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. :)
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