social amsterdam

December 26 I hopped on a plane from London and flew over to Amsterdam for a week or so. Staying at Mike and Susie Richerson's house for that time, i had a HUGE house to myself, and didnt know what to do with myself. I collected my thoughts and acted a complete laze by simply sittin' about the first day. Because i was traveling alone, the situation seemed to be drastic. So signing into my travel website, i dropped a few lines to people in the neighborhood to see if they were in the mood to see Amsterdam with me, or show me what they like. I met girls from french-canada (Montreal), Finland and Belgium. All of whom were incredibly interesting people and plenty of fun to hang with.
Seeing Amsterdam and riding around on my bike has inspired me.
I want to live and work in Amsterdam.
But let me share a few pictures of what Amsterdam looks like:




Nighttime at the Rijksmuseum...or something nearby..!
The apple cake at Laité, and the interior with all the lamps. Everything in the café is for sale, all vintage.

And than I went out with a girl from Belgium, and met her boyfriend's old flatmate. Both very interesting people and quite fun to hang with. It was all very exciting.
Night time in vjeekt(?) street, home of Chinatown.

christmas

i spent a small week at dave and jeans and hung out with lucy for christmas, and it was amazing. a limited number of photos from the actual week, but plenty from the christmas celebration. Dave cooked an amazing meal complete with dessert. Company was great, and we were laughing almost the whole time. It was delicious, and incredibly filling for the spirit. pictures aplenty. The first day Lucy and i went ice skating. No cameras allowed on the ice, so i got a shot of the skates before we went out and dodged small children dive bombing the ice. "The coldest day of the year and [we] went ice skating." Nancy booked the flight for christmas eve, and was able to stay the whole day and leave the day after. The day i went to amsterdam.
we unwrap presents. it was fun.
dinner was quite tasty. we just dug in after popping our "poppers" and wearing the crowns that go with.

Nan and lucy cuddle for camera posing.
now its Lucy and Jean's turn to do a bit of cuddlingfor the camera.
my dinner. DELICIOUS!!! carrots, mashed orange veggies, potatoes, stuffing, and those white root things. so yummy

rug shopping!

vivi and i went rug shopping. The red one behind us looks alot like one i got for the parents. heres to hoping i didnt get stiffed.

marrakech pt2 +pics!

we had to get on the second bus at a break due to traffic..it was the double decker from heck.
our plan was to sleep at the airport. We didnt expect such cold floors, it wasnt too comfortable. cold.

the bathroom of the second choice. The shower worked nicely.

at night in the center, all the foodstalls are set up and they compete for business
vivi ended up ordering alot of food that first night. I had chicken couscous. yummy and tender.. oh and it was cold when we got there. not completely expected.

a game in the center. coke fishing. it was all rather cool really.
all the food that first night
this is our alleyway to our riad. spooky but cool!
the back paths of the city, there were alot of donkeys with carts like this for carrying things about.
this is the center, in the distance you can see jemna el fna with all the people and where the smoke is coming from
here is jemna el fna from the ground
this is the spice souk area i think...
we went into the new city (guiad?) and had a great lunch at this french upscale restaurant. very posh.
you cant escape it!
pausing to be über touristy!
our alleyway + plastic mannequins and the surprised delivery guy.

So far....

Vivi and i left Mary Morris at 8am to catch our bus to London to connect to another bus late that sunday night to take a train. But in between our trip to london our 2nd driver got stuck in a nasty traffic jam and we had to pile into an old doubledecker for the next two hours. My bum was quite numb by the time we reached London (at 2pm). We had the MOST delicious dinner at Dave's and than had to go catch a bus at the Victoria Bus station to get to the airport by 12. (Our plane was going to leave at 6am and we had plans to sleep at the airport) We had a little surprise, there wasn't anywhere to sleep really. So we slept on the ground. COLD!!! But we had lattes after checking in and were only 5 hours from landing in Marrakech. We took a taxi that brought us almost to our front door, and than have a guy stiff Vivi out of 5 pounds for showing us to our door. But our Riad is beautiful and colorful and although our host knows only French and a bit of Italian, we are enjoying it immensely.
(pictures to come soon)
this is a taste. But on going out for dinner later that night (after a well deserved nap) we became someone's "sweetlips/pumpkin"
and today we became an attraction when two guys asked to take a picture with us and than asked to be our friends: "msn? yahoo?" they wanted to keep in touch.
And last night, Vivi got to watch bellydancers in the square. But these dancers were covered head to toe and had no feminine curves. A guy near us informed me they were transexuals. (that made my night!) After it was done, Vivi and I made to leave, the guy still trying to make conversation. "But i only want to talk to you." And later, getting a bit hungry, we were served by "the Jaime Oliver of Marrakech." (Vivi ordered WAY too much but it was delicious)

one down, one to go!

Well, up all night...but i finished my cartoom/ motion graphic and am posting it for all y'alls viewing pleasuaar. I am going to go take a nap, upload all the images i have from Dennis tomorrow after the madness has died down a little...and than purge my camera to get ready for morocco!



Its cool and catchy!
And i am SO very proud of myself. I danced around the room in excitement.