After an incredible summer in Cleveland with Josh, we said a sad "see you later" for our two month plus separation while I began my journey abroad and while he embarked on an equally exciting semester as a senior at Oberlin. We spent the summer each riding our bikes 60 miles a week to and from work, plus the additional rides to see friends and family in the evening and longer ones for fun on weekends. Somehow, we managed to check off almost everything on our "Cleveland Summer Bucket List," and were able to safely say that it was among the best summer of our lives, if not the best.
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| Right before a long ride at the end of the summer...in front of our house on Hessler. |
Needless to say, it was difficult to leave and, although we have both had unspeakably fantastic semesters thus far, being back together is always the best of the best. I was understandably excited and ultimately sleepless in the nights before he arrived, so we were both exhausted for his first day, but still managed to make it to some of the most beautiful parts of the city. I loved watching the expression on his face as he marveled at the photographically uncapturable charm of Amsterdam's canal-enclosed city center and bicycle culture unlike any other.
After a much-needed long night of sleep on Thursday night, Josh was feeling much better and we spent the day walking around the city, stopping at the Rijks Museum and Amsterdam's most famous marketplace, Albert Cuyp, to pick up ingredients for dinner. Back at home, we made a massive amount of masaman curry for a big Shabbat dinner with a bunch of my friends. It was great to be back in the kitchen together, and the dinner preparations made us happily nostalgic about the past summer.
Saturday brought some quality market-hopping and the first of our series of picnics in the week to come. Amsterdam has multiple markets every day, and the products range from strange toiletries and accessories to the most delicious organic cheeses, breads, and vegetables. We ate along the Keizergracht canal--a truly Dutch thing to do on a nice weekend afternoon.
Sunday brought even more excitement with our departure to Paris. Josh was especially excited to make it to the glorified Parisian landscape he has been reading about for years, and we were eager to experience this apparently romantic city with one another. Many thanks to my Mom, who introduced us to Airbnb, a fantastic company that allows people to post their homes, and anyone who registers with Airbnb can book a stay in any given city. I found a nice looking apartment a month ago, and we went through with the booking, fully recognizing that it could be either wonderful or a bust. Lucky for us, it was hands-down the former. Our host sent us perfect directions from Gare de Nord to her apartment and greeted us with a warm smile and only the best things to say about Paris.
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| View from the balcony...unreal. |
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| Little sofa on the balcony. |
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| Making our first round of espresso! |
Didn't take us long to begin laughing with excitement, and to begin our repeated utterance of the question, "How are we allowed to be having this much fun??" The apartment was actually not any more expensive than a two-person room in a hostel, and having the more local home-base definitely enhanced our experience. There weren't any tourists in our neighborhood, and the local cafe around the corner was the perfect spot for our end-of-the-day decompression and morning cup of coffee. Just so incredibly fun. I really love traveling with friends, but traveling with your partner rules, especially in a city rightfully deemed the most romantic.
We spent our first afternoon and evening exploring the city and successfully making it to the Notre Dame before sunset. Everything in Paris is so much bigger than in Amsterdam, which never feels overwhelming, especially architecturally. Paris' beauty is far more grandiose in its massive buildings and stunning Catholic churches. The cities aren't necessarily comparable, but it was quite the shock coming from small-scale Amsterdam. Regardless, it was beautiful, as to be expected.
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| Crossing over the Seine for the first time. |
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| Just some couples dancing...totally normal in Paris. |
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| The setting sun's light against the Notre Dame. |
My parents went to Paris while they were here several weeks ago, and my champion mother sent me a handy map marked up with the highlights from their trip. Luckily, we were able to make it to the hidden falafel shop that Mom claimed is the best she has ever had. I expected it would be difficult to measure up to Israeli falafel, Boston's falafel trucks and newly established restaurants that I frequent when at school, and Cleveland's West Side Market stand. But, I took her word and, per usual, Mom steered me in the right direction. It was fantastic, and we even got to whip out our Hebrew skills to order!
