Zannse Schans- A day out with the family.

The ZannseSchans is a huge open air museum very popular with the asian tourists in the netherlands. it features six windmills, the first Albert Heijn (the huge supermarket chain here) a traditional clog maker, a Pancake house, a traditional cheese farm and bakery and much more. There is also an indoor museum next door that was the old Verkades Factory (they are the makers of biscuts and chocolates found in every dutch home).

It was lovely to begin in the chocolate and biscut exhibit, we watched how the chocolate is melted and shaped etc etc. goodness it looked so tempting to just stick a little finger into taste haha. lucky for the girls they got to colour in their own packaging and got a free chocolate bar to go with it. Yum Yum. they were stoked and we hadnt even got outside yet. At the gates to the ZannseSchanes we had our photo taken. it was such a horrible one haha. all the kids were pouting and barbers hair was covering her whole face. but it was a pretty accurate portrait of how a day with the kids ends up haha. Our first stop was the pancake house. im still not a fan of eating ham and cheese on a pancake. crepe yes. but dutch pancakes are too heavy to eat like that. so i spoilt myself and had a decadent chocolate and whipped cream pancake. talk about jealous stares from the rest of the resturaunt haha.
After lunch we headed over to the clog house. where i became the proud owner of these babies :) i love them so much.

Annemijn bought herself cutesy blue clogs and Wende bought pink clog slippers. Annemijn couldnt wait to wear her clogs and so for the rest of the day people were lining up to get photos with the blond dutch girl in blue clogs haha.
clip clopping our way out of their we headed to the cheese farm. if there is one thing the dutch know. its cheese :) i amused myself by going back two or three times to the sample table and sipping the free wine. my favourite sample was by far the pesto cheese. such a crazy combination that it was ridiculously delicious haha.

finally we moved onto the windmill. only one was open today but that was ok. it was the windmill that grinded chalk for paint and for the lines on sports fields. i managed to climb to the top of the windmill perching perilously on tiny and very steep ladders all the way. but the view from the top was amazing!

By this time we had been battered about by the wind long enough and we decided to hit the souvenir shops and then hit the road. it was such a great day out that i really want to go back and do it again in the summer.

Haarlem with Mairead :)

I should have been at dutch class but instead we bummed a ride to Almere with Sander and caught the train to Haarlem for no other reason than Mairead had heard it was a nice city.
We first walked around the city and just talked. We came upon a beautiful church which we spent almost an hour inside just looking around. It had one of the biggest organs ive ever seen :) organs are my favourite part of churches.

After the church we quickly ducked over to the local contemporary museum. this was my favourite part of the day. All incredible exhibits but my favourite was one about how we dance and interact at night clubs. First was a series of portraits of select individuals and then followed films of these individuals dancing infront of a white screen. My favourite was this guy. He was really getting into it. 'crazy as a cut snake' is the best way to describe his moves haha.

After watching the exhibit we were asked to say a few words about what we had seen. the camera man was the only one who could really understand our english haha. poor interviewer.
The rest of the day was quite good. Mairead and i found an amazing Op Shop. one of the only ones in the netherlands im sure. and we also found the douwer egberts cafe. its a company that began in Joure where Mairead was staying. and we ended the day by heading to Amsterdam for dinner and a cruise through the red light district. haha.
Dinner was fantastic we went into this random italian resturaunt where they had currency from all over the world and everyone got to write a message on their coaster and stick it to the wall. ill defintely have to go back and make sure ours is still there :)

It was a wonderful night and day out, capped off by a brisk stroll through the red light district and a hearty laugh at all the prossies.

to my beloved parents,
im sorry that only now that im an au pair in the netherlands can i see how much you guys did for me.
and how much you still do for me.
more than anything right now i wish i could be 5 years old again, at our home in wallacia. with my baby brother and our big backyard.
thankyou for everything you have done for me. and continue to do for me.
thankyou for being my protectors and my teachers and mst importantly. thankyou for being my parents :)
i will love you both more than words can express until the day i die
x

The end of the day- 1.1.11
I watched the sunset over the frozen Ijselmeer.
And i spent a considerable amount of time throwing rocks and trying to break the shards of ice with various body parts.

       

Happy New Year! My last minutes of 2010 and my first few of 2011 were spent first in the company of Barber and her family in Hindeloopen, the lovely Peter and Marit supplied me with beer and a BBQ (god love them) and later the lovely Wortle family who supplied me with Champagne, Ollibollen and Sambucca until i thought i would surely throw up. Much to my dismay i felt so incredibly sick and drunk i rode home and crawled into bed praying the hangover would magically never appear haha.
It was strange to be so cold and wearing warm jackets as we watched the celebratory fireworks, it was even weirder to see people burning out caravans in celebration and the police pulling us over for not having lights on our bikes. Defintely an eventful evening, im only sorry i didnt get to catch up with Virpi, Beaudine and the boys. Ah well. Thats what the rest of the year is for :)

My New Years Resolution is not infact a resolution. I never manage to stick to those bloody things. Instead this year im going to take some time to focus on me. what i want. and what i think i need. 2011 is going to be a big year for me to really discover who i am at this point in my life and where i would like to be in the next couple of years :)
Love to all my family and friends. Be you near or far. May this year bring you all the happiness in the world!

