Tot Ziens Rotterdam

What a crazy week! I finished up a couple projects at work--as best I could. We had a good bye dinner every night and tried to pack, sell, pawn, and throw out all our stuff. Moving is terrible! It makes you never want to buy anything ever again--and it makes you never want to move ever again. All in all, we came with 4 suitcases, about 100kg, and we just shipped 8 boxes at about 20kg each. Man oh man.

We are going to miss Rotterdam, and Holland, dearly. Even if we come back at some point, many things will obviously be different. The wonderful people we've met, some will stay and some will move on. Rotterdam Central Station will be finished. But many things will stay the same--and we have cherished those so much over the last 15 months...wonderful, timely trains, easy bicycling, the Blaak market that has everything you need. We'll miss living below sea level, and viewing the flat landscape speckled with windmills and sheep. I'll miss the three-kisses and gezelig (cozy) cafes. And fresh, warm stroopwafels. Indonesian and Surinamese food. And so much more.

Most of all, I'll miss our lovely Dutch life and the people we've shared it with. I know we won't be able to talk everyday, or have romantic dinners every week, but I know we've made friends for a lifetime. And that skype will help us keep in touch.

In a couple hours we leave for Mumbai. In this crazy world, it was half the price to go from Amsterdam to Mumbai then 3 weeks later, Mumbai to San Francisco, than it was to fly one-way from Amsterdam to SF! So we're off another adventure before we head to California.


So, tot ziens Rotterdam. Literally: till next time. Because we'll be back. At some point.

Feyenoord football fever!

On Friday, my colleagues took me out to a lovely dinner at a local Rotterdam hotspot. They gave Elliot and I Dutch jerseys--that we had to wear the next night...one of my managers took Elliot, me, and another colleague Inge to the Rotterdam Feyenoord football match against NAC Breda. What an experience! My first European football game! It was pretty awesome. It was also the 75th anniversary of the 42,000-fan stadium. The same guy who opened the stadium 75 years ago opened the game tonight too. 

The game was great! Lots of singing and cheering, jumping up and down. The whole stadium shook! We had such a great time. Feyenord scored a goal in the first three minutes and two more soon after. Made for a slow 2nd half, but the cheers and people watching made it worth the while.

The cheers were the best part of the game. You can't really understand anything they say, first because they're in Dutch and second because they're garbled pretty bad. But Jeroen translated some of them (he's a true Rotterdammer and knows ALL the cheers). My favorite roughly translated as such:

Number 10, number 10!

Your mom's a whore, your mom's a whore!

Classy! Check out the video at the end...second goal in the first 10 minutes of the game! 

Graduation!!!

Elliot is now a Master! Hoera! Such a great weekend reunion with all of Elliot's wonderful classmates and their partners...so glad we got to see them before we leave Holland--only 1 more day!

Spring is in the air!

I woke up the other morning to a bright blue Rotterdam sky. Not a cloud in the sky! It was gorgeous. My hyacinth also decided to really bloom as well. Have you smelled on of these things?! It's amazing and totally made my day. Our entire apartment smelled of sweet hyacinth.

Since the weather was so nice, we decided to take a bike ride in the city. Spring is really in the air! And on the ground for that matter as well. Small little tulips are starting to sprout out of the earth; it's a beautiful thing. There are no leaves on the trees yet, but people are happy! The big jackets are stashed away, cafes are moving their chairs outside, and you can feel the energy. I love the seasons! Here are a few pics from our bike ride...

The Laurenskerk near our old hood

Crooswijk, northern Rotterdam

Crooswijk

The Meent, one of our favorite streets in Rotterdam

The Meent

 Rotterdam Central Station, it's coming along!

Hotel Bazaar and restaurant in our new hood, on Witte de Withestraat

Well, the countdown is finally here...we have 18 days left in Holland. We leave April 3rd. Don't remind me, there's so much to do and I'm still in denial we're leaving. There's a chance we'll be back, but for now we are San Francisco-bound--with a 3-week layover in India. Who said you can't have a honeymoon before the wedding?! Besides, we have a wedding to attend there! 

And yes, some well-deserved beach time after this long, long winter. ;)

Carnival in the South, minus the beads!

Elliot and I had this trip planned to Maastricht, the southern most city in Holland that borders Germany and Belgium, and hadn't realized at first that our overnight would coincide with Carnival--of all festivals!



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It was a lovely 3-hour train ride and before we knew it, we were in Maastricht. This city is in the Dutch state of Limburg. It's known for its regional cuisine, many churches, and its quaint riverside city center.  The people also speak a very different Dutch than in Rotterdam, in fact a whole different dialect. I couldn't understand a word they said!

