Hey there friendly readers! I know, we’ve kept you waiting in anticipation for far too long. I apologize. (hah)
Oh, and no. That picture of the beautiful tree isn’t here. I stole it from Sis because sadly enough I didn’t get any fall foliage pictures this year. Actually, this brings me to the first item on our Fall in Review list..
1. There was lots-o-fog.
We spent about 2 weeks sitting in a cloud. This was Shane’s view heading into his building one morning. This, combined with daylight savings time really made it seem like we went from daylight to permanent darkness. Lucky for us the fog is gone. Unlucky for us sunset is at 4:45pm.
2. We escaped!
Maybe you remember our escape room experience in Amsterdam, maybe you don’t. Regardless, Groningen has two of it’s very own escape rooms! We, along with some friends from Shane’s Dutch course, escaped in the nick of time and saved the city of Groningen from a mad scientist! These rooms are so much fun! I highly recommend it.
3. The Dynamic Duo made an appearance…
…and we went to a Halloween party! Cat poop cookies included!
Our lovely host made this delectable dessert. I’m not sure anyone but her boyfriend attempted to eat it. Shane took one look at it, said it hit a little too close to home for him, and refused to try it. Guess I don’t blame him there.
We contributed some spiderweb rice krispie treats… which ended up needing a little explanation after one of the party guests ate a plastic fly.
4. Cat & I did some serious snoozin.
5. Then we traumatized her with a giant dog!
We hosted raclette night at our house for Shane’s lab. Maybe this is common knowledge, but raclette is not fondue. Go figure. But, if you love cheese it’s equally as delicious! You basically melt cheese in this cheese melting contraption, and then eat it by itself, or with potatoes, bread, or other little side items.
Shane’s new lab mate is from Switzerland, and brought back from her most recent trip home all the fixin’s for raclette! She (pictured on the right) also has a Great Dane who, as evidenced by the photos, decided he loved Shane! It was a mutual love for sure, at least between Shane & the pup. (Yes, he’s actually still just a puppy!)
Meatball on the other hand was not so excited. She hid between the pillows all night.
6. We went bowling
look at that form!
Who won you ask? Shane. by 5 points. I don’t wanna talk about it.
7. We celebrated Shane’s 29th Birthday… almost a year later!
Last year for his birthday, I bought him tickets to the Infoversum here in town. It’s a 3D dome educational theater that plays science related movies. The only downside; movies are in Ductch except for Wednesday nights. It’s really easy to come up with an excuse not to leave the house on a Wednesday night. Next thing ya know it’s a year later and the tickets expire in 5 days. SO! Can you guess where we went this past Wednesday? TO SPACE AND BACK! That’s where!
So, that’s basically it! Work has been pretty busy for both of us, and we’re heading home for Christmas in a little over a month so life has been pretty calm waiting for that trip.
We do have a few big things coming up. Shane turns the big 3-0, Sinterklaas is coming (!!!), and we’re heading to the south of The Netherlands for a Christmas market before we head back to the States.
…and I’m back! Apparently I like to plan all my major activities close together.
This weekend Shane and I drove to the village Scharendijke in Zeeland, which is a province in the south of the Netherlands. Here, we completed our PADI Advanced Open Water certification!
The drive down was only 3 hours and 15 min, or as a co-worker put it… “You’re driving ALL THE WAY there tonight?!” I suppose it’s all a matter of perspective. So we hopped in our snazzy rental car and hit the road!
We stayed in a bed & breakfast that I found online which ended up being (as expected) an elderly couple who rent out three rooms in their house, I would assume, mainly to divers. They were actually completely full when we were there. We weren’t quite sure what to expect as neither one of us have every really stayed in a bed and breakfast type of place before, but after the initial awkward arrival (we couldn’t find the house) it couldn’t have been better. The house was only a 2 min. drive from the dive center, we had our own large room with a sink (shower and toilet were shared), cable/wifi, and breakfast included! The best part, only 80 euro for the whole weekend.
I did have to laugh though because breakfast was SO Dutch. I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned hagelslag before. Hagelslag = sprinkles. Like ice cream sprinkles. And a typical Dutch breakfast (usually for children) will consist of bread with hagelslag. Our breakfast options include 18 DIFFERENT KINDS of hagelslag! I was so impressed. So, naturally, I had to do as the Dutch do. Hagelslag for breakfast it is!