Aside from our discovery...the hard way...that the metro doors in Paris do not reopen when they detect something like, say, a body between them, the rest of the night was great. (We tried to make a train that was about to leave and Josh's entire body, along with my arm, got stuck. At least my bruise is pretty.) We went to see the Eiffel Tower lit up at night to top off our day and, although the cheesy music and weird tourist chachkes were somewhat unpleasant, the sight was incredible and we continued to be amazed at the structure's magnificence as we saw it from other points in the city. The thing is HUGE!
We spent the rest of our time in Paris roaming little streets, stopping in practically every bakery we stumbled across. Seemed as though after we finished one pastry or macaroon (thank you for the advice on those treats, Hannah!), we entered a new boulangerie for another delicacy. And delicious they were. My favorite were the almond croissant. And the baguettes. Practically melt in your mouth.
The language barrier was never a frustration; in fact, it was fun to recognize the hurdle but work past it using symbols, hand motions, and facial expressions. My favorite was in a cheese shop we stumbled across somewhere along the Left Bank: We walked in and were greeted by three women wearing white aprons. The stench of the shop was unreal. Just imagine the smelliest brie you have ever smelled, and then magnify it by 10 and fill a whole shop with that. I asked one of the women if she spoke English, and she responded, "French!" Determined to find goat cheese, we communicated by pointing at pictures and shaking my head "no" when she knocked on the glass, to let her know my preference for soft cheese. We left the shop with a stinky brie for Josh and chevre for me, and I was just about the happiest little camper there could be when I bit in. We had a picnic dinner along the Seine -- Grandma's advice was correct: the baguette, cheese, fruit, and bottle of wine were the perfect menu for our riverside meal as we reflected on a day of wandering and art museum visiting.
We made it to the Musee de l'Orangerie and ended up visiting the Centre Pompidou (modern and contemporary art) twice. The collection and design of the museum were an incredible combination, and I was able to get us in for free by convincing the ticket sellers that Josh and I are both students at the University of Amsterdam. The accent I miraculously developed might have helped...
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| Breakfast :) |
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| One of my favorite older couples we saw. (Shout-out to "New York, I Love You," shuffling scene.) |
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| One of the stunning churches we wandered into. |
The best moments of our trip were those when we put the map and our plans away, and simply let our feet and impulsive choices on where to turn guide us to little side streets and local cafes. Every street was more beautiful than the prior, and the old buildings were more than enough beauty to leave us hooked and loving the city. Josh and I were great travel buddies: super light packers (the lightest our host has ever seen, in fact), champions at starting the day slowly with coffee and good food, practical enough to look at a map before the day and figure out directions to a few places but adventurous enough to be comfortable getting lost along the way, eager as ever to try new foods, and continuously looking reasons to laugh and have fun even when the skies open and drop down buckets of rain out of nowhere.
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| Breakfast on the balcony. Goat cheese, brie, pear, baguette, pear tart, espresso...doesn't get much yummier. |
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| "Do we really have to leave?" |
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| View from the top of the Pompidou. |
We definitely could have spent more time in Paris, but returning to Amsterdam was just as wonderful. We made a detox dinner on Wednesday night: vegetables and tofu were practically all our bodies could handle after four straight days of bread, cheese, and meat in their richest forms. Our date on Tuesday night was among the best meals of my life, and we definitely enjoyed every last bite of the desert, but we were definitely ready for some color and nutrients.
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| Picnic number 154287 along the Prinsengracht. Think I could get used to this for a while :) |
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| Home :) |
Our week and a half visit was much needed and more exciting that we could have imagined. Traveling together and biking around Amsterdam were dreams fulfilled, and simply seeing one another was the best gift of them all. I am super grateful that we were able to pull together the funds and coordinate the timing to sort out his trip. It was undoubtedly the best way to spend my fall break, and I am left feeling refreshed and ready to embrace the next two months with my fullest energy, while maintaining a certain level of comfort at the idea of returning back home in December to my family, friends, and Josh. Time flies when you're having fun, and my Dad always tells me that if you blink, you miss it. So I'm doing my absolute best to keep my eyes wide open to my every waking moment here.
Dutch word of the day:
Ik ben klaar met mijn Nederlandse klas. = I am finished with my Dutch class.
Dutch Word/Phrase Bucket:
Yoga = yoga
