This is a listen up: It's Istanbul, Not Constantinople! BT Dubs

The past 2 weeks have blown by.

In between then and now I have had a great time with new friends, including some Dutch locals :-).  I love the kids in my 'Obama' class as well as the professor.  Even though he is in his 60s, he tries to relate with us and always asks about what we are up to, etc.  My friends in the class (who are mostly Dutch except for one from the Czech Repub. and a couple Americans) and I decided it would be a great idea to have a weekly borrel, Dutch for social gathering.  We have since gathered after class, at 6pm, and chilled till the wee hours of the morning. The past two weeks we invited our professor along--he stayed for a couple hours and had drinks with us. It was super fun.  Last week, he cancelled class and took us on a bike tour of some nice towns around Amsterdam where we had snacks and later, dinner together. It was a glorious day. We biked to Holysloot and the area around there, which ended up being a 15 mile bike ride! After, we headed to dinner at De Engelbewaarder. My legs killed the next day, but for a great cause.

Sad news: My granny bike finally gave in to the powers of the earth and collapsed. I swapped out my bike and got a brand new one that rides like a dream!  The new name: Winnefred Breeze.

Last week, I got back from being on vacation with my family. They came over to visit me in Amsterdam. We also went to Istanbul, Turkey.  It was a great way to celebrate my sister's spring break as well as enabling me to miss a week of class to do some serious traveling and exploring with my family! My favorite! I showed my parents and sister around to some of the places I enjoy in Amsterdam as well as going to some new places including the Rijksmuseum, the Heineken Experience, some great restaurants (Toscanini--Italian food), and store browsing.  We left on Wednesday (March 31st) for Istanbul.  Istanbul was like no place I had been before.  I had never seen so many headscarfs or heard the call to prayer 5 times a day until then.  The city is gigantic. It is HUGE and is the only city in the world that spans two continents-Europe and Asia--a true east meets west experience. We saw a part of the Topkapi Palace, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome, the Basilica Cistern, the Grand Bazaar, the Spice Market. We also crossed the Bosporus Strait to Asia and went to a market there as well that was mind-blowing. It was so cool to be able to go to two continents in one city let alone one trip! Asia is mostly residential with not that much "stuff" right when you get off the water taxi.  It is beautiful and more relaxed than the European side.  One night, we ate food right on a busy shopping and tourist street. Kebap tasted so good, but it also could have been aided in flavor by the great environment surrounding us at the time. I also enjoyed trying to figure out how things are pronounced since Turkish uses many characters English does not. Some of the sounds were extremely surprising.  All in all, it was a trip to remember.

This past weekend (4/10) I met my friend, Lily, from high school in Dublin. Dublin is a city we both really wanted to go to and we both had a weekend free.  We met up at our hostel and started the trip off right by heading to Temple Bar, a fun area with bars, restaurants and fantastic music both on the street and off.  We went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, a great fish 'n chips place, Kilmainham Gaol Museum and Jail (in Panopticon style--Foucault, sweet), great bars with cool people (British rock stars, buddies who are spending their last night together for a long time from Poland), St. Stephen's Green, and Grafton Street among other places.  There is music pouring onto all surfaces of the city and the people are the nicest I have met--super genuine, lots of soul, really interested in others' stories, and good conversation. Lily went home Sunday morning and I stayed an extra day and a half by myself to wander the streets and soak in as much Irish culture as possible.  I attempted to walk the movie 'Once' as it is my current (and for the past 3 years) obsession, which was super cool to see the sights that my favorite musician walked.  I cant wait to go back and tour other parts of Dublin and just outside the city, in addition to Northern Ireland.

It always takes a little bit once I get back from a trip to re-enter Amsterdam life, but I am always quickly reminded why I love Amsterdam so much.  This coming weekend, my close friend Jess is coming into town from Florence to hang out and tour. I am definitely looking forward to seeing her since it has been nearly four months!



Hasta luego and Sláinte