Day 6- 24 hours in Bed

I am finally making it out of bed. It got too smoky yesterday in the lobby, so I headed back up stairs. It was a good thing. I would have coughing fits, which was followed up by a fever, achy and the chills. I threw up all over the floor, trying to make it to the bathroom and threw up more trying to clean it up.

I took more of the cough syrup, even though the lady at the store said to just take one dose. I couldn't read the instructions and felt too bad to make it down to the lobby to have someone translate for me. I didn't think I would overdose, but it made me throw up again.

I had no idea what time Andy would be back, as I had no energy to leave the room. I figured he would be back at some point, but was so miserable it ddn't matter.

By the time he came back at 7pm, I was feeling a little better but my throat was so sore I couldn't swollow. There was no 24 hour pharmacy, so I would have to wait until the next day to find something. It is kind of stressful knowing thta you can't do anything about it.

We went around the corner for dinner, and I had some tomato soup and water. It was really good, but I could barely eat any. We have since learned that you have to ask for the check. Andy told them we didn't want anything else, but the check never came. I had to leave because the man next to me started smoking. and I couldn't take it.

I didn't cough too much in the night, and it seems the tightness in my lungs has broken up. Andy brought me up tea with honey, and these little bisuits, since I didn't want to go to breakfast.

He is so sweet.

I just got back from the pharmacy and got cough drops, or whatever they call them here. I had to describe my ailment and she came up with some tablets.

I'm going back upstairs. I really want to get over this, so it doesn't ruin the rest of the trip. It is super weird because I don't get sick very often.

Update: Andy came back, and we went to Mister Noodle for dinner. Pho Ga is the same here, so we both ordered it. We're getting pretty good at recognizing stuff so that is a plus.

He went out for filmmakers drinks until about 3am. Man, I don't know now he does it. :)

Day 5- Rotterdam: Museum Day

Since it is raining outside, it turned out to be a perfect day to hit the museums on my list. But first, I had to hit the Apotheek for some cough medicine. The cute old man owner of the hotel said he was sick too and that the flu is going around, and pointed out the pharmacy. I was careful not to ask for a 'drug store', as that has a whole new meaning here.

On the way to the Apotheek, I passed a store that only sold toothbrushes, toothpaste and mouth wash. So specific!

The lady was very helpful at the store, but the stuff I bought isn't really helping. I am supposed to only take one dose, and it works for day or night. Very efficient, if it worked.

I hit the NAI, Netherland Architecture Institute, which apparently is the only museum on archituecture in the world. It was pretty neat. There was an exhibit on PJH Cuypers, known for the Central Station and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and a ton of churches. His architecture and his views are still controversial because he chose a position in the debate on the significance of architecture in relation to religion in community. It was neat to see the original floorplans of St. Laurenskerk, the gothic church that survived the bombings.

There wasn't alot at the museum, but by buying addmission to the NAI, I could go into the Sonneveld house. It has been my favorite part of the trip so far. It was even more awesome because I had the whole place to myself for an hour. It was completed in 1933, and is one of the best-preserved houses in the Niewe Bouwen style, the Dutch branch of the International School of Modernism. You would think it was a house from the 1960's, so it was very interesting to see all of the modern conveniences in a 1933 house. I watched a really interesting video on the restoration. I was able to take a picture of a 'paint ladder', which is where they scrape down to figure out the original colors of the rooms. I could go on and on and on how cool the house was, but you can check it out on this link. http://static.nai.nl/e/sonneveld_e/index.html

Next I went to the Kunsthal, which is the Rem Koohaas designed museum. I guess they can have 6 exhibitions, but only 3 were running. I kept ending up in areas where I wasn't supposed to be, so I watched them working on the next exhibits. The best one was this gay exhibit. You could listen to songs from the gay jukebox. Thankfully, I could get the gist of the exhibit because it was all Dutch.

I am not feeling terrific, so I'm back at the hotel. I'm going to read in the lobby and people watch while I wait for Andy. I am even too tired to make it out to Hema. LOL.

Later!

Day 4- I found the Sculpture!

*the wireless connection in the hotel doesn't like mac's, so I am not able to upload my sculpture picture which is a total bummer. \also, this Euro keyboard has a few extra keys so I'll try not to do this \ that often. I also found Churchillplein, which was quite exciting.

Switched hotels this am. The new one, Hotel Breitner, was not too far away. It is in a quiet residential street across from the NAI (Netherland Architecture Institute).

