It's Ying Cha not YUM CHA

Yesterday I got a haircut finally!!!!

And we had Ying Cha in the "China Town" of Amsterdam and all in all tried to take it easy. We also had Ollebollen which everyone raves about - they are like big round dough puffs similar to donuts covered in icing sugar. I am getting a bit of a tummy from eating so much! Of dear.

Me being an asian with my Ollebollen bag: 

At ying cha, it was so busy we had to take a number and wait like 30 minutes! But look how happy we are doing it.

This is what we ordered, cause I know you guys are familiar with the menu, you know. Cause there were no trolleys - you preordered whatever it was you wanted...

We chatted for so many hours that it was already nearly dark when we left. Then again, it gets dark super early. But you know!

It's hard to get a nice night shot without a tripod. I balanced my camera on a pole and apparently put our newly bought cheese fondue put bag in the place where dogs always pee. Angela was not happy.... ooops

Tonight We Build A School

Christmas is a time for relaxation....and clubbing. On second Christmas Day, we went to a charity event in which they had combined 2 very popular bars together to host a giant party in order to raise enough money to build a school in India. Nice Concept.

 We were all a little tired but we went anyhow, got a little dressed up, and did a bit of dancing and drinking and of course, photo taking!

Just a happy night out, starting with drinks at some fancy bar

Michiel get really mad and decided to bash me up

But it's ok, we made up :) We are friends again.

Angela thought she'd pose with an armpit

Crazy lights!

N.B: The narrative implied by my comments on the photos may not necessarily be 100% correct

Also there was a cloak room which was different and pretty cool! - cause it's WAY to damn cold to just wear a dress out.

Lastly, we got to go out and eat dirty but delicious fried food at a "snack bar" as we were quite famished. This is a... Kroket. Deep fried stick of meat or something.

And this is Angela's chicken burger. The funny shaped puff was YUM - it was filled with cheese... melted cheese.

SOOO MUCH CHEESE HEEERE.

Tonight, we are having cheese fondue with dinner guests. LOL And on Friday - we go to Gent BELGIUM!

In Amsterdam - Fanta is Yellow....IT'S JUST WRONG

My First European Christmas Dinner

On Christmas afternoon, I caught a train to one of the outer cities of Amsterdam - about 50 minutes away to a city I can't quite remember where I had the pleasure of meeting a real Dutch family and getting to have Christmas dinner with them. It was definitely a very interesting experience - and I had a lot of "firsts" that day.

First, we caught my first European train. People were asking what the train tickets looked like so here is a photo as well as the train.

Anyway onwards to what the house was like. OH MY. It was an amazing house. Apparently large houses are quite rare in Netherlands and so it was going to be very special to see a HOUSE in the Netherlands. But honestly, it was special even for Australian standards. It was a massive house which was exactly the kind of house you can see in movies. Like a fancy house with heaps of art, and everything put in the right place and every room looked like it came out of a movie. It was an amazing feeling to be in such a crazy posh house. Mind, I'm not saying it was like the house for the richest man ever. I mean to say it was like those houses that people who are reasonably fancy would live in.,. There were like a few living rooms, and like a kitchen with an extra kitche, with a giant garage and another garage, and study rooms and play rooms and lots of bedrooms and multiple bathrooms and terraces and sloping grass and hedges which had shapes and ... you get the idea..... Comprendez? No... Ok sorry it's hard to explain - I was just impressed.

We sat in the living room and had some tea and I became a little acquainted with the family. Michel's father did not speak much Dutch, and Michel's brothers and mother spoke it quite well but they did speak a lot of Dutch a lot which is a funny language to listen to. Michel's father also has a expensive hobby. He likes cars. A lot! Like enough to spend a lot of money on it. We went to his garage (which btw was big) - had to take our shoes off before going in and my mouth dropped.It was basically like a car show room, all white with lit up lights on the ceiling to make it look EXACTLY like a car showcase room, with the shiny floors and 7 extremely good looking cars. There were like a few Porsches and a few Asten Martins as well as Ferraris. You know, no big deal.... ok. It was AWESOME. And I don't even appreciate good cars. My idea of a good car is my Bread Van.

Mmmmm...what a beautiful car!

Haha.

