Once again I have gone travelling, and this time returning to a place I haven’t stuck around much in for 13 years even though my best friend is from it: The Netherlands.

I was warned that there was the possibility of a heat wave, which I took very seriously and updated my wardrobe a lot. A new pair of jean shorts (designed for men, so does not quite fit my waist, but fits well enough that I don’t care, plus POCKETS), all-cotton bras instead of the synthetic ones I’ve been using until now, and two special new pieces of clothing.

One was a linen/viscose-blend dress/top that I found in a thrift store, which was rather shapeless on me so I added a belt from linen from my local fabric store. That gave me the sewing bug, so since I couldn’t find a sun-cover in the exact style and fabric I wanted, I made one! I bought a pattern off Etsy for $2, bought some more linen/viscose fabric (3m for ~$60), bought some embroidery ribbon to decorate it with, and got to work. I found the pattern slightly confusing in its directions, but I think it came out fine. I also extended the sleeves by 2 inches so they’d come down to my wrists, added pockets, and added a belt. It took me maybe 8-10 hours to do the actual sewing, and another 4 for sewing on the ribbon, iirc. Probably could have done it faster if this was something I practised regularly. I made it the week before I went, too.

Look how that beige thing goes from ‘nightgown’ to ‘cute cottage-core’ just like that. Unfortunately every time I wash it, the green ribbon builds up more wrinkles and I can’t be bothered to iron it. The purple thing is maybe a tad less graceful than I had envisioned it, but it worked perfectly at its purpose so I don’t actually care.

And then the weather stayed in the low 20’s (Celcius) the entire trip, occasionally raining, exactly like my German trip two years ago. So I didn’t have to do all that. But anyway. And now that I’ve left, apparently:

The ‘witch’ comment is because we were joking that I brought the PNW with me: cold and wet temperate rainforest weather! And apparently I took it with me too. Well, I don’t mind that I had it during my stay, it wasn’t uncomfortable and made for some fun too. (Also it’s getting hotter here in BC as well.)

So I booked my flight to AMS beginning and ending in Vancouver, which in hindsight was not the best move. In my defence, Babymetal was playing in Vancouver the night before I went, and I wanted to leave open the possibility of going to see them. But then I decided that was too much to do, so I didn’t, and the flight out of Vancouver was late enough that I could catch the ferry. If…………. I got up at 4am, my mom drove me to the ferry at 5am (I was gonna take a taxi but she offered), and was on the 6:00 ferry. Which was quite lovely, too.

I got a rice crispy square and some orange juice on the ferry for breakfast, because I didn’t want to overeat, but then I went on the deck and smelled breakfast food cooking so I went back and had a second breakfast of sausage, scrambled eggs, and hash browns (no toast). I nearly finished it too, despite the earlier food.

7:45-ish bus to the SkyTrain, Skytrain to YVR… I was at the airport by 9:00, and it wasn’t very busy yet, so I had lots of time before my plane at 11:00. YVR has upgraded their x-ray machines to something vaguely resembling the ones at Schiphol, where the bins come to you automatically. Schiphol’s is still better though.

I was lucky to get a window seat, but after I took these pictures I closed the shutter and read pre-loaded fanfic on my phone until Toronto. The second flight I was very happy for my new noise-cancelling headphones, as they cut the engine noise in half and made a fussy baby bearable. They do press on my ears, like my mask, and I have really physically-sensitive ears so I couldn’t wear them for more than a couple hours at a time. I’d probably get even more noise-cancelling with in-ear buds, but I find those even more uncomfortable to the point of pain very quickly, so that’s not an option for me. The in-flight dinner was actually quite good, it was mushroom macaroni (if you picked the vegetarian option) and included a brownie. The lady next to me had a cough once an hour that sounded pretty bad, but she had a mask too.

In Schiphol, the terminal sent me to a different arrivals area than previously, a lot less walking than I’ve done in the past. But Tharash followed the signs to the place that I usually came out previously. I called him on Discord and was slightly cranky he was in the wrong place, even though it wasn’t his fault. Anyway, it was nice to be back, seeing all the familiar train sights.

He and his family liked the Canadian goodies I brought, though the locally roasted coffee I brought was… not ground as I thought it was, unfortunately. Which is too bad, because it smelled soooo good and I don’t even drink coffee. So note to self, really really make sure gifted coffee is ground in the future.

Tharash took me for a little walk around the park near his place to stretch my legs after all that sitting, and we saw this heron and a kingfisher! I managed to stay up until 9pm before passing out, so I was probably awake for 30-ish hours. (The Dutch word for ‘kingfisher’ is ‘ijsvogel’… perhaps referring to how bright blue they are?)

