So Much Cycling

My first day back in Amsterdam was the one which we had decided on for a bike ride. The forecast was good, with only a small chance of showers, and though it wasn't sunny, with a mostly clear sky. The plan was a bike ride of epic proportions to "Waterland", an area of the Dutch countryside.

Lisa and I were both feeling a bit unsure about going through with the plan. We were both feeling pretty taken over by colds, but were also both quite excited at the prospect of this ride.

We mulled it over during breakfast at Bagels&Beans, whose food we are still impressed by, but find their timely service is somewhat lacking. We met Jenny, Sam and Povka back at the flat with the decision that we would give the bike ride a go, and turn back early if we felt the need. At this point, I was under the impression that our final destination was about an hour away. 2 hours of bike riding with a break in between? I can handle that, figured silly Danica.

Can you sense the turn of events coming up in this tale?

Turns out the itinerary we had discovered had two options, a shorter and a longer, and I was unintentionally bamboozled into doing the latter.

Our ride started off through what were becoming the familiar streets of Amsterdam, to Central Station. There, we took the world's shortest ferry ride across a small channel to Amsterdam-Noord.

Sam, myself, Jenny and Povka on the ferry across the channel

Amsterdam-Noord

 We biked along a lot of enchanting woodland paths, down some tree lined streets, made a a quick stop at a sweet playground and scared some Dutch children with our "Big People" ways, and finally made it to Zuiderdorp. Yes, I believe that is the actual name of the town, if not the actual spelling.

Z-town

Z-town was simply stop number one, a cutesy little farming town that reminded me a bit of Cloverdale, but with more sheep, more canals, and cute cottagey looking houses.

We then embarked on the next leg of our trip, that took us through some skinny little country lanes, and a really neat bike path that was raised far above the street for cars, and above sea level (rare in Ams). We had a nice little system going of Jenny, Sam and Povka stopping every once in a while to let the sickies catch up, and then the 5 of us would set out again, forming a very Sound of Music like convoy.

Me and Povka

Me and Jenny

Weeeeeeee

The crew

In what felt like forever, we made it to the Island town of Merken, which was pretty cool, and worth the trek. It was a quaint little harbour town, with lots of typically Dutch looking houses, some souvenir shops, and some restaurants- though a lot of them were closed, as it was a Sunday. Truthfully the town was so quiet when we arrived around 3:00 that I had moments of feeling like I was in a zombie apocalypse film.

Jenny and Sam succeeded in finding an open restaurant, and a quite nice one at that. We warmed up with some hot Chocomelk (with lots o' slagrom- whipped cream), and most of us had the soup of the day- a yummy homemade pumpkin. Lis and Jenny also had "toasties"- paninis that looked amazing. I had an ice cream sundae for dessert. Delicious.

We stayed at the restaurant for a couple hours. There's a thing in the Netherlands where your bill is never given until asked for. The Dutch apparently don't care if you just hang out forever- or at least, want to appear that they feel that way. After our scrumptious meal, we hit up a couple souvenir shops with some great deals. At around 5:30 we realized that, oh shit, our clocks had fallen back that day, and so it was really more like 6:30, and the skies were beginning to darken.

Merken at dusk

There was much humming and hawing on my part whether or not I was going to faint off my bike in some field somewhere, but as the buses don't take bikes here, toughing it out was the only viable option.

We took a more direct route home then we had taken away from it, but partly due to mine and Lisa's lethargy it still took about an hour and a half to get back to Ams.

Navigating the narrow roads in the nearly pitch black that night is something I'll never forget. There are no street lights on the beaten down bike paths in the countryside. There is very little stopping you from going just a tad to far to one side of the lane and ending up knee-deep in canal water. When I told my dad this story he said "didn't you have lights on your bikes?" Technically the answer was no, not all of us did, but I personally had one, and so answered my Pa, "yeah, so you could see, like, maybe 3 feet in front of you. Not super helpful." What a freaking adventure though! Like I said, I'll never forget it.