Really though, this place was fantastic and if we dive in Zeeland again we know where we’re staying.
Ok, Ok, enough with the sprinkles and on to the diving!
The course was 5 adventure dives over 2 days. We were required to complete a navigation dive and a deep dive (below 20m/65ft) and the other three are left up to you. We ended up doing peak performance buoyancy, wreck diving, and Nitrox (increased oxygen).
As you might imagine, diving in The Netherlands is much different than diving in Egypt.
First, visibility was, at best, 3-4 meters versus the 7-10 meters in Egypt. Honestly, visibility, especially when we were above 10 meters (33 feet), was a lot better than I anticipated. A lot of people warned us about low visibility, and I think because of that I was expecting a lot worse.
Second, you had to walk a lot further to the dive site! You have to go up and over the current dyke to get to the dock so you can dive over the old dyke, at this particular location at least. There were also way more divers than I ever anticipated! The whole parking lot was full of people diving, or hanging out and watching their friends and family dive. Diving also seems to be one of those activities where everyone is instantly friends with everyone. It was a really fun to be in the middle of it.
The first two dives of the day were the peak buoyancy, which I was happy to have since I felt like I struggled with that before, and navigation. Aka: using a compass underwater. Aka: teach Whitney how to use a damn compass. I mean for real DAD (I blame you!) where was this life lesson when I was little?! Ok, so in all reality he probably did teach me how to use a compass but I forgot. After a 15 min explanation about getting my “boat back into the harbor then swim straight” (the simplest way Shane and the instructor could explain it) I did manage to successfully swim a straight line navigating on my own, and Shane and I together managed to navigate a full square! My friends, I call that a win!
Shane being a good little navigator!
I must say though, Shane and I have very different natural instincts. We had to do an initial navigation test where we had to attempt to swim a straight line underwater without a compass. I veered us towards land. Shane went towards the sea. Here I am trying to get us to land…to AIR!… and Shane is trying to go swim with the big fish. In the future, if we are compass-less, we’re going with my instincts.
The afternoon dive on day 1 was our deep dive. For this to count we had to go below 20 meters, and we made it to 23 (75ft)! Really there wasn’t much point in going deeper. After about 10 meters you couldn’t see anything unless your flashlight was pointing directly at it. It was definitely an eerie experience, and not one I wanted to repeat this weekend. I will definitely do it again, but hopefully somewhere with better visibility. Our instructor did get a few pictures on the way down. I think these only amplified Shane’s lust for a GoPro.
I’m waving in the background, our instructor is in front, and Shane to the right
The deep dive was the last of the day, so Shane and I had a little time to explore Scharendijke.
The view from the dyke.
Day 2 was our wreck dive and our Nitrox dive. All the “hard” stuff was over so these two dives were basically just guided fun dives. Our wreck dive ended up being kind of a bust. We went to the Scharendijke port where there are two man-made wrecks at about 10 meters, plus some man-made reef balls. These are actually pretty cool. They are large, half sphere balls with large holes in them. They were placed all around and then just let nature take over! They now house lobsters & crabs and sea squirts and other fun things. I digress. The wreck dive was a bust because the visibility was so bad you could barely see your hand stretched out in front of you. Shane took this picture as an example.
Needless to say, we didn’t stay at this particular site long. We ended up moving closer to to the reef balls where it was shallower & we could see more cool things… like starfish! They were everywhere!
The last dive of the day was actually on our own. This dive we planned together with our instructor, and he sent his baby fish on their way into the water to dive alone! We were back at the original dive site from day 1, so we were diving over the old dyke. We learned that in 1953 this dyke broke, Zeeland flooded, and thousands of people died. You can dive over the old dyke which is now home to a ton of sea creatures. Shane and I spent this dive just creepin over the dyke (and some more reef balls). It’s really amazing the things you see when you go slowly and just watch.
A reef ball.
You can still see the concrete slabs from the old dyke
Shane motioned for me to come over so he could take a picture. This is the result of that.
So! Long story short we are now certified advanced divers! A big thank you to our main instructor Teun, and to Wil who took us on our deep dive and sent the pictures.
Well that was a whirlwind trip! Absolutely worth it, but a whirlwind none the less!
This past weekend I headed to State College, PA to see some friends get married!
…and who was waiting for me in the Pittsburgh airport? SISSY!!! 🙂
So we hopped in our rental car (yes! I still remember how to drive!) and headed to my favorite spot in the city… Mt. Washington!
