Why we chose Amsterdam

In celebration of our one year expat journey I thought I would do a few posts about our expat journey, there was so much I didn't say that I wanted to!

Today I want to tell you why we chose Amsterdam as the country that would host our expat adventure.

In the grand scheme of things (over a 6 month period of trying to make this happen) we had a total of four prospects: Warsaw, Cambridge, Prague, and Amsterdam. It really came down to 1) wanting a completely different cultural experience and 2) a place where a majority of the population spoke English.

I am not a linguist. My husband is not a linguist. Our daughter is okay at linguistics. She is young enough that she can catch on fairly quickly if she uses it enough. But the hubby and I were going to need some serious support.

Through research we decided England was too familar, Poland wasn't it because pay wasn't even close to what we had been making, location wasn't central, and we'd pretty much be stuck there, hubby wasn't sold on Prague because he didn't encounter a single person in his travels that spoke enough English to get by for us, so we finally settled on Holland. Through much research we learned that 90% of the population of Holland can carry on a conversation in English, coupled with a drastic culture change..it was just what we wanted.

But, in addition to having a well educated population that spoke English we chose Amsterdam for the following reasons:

• Culture: they have an open and supportive culture. Everyone looks out for one another and we wanted our daugther to experience that.
• Freedom: to be yourself and accepted by others regardless of sexual orientation, religion, or background.
• Outspoken truth: this is a very outspoken society, they always tell the truth even though you may not want to hear it. They are never mean, just truthful, I felt that was an important virtue for the teenager to learn at this point in life.
• Location: central Europe with an airport and train station where you can get anywhere in the world at the blink of an eye. 
• Language: the home language of the country was Dutch so we knew that over time and in school she would learn Dutch and it would add a little flair to our everyday experiences, yet everyone within the city is educated enough that they can speak English quite well so if we get stuck we ask, "uw sprek Engles" and they switch over to English for us (although within the city when they hear our accent usually they will automatically switch to English, a bit frustrating)
• Easy to get around...we knew when we moved to Europe we wouldn't be investing in a car so a place that uses bikes and mass transportation as their main mode of getting around was right up our ally. I will say with all the extra exercise from riding our bikes everyday we are happier people.

All-in-all moving to Amsterdam has truly been everything we thought it would be. We have seen a lot of Europe and really enjoy all the people we've met throughout our travels. We've met people from all over the world and have learned so much about their backgrounds. Every day I am so thankful for this experience and that it has been everything we thought it would be. 

I know my teenagers view on the world-understanding her friends home culture, learning about different political systems, and hands on history-has made an impact and broadened her personal knowledge and made her a deep thinker. Which is actually everything I wanted her to get out of this experience to carry with her in the future. 

I'm not sure what the next year will bring but given that it has started with a trip to Berlin and then London, I can only imagine how it shall pan out. 

Currently, Vol. 2

Well, this weekend sure was a busy one! The hubby left on a business trip and the kiddo had a showcase for cheerleading plus my Scottish friend had a get together for Burn's Night. So much fun to be had, it passed all too quickly! But, here's a run down, plus my currently.

Saturday I took the kiddo down town and we found a floating bike rack...because, ya know, it is Amsterdam and when you have underutilized floating space you turn it in to stuff...

After some shopping we grabbed some pasta and I'm such a little old lady with my Ginger Ale, but I have to stop drinking carbonated beverages they really hurt my stomach.

Then I headed to my friend's house for burns night...it was so fun and the Haggis was delicious! ...seriously, I actually really enjoyed it.

Sunday after the kiddo's cheer competition we had to go buy a printer so stopped at this Asian restaurant. The Ajax had either just played or were getting ready to play and the place was PACKED! So packed you could hardly even get in the restaurant, but that was the bar part the part to eat at was nearly empty! ha!

Check out the rest of the party over at Choose Happy

Thinking about...the hubby. He is out of town on a business trip then he is going to visit our parents over the weekend before he comes home. He get to be there for Super Bowl, so fun! 

Wishing for....some bbq sauce, a box of kraft dinner, and a fit bit and possibly a copy of the Thug Kitchen Cookbook  *hint, hint, wink, wink*, but he really didn't have much room left in his bags, so his safe return will do just fine!

Thankful for....all the one-on-one time I'm getting with this girl. Over the last few days we made some t-shirts together. She sat with me while I embroidered this Nirvana Quote for her and we worked together to churn out 5 other shirts for her. This is quality time and I feel like I am teaching her something valuable about homesteading like embroidering/sewing, ironing, and creativity by creating your own clothes.

The shirts we've made are all her idea...I just helped execute! To see more of the shirts we created come on over to Instagram.

