I said my second day in Amsterdam would get a post on it's own, didn't I?
Well here it is.
Let me start with the start. Breakfast! I've already mentioned my (legit) excitement over the apartment in my first post about this trip, but since we arrived in the evening and were going out to eat almost straight away, followed by me getting locked out and then going straight to bed with a grumpy face once I got in... this morning was my first opportunity to actually experience it properly. And by that, I mean investigate the kitchen.Me and my mum were in heaven. We have a thing for breakfasts.
There were bake-off croissants that we popped in the oven, then we attacked the freshly baked baguette the landlord had bought for us, yoghurt, fancy coffee, tea, tea, tea, dutch cookies, juice, marmalade and cream cheese, regular cheese, salami, ham, fresh fruit and whatnot. Needless to say, I didn't need to eat proper food until many hours later. So worth it. This sounds very cheesy but it was great, so again, legit. Dad only had some coffee though.
Who the hell says no to a warm croissant?
My dad is a strange man.
Well. It was a beautiful morning! Wasn't complaining about the view either.
The day wasn't all about the breakfast. Though I was unreasonably excited about it, I just wanted a little bit of text to match that lovely picture I took once all the yummy was on the table. I am never staying at a crappy hotel again after this place, just saying.
That said, this was the day I finally met up with my friends Dana and Naomi!
And who are they, exactly? Two great people, that's who. Naomi was one of the first people I talked to on Tumblr - basically, when I joined Tumblr, I spent an intense couple of days hunting down all ayabie and AYABIE fans I could find, Naomi was one of them - and Dana and I started talking somewhere along the line. They didn't know each other, but we still decided to all meet up all three as soon as I found out I was going to Amsterdam. I was... nervous.
I had no reason to be nervous, of course, I worked myself up over nothing, because the last time I had met a lives-far-away-online-friend was rather traumatizing. And now I was meeting two. Help.
My dad did not make it better running around the livingroom, going "there's someone out there, someone out there, Saga, go, hahahaha!" but I put on my best poker face and pushed my shaky legs out the door.
Again, my dad is a strange man.
Fortunately, it all went fine and we ended up having a great day together!
At first we got way too lost for our own good, looking for the mysterious "place where you eat from the walls" as my lovely tour guides nicely put it. You see that picture with a bunch of what looks like tiny ovens? That's the place. Not what I was expecting. I automatically pictured a wall with food attached to it and people climbing on it while eating. It was quite amazing though, I wish we had those shops in Sweden. I mean, you pop in a coin and get a burger, it's like a wending machine in the shape of a store? How is that not fantastic in every way possible?
I didn't get anything from Febo - if I remember the name correctly - but that icecream up there sure was delicious. Oh, all the food to look at. I might not have eaten a lot that day, but I could literally just go abroad and look at all the "exotic" food.
We walked pretty much the entire time, which was awesome, because I wanted to see the city and not just a bunch of tourist-traps. Amsterdam is such a beautiful place! Got to see a lot of fun shops, parks, and oh my all the water and bridges. It looked like a fairytale, yes, I know how cheesy it sounds, but it looked so different compared to Sweden. Even more thrilling than the breakfast I tell you. Kudos to Dana and Naomi for dragging around an excited, limping, very warm swede all day without complaining.
They were both so nice in person ♪ Great memories right there!
It's so strange to actually meet someone you've only talked to online, isn't it? Well of course it is. I mean, if you think about it, you're actually sitting there socializing with your laptop, or whichever type of computer you prefer. People can be so schizophrenic with an all-capslock hyperactive personality online, and then be too shy to even look you in the eyes offline. Remember that traumatic experience I mentioned? That's what happened to me. Now, this time, I have no idea if I lived up to expectation - I probably didn't, I was very warm and in general I'm quite weird, I sometimes studder, and speaking English didn't exactly make it easier for me to behave like a normal human - but these guys were pretty much like I'd imagined them to be. Thankfully no way near another trauma here.
Enough about my dark past, let's continue!
In the afternoon, Naomi unfortunately had to leave earlier to go see One Direction live. I dislike them personally, but hey, not judging. After all I do have a thing for the Biebster. It was just sad that she had to leave earlier. So we said goodbye, and me and Dana were off to a place that at the moment seemed impossible to find, a pancake restaurant.
If my excitement for food was forgotten somewhere in this sea of text, this is a kind reminder.
Dana had been talking about wanting me to taste "poffertjes" since we started to plan what we should do on our day. She had actually given me an entire pie already before that, a cherry "vlaai", ridiculously delicious, but still insisted on treating me - which I'm way too Swedish for, so I basically wanted to apologize at least a hundred times, though I hadn't asked her to treat me, and actually tried to make her let me pay. Man those things were gorgeous.
Poffertjes are some kind of Dutch mini-pancakes, poofy little things, mine were drowned in cream and honey and clementines (I deserved it. I walked for five hours on a foot in need of penicillin. Five. Penicillin). I regret not taking a picture of them, but we were both pretty dead, so my brain was floating some place other than my head.
That was almost it for day two! It was enough for the entire trip, kind of. It was great being shown around the city by friends instead of some robotic tourguide. I hate tourist-y things, it was great just walking around. And I found a book I fell completely in love with - a beautiful edition of "Alice's adventures in Wonderland & other stories" - so much better than basic souvenirs.
I'm too tired and it's too dark to take a good picture of it now, but believe me it will be spammed one day or another. Not even sorry about that.
Thank you for a lovely day girls ♥ and for the pie. And the poffertjes. And the keychain Naomi threw at my mailbox today. We'll meet again, okay! Get your asses to Sweden.
Now here's a random picture of a seventy five year-old man. The right one, that is;
Okay, it was a lie, he's not very random at all. That's my grandpa.
I'm going to finish this post, but I have to give this charming man a shoutout, since he's the whole reason we even went on this trip. My entire family hid in a restaurant later that night, where we surprised him and I was the only one who remembered that he has a pacemaker before he grabbed his chest and thumped down on a chair looking terrified. The others had a lightbulb-moment there and realized what I had already thought about for minutes.
Happy belated birthday grandpa!
I'll leave this huge pile of words here now, quietly wishing someone will gather the strength to actually read it, haha. Otherwise it will just be a great memory I can look back on!
Sorry about the pacemaker grandpa. Happy birthday!
And thank you again dear Dutch friends!
That said, goodnight you little cutiepies.
Much love from the woman who always writes too much! ♥♪