Coming here really makes me miss Pittsburgh. When I’m here, in Groningen, I’m more than happy don’t get me wrong. I have nothing bad to say about The Netherlands, and I really love my job, but coming back to Pittsburgh felt like coming home. Maybe that’s because it was the first place Shane and I were really “starting out” on our own together? Regardless of the reason, it was really nice to be back even if it was for only 18 hours.
After our detour, we headed to Brian & Alicia’s new house! We may have only been there for a half day but we really packed it in. Friday night we were off to a restaurant downtown with an awesome rooftop terrace. Saturday morning took us to my favorite breakfast place in the city, Square Cafe, and cruising through some of the old haunts. In between I got a little overdue puppy snuggling.
Can’t come to the ‘burgh without having an IC Light.
Let’s Go Bucs!
After breakfast, we were off to State College. Two things.
Mountains DO exist! I almost forgot! It was so nice to see elevation changes greater than a bridge!
My love for Sheetz has not faltered.
Car trips are the best!
The wedding was at a country club just outside of downtown State College. The wedding itself & the hotel for guests were both at the country club. This made for a really fun time since all the wedding guests were in the same place. Saturday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, with Sis as my date, and the rest of the night was spent catching up with everyone.
My roomates for the weekend.
Me, the bride Michelle, and Kaitlin. We all worked together during grad school.
Sunday was Wedding Day!
…up bright and early for hair and makeup!
I know it’s kind of awkward to post pictures of my head, but I just really loved my hair. I asked her for a “braided something pretty” and she definitely delivered!
AND it survived all night dancing! Which, if you know my dancing, you know that basically means all night flopping around.
The wedding itself was beautiful. The weather was hot, but perfectly sunny and the bride and groom looked great!
I just have to share one picture the photographer took. It has a little backstory.
All day, we’ve been saving this giant bottle of champagne. Not to drink after the ceremony, but for a picture. Michelle found on Pintrest a picture where the bridal party was surrounding the bride and groom & the picture was taken right as the champagne popped. I’m sure you can imagine this. I expect she anticipated something of this nature (picture courtesy of google)…
So, that champagne is saved! After we take all the other bridal party pictures we start to get together for this last shot. Steve (the groom) is shaking up the bottle… and he gets his finger a littttttleeeee too close to the cork…. and POP! Before everyone is ready the champagnes a flowin! This is the resulting picture. (Photo taken by Philter Photography)
!! I mean, I think it’s the best. The absolute shock on Steve’s face is priceless, and the mix of emotions out of the bridesmaids who were close enough (clearly I was distraught haha). Really, I don’t think it could have been more perfect.
You know what else couldn’t have been more perfect? The selfie sticks. I know Shane ranted on these before, and I still stick to my opinion that in touristy places I want to rip them out of people’s hands, but in this case it was SO MUCH FUN! Each table got their own selfie stick and so the rest of the night everyone ran around taking tons of pictures. You ended up with ones like this….
and this…
and this…
Ok, so that last one is a nice one, but you get the point.
Oh, and don’t worry. Shane was able to make an appearance. He got to hang out with his friend Mike!
The DJ followed the bride’s rules (no slow songs & no Michael Jackson) so the rest of the night was spent dancing away with good friends…
Sissy Love
Wedding Pyramid!
The Keiper Lab
and taking photobooth pictures of course!
So, it was crazy, hilarious, exhausting yet refreshing, and made me a little bit homesick but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything!
Congrats again Steve & Michelle! I am so happy I was able to be there!
Remember the days of book reports in middle/high school? Remember how you always waited until the very last minute to start working on it (don’t kid yourself, everyone did)? The night before it was due, there was a frantic rush to find the cliff notes (had all the free sites saved) and the constant battle of line spacing and margins just to get the required number of pages. Well, that’s kind of how I am with blogging. I always have these grand ideas of writing a post but when it comes down to it, I can never make it happen. My grand ideas slowly turn into cliff notes versions of various events, only to be shown up by Whitney as she enthusiastically posts the day of an event (I’ve said all along she is much better at this than I am). The post that follows is no exception. I’ve been intending to write this for over two weeks now. On the plus side, we’ve done a few more things in the mean time…
Way back at the beginning of August, I traveled for the first international conference of my PhD. The conference, eseb 2015 (Congress of the European society for Evolutionary Biology), took place in beautiful Lausanne, Switzerland on the campus of the University of Lausanne.
