Giving up for lent: not being so lazy with the posting :-)

Monday Feb 6: so this day I had plans to hang out with elise by day and carmen by night. I started off my morning with going to a bakery and trying Bosch boll or whatever it was, some pastry covered in chocolate. Mmmmm that was real good and went down quickly! Then I went to this famous courtyard I had read about in my lonely planet that used to house nuns. I then realized I had already visited it last time lol. So I went to the museum of Amsterdam history or something along those lines. I was happy that some museums were open on a Monday! They had a new temp exhibit called DNA where it goes thru an abbreviated history of Amsterdam right up to today, but it was a bit techie, so they had lots of comp screens and you were given this piece of paper with a bar code and you scan the bar code and you watch a short film. Well that was only in English, the other languages had to read from a translated booklet. So I saw that exhibit, they had this booth where they have replica knights armor on a stand so you stand behind it and fit yourself inside the armor and then the cam takes a pic. Only the armor was positioned for dutch people height so it ended way after my face began. So the photo is quite funny, I went on my tippies to fit normally in the armor, but it still looked ridiculous. I think the photos are then uploades to the museums FB page but I haven't checked it.in the more current section of the history story they had videos from the provos and also when john Lennon and yoko came to visit and sat in bed to promote world peace and stuff so it was quite good. Then I went on to the permanent exhibit but I didn't stay for long cause then I had to meet elise at the war memorial at dam sq. This was my first time going to dam sq since being in Amsterdam again, so I was quite delighted to see the palace in all its glory cause last year it was covered in scaffolding!! So around 1 ish elise came although her train was delayed cause of the snow. But it was a nice sunny day and not too cold so we just walking around and talked for a few hours. We didn't have a destination in mind, so we really just walked all over, even the not so touristy places (which was nice to get out of the bustle) like behind centraal station and stuff. So it was good to see her again, but she told me her house she is living in with her sister got broken into and the thieves made off with her nephews €40 life savings (he's like 8) so he was real upset about that, her necklace and some of her sisters stuff. But they really ransacked the place so she spent that morning helping her sister clean up. Apparently this has been happening a lot in her neighborhood yet the police are so chillax about burglary that the criminals still aren't (and probably never will be) caught. And because her nephew was so upset about his money being stolen, her other sister did some fundraising to raise the money back for him, and she ended up getting more than €40, so she donated the rest to her sister, whose place it was, that had hundreds of euros stolen from her. And this sis is going through a stressful time cause she is trying to move permanently with her son to south Africa cause her husband lives there and she's been having to deal a lot with paperwork and translating documents to English (don't they practically speak dutch down there?) And it costs a lot of money and yada yada so this robbery came at a very bad time (is it ever a good time?).  But yeah we walked for like 4 hours so then we were starting to get a bit cold, esp in the shade. When we walked back towards the center we saw A LOT of people on the iced over canals, one guy was even in just a t-shirt playing hockey with his friends. And there were lots of families and kids skating on it or just running around on it. There was even a guy with a stand selling soup! Which according to elise is very traditional during winter time. She also told me about this 11 city race that only happens in the north when the canals completely freeze, then people partake in like a fun race through these 11 cities on skates along the canals. But it only happens when its really cold, so the last time was 1997. And she also told me about how she volunteered for a bunch of places, locally and abroad, and she said lots of dutch people like to volunteer for places (hence another reason why I like them so much!). So elise had plans to meet up with another friend so I Hung out with them until it was time to meet carmen. we met up with her friend at dam sq again, and I found out it was actually elises birthday!! I was like why didn't you tell me!? And she said she spent the whole morning cleaning up the mess at the apt, so it didn't feel like her bday. Burglars are so inconsiderate! So then her friend said oh did you go on the ice yet, this is the first time in my life the canals here have been frozen over! So with that we went onto the ice and had a bit of fun. I wished I had my skates! Then we went to the university campus (she studies there) and had some tea. I found out she did an exchange in Nebraska and I asked why there of all places and she just wanted a typical American campus-like college, so yeah meaning big university in the middle of nowhere so there is nothing else to do but party. So I left them around 6 to go back to the hostel, change and meet carmen. When I got there a whole new batch of people arrived (all young males!) And one asked where was a good coffeeshop to go to, and I said you're asking the wrong person! But I said mellow yellow was the first one and the maddog or belushis or whatever were popular. So I got ready quickly and then went to meet carmen at 7:15 pm on rembrandt sq. We went to an Australian bar (of course) and had dinner and some drinks there. By Joe was it expensive! So we just caught each other up with our lives since the last time I saw her, which was last January. She is doing another masters degree, in something economics related. So after a while we left to then go to some other bars, which the night started off slow but got a bit crazy toward the end, but I won't go into any details!
