Last weekend here before heading back for the wedding!

Not much celebration, just looking forward to everything.

Most feelings of stress around the wedding have subsided as Krista has been great getting stuff done and I have tried to do what I could from here. She is fantastic.

I spent sunday riding around the city and laying in the WesterPark, taking in the city before I leave for 3 weeks.

Beautiful day here. Many boats out...

A nice waterfront cafe. Just pull up your boat and have lunch.

Westerpark. The parks here have been like beaches the past weeks.

More Westerpark.

Boats on Herengracht.

Looking forward to seeing everyone starting next Saturday!

- Brian

This must be the place

What's new? Not much!

The past week has been filled with unpacking boxes and building ikea furniture. The most excitment came when an Ikea closet collapsed right after I finished assembling it. I walked away with minor bruises and a loss of respect for Swedish engineering. I did manage to salvage the closet and all the boxes are now all out of our place. After a few clothing items are put away I will be able to shoot and share the promised pictures of it.

The time without Krista has definitely made me reflect a lot on our coming marriage and life together.

This is definitely our city. We have our favorite places, parks, bars and restaurants, even knowing we are just starting to discover Amsterdam. And when we have traveled outside to other parts of Europe we have experienced a distinct feeling of home when we return to our fair city. So it is hard to be here without her, but it just makes our time that much more special when we get back from the honeymoon.

I guess I should write a little about why it feels so much like home.

I haven't seen another city with bridges that are just made for bikes! I can't go more than two blocks without discovering a new park. Both Krista and I have always loved cities by the water, but Amsterdam is underwater. The whole country is below sea level and the dike system which controls the water level means the whole city is waterfront. Every night and any time the sun comes out the views are breathtaking.

Its not perfect. Bikes are stolen all the time, tourists are always in the way, the weather is completly irrational, and the smallest things can be impossible to find. Somehow none of this bothers me and I am taking pleasure in the challenge. I am excited for Krista to be back, as there are a million things I have planned for us to do.

Glorious Vondelpark

Bio Markt, our fave hippy natural food place. It makes Whole Foods look like a much bigger place with more selection!

Albert Cuyp Market watch vendors.

Garlic Chef. Very angry with me for taking this picture. I told him there was too much Garlic in his diet.

The Artis Zoo a few feet from our new place. The giant line outside is like this when I go to work in the morning, and when I get home at night. Waiting for Krista and we will go together.

Thanks for all the nice comments people are leaving! It is great to hear from friends and family, and makes the blog a bit less of a one-way communication device.

GO OBIDEN!!! (Did I just coin that?????)

- Brian

And now back to reality...

I've been back in the States for over a week now (it feels like much longer!), and missing Brian terribly. We've never been apart for more than a week before, and by the time he gets back in town it will be a month since we've seen each other! Plus, the time difference definitely makes it challenging to talk on the phone.

There's been so much going on that I haven't exactly had the peaceful relaxing time that I'd hoped for yet. In fact, I feel like I've come back to a whirlwind... unexpected things like Sara the dog having surgery, my parents' house being painted, their roof being redone, family members being sick and air conditioning breaking (both in Brian's car and at my parents' house during the 104 degree Fahrenheit heat... unbelievable!). Plus, you add in all the wedding stuff Brian and I kind of put on the back burner during my time in Amsterdam, and it's been pretty busy here so far.

Not everything has been stressful though. I've done a few fun things since I've been back, and it's been great to see family and a few friends. Highlights so far have been going to my sister's for pizza, heading to the beach with friends, and going to play in the water fountain with my Mom, brother and his kids. Next week the whole family is headed to Sunriver for our annual family vacation, so that should be really fun.

Here are some pictures from Sunday's fountain adventure:

Lily getting sprayed by the fountain

Taj being cute as always

Taj being mischevious with Dad...

Lily and Aunt Krista!

- Krista

Moving Day

Wait a second, we can actually get our stuff?

It's funny that as we have missed some creature comforts from home, I had grown accustomed to living out of a suitcase. I guess you do anything for long enough, you get used to it.

As the movers hauled our stuff up 100 feet into the sky I kept seeing things I had forgotten we had, and many I was glad to have back.

You may remember from our earlier post that our new flat is on the top floor of a nice old building, but what we might not have mentioned is how high up. Though it is technically 3 floors, as the IKEA delivery-man said breathlessly, "...it is at least 7."

To back track now for a linear line of logic, here is the sequence of events:

June 23, Monday

The movers came and loaded all of our stuff up from our old condo.

From there it goes on a plane or train to the East Coast. Then, a steam ship takes our crate from the USA to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. (The largest port in Europe)

August 15th, today!

They came at 8 am and I met them at the front door. There was a truck with our stuff and a vehicle that is like an electric ladder. (Some would say elevator, but it looked much more like a ladder to me.....)

So they load everything up from the truck to the platform and shoot it up.

The place looks like it could use a woman's touch... Where's Krista?

Way too much work to do here.