When the lights of Amsterdam starting popping up in the distance I had never been happier to see a city coming into view. Many WOOOOOOOOs were given when we made it, mostly unscathed, to the ferry back to town.

Bums were bruised and legs were burning, but we'd accomplished a 50km bike ride and lived to tell the tale.

Amsterdam doesn't sell Gatorade, but a sports drink called Aquarius. I got the blue one.

Denmark Denoument

On a canal tour my last morning in Copenhagen

I have to admit, it was hard traveling all on my ownsome while in Denmark. That said, Copenhagen is a really beautiful city and I'm very glad I decided to visit it, even if I had no one to do it with me.

On my last morning in CPH, I took a canal ride with Madeleine, and a girl named Mai-u who had checked in during the night, on a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip from her studies in Stockholm.

It was pretty darn cold, but the sun was out. A lot of tour books (including the one I had with me) suggest taking a canal tour at the beginning of your stay in order to get your bearings and get an idea of how the city works. I have to say, I rather enjoyed doing it the other way around. It was nice to wrap up my trip by seeing buildings and areas that I'd already visited from a different perspective. It was neat to have a sense of where we were as we weaved in and out of the city's canal, and to be able to clue in to "ohhh", having walked there earlier on.

The one new sight I got from the tour was the "Black Diamond", an extension of the royal library. Our tour guide explained that the building has a bit of controversy attached to it, as on Copenhagen's misty grey days, it doesn't do what it's "supposed to do". As our day was sunny though, we saw the building in its full splendor. As we approached, it looked almost like the front of the Diamond was alive, morphing around like mercury or las. The black reflective front was picking up the sunlight on the water and spitting the image back at us and it was pretty amazing. Clearly, days like my last in Copenhagen were the kind the designer had in mind.

We went under a bunch of low bridges, one of which has a cute little story tied to it. Apparently if you kiss while going under that particular bridge, your love will last forever. Totally appealed to a hopeless romantic like me. Too bad I had no one to kiss!!

Our tour lasted about an hour. It reminded me just how much I love being on the water. Kind of made me miss the cottage, oddly enough!!!

When we pulled back in to Nyhavn the other girls headed back to the hostel to grab more layers (I tried to warn them about the cold, honestly I did) and I headed to the airport.

Nyhavn.  Beauty.

I got there early, on purpose, to get my Starbucks on. This could be wrong, but according to my store-finder app, the Starby's at the airport is the only one in all of Denmark. Shocking!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed my white mocha, caught up on some journaling, and then unfortunately had to spend a lot more time than planned sitting around doing nothing. My flight was delayed by about 45 mins, and then with the trains and metro connections on the other end, I got to Lisa's flat at around 9pm. We had salmon and a yummy salad for bed, and as we were both now in full-blown cold mode had a chill night of watching old episodes of HIMYM.

Funny how Amsterdam felt like home. But with my bestie there- not so funny after all.

Denmark Days part 3

Kong's Have

Having made a plan the night before, I set off with a whole list of things to do my last full day in Copenhagen. First on that list was the final shower I had to have with only a stupid "camping towel" to dry off with. Waste of space!

Aside from that lack of coziness though, my day started off so great. My first stop was "Kong's Have", the King's Gardens, which were quite close to my hostel. The sun was shining (quite unlike my first two grey days in the city) and turned the already gorgeous colours of the park even more gorgeous. It sounds cliche and cheesy, but everything really was bathed in golden light. "Rosenberg Slot" was within the gardens, and though I didn't enter the castle, I did gaze upon it in awe for a good chunk of time that crisp morning.

Tick and tick, I moved on to the next thing on my list, which was shopping the "Strædet" area- basically a couple of shopping streets nearby Strøget, but less commercialized and more kitschy. There was one little store, called Elizabeth something that had out their Christmas stuff, so I of course died. They also had an enchanting array of mercury glass votive candle holders, which it took all my power not to buy them out of. Some were pink. Gah.

