Feb 18

My trip to Holland: Part 1

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If you’ve been following my Twitter feed you’ll know I’m in Holland right now visiting my sister-from-another-mother, Maaike.

Here’s my take so far:

1. It’s impossible to find a mug with wooden shoes on it.

There are mugs with all sorts of stereotypical Dutch things on it – naked women, cows, tulips, weed, windmills – and shoes on everything (except mugs). At least, I couldn’t find any the 7 souvenir shops I visited in Amsterdam. I’m going to keep looking but I thought it would be an easy find.

2. Bikes.

Yes, I know all about the culture of bikes here in Holland and most of Europe. I even used examples of their bike systems in presentations. But when you see it, it is still surprising. There are so many beautifully dressed people….riding bikes. They are wearing heeled shoes, and skirts and pantyhose…and they are riding bikes. Bikes truly are used as a form of transportation, not a form of exercise.

3. Pancakes

Waaaaay better than North American pancakes. They are huge and thin (more like crepes) and you order them with all sorts of different toppings (The first kind I tried had smoked bacon and apples in it).

4. Sizes.

All the drinks are small. Their large is a small. I like this, when you drink pop or juice. But beer or water has to come in the biggest size ever. Seriously, I want to meet the guy that orders a ‘small’ beer.

5. I prefer to spend my time in Utrecht rather than in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is huge and busy and crazy and there is so much to do you never get bored. Utrecht is a less crowded version of that. It seems more open (less cramped buildings because of fewer canals). There are a lot of people but not so many that you can’t move. The shopping is wonderful and instead of herring on a bun for street meat, they have the tastiest street meat!

6. Dogs are allowed everywhere!

Well, not everywhere but they are allowed in most places. That place I ordered my pancakes? Dogs. The inside part of the mall? Dogs. The bus? Dogs. The shoe store? Cats. Wait….Anyway, I like it. Dogs always put a smile on my face.

7. We are only 2 hours away from Bruges.

The best thing about Europe is that everything is so close. That is sooooo different that Canada (for obvious reasons). Think about me  in Bruges today, looking for the church that holds Jesus’s blood and Dumon Choclatier!

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Aug 05

Where was I? At the cottage.

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I got a couple of emails from friends wondering why I haven’t posted in over a week. Isn’t that stalkerish sweet?

Actually, it makes me realize that although I posted where I was on my facebook status and twitter it goes to show that somethings do get through the cracks. And actually, reading those emails made me feel good, because someone out there not only cares about me but also cares about reading my blog. So thank you, I will make sure that I’m more diligent in posting or letting you know if there is some sort of needed break.

On that note, let me show you what  wonderful time I had at my friend, Todd’s cottage. Aside from taking video and pictures I left technology (relatively) behind. Sure, I took advantage of electricity and running water but I had no cell phone, computer, twitter, no checking facebook or emails. I was far too busy :)

This is where I was for the past week:

Here is some of the fun stuff we did:

One of the cool things about the cottage was it’s history. I can’t remember the story but it was left to an aunt who stayed up there while she was ill and then got passed down from generations. There was a picture of the guy who built the cabin and so many funky knick knacks that people have brought over the years.

Check out my flickr stream to see the items in closer detail.

It got me thinking about my own family history. My parents immigrated from Greece so our family history in Canada starts with them. Back in Greece people don’t really have ‘cottages’ but even if they did, most of the stuff my family had was taken by the Greeks when Macedonia was taken over in the early 1900s.

But there is still a lot of history there. A lot of family. It’s been too long since my last visit (I was 16 at the time) and I think most of it has been a fear of communication. I don’t speak Greek very well and I only know 2 words in Macedonian.

Being at the cottage made me miss my heritage and my family. It also made me realize the importance of the history of your family and keeping it alive in some way.  The importance of creating that history when it doesn’t exisit. A history that my great-grand kids can look back and write their blog posts about.

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