Instead of going into way too much detail about science and my excitement over the various talks, I’ll just sum up by saying that there were 1,500 participants from all of over the world, over 300 presentations, and two different poster sessions. In other words, it was a big conference. Of all of the talks/posters I saw, I do have to admit that one stood out among all of the others…
An interesting side note: eseb is a biennial meeting and therefore will not take place again until 2017. The next location of this large meeting? Groningen. While part of the fun of these conferences is getting to travel some place different, it will be nice to be able to come home every night. I’ve already told Whitney she can come with me to eseb 2017.
Outside of the conference, I did get to explore Lausanne a bit. First and foremost, I finally got to experience some sun and summer temperatures (I’m still wearing a jacket nearly every day in Groningen) so of course I took advantage and went swimming in Lake Geneva. For those of you from my neck of the woods (southwest Virginia), this is no South Holston Lake. Lake Geneva is crystal clear, refreshingly cold, has great beach areas for relaxing, and is surrounded by the Alps. It’s beautiful.
Following my swim, I went into the city for a bit of sightseeing. One thing to note, Whitney and I live in a completely flat country. Walking around a city like Lausanne (lots of elevation change) in heat and humidity was completely different from our typical day-to-day.
In other happenings, Noorderzon 2015 is currently happening in Groningen. This is a performing arts festival that takes place every year in a large park near our house. If I remember correctly, it runs for 10 days and is the place to be: lots of food, drinks, shows, and concerts. We were able to experience this last year, but on a very limited scale. For one, Whitney had yet to start her job so we were trying to be careful with money. Secondly, we now realize that we were very timid at that point in time. In fact, timid might be an understatement. We were scared that we were going to do or say something wrong. The simple thought of us not being able to speak the language was enough to cause us to just pass by and watch. Fast forward to this year and we don’t think twice about ordering a drink/food or walking up to random tents and exhibits. To think about it now, the idea that potentially saying something wrong would prevent us from checking out a local festival is ridiculous. However, at that time is was 100% true. It’s funny how things change in a years time. Moral of the story here: being able to speak the local language, if only on a limited basis, makes life so much better/easier. But even if you can’t, you still got to go for it! In the whole scheme of things, no one really cares.
In other exciting news, Whitney will soon be heading back to the US for a wedding. While I’m quite jealous of her getting to go, I’m not jealous of her travel schedule. From the time she leaves Groningen to the time she gets back, it will only be 4 days. Let’s not forget that includes flying half way across the world…twice. Nonetheless, I’m sure she will have plenty to tell in a later post.
We will also be traveling to the south of the Netherlands for a quick diving trip and to complete our Advanced Open Water certifications. This was originally supposed to happen following my trip to Lausanne but we had to reschedule. If things work out, we may try to mix in an additional small side trip along the way. As with Whitney’s trip, it will all be covered in a later post.
So that’s it for now. Stayed tuned for Whitney’s crack at the blog. It’s sure to be more timely and entertaining.
(Ever noticed that all of our post titles end with an exclamation mark? Seems we are easily excited!)
So, as Whitney alluded to in the previous post, we also visited Rome during Sufrinko Fest 2015. I guess I should first apologize for posting this by, what is now, over a week since they left. Sorry for the delay! I know some of you have been anxiously waiting to see the pictures (aka, mom’s & dad’s). What can I say, she is much better at blogging than I am. Anyways, without further ado, I give you ROME!
Now before diving too deeply into the glory that is Rome, allow me to deviate for a moment to share a few lessons we learned during our short visit. I mention these only because they were key fixtures in our Roman experience and could potentially serve useful to anyone else planning a similar trip.
Lesson #1– Rome is hot.
And by hot, I mean HOT. Now before I get too many “duh’s” and “way to go genius” remarks, allow me to elaborate. We were fully aware that we were traveling (in the middle of summer no less) to a climate that is famously hot – it is right on the Mediterranean Sea after all. We also knew that there would be large numbers of tourists and this would most likely mean a lot of waiting in line in said heat. For this we were prepared: sunscreen, light and comfy clothes, sunglasses, etc. However, what we failed to account for was the fact that we would walk an average of 13 miles a day in the 100+ degree (40+ Celsius) heat. Seriously, the Sufrinkos came complete with FitBits and tracked our daily mileage. Add to this the fact that Whitney and I live in a very mild location (I wore pants, long sleeves, and a jacket for my bike commute today) and it made for a rough experience. Nonetheless, we toughed it out, dehydration, sunburn, and all. You will see the effects of this in the majority of pictures – tired, sweaty, hot, etc.
