.  I would have never guessed that about myself a big sun lover and all I thought living in a rainy country would be so depressing.  Somethings you just have to try to realize you love them. 

I thought scuba diving would feel claustrophobic with the tight suit and all that water on top of you but in fact it feels like flying.

I thought having a child would limit you from discovering new things in the world.  In fact a child makes you rediscover everything in the world in a new way!

Alright enough sappy stuff... Happy Friday!

Homework for the weekend: surprise yourself by doing something brand new, come back and report! 

Disclaimer: sunnyorangery will not be held responsible for pregnancies ;)

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Starbucks in the wilderness

Are you kidding me!? There is a line of about 20 people at the starbucks at the central station!!! Well maybe its because its the one and only starbucks in the netherlands. The ones at the airport don't count.
Verzonden vanaf mijn draadloze BlackBerry®-toestel

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Map-schmap, show me the pictures!

How cool! My photo was included in the Schmap.com guide! It's in the Jordaan neighborhood section. I'm famous, I'm famous!!! :)

I think amstardam is so cool looking, I'm surprised that more movies are not filmed here. They should be! Though I imagine it's expensive... It's not like Paris, sorry Paris, I think you're beautiful but somehow people get away with filming you in Prague. But Amsterdam is very unique, you can't film it anywhere else and say it was in Amsterdam.

kisses!

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My dad sent me an email saying that I should just update the website with just a 'few words' about what's going on and what I'm doing, and I shouldn't wait till I have enough time to sit down and write 'long stories'.

Ok, ok, you're right...

So let's do a brief run down:

Two weeks ago I went to ballet! Saw Romeo & Juliete. It WAS MAGICAL!!!! Ahhhhh No, Vito did NOT take me... he said something like, there would be only two circumstances in which hw would go to ballet, over his dead body OR if his mom would make him. I don't know seems a bit dramatic (but note taken about having his mom make him go next time!!!!)

I went with my work collegue Tina. She also has Eastern European back ground so I figured she would be into culture, art, and other such glamorous things. I was right!

This is the muziekteater, super gorgeous building on the Amstel river.

Then last week Vito and I went on a long weekend to Valencia, Spain! Ahhhhh.... what most wonderful few days ever! We were like real spaniards eating lunch at 2.30pm taking a siesta and heading out to dinner at 10pm!

More pictures will follow!

ok, there were my 2 words for the day :)

KISSES!

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Where you from and who is your daddy?

Yesterday started out as a bright sunny day! Did I leave my umbrella at home??? NO! It is always in my purse. Sure enough around noon it started pouring.

Today: Sunny... I think I will bring my umbrella.

People ask me how I'm dealing with the big differences between Amsterdam and New York. Well for the umthousandsthsssths time, it's actually VERY similar! In the things that I like.

For example I went to a party on Saturday, lets go through a list of who was there (that I got to meet).

Austrian, Danish, Japanese

Chinese girl born in Norway

3 Italian guys (Italian guys never go anywhere alone)

Swiss, German, and a French guy that spoke Russian

even a Canadian

and of course a few Dutchies just for diversity :)

Basically the one thing that I loved the most about NYC, the international flare, it's here!

*above is a sneaky pic I took with my camera of the rooftop patio before it got full.

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Girls just want to have fun!

A whirlwind weekend!

We picked up my friend from the international bus station. Did you know that you can go to Belgium from Amsterdam on a bus for 20€!!!?! And apparently a bunch of other destinations...

The only downer is that the trip is longer then the Thalys train, plus its not as reliable as my friend had to wait for a whole hour for the bus to depart. She also mentioned that some of the characters she traveled with were rather questionable... hmm... but it is a big saving compared to 94€ train ride.

She however made up for the savings with major money spending by SHOPPING! Saturday morning has begun with a very innocent minute trip to my downstairs housewares shop to get some gift paper for Vito's mom's gift. It flowed into an even MORE innocent "stop by" a clothing for old lady's shop... you know... just to peek inside... in case a perfectly normal item was accidentally acquired by the store's buyer. Well... lets just say, a purse (for me), a gold scarf and a very cool snake necklace (for Aurelia) later we were on our way back to the apartment. Hmm... damage done and we have not even entered Amsterdam yet!

In Amsterdam we have discovered some really cool shops where they sell ONE of a kind clothes made by some very funky people! We were browsing and trying on stuff (well Aurelia was, I was lounging on the graffitied white leather couch...). The store is run by two funky chicks, one Dutch and one American. At one point another funky Australian dude (friend of theirs) came in and the store had to quickly be closed because the whole posse had to run off to some party... This was only about 4.30 in the afternoon! But don't get alarmed! Aurelia was able to carry away a really cool seventies peasant shirt with embroidery and a waterproof (!!) red mini skirt! Hey, it rains a lot in Belgium too!

Anyway all details will be on my hotelbycity blog but here is a fun picture of the shop:

We made our way down the main shopping street wowing not to spend another euro... meanwhile silver espadrilles, heart dotted umbrella, white bubble tee and a puchiesque pink scarf had somehow made their way into Aurelias bag even tough a very strict self imposed budget was forethought by her before coming to Amsterdam. (I myself did indulge in a heart dotted umbrella and an exaggerated orange plastic diamond that will accent my new bag!)