Andy and I grabbed a quick cup of coffee at the film lounge and now I'm sitting waiting for King of Ping Pong to start or Ping Pong Kingpen.

The film is in the Pathe theatre, which is a Euro chain. I would love to see a few more films in this theatre. The screen is huge! It seems to be as big as our Cinerama screen (if not bigger) and has comfy auditorium seating. The doors opened 30 minutes early, and there was no waiting in line like SIFF. I can't understand what anyone is saying, so I have idea if they are talking about something annoying. It is quite nice.

Spoke too soon. The phone of the man next to me just went off. It was the Seinfeld theme. Funny.

I hope to go see the Sonneveld House today, but \i think there is a flea market somewhere. Hopefully, I can find it.

I loved the film. It was beautiful. I can't get over the colors, white, blues- very pastel. Even the cats went with the set. Definetly not my reconceived notion on what it would be about. There was a Q&A with the director (1st feature). He gave alot of really interesting information. I'm very glad I saw it on this giant screen.

I had a couple of hours before the room was ready, so I headed over to the flea market. I hit a store along the way, the one that closed right before I got there. They had really neat stuff. I especially liked the jackets that were made out of old sails, but I moved on.

I found the flea market with no trouble. There wasn't anything too special. Some neat furniture and some huge needlepoint pictures, but nothing I could take home. My favorite section was the fresh fish. Just about every kind under the sun, in an array of colors and sizes. There was one called a Sepia fish, that was a big black gooey blob. I wonder how you cook that?

The great thing about travelling with a laptop (unless you can't log on like tonight\) is being able to research stuff on the road. Last night I google earthed the "destroyed city statue" and was able to pin point its location. It was actually only a few blocks from where I got all turned aroudn yesterday. I just kept checking the map until I found it! I took a ton of pictures so Mel can have her choice of any angle.

I decided to skip the Sonnevelt house, and save it for tomorrow. Plus, I'm not feeling that great. I picked up a weird dry cough, and the chills.

I got to the hotel and they lady at the front desk told me a gentleman left me a note! Exciting. "I put the luggage up in the room. I'll see you later. XOXO-Andy". Hurray. I wasn't looking forward to schlepping all of our luggage up to the room.

Our hotel room is cute. Total opposite of our first hotel which was modern. This room looks like a grandma camp, but had a heated town rack in the bathroom so that is fun.

Since it is on a residential street, you can look right into the apartments. Usually apartments and houses are set so far back from the street, you rarely have the opportunity to be up close. My mom would love it! One of the placese had the cutest tiny yard, with a pair of red clogs sitting on a bench.

I wanted to check out the new neighborhood to find a place for dinner. We have retired our favorite place (at least for tonight). The area is a mix of record shops, high end electronic stores, really cool childrens shops, cafes and coffee houses- about 10. The whole trip so far I had only seen one. I hadn't eaten lunch so I stopped off at a bakery that had a bacon, cheese and onion scone in the window. Oh, was it tasty.

I needed some coffee to keep awake, so I stopped off at another recommended place near the hotel. I ordered an espresso, which made the kid laugh behind the counter. When I ordered the Apple flap, he laughed even harder and said "I guess there is no translation". I realized it probaby wan't a Midwestern A, and more of an O. I did'nt care. He wasn't mean, more like he hadn't seen alot of American's in a while. Side note: I have only heard two Brits speaking. No other English for four days.

My Apple flap was delicious, even thougth it probably wansn't the best lunch. I figured I have walked so much, it didn't matter.

I headed back to the 1st bakery to buy Andy a scone. It was only 3:45pm and they were closed already! Ack. Oh well, I found a dinner place so that will take the stress out a finding a place tonight.

I ended up that our restaurant only serves pizza on Tuesdays, which was fine by us. Our server was this cute blonde with dreds (which I normally hate). But, her personality and face was a dead ringer for my little sister Caity. It was uncanny. She was super bubbily and friendly and very helpful at translating the pizza toppings that we couldn't figure out.

I ended up ordering what looked like a mushroom pizza and Andy ordered a spicy pizza (pepperoni). Mine actually had ham and Andy kept finding stuff on his. "Hey this is chicken....Oh, there is corn on this!. They were both yummy, but Andy's was REALLY spicy. I still can't get over the Dutch Caity.

We are now in our hotel lobby, which has a breakfast room, fireplace and a bar. It is rare that Andy is with me at night, but I am realzing that we aren't even spending the time together! I'm at this computer, and he is writing. But that's okay, we recapped at dinner. It is nice to be able to have a beer in the lobby (really old school) ane then head back up to the room.

