I enjoy going on boat parties around Manhattan primarily because it reminds me of my first night ever (New Years) in Amsterdam. Rich and I were at a New Years party at NDSM Werf (Wharf) which is above the IJ, not exactly where you’d normally go as a tourist. It was this industrial boat yard kinda place, and there were different areas for different music. We went to the first building we saw because we didn’t know where else to go and were a little too timid to ask. I mean, we had just landed in the Amsterdam like 3 hours ago and had only been to Dam Square up until then.
Travel
One of the managers saw me for the first time yesterday since I came back from Vietnam.
“Welcome back, Quynh!” said he. “Where did you go? Amsterdam?”
I’ve only been there twice and I’ve already got a reputation. :p
So is Twitter.
How am I supposed to start a revolution now?
A whole bunch of Europe flight deals came up (see Slickdeals) the other day for travel by April-ish. For instance, $151 RT from NYC to Copenhagen or Stockholm. The deal’s over already, but I think these blowout sales happen pretty cyclically for the winter/spring season. Next year I’m just going to book a week off work here and there between January and April and wait for the deals to come up. Barring some terrible news, it’s almost a sure bet some crazy deal will occur that’ll fit into whatever week I took off. Where I go will be determined by which deal is best, which keeps things spontaneous and cheap.
Of course I’ll just end up hitting Amsterdam again because I’m a tool.
Another Icelandic volcano threatening to erupt with a dust cloud far bigger than last year’s
Time to start planning a trip to Europe.
“Hi Boss, I won’t be able to return to work tomorrow thanks to Earth’s explosive diarrhea. I’m going to have to take a train down to Italy to catch a flight out. Apparently the only train available passes through France, Belgium, Netherlands, several cities in Germany, Dracula’s castle, Greece, a number of vineyards, and some shopping streets in Milan, before it hits Rome. This train will take about 6 weeks and even then I’m not sure this dust cloud will be gone. Terrible, isn’t it? Wish me luck. Oh but hey, maybe we should think about transferring me to the Luxembourg office since I’m stuck here indefinitely.”
If you go during early March, there’s fares around $470 including fees and taxes. I would jump on this myself but Rich put his foot down about going during summer since he is tired of dealing with the North Sea farting its icy winds on us. I’d say let’s just go in March and summer, but okay, okay, I’ll show some restraint… $470 is so hard to say no to though…
Last night I dreamt my family and I went to Madurodam.
When I go too long without doing lessons, I accidentally write “ich” and “mein” instead of “ik” and “mijn”. I should just learn German because everyone says Dutch sounds ugly anyway.
My proudest moment was when I had a full conversation in Dutch. It went like this, except in Dutch obviously:
Clerk: Hello.
Me: Hello.
Clerk: *rings up purchases* It’ll be €7.10.
Me: *hands over €10 note*
Clerk: Do you have 10 cents?
Me: Yes! *fishes out 10 cents*
Clerk: Thank you. *gives change*
Me: Thank you.
Oh yeah, I’m totally fluent. 
Wrapping the dates of Armin’s ASOT 500 (April 9). Also a good time to visit Keukenhof Gardens and see the tulips.
NONSTOP.
NEWARK (>JFK) to SCHIPHOL.
$606!!!
You know how Ari from Entourage punches the air and flails his arms around when he’s excited for whatever reason? That’s me.
Edit: Now $587. Somebody jump on this.
Here’s one of my favorite passages from How Not to Get Hit by a Bicycle:
I was first smitten at 17, just out of high school and floating around Europe on the cheap. I was zigzagging by rail all over the continent and kept snapping back to Amsterdam. This place just felt right to me. When I went home, I left part of my mind here. Then I went on a 27-year tour of being a grownup. I had work, art, adventures, relationships. But I kept wanting Amsterdam. I took so many little trips here that people began to think I liked travelling. I hate travelling. Finally I ran out of excuses and just moved here. Here I am.
(Emphasis mine.)
The bold part cracks me up. And on the other side of the same coin, I really love traveling, but every time I start planning a trip, I start thinking about how I can swing over to Amsterdam on my way there or back. I have 1,000 destinations on my list of places to go, but at the end of all my planning, it comes down to when I can visit Amsterdam. This last trip to the Netherlands? It was supposed to be a summer Ibiza vacation.
Well, Iceland didn’t do an Earth-fart like I’d hoped for, but our Aer Lingus flight did have to go through Dublin, which experienced heavy snowfall just as we were coming in for our connection back to NYC. Our flight was was diverted to Shannon Int’l where we had to take a harrowing ride on a coach bus to Dublin Int’l. Dublin Airport wasn’t going to open any time soon so we booked a couple nights in Dublin and I ended up really enjoying the city. That may be due in part to the fact that Aer Lingus lost our luggage so I had a good excuse to go clothes shopping there. We were supposed to be back to the States on Wednesday but ended up taking a flight out on Saturday.
As for Amsterdam, we stayed in a short stay apartment, which I totally prefer to hotels now. It gave us a little taste of local living. I must say, though, there is nothing more sobering than having a whole city (outside of the tourist spots) shut down at 6pm. I think between that and the arrival of the first cold snap of the season, all desire to stay out late and party was sucked out of me, such that by the time we arrived in Dublin, one of the drinkiest cities in the world, I had no urge to have more than a couple pints at the pubs. There was even a lively club in the very basement of the hotel we were in, steps away, wouldn’t have to trudge through any snow, but I didn’t feel like hitting it up. Incredible.
Photos are up in the usual spot.
For those of you playing at home, here’s a little Sinterklaas spirit from everyone’s favorite (racist, by American standards) Dutch character, Zwarte Piet.
“I am a Black Pete, but I have a white L.”
As my Belgian buddy, who sent me that video, explained, “lul (L) means dick (D). So he’s Black P but he has a white D. 
”
Or it could be a perfectly innocent song about traditional Sinterklaas chocolate letters, you know!
One of the billions of things I found cool about Amsterdam is the amount of art (graffiti) and bright colors I saw on a number of buildings. What I didn’t realize at the time was that those buildings were probably in the hands of squatters. You can see an example of such a building in this article.
Courtesy Radio Netherlands Worldwide
_
Now that squatting has been banned, I wonder how much the city will lose part of its colorful character. Hopefully I’m still in time to snap pictures of those buildings, which I neglected to do the first time around because I assumed they would be around forever.
Meanwhile, people still think I only like NL for the drugs. 