Craving....coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. And sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. I am trying to cut down to just my morning coffee and I am trying to cut down on the amount of sugar I use in it. I am a coffee and sugar addict and my lower abs are not happy with that. As reference check my photo from burns night...my upper and middle abs are there, my obliques are looking awesome but that fabulous genetically inherited pot belly needs to go. So, sugar is the first thing to go. Next week...upping the veggies hardcore, but one step at a time.

This was the humorous picture I sent to the husband when I told him I needed coffee and he said get some! So I did! 

Watching...Mad Men. I was talking about it with a friend who visited a couple weeks ago and he said it was a great series. I thought since I went to high school with a guy who is in it I should give it a watch...Netflix has all the seasons. I am totally addicted and can not get enough! I'd be interested to know how much the series actually reflects life in the '60s because some of that stuff is shocking! 

Laughing about....this horse and carriage I saw riding down the bike path today! My pictures suck because it was moving at a pretty decent rate and iPhone + quick moving horses + balancing on my bike = we are lucky I even got pictures and lived to tell about it! ha! I will say though either I am the only one who noticed the horse and carriage on the bike path or I'm the only one who found it amusing because everyone else was passing this sucker and paying it no nevermind....Oh Amsterdam. How I love you and your people.

Weekend Getaway to Rome, Italy

Hard to believe it has been two weeks already since we spent a weekend in Rome! I tell ya, I was having lunch with a friend right before we took off for this vacation and were discussing our plans for the upcoming week and when the words "Oh, ya know just going to spend the weekend in Rome" came out of my mouth we both looked at each other and just took a minute to take in the fact that this is our life. We are lucky enough to get to live this dream.

Anyway, enough gushing...our weekend in Rome!

To see all about what we packed for the trip click here.
To see what we ate while we were in Rome click here.

We started off by planning with our friends we were meeting there. We booked a rental on Airbnb, we booked this particular location: Coliseum Artistic Home. The owner, Luis, was fantastic. He booked a car to pick us up from the airport which was a few dollars cheaper than a cab, and when we arrived he had laid out chocolate and champagne for our friends who were on their honeymoon. The place was exactly as we had expected we just had one less large towel, so it is a good thing I am small and took the smallest towel. The other thing was the 2nd bed was actually a trundle bed so that meant each night one couple had to sleep on separate beds...weird, but definitely not a vacation ruiner. All-in-all everything was as we wanted it to be...close to all the major sites and a lot of good food and wine ;)

Day 1

Arrived and changed, then headed out to check out some ruins. The first thing we saw was the Roman Forum.

Man, those columns!

Next we went on to walk by the monument with the fallen soldier.

I always try to grab a photo or two of the local flag of where we are visiting. Here you can see the Italian flag.

This is the monument which houses the Unknown or fallen soldier. It is guarded 24/7..It is funny though because during the day the soldiers are very stoic, but when we walked by late one night (after midnight) you could tell the guards were chatting and moving around a bit. When they saw us they stopped, but it was very cute.

Next we moved on to this area. I didn't write down the name of these ruins, but someone mentioned they believe this may be where Caesar was murdered....I can't be 100% but of the research I've done it looks like archaeologists believe this was it. Pretty amazing to think of the history that happened in this very spot.

After that we needed something a little less serious and we grabbed some food to go and a bottle of wine and sat in Piazza Navona for a little lunch.

This is Fiumi Fountain...or Fountain of the Four Rivers. We were lucky enough to gaze upon as we ate and caught up with our friends.

As we wanted to make our way to The Vatican we passed by the Pantheon.

This was hilarious...I took a few panoramic photos while there and our one friend kept saying, "Oh watch out, Kate is spinnin' again!" hahaha

This altar was stunning! When we go back I want to attend a mass here.

This was a place to light candles. It was right next to the altar of Jesus Christ. I am pretty sure this thing hasn't been dusted since the beginning of time lol The picture totally does it justice too, in fact I think the picture actually highlights all that dust. Do they not dust the Pantheon?

We then made our way over to The Vatican.

We just walked around the plaza outside. The line was ridiculously long and it was too hot to think about changing to pants and a sleeved shirt. I did think the stations of the cross along the tops of the buildings were amazing though. Very well done.

After the Vatican we walked over to an area that is really high up...it is quite a hike, especially when you are tired...but we did it and we had some time to relax and managed to see a sunset.

I think this sunset was probably one of the best parts of the trip. Just relaxing and enjoying the city as it cooled off. There were a lot of people up there so if you just stepped back and weren't too concerned about getting photos it was very romantic.

