Welcome to Amsterdam! I took the Thalys train from Paris. It was a quick, beautiful ride and there was free WiFi on the train, which I used to video chat with my parents as the weather outside went from nice and sunny to gloomy to torrential rain.
I went with my cousin, Tanguy from Paris and we stayed with other cousins in Amsterdam. The weekend consisted of a lot of eating (obviously), catching up, hanging out with great aunts and uncles and exploring the weird and wonderful shops of the city. I probably had pickled herring about 8 times, which works out to about 2-3 times a day. We also visited the poffertjes stand a few times. Poffertjes are like little mini pancakes slathered in butter and powdered sugar. They are pronounced poferchers and they are incredible. I love the language because it sounds like an alien language. Luckily, almost everyone I needed to talk to spoke English perfectly.
I also experienced my cousin, Tanguy’s favorite Amsterdam food and dessert: croquette, which is fried mashed fish and something resembling egg cream, thick and sweet and served with sprinkles (below).
I spent a lot of time with my great-aunts and uncle, looking at pictures, asking questions about my family and catching up. My great-aunt, (my mom’s, mom’s sister, showed me and my cousin lots of pics of the fam.
My other great-aunt fed me raw beef sausage! It was my first time. I will probably never eat it again.
We also walked around and went to the Dampkring to check out the scene and visit the site where a few minutes of Oceans Something was shot.
A very cool store to visit in Amsterdam is called Dom Kristian Jovan. Some of the things that caught my eye, like a flower pot with a little miniature man holding up a little miniature woman, are below.
I went to the new Hermitage museum as well. It was amazing – it contains just a tiny sliver of the artifacts from old royal Russia. Definitely worth a visit. I also though the bathroom there was very cool.
And of course, on my way out I had to have one last herring in the airport.
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