Amsterdam... for real

Okay, I now have some time to write a real blog post. Even though I had been visiting Jur in Amsterdam, I was pretty busy, and hadn't really had the time to sit down on her computer to write a long post. I'm now in Brussels at Emily's mother's friend's home and everyone is sleeping... so here goes.

The plane ride over wasn't so bad. Emily and I kind of skipped a night's sleep getting to Amsterdam, but hey, it's to be expected. Nothing too eventful coming out to Europe, other than our stopover in Reykjavik, Iceland. We were only there for about an hour and a half, so I asked the girl working at the Duty-free shop to point me out a "typical Icelandic beverage" to bring to Jur as a gift. And so I purchased Brennivin (meaning "black death" in Icelandic, a type of vodka-like drink), and hopped back onto the plane.

Jur met us at the airport and took us back to her place to dump our stuff. She lives in an apartment building with her father, but her room is technically a storage area, and so to access the bathroom, kitchen, or anything else, we would need to get into her father's locked apartment... hence why we had to find alternate places to stay. I'm not going to do an entire detailed update of everything I've done every day (mostly because I didn't write every little thing down), but I'll tell you a bit about Amsterdam.

It was awesome. The city is filled with canals, bikes, and all-around fantastic people. We did rent bikes for a day, and Jur showed us all over the city, pointing out her university, the Red Light district, all of her favorite Burgermeesters, and popular tourist areas. I felt so lucky to have known someone from the city, because I felt like I got so much better of a tour of the city than typical tourists who come to visit and don't leave the renound "coffee shops." I met all of Jur's friends, and learned many Dutch phrases (most of which I won't say in this blog). I celebrated a Netherlands World Cup victory with a bar full of non-tourists, and ate so many made-special-for-me burgers made by new friends at Burgermeester. I hung out in the Vondelpark on a sunny day drinking Hertog Jan and Jupiler. All in all, I knew that it was going to be a hard city to top, but onward I moved anyway.

I'm now spending my last night in Belgium, so another post is coming very soon. Onto Paris tomorrow night, more info to come!

Amsterdam

It's been so hard to find time to actually sit down and write about everything that Emily and I have been doing here, so I'll give a quick synopsis and then re-edit when there's more time... probably in Belgium.

- got to Amsterdam around 1pm Thurs, Jur grabbed us from the airport
- threw bags in Jur's apartment, then quickly were swept away to Burgermeester, where Jur works and cooks up delicious burgers
- Jur finished an essay while Emily and I explored town
- hooked up with Jur, went to her friend David's apartment to have an awesome dinner which he cooked, and had a LOST marathon for the rest of the night

- woke up about 3pm, left David's, showered and all that back at Jur's
- picked up dinner to eat at Boris and Naomi's place, where we hung out drinking beers and "Black Death" (a typical Icelandic liquor which I bought at the duty-free in between flights)

- left B+N's to change into our orange gear at Jur's, to get ready to watch the Netherlands v. Japan World Cup match at a bar
- had a blast watching the match, drank local beers and ate Bitterballen -- cripsy batter-fried balls, similar consistency to falafel, but meaty
- hung around bar area with Jur's friends, before heading back to B+N's place to continue celebrating the win against Japan

We're now doing a bit of resting up at Jur's apartment, and planning our first actual touristy day in Amsterdam. Hopefully it will involve renting bikes, the I Amsterdam sign, and touring the Red Light district. More to come soon!

I'm Off

Leaving in t-minus 6 hours for Europe. The first stop is Amsterdam, and if you want to keep track of where I'll be past that, check back here! I'm also going to create a map and link it to this page, so you can see my exact route.

If you want to (and should) keep in contact with me, the best bet would probably be via email (arzeller@gmail.com) or Skype (username: arzeller), but Facebook would probably work also. I'm also going to have an international phone, but will probably not be using it very often. The number will be 011-44-7736-075-673.

Check back soon for updates!