Yeah ok anyway. So we started with some canapes - revolving around goat's cheese. There was like prosciutto wrapped around goats cheese, and goats cheese in some dates, and goats cheese balls and nuts and feta and stuff. Not bad, I tried a little of everything. Goats Cheese is ok!

Once dinner was ready we went to the table which was set up very PRO. With like a big metal platter on the bottom with a few forks and knives and several wine glasses - this was going to be a fancy meal! We all were served some sparkling champagne and the entree was one revolving around Salmon. We each got a plate which had a generous serving of grilled salmon (yum, I can deal with that), but also a generous helping of raw salmon and raw salmon mixed with ricotta. HMMmmm... I don't actually really eat Salmon. The cooked one was super tasty though but the other two were a little struggle for me as it was hard to get over the whole "THIS IS RAW" thing. I tried to eat it though. But then I noticed everyone else at the table had gallomped it all down super quick and finished it all. Angela was eating slower but was making good progress to the finish line - so I had to just take a deep breath, and go for it. I'm still not a huge fan of raw salmon to be honest - but in my head saying "its not raw, its not raw, it's not raw" and drinking copious amounts of champagne helped. Still - the cooked salmon was YUM.

The main meal was served with a different wine to complement the meal. It was served with much grandeur and the meal was HARE: Michiel's mother proudly pronounced. "Oh, Wow! Rabbit?" I said. "No, this is not rabbit!" she replied sternly.... "this is Hare!" Very different. My bad. It was quite tasty. It was served with berries, and there was a pear which had been boiled overnight and was very sweet and soft and tasty. There was also some mashed potatos and brussell sprouts. Again, this was all very different to what I usually eat. It looked wondeful but I just wasn't used to it. Again, everyone gulfed everything down but it was so different for me and it took me a little time to adjust. Why? Firstly, I like berries but for some reason not berries with food, or berries in smoothies, etc. I also don't really like brussel sprouts - they are bitter. Still, I ate everything and I did enjoy it - genuinely.

I was getting pretty full now. Then I found out there were another 2 courses. WHATTT?!?!?! Next was cheeses! Yes, lots of cheese. There was 4 giant blocks which came out with almonds and grapes. Such a fancy meal, right? There was Cheddar, Old Amsterdam, Camembert and ... another one which looked like Spinach and Ricotta. Michiel's father was serving it to me, and asked would I like some. Sure, I said - I like spinach and ricotta! He puts a generous helping on my plate and goes: Blue Cheese!

ARGGHHH!!!! I had to eat that hahahaha.

Next came... DESSERT. Chocolate mousse with Berries and Icecream :D More berries. and Mousse! Wow.

Gosh, I was super full after all that and I enjoyed having such an interesting meal. It was a learning experience, my first time really feeling a little "culture shock." It was so nice that I got to experience this kind of thing though, and everyone was really nice to me even though I was saying silly things like Rabbit??? and OOOH Spinach and Ricotta!!!!

On reflection, I realised while I thought I was quite easy going and ate everything.. it turns out I don't. It turns out I am much more picky than I thought. I think that this next 6 months in Europe should be very interesting when it comes to food. I need to learn to eat a lot more cheese and cream and berries and sweet stuff. I'm going to try my best to appreciate and try everything.

We got a group photo before we left also!

OKKK. That was an epic 3 blogs written! And I'm still behind. far out. But I hope you enjoyed them, despite them all being a little rushed. Hope you guys had a great Christmas!!!!! :D

No Snow! Oh Noooooo's

Christmas in Europe.

First thing you think of? Oh my gosh - you are going to have a White Christmas!!!!! I'm sorry to disappoint you, but not this year. It was instead a "warm" European winter christmas. Warm being that it was about 8 degrees (it's warm, says Angela!!!) and with a icey cold wind - BUT NO SNOW. Where is the Snow????? Well, of course, after so much hype I was pretty unhappy that there was no snow. Here is a photo to show you how much NO SNOW there is. This was taken from my sister's balcony on Christmas morning in Amsterdam.

You think it looks hot right? It's not. I thought I wouldn't need a jacket but Michel and Angela were like ...nooo you will still need to dress warm and they were right. It was FREAKING COLD out there. Unbe-freaking-levable!!!!!!!