I think Andy's favorite part of the hotel is that you leave your key at the front desk, like in the old movies. I had no idea and walked around with it all day. Oops.

I read online on tripadvisor that people conplained that the hotel smells like the owner smokes cigars 24/7 at the front desk. I does, but it's okay. He is a cute old man and said to me when I was checking in, "shopping is that way and there is nothign else to see".

Day Three- Rotterdam: 0 out of 3

I got up at 6:30am, which makes me a little nervous that I'm not quite adjusting to the time. I checked out the "Once Around Rotteram" pamphlet, which is a two hour walking tour around Rotteram. I can skip most of it, as I have already found half of the sites myself. It is supposed to be sunny and about 50 degrees, today, but it looks a little overcast. I thought I would get this blog updated, so I can send out my link

Once I finally left, I decided to talk a walk by the Rem Koolhaas headquarters. It was supposed to be not too far from here, but I couldn't find it. There are supposed to be little red hands that take you around the "OAR" pamphlet. I'll keep looking.

I was going to head over to, yes, Hema to grab a tostini kip sandwich (hard boiled egg, bacon, chicken and arugula) and then go eat it by the Ossup Zadkine sculpture. A picture of the sculptuer was a special request from Melissa. It is supposed to be at the old harbor, so that sounded like a nice way to spend the afternoon. According to my "Once around Rotterdam " map, the oldest building in Rotterdam is supposed to be around the corner from Hema. But I can't find it.

I thought I would stop back at St. Laurenskerk to take some pictures, but it looked like something was going on inside. It was 2pm, so it didn't seem like a mass. But I left because I didn't want to take pictures because everyone was watching a man speak.

I stopped off at a thrift store that was closed yesterday. It doesn't matter if you are in a different country, junk is still junk. There were a few cool chairs and tables, but since I couldn’t bring them home I went looking at the little stuff. Nothing too cool, so I moved on.

Off to find Melissa's statue, or so I thought. I don't what the heck it its. Maybe because every street is a somethingpleijn, but I keep getting really turned around If I just wander, I find things. But when I try, no luck. It seemed like it should be so close, but I ended way off track. I found a hotel on the map, and headed there so I could get my bearings. Off I go again, this time I have to find it. Right? Wrong. I walked around and around for another 1 ½ and no dice. I did run into some creepy old men fishermen, who didn't understand English. I couldn't tell if they wanted me to take their picture or me pay to take their picture. I think one of them might have been making fun of me, so I got of there. I had so much time invested, that I didn't want to give up on finding the statue. I mean, it was supposed to be a HUGE black metal statue at the harbor. How freaking hard could it be to find it? I never found it. You can only imagine the little sad sack eating her egg sandwich and drinking my coca cola light. My idea was to title this entry, "this one's for Melissa" and post the picture of the statue. I'll try another day. The good news was a saw something really neat, which I would have never found had I not been lost. I'll try to post the video.

The one saving grace is I put on my ipod. I don't know why I didn't think of that a hour before. It would have made the walk much nicer.

I headed back towards, yes Hema , to see if I could find the oldest building and pick up baked goods for the morning. No dice, I couldn’t find it. The building, not the baked goods.

I went back to the department store to take a picture of the dog speakers but they were remodeling the home floor. The speakers weren't anywhere. Bummer. They did have more visual stuff out! But I didn't think I could get a 2' Easter egg in my luggage. I decided to go back and buy this cute little shower cap I saw the day before. The Dutch are so clever! It was a cute Dutchy tulip people plastic fabric and instead of just being round, it had a little bump so you can fit your ponytail. Or so I though. I picked up the 'hat' and gave it a final look. How does this work? Why is the label in front of your face? Why does it say bike.nl? Hey, wait a minute!! This is a bike seat cover! I almost bought a bike seat cover and wore it as a shower cap. Ha ha

I might as well find the toilettes while I’m here. The perk of the department store. I search the perimeter and finally find it near the restaurant. There was an old lady sitting at a desk outside of the toilettes. She doesn't say anything, so I walk in. On the way out, I see a sign that says 'something something 35 c". I think I'm supposed to pay something, but I can't tell. I just walk out and the old lady didn't stop me.

I'm now at the hotel waiting for Andy to come back. I'm not really hungry for dinner (since I ate lunch finally at 3:30pm). It was a bit of a rough day, but nothing too bad. I was getting so tired by the end, I was nervous I would get hit by a bus, trolley, tram, train or bike. Never have I been to a city with more forms of transportation.