Lesson #2 – Selfie sticks are single-handedly leading to the decay of society as we know it.
A bit of an exaggeration you say? Perhaps. But these things are terrible. Now as above, allow me to explain quickly: I completely understand why these things were invented (genius idea by the way) and why they are so popular. To reinforce this, I give you exhibit A below:
I will be the first to admit that this picture would be much better without my arm extending out. In fact, since Whitney and I often travel alone and want to get nice pictures, we even debated buying one. That, however, was before we went to Rome. Everywhere, and I mean everywhere you turn, all you see is these stupid sticks. People are literally walking down the street, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are in Rome, staring only through their phones at the end of a meter long pole (as if walking with your head glued to your phone wasn’t dangerous enough already). Want to get a nice picture of a cool Roman memorial? Too bad, there are 13 phones hovering above everyone’s head directly in the way. To make matters worse, there are hundreds of guys throughout the city selling these stupid things for a few bucks. The few moments of selfie stick peace one gets walking away from a famous site is quickly interrupted by a cheap knock-off shoved in your face only to be removed once you have successfully made it out of arms reach. These things are awful. For those of you that own and use them (to each their own), prepare to be disgusted: you will be seeing a lot of my outstretched arm.
Quiz: How many guys do you see selling selfie sticks? Answer: 5
Ok, enough messing around. Onto the fun stuff, Rome! For the remainder of the post, I’ll be light on the text and heavy on the pictures. We took hundreds of pictures and can’t possibly share them all. However, there are lots of good ones. I’ll do my best to give details of what things are.
Day 1
“Rome wasn’t built in a day”
Whereas we were originally scheduled to have a full first day, a flight delay resulted in us getting to Rome later than expected. Nonetheless, we made the most of it. Conveniently enough, the apartment we rented was only a 3-4 minute walk from the Pantheon. So, to the Pantheon we went, with a quick stop for some gelato of course.
Tomb of Raphael (artist/Ninja Turtle)
Following the Pantheon, some aimless city wandering found us in the Piazza Navona – a common stop on our walk to and from ‘home’, as well as an excellent place to by local art (we all came home with some). I’ve included some pictures from a later night visit for full effect.
Additional wanderings lead us all over the city (again we walked 13+ miles every day), with us ending the day having drinks next to the Tiber River. Not too shabby for day 1.
Day 2
“When in Rome…”
Whereas day 1 consisted mostly of wandering around and exploring the city with no real destination in mind, day 2 kicked off with goals in mind. Stop #1 of the day, the Colosseum!
I could easily spend the entire post talking about the Colosseum alone (we certainly have enough pictures to fill a whole post) but I’ll keep it short. Colosseum = amazing.
Stop #2 for the day, the Roman Forum.
As a quick note, the Forum is massive. It would take a full day (and maybe more) to really go through it all. Being that we went following the Colosseum, we did not have the luxury of spending too much time there. As is the common theme to our Rome adventure, it was brutally hot. We saw as much as would could of the Forum.
Following a quick lunch, we were able to visit two more major Rome landmarks: Trevi Fountain & the Spanish Steps. Sadly, Trevi Fountain was under construction so there wasn’t much to see.
The Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
Now as great as day 2 had been thus far, the most exciting part of the day was Alicia’s birthday! How often do people get to celebrate their 30th birthday in Rome? Well, I guess if you really think about it, a lot. I assume everyone who lives in Rome turns 30 at some point…..but that’s not the point here. We were able to celebrate Alicia’s 30th birthday in Rome! Drinks at a swanky rooftop terrace overlooking the city followed by dinner at a real (non-tourist) Italian restaurant.
Day 3
“…do as the Romans do”
Day 3 started with only one real goal in mind: go see the Vatican. Lucky for us, tour guide Whitney (I say that not as a joke – she is really good at trip planning) had done some research and figured out that we needed to buy tickets ahead of time for the Vatican Museum. The result, we walked straight in without having to wait in line at all.
The Vatican Museum was both amazing and overwhelming. Aside from the heat (thousands of people packed into narrow halls without air conditioning when its 100+ outside), the sheer volume of art/statues/tapestries/murals is just too much to take in. Over three hours of such detailed work and it all starts to blend together. It’s a shame to say, but it’s really hard to appreciate what you are actually seeing. Nonetheless, we were all able to pull it together for the SistineChapel (no pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel so you’ll just have to take my word that we saw it).