Mother and Kirstin, you would have been so proud of my aimless shopping ways that day. I was channelling both of you big time.

I finished off the first part of my day with a trip to the National Museet. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. That thing is HUGE! I think I counted 7 separate exhibits, which you could almost call separate museums in their own right. You could easily get lost in the building as well, which just wound on and on forever. I first experienced this loss in the "Prehistory" section among some Stonehenge-like rocks, but quickly regained my sense of direction and made my way to the "Stories of Denmark" section, which appealed to me most.

It was a neat part of the museum that basically included little anecdotes from all different periods of Denmark's past, photographs and books and clothing, and also random crap like embroidered pillows and Pokemon cards. Everything carries history!

Eating g-free in Denmark was hard.
This meal made my life.

After my time at the museum, I stopped at a brilliant little cafe on a nearby corner where I had a most excellent frittata and a glass of organic cran. (That's cranberry juice for those of you who aren't familiar with the Danica dialect).

My next stop was the Danish Jewish Museum, which in order to get to, I had to cross a bridge over to Christiansborg Slot and navigate its grounds. What a massive castle! Very cool to see. The DJM was very small, but very enjoyable. One of the most notable things about it was its architectural design, done by the same guy who is redesigning the World Trade Centre.




The museum is designed around the Hebrew letters in the word "Mitzvah". The effect of this is certainly not your run of the mill rectangular museum, but rather slanting floors and ceilings, sharp angles and a really modern feel.

The museum organization is also a bit out of the ordinary, with information grouped in "themes" instead of chronologically. There was an "arrivals" theme, for instance, that touched on an influx of Jews into Denmark way the heck back when, another one in the 1970s when a wave of anti-semitism hit Poland, and also displays on the arrival of Danish Jews on Swedish soil when they arrived there as refugees during WWII. The "Mitzvah" theme (mitzvah meaning a good deed) explored this part of Danish Jewish history in more detail. I didn't spend a huge amount of time at the museum but the time I did spend there was quite well spent.

Leaving the museum that afternoon, I was so darn cold that I figured I'd stop at my hostel to warm up quick before my evening plans took flight. Back at the hostel, I met a new roomie named Madeleine, a kiwi girl who had been traveling around Europe for about 8 months. We made plans to hang out the next morning, and then I dashed back out into the cold.

I was off to meet Line, a friend of a friend's daughter who had graciously offered to meet me for dinner. Not only did cottage buddy Birte give me the low down on Copenhagen this summer, she also match-made me with this lovely girl (and another that I'll be staying with in Berlin!).

It was really great to meet up with a local, and Line and I got along really well. She got me into Tivoli on a pass card she had, and we took a nice walk through the park, which was all done up for Halloween. I loved all the floating jack-o-lanterns, candles, and cobwebs. Well done Tivoli, you have this Hallow's Eve aficionado's seal of approval.

H.C. Anderson looks on at one of Europe's oldest theme parks

Rather than eat at one of the packed, probably expensive, and probably gluten-ridden restaurants in the park, Line led the way back in to town to a restaurant called "RizRaz". Omg. A g-free paradise! The restaurant's speciality was their vegetarian buffet, which only had 2 gluteny items (lasagna and spaghetti) out of maybe 25 non-gluteny ones. I think I ate more that meal than I had my previous 48 hours in Copenhagen total. They had yummy broccoli salad, potato salad, tzatziki and hummus, these falafel ball things, rice, zucchini, oh man. I could go on, but just believe me that it was awesome.

Line and I had some lovely convos over dinner, and parted ways when it was time for her to pack it in in preparation for an early morning working on her masters thesis. Back at the hostel, I hung out with Madeleine for a while, and had another nice early night.

Denmark Days part 2

My second full day in Denmark was another lovely one. Milla technically had to check out of the hostel at 10am, so she handed in her key and just left her stuff near my bed. Our plan for the morning was to tick Christiania and the Little Mermaid off our collective to-see lists, and we succeeded.

