March In Review

March seemed to be a whirlwind month for some reason. I had friends come visit a few times and had a week long vacation to beautiful Spain. Unfortunately for me the weather in Amsterdam for the month of March was definitely still in winter mode, so there was not a lot of time spent outside enjoying the city. Regardless, I had plenty of reasons to enjoy the month and what an amazing month it turned out to be!!

Early March I had 3 friends come visit for a weekend. It's actually a pretty crazy story how I met them. When I was in Paris in February, the night of the Superbowl my friend Amanda and I found some small literal hole in the wall bar to watch the game.
Besides ourselves, there ended up being about 7 drunk English guys, who were just a riot. But then this group of 3 people walked in, and being a small bar and all of course we start talking to them. Come to find out one of the girls is from Waco, Texas and has been in Paris for a 3 month study abroad. When things like this happen, it just reiterates the fact that this is truly a small world. Anyways I told them when/if they decide to come to Amsterdam for a weekend to give me a shout and we would hang out. So well they did the first weekend in March. During their visit, we went to the Anne Frank House (Museum). Can I just say interesting and depressing at the same time. You get to actually walk through the rooms that the Frank Family lived and had to hide out in during WWII. I couldn't even imagine a life where you were trapped in a small hiding space above an office building for months at a time. They showed a video of Otto Frank talking about finding Anne's diary, and his decision to publish it and establish the house as a museum for future generations to visit. He was the only member of his family to survive their capture and incarceration in the German concentration camp. Definitely a must see for anyone visiting Amsterdam.
Of course no visit to Amsterdam would be complete without a tour of the RLD (Red Light District). I took my friend Cassie through the area during the day. Let's just say the scenery during the day is polar opposite of the scenery during the evening. Hmmm I wonder why :P
Because it was a Saturday we also found a few really cool outdoor markets that we stopped to look around and shop.

I left for Spain on March 13, flying into Madrid and meeting my mom, Gina and my travel group at the airport. It was so great to see them...it had been about 3 months since I'd seen Gina and my mom. Our week in Spain was such an amazing time. We took a few day trips outside Madrid to see places like Salamanca, Toledo, Avila and Segovia, each of which was just an amazing city in and of itself.
SALAMANCA

TOLEDO


AVILA

SEGOVIA




Each one of these cities were amazing and beautiful. Maybe that's way I took almost 900 pictures in 7 days :P The time we spent in Madrid was equally as awesome! I love how there are so many plazas in Spain, and you can always find hundreds of people there enjoying a late lunch of tapas, enjoying wine or sangria, or just out enjoying being social with their friends and family. I think the Spanish culture is amazing that way. They truly embrace the idea of family first and enjoying life. Hmmm maybe that's where I should be. While in Madrid, we visited the Prado Museum, the Sofia Reina Museum, the Plaza Mayor, Plaza del Sol, Palacio Real, Atocha Train Station, Mercado San Miguel, Plaza de Espana, Templo Debod, and the Parque de Retiro. I loved every moment of my trip and of Madrid itself. No doubt I will be back someday to visit again.

The rest of the month of March was spent unfortunately working quite a bit (the joys of being an accountant and dealing with quarter end) and of course partaking in the many bars that Amsterdam has to offer. And yes those two things go hand in hand with one another...accounting = drinking :)
March was overall a great month and I'm looking forward to a great April; my brother is coming to visit for two weeks at the end of this month and to help me celebrate Queen's Day (Koninginnedag - in Dutch), which is April 30. This is a National holiday and a celebration of the Queen's birthday (Mother of the current queen). Check out the link if you want to read more:http://www.koninginnedagamsterdam.nl/queensday.html

I no doubt will have the updates to explain the festivities and more soon!!