The next day I was awake at 6, as expected. In the morning I tried reading a history book about Amsterdam, as it was the 750th birthday of the city being named in a written document for the first time, and I got about 4 pages in. Lots of words I did not know. In the afternoon, Tharash took me for a walk down the Diemerpark to a spot he called “the Dutch jungle” as it was very thick with greenery, and full of birds singing at each other. It did give that impression. There were a lot of plants that were spiky or itchy that had branches growing over the path, but fortunately I had my purple sun-cover on and that helped. Though I think I still got a mosquito bite on my arm, and in the next couple days it formed a blister that swelled bigger and bigger for a whole week before it deflated and then popped. I’m still dealing with the scab. I hate mosquitoes. But my sun-cover kept the sun off, and actually helped a lot with air circulation, which was nice.

Anyway, in the area there’s also a memorial plaque for a downed Australian bomber in WWII, and informational signs about the birds, butterflies, beasts, and plants in the area. Also the Diemerpark is built on top of a toxic waste dump, sealed in concrete, so they don’t allow any tall trees to grow there because they’re terribly afraid of the roots cracking the seal.

Dinner was ‘summer stew’, tomatoes and cucumber on rice. Quite nice especially with sweet soy sauce, a.k.a. ketjap.

The next day, we went to Rotterdam because it has been 9 years since I last saw Tharash’s brother, and brother’s wife, and their two sons whom I have never even met because they weren’t born yet haha. And this was my only chance, as they were going on their own vacation in a couple days themselves. Their neighbourhood is also built on toxic waste! So everyone is advised not to grow fruits or vegetables in their gardens, or at least not to eat them. And yet it’s a suburb intended for young families, with lots of schools and the streets all named for people or places in a childrens’ novel. o_O

The boys did not really want to speak English. I attempted to speak Dutch. I think it was more successful than last time, so I guess having a 900-day streak in Duolingo is good for something. I won’t say Duolingo is a great way to learn a language, but I managed to slowly string together a few sentences and be understood, even by strangers, so it’s progress, even if slow. I’m a bit more motivated now that I’ve had that experience! Anyway so the older boy silently showed me their massive Lego collection, including a lovely rocket and a really awesome castle.

Then Meta came home with their younger son (who was at a swimming lesson before) and said I haven’t aged since the last time we saw each other! I definitely have a lot more grey, lol. I don’t think she’s changed a bit either! Even with two boys to look after!

They made tacos for dinner, and served beer and wine with them. I got a little tipsy from being a lightweight, but apparently it wasn’t super noticeable. I was swaying back and forth, but I also do that when I am bored or happy (neurodivergent stimming ftw?) so no different from normal. There was even a little bit of homemade Slovenian limoncello from Meta’s dad. The boys enjoyed the chocolate maple leafs I brought them, and they managed to say ‘thank you’ in English which is apparently an honour as they don’t like talking in English right now.

The next day, my undergrad piano teacher just happened to be in Amsterdam on one of those river cruises, so we decided to meet up! They had lunch on the boat, so Tharash and I went and got sandwiches from a shop at the train station. They were good sandwiches, but the bread was extremely cronchy, a bit overdone even for crusty broodjes (broodje=little bread, as in a bun intended for a sandwich). My teacher and her husband had already spent three days in Cologne, but that wasn’t part of the cruise.

Tharash had previously given me a history book in English about the history of Amsterdam, so I felt pretty knowledgeable about the different areas of the city (for an outsider anyway!). We walked through the 17th century canal ring, with a brief diversion into the Jordaan. We saw a street organ along the way (just like in the Utrecht Museum Speelklok like I visited a year and a half ago) (gave the operator some money for it!) and stopped to discuss history… outside a weed shop so I suggested we move along a bit because it was stinky. As we moved to the older part of the city, we stuck more to the medieval alleys, trying to avoid the worst of the crowds.

Around the back of the Nieuwe Kerk, we came across a stroopwafel shop, selling fresh-baked hot stroopwafels, so we got two and split them in half – they were a good 15cm across or so, a lot bigger than most of the ones you find in grocery stores. They had that fresh-baked crispiness to them. You could also get them half-covered in oreo cookies or caramel bits, but we just got plain ones. We tried to go to Dam Square, but there was some kind of extremely loud music performance there so we turned back and ate them outside of the old Post Office, which is a very lovely neo-Renaissance building. It is now a shopping mall, and there are public washrooms inside.

Then we went through Dam Square from another angle, and the loud music wasn’t currently playing, giving us the chance to discuss the Square’s surrounding buildings, geography, and history. We strolled through the shopping area on the other side – I think we passed three rubber duck shops??? – and looped around the outside of the red light district to go back to the train station. This took us through Amsterdam’s Chinatown, which Tharash forgot about until we saw the Buddhist temple. My teacher’s husband even struck up a conversation with a local in Chinese.

Here is the map of the walk that we did! Maybe a rather long walk for seniors, but we took it slow.

At the end of the day, my sun cover worked great for my arms, but I forgot my upper chest was exposed and I had not put sunscreen on, so I got a mild burn around my collarbone area.

 

Next – Utrecht