The first thing we did was navigate our way across a big bridge over to the man-made island of Christianshavn. We ended up in a nice little park on what I've been calling "the coast", but was really just the other side of the island. Milla's mum came and met us there and we had a nice stroll with the crisp autumn colours as our backdrop.

a crisp morning in Christianshavn

Eventually, we entered the free-state of Christiania, a community forged in the 1970s when a bunch of hippies took over some abandoned army barracks. More than a big group of long term squatters, Christiania has evolved into an entirely self-sustainable community, with their own schools, health centers, and even their own garbage an recycling programs.

I didn't feel scared of or intimidated by the community members at all. While they are clearly a group of people who hold privacy with high regard, they also seemed happy to share their community with the public. The whole area was brightly coloured and artsy, and you could tell many creative minds must live there. I found the "you are now entering the EU" signs at the exits quite funny. Being from BC, the "green light district" of "pusher street" didn't phase me much.

me and Milla and the entrance to Christiania

Milla's mum went elsewhere after our wander through Christiania, and Milla and I moved on to our next goal for the day. After a quick stop for tea, we started for the coast, eventually making our way to the fortification of Kastellet. This little star-shaped island was possibly my favourite part of Copenhagen. At the entrance to the area, there was a beautiful old stone Anglican Church that I quickly fell in love with. Also an epic fountain with an incredibly dynamic use of water.

The Gefion Fountain

Anglican Church in Kastellet

As we walked along Langeline it seemed there was a statue every few steps, along with a lot of natural beauty. We put our tourist caps on for pictures with the "Lille Havfrue", but also went further along the coast to visit her uglier, and much lonelier sister, the "mutant mermaid".

The Little Mermaid

The Mutant Mermaid

Having seen those sights, we made our way back to the hostel, and before Milla had to catch her flight back to Finland, had lunch together at a place called zoo bar. I brought the salad count to 4 there, but we also split some delicious parmesan/citrus fries that were amaaaaazing.

After Milla disappeared down the metro at Kongen's Nytorv I finished the part of Strøget we hadn't done the day before, being able to afford, and therefore buying, nothing.

As the evening went on and the skies got dark and cold I found a place that sold broccoli soup to go, smuggled it into my hostel with the prowess of a secret agent, and ended up spending the rest of my evening hanging out with Jan, a political science prof from Thailand, in Denmark to present a paper. Sweet.

Mine and Milla's walking route.  11.5 km!

Denmark Days part 1

Copenhagen!

Last Tuesday, I left the Netherlands for the Danish leg of my European adventure. I was staying at The Generator hostel in Copenhagen, and although I have literally no other hosteling experience to compare it to, I found it quite great (thanks Birte, for the recommendation!).

I was staying in an all female dorm with 3 bunk beds, a nice vanity, an ensuite bathroom, and lots of pink. When I first arrived, it was just me and two British highschool girls in the dorm, but later that evening we were joined by an older Greek lady named Anastacia, a young Japanese girl named Yuki who seemed to just sleep all the time, and Milla, from Helsinki, who ended up being my buddy for the next couple days.

Milla and I enjoyed some Tuborg beer in our hostel bar that night, and got to know each other a bit. She is working on her Math Masters in Finland, hoping to become a high school teacher, living with her Dutch bf who she met while traveling in New Zealand. There was supposed to be karaoke in the bar the bar that night, but it didn't end up happening. Too bad, but it was still a nice night.

After a really great sleep (I was super impressed with the comfy mattresses and fluffy duvets at the hostel), Milla and I got up and headed downstairs to meet the "free walking tour" that picks up at our hostel each morning. With a few fellow hostelers we wound our way down Strøget (Europe's longest pedestrianized shopping street. Weeeee!) and met more tourists taking the tour on the steps in front of town hall.

