Dutch Food Coma

After a fairly long and extrordinarily cold (and thus sleepless) flight, I made it Amsterdam!  The airport was spotless, they had tulips everywhere, and my friend Didi´s boyfriend Eric was there to pick me up.  After a very necessary coffee it became apparent that Eric is an excellent tour guide and in his own words ´´a feeder´´, so we walked around and through an open air market and I tried a handful of Dutch treats - Lumpia (Vietnamese spring rolls), Stroopwaffle (a thin waffle with cinnamon carmel), Poffertjies (mini pancakes with powdered sugar), and even Herring with onion and pickles (breath ruiner).


At this point I was experiencing a serious food coma. It turns out my pals here have not been to a lot of the ´´touristy´´ places, so it was upon Eric´s suggestion that we went to... the Heineken Experience!  It was actually quite fun, as it is a HUGE space and very interactive, and we got to drink beers during the tour... the perfect thing to do whilst overfull on Dutch snacks.  Just kidding. 


After the Heineken Experience we did quite a bit of walking, so I could try and get a feel for the city.  It is SO beautiful here.  Maybe the thrill of being somewhere new is clouding my brain, or perhaps simply being out of New York is making me think this, but people here seem so content!  And anyone I spoke to was incredibly nice.  By now I was already plotting how to move here for the rest of my life... it was around 6pm.   It was cold and everyone else was on bikes... so I rented one too.  The attendants were totaly cliches- the were too busy smoking pot and watching Married With Children to even notice we were there, but it was incredibly hilarious and only 1 Euro to rent the bike.  In keeping with the theme of the day, we rode bikes to... Burgermeester!   I had read about Burgermeester in the NYTimes a few weeks ago, so was pretty jazzed to try it.  It was REALLY good... perfectly seasoned lean beef with grilled eggplant, zuchinni, and tarragon mayo on top.  No fries available, which was probably a good thing.

At this point I was totally exhausted and running on nothing but 3 hours of sleep, 3 beers, and a burger.  It was time to call it a day.