A Day in Paradise

The sun was shining again when I woke up this morning afternoon, and after a nice cup of coffee (remember our MacGyver’d coffee pot?) we decided to have a relaxed afternoon on the beach. It. Was. Paradise! We spread out towels, brought some sandwiches (and heart-shaped gummy candies!) and relaxed in the sand for hours. It was a warm 18ºC, with a cool breeze blowing and the waves crashing on the beach. So relaxing. A million times better than stressing over homework and walking all over town in the rain! We even avoided getting pooped on by seagulls. All in all, a great afternoon

And then, at long last, we went out on our first real dinner date. We both got all dressed up (suit jacket, dress, heels...) and walked down to the plaza for a lovely meal by candlelight. On our way down to the restaurant, we stopped for a few minutes to watch the last few minutes of the sunset before the sun dipped behind the clouds. All these months later, we could finally share each other’s horizon.

It was an amazing, and almost unbelievable, experience to share a real dinner together. After months of Skype dates and screen names (remember when we were just TwelfthPrecinct and MissPhoenixElle?) we finally got to sit down across a table from each other, with no computers in the way, in the SAME TIME ZONE, and share a meal. Wonderful.

And, conveniently, Castle was on the Dutch TV, so we got to finish the evening by watching our favorite show together, complete with subtitles. Seems perfect, since that is how we met in the first place!

Some cities are better with a guide...

...but that isn’t where we went next. We got up bright and early to head to Antwerp instead, with lots of sleeping on the train. A bit too much sleeping on the train, in fact, as my coffee ended up alllll over the seat. Good thing I was wearing dark colors! I sure hope no one with white pants came to that seat next... But funny enough, at that very stop, two girls got in the compartment across from us while I was trying to clean up the spilled coffee with tissues. Five minutes later, her juice spilled all over her bag, and I was much less embarrassed. And was able to offer her some tissues! Apparently we were clumsiness twins destined to meet.

So. The city. Kind of weird. Not having any idea where to go or what to do, we started wandering, and per our amazing luck, wandered straight into the ghetto. After that awkward detour, we stopped for some sandwiches, then found our way into the better part of town, where we found a strangely-placed Disney store (and joked about being a princess and Captain America!) and then found a place with the famous chocolate-dipped Belgian waffles. YUM!

Other than that, we pretty much just wandered around aimlessly... considered going to the zoo, but decided it was too expensive, and so we just walked (and walked, and walked...) across town to the old cathedral and some of the more famous squares. Then we took some more pictures and went back to the station. It might have been better with a guide, but all in all it was kind of a strange afternoon. Based on the strangeness, we decided the day would best be finished with some Belgian beer, which was known to be really good. I can tell you right now, I am now officially spoiled and will probably never drink American beer again. Not that I did much to begin with, but now it will be forever overshadowed. Did I mention you can drink it in public? Very strange to me. But, as it was perfectly legal, we relaxed with our beer at the station, and took a train back to Amsterdam (and slept some more!)

The Funnest of Fails

Speaking of coffee fails, there was no regular coffee pot in our hotel room! *Insert totally shocked face here!* Not ones to give up that easily, we tried to set THIS up:

Yeah, that's toilet paper held up by a hair tie over a carafe. Well, that broke in about 30 seconds. So, several configurations later, we can up with THIS ingenious method... it still took freaking forever to brew, but oh boy did that coffee taste good when we finally got it! SUCCESS.

Also notice that this time it's set up on top of the electric burner. The burner is on low, so the coffee stays warm while it brews slowly. That part was Johan's idea! Good one!

After a leisurely breakfast, (at, you know, 3pm) we moseyed down to the tennis courts to practice for our world championship match. Uh. Well. Let’s just say I think I’ll stick to gymnastics!! We probably did more flailing and chasing after tennis balls than actually hitting them, and when we DID make contact, it was actually with my knee... (it has a REALLY cute waffle pattern on it now...)

Once the Worst Tennis Match Ever Played was played, we cooled off with a nice dip in the pool, and subsequently warmed up with the hot tub! It was even outdoors. Talk about paradise. Got me thinking about those springs in Iceland... hmm... maybe that’s where we should go next...

Adventures in Amsterdam

After returning from Germany, we went into the city on Monday morning (well, afternoon, you know us night people!) and explored the sights and took lots of pictures. We got lucky yet again with the weather – beautifully warm and sunny again!

First we found one of those “coffee” shops to lighten the mood and loosen the tension, and having completely relaxed (or should I say, “spaced out”), we wandered into the Red Light District where we...

OH COME ON, you know us better than that!!! =P

No no, the scariest place we went was the heavy metal section of a record store. Or, we listened to it while standing in the Classical section. Awkward. When I meant to say, “I’ll take the second CD,” meaning the second record I had previewed, he thought I meant I wanted to listen to the second disc (it was a two disc set). More awkward. Skipped through the tracks quickly and moved on!

Next on our list of sightseeing was the newly-opened Apple store – WOW. Apple people, this is a sight to see. It was huh-yuuuuuge! At least 5 times bigger than the one in the U-District, and with a spiral staircase. Very very nice.

By this point it was getting cold, so we went into a coffee shop (STARBUCKS! GEEEZ!) and attempted to get coffee for “Rick” and “Kate” but somehow ended up with “Greg”...? Well, we’ll try again spell it next time... don’t know who the heck Kate and Greg are...