Spring Break Part Two: Utrecht
I ended up sleeping through my alarm on Sunday morning, and was late to meet Sarah at the Airport! It was so great to see her again and give big hugs! It feels like i havent seen her or any of my friends for like years, although its only been a few months that i have been away. Feeling very hungry, we scanned the airport for a nice place we could have something to eat! We then missioned our way on trains and metros to get to church in Amstelveen. I got the times totally wrong so we ended up late for the first service (which i thought was the second) but at least we had the next service to sit through! We then took a train back to Utrecht from Zuid WTC. I filled Sarah in on the dutch pronounciation of (Zoud way-tay-say) and other words like CD (say-day) V&D (vay and day) TV (tay-vay) LCD (al-say-day) etc etc. She loved it and caught on quickly.
The weather was not so great on Sunday. I walked my bike home and Sarah lugged her huge suitcase back to my flat. Sarah had a wee nap and i tidyed my room and played on the computer. We then decided that we would not let the rain get the better of us so we went for a walk into town in the afternoon. I wanted to take her to this cafe Rosy and I had once been to where you can play boardgames, but it was shut. So i took her to this other cafe where she was able to taste my favourite dutch 'Apple balls'.mmmm. We came home for dinner, and then i took her out to T'Oude Pothuys where we had a drink and listened to some jazz. Then we walked home again at night.
The weather on monday was not too much better, though Sarah was convincing me that it would get better because it has always been great weather when she has been on holiday. We didnt do much. Slept in, went to the supermarket to get some food. Had lunch. Sarah baked some cookies and a chocolate cake. In the afternoon we went into town to have a look around at some shops, and Sarah got some presents for Jane and Ruth in Australia. For dinner i made stirfry which was very sickening and then we headed out to the movie theatre to Watch Memoirs of Geisha. This was a fantastic movie. Very beautiful, but very sad.
Tuesday i woke up and wished Sarah a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She was turning 22! We had another lazy morning. She opened presents and wrote emails etc etc. The weather on Tuesday was absolutely fantastic! Like really hot, it was a freak heatwave for Holland. 'I told you so' said Sarah. We walked back into town. It was great having Sarah around because it meant i was able to do alot of walking instead of bicycling all the time. We posted off the presents to australia and then did some shopping before having some lunch in the sun down by the canal. After we were energised we headed back into H&M and spent a long time having fun trying on lots of clothes! The H&M shops are always crowded and usually have long lines to the changing rooms, so to make it worth it you need like 10 items of clothes to try on. We went to the library and got out some dvds to watch in the evening. Big fish and Elizabethtown. We came home to watch Big fish and made ourselves sick eating a packet of cheese and onion chips. Never again. Then about 8pm we walked into town, again, to find somewhere to go for dinner. I wanted to take Sarah to the Pancake restaraunt where you can do all you can eat pancakes, but because it was apparently a holiday they werent having the student special. So instead we went to the Greek restaraunt, the one Rosy, Aliki and I went to in our first week in Utrecht. Delicious as usual. On our way home we passed the Gelato stall, and spontaneously Sarah brought half a litre of icecream (8 flavours) for us to eat with the chocolate cake while watching Elizabethtown. That was also a great movie.
On Wednesday the weather was warm once again! We packed our bags and trolleyed them into town to have a look around at the markets. But the guy selling Stroopwafels was not there so i was a bit let down. So we jumped on a train to Schiphol, so we could store our luggage there and explore Amsterdam before we both flew out of Schiphol later in the evening.
We sat down at this place to eat falafel for lunch which was delicious, but left quickly because there were masses of pigeons around and one of them pooped on Sarahs face. hehe.
We then looked at some touristy shops and followed the streetsigns all the way to the Van Gogh Museum. It was so good to go back here again and have a proper look around. I just feel so inspired when im in that museum, ive decided for Good that Van Gogh is definetly my favourite artists. And so i was justified in spending money on two posters and some postcards.
On our way home we had a near death experience. After looking both ways we started crossing a street, only at the last minute to see a flash of blue on our right, and see that we were standing in a trams path and it was like 2 metres away from squashing us. After almost wetting our pants, we decided that we should sit down for a breather. We lay down next to a canal and enjoyed the sun for a while, but was interupted by a man on a motorbike who decided to park up where we were, amost running over Sarahs head (near death experience #2). Sarah then decided that it would be fun to go and sit in one of the boats so that i could take a photo. This was quite funny..cos she struggled to get back onto the street. This could have been near death experience #3. We went out for dinner in a nice restaraunt and then headed our way back to the train station, where near death experience number #4 nearly occured. In running to catch a train, the handle of the toblerone shaped box containing my posters fell off, sending the box skidding along the ground and stopping a few centimetres short of falling into the traintracks. Im not sure what i would have done if it fell in. We made it to the airport, and collected our luggage and said our goodbyes. Sarah was flying back to York and I was flying into London for the remainder of my Spring break.
