Travelling to Europe

Living on the west coast, we're pretty much at the farthest place from Europe in North America. Well, save Hawaii, but hey, if I ever lived in Hawaii, I don't think I'd ever leave to go on vacation. I mean, what's the point, right?

Anyways, my flight left at 8:40pm, and I would land 9hrs later in London. My last Europe trip was 3 years ago, so it seems that I forgot just how excruciatingly small the seats were. Holy cow. Plus I was late to the airport, so I got stuck with a middle seat. Now the ladies beside me were nice and talking to them definitely helped alleviate the boredom; one lady was from Dusseldorf and we talked about travelling and my plans for Germany a bit; and the other ladies were from Vancouver and they were paralegals/lawyers, so we had a lot to talk about in that area as well.

Still, by the end, the German lady got sick and started coughing all over me; the old Indian grandma in front of me decided to keep her seat lowered straight into my lap for the majority of the flight, for which she was rewarded with my knees sticking into her lower back (not my fault I have long legs), and I generally felt quite crappy. I did manage to catch maybe 3 hours of sleep, so that was something (I usually don't sleep at all), but let's just say I wasn't at the top of my game when we arrived in London. I think I managed to almost forget my laptop in those little trays at security. I mean my laptop was gray and the tray was gray and it was just gray up in my head.

Also, my flight to Amsterdam got delayed, so I wasn't a happy camper. But on the flight to Amsterdam, I had an aisle seat, FINALLY, and the man beside me was super helpful and fun to talk to (and not so bad looking, if I do say so myself). Plus the flight itself was only an hour or so. When I landed, I had a bit of a phone crisis, because I was supposed to phone the people I was staying with and my credit card was having issues fitting into the phone and I was all sorts of loopy. Thankfully that got solved though, and I hopped on the train to Den Haag (the Hague) and then switch to a different train heading to Rotterdam so I could hop off at Delft, which is where I will be staying.

First impressions? The Netherlands is very green. Very green and very orderly. All the fields and parks are just right, and neat and everything is perpendicular (which of course my OCD brain LOVED). There are so many bike paths, it's not even funny, and now I really wish I had packed my running shoes so I could run-plore (explo-run?) the country. But of course I had to make room for all my dresses, so I didn't (may have been a mistake - it's so darn windy here, I don't think I could wear anything skirt-y or dress-y because I would just be giving everyone a strip-show).

Anyways, off to a real bed now!

Delft

Surprisingly, I got 10ish hours of sleep last night. I mean, I came prepared and I popped in my earplugs (I did bring a whole ziploc baggie of them, in case they get lost or people started coveting my awesome dollar store ear plugs). That managed to drown out the trams that run past the house every 5 minutes until midnight. I also tend to rip out my earplugs in my sleep somewhere around 3am-ish. Which led me to discover that apparently all the birds of the world live in the Netherlands and they really like to get it on at 4am. There was also an owl that kept hoo-hoo-ing until late morning. Good times. But I managed to catch up on some sleep so I was a happy camper.

In any case, my hosts are the best ever and made awesome breakfast (although let me tell you - it's really hard to eat 'healthy' with the Russian style of eating - because they set out everything and you just sit at the table for 2 hours and keep helping yourself to seconds ... and thirds ... and hell, who's counting?). They also offered to take me to the market with them and show me around Delft for a bit. Now everyone who knows me knows that I am a lone ranger when it comes to touristing. That is - I love to have my plan and my map and just set off by myself. But I definitely appreciated having them show me around because obviously, I don't speak Dutch (although most people here are good about knowing at least a little bit of English); and also because I didn't have a plan.

Can I just say how very cute this town is?

It's all canals and little brick houses with red roofs and parks and happiness.

It's like Quaint Little Town, USA, except that here, it's all real. It's not a toy town, these people actually live here! (Now I have to say, while I absolutely LOVED strolling around town, I don't think I could live here (aka I would die of boredom in about a month)).

First, we hit up the market. It was exactly what you would imagine a European farmer's market to be. It's all clean and neat and really really lovely. It made me want to just buy little packets of fire roasted nuts and freshly baked bread and flowers.

 

Just beautiful.

Just to reiterate, here are the three things that define Delft all in one photo: bikes, canals and tiny cute houses. (Oh yea, the bikes? Everywhere. I thought Montreal was a bicyling city, but this is much more insane - think twice as many bikers, all on pedestrian streets filled with crowds of people).

And this is how they should teach you parallel parking in America - if you do it wrong, you will fall in the canal, so you better do it right! Awesome sauce. Of course it helps that all of their cars here are tiny and I've yet to see anything SUV sized.

Now all this market walking was exhausting (but seriously though - how is it that I can run and do exercise classes just fine, but continuous all-day walking tires me out like no other?), so I was feeling peckish. It didn't help that our next stop was some famous bakery with some absolutely amazing looking European pastries. Starbucks, move on over and don't even try to do 'pastries'. I need this bakery in my life.

Brood means bread, and koffie is coffee, so I see Koffie Broodje and I know I'm in heaven. We didn't end up getting that, but I was pretty much salivating anyways.

