Delf, the Netherlands

My mom and I have been on the move so much this week that I've been too exhausted to blog at the end of each day, so here are some updates.

On wednesday we traveled 15 minutes outside of Rotterdam by train to the city of Delft. Home to Vermeer and Defltware and cute as a button! We made the mistake of starting the day off with a climb to the top of the New Church tower. Our legs were reallllly not happy with us after that. We went to the Vermeer museum that didn't have any Vermeer's, Mom ordered a giant cheezy pancake with strange tasting pastrami, and when we got lost looking for the Royal Delft Museum we asked a couple with a map for directions only to find out the woman is the director of the Westport library in CT who mom knew but had never met in person. Small world!

Delft was touristy but was really lovely and a great place to be on a beautiful day. Take a peak at the rest of the photos here on facebook or flickr

My Apartment!!

Here are some photos of my new apartment! There is someone living there right now... I don't move in until Sept. 1st. I think it looks like a little village of IHOP's! Really cute. It's on the second floor.. has a lift, and a bicycle ramp which is pretty cool. So... COME VISIT!!

New Hotel

Today we upgraded hotels from the Tulip Inn to the Golden Tulip Inn around the corner (we were hoping to be in an apartment by now so we only rented the first room for a week). Now we can enjoy a gym, pool, great views, and lots of dutch candy in the snack bar! woo hoo!

Zonderdag op de Blijdorp! (Sunday at the Zoo!)

Today (sunday) my mom and I got up super late and retrieved my now fixed bike from the bike shop and rode over to the zoo! It was really fun to see lots of cute animals, and really not fun to see lots of animals being held in very small, dirty, and inappropriate habitats. One habitat actually had fake plants in it! Not cool, not cool...

The funniest part of today was when my mom thought some other girl with brown hair and a backpack was me and walked with her for a good 5 minutes before realizing it wasn't me. I circled the girl in the photo so you can see her, haha, and my mom standing to her left. :)

These are just some of the pics here. Check out my flickr site here or my facebook page here. Tomorrow I sign the contract for my apartment!

Fietsen op Zaterdag

So today I got my first bike here in the Netherlands! She's a beaut! We bought it from a bike shop from this little old man who speaks to us in Dutch but pretends he is somehow speaking English (so conversations are really fun...). So my mom rents a bike and the two of us get about halfway back to the hotel when my mom convinces me that my back tire is way too flat and that I'll break my tube if I don't go back and put air in it... so we go all the way back. After that is done, and somehow, in the same exact spot we had turned around in the first time, I run over a piece of a woman's high heel that fell out and had a nail at one end and I get a flat! We pushed our bikes all the way back to the little old man who tells us that the guy who can fix it won't be in till tomorrow. Luckily he let me rent a bike from them free of charge and my mom and I rode off to see the Woody Allen film "Vicky Cristian Barcelona" at the outdoor free movie. Am looking forward to having my bike back in my hands in the morning and will forever be paranoid about riding over anything with the potential to pierce through rubber...

No, my bike is not the cool one with all those seats. I would love to see that thing in action though!

The bottom pic is from inside this building which has about 15 restaurants and some art galleries in it. Had a goat cheese salad there that I will never forget! How are people not fat here?

Map of my apartment

This won't really mean anything to any of you, but here is a google map of where my apartment is located. It is right near the Central train station and the shopping and hang out areas but is set back a bit in a quiet apartment complex. The buildings actually look like little IHOPs! Co cute. And there are trees and a canal that go through the middle of the complex, and I really appreciate that because it's almost impossible to find any green around here! I'll post photos on Monday when I go back for another look. :)

Friday, August 21st

Today I signed a lease for an apartment!

It's a one bedroom with a small bedroom and pretty large living room. It has a little balcony, a shower room and a toilet room (which is just about the size of the toilet), a small washing machine (no dryer), a really cute little refrigerator, and a stovetop but no oven. Many of the apartments here come furnished which makes moving much easier! We looked at one place that had the most terrible furniture and decorations I've ever seen! Should have snapped a photo of that :) It was hideous.

My furniture is very simple. I'm just hoping that I'm allowed to hang stuff on the walls without getting in trouble.

I rented a bike today and it was one of the most fun things I've done since I was a kid! Everything is so small and cute here and the park I rode to was just absolutely adorable.. everything made me laugh :)

Bought a dutch-english dictionary today, and rode my bike to watch one of the nightly free movies outdoors here. It was an Italian mob movie (in Italian) with Dutch sub-titles, but there was live music before the show, tons of people, and beer! I'd say almost 300 people showed up.

I'm loving it here and am looking forward to more exploring! I'll get more photos of the city today. The weather has been great, but cooler than the states (which I'm sure you are all super jealous of right now!). Today was a high of 70, and it got down in the 50s when the sun went down, which happens a bit past 9:30 here. We might take a small trip next week to another country before school starts. I'll keep you posted!

About the City

Here are some photos from our Spido boat cruise in the port and some fun facts about Rotterdam!

Rotterdam city and municipality in the Dutch province of South Holland, situated in the west of the Netherlands. The municipality is the second largest in the country (after Amsterdam), with a population of 584,046 as of January 2007. It forms the southern part of the Randstad, the sixth-largest metropolitan area in Europe, with a population of 6.7 million.

The port of Rotterdam is the largest in Europe. From 1962 to 2004, it was the world's busiest port; then it was superseded byShanghai. Rotterdam is situated on the banks of the river Nieuwe Maas ('New Meuse'), one of the channels in the delta formed by the Rhine and Meuse rivers.

Built mostly behind dikes, large parts of the Rotterdam are below sea level. For instance, the Prins Alexander Polder in the northeast of Rotterdam extends 6 meters below sea level, or rather below Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP) or 'Amsterdam Ordnance Datum'.

Rotterdam is home to the Dutch half of consumer goods giant Unilever, and Mittal Steel Company N.V., subsidiary of Luxembourg-basedArcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel company. It imports over 100 million tons of crude oil a year!

The port's main activities are petrochemical industries and general cargo handling and transshipment. The harbour functions as an important transit point for bulk materials and between the European continent and overseas. From Rotterdam goods are transported by ship, river barge, train or road. In 2007, the Betuweroute, a new fast freight railway from Rotterdam to Germany, has been completed.

In 1872, the Nieuwe Waterweg ('New Waterway') opened, a ship canal constructed to keep the city and port of Rotterdam accessible to seafaring vessels as the natural Meuse-Rhine channels silted up.

First day in Rotterdam!

Still lacking a decent amount of sleep, today was our first full day in the city where I unfortunately had to stay inside for a huge chunk of the day to look for apartments. We ventured out to see one place that was about the size of a bed with about a foot of space around it. I will not be living there! We had two great meals and I ended the day with an unbelievable concert by Andrew Bird! He completely exceeded my expectations. Three appointments await us tomorrow and more searching!