Maastricht :)

This place was breathtakingly beautiful! Maastricht is in Limburg,  the southern Province of the Netherlands and surrounded on three sides by Germany. Its for this reason that the architecture, dialect and culture is so different from anywhere else in the country.

This place really is the city of churches! Thats all we did, walk around and admire the churches, not really of course but everytime i look through my photos i spot a different church, a different steeple! it was amazing! My favourite church was the Onzelievevrouw, Its a huge church suspected to have been built over roman ruins. The church itself is magnificaent and inside is a shrine to Mary, Star of the Sea. I am told that pilgrims have been coming for three hundred years to offer prayer before her- i dont doubt it either as there was huge cues and people clawing to get a view of the shrine. Unfortunately the Treasury which is housed just off this church was closed for the christmas period, instead they had a wonderful interactive nativity scene :)
This church was filled with secret passageways and one of the prettiest organs ive ever seen, the inner courtyard was also quite magnificent in the snow :)

The little alcove that this church is housed within is also an incredibly popular cafe spot, It was all lit up with christmas carollers and people laughing and enjoying a coffee/ lunch/ dinner/ each others company. It really was a nice atmosphere :)

The city itself was bustling, People rushing from store to store. People who couldnt possible carry and more shopping bags filled with expensive purchases. People eating, People with maps infront of their noses. People who annoying walked on the wrong side of the footpath or walked really slowly. It was so refreshing having so many people around! stavoren in the winter time is not so big on hoards haha.
Some other amazing things i discovered about churches includes:
A Red Church tower. Its been said that the church was painted in Ox blood for protection... however wikipedia says... everything in Nederlands so. im just going to go with the hearsay on this one.
Next we found the church that housed a bookstore.... OH MY LORD! THIS IS HEAVEN ON EARTH! the slogan was (roughly translated) browse in a serene/magestic surrounding.

 Good gosh i love europe haha! Maastricht was even more beautiful lit up at night. It was so lovely walking through the city at night, it was for the most part deserted on a wednesday night. And it was impossible to find the local grocery store haha. Much to my shame Mike and I... ok so only I stuffed myself sensless with steak and salad at lunchtime and so for dinner we contented ourselves to snacking for dinner back at the hotel room and eating 'Fly' (or so it sounded when my host father was telling me to go to the Vlaai Bakker. AKA Pie bakery in English haha)

The second day in Maastricht was spent shopping, doing another city walk, walking through the christmas markets and watching a music man play his giant music box. Being so full from the Vlaai's and the steak and munchies were stumbled onto the train, watched kungfu panda and reminisced about all the amazing things we saw :) Next time were going to go back to a huge underground limestone cave system. Hopefully then ill be able to understand the guided tour (even though the Limburg'ians' pronounce everything with a soft ggheee instead of the khhuuuuuuugh sound making it impossible to understand them haha)
This whole dialect thing gets quite frustrating sometimes. Im now at the point where i dont even try to speak nederlands in some parts of the country, its quite ridiculous that they call a bird three different names within a 100 km radius. SO MUCH TO LEARN. so little care factor haha

Den Haag- this day was living proof that i need to be more prepared with my maps and shiz before setting off on an adventure haha.

This city is quite pretty. It manages to combine old school with new tech and somehow not look all that tacky. My first part of the day was spent on trains and after arriving i quickly set off to 'Escher in het paleis'. One of my favourite artists museum in Queen Emma's old palace.
This place was amazing, contemporary art ith a backdrop of an early 18th century palace :) i was so chuffed haha.

After Escher i decided to take a walk around the town before going to the next museum on my list.
I stumbled on a beautiful council house, churches and a second hand book market! i was in heaven!

     










After my bit of sightseeing i headed over to the Mauritshuis. Which is the famous museum that hosts Rembrands 'Girl with a Pearl Earing'. My goodness i didnt realise that the painting itself isnt to big but she was beautiful :) The free audio guide at the entrance also provided much background and interesting points about the painting and rembrands career. The old master painting were incredibly detailed and the size of some works were simply breathtaking! The dutch certainly new how to paint. I left the museum with a longing for art class and learning id forgotten thanks to the HSC.
The Mauritshuis itself is a work of art in itself! It was picture perfect with all the snow and the frozen water infront of it :)

Now this is where my day turned a little sour- I hopped on the tram to see the Official working Palace of the Netherlands. And all was fine, i hopped off a few stops early because the hoards were unbearable and i walked the last few meters, walking on the footpath was slow and precarious as everything was ice, so i was keeping as close to the buildings as possible it was lucky however that i moved a little closer to the roads as a 60cm isicle decided to drop off at the very moment i was passing. It landed about 30cm from my right shoulder. The lady behind me only managed a scream as she though the thing would plunge through my shoulder. fat lot of help she would have been haha. After freaking out the adreneline kicked in and i was in the 'omg i  almost died so now im going to appreciate the birds singing and the wind blowing' state of mind when i arrived at the palace.