Despite the fact that there is lots more to see of Vatican City, we called it quits after the museum. Turns out there was a very large worship service going on outside which meant thousands of people in addition to the normal tourist crowd. Too many people = time to leave.
The rest of the day consisted of getting some final tastes of Rome (wine, gelato, prosciutto, gnocchi) and staying out of the sun as much as possible. Great thing about Rome, great food/drinks are on every street corner.
And so that brings to a close our Roman adventure. The following morning (what would have been day 4), saw us leaving bright and early to fly back to Amsterdam. For that story, I refer you back to Whitney’s previous post.
Thanks again to the Sufrinkos for coming to visit! To everyone else saying they “should” or “would like to” visit, do it. We have lots more of Europe to see and would love company while doing it!
And they were here for 9 days of Shwitastic European fun!
The trip was split into three parts. We started in Groningen, jetted off to Rome for a few days in the middle, and ended in Amsterdam. I’m going to take The Netherlands portion of our adventure. Shane will continue with Rome in another post.
So, like I mentioned we started the trip in Groningen. They got to experience a particularly fun train ride up. First, they started some weekend construction on the route we usually take. Our 2h 15min non-stop train was discontinued for the weekend, and instead we had 2 trains with almost a three hour total travel time. To top it off, we were later than expected because someone cough:shane:cough left for the bathroom then came back on a different escalator. Naturally, he didn’t see us and assumed we were on the train. Do you see where this is going? He watched us standing on the platform through the window of the train as he left for Groningen.
It is beside the point that another someone forgets that they have a functioning phone here in The Netherlands and missed 4 calls and 2 texts.
So, he got off one stop later & caught the train back to us, all before our next train to Groningen arrived!
Here are a few things we did!
(Public Service Announcement: I’m attempting to get fancy with this post. Groups with 4 or more pictures you should be able to click on to view larger and scroll through all at once. Fingers crossed this actually works!)
Gave Brian a Welcome Package
All we’ve heard about for months is how we better have a large stock of Kinder eggs waiting. I think 30 was sufficient. And no, he didn’t make it through all 30.
Rented Bikes
Shane and I decided renting bikes here in Groningen was better than in Amsterdam. Here, people actually know how to bike as opposed to Amsterdam where (at least where we would have been biking) it would have been mostly tourists and a complete mess.
Ate Pannenkoekens on a Schip!
Obviously they needed a Dutch pancake, and where else better than on a ship! It did come as an unfortunate surprise to Alicia that the ‘Dutch Baby’ pancake she loves at home is absolutely nothing like actual Dutch pancakes.
Drank Fancy Coffee
Climbed the Martini Tower
Shane and I were pretty excited to take them to this since we had been saving it for their visit! The tower has been in the city center for more than 500 years, but the one we have today is actually the third version. We learned that the first collapsed, and the 2nd was struck by lightning. 311 steps later we made it to the top!
The Martini Toren from the ground.
The view from the top!
Now, hop in your time machine and hold on tight. We’re traveling three days in the future….
…to Amsterdam!
We stayed in the same hotel that Shane and I stayed in during our trip in January, and so we were about a 15 min walk from everything. We…
Left:Willem 1, King of The Netherlands; Right: Louis Napoleon, King of Holland
Got the Full Heineken Experience
Kind of surprisingly, this was awesome! I guess we assumed that it was going to just be a brewery tour, which it kind of was, but there was a ton of things to do! You start out learning the history of the Heineken brand, then you see an example of the brewery, taste the various parts of the brewing process, and go on a 3D “Be the Brew” ride! Towards the end there were at least 3 different rooms full of ‘Heineken themed’ games or activities.
One of the original Heineken logos.
Alicia Wore Cloggs
Got Sherlocked!
This was seriously awesome. It’s an escape game called “Sherlocked“. It’s set in Amsterdam’s old stock exchange building. After you’re briefed on the history of the building & the story you’re locked in a room set up with a series of clues and puzzles. The goal? To escape in an hour! Which we did by the way. Well… sort of. We made it to the point where we had the exit key, but none of us thought to put that key in the door marked ‘Exit’. It still counted though.