Weekend In Bilbao, Spain

I was afforded the awesome opportunity via work to travel to Bilbao Spain a few weeks ago. Honestly I hadn't even heard of Bilbao until the company I work for made an investment there quite recently. The work trip was to go visit our 3rd party accountants that we use to establish a proper working relationship. Yes this could have been done via video conference or just a simple conference call, but I can honestly say that the importance of a face to face meet and greet is truly invaluable. So I will skip all the boring work stuff; I flew into Bilbao on Thursday night, along with two of my co-workers where we had dinner with three of the girls that work for this 3rd party firm we use. We ended up having a great traditional Basque dinner and enjoyed some amazing Spanish wine.
Bilbao is northern Spain and is located in the Basque region. The people in the Basque region, although part of the country of Spain, consider themselves a country apart and even have their own language, which I learned it not as frequently spoken as it used to be. The primary tourist attraction in Bilbao is the Guggenheim Museum, which opened in 1997 built by American Architect Frank Gehtry.




This museum, which you can obviously tell is quite modern, displays various works of modern art including Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Kandinsky.




Outside of the museum is another piece of "modern art", which is a large topiary puppy.



The weather there that weekend was beautiful, sunny and warm, which made the city itself all that more breathtaking! There is a funicular train that goes up the side of the Aranxtrada Mountain and provides beautiful panoramic views of the city. If you are ever in Bilbao, this is a must do....completely worth it!

One of the girls I met Thursday evening, that works in the 3rd party firm my company uses, offered to take me out Friday night and show me a night on the town in true Bilbao fashione. So in true Spanish style the evening started quite late. I met up with my friend and 3 of her friends around 11pm that night and headed to the old part of Bilbao for pinxtos and La Calle Mochas. Pinxtos are the equivalent of tapas, or to put in more American terms, appetizers and La Calle Mochas are apparently a favorite drink of many Bilbao residents, which consists of red wine mixed with Coca Cola. Yes at first this doesn't sound all that good, but I promise you it was. In fact it was all I drank that evening. We ended up going to several bars that evening (or actually early morning) and even made it to a disco tech. That Friday evening's festivities lasted until 5 am that morning and that is actually considered a pretty early close to a night out.
Needless to say my Saturday didn't begin until about 1 pm :) where I embarked on my exploration of the city visiting several beautiful parks, touring the sights of the old city and just soaking up the wonderful Spanish culture. The weather that weekend was perfect with sunshine, not a cloud in the sky and best of all it was warm!!!




Bilbao is a beautiful city and probably one I would not have ever decided to visit on my own, and I so grateful for the opportunity I had to explore such a beautiful vivacious city!!

Getting Settled in Amsterdam

It's the beginning of March and I've been in Amsterdam for about 3 months now, give or take. It has taken some time to get settled in and adjusted to life in a new place. Believe me it is not like moving to another city or even another state; life in a foreign country is completely different. I never thought I would ever say that I miss Wal-Mart, but I do!! I've come to realize that Americans live a life of pure convenience...you're hungry, you drive to Taco Bell. You need groceries, a TV, a new outfit, and perhaps a new tire, you go to Wal-Mart. Here if you need groceries, you go to your local grocery store, which is Albert Heijn (largest grocery store chain in the city). If you need a TV, you have to go the electronics store that sells them. You want an outfit, well there are several clothing retails shops to choose from. But my point is that there is no one place where you can get everything. Case in point, there is a retail store right around the corner from where I live, called HEMA. They sell a little bit of this and just a little bit of that. I needed toilet paper one day, so I thought since this store sold toothpaste, makeup remover and other toiletry items, surely they would have toilet paper....NOPE. Only two stores with a 10 block radius of me sell toilet paper...go figure. Okay so that was just one random example, but my point is I have had to learn to let go of convenience.
Also I have embraced the Dutch method of transportation and started riding a bike. Yes the Dutch are HUGE cyclists, but not in the Lance Armstrong sort of way you might imagine. The typical bicycle in Amsterdam looks like it was made in the 1950's and comes complete with basket on the front...oh and the generally accepted brake method is the pedal back way. Let's just say my first experience on the "Dutch" bike was quite a sight!!! First of all my bike is the one that came with my apartment, that my landlady used to ride. I'm renting from a typical Dutch woman, and by typical I mean about 5'11". FYI Dutch people are VERY tall. So I get on this bike and pretty much fall right off as the seat is not equipped for someone who is pretty much 7" to 8" shorter than it's previous rider. My first attempt on the bike lasted all of 5 mins, well pretty much ended when I figured I was too short to ride it. My second attempt happened when I finally got the wrench out and lowered the seat to the lowest point it would go down, which by the way is still a bit too tall (insert short joke here). So I decided I would ride my bike around the area where I live, check out what was near me. In case you aren't aware, riding a bike does not come back just like that...it had been over 15 years since I last rode a bike. I felt like I needed training wheels again. Not only was I having to deal with re-learning how to ride a bike, but I was having to deal with other bike riders in my bike lane that wanted to pass me, moving trams, cars and scooters that were all around me. I was honestly scared that I was going to fall off at any point. Well three months later and I'm a fully fledged bike riding resident of Amsterdam. I've managed to install lights on my bike, install a bell to ring when I want to pass the slower riders, and purchase a very heavy duty lock. Bike theft in Amsterdam is very high so you have to lock your bike up at ALL times!!





