Today’s Highlight: Dinner at Zarra’s (delish!)
I meant to mention this yesterday, because I think it is so genius. Almost all of the houses here have a giant iron hook fastened at the peak of their roofs, for moving! No one here struggles to get sofas up narrow staircases, instead the windows come out (or at least open completely) and a pully system is set up. All of the furniture/boxes and other fun moving junk is hoisted into the house. I think this is a much better than the “deal with it” style of moving we have in Halifax. Anyway, I guess the hooks aren’t the only means of moving, there are also special trucks you can hire, that have a kind of ladder, with a huge metal container attached that rolls up and down the ladder. This morning at 7:30 that exact big metal container smacked against the apartment building, directly bellow my bedroom window. The people who lived bellow Bertie were moving out, and as annoyed as I was to be awake, it was great to get a look at another bit of European ingenuity. I’m pretty sleepy now though, and I think I will make it an early night.
Today was another day of beautiful sun and lots of walking/cycling. It’s hard to just relax (not that exploring is stressful) when there is always so much to see. I am actually finding it hard to shoot, because I can’t concentrate on only one thing for very long. I think that my brain will settle down once I have my bearings, but besides being distracted by the city, I am also obsessed with direction. I get lost about five times a day, but never badly, and most people are pretty nice about straightening me out.
I met Zanna today (my gluten free Amsterdam connection, and yes I know I am a pathetic dork) and she and Alex and I spent the afternoon on her balcony with a bottle of wine and some snacks. She has an amazing apartment, with HIGH ceilings, fancy moldings, a loft bed for visitors, and a shower in the kitchen! Oh and she has a hairless cat that looks like a bat (in the cutest way possible). On our way to Zanna’s we walked through Museumplien (museum square) where there was a big fair happening. I swear, the Dutch have holidays and parties all the time ☺
We didn’t stop there for long, but we did catch some pretty awesome Dutch Hip Hop. It was hilarious. Hip Hop artists here don’t take themselves as seriously as a lot of the popular North American artists. They were dancing and clapping and jumping around and rapping, in Dutch. Funny thing is though, that they swear in English, and I laughed so hard I almost pooped my pants.
I stayed at Zanna’s for dinner, and chatted with her and her boyfriend (whose name I can’t pronounce, even though Zanna walked me around the grocery store making me say it over and over) about music and things Adrian and I need to do when he gets here.
The forecast for the next 5 days is sunny and 20 degrees, so if I don’t have a tan already I will soon enough.
Love to everybody,
Emma