Walked (a lot)
A trip to Amsterdam wouldn’t have been complete without a little canal walking. This was actually really enjoyable because the weather was fantastic after 5 days of non-stop greater than 100°F/40°C heat. I know, I know, if you’re in the U.S. reading this then you’re rolling your eyes at me right now. I can’t help it! I’ve adjusted to cooler temperatures!
Overall, this was a fantastic trip! We were excited to finally show off Groningen and get some quality friend time! We’ve been here by ourselves so long you forget nice it is to be with old friends.
Yep! Shane and I went to Amsterdam to see Taylor Swift in all her 1989 World Tour Glory!!
I know what you’re probably thinking. “You went without your sister!?!” Ok maybe you weren’t thinking that at all, but I feel the need to explain because our sisterly love for each other and Taylor is a bond that can’t be broken. The first time we saw Taylor was during her Red Tour, in Nashville, on Sissy’s birthday, we had pit tickets, and LUKE BRYAN was her guest star (and he touched my hand!) . Basically, we know we will never top that combination so we’re allowed to go without each other if we have to. It’s not the same, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do I suppose…
I digress. What you were probably thinking is “You got Shane to go to Taylor Swift?!?”.
Short Answer?
Yes.
How you ask?
I bought the tickets while he was in Africa.
But for real. He was excited. While I can say for certain that he would have never purchased tickets for himself, he was curious to see what all the Taylor-mania (mostly coming from me) was all about. So Sunday night we trained down to the Ziggo Dome just outside of Amsterdam!
Observation #1. The Ziggo dome is horrible at getting people in the door!
Maybe this was a unique circumstance, but there were only 2 entrances. 3 doors for the south entrance & 3 for the north. If you happened to be so lucky as to get in the wrong line then your ticket wouldn’t scan and you were promptly sent to the back of the other line. Made no sense, but we did end up with some time to kill which brings me to ‘why do cool things never happen to us’ story number 1.
Oh, you know. That’s us. Just casually having a few pre-show time-killers. What you don’t see in this picture is that sitting directly behind us is TAYLOR SWIFT’S BASS PLAYER.
I know right?!?!
We’ve gotten pretty good at picking out North American accents, and I noticed this guy talking to a couple of girls by the door. I noticed him because his accent was clearly not Dutch, and because he kind of looked like Ben Stiller. So, a little time passes and Ben Stiller and co. move from the door to the seats next to us. Shane and I are debating at this point if we wanted to get another time-killer or if we should suck it up and brave the line when we both overhear this other guy say he’s not worried about getting in yet. Taylor’s bass player is still sitting there (nods in Ben Stiller’s direction). Huh. Interesting, but we didn’t really think too much of it since really, what would be the odds of that? Well they were pretty damn good because here’s our good friend Ben up on stage!
So yeah, that happened.
And this happened!
Turns out I accidentally bought tickets in the section next to the catwalk!
Which brings me to ‘why do cool things never happen to us’ story number 2! In case you don’t know, after every show Taylor meets with a group of hand picked fans in a special meet and greet (called Loft ’89 this year). When I say hand picked, I mean usually by her mom. We (I… Shane had no idea what she looked like) saw Mama Swift walking around the floor and I knew what she was up to. Later during the show, as I’m dancing and singing my little heart out Mama Swift and 2 guys helping her stop right next to Shane. He turns, curious about what’s going on, and TALKS TO MAMA SWIFT! They have a brief little ‘Hey’-smile-and-nod interaction and then they leave to go find some other lucky fan. As they are walking away I happened to turn to Shane, see her walking off, and tell him who that is. His response? ‘Oh! We just said hey to each other’!
I know. What’s the big deal right? I get it. There really wasn’t much to that story, but it was the closest I’ve ever been to almost maybe getting picked! Therefore, it was cool.
Instead of going to Loft ’89 we took this incredibly creepy picture during the show. See that platform? She’s on top of it directly above us. This is a “OMG this is the closest I’m ever going to get to Taylor!” selfie. Shane’s going to be disappointed that I just used the word selfie.
Long story short, 1989 was just as impressive as the Red tour!
Taylor, if you ever happen to read this, your golden glitter catsuit was the best thing I’ve ever seen.
Speaking of Kitties. Couldn’t go a whole post without one.
It’s hard to believe but we have officially been in the Netherlands for a year!
To say time has gone quickly would be an understatement. It seems like just the other day we were packing up to leave….