I really should have taken that isicle as an omen, for my next tram ride resulted in me falling asleep and being woken up at the end of the line by the driver, getting on the right tram only to start feeling violently ill and having to quickly get off to race to the KFC bathroom and almost throw up and then to walk briskly to the central station in the blistering cold snowy wind only to find out that my train was not going to run so i had to wait another half hour to catch another.
By this time i was in a right mood and ready to kill anyone who so much a breathed near me. But do not fear my loved ones. I arrived at schipol airport and people watched until i felt better. I also managed to be a good samaritan and first chase after a lady who dropped her credit card and then help a holidaying couple find the right train to get the to amersfort. This immeadiately brightened my day :) So all in all Den Haag was a lovely city, which i hope to visit again soon, although i wont be riding any trams or eating anything whilst there haha

Amsterdam! My Lord i have fallen deeply in love with this city :)
Saturday we boarded the train and set off at a leisurly pace with only one plan. See the Anne Frank House. Truthfully. im going crazy in stavoren. Im sick and tired of doing nothing and watching everyone else be so content with doing nothing themselves.
'just wait for summertime, this place is a whole other world. you just gotta survive'- sorry but i didnt come here to survive guys!
But everything is perfect now that i have discovered the joys of AMSTERDAM!
We were actually lucky to even make it to amsterdam this weekend as all the snow has stopped most of the trains from running.
However we arrived safe and sound, relaxed and cold haha.
Having no real plan we set off in the direction of the Anne Frank House when we happened upon the 'I Amsterdam' sign. Poor mike, I made him take a photo or two of me, even though we were cold and wanted to hurry on.

After continuing on our way i saw a sight that i never thought id be so excited to see. A small and modest flashing sign that read 'SEX MUSEUM'. Being the girl I am and loving to have a laugh at any form of Innuendo i dragged mike in and hurridly bought an admission ticket. This place was hilarious, and whats even funnier was most of the exhibits were ones i had studdied in history in school. So i was giving mike my own guided tour. poor guy haha.

 But by far the best part was when you walked past a dingy alcove and this guy popped out to greet you.

The other artifacts were for the most part disturbing, but somewhat hilarious :)

After this we continued on into one of the fancy shopping centres where we saw security gaurds carefully guarding gucci and prada handbags. What a way to make a living hey. Its not like the bags are even that good looking. Or hand made in expensive boutiques. Those poor sweatshop workers. I wonder if they even know? On a happier note Mike and I crossed the street to catch a glimpse of the Palace. Nothing fancy. considering it was being renovated so it look liked a giant tent. But the old church next door was quite pictureque in the snow. And it was that moment that i saw something that made my heart stop... Madame Tussad's.

For some strange reason i have always wanted to go to one of her houses. And boy was it worth it :) I took photos with all kinds of fake dead people. And i swear most of them were moving. Mike and I also got to do a really cutesy Wacko Jacko thing and take a photo of us doing 'the lean'. I must scan that one of these days.

 

After Madame Tussades we headed over to the Amsterdam Dungeon! THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN! it was basically a spook house designed over the history of the netherlands, so there was a room about the plague, about the spanish inquisition, dutch east india trading companies and witchcraft.

In the witchcraft room i was singled out and called a witch and to prove my innocence i either had to dance round in circles whilst completely naked or i was guilty.

Naturally i wasnt to kean to get my kit off so i was sent into the next room all alone- to find myself a ghost.

Now being a little jumpy around loud noises and such i entered the room, and heard the door slam behind me. i quickly looked all around me to make sure nothing was going to jump out and as i turned back to face the door a man with rotting flesh and bleeding eyeballs was about 2 cm from my face...

I freaked out haha. i screamed, swore and fell over a chair. Mike still in the other room with the rest of the group freaked out thinking i was being murdered haha. I couldnt stop laughing (and shaking) when i stood up. especially when i got told off for swearing haha.

After that rather jumpy experience mike and i took to the streets to find the Anne Frank House.

We stumbled upon this little gem of a courtyard: The Begijnhof courtyard, there are beautiful little houses and the engels kerk. It was like stepping out of the city even though we were actually in the heart of it!

After stepping back into the city things went pretty quickly. I found the American bookstore which is one of the biggest book stores i have ever seen! i had to drag myself away before i got lost in time and a fair few good books haha! Then we litterally did get lost trying to find the Anne Frank House.

However thanks to a lovely passerby we manaed to arrive with plenty of time to spare before we had to leave.

The anne frank house was like nothing ive ever experienced before... to be standing in the very places that these people hid within, to know that most of them were taken away and killed was incredibly surreal. even with all the heating i still felt ridiculously cold, the somber atmosphere was down right depressing. even with hoards of people it was amazing how alone the house felt. how secretive the annex really was. and how much it hurt when i watched the video of Anne Franks father- who survived the concerntration camps- talk about how he really expected his daughters to survive. How he refused to listen to anyone who said other wise until he had it in writing.

All in all. It was a perfect day in Amsterdam, even if i did fall on my butt and have the crap scared out of me :) I cant wait to go back again!