At about 11am our tour guide Igor (originally from Prague [holla], but 3 years in Copenhagen) began what would be a comprehensive tour of the city highlights that gave a really great overview of what it was all about. He started with some facts about the buildings around us. The Town Hall was modeled after a similar one in Sienna, Spain. The statue of Bishop Absalon above the entrance shows the important Danish figure holding a bishop's crook in one hand and a sword in the other. No ordinary man of the cloth, he was also a bad-ass warrior, whom we learned more about later. We also gazed upon the entrance to Tivoli, the world's second-oldest theme park and inspiration to one Walt Disney.

Next we took a walk past the home in which Carlsburg Brewery founder J.V Jacobsen was born, and looked across the canal at the former royal residence, Christianborg Slot, which has burnt down so many times its almost funny. But not funny. Obviously. Because fires aren't funny.

Bad Ass Bishop Absalon

Next up, we visited another Bishop Absalon statue. In this one, he was wearing chain mail and a helmet and riding into battle on a rearing horse. Igor told us the story of how the B.A bishop was the guy who finally rid Denmark of their pesky pirate problem, and started the country off on a lengthy success period of ruling the seas and nearby trade routes.

"New Harbour"

We wandered back to the area of Nyhavn. I feel as if this is the picture of Denmark everyone gets in their heads. Colorful houses and wooden sailboats, picture-perfect. At the front of the harbor is a large anchor in memory of the 2000 sailors who lost their lives in WWII. Denmark's navy valiantly sank all their ships rather than turn them over for Nazi use. Way to go, Denmark.

Next we saw a giant department store and hotel, the building on the spot where Hans Christian Andersen originally moved in to when he first came to Copenhagen, across from the royal theatre. We heard some cute stories about good old Hans C., including a tale revolving around his friendship with my homie Charles Dickens.

We took a quick coffee break at Baresso (I gather its the Starbucks of Denmark), and then continued on the tour. Our next stop was Amalienborg, the royal palace complex, consisting of 4 palaces. One for Queen Margrete and her hubby Henrik, one for crown prince Frederick, his Tasmanian wifey Mary and their four kids, one gallery-type palace open to the public, and one more where the royal family receives other royal families and dignitaries etc.

Igor told us some cool facts about the Queen, the dopest being the fact that she speaks 7 languages, which facilitated her being the person responsible for the Danish translation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. What a cool lady!

After our walking tour (which took about 3 and a 1/2 hours), Milla and I stopped at a teeny tiny Italian restaurant for lunch. Then we took on the Strøget. We didn't finish the whole thing (it's huge), but tackled a good chunk of it. I got a cute dress for a steal at 199kroner.

Posing by a lovely fountain

After shopping, Milla led the way to a bar she'd discovered earlier in the week. It was called "Mikkeller", and. little bit off the beaten tourist path. I loved the atmosphere to bits. Very chill, with mismatched chairs and tables and isolated drawers hanging off the walls. They have a rotation of 20 craft beers on tap at any one time, and a super knowledgable bar staff. Milla works at an English pub at home, so she knew what she wanted (hoppy hoppy hoppy!), and the bartender was able to recommend to me a couple beers for "a non beer drinker who doesn't like anything bitter". Milla and I each bought a round. I tried a beer with a hint of lemon that I really enjoyed, and another that was almost sweet, but also really refreshing. One of Milla's choices was a port with chili overtones that was super interesting.

Me and Milla at Mikkeller

After a great time at the bar, Milla ad I stopped at an all-you-can-eat sushi place on the way back to our hostel for dinner. I was pretty impressed, sushi snob that I am. We took a bus back to the Generator and soon after our arrival there, went to bed.

The next day was another one with lots of walking. Stay tuned to read all about it!

Last night in Amsterdam

My last day in Amsterdam (for the first bit anyways), was a grand one, and deserving of its own blog post.

