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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Stockholm

After our trip to Dublin, me and Ellea headed to Stockholm. Nice was a foreign exchange student from Thailand at my high school like five years ago and we had managed to keep in touch on Facebook. She happened to be studying in Stockholm this semester, so we decided to meet up! It's funny how life works out sometimes and people you thought you'd never see again show up in your life at the most random times.

We went on another free walking tour and learned that H&M was founded in Sweden. We celebrated by buying stuff, of course. Stockholm is also home to the largest Ikea in the whole world. The closest Ikea to me at home is about nine hours by car, so this was a huge deal to me. We ate as many Swedish meatballs as possible and admired the beautiful rooms. Ellea accidentally took out 5,000 Swedish kronos because the exchange rate there is a bit confusing, which is about $600 (we were only there two days). We saw a fake office that could be bought in it's entirety for about how much money Ellea had. We giggled a lot. We also visited one of the Archipelago islands surrounding the city. It was absolutely beautiful.

A couple years ago, I saw this cookie cookbook online. The books were given out for free, but only in Sweden stores. I had asked a friend in Sweden to grab me a copy, but no such luck. I had completely forgot about it until I saw a random, lonely copy on a shelf in one of the kitchens. I grabbed it and swooned at how pretty it is. The nice Ikea man let me have it for free, the only problem is, it's all in  Swedish...


Playing house.

Pretty friends.

Summer feet and a new chevron towel (from H&M of course).

Swedish clogs, maybe my favorite souvenir I've ever purchased.




I am living the dream I think.


Dublin

I ventured to Ireland about a week ago with Allison and my friend I met in Amsterdam, Ellea. There was a lot of food (steak and Guinness pie, shepherds pie, and countless potatoes), a lot of beer, and a lot of really amazing scenery. We took a free city walking tour, which I really wish we had in America. Basically natives of a city guide tourists around the city and tell them cool stories and you only pay them what you think they earned. It's a really cool concept.

My favorite part of the Ireland trip was our day excursion to Galway and the Cliffs of Moher. The pictures don't even do it justice.

The Liffey!

Temple Bar District

Pouring a pint of Guinness at the factory! Guinness tastes much better in Ireland.

Pub crawlin'.

Sky to sea gradient.

Howth, Ireland.

Irish country side!


Daredevil. 



Queen's Day

I'm really awful at blogging in a timely fashion. I'm going to try to catch up tonight, so when you see like five new posts, that's why.

My friend Allison came to visit me for Queen's Day, which is basically a giant celebration where people wear orange (Holland's country color) and get really drunk in the streets and ride on boats. It's actually to celebrate the Birthday of Holland's previous Queen, but that's how people "celebrate." Prior to all of the Queen's Day shenanigans, we explored Amsterdam and I showed her my favorite spots. I finally took my picture with the I Amsterdam sign, which I actually wrote a paper about regarding Amsterdam's city marketing. Yes, we actually have to study in Amsterdam sometimes. We went to a cute little town called Zaans Schaans, which has the most windmills I've ever seen. We also visited the most gorgeous library I've ever been to. 

On Queen's Day we walked around and attempted to drink gross, warm Heineken. We ditched the Heineken halfway through the day and made some Dutch man very happy. The day after Queen's Day we saw a Train concert. I haven't really listened to them much, but it's Allison's favorite band so we went! It was a good time and the venue was an old church!


The picture is blurry, but Allison's pants are bright orange. And they matched the floor...

So crowded.


Probably my favorite bar in Amsterdam.

Before Train.




Thursday, May 10, 2012

I'm in love with Amsterdam.

I'm really not enjoying the new Blogger layout, like everyone else (what the hell Google). I've had strep throat for the past four days and have pretty much only left my bed for grapes. Seriously. I am way behind on blogging and hopefully something good can come from this terrible illness. But on happier note, I find a new reason to love this city every day. A few weeks ago I went to the flea market with my friend Ellea in Noord. I'm used to seeing all of the same things in Springfield, MO, which has spoiled me on the flea market front. We have over fifteen at least. We had to take a cute, lil' ferry to get there and it was a beautiful day! I managed to only buy some pretty mid-century shot glasses and a set of tin canisters. I am now an international canister collector. I fell in love with an antique, wooden Heineken case, which would have made a beautiful shelving unit, but I don't think American Airlines will accept that as my "personal item."

After the flea market, we went to a brewery inside of a windmill! I got the sampler to make my papa proud and stole a couple coasters. I also spotted a Boulevard Pale Ale in the bar's giant collection of bottles. I was impressed.

Here's an update of my life in photos and instagrams!

Dreary, beautiful day outside of school.

There was a ferris wheel in Dam Square. This was the view. 


So many vintage chairs!

I think the concept of a Botel is awesome. 


I like white beers, I'm coming to find.