By that time the shops were already closing and Aurelia was facing the harsh reality of the many shopping bags in her hands... I consoled her that all shops will be closed the next two days so there was just no way we could shop even if we wanted to!

As we made our way to a busy square for a beer or three she disappeared to the restroom to emerge wearing all her new acquisitions. Again, I congratulated her on good choices and reminded that in fact she SAVED money as all that stuff would have cost her more in Brussels... (So she swears.)

The evening continued happily, the sun peaked out and we made our way to a sure hit street where you can find excellent eateries for any taste. Rude awakening set in as we realized ALL restaurants were totally FULL!!! Boy and I thought New York City was bad...

We however inserted ourselves in this really bustling Indonesian restaurant and had a SUPER rijstaffel!! It was both our first time eating Indonesian. We just looked around and when the waitress appeared just pointed and said: "We want what they're having!" It was delicious!!! The meal consists of a bunch of little dishes with various meats and vegetables variating in spiciness, accompanied by different rices. WE LOVED IT! The waitress was surprised that we actually able to finish everything! (Well almost...)

Wow this is getting really long... and I've only described half of day one... and more pictures need to be posted...

More tomorrow, but lets just say, shopping was not finished!!!! The next day we stumbled upon a huge MARKET!!!!! Key word... hand embroidered Indian pillow shams... HELLO!!!!

Ok, I'm too tired, must go and... do nothing.

ps: the roses were so pretty!!! only 6€ for TWENTY! At this price flowers could be had in the house all the time not only for impressing house guests! ;)

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The coolest thing in the Red Light District...

Grandma and Grandpa are here! We've had a busy day today, spin around the canals on a boat, the Red Lights district!


Well actually me and Grandma sat down for a Heineken by the canal as grandpa walked down further by himself to check out the "action".


Grandma: ...you see, he just walks off and I have to sit and worry about him!


Me: oh, come on, he'll be right back, he just went to check out the naked ladies in the windows


Grandma: I know, what if he has a heart attack!???


My grandma is the worrier type. If someone is 5 minutes late to a family gathering she'll start calling the local hospitals.


Well 10 minutes later grandpa came back and super excited too!


Grandpa: Come on! I HAVE to show you something!!


Me: oh we don't care granpa, the ladies are not even naked, they're all wearing bras...


Grandpa: no, no, EVEN BETTER! Come here, come on, I've never seen anything like it!!

We had to walk down the street and see this:

(don't worry, he is only posing)

Grandma: well, since I'm up... show me the naked ladies...

After all the excitement we took a train to my town and now they're both safe and sound, away from drugs and prostitutes, snoring in the couches.

I want to be just like them when I'm 80!!!

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Weekend review...

I noticed that one of the interesting things about living in a new country is that you tend to want to do EVERYTHING! You're just in a very energetic mood that makes you act. I noticed that living "at home" makes you take it for granted and its so easy to get lazy to go out there and enjoy it. Maybe for that reason I made a mad dash to MOMA and the MET in nyc only after I realized I'd be leaving soon. Lesson learned: live your life as a tourist all the time!

This Saturday we went to the dunes behind the castle. Well not directly behind it, the dunes are huge and stretch along the coast for a few towns, but lets just say these were the dunes behind our town. Gorgeous! Well if you like nature, woods, fields and flowers and all that. I do! (Don't get me wrong, I love it to a point, especially the point that I'm only 30mins away from Amsterdam.) Anyway, the sun was shining, birds were singing flowers blooming and the SHEEP were Beehe-eehe-ing!.... Ahhhh... idylic...

Vito: um... honey, I believe these are goats actually...

Oh Goats, SHEEP, whatever, they're both cute and fuzzy and go- Beeehe! MEN, do they always have to be such know it alls!?

Look at this one, he was posing for me. SO cute!!

After roughing it in the wild... we decided to go completely cosmopolitan and went out for a dinner in Amsterdam. A Peruvian restaurant called Casa Peru on a pretty canal street. These pictures are from their website just to show the restaurant. In reality it was completely FULL! My cevice starter was delicious! The main course was yummy too, though we both agreed that the presentation could have been a bit more elaborate. The deserts of warm chocolate cake and caramel flan were really great! All in all the place is really gezellig ;) wait staff are super nice and the Argentinian red wine from Malbec that we had was mmm mmm good. Oh... and the walk back among the canals and lights reflecting in the water was double mm mm good...

Sunday apparently called for more rough action and I went indoor wall climbing with my new friends. It was a group of about 7 people leading the band were the guy from Colorado and one from Switzerland obviously two places where there are plenty of chances to climb some mountains. Anyway, it was really great fun and what a surprising feeling it is when you realize that you're climbing an inclined wall and you're resisting gravity.