In the morning, Jenny and Lisa went off to campus to study, and I decided to stay home for a little bit to get some laundry done. The world's sneakiest pair of pink underwear somehow found their way into my mostly white wash...so that was great. My white teeshirt and blouse are no longer so white, but a strange pinky hue. Just ecstatic with that discovery, I set off to buy replacements, and also to get my hands on some Dutch toothpaste. I ended up finding some nice and relatively cheap teeshirts at the Hema, so I bought a white replacement tee and a black one as well. No luck on the blouse yet.

I took a good stroll through Amsterdam, with no goal in particular. It's such a beautiful city, aimlessly wandering is a perfectly acceptable activity. I met Lisa and Jenny, and Jenny's Scottish friend Becky back near Rembrant's House for lunch. We wanted to eat at this little black canal house place that we'd had our eye on for a while.

It turned out to be more a bar than a restaurant, but the view from their canalside patio made everything ok. I ate many cheese cubes, essentially their only g-free option. Lisa and Jenny split some Bitterballen, and since they're so authentically Dutch, I tried one despite the breading. If I could eat handfuls of them without the consequences, I totally would. Yum.

After our snack, I accompanied Lisa and Jenny back to their campus cafeteria where they were studying with Frank. About an hour later, Jenny graciously lent me her bike, and Lisa and I started what would be a most splendid of evenings.

Our bike ride across town to the Heineken Experience was a lovely one. We cycled along tree lined paths and across beautiful bridges, the canals glowing underneath in the setting sun. We managed to get some sweet action shots along the ride as well.

me and the bestie!

We first made the mistake of walking into the actual Heineken headquarters, and then arrived next door at the "experience" (they're very adamant it's not a museum).

It was neat to see how the family brewing business started, and to get a hands on look at how beer is brewed. We got to taste the malted barley and smell the hops pre-brewing, and then also tasted the weird sweet watery drink produced before hops is added in the process.

After walking through the brewing room (at the site of Heineken's first real brewery) we gathered round a bar with our fellow tourists and had a taste of the final result. Prost! We learned why the head on the beer is important, and how to properly slam it back. On our mostly empty stomachs, it was here that Lisa and I already began to feel slightly tipsy.

The next room was a chill lounge were you could sit back and watch Heineken commercials from a few different countries. The museum- sorry, "experience" was starting to shut down by then, so we were rushed through the final exhibits, but Lisa did get to fulfill her life long dream of DJing.

In the "international bar" we had about 5-10 minutes to finish the two free beers we each got with our ticket. We accomplished this with a very strategic round of "never have I ever". Then we rushed out of the building and across the bridge to catch the last canal ride going to the brand store.

On the Heineken Cruise

On this drunken cruise of ours, Lis and I kept the Heineken flowing in their new weird black light bottles. The ride took us as far as Lisa's place, where we were told there was no return trip. This would have been ok, except that our bikes were on the other end. No matter, we decided, and walked to the grocery store to buy a six pack of Heineken (why not, right?).

Back at Lisa's dorm, we "iced" Jenny (a strange ritual where you hide a Smirnoff Ice in someone's bag and upon finding it, they're made to get down on one knee and chug it) and convinced her to walk back to the HE with us to fetch the bikes, and then go out for dinner.

We polished off the 6 pack on the walk, again with the backwards version of never have I ever. The Heineken Headquarters received some sweet street art that night. At the bikes, Lisa and I confirmed that despite the fact we can't do it sober, we are excellent drunken double-bike-riders. Off we went in that fashion, and settled on having dinner at the Hardrock Café, cause Jenny had never been.

After more drinking, and eating, and splitting a delicious dessert, we three got back on the bikes and ended up heading into Museumplein. I got to take pictures with the famed "I Amsterdam" sign, so...check!

On the bike ride back home, I unfortunately started feeling queasy, so we had to postpone the rest of our plans for the evening, which involved a variation on our intoxication at a strange treehouse. I'm sure that moment will occur eventually.