Tues Feb 7: so that morning I was so so tired but I managed to get up, have breakfast and check out of the hostel. At breakfast though I saw a whole package of stroop waffles in a basket with some other food, but there was no name on it so I asked some guy if this was up for grabs and he said yeah that was the basket which people leave behind food (who leaves behind an entire packet of stroop waffles!? But hey I'm not complaining!) So I took the whole thing! That was my lunch for my ride to utrecht :-) so that guy and I ate breakfast together. He has been living at the hostel for 2 months and working there. he got annoyed at me for eating a lot of the nutella (even though there were like 5 other jars on the other tables) and I just wanted to be like screw you dude, I will need my energy for today! But we talked a bit, he was from sweden. That's all I can remember lol. So I soon left the hostel and my original plan I had made the previous day was to wake up a bit early and walk around and see the canals and architecture cause my lonely planet mentions a lot of things to see. But I really wasn't up for it being so tired, so I instead went to the FOAM. I realized once i was inside that I went there last time but they had all new exhibits so that was fine then. And strangely enough, all American photographers, so the descriptions were in English too! One of the exhibits was of Joel sternfeld, "one of the pioneers of color photography" apparently. I wasn't too impressed with his photos, although they were mostly shot in new york, so it was nice to see photos of the city from the 70s-90s. The exhibit I found most interesting was where the photographer took photos of crime scene locations (but years after the crimes have happened). So if you only look at the photos you think, oh wow under a bridge, or oh great, a house, a street, how boring, but when you read the description it says what crime took place there and when. So there was one where a 14 yr old gang member (!!) had gotten into a gun fight on the street and ended up killing an innocent bystander with a stray bullet, and then the gang killed the 14 yr old boy cause they thought he was going to reveal some info to the police. Another one was a photo of a shop in dumbasshicksville USA and the story behind it was in the early 90s or something a 12 yr old black boy wanted to impress his friends by showing them he can talk to white women so he walked into the shop and said "hello mrs ____" and that was all he said and her husband was apparently threatened by this so he and his brother murdered him the next day. And both were found innocent by an all male all white jury. Don't you just love the south!! And another one (last one I promise) was where a japanese exchange student who barely spoke English was with the son of his host family on the way to a Halloween party in costume but he got the address wrong and knocked on the wrong door and the lady who answered was frightened by him in costume so she told her husband to go get his gun (seriously..who does that!?) And so he did and the Japanese guy didn't realize he was at the wrong house or that he frightened the lady so in his excitement went to run into the house and join the party, and the husband shot him dead. This was also in the south as you might imagine, guns are as popular as fried chicken!! So yes i saw all of the exhibits and then went to the allard Pearson museum, where the other half of the etruscan exhibit from leiden was being held. So this was all about the males. And being Amsterdam, everything was in English this time so I got a better idea of what I was looking at! But it was mainly about the men as warriors and with their fighting weapons and grave gifts and old possessions and stuff. After the exhibit I looked around the museum in general and they had Roman sculptures and the like for an archaeology museum, but it wasn't in English really so I didn't spend too long there. So then I went to the rembrandt house. On my way there a market on that sq right around the corner from the house had some souvenirs, so I stopped and bought some prints of old Amsterdam for mikes fam. So at the museum, It was an audio tour explaining the rooms. So there was his bedroom, his studio, his art dealing room and greeting room (both with paintings on the walls from masters from rembrandts time to give an idea of what type of paintings remmy would have Hung on the wall), the kitchen, and the etching room where I saw a demonstration on etching. The upstairs part which was now an exhibition space was the attic where his apprentices worked. The exhibition had a lot of his etching works and similar ones from the same period, but I whizzed thru that cause I needed to leave for utrecht and it was already later than I hoped to have left. So I left the museum at 4:43 pm but getting out of the Amsterdam center was a bit hectic. Lots of traffic and a little bit of getting lost, so I wasn't actually on my way until after 5. So yeah I rode most of the way in the dark :-( so it was a shame but I didn't get to do this route that henk mapped for me that included riding past these water forts that looked interesting, cause I needed to arrive asap and not be so leisurely. But at least following the red signs was straight forward enough. Went through some nice small villages, and of course some farm land. And saw more old fashioned molens :-) there was still some snow on the bike paths in some places, so maybe it was good I stuck to the main route, cause the water fort one probably wouldn't have been shovelled.i was doing fine with following the cycle paths until i got into this one village in particular (the only time when these red cycling signs aren't so frequent are in villages, cause otherwise they are every few feet sometimes!) So the village had twists and turns and I didn't know where to go so I asked an old lady on the street but she didn't know English but I figured it out by her hand gestures. I checked the map and saw I was only half way there and it was like 6 ish so I texted my host marieke and told her I was going to be later than expected (I told her I would arrive between 5-6 pm) so after that I found a busy road and my gps said that will take me to utrecht so I rode on it for a bit, but in the bike lane :-) so in a bit I made it to the center, I checked the gps as to where marieke lived exactly and it was real easy to find. I saw that she had called and messaged me saying she had to go to track at 7:30 pm but her neighbor would let me in so to just ring his bell. So I finally arrived at 7:53pm, rode 26.18 mi, max 17.8 avg 7.7 mph. I rang the guys bell and he let me in and I went upstairs to mariekes and she had a note on the stairs for me and she said I could cook f I wanted. But I was feeling super hungry, tired, and a bit cold by this point so I just microwaved some leftovers from their fridge (didn't want to finish off the last 2 stroop waffles for dinner). Marieke and her husband Anthony are vegans so it was nice to try a vegan meal, and it was good. They have a counter against the wall in the kitchen so I ate on there but it, and thus the  chairs were so high!! I could hardly scooch my butt onto the seat! Damn you gigantic dutch people! So marieke arrived shortly afterwards and I learnt that she does triathalons, so the track training was this night, followed by swimming and spinninging the next 2 respective nights!! Pretty crazy!  So we had the get to know you chat, but I will end it here for the night!