But nevertheless, it was Christmas Day so I settled down to read me some letters written by my wonderful friends. All of which were raving about how much I must be loving having a white christmas. lol thanks for rubbing it in guys :P

Not the whole box, just the few that I have out of the box lol - otherwise that would be nuts!

To take the cake and make my day, was opening Alex's mystery card. I know you guys all wanna know what was in it, I've been getting bugged about it! Oooooooh and it was so amazing. I don't know if I should show you. The suspense is killing you right? Lol. Ok I'll show you. Thanks Alex for the AMAZING CARD and it is so beautiful and I cannot understand how you made it. TELL ME TELL ME TELL ME.

Ok HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS.

May I just point out, that is GOLD FLAKES. Real Gold Flakes. Do your friends give you gold flakes? That is something special. And you probably can't tell what it is made of.... it looks incredibly pretty though and I hope that Alex will let me know exactly how she came to make such a pretty card. Thanks for the card Alex and to everyone else who wrote me letters and the letters from before christmas and the letters I will read in the future.

Also: here is a cute photo of the cat and how excited he was on Christmas morning

Lol - he is cute. Still very feisty though! But he is starting to get better seeing as I am now the one who feeds him everyday :)

Moooving On. Next Blog - Christmas Dinner at Michel's Parents HOuse.

Tricked Ya! It's Cologne Part 2!

Happy Belated Christmas Everyone!

Hope it was a great one. I"ve been meaning to write a quick blog about Christmas but haven't really had much of a chance. I've been keeping myself reasonably busy and I like to write long blogs if you haven't noticed. Perhaps I should start keeping my blogs short and sweet. We will see, we will see.

So, something I realised I forgot to talk about in my last post cause the video took so long and I got too frustrated and just sorta cut it out without even finishing writing everything I wanted to say was about buffet breakfasts. One thing that is key to my heart is BUFFET BREAKFASTS. (Something to remember should you wish to woo me lol) Being treated to all that I can eat when I've just woken up while on holidays? That's the dream, that's THE DREAM. All my life, all I ever wanted to have was a buffet breakfast at the place I've stayed at - and for some reason, that always managed to not happen. It would be advertised that - yes, we have buffet breakfast - and then you turn up, and there is not one. It is a sad day when this happens. Mind, I have not stayed in hotels very much at all so it's realistically probably only happened once or twice. I did however have a buffet breakfast in Japan and it was wonderful. And I have now had a buffet breakfast in Cologne Germany.

How was it? Well, one thing I can say is it was tasty! But boy, Germans, and the Dutch and probably the rest of Europe as well sure do eat a lot of cheese and bread. There was a great variety of cheeses, and breads, and juices, tea, coffee, fruits, and bacon and eggs. I was quite happy and here are some quick photos of it because buffet breakfasts are important and need to be documented.

Also very important. I saw this crazy statue man who honestly looked like he was made of stone but when you put money in his bowl would do crazy moves like a ... I dunno, stone would move if it could move. He was pretty awesome. Like he would do crazy soldier swings and clack his shoes which were super clacky. I found him a little scary but I gave him money and got a photo of him like the dutiful tourist that I am.

Oh and cause it was quite cold in Germany, we went to a bakery and got some Hot Chocolates which was quite quite tasty!!!!!! 

OH dear, this christmas blog turned into Gent Part 2. I think I'll start a new post about Christmas now to make this all a little less confusing. MY BAAAD.


EDIT:
The hotel we stayed at was awesome but weird. They had heaps of paintings of feet everywhere. It was a little bit creepy LOL

COLOGNE GERMANY XMAS MARKETS

Guess what my jealous people, I have been to Germany!!!!!!!! GERMANY!!!!! Yeah, we just casually drove there on the 23rd Dec to go check out these small-time Christmas Markets, you know? It was about a 2 and a half hour drive. And ok, the markets were AH-MAZING!

It was hard to get photos again cause christmas lights don't always translate right on camera. Someone tell me how if you know! But I did take a few videos for you guys to enjoy! And I put them together roughly... it's just to give you a taste of the feel. We went to two different xmas markets. The first is the really super crazy one with all these lights and it's very festive but more commerical and the second one if a little more dark, and quiet, and halloweeny with purple lit trees and a nice vibe! It is common to drink hot gluwein - mulled wine - which you get in mugs you need to buy but then you can return and get the money you paid for them back. You can see that in the video - we ended up keeping the mugs we got from the second markets cause they were less crazy. The first ones if you see in the video were rather too colourful... the other market's mugs had like kissing dwarves. A much better improvement!