We ended our day looking around and finding a fairly cheap place for dinner. It wasn't very good but we got to sit down so that is what mattered most to us! ha! When I say we covered the entire city that day I kid you not. Take a look at the city map and go East/West then South/North and that is where we walked. We were exhausted. 

Day 2

Since this was our last full day we were up {fiarly} early. We got dressed and went for coffee.

The coffee bar's here are definitely exciting. I could never have coffee that way every morning, but it was a fun experience going up to the bar and downing your coffee. I did have a stomach ache after though because drinking a latte fairly quickly is not the way to go haha But, it was fun watching the guys behind the counters pull the espresso and work in such a fast paced environment and keep everything organized.

After a delicious breakfast we had tickets to a tour of the Coliseum. If you spend money anywhere in Rome this is the tour I recommend you get. We were able to get access to areas you won't get to with just a basic ticket. We were able to go underground and see where they kept prisoners and whatnot. Very interesting. I just wish our tour guide spoke better English. Well, I shouldn't say that her English language skills were very good, but her accent was so thick it was impossible to understand her. We saw many other tour guides who were better though so we sadly just got the worst of the bunch.

The views from the top of the coliseum were amazing. It was such an amazing thing to be standing in the midst of all that history.

After the Coliseum we walked over to some other ruins that our ticket was good for and checked those out.

Horse training grounds.

Stairs to...

This thing of water...which was below...

This giant plant holder.

I forget who had lived here, some ruling body of some type. It wasn't quite as old as many of the other ruins, but old enough to be impressive!

After this we walked home, grabbed some wine and got ready for a night out.

This is the only picture I have from the night. We walked over to a less touristy area for dinner. We walked along the river and over a bridge and passed this amazing building along the way...NOT the Coliseum believe it or not totally looks like it though!

So, that is the recap of our trip to Rome! We had such a wonderful time. Now I need to run off and plan our next adventure!

Have you been to Rome? If so, what was your favorite part?

A Weekend in Paris

Back in June, for our 15^th Wedding Anniversary we decided to spend three days in Paris. Paris was always my dream destination. Ever since I can remember that is the #1 place I'd always wanted to travel to..I always thought if I died before that I wouldn't feel like my life was complete. I am not sure what it is with me and this city but I had always been attracted to everything Parisian.
So, off we went. Packed our bags, book a ticket on the Thalys, and the three of us were off to Paris.
The Thalys train is very nice and is only a 3 hour trip from Amsterdam to Paris Noord. There is a snack cart on board so if you don't bring snacks you can get small sandwiches, waffles, coffee, wine, etc. Everything was pretty good. You can even get decaf coffee which I have found is difficult to get outside of the United States.

Day 1

Arrive Paris Noord.

I had it so we would hit the ground running the minute we checked into the hotel. However, you know that thing about the best laid plans…yeah it didn't happen. Turns out the hotel we booked couldn't accommodate three. When we made the reservation even though we put in three something happened during checkout and they had only planned to accommodate two of us. I'm not sure if y'all know exactly how hotels work here but they are very meticulous and rarely let you cram an extra person in there. So there was no sleeping on the floor. We called the company we booked the hotel through and they weren't even willing to help us find a place that could accommodate three. So, we talk to hotel management and they found a spot for us the next night but we'd have to find a place for that night. So, they recommended we go to one of the chains…well, it being summer in Paris you can imagine that didn't go over well. Every single place was booked to the max. I had no idea what in the hell we were going to do. It was something out of my worst nightmare. So the chain hotel we went to called the other hotels they own in the area and found one that had no space but thought it likely they may have some cancellations. We get there and the day manager starts calling those that hadn't checked in and things were not looking good. But, the last person she called cancelled their reservation…and the room would fit 3! She was kind and did not charge us the 35 Euro for using the couch as a bed (seriously, don't get me started on this lol) and got us all set up.
Off we went to find a place to eat. We found this super cute little pub down the way that was playing the US soccer game so we loaded up on Adult Beverages and coke and relaxed for the first time that day.

After, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. I think things worked out for the best because we got to the tower at the perfect time. It had been drizzling so the crowds were small and we managed to see the sunset….

I just loved watching the sunset from the summit

I love how you can actually see the layout of the city from the top of the tower.

I love this picture. I just looked up and started snapping photos as I walked and when I looked through the photos saw this beauty!

Ah, the Seine at night. So gorgeous. I could have stayed down there the entire night.

No one was playing these but there were several public pianos all decorated differently! Very cool!

I took this shot as I turned around from the piano picture above. I love the color of the sky behind the lit up carousel and tower.

Talk about magical. A dream come true.

 
Day 2
This began with a cab ride to our original hotel to drop off our bags and check in. They were super nice and knew exactly who we were. I would definitely recommend anyone who is looking for a place to stay, stay there.

