Anna and Joanna Do Amsterdam

Aside from the cool day trips, we spent a few days just wandering the streets of Amsterdam. We took this picture in Rembrandtplein in front of the statue version of his famous painting "Nightwatch"; true tourist style. It's ok, since Jo was an actual tourist. I shun the title.











When we were waiting for our train to Delft, I used Joanna's company as an excuse to explore the multi-storey bike parking lot in front of Centraal. I compared this parking lot (and the difficulty of finding a spot) to that of Pearson (Toronto Int'l Airport for the foreigners).











Jacqui and I also organized a little dinner party for some of our friends. Here's Joanna going for the wonderful desert Jacqui made, which is being held by Australian Emily and Dutch Mona.











American Elysia and Dutch Renee. We're not doing anything bad I SWEAR; we're always this sweet.

Dutch Charm, Dammit!

During her visit, Joanna wanted to see some old Dutch charm, so we decided to take a day trip to Delft. In the 17th Century, artisans started to duplicate blue and white Chinese porcelain. Soon the imitation became more famous than the original, and today is famous worldwide as delftware. Given that the process was developed in China, it's ironic that most of the delftware sold in Delft is fake and "Made in China".

On delftware in Delft, haha
















The Oude Kerk is 800 years old, and the tower now has a lean of 2m. Vermeer was from Delft; his tomb is in this church.



































The Town Hall in the main square; it was also market day.





















The Prinsenhof is where Willem the Silent, first Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, held court until he was assassinated in 1584.
















Old Dutch Charm; Delft was founded around 1100.

Carnaval in Maastricht; or What's Wrong With This Picture?

Anna and Joanna do Maastricht.















Chatting to some random Carnaval goers; they did a tour of Canada!










The parade was off to a slow start, but we vowed we'd have a good time.











On Monday February 19th we took a day trip to the city of Maastricht, which is in the southern province of Limburg, wedged between Belgium and Germany. More importantly, Maastricht throws the meanest Carnaval party in Europe; at least that's what we were told. It turned out to be a bunch of (old) Dutch people dressed in ridiculous home-made costumes, wandering the streets looking more annoyed/drunk than jovial. The parade lasted well over 3 hours, and included every citizen of Maastricht, except for the bitter few who were watching the parade. The Dutch were shooting irritated glances at us for actually having a good time; we laughed so hard at all the random things we saw that would never fly in Canada. Joanna made a good observation: the Dutch aren't phased by anything and never exhibit extreme emotions (joy, anger etc). Dutch friend Mona said it's because the Dutch are so laid back they just don't care, and nothing really pushes them to extremes. Still, here's what Joanna and I found extremely amusing.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the Maastricht Carnaval parade. More importantly, let's play a game: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?











*There's nothing really wrong with this picture; it's actually quite funny to see kids dressed as animals and caged, and forced to jump through hoops. Good example of home-made costumes.












*There was only one officer in sight responsible for keeping order. He just hung out on the road, chatting with parade goers. It was actually nice to see that people can have fun without strict control and not have the scene descend into complete chaos...












*minors drinking on the street












*real pig roasting on the float; float made of styrofoam












*this float sucks












*the kid has a real, smoked, headless fish as part of his costume












*small child sitting on the road picking up confetti; dangerously near the float no?












*children attempting to stop the parade by making a human shield; when they succeeded in stopping the floats the lone police officer struggled to get all of them off the road. it was funny to watch












*Heineken keg on float which containing child












*guy dressed as the pope with a beer in one hand (which you can't see unfortunately), and a cigarette in the other)












*children shooting at a Bishop


At the end of the parade everyone gathered in the main town square. It was a strange, underwhelming day. The Dutch are crazy.

The new crew

Some of my roommates have moved out, and we have a few new bodies in Pad22. We had a Valentines Day/getting to know each other dinner.

Ada (Romania), Musa (Nigeria), Tony (China), Juan (Argentina)










Yael (Israel), luckily Jacqui stayed behind, moi




















I don't know that crazy person, but she has a nice new dress.

Herb Garden

In the Netherlands it's legal to grow 5 plants per person, outdoors.

Why I love the Netherlands

I really love this country because it's so tiny. Canada is a beautiful country, but it's just too big; Traveling from east to west is like traveling the entire continent of Europe. Here, the cutest little towns are a half hour bus ride away (and that's considered far), and each is cute as a button and steeped in history.

Marken was an island in the Zuiderzee (South Sea) until 1957 when a causeway linked up with the mainland. This is an authentic town, with painted houses raised on pilings to escape the Zuiderzee floods. Not a museum!

Which is cuter, Anna or Marken?



































We stopped in Monnickendam for a rest during our bike trip to Edam back in September, but I headed back to take a closer look. Monnickendam was founded in 1356 for the Benedictines who built a dam here (monks + dam, get it?)




















Hoorn is a port that was once the capital of West Friesland and a major trading city. Famous explorer Willem Schoutens named South America's Cape Horn after his home town in 1616.

The Hague

The Maurithuis museum in Den Haag; home of the famous Girl With the Pearl Earring. Contrary to the popular film, the painting is not a portrait but a tronijes (character study).











The Binnenhof (Inner Court) - parliament buildings











The Paleis museum is located in the 18th Century home of Queen Emma, great-grandmother of the current queen. It houses temporary exhibitions; now it was M.C. Escher.











The chandeliers in the palace were based on popular elements from his work. That's me and Alex in the mirror!

Angel of Haarlem

When my Polish friend Alex came to visit we took a few trips outside of Amsterdam.

Haarlem dates back to the 10th Century, but it wasn't until Willem van Oranje repelled the Spanish that the city soard to prosperity of the Golden Age, and the city has retained much if its 17th Century charm. Haarlem is the Capital of Noord Holland; Amsterdam is not the capital of Holland, but the capital of The Netherlands. Noord Holland and Zuid Holland are two provinces that are commonly refered to as Holland. Oh, and the Hague is the seat of the royal family.

Haarlem's Grote Markt (the main square)











The Grote Kerk van St Bavo is in the main square...














and the cathedral is home to this Muller organ, which has about 5000 pipes. It was played by Handel, and a 10 year old Mozart also rocked out on this baby.














And in true Dutch fashion, Haarlem has its share of canals and windmills.

It's the end of the world

On my way to the Turkish market where I do my groceries, I passed a small garden in full bloom. Check out those daffodils, in February!












And the next day it snowed in Amsterdam. It was the only snow we got, and it was so warm that the next day there wasn't a trace of it left.












We had a snow ball fight and even made a snow man because the snow was so wet. We practically cleared the yard making it. Silly Australians; they thought you can just make a snow man with any kind of snow. And they just started making piles of snow; no idea how to start a snow ball!