I wonder what next weekend has in store... Well I kinda know. We are going to be roughing it some more in the forest! Unless it rains then we'll just have to rough at the indoor pool... Its a four day weekend, but what's more, MY GRANDPARENTS are going to be in TOWN! For now they are running around somwhere in Germany and Austria, ah those crazy kids!

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Oh no you di'n't!!

As I got out of the train in Amsterdam (yesterday) it was slightly drizzling. As I started walking towards my new work (unpaid, but work!) it started really raining (booooo!!! rain!!! boo!!!!!).

BUT!

I walked by Village Bagels and got myself a Latte. A LARGE Latte. Please look at the picture... makes you wonder what a SMALL one would be like right? LOOK! If I can hold it in ONE hand, it's NOT LARGE!!! OK!??? Large is when TWO hands need to be involved. To their defense I must say it did taste good. The nice boy behind the counter did ask me a dumb question: "To stay or to go?" It's a Tuesday morning, it's raining, I'm OBVIOUSLY not on a pleasure walk, I'm clearly going to work... (work!) so yes to GO!

Half way through the cup I SIGNIFICANTLY became nicer... even the downpour did not matter anymore. Oh and btw, if you are in Amsterdam and you don't want to look like a tourist do NOT use an umbrella as you walk around under the rain. The only people I saw with umbrellas were Spanish tourists. Dutch people do not use umbrellas because they are waterproof.

On a very happy note, behold the view from my office... (office!!). I can't believe the prime location, on a canal... OHHH! And the windows actually OPEN!

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Queen's day Amsterdam 2007!

That's right people, I'm here to report on the biggest street party in the Netherlands. If you want actual history and other educational value type information please read more here.

In essence Queen's day is a HUGE country wide STREET party! Some people dress up in the royal color orange, some wear orange hats or other accessories. Live performances by bands are set up in many squares and there are beers sold everywhere along the street.

Canals are packed with boats some sailing by with loud music. Oh yes, and many people set up blankets where they sell everything they don't need. (Exactly like a garage sale, a country wide one.)

Now in spite of what should be inevitable craziness that usually seems to result when you put hoards of people, beer, boats and water together, I must say all the festivities seemed very nicely contained. That is, everyone seemed to be having nice clean fun. There was no pushing, not too much yelling, a bit of very subdued dancing in specifically designated areas. Really, I was surprised, I did have an idea that there might be some ruckus. Once again proves that Dutch people are normal... that's just SO weird! I've never been around so many normal people.

One thing I do have to comment are the bathroom breaks. Yes, if you're throwing down a few sooner or later you just gots to go, ya know what I'm sayin'? Anyway, for boys the resolution is a simple one. Portable street toilets... (I did not take this picture, just got this one of the internet.)

For girls it's a bit more tricky. All the pubs and cafes have HUGE lines to use the bathroom and obviously us ladies are not about to pie in the street like the boys! The ladies use a Royal Toilet! Well in the spirit of making a buck or two, some people not only sell their junk but also put out a table with home made goodies, cookies, cake, lemonade, tea or whatever... some people were very creative and opened their house for toilet use! A big orange sign outside labeled the house "Royal Toilet" and for a 1€ fee (50c more then to use the bathroom at a pub) you can use their bathroom! There was hardly a line and a nice clean bathroom. I just thought it was hilarious. While there, the owners offered (for free) some home made candies!

It was on this street... see the hordes of people!

And now just some pictures of all the excitement...

....and street food galore!!! Indonesian chicken with peanut sauce...

That's all folks, move it along, nothing more to see... :)

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It's FRIDAY!

Today is just a GORGEOUS DAY! And yes it's sunny!!! Why are you surprised? Didn't I say that it will be sunny all the time!? ;)

I had to go to Amsterdam to sort out my language school business and on the way back I walked through Jordaan where everyone and their mothers (children, dogs, sisters... etc) were at the outdoor tables and enjoying life.

Yeah, and in the middle of me being a complete tourist... some "real'' tourists asked me for directions!! (on 3 different occasions). I have a theory about this. There are SUPER tourists, the ones who come on buses snap pictures and follow a guide holding a white umbrella, REAL tourists, who really take time to get to know a city, and there are ETERNALLY DELUSIONAL tourists, those who insist on pretending that they are NOT tourists. I have the delusional tourism perfected to a ''t'', I walk fast, look straight ahead at all times even though I really badly want to look around and stare... and I occasionally glance at my watch... Next week however I want to be a real tourist and go visit some museums or something...!

On the way back I saw a tulip field!!! I yelled at the conductor guy to stop the train because I was having a "tulip emergency" (that's when I MUST stop what I'm doing and go frolic among the tulips) but he didn't hear me...

Btw, I'm only 30 mins on the train from Amsterdam... Apparently here it's a bit of a big deal. Ha! They need to do the Staten Island to Manhattan 3 hour trip on a weekend. (The two, supposedly the SAME CITY!)

And with these thoughts I wish you all a SUPER and SUNNY WEEKEND!!!!!!! Don't let me find out Monday that you didn't do anything fabulous!!!!! The weekend forecast for here promises SUMMER weather and........ SUNSHINE!!

tata darlings!

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