I was able to watch a Gilmore Girls in English, with Dutch subtitles. In the same episode, they mentioned Grey Gardens, Nordstrom and Belgium. Funny how stuff like that happens.

We had dinner at our place. The chef recognized us, since it was out third day in a row. Andy had smoked veal with goat cheese and aruglua. I had a spaghetti bolanese which was really penne. It was delicious so it didn't matter.

Andy is off at the video library watching films until 10:30pm. That is when he sees some film and the Melvins are playing. He is really excited.

Tomorrow we change hotels. I'm excited because the new one has a lobby, so at night I'll have some place to go other than the room. Hurray.

Tally- Hema twice today.

Postscript- I looked online and google earth mapped the sculpture. Funnily enough, it is near Churchillplein, which was on my list for tomorrow. It's really close to our new hotel. It's near the Maritem museum not the Marine museum. JC.

Day Two-Rotterdam

Woke up at 8am! I was really nervous that I might not sleep all night. The last time I went to Europe the first few days I would wake up at 3am, and not be able to get back to sleep. Since it doesn't get light until almost 8:30am, I had no idea what time it was. I was afraid to look at my watch, for fear it was 3am and that would jolt me awake. Thankfully, Andy could tell I was stirring, and said, "You did it! It's 8am. Hurray". He is so supportive.

I had gotten a few things at the market, so that I could make Andy a sandwich in case he didn't have time between films to eat and a little yogurt to eat in the morning. I was really careful at the market with the yogurt after Simone's French yogurt aka pudding experience. She couldn't figure out why their yogurt tasted so good and they had so many flavors. Turns out, she had been eating full fat pudding! Anyway, the yogurt was the probably the best I have ever eaten.

Our hotel doesn’t' have breakfast until March, so we thought we would go out and find something. The gal at the front desk directed us to the Central Station where she said we would find a good breakfast. It looked like a cute cafeteria where you went to different stations to order food. Again, we ran into not knowing what anything was so we asked the girl making coffee what to order. She said a couple people didn't come to work because they sick, so they weren't making food. All they had were pastries. Then Andy asked if when they did make food, if they made eggs. She said they didn't make eggs, but the Engel's down the street did. The Engel's does serve eggs, but they're obviously for Americans as the brunch was 28 Euro per person. They didn't open for 2 ½ more hours, so we kept moving.

I remembered where a couple of bakeries were, but didn't have a good feeling that they were open as we walked through the dead 9am Sunday morning streets. During my walk about the day before, I didn't really run across coffee shops (maybe because they mean something else here) or even restaurants that served breakfast. We ended up getting coffee and pastries at the film festival lounge, which is conveniently opened early and across the street. We now know.

Since it was Sunday and everything opened later, I headed back to the hotel to plan my day. I decided to go to the cube houses and a couple other things that were in the area. I was pleasantly surprised to find the cube houses just a few blocks past the Hema store (which is also near 2 H&M's in case you are wondering).

Piet Blom built the Cube houses in 1984. The concept of the thirty-eight homes was to build them like trees in the forest. They were really neat, and I managed to get pictures before my camera died! It was only 11:30am, and I was without a camera. Oh, well. I had to go to the bathroom, so the camera will have to wait. I remember walking by a big toilette sign on the way to the houses. I wandered into this weird fenced in area, when this old man in the little guardhouse came out. He said something to me, probably "can I help you? or You aren't supposed to be in here?" I said, "I'm looking for the bath room". He said "blah blah bibliotheek" and pointed. I had no idea what he said, but obviously that wasn't the bathroom. I left the little caged area, and saw what he was talking about. The library! Of course, Bibliotheek was the library and they would have a bathroom. Excellent. Except that they were closed. The first Dutch word I have learned. I thought that old man must get a kick out telling people to go there, because I saw 3 other tourist types looking at the closed sign.

Luckily, it wasn't dire that I find the toilet so set out on my next sightseeing sto, Saint Laurenskerk. I am finding that the map isn't a good indicator of where things are. I guess because everything looks like it is far apart when it is really only a few blocks. St. Laurenskerk, was built between 1449 and 1525. It is the only Late Gothic building which survived the Second World War. It was badly damaged during the Second World War but the reconstruction became a symbol for rebuilding the city and public life afterwards. I noticed a big old building on my way to the cube houses. So walked back that way. Lo and behold, when I got closer to take a picture of the plaque on the wall it, is what I'm looking for. I hear organ music, (it is Sunday), so I decide to head inside. I think some sort of mass may just be ending, but I see some other people walking around. I was really bummed that my camera was dead, as it was very beautiful. Not in a Paris church beautiful way, but it was very cool. I did take some video, but I'm not as good as Andy is with the video so I'll have to go back with my camera.