My apartment in Amsterdam has been a work in progress. The first week I got here, I had appointments set up with apartment locaters. I was able to view about 10 different apartments and ended up choosing one located in an area called Oud West. It's a very cozy apartment, about 650 square feet and one bedroom. Anyone that knows me knows my love of decorating and my O.C.D. to get things done ASAP. Well as I've explained above, there is not just one place to get stuff. So getting my apartment put together the way I want it, has taken some time. I did manage to get new sheets and a duvet the first weekend I moved in, which was definitely priority number 1!!! But let's just saw 3 IKEA trips later, about 5 trips to my local DIY store and 6 cans of white paint gone I'm pretty much finished. When I moved in my landlord had built floor to ceiling bookshelves that framed the entrance into the bedroom, and on the other side had floor to ceiling wardrobes built. These had been built out of MDF and were still that "lovely" MDF color. So I took it upon myself to paint them white. This required the bookshelves and wardrobes to be primed first and then about 2 coats of paint on top. Luckily as this improved the value and condition of the apartment I was able to deduct the cost of the supplies off my rent. I also installed 5 new light fixtures in the apartment. The ones that were there were just not going to do....they were pretty awful. FYI prior to this I had never installed light fixtures before. What a massive pain it was to do, but looks so much better now!! I bought four different new pieces of furniture from IKEA and assembled them all myself...there was just not enough clothing storage so I had to buy a dresser. Getting my apartment "Amy" acceptable was a big project, but I think it has been well worth it.
There have been so many things to get adjusted to, I could probably write a novel on them. But just believe me when I say it has taken a while to get used to them, but I think I've got it down now and am living life in Amsterdam! So I know that was a lot of things in one post, and probably a bit random at times, but hopefully it gave you an insight my adventures here in Amsterdam. I promise to be more up to date on my posts going forward!!

Hello Amsterdam!!!

Nothing quite like making changes in your life!!! I have spent 32 years of my life living in Texas, and don't get me wrong I love Texas and will always be a true Texan at heart, but I decided it was time for a fresh start. As most of my friends and family know I LOVE to travel, and that honestly might be an understatement. It is my lifelong goal to see the world, and I do have a lot of world traveling under my belt thus far. But what better way to see the world then be emersed in the very heart of it. So I had been on the search to find a job that would move me to Europe. Well after many months of looking I was finally given the opportunity!! The timing couldn't have been more perfect....so I interviewed and now low and behold I am moving to Amsterdam. That would be in the Netherlands for those of you that might not be as geographically savvy.

I honestly have never been more excited about something in my life!! Although I have actually never been to Amsterdam (and yes you might think that is crazy that I moving somewhere I've never been), however I have heard nothing but great things about the city. I am currently knee deep in the process of finding a furnished apartment, but have no doubt that something great will come up soon. I will be moving the first of November and and am scheduled to start my new job November 9. So I'm off to the land of windmills, tulips, wooden shoes....and well I'm sure most of you have heard stories about Amsterdam, so yes the land of really good brownies (wink wink).