Hello from the other siiiiiide (of the Atlantic)!

I safely made it Amsterdam yesterday and have spent most of my time so far trying to outsmart my body to beat jet lag, and to figure out what foods I can eat (pescetarian and gluten-sensitive friendly).

My trip from O'Hare to Dublin was largely uneventful, once I got my bags checked. Packing a year's worth into two suitcases and keeping them under 23kg each is no small feat for a clothes horse such as myself! I think one was 22.1kg and the other 22.9kg. I was also worried about my carry-on, which weighed about 14kg (and the limit was 10), but it made it through after being thoroughly searched and unpacked by the TSA.

After a brief layover in Dublin (where I found some super delish chips - spicy Worcestershire & sundried tomato), I arrived in Amsterdam which felt altogether too easy. A quick stamp at immigration and nothing to declare at customs... it really felt like it should have taken much longer! I picked up a new sim card (so long, 269 number I've had for a decade!) and called an uber. I had a lovely chat with my driver about Gouda - turns out it's a style of cheese named for the city, not necessarily made in the city. He also advised me to greet everyone in Dutch (goede morgan/middag/avond) to avoid sounding like a tourist and possibly getting pickpocketed.

I was then welcome to my AirBnb where I will be staying until tomorrow when I depart for Rotterdam. Let me tell you, it was not my favorite thing in the world to haul three suitcases up four flights of narrow stairs! Luckily, my host was able to help me, or I'd probably still be standing there! 

I took a brief nap and then went on a stroll to find some sustenance. Here's a huge shocker: I went to Aldi! Guess what? It is not the same thing as in the US. THERE IS MUCH MORE CHEESE! However, of course all the labels are in Dutch so I managed to pick out a cumin flavored one (I really thought it was caraway), some slightly odd-tasting pickles, two yogurts, and two cans of diet soda that taste exactly like cola bottle gummies. Naturally, it started raining on my way there so I ended up only mildly soaked by the time I arrived home. Once I am in Rotterdam, I will need to get a mid-weight, waterproof coat! I then watched about 7 episodes of The Nanny on Netflix so I would stay up until a reasonable (local) hour to fight jet lag, which kind of worked, except I was up for an hour from 4-5:00 chatting with my family (which, if you would like to stay in touch with me, please download WhatsApp and shoot me a message for my local number). 

Today, I managed sleep until about 9:30 and then took my sweet time showering and getting ready to explore. Seeing as I didn't magically learn to read Dutch overnight, this mainly consisted of me wandering around looking at buildings and people like a weirdo. I did venture into Albert Heijn, which seems similar enough to Meijer to meet my needs! I bought a delicious smoothie and some coleslaw-looking salad thing that turned out to have corned beef in it, yuck!

Much more importantly, I found my personal white whale, VIENNETTA CAKE, in the freezer section! My aunt used to serve this as a standard dessert when I was a child, and then it got pulled from the US market. I saw it once at Centruum in Curaçao back in 2008, but I didn't buy it and it was never restocked. This spring when I visited again, it was back and I snatched it right up. And it's seriously so cheap, I might just have to live on that since at least I know what it is!

xo,