And of course I had to get some real coffee as well. My only complaint? These Europeans just can't satisfy my American-sized coffee cravings. This was like a tumbler that I would pour whisky in, and I was definitely hoping for a Grande-sized caffeine boost. But thankfully that apple turnover hiding in the back provided me with the energy to explore the rest of Delft on my own in the afternoon.

Now I have a theory. And that theory is that tourists love to climb stuff. Give them a tower/monument/giant staircase, and they will fricking climb it until their toes bleed.

See that tower in the background? That's the tower of the Nieuwe Kirche (New Church). That's where William of Orange is buried.

Yea, he was just like the most important person in Dutch history. There's signs all over town that say William of Orange ate here, or slept there, or was killed there; the bakery where we got our pastries in the morning actually used to be an inn, and that's where William's killer had spent the night. I bet they didn't advertise that 500 years ago.

Oh yea, and the tower of the new church is also home of some stairs.

Um, of COURSE I climbed it. I love to climb shit. Don't even get me started. The only little issue? Well, this stair was built for 1 person. One tiny (probably 10 year old boy-sized) person to climb up and down to ring the bells. There were no Quasimodos in Delft. So let's just say, we all had to get cosy and up close and personal when I met people coming down and I was going up. There were also three balcony levels where you could get the heck out of the staircase and see the city. Let me tell you, those balconies were no more than ledges with stone railings. Again, those Dutch bell-ringers were some slim sons of bitches.

But the view was amazing.

Not quite THE view of Delft, but A view of Delft nonetheless.

We did actually walk to the Oostpoort (the East Gate - the only remaining one of the city) where Vermeer had done his painting, but I didn't have time to actually walk across the bridge to get the same perspective because the bridge was being turned (not raised, but turned!) to let a boat through.

I just had time to hoof it over to the Oude Kirche (old church) before taking the tram back to the house (oh yes, it's tram city over here!). They had a very different style of stained glass windows than I'm used to, but it was gorgeous nonetheless. Now, because of the reformation, they have a definitely non-choral type of worship, so instead of the pews facing the front of the church where the altar and the church choir would be, all the seats face inward to a sort of pedestal where the preacher would be. Being the choral nerd that I am, this is not my fave, but it was interesting to see.

The stained glass windows were kind of brown-ish looking ...

We finished the day in Delft by going to a beach situated between Delft and Rotterdam to take a nice (very fricking LONG) stroll by the sea.

 It was pure bliss - pristine white sand, cool water and the warm kiss of the sun. Only problem? Gale force winds. No wonder they have a gajillion windmills here!

Of course these wind-surfers (and there were kite-surfers too) didn't think it was a problem!

Best end to the day I could've imagined. Then I came home and collapsed from exhaustion. Well, after another delicious home-cooked meal. Great start to the vacay!

Hanging Out

I won't even try to catch up on posting. I'll just pretend that nothing of import happened in the last month. It probably didn't. I don't even remember. I do miss blogging about all the cafes I go to though. But let's just say, I have 1-3 cups of coffee a day. Pretend like I blogged about them. Ok, the end.

But ... I did decide to try something exciting for once (it may have been due to my gym membership expiring and this class was free and you know how I like to take advantage of free things).

http://www.stevenashfitnessclubs.com/programs/anti_gravity.html

Anti-Gravity Yoga!

I was super pumped. PUMPED. Now, I didn't know what to expect, and honestly, I was a little apprehensive (has to do with the fact that all sorts of flipping/inverting becomes very difficult when your butt outweighs the rest of your body). But it was super duper fun! 

This class was definitely not as yoga-y as regular yoga classes. I mean, we did do some basic postures (all with the sling) and at the end, Cocoon pose was definitely helpful for savasana (best. pose. ever. just imagine yourself hanging in the air, enveloped in silk. yup. best. ever). But the fun stuff, like the flips and the inversions, was more about the fun than about the yoga. Of course for someone who has long harboured delusions of being a Cirque du Soleil performer (poor Mom had to walk into many a situation when I had somehow fallen into a wall during a pirouette/got stuck stretching/broke a table during my 'interpretive dancing'), this was a wet dream.

Let me just say that I was a bit skeptical of these slings holding all xxx pounds of me. But the instructor assured us that these silk slings can hold up to 1000 pounds (which of course made me think of just who they were targeting these slings for). Because it's true, the slings support you during balance poses you might not have been able to do otherwise, but in some other hanging poses, the sling can definitely dig into your skin and I could certainly see the advantage of being skinnier at those times.

In any case, as soon as I jumped into it, I decided immediately to rig something similar up at my house. Somehow. I see many a bedsheet sacrificed in the future towards my 'exercise and fitness' endeavours.

So. Much. Fun. I would just sit around and swing in it all day. 

And of course do fun poses like Vampire Pose. Chanelling my inner Bella, that's right.

But seriously though, while we were doing all the stuff, I thought, 'hey, well this is all fun and games but it's not really "exercise"'. WRONG. My muscles definitely feel the TRX-like lunges and stretches that we did. And the planking. And all the ab support needed to hold poses like the one above.

Yes, I may have just bought an unlimited summer pass. I am so going to pass off acrobatics-in-a-bedsheet as legit exercise. Just try it and thank me later.