Cologne if you know anything about it is super famous for their giant cathedral called the DOM CATHEDRAL,. And man it looked pretty nuts and menacing with the christmas lights. Look it up but here are a few photos around the place for you.

I Am Sterdam! Exploring continued

Meerrrry Christmas Everyone!!! I understand that it is boxing day down under, but here - the Europeans apparently celebrate Christmas twice. Today, the 26th, is "Second Christmas Day" so - if you had a really crappy christmas and want to redo your day yester - come on over here and relive the joy and merriment once again!!!! So how was everyone's christmas'? I heard it ended up being quite sunny down in Australia. I'm sure you are wondering what my white christmas was like? Ah. That is to come. I have missed a few days on my blog and thus would like to go through my last few days in a more linear fashion in order to not confuse myself and of course, most graciously, others. I am ever the polite and thoughtful individual am I not?

So going back again to Anne Frank Day, which I believe to be the second day of me being in Amsterdam. I did some epic exploring on my own - looking around the city, attempting to find the Anne Frank House and basically familiarising myself overall with the place. It's such a well layed out and unified city, all the architecture is so stylised in that classic look and all the canals just really frame the place so well! The city is divided into like a kazillion canals which parallel and criss cross each other and so everything is just basically built around them with bridges going over them - GREAT PHOTO OPP. I'm sure everyone who goes to Amsterdam gets a photo like this.

There's me and my sister while she looks super stylish wearing a fur stole!

Anyway, It's hard for even a photo to do it justice really. And you've probably noticed already, there are a lot of bikes. Everyone rides bikes here and cars drive pretty stupid. People also drive on the right side of the road which is trippy and the road markings are all incredibly confusing. Zebra crossings have traffic lights and even when they say go, cars still go. But mainly, you need to look out for bikes cause roads are predominantly made up of bikes, trams and then cars swerving in between them all.

As I was heading off, it was a very chilly day. I made it my goal to find myself a pair of gloves and some earmuffs - having rather sensitive ears. The cold wind makes me get a ear-ache that is super annoying. It took me forever to find the shops however and when I finally did, I was buggered and wet cause it had started raining. Still, I got myself some kinda cool black "100% leather" gloves. Not sure if they are, but they are like a soft suede leather or something - faded leather suede-y stuff. If anyone can imagine that? All the earmuffs were too fluffy for my standards so I left it there.

After coming home to recooperate and find a map of the Anne Frank House, I was back out again. From the Anne Frank House, I made it my goal to find this place called the Bulldog Hostel which was a place I needed to try and reserve for my trip around Europe later on in July. It's a pretty awesome hostel/hotel - which its roots in marijuana and has a very quirky culture to it.

It turned out that this particular hostel also happened to be smack bang next to the Red Light District haha and on the other side of the town, so I walked past canal after canal, counting them as I had on google maps before I left, and finally - as it started to get dark - FOUND IT! (it gets dark at like 4 here)

I was super hungry so I got some dutch chips, which apparently is super touristy. They asked if I wanted sauce, I couldn't understand any of the sauces except cheese sauce. So I got that. And honestly, it was so much cheese and it was so gross.It looks like only a bit in here... but gosh. I ate a few and felt so sick! Full orange cheese like in America it was. And yeah, but hey! It's what you do in Amsterdam. I'm going to try a different sauce next time....

All of Amsterdam is covered in lights around this time. It's hard to get a decent photo but like all the streets have lights hung along them and so do the buildings. Like massively. It's all very festive and fun to walk under. Here's some terrible photos of that.

At night, I checked out more of the red light district with Angela, but only VERY BRIEFLY on our way to the china town area to have some dinner. I think I saw enough :P I should be going back again to give myself a proper experience later on though apparently. We also had a few cocktails. This is a grasshopper - which tastes like a "8 0'clock mint.. chocolate and mint"

Oh you might not be able to see them, but I saw my first SWANS ... in the red light district!!!!!!!

Still to come, my trip to Cologne Germany to see the Christmas Markets and Christmas Day!