day nine - part two: amsterdam

- robin here. %:-) this may be my only post (i tend to be a bit more...well, thorough...than Gavin), so i'll try to make it a good one! okay, so while G was schlepping laundry at the Wash-O-Matic, i was lying in bed, trying to WILL away my nagging cold. sigh -- it could definitely be worse, thankfully!

- breakfast at the flat (bananas/toast/cereal) and then out into the cold, clear day.

- the cobblestones are throbbing with last-minute Christmas shoppers in their swirling scarves. we walk for awhile and then duck into an Irish pub to escape the biting wind, where we chat with a friendly barkeep (an Irish lad -- go figure -- by the name of Martin). He's been in Amsterdam 5 years and doesn't plan to leave anytime soon. after washing down a basket of chips and mayo with a couple of half-pints, we bid him a "goedenavond."

- more exploring: streets, shops, signs, and of course, the ever-present canals and bridges (which, by the way, are filled with swans, ducks, and various other types of waterfowl that i don't quite recognize -- oh, and of course, there are houseboats -- LOTS of them). yes, we did get a bit lost today, but it's the first time gavin's considerable navigating skills have faltered throughout this entire trip! pretty impressive. anyway, we (okay, HE. let's face it, i have NO directional skills.) figured it out eventually, and we probably saw some stuff we wouldn't have otherwise.

- late lunch at a traditional Dutch cafe specializing in pannekoeken (we're pretty sure you can decipher that word on your own). not much English spoken here, but we manage to get by. it's interesting how similar the Dutch language is to German -- but with crucial differences! i am determined to learn all of the phrases listed in the back of our Amsterdam travel book!

- yup, you guessed it -- MORE walking -- this time with a purpose in mind. we need to book a restaurant for Christmas Eve dinner (tonight!) and -- more importantly -- for our holiday feast tomorrow. after some browsing, we decide on Casa di David (Italian and highly recommended) for later in the evening, and we choose Cafe Indrapura for the next day (more to come on that selection).

- we make our way back to the flat for a rest -- stopping briefly on the way to pick up something sweet for "brunch" at the flat in the morning, and to grab our own "Dutch" version of a Christmas Tree: 3 dozen blazing red tulips in a silver bucket (plus a few well-placed candles for ambience)! ;-)

- late dinner (9.30pm) at Casa di David...yummm. the pasta was lekker (good), and the "smokescreen" was minimal. it's a bit hard to get used to smoke in a restaurant again, though it's not as bad as we'd feared it could be. very few places in Europe have non-smoking sections, and we can only hope that our neighbors at the next table don't light up and potentially spoil dessert! the Dutch are so highly evolved in other ways...when will they realize that cigarettes are going the way of the dinosaur?! must be their extremely tolerant mindset, which is otherwise quite refreshing!

- on the walk home (11.30pm), we stumble upon a sizeable cluster of "carolsingers" (to use a British term) in the middle of a square. accompanied by a small orchestra, a robust woman in a wine-colored scarf is leading the gathered crowd through rousing renditions of "Jingle Bells," (in English), "Stille Nacht" (in German), and the old standby, "Last Christmas" by...George Michael?! yes, the former frontsman for WHAM has managed to squeeze his cheesy pop song from the mid-80s through an unprotected crack in European culture; apparently it's now a widely accepted holiday carol. no one else bats an eyelash, but we have a hard time stifling the giggles as we sing along tunelessly and cough up a few euros for the needy (it turns out to be a charity concert). a few songs later -- while shamelessly begging for some figgy pudding -- we all light our individual sparklers and shed a little brightness on the dark square. definitely the perfect, festive bookend to our Christmas Eve in Amsterdam!

-robin %:-)