Arriving in Amsterdam was just what the soul needed. After a night outside with an early morning start and a long wait for a ride to Amsterdam, walking into a sandwich shop and being warmly greeted and joked about with by a funny waitress was exactly what I needed to get my head back on straight.
Sean and I got some sandwiches as well as a Heineken and we felt much better after our long day. By this time, we already needed to get going to meet up with my old buddy Folkert that I met several years ago. We were online gaming friends and then seven years ago, my family went to visit Amsterdam since one of my sisters was studying in a city nearby. I met up with Folkert and he and I have been in contact ever since. Here's a picture of us 7 years ago.
I think we have both changed a little bit since then...
After a quick shower, Folkert, his girlfriend Else, Sean and myself all went to get some dinner at one of their favorite Indonesian joints. You get some really good Indonesian food in the Netherlands because of colonization in the past and such. We all ordered a dish which comes with about eight different varieties so that you can try several flavors, and it was absolutely wonderful. We washed it down with some cold beer then we set out to their local park which has some bars in it. We found a seat and started drinking some local beers which are becoming more and more popular, and we also stuck with good old fashioned Heineken which is always great.
They sometimes have live music at the bar we went to but that night, they just had a DJ. However, he was laying down some sweet remixes of good songs and everybody hopped on the dance floor and got grooving. Sean and I needed no further motivation so we got up there with Else and started shakin' it juse lIke in the days of old. We had a lot of fun but then realized how tired we were and so we called it a night.
The next day, Else and Folkert treated us to a wonderful Dutch breakfast of sandwiches and of course, stroopwafel. Afterward, we met up with my friend, Tina from Shanghai. She is Shanghainese and showed me around the city and introduced me to great local cuisine while I was living in Shanghai. She is currently studying in the Hague and she wanted to see Amsterdam. With Folkert as our guide, the five of us went for a stroll around the city center with Folkert pointing out things about the canals, pictures above doors and hooks at the top of houses. He used to live right near one of the main canals which seemed like an amazing place to live. We all jumped on a canal cruise and it was just like I remember seven years ago and was quite scenic.
We went to a beer bar after dinner and then took a, "cheeky goosey gander" as Sean would say around the red light district. Looked a lot like it did seven years ago... anyway, we called it a night shortly after and headed home for some rest before a big Sunday at the beach.
We took a drive out to the beach to meet up with some friends of Else's and on the way, we took a small detour to go to the windmills. It was pretty neat to see them all and Folkert as well as Else admitted to never actually going there, so it was cool to experience something new with the Netherland natives. We just looked around for a bit then headed out to the beach passing the tulip fields, but unfortunately they had already all been cut and taken so we just saw a few remnants.
The beach was nice and it was good to see the North Sea. The water was too cold to go in, but that didn't stop us from having a good time on the beach and we had brought beer and a guitar. I gave a little impromptu concert and we all chatted and had a nice relaxing day. We went and had pannenkoeken for dinner then drove back and learned how to play this awesome card game named, "Toepen." It's kind of like hearts in a way where you try to win tricks based on suits, but you can up the ante by saying, "toep" when you have a strong hand or are bluffing. This makes your opponents think about whether or not to continue at higher stakes or bow out. It's lots of fun and I will definitely be teaching it to my friends back home.
After sleeping in, Sean and I got up, hit a coffeeshop and then went to a park armed with munchies, beer and a guitar. We just laid out and chilled for several hours in the hot sun and did some people watching and guitar playing. We headed back to Folkert and Else's place for dinner then later, met up with a friend who by chance was also in Amsterdam at that time. Sean and I knew Cat from our Shanghai days and I ran into her in Miami awhile back, but it's always good to see her. Here's a picture of the three of us from Shanghai and then in Amsterdam. I did my best to recreate it.
On our final day in Amsterdam, Sean and I went to the sky lounge in the local Hilton and got a few pints with Cat. The view is glorious and even though it was a bit expensive, sitting in comfy chairs with great friends, great views and good pints was all worth it. Cat took off to get ready for her new job she started this week and Sean and I grabbed a bite to eat before hitting the road back home. Sean had a bus scheduled that night, but due to a strike in Calais, it was cancelled so he had to catch a flight in the morning. He got home safe to his family though, so that's wonderful. He and I had a killer time hanging together and we can't wait for the reunion of the Unlikely Trio in Denver, 2017.
I took a train down to the Hague where Tina lives and she showed me around the main city center along with the Parliament building which is cool because when I worked for CCAI, we always had to follow Hague regulations and so it was fun to be in the place where they made all that legislation.
Tina and I met up with one of her friends, grabbed some takeout and headed for the beach. The sun was setting as we ate and drank and chatted. I took out the guitar again and Tina's friend played it a bit. She had a lovely voice and her guitar playing complimented it very nicely. She passed the guitar to me and I played the first song that came to my mind and people around started clapping and saying encouraging things so I played a few more. Some people sang along, some moved closer and others moved their heads or feet to it. It was really, really encouraging and it reaffirms my feelings that I bring happiness to all types of people through music. The sunset was really something else as well.
Tina let me crash at her place and the next morning I caught a few trains in succession to Berlin. I didn't have a seat the whole time, but it was nothing compared to the 18 hour ride in China with a no-seat ticket haha. I met some cool people who were also sitting in the compartments between cars and we bonded through commiseration. It was fun though and only lasted two hours or so.
I'm currently in Berlin staying with a friend from DCIS Montello and the weather out here is phenomenal. I leave tomorrow but I'll make a short blog post about it when I leave.
Enjoy the 4th of July weekend my friends and family. I'll be on a train drinking a beer and humming the Star Spangled Banner.
Doei!
Tony G
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