The weather was not so great on Sunday. I walked my bike home and Sarah lugged her huge suitcase back to my flat. Sarah had a wee nap and i tidyed my room and played on the computer. We then decided that we would not let the rain get the better of us so we went for a walk into town in the afternoon. I wanted to take her to this cafe Rosy and I had once been to where you can play boardgames, but it was shut. So i took her to this other cafe where she was able to taste my favourite dutch 'Apple balls'.mmmm. We came home for dinner, and then i took her out to T'Oude Pothuys where we had a drink and listened to some jazz. Then we walked home again at night.
The weather on monday was not too much better, though Sarah was convincing me that it would get better because it has always been great weather when she has been on holiday. We didnt do much. Slept in, went to the supermarket to get some food. Had lunch. Sarah baked some cookies and a chocolate cake. In the afternoon we went into town to have a look around at some shops, and Sarah got some presents for Jane and Ruth in Australia. For dinner i made stirfry which was very sickening and then we headed out to the movie theatre to Watch Memoirs of Geisha. This was a fantastic movie. Very beautiful, but very sad.
Tuesday i woke up and wished Sarah a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She was turning 22! We had another lazy morning. She opened presents and wrote emails etc etc. The weather on Tuesday was absolutely fantastic! Like really hot, it was a freak heatwave for Holland. 'I told you so' said Sarah. We walked back into town. It was great having Sarah around because it meant i was able to do alot of walking instead of bicycling all the time. We posted off the presents to australia and then did some shopping before having some lunch in the sun down by the canal. After we were energised we headed back into H&M and spent a long time having fun trying on lots of clothes! The H&M shops are always crowded and usually have long lines to the changing rooms, so to make it worth it you need like 10 items of clothes to try on. We went to the library and got out some dvds to watch in the evening. Big fish and Elizabethtown. We came home to watch Big fish and made ourselves sick eating a packet of cheese and onion chips. Never again. Then about 8pm we walked into town, again, to find somewhere to go for dinner. I wanted to take Sarah to the Pancake restaraunt where you can do all you can eat pancakes, but because it was apparently a holiday they werent having the student special. So instead we went to the Greek restaraunt, the one Rosy, Aliki and I went to in our first week in Utrecht. Delicious as usual. On our way home we passed the Gelato stall, and spontaneously Sarah brought half a litre of icecream (8 flavours) for us to eat with the chocolate cake while watching Elizabethtown. That was also a great movie.
On Wednesday the weather was warm once again! We packed our bags and trolleyed them into town to have a look around at the markets. But the guy selling Stroopwafels was not there so i was a bit let down. So we jumped on a train to Schiphol, so we could store our luggage there and explore Amsterdam before we both flew out of Schiphol later in the evening.
We sat down at this place to eat falafel for lunch which was delicious, but left quickly because there were masses of pigeons around and one of them pooped on Sarahs face. hehe.
We then looked at some touristy shops and followed the streetsigns all the way to the Van Gogh Museum. It was so good to go back here again and have a proper look around. I just feel so inspired when im in that museum, ive decided for Good that Van Gogh is definetly my favourite artists. And so i was justified in spending money on two posters and some postcards.
On our way home we had a near death experience. After looking both ways we started crossing a street, only at the last minute to see a flash of blue on our right, and see that we were standing in a trams path and it was like 2 metres away from squashing us. After almost wetting our pants, we decided that we should sit down for a breather. We lay down next to a canal and enjoyed the sun for a while, but was interupted by a man on a motorbike who decided to park up where we were, amost running over Sarahs head (near death experience #2). Sarah then decided that it would be fun to go and sit in one of the boats so that i could take a photo. This was quite funny..cos she struggled to get back onto the street. This could have been near death experience #3. We went out for dinner in a nice restaraunt and then headed our way back to the train station, where near death experience number #4 nearly occured. In running to catch a train, the handle of the toblerone shaped box containing my posters fell off, sending the box skidding along the ground and stopping a few centimetres short of falling into the traintracks. Im not sure what i would have done if it fell in. We made it to the airport, and collected our luggage and said our goodbyes. Sarah was flying back to York and I was flying into London for the remainder of my Spring break.
posted by simone marie at 4:40 AM
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