It’s crazy. You all always hear about this kind of thing on TV or in the movies, but we are actually doing it!
….now, a year later, here we are:
In honor of one year, I think it’s necessary to do the typical “reflection” post. However, instead of just simply re-posting a bunch of pictures, I thought I’d take a different approach. So allow me to present:
YEAR ONE: the numbers (in dutch!)
vierentwintig (24) – the number of hours we spent traveling here on our initial move. No, it does not take that long to get here. We decided to be cheap and have multiple long layovers. You always convince yourself it won’t be that bad…but it is.
nul (0) – the number of full-size kitchen appliances in our kitchen. In fact, our kitchen does not have an oven or dishwasher and the refrigerator is what we would typically refer to as “dorm-room” sized. While this was a huge shock in the beginning, it is oddly normal now. We have since upgraded to a toaster oven.
kitchen
vier (4) – the number of bikes we have owned in a year. If you are keeping count, that’s 3 for Whitney and 1 for me. They all have names but I’ve lost track at this point.
tweeduizend (2,000) – since we are on the topic of bikes, the estimated number of kilometers I have biked in the past year. It is 4km to work, so that’s 8km a day, 5 days a week, for roughly 40 weeks, plus any additional biking we do on the weekends. Even though Whitney is able to walk to work, it is still safe to say we have both biked a lot in the past year.
acht (8) – the number of combined bike ‘incidents’ we have had. I have had 2 fairly rough encounters with fellow bikers and 1 small meeting with a car. Whitney has had incidents with bikes, cars, and scooters. It happens to everyone. You just dust yourself off and go on.
tien (10) – the number of times we have gone to Ikea and I have subsequently refused to ever go back. Think the crowds are the worst part? Try lugging all those over-sized boxes of furniture home on your bike. Somehow, Whitney always manages to get by with carrying only a pillow or picture frame.*
*she’ll read this, concede that it is true, and then somehow convince me to go again next week
vijf (5) – the number of ‘new’ countries I have visited in the past year – the Netherlands (duh), Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Tanzania. Whitney hasn’t been to Switzerland or Tanzania yet but we are hoping to change that soon. Not too shabby for one year.
Germany
Egypt
twee (2) – a number strongly associated with Meatball. It is the number of weeks we had to wait to be able to ship her here, the number of weeks she lived comfortably in our new apartment, and the number of weeks she was lost outside after falling from our window. It is also the number of seconds we will currently leave an open window unattended.
drie (3) – the number of months it took Whitney to find a job. This is exceptional considering she spoke no Dutch at the time and everyone assured us it would take her at least 6 months. To make things even better, this is a job she still enjoys and we’re hopeful she can continue it for the duration of our living here.
zeven (7) – the number of cafe’s we’ve visited for Saturday morning coffee (“coffee shop” means something completely different in the Netherlands). This number is probably higher but you get the idea. Coffee is a huge part of Dutch culture and we are doing our best to experience as much of it as we can.
De Kostery
Doppio
Black & Bloom
twee (2) – a repeat but non-Meatball related number. The number of fish that Whitney has named in my aquarium at work. I work with hundreds of fish and for whatever reason, she choose and named two of them. Seriously, she keeps close tabs on these fish (sadly, only Mrs. Buttersworth remains as Francis has moved on to a better place).
zes (6) – the number of new holidays we have experienced since moving. In no particular order: Liberation Day, King’s Day, Sinterklaas, Pentecost, Boxing Day, Ascension Day. There are probably many more that I am forgetting at the moment.
zesentachtig (86) – the number of times people have mistakenly assumed I speak Dutch while speaking only English to Whitney. Ok, obviously this is a completely made up number but it does happen all the time. It seems the harder she tries, the more they switch to English. Meanwhile, I say nothing and get only Dutch. On the plus, we are slowly but surely improving our language skills.
achttien (18) – the number of meters we are now able to dive under water (we’ll up this with advanced certifications soon). We are super excited about our new scuba hobby and future trips will certainly be centered around this activity.
één (1) – the number of visitors we have had in the last year (hint hint).
ok ok, I guess we have technically had two visitors…
And last by certainly not least…
tweehonderdtien (210) – the number of days before we are home to visit! That’s right, we are finally coming home in December! By that point, it will have been 18 months since we were last home. I speak for the both of us when I say we are VERY excited about it. In the meantime, stay tuned. We have a few more adventures planned in the coming months.
look at that form!
The Shwits 