This is the view from our bedroom, there are windows like this on all sides of the house overlooking downtown Amsterdam rooftops.

The best thing about today was that I did not take the day off! I have a big presentation I had to send out, so I was working from home between deliveries. Got it all done though, so its back to the move!

I will post some more pictures soon of the place with everything out of boxes so you can see what it really looks like.

Take care.

- Brian

Back to the U.S.A.

After six weeks of fun (and challenges), it’s finally time for me to go back to the States for a while. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone!

I’ve been doing a bit of reflecting on the past few months while sitting in the Chicago O’Hare airport during hour two of my four-hour layover here. When Brian and I first found out we were for sure moving abroad, I didn’t know what to think. I’d only been to Amsterdam once, and liked it, but hadn’t fallen in love with it and definitely never thought I’d end up living there. Well now that we’ve lived there for a while, I absolutely love the city. It’s so quirky and beautiful and interesting, and the travel opportunities are endless. I think both Brian and I have realized it’s a much better fit for us than Portland (aside from the tremendous distance away from our family & friends of course).

That being said, I am looking forward to a few things in the U.S., such as:

- Trader Joe’s
- Consistently sunny summer days
- A million Portland restaurants (Laughing Planet, Cactus Ya Ya's, Pizza Oasis, McMenamin's, etc.)
- Family of course!

Some of the things I will really miss about Amsterdam:
- Not hearing English everywhere I go!
- Biking everywhere
- Water everywhere (there are so many canals, it’s amazing!)
- Tourists – they make life interesting
- Imperfect things like quirky houses and uneven streets
- The possibility of hour-long flights to amazing places like London and Paris
- Brian and Fishstick, of course (Brian and I have never been apart for more than a week... it's going to be a long month!)

Here are some of the photos from my last days with Brian and Fishstick:

Saturday morning breakfast at Tony's New York Bagels

Riding the ferry out to Noorderpark together - finally!

Father & son hanging out on the couch (there were other moments where Brian was actually smiling but Brian liked this one best...)

Spending last moments together in Noorderpark

- Krista

Adventures by bike

I rode my bike across het IJ river in northern Amsterdam today, it was incredibly pretty. Since there aren't any bridges nearby, I had to take a free ferry along with several other pedestrians, bikes, Vespas, and miniature cars. It only took a few minutes to float across the river, and once there, I rode around for a while around the quiet suburbs (very different from central Amsterdam, but very pretty - unlike most suburbs in the States). Then I collapsed by a pond and read my new book and ate my picnic of bread, cheese and a soda.

Brian has done this ride a couple of times, and I remember my Dad took his bike there when we were in Amsterdam three years ago - but this was my first time.

Here are a couple of photos from the day:

Everyone loading onto the ferry

Really cool boat - thought my Dad would like this one



Picnic!

Proof that I was there :)

- Krista

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

While Krista was whooping it up in Berlin, it was Gay Pride Day here in Amsterdam. I went with my friend Gary from work, his girlfriend and some friends of thiers and watched the festivities.

It was quite the scene. Amsterdam Centrum is basically composed of a semi-circle. There are four main canals in the downtown area, with the western half of them being the most populous. (Our new place is on the eastern half of Centrum.)

So the outer canal, Prinsengracht, was completely covered with people and a parade seemed to flow on it the whole day. Each boat had a different theme, and different music, so every minute or so you could see a boat with bank employees supporting gay rights, or a bunch of dudes, young and old dressed like Vito from Sopranos.

Plenty of dance music and guys in underwear for a lifetime.

It was very entertaining and pretty cool that the city came out to support the gay community. It was also just one of those things that you could not miss as it completely took the entire town over. See picture below.

- Brian

Berlin x2

A few days after our arrival in Amsterdam, Brian took off on a work trip to Berlin and I stayed home with Fishstick. Well this past weekend it was my turn to go to the famous German city. I took off from Schipol Airport Friday morning to go visit Ellisa, one of my best friends from childhood.

Ellisa is in Berlin this summer doing an internship with the American Embassy there, which looks like this from the outside:



This is her third time in Berlin (she's been there before for a study abroad program and another internship), so she's very familiar with the city and likes it a lot. Since I've never even been to Germany before, it was fun for me to have a German-speaking tour guide and friend to show me around. When I arrived, she gave me a tour of the embassy (her German host family also came along, they're incredibly sweet), which was really interesting. I then walked around by myself for a few hours in the 90-degree heat while Ellisa finished her work day, and discovered odd sights like this:



I met up with Ellisa Friday night after she got out of work and we went out to dinner and got a quick drink before deciding we were exhausted and heading home to crash.

The next day we walked all around the city and Ellisa showed me several interesting parts of town, including a really nice outdoor market with fantastic looking bread and pastries, the Turkish area, and what Ellisa calls the "pretty" part of Berlin. Here are a few photos from the day:

Ellisa waiting for our Indian food to come

Cheers to Berlin!

Enjoying the day

It was a short but fun trip and I'm so glad I got to visit her before I head back to the States next weekend!

- Krista