I learned a lot about myself, and what I want from my life, believe it or not. You wouldn't think you could change so much in one weekend, but, that's what being surrounding by wonderful, down-to-earth people, and incredible, breath-taking scenery will do to you. Paradise.
I've never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life.
I walked through fields of flowers in the shadow of a mountain - something I can now cross off my bucket list.
I hiked, up cliffs and over rivers, and I drank water from a stream in the Alps.
I climbed a mountain (Well, a peak called Brindley, but we're qualifying it as a mountain). It was more than 7,000 feet tall.
I ate fondue!
Helmut made some mischief with the staff of the hostel.
And then I went and spent half a day in Basel, which was nice, but to be fair, paled in comparison to being in the mountains.
I will tell you all about it soon! I am in the process of decompressing after a rather tumultuous weekend. And roughly 15 hours of hiking and walking!
So! In an effort to catch up to current events, and so that I can write a long, wonderful blog post about Switzerland next week, I am going to skip my usual writing (I know, it's tragic, my wit is surpassed by none) and just post a series of pictures. I will caption the pictures, so there will be minimal writing, but mostly, I just want to give you a visual walk-through of my life in the past two weeks.
I should say, right off the bat, that there is an awesome series of photos which shows me dancing next to a GIANT street organ in The Keukenhof (the giant Dutch tulip garden) but which just can't be captured in blog form. To really get the experience, we will have to sit down together, and I will click quickly through the photos to make a sort of animation. You will laugh, guaranteed. The song was "Don't Feel Like Dancing" by the Scissor Sisters. My good friend Tom introduced it to me. I think he sent me a link saying something like, "I just can't stop wiggling!" which, if you know Tom, is easily imaginable.
For your enjoyment, I have included the music video below. It is one of the most trippy music videos I have EVER watched. Fair warning. Song's awesome though!
Now, to the photos! There is a plethora. We will start with a series of pictures of flowers, because they are pretty, and we will follow with some pictures of windmills, because they are also pretty, and historical (or something).
Note: I am wearing sandals in all of these pictures, even though it was quite chilly, because of my poor toeser.
I am still mesmerized by these flowers. And amazed that they are tulips! If Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire, had a flower...
At some point, there was this over-the-water walkway thing. Naturally, Noah was jumping from plate to plate, whereas I'm standing there like, "Hey. The water around these things is actually like, deep, guys. No, seriously."
The over-the-water walkway did have the advantage of "Swan: Up close and Personal" and:
"Duck: Even Closer and More personal."
Siri and Noah
"Derp." "Derp Derp." "Deeeerp."
This one shows us as the devastatingly beautiful, intelligent and wickedly clever women we really are. Unlike the previous photo, which must be some horrible photoshop thing. Or something like that.
Ah, yes, these shoes are the right size for my le injured toe.
Noah and Dragon
Next to the aforementioned street organ.
Dancing in the aforementioned manner to the music of the street organ. With Siri looking...embarrassed. An English fellow even asked, when I stopped dancing, if I could start again so he could take another video.
Ice Cream Tulips!!
There was a big art exhibition in part of the gardens, and I really loved this painting, so I took a wee photo.
What is the Pope doing at Keukenhof? Dunno. Can you take a cheesy picture of me with him?! (He was actually an advertisement for the wax museum Madam Tussaud's.
There was a petting zoo. I call this, "Siri Pets Pig."
"Siri and Noah pet pigs."
"Kelli Climbs This Incredible Dangerous-Looking Stair-Thingy Over a Pond in Sandals..."
"...And Suffers the Consequences."
The day ended with a Sesame Street show, during which a small child stepped on my toe, I almost ate an ant, and I found out the Dutch Big Bird is BLUE and named Pino. I though Pino was a type of wine, for heaven's sake.
I end this section of photos with the Lupinus. The mightest of phalowers.
Now! We move on to a series of photos of the weekend after the Keukenhof weekend, where I once again met up with Siri, Remco and Noah, traveled to an "old-fashioned" Dutch sea-side village called Volendam, went and saw some windmills, and then spent all evening eating unlimited spare ribs and bowling. Lekker, eh?
Immediately upon arrival in Volendam, I saw this fellow chilling by the sea-side.
Siri and an interesting wall of pelts. Not much to hunt in Holland.
This is at Zaanse Schans, a collection of classic windmills from the 1600's.
A Cheese room!
Because nothing says, "I love you," "Happy Birthday" or "Congratulations!" like a nice big bag of cheese. Hey. I'd like one, if you're in need of a gift for me.
It was a tad windy.
"Check out this super-sweet-awesome-windmill-place!"
One of the last windmills we came to was a spice-grinding mill, which I just think is one of the coolest things around. It was grinding cloves and cinnamon, and it smelled MARVELOUS.
In Volendam, the first-ever Albert Heijn was opened. It was such a cute little shop! It also says a lot about how small the Netherlands is, that I can travel about an hour and get to the place where the first ever shop, of the most prominent current grocery store, was established.
Old Albert Heijn things.
Inside the store, they had it set up like it used to look, back when it was first opened (late 1800's?)
Rape oil! Actually, Rape oil is what we know as canola oil, derived from wild-mustard like flowers, with yellow blossoms. It's quite funny when someone says, without thinking, "Yes, and then we saw this giant field of rape..."
This photo came out terribly, but this is an old advertisement, saying "Have you chosen color?" Which is a nudge at the fact that the waiter is black, but also that the coffee he is holding is apparently black, which makes it tastier?
We bought some old fashioned Dutch candy at the AH (Albert Heijn). I had never had this before - it's called "Zwart-wit" and it's sort of licorice flavored sugar powder that you eat...Only in the Netherlands. At first I thought it might be crack, because that's kind of what it looks like.
A wooden clog-making workshop!
Baskets of "experiment" clogs
Clog-art.
Apparently stilts are an old Dutch traditional game? Who knew? They were fun!
So proud, to master the stilt-ing.
Stilts! Derp.
Now, we are practically caught up in every detail of my current life!
This is what I do every single day, for 8-9 hours, before limping home in exhaustion:
But, some days, after I'm done programming, I get to do something special, like going and getting pancakes with Lindsey, the new Fulbright intern, and Mary.
I know, right?? YUM.
And, last, but not least, I leave you with our family portrait that we had made at Volendam. In traditional Dutch dress! I am so proud to be the person in this photo holding the cheese. Till next week, to write about Switzerland. And possibly the fact that I am going to see Cirque du Soleil tonight, which is no piece of chump change (as far as events go). Till then!