Gorgeous wildflowers!

These two are just too dang cute!

After we walked around the corner to a little café/pub and got some coffee and croissants…ya know, why not?

Then it was time for the Louvre.

Finally outside of this amazing pyramid! I've had many dreams being outside this place...one included my grandmother after she passed we were standing outside and she just walked by me and waved. It was the weirdest dream but I was so happy once we were here...maybe it was a premonition of where I'd be eventually!

If you follow me on instagram you saw a picture similar to this a couple months back. This wound up being one of my favorites since you can see the other side of the Louvre through the pyramid.

This is another of my favorite pictures...I love how they are just standing there discussing art and tossing around opinions making each other think. I think that is what I love about art museums...no one is necessarily ever right or wrong and everyone can have something to say.

So gorgeous and so overwhelming.

Tip for the Louvre: pick your top three things you want to see…make it to those, then take a break. Get some food at the café. 

This was one of the most amazing pieces of chocolate cake I'd ever had. It doesn't look like much, but it was so moist and had gigantic chocolate chunks all throughout the cake...it was amazing, Best ever.

If you have time and the want then wander some more or check out one of the non-permanent exhibits. We did this…we saw Napoleon's Apartment. It was amazing.

Who is up for a dinner party?! Anyone?!

I love this bed.....

...and since we are in the 21st century I had to do a selfie....

After, it was time to walk the Tuileries Gardens.

...and no I have no idea who that woman is...

Gorgeous walk. We then settled in for a snack at a café.

 
Then on to a walk down the Champs Elysee, which ends at the Arc de Triomph.

This was everything I thought it would be...

I'm not a Vuitton lover but this was the biggest store of his I had ever seen...I know some of you out there will be salivating! The line to get in went halfway down the block!

I was so glad we found someone to take a photo of us. I took one of him and his family, so he took one of us....It was the first time I didn't have fear the person would run off with my camera! ha! They were a genuinely nice Italian family.

I must work on my squishing the monument skillz.

We didn't actually go up on to the island that is the Arc as it looked like we needed tickets and it wasn't something I felt the need to wait in a ridiculously long line to see.

After this we caught a cab over to Notre Dame. We got there just before the mass and were able to tour the Cathedral. I will say, and many of you will probably be ready to shame me at the end of this sentence, but after the Cathedral we saw in Brussels I honestly was not that impressed by Notre Dame.

It is beautiful, I just feel as though there was something missing. Maybe it was the ancient, old world beauty or the lack of creepy basement that housed the villagers during times of need I'm not sure but it just didn't grab me the way I expected it to. Oh well, not important, just glad we got the opportunity to experience it.

After we got dinner at a fabulous little café.

The burgers were so amazing. Best burger we'd had in a while.

I loved this little dessert platter. I got coffee and was able to try a small selection of different desserts!

The kiddo got the chocolate mousse...it was really chocolaty...it was perfect!

The creme brûlée was fantastic! Perfectly sweet.

We then headed back to the hotel fairly early so we could rest up. All that walking is tiring.

Just because, ya know mirror selfies are fun and I really wanted to see what my face looks like when I am taking a picture! ha! 

Day 3
We woke up to rain….and lots of it! But, we wanted to make it a day to remember and since there were not too many more landmarks we wanted to see we decided to turn it into a shopping day.
We dressed up and headed over to the National Opera. Again, we didn't go inside because the line for admission was just much longer than what I wanted to wait in so we looked around the outside between storms…it was gorgeous and definitely worth seeing.

We then headed over to a shopping centre nearby and shopped to our hearts content.


We came away with some great items from a sale at H and M and Forever 21. 

We then stopped at a cafe and got a delicious brunch:

This sandwich changed the way I make grilled cheese!

It was nothing shy of amazing.

Aren't they adorable?!

After we ate, we did a bit more shopping and the kiddo wound up with a beautiful large purse for school.

We took a break from the shopping to decide what we'd do next and we found a great café with fantastic desserts:

We decided to drop our bags at the hotel and figure out where to go from there. We decided since it was still raining that we would head up to the mall by our hotel and do some more shopping until it was time for our dinner reservations. 

I was sad I still hadn't found a bag but wouldn't you know, Michael Kors was having a great sale. So I walked away with a fantastic bag to put as a "classic" in my wardrobe!

 
We went to dinner...it pretty much sucked...this was the best part:

Then, because of the rain decided to stay the rest of the night in our room. We got drinks from the hotel bar, watched soccer, and enjoy time together as a family.

 
The next morning we checked out and headed back home.

It was an amazing trip and I think we spent exactly the right amount of time and saw everything we wanted to see.