I got quite sick that night- enough to consider rescheduling my flight to Copenhagen, which it was of course too late to do. Lisa shot up like a bolt at about 5AM with my same symptoms, so we've come to the conclusion that perhaps a contaminated grill at the Hardrock gave us a touch of food poisoning.

It wasn't easy to get up and head to the airport at 7:45 that morning, but somehow I managed. It ended off kind of brutally, but on the whole, t'was a night to remember.

Peach Basket Catch-Me-Up

For anyone who didn't catch the reference in tonight's post title, I urge you to watch/rewatch "New Girl" episode "The Normal" from season 1 (it's the one with True American, and therefore worth your while).

Tonight's post title also has practicality in it. It's time for a massive catchup! I'm a week behind!

Last Thursday, I finished my Jewish Quarter walk in the morning by visiting the Jewish Historical Museum. The JHM was housed in a former synagogue, and the first floor exhibit detailed the history of Jews in Holland from 1900-present. Each section of the exhibit included a brief summary inscribed on the outside wall of the floor, a display of pertinent artifacts and sometimes art in the middle of the room, and in the corridor created between the two, each section had its own little touchscreen where you could watch interviews with people whose lives had been effected by the given section of history. It was sweet.

After the JHM I was supposed to meet Lisa outside her class so we could explore the flower market together. I suppose you could say I did this. But it sure didn't happen in a timely manner. After assuring Lisa in the morning that I knew where I was going that morning, I went and got myself epically lost among the streets, canals and bridges of Amsterdam. Every corner looks the same!!! And of course without wifi, I couldn't let Lisa know I was lost/late. It sucked big time. I was so mad at myself.

The great thing about being in the same city as your bestie is that she can make days like this better, and quite make you forget what a fool you felt like mere moments earlier. We bought Gerber daisies to brighten our collective day from a cute Dutch man named Bean. Across from the floor market were several cheese shops from which we pilfered many samples of cheese. The ladies who work in the cheese shops wear funny hats. That also made my day better. There was a "Christmas Palace" store. That also made my day better.

Bloemenbar

That night, Lisa, Jenny and I went out for dinner together at a swanky place in Rembrantplein and then met Lisa's classmates at "Bloemenbar" for drinks. It was a cool little place, with hipster vintagey decor. The night ended with my tragic discovery of carbonated iced tea. Ew.

Friday was a very chill day, as I was sadly feeling somewhat fluey. Lisa and I did hit up the flea market though, and I nabbed some good deals on jewels. That evening, Lisa and I headed into Utrecht for a girly night with Carmen and her roommate Alicija. We watched trashy shows like "Dr. Phil" and "16 and Pregnant", and ate chips and chocolate. It was awesome.

Utrecht

The next day, Saturday, we saw the highlights of Utrecht, which included a sweet old church split in two parts due to a olden times hurricane. I was also introduced to the magic that is Sascha. The Dutch shoe store that has single handedly convinced me I need to buy another suitcase to bring home. I died.

That night we headed back to Lisa's dorm for pre drinking before the ADE show. Jenny introduced us to Irish Poker, and I brought the "Captain Asshole" rule into play for King's Cup (imagine that. ME contributing something new and fun to a drinking game!).

ADE at Melkweg

Me, Lis and Carmen caught a cab to Leidseplein around 1:30, and met up at Melkweg with Jenny and Frank who had biked. The "Amsterdam Dance Event" taking place there that night was something else. Quintessentially Amsterdam, I think it's fair to say. Sweaty, drunk, dirty and dancing til 5am pretty much sums up the night. Oh. And Beatz. Sweaty, drunk, dirty, dancing beatz.

Sunday morning we made an amazing brunch. Hashbrowns, scrambles eggs, pancakes, croissants, fried tomatoes, baked beans, bacon. Cheese and maple syrup on everything. Killer.

That's it for now folks. Stay tuned for tales of my last day in Amsterdam (round one) and of my days in Denmark!