After checking in to our adorable 'bed & bike' (no breakfast, just bikes), we biked to the center to do a little site-seeing and scope out the start of Carnival. Actually, the official start time of the 3-day party was 11am the next morning, but the town was already packed with party-goers. Tons of people were out and about, making last minute purchases for their costumes and for stocking up their fridges. We biked around a bit, saw a few nice churches, the 13th century wall around the city, and then we found a really cozy bar called Zondag (Sunday) and enjoyed a few biertjes (small beers) of local brew. Ready for some food, we found a cute restaurant serving traditional Mestreech cuisine. Elliot had rabbit stew and I had salmon in a creamy sauce. Later that evening, we really enjoyed people watching on the Vrijtof, the main square. Super duper silly-looking people. The best part about Carnival, so far, was that it wasn't about beads, dressing super slutty, or getting completely wasted. Everyone, kids and grammas alike, were dressed up super silly and just out on the streets to have a good time. 

The next morning, we wandered back to the Vrijtof, the main square where Carnival was officially starting. The prince of Carnival spoke to the people and then his men fired off the cannon eleven times, once per minute for eleven minutes. Or something like that. All the meanwhile, people were (of course) dressed up super silly. It's not like people 'were something' - like in American halloween. They just found all the most random items and somehow attached every piece to their bodies. We explored the city more, until it started raining. And then the parade started! Oh geez. It was a mess. We finally made our back to the train station and just in time for the madness to begin. My favorite is a three-way tie between the drag ladies with curlers, the rangers on ostriches, and the viking family...

I can only begin to wonder what the next three nights did to that city...

Ice skating on the canals

When we got back from South Africa, the temp dipped down to about 5ºF and stayed there for a couple days. That's when the excitement started. The canals started to freeze!

For two weeks the people in this country had one thing on their minds: the elfstedentocht. That is, the 11-city tour. It only happens once every 20 years or so and the last one was in 1997. It's a huge freaking deal. Only certain people can actually skate the race--and only on certain years. You have to get on a list or something. I heard they were talking about moving ice from one canal to the other, too. Wow!

So a couple weekends ago, the entire Kralinge Lake in Rotterdam was frozen. My boss (I'm sure he'll love this) is very nice and often on Fridays will say, "Ok, Meredith, I have something for you do this weekend." Though I'm never quite sure if he's going to say something about work, he usually offers excellent recommendations for things to do in Rotterdam--he is, in fact, a true Rotterdamer. This time, here was the conversation...

JL: Ok, Meredith, I have something for you do this weekend.
MG: Oh, really?
JL: You must go ice-skating.
MG: Yes, I'd really like to! But where can I rent skates?
JL: You don't have ice skates?!?
MG: Who owns ice-skates?
JL: Everybody owns their own ice skates!
MG: Of course they do.

So, we had to find ice skates. It was easy enough for me to find a nice pair of well-worn, long-distance Norwegian ice skates from the 70s in size 40. But poor Elliot--size 47 is just impossible.

And so we went! Elliot on foot and me on the irons. It was awesome. Pretty epic, actually. I'm really glad we had the chance too, because the next day...the snow started to melt.

Two hours in Antwerp

Once we returned from our weekend adventure in South Africa, the temperature not only dropped to a chilly 10ºF but it also started snowing--finally! I'll take snow over rain any day. And even though it snows every year in Holland, for some reason it freaks everyone out, every time. Just like last year, NS (the national rail) couldn't handle it. Not even two inches of snow! Trains stopped running, the routes clogged, lines re-routed, major delays, people stranded. The other part of the equation is that people still take the trains despite the weather. So everyone should just know better, I guess.

Well, we were in denial as well. We had a Saturday day-trip planned for Antwerp since Monday and we weren't not going to go. [Elliot: "This is Holland! The Dutch know trains!"]


We got to Rotterdam Central and of course our train was delayed 30 minutes. We poked around the new HEMA store and by the time we came back out to check on the train, the delay decreased to 25 minutes--by the time we sprinted to the platform the train had just left. Total bummer. Next train was in 75 minutes.


So we waited.


The next train was actually on time (only because the one before it was cancelled) and took us all the way to Dordrecht, only 15 minutes from Rotterdam. And it went no further. We waited for the next train; then we waited on that train for another 45 minutes.


We finally made it to Antwerp after about 4.5 hours--what should have been an hour-long train ride with no transfers. It was 2:30pm and 8ºF.


Antwerp is gorgeous, though. We were first welcomed by the stunning train station. Four levels and fourteen tracks, built in 1895. Impressive stone and iron work. Just beautiful!

What a lovely and old city, too. And So much shopping you don't know what to do with yourself. In the 1500s, Antwerp was the richest city in Europe because of its port--trading spices, silver, and textiles. The city has also been famous for its diamond industry, which apparently is the largest in the world. More than half of all diamonds go through this city at some point.


It was so cold out, we could only be outside for about 23 minutes at a time. So wandered around the shopping streets, the Grote Markt and the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (Cathedral of our Lady), with a break before each for lunch, espresso, and a vanille millefeuille from Paul (respectively). 


By the time it was 4:15pm, we were exhausted from the bitter cold and knew it would be getting even colder once the sun dipped below the gabled houses. So we made our way back to the station. Pathetic, I know! But I'm glad we left because our train, again, was 30 minutes late...and then stopped about 20 minutes outside Antwerp never to start again. Instead, we sat on the stopped train for another hour and finally disembarked, walked up and over the tracks and into another northbound train. It only took about 3.5 hours on the way back, but at least we didn't get stranded!