Enjoying Danish holidays