I paid my 40 cents, and lit a candle, which is what one does when visiting a European church. I think my mom and I hit every major church in Paris (except Saint Chappelle, which I'll go to on this trip) and lit candles.

I was glad to have found this old building because the one thing I know when looking for bathrooms in strange city is to churches, department stores or hotel lobbies. Sure enough, I paid 20 cents to use their bathroom.

What I am now referring to as "the trifecta area", of Rotterdam. I found the Bram Ladage and a stoopwafels cart one block from the Hema store. Bram Ladage is where you go when you want the Belgian frites. I had decided earlier in the day, that I was going to have frites with mayonnaise for lunch. I had a small order with fritesauce, which I was praying to God (candle lighting might come in handy) was mayonnaise and not the gravy that the man in front of me was eating. I'll try that another day, but today I want mayonnaise. The frites come in a cone and are a yellow color. OH, I just figured out why the weird color. I bet it is the double frying. Any way, fritesauce is mayonnaise. It was the most delicious bite of heaven.

About 10 steps away, was the stroopwafels. I was going to buy a package to take back to the hotel and then noticed super stoopwafels for 1 euro, which the man was making. I bought stroopwafels at Trader Joe's, and thought "I've had these'. BUT to have a still warm one the size of a small plate, that might have topped the frites. It is still out for debate which was better. That was a very enjoyable break.

After lunch, I went into Hema. To my delight, I discovered they made a hard-boiled egg, bacon and arugula sandwich. I have found a breakfast place. Whoo hoo. Okay, so Hema. Today I had more of an opportunity to look around. They had men's, women's, children and baby clothes, accessories, make up, basics like shampoo, toothpaste and even contacts that you could buy. I saw one little wall of misc sporting goods, which was odd but neat. I think there was a restaurant upstairs. I'll have to check that out another day. I wanted to run downstairs to pick up some baked goods for breakfast the next day.

Downstairs they had house wares, a little sewing section (I bought a really cute appliqué), and even paint! The kind of paint for your walls of your house. There were a small section of curtains, and I'm debating if I should go back and get a really cool black-flocked scrolly floral pattern for my dining room. The selection in any of the departments wasn't vast, but every item they had was cool. I honestly could have bought up everything in the store. I also picked up some real cool postcards and these floral paper garlands. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I liked them and decided the trip was about buying things I loved and figure out purpose later.

Another odd food item. You could order a sausage (I think knockwurst), which was just the meat with mustard and wrapped in waxed paper. No bun.

If you are keeping count, that was my third trip to Hema of the trip.

I wanted to hit the fancy department store, as it was on the way back towards the hotel. Bijenkorf is the Netherlands (maybe only Rotterdam) equivalent of Nordstrom. And if there is one thing I know is my way around a department store. Something is very comforting being in a new country, but knowing you can find the home department on the top floor. People were saying to us before the trip that it was going to be soooo expensive. Well, what they didn't know is that it is sale season. While I can't understand Dutch, I can read 30%, 50% and 70% off! Had I been in the market (or mood) to look for clothes I would have left with some really great deals. Even their private label was cooler than anything I had seen. My favorite departments were the kids/baby clothes. OMG, really funky designs alongside Polo. Wacky. Oh, and did you know that Espirit is popular? They had a whole Espirit women's department, and kids clothes. AND, there was a huge Espirit store down the street, but I digress. It was just weird seeing Espirit when it isn't the 80's.

The home stuff was really neat. I'll have to go back with my camera and take a picture of a pair of these crazy speakers that I saw. They were two 3 foot sitting dogs, but the head was cut off and the base of the neck was a speaker. Not describing very well, but they were neat. As I finish up my loop on the top floor, I see a sign that appears to say "visual" and bins of stuff, along with big fixtures. Can it be? Are they selling off visual items? Yes, they were! There wasn't a lot of stuff, but what was there was pretty neat. I'm trying to figure out whether I can get the white-flocked metal chandelier outline home! I picked up a few gifts for people who I know will appreciate something that was used in a Rotterdam department store Christmas display (you know who you are!).

