Sinterklaas in the Dam

Sinterklaas came to Amsterdam today it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

(If you don’t know the Sinterklaas story you can click here and learn about it.)

It was the first time I actually got to see his arrival.

So many anxious young faces dressed as the iconic Zwart Piet and so many red flags waving!

I loved seeing the little ones giving their drawing and letters to Zwart Piet so Sinterklaas could see them later on.

Sinterklaas shook my soul mates hand while I was snapping away pictures I am so jealous. Hehe.

I tried to capture as many pictures as I could on this festive day but for the people who know Zwart Piet you know they never stay put so it was really hard.

Also due to my shortness my soul mate had to hold me up or we had to find a curb for me to stand on. Hehe.

But it is truly a magical experience.  I walked around and got to see him three times which I still think for ME wasn't enough ;)

Holland has something very special going on during this holiday… It’s probably one of the least materialistic Christmases I know. YOU GO HOLLAND!

She was showing her drawing she made :)

Volunteering at Out of the Closet

Yesterday was my first time doing volunteer work.

Out of the closet, put up an ad on Facebook asking for some help.

I have bought a few shirts there once for a project so I knew the place and I knew the cause so I was excited when they were asking for assistance.

Yesterday there I was helping out. It was really nice. I really don’t know what else to say except that I enjoyed my first volunteering experience. :) 

But can you believe I was the ONLY person that volunteered. Which is kind of sad since Amsterdam is such a big city.

Last night when I got home with such a nice feeling I decided to share this experience on my blog and for that I need pictures! So I went back to the store today to get some clicks!

Enjoy the pics and go enjoy the store sometime there are so many great things you just have to search!

This afternoon my soul mate found the Polaroid below, it was a must buy! J

PS: For the people that dress mannequins you guys rock I spent more than I should even say on here trying to dress those things. hehehe

One Autumn 17ºC day in Amsterdam

Yesterday the weather in Amsterdam was....AWESOME.

Nice and warm with orange and yellow leaves falling and zooming bikes crunching the leaves as they passed by.

For the first time my bike was TOWED. I still cant get over it, it has passed almost 24 hours and I am still in my own little shocked world, but at least it wasn't stolen! Phew! 

How was my biked towed? 

Well I obviously was parked somewhere I had no idea that I SHOULDN'T be parked. Also, when they were looking for me, the owner, where was I? Snapping pictures along the canal! 

Anyways, what matters now is the great shots I got. I could have got a ton more but I always feel slightly embarrassed of taking photos of people... 

I also went on a boat tour with my class so some pictures are from when we were on the boat. It was a Boom Chicago boat ride, and it was actually pretty nice. We were given a lot of small fun facts so it didn't become a long boring history lecture.

Here are the snaps! Enjoy!

Artis Zoo

Today I went to Artis Zoo, the zoo here in Amsterdam. 

This time my soulmate and I went with a few friends so I was there just to enjoy the animals.

I saw this little girl and couldn't resist though!

Here she is in Artis´ butterfly pavilion.

The weirdest thing at Dam Square

Yesterday it was a beautiful sunny day in Amsterdam and my rock star friend, Manon Planting was with me to enjoy it!

We first started off by going to the Amsterdam cat boat on the Singel canal. I go there every month until one day I will finally have an apartment where I can take one home!

After, we parked our “Ferraris” (Bikes) in the Dam Square and went to this cute silly little store called The Condomerie which has all these funny condoms in different colors and designs.

The sun was still shinning and we were walking around the Dam when a young adult, walked up to Manon and started making conversation with her. It was in Dutch so she later told me he was just making normal conversation and bluntly asked her age. We then kept observing that he was going around talking to random girls and reporting to an older man maybe in his mid-20s. He would talk to a girl, report and go back to another girl and talk again.

This really caught our interest so we kept observing we soon found out there was a group of older men and a group of younger adults that were doing this back and forth process. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen at the Dam Square in my life and come on I live in Amsterdam and am by the Dam square almost every day!

So Manon decided if she ran into the guy that spoke to her she would ask him what he was doing. BAM! We found him. She asked him. Hehehehehehe.

Basically it was a day course he was doing to be social because he’s very shy in… well, being social!

Luckily in the Dam Square you find the coolest and most willing people to talk to so he was set, he must have been there all afternoon!

We missed the rest of the show because we went to go sit outside and enjoy the sun at the best milkshake place in Amsterdam that is interestingly enough a coffee shop (no the milkshake doesn’t have drugs in it) AMNESIA! You go Amnesia!

Here are a few clicks, I didn’t get to take pictures of the guys around Dam Square because I was too busy observing with my own two eyes! 

Taking a nap?

Protect your knight for the night!

New performers around the Dam!

Another new performer.

Through the canals

Last Friday, a classmate of mine, a friend turned 20 and she celebrated her day going through the Amsterdam canals with friends and family.

It was my soul mates and I first time to experience this “Dutchy” way of partying on a boat in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is beautiful on foot or bike but by boat…it’s breathtaking! It was a warm afternoon and bikes were ringing and cameras were clicking all around Amsterdam.   Of course I also had to snap a few pictures but I wanted to take it all in so I had my soul mate snap some things I would see by the eye that I wanted to capture in photo.  So props to him for snapping some of the pictures below!

“Brug” was the word that stuck to me the whole day, in Dutch it means bridge. Every time we would go under the bridge someone would shout Burg for the people standing and even the taller people sitting to duck down a little. So cute J

I loved the atmosphere around. It was so warm on the boat and around the canals. The warmth of people in Amsterdam makes Amsterdam Amsterdam. Tourists and locals were waving while they were outside enjoying the sunny day just like us all on the boat.

It’s an amazing experience that I recommend all to do if they come to Amsterdam, rent a boat and have some fun in the sun…with wine!

Table out: Dinner outisde

Randomness of Amsterdam

Anne Frank ´nough said.