They also had a really nice cafeteria type restaurant (not as neat as Harrod's food hall, but fun), but I was too full from my lunch. It was time to head back to the hotel, because my bags were getting heavy. On my way out for the day, I went by the H& M that had the cute shirt that I tried on. They weren't open yet, but I could see my cute shirt through the window and it looked like they might still have my size. I thought if I can't stop thinking about this shirt, I just need to go in and buy it. The store was a mad house, but they had my shirt! The only thing, and probably the reason why I didn't buy it on the first day is that it doesn't fit. It is a little tight though the boobs, but I didn't care because it was so cute.

I went back to the hotel to drop off my bags, charge the camera and rest my leg. I think a bath in the giant bathtub with my new Kneip lavender effervescent tablet will do the trick.

Andy wasn't due back for another hour or so, I needed to get out so I didn’t fall sleep. I headed out to Studio Hergebruik, which is a store, which carried functional art (bags,clothes, etc) created out of recycled materials. I had time to get there before it closed and it want' too far. Except that I guess it doesn't matter that you close at 5pm, and it's only 4:45pm. Closed. I'm really getting to learn that word. That's okay I know where it is now, and have plenty more time to check it out.

I decided to take a different way back, and check out the city. Along the way, I found the Ing bank, which was very handy, as I needed to get more cash out. A nice way out of ATM charges! I stopped off at the Film lounge to get a cup of coffee. There weren't any seats, so I took it back to the hotel to wait for Andy.

Since we are in love with the restaurant from yesterday's dinner, we decided to eat there again. Why stress out and try to find something when this place was excellent, menu also in English and reasonably priced. We decided that one of us should get the pasta (which ended up being me) and Andy got baked scallops and we shared (I shared my pasta too). We decided the next night he can get the pasta, and I'll try some seafood. Andy's scallops were amazing, and really good when you mixed the sauces of both of our dishes. Remember when I said had if we had bread, we could have sopped up our plates? Well, tonight they served us bread and we sopped. We didn't care, it was so good.

In Seattle, when the server never comes back to check on your table, I complain of bad service. Now I'll just say, they must be from Rotterdam. It was nice to sit and talk with our wine, and kill a couple of hours before Andy had to go to an industry party at 10pm.

On our way out the door, the server asked us how our meal was. We said we had been there two nights in a row, and might just eat there every night we were in the city. He said we should because in two weeks, they were closing for good! Unbelievable. He didn't know (or say) why. Andy told me the restauarnt is also one of the festival venue, thus pretty much everyone had a Rotterdam bag or festival badge on.

I was happy to go back to the hotel room after a few glasses of wine and go to bed.

Day One- Rotterdam: The Overview

We are finally here! It was around 9:30am, so we couldn't check in to our our hotel. We dumped off our stuff, and then headed over to the festival head quarters, which were just across the street. Andy got his accreditation, and we hung out for little while in the lounge so he could sort out his schedule. He decided to go see a movie at noon, so I was free to wander around until we were going to meet up and check in.

The weather is really nice, about 45 degrees. Occasionally a really cold wind would whip through on certain streets, but for the most part it was sunny and nice. I was secretly pleased that you couldn't tell me from the locals, and someone even asked me for directions. The requisite Dutch outfit was a parka and eyeglasses!

I got all twisted up in my directions, because I had a plan and then Andy wanted me to walk with him to the movie so I knew where he was. I won’t go into details on our mini flight. It will be a long trip if this keeps up. I ended up walking all over the Central part of Rotterdam, which was a great over view of the area. Of course the first place I find is an H&M. Where I tried on the cutest shirt, but ended up not getting because it seemed was too early in the trip for a purchase. I mean, I was only in the city about 30 minutes.

I just wandered up and down the streets checking everything out. I couldn't believe that I still felt relatively good, minus being a little hungry. Since I needed to meet Andy soon (and feeling little guilty from out "fight"), I popped into what looks like a bakery to get us something to eat. He would be rushing from a movie, then checking in and then off to another movie. I had read about Boompje's, but didn't know what they were. I could have been safe and ordered what looked to be vegetarian pizza, but opted for something Dutch. I have since learned that a boompje is basically a bread bun with filling. I guess a sort of Dutch sandwich. I ended up ordering what I think to be a sausage boompje. Whatever it was it was delicious. My version was like a long croissant with a white ground up meat inside.

I met up with Andy and he was very happy with the greasy bready, meaty deliciousness that I bought him.

The hotel is quite cute. Very 'Dutch', as in stark, but pretty big for a hotel room with a giant tub! I could lie down and not touch the other end.

Andy is off to another movie, so I walked around the city center again. I ended up finding the Hema store, which is the website that has been passed around work for the last few months. You can goggle their website to check it out.

Anyway, Hema is the best store on the planet. Imagine if Target and Ikea got married and had a baby. It would be Hema. Everything in the store is Hema brand and everything is cool. The best part is that it is really inexpensive. I did a quick once around knowing that I'll have another opportunity to come back since we'll be here all week AND they are in Amsterdam too.

I went back to the hotel to wait for Andy to get out of his movie. I took a long hot bath, to try to keep myself awake and try to alleviate the pain in my knee and feet. I'm hoping that my feet are swollen from the flight and I won't have to deal with hurt feet all week.

We met up for dinner, and were going to go to the place that Andy ate at last year and really liked. It was right across the street, which was great because we were both hungry. Andy was nice and helped two Japanese girls open the door to the restaurant, because they couldn't figure out which door to open. They got the last open table. The server came over and said they were full, and it looked like no one was leaving within the next 10 minutes and that they was sorry and she walked away. We then learned, there is no waiting list in Rotterdam.

Even though I researched A LOT before the trip I kept coming up empty when it came to recommendations to Rotterdam. We decided to walk down to Dudok, which is a café that had been recommended by Chowhound (which is a great source for food while traveling). I had found it earlier in the day on my scouting walk. Rotterdam isn't that big of a city, so everything is fairly close. We checked out the menu and realized we had no idea of what anything was! We could have been reading Chinese. Nothing looked familiar. The prices were kind of expensive and coupled with we couldn't read the menu, so we decided to move on. We walked by a few other places, and ran into the same thing. I should have printed a few basic menu items, but can't be too hard on myself because that is about the only thing I didn't think of. We ended up walking back to Andy's recommended place since an hour had passed. Someone had to have left.

Hurray! We got a table. I think we might eat at the restaurant every night. It was so delicious. We both had the pasta with mushrooms, Parmesan and truffle oil. Just a few simple ingredients, and it was amazing. We were glad there wasn't any bread, or we could have sopped up all of the sauce like a couple of Americans. We shared a salad since I was opting for dessert. I wasn't kidding when I said I was going to eat whatever I wanted. We shared an apple type tart, and had a couple of espressos because my goal was to stay up until 11pm. Since it was only 8pm, I needed something to keep me up. Over dessert, we check out the program guide. I figure if I'm at a film festival, I might as well see a film. The first film to catch my eye was a Swedish film (of course) called The King of Ping Pong. I will go check it out.

We went back to the hotel and watch Idols, which is a Dutch version of American idol. I taped a bit on my video camera for Scott. We had no idea what they were saying, but somehow could tell if the judges liked it. They sang the songs in English though.

I ended up making it to 10:30pm before I fell asleep. The last thing I remember saying to Andy is "I can't make it to 11pm... I can't do it." And was out. I had about a 30-minute nap at 5pm, but was very proud that I made it 21 hours and didn't feel too zombieish.

The Tally:
By the end of the day, I had been into Hema twice.

Things that I liked:
1. In the De Doelen (film festival headquarter), the escalators are off until someone approaches and then they turn on. Saving energy.
2. In our hotel, the lights in the hallway are off until someone approaches and they turn on.
3. I saw a lady in really high heels riding a bike.
4. Everyone rides bikes
5. They have the coolest bike bags.

Fashion Observations:
I have not seen one pair of wide legged pants here. I've been seeing skinny or straight-legged jeans tucked into boots.

Rotterdam reminds me of Seattle in their dress, except that the people look like they shower.
What I mean is very casual, but put together. :)

Brussels to Rotterdam

Arrived at 7:02am in Rotterdam. I discovered that bathrooms in Europe are just like the bathrooms in Seattle. They smell like homeless, and make me barf. Either that or the stress on the body from travel. But I am pretty sure it was the smell that made me lose it a little.

Thankfully, Andy had been to the Brussels airport before as it was slightly confusing but we found our train without a hitch. It was a little stressful for me having to drag around my luggage, but was thankful that I opted for my smaller bag and didn't over pack. Hurray!

Nothing terribly exciting on the train from Brussels to Rotterdam. We did pass through a town called Heide but I didn't get my camera out fast enough. There were really weird and interesting houses along the train tracks. Along with Shetland ponies and baby goats. I was really tempted to catch a little sleep on the train ride in, but there was too much to look at and I didn't want to miss anything.

I think the jet lag pills are working because I don't feel like a zombie like the last time I flew. My mom can attest to how cranky and tired I was the last time I went to Europe.

Chicago to Brussels

I followed Andy's advice and set my watch 7 hours ahead to Rotterdam time (9 hours ahead Seattle). I wasn't allowed to play the "In Seattle, it really is X time" game that I like to play. It is supposed to help your body/mind adjust to the new time. That and getting sleep on the plane. Since it was really 11:30pm in Rotterdam when we left Chicago, we knew we needed to fall asleep within a few hours of taking off. To assist in the process, Mark & Melissa were kind enough to give us some 12.5 mg tabs of Ambien. It is nice that I have friends with good doctors. Mine doesn't dole. Since we only had 4 pills I wasn't able to test Tina's advice of taking a half at home before the trip, to see how the pills worked. I was just praying there wasn't a drug reaction with our homeopathic jet lag pills. After about an hour, we decided to take the other half. We need to sleep! I had my cashmere blanket, eye mask earplugs and little lady footrest. They make a special fold up step for the petite ladies. Apparently, you can use it at the movies too. I might give that a try because it worked like a charm. It was on my list of things to invent, but I was happy someone already made one.

Flash forward.....I watched Music and Lyrics at 3am, when I decided any more sleep was hopeless. I actually enjoyed it. The trailer made it seem much worse than it really was.

For the record: Andy was right. He went to bed late and got up early. He had a good 4 + hour stretch on the plane. I was in and out of sleep, and finally stopped trying at 3am (Rotterdam time). It would have been because my FREAKING chair kept up righting itself.

Travel day- Someone tell Chicago Christmas is over

The day is finally here! The journey to the airport went off without a hitch. We opted for the town car route, which is only slightly more expensive than a taxi and way more glamorous than the Supper Shuttle. I was only a little disappointed when, instead of the town car, our driver picked us up in a giant 7 person SUV. That soon faded when I got in and the car was toasty warm.

The flight to Chicago was non-eventful. I decided that we needed to take jet lag pills, so I'll report on the success in a later post. I have to say, travel is much better when you can knit. I usually will read all of my trashy magazines by the time we take off and then can't quite get into the book that I brought. We both passed the time knitting and duo listening to Lady Rock on my shuffle. Andy had the brilliant idea of buying a splitter so we could both listen to the same iPod. The Stewardesses were getting a kick out of Andy knitting. Especially the one same "Oh Miss. Isn't that funny? It was on her nametag.

We had about 1 1/2 hours in Chicago. I decided (probably on take off in Seattle) that I wanted a Billy Goat cheeseburger at O'Hare. You know the "cheeseburger…cheese burger…no coke Pepsi" place in Chicago. When I was at O'Hare two years ago I was excited to find one. The original is/was in downtown Chicago.. Andy had his heart set on Italian beef.

We decided to ask at the Info booth where the place was.

My worst fear was confirmed, they Billy Goat tavern had closed! The woman wasn't sure, but had heard it had something to do with bribery, and/or trying to pay off the city. Typical Chicago! We settled on Gold Coast Dogs, because it looked like it might have Andy's beef, and it was close.

If you are ever in terminal K at O'Hare, I highly recommend Gold Coast Dogs. For those that know Andy, you know that he isn't a very expressive person. I now know Italian beef to Andy, is Shopping to Heidi. I wish I could describe how happy he was while eating that sandwich. But you can see from the picture his joy. I had a cheeseburger, which probably tasted the same as the BG cheeseburger. It was old school, Midwestern and bar like, so that was all that mattered. We have 4 ½ hours on the way back, so I'm sure a trip will be made back to Gold Coast Dogs in terminal K. I know Andy will be getting another Italian beef and I'm going to get a Chicago dog. A dog seemed too risky a choice for an 8 + hour flights. Oh, and probably mozzarella sticks with marinara.

Pre- Trip

Our flight tomorrow is at 9am. Andy is convinced that we should stay up late tonight and get up early tomorrow, to help us sleep on the plane and help up to adjust to the nine hour time difference. I think that the ambien will knock us out and we won't need that. Maybe he'll make breakfast, since we will be up anyway.

It is hard to believe the trip is FINALLY here! I'm too tired to be witty, so I'll just write a few words to get started. I am a little hesitant to send a link out to this. I'm afraid that it will boring and long. But, I am not going to worry about that. I'll just write stuff so I remember what the heck I did for two weeks.

Alright, even though I'm all packed I still need to phaff around and make sure I had everything. I wanted to actually get this set up, so hopefully I'll blog daily from or trip.

Hopefully, we'll see and experience some funny things that will be worth reporting.

Andy is watching a weird show with giant eye ball giving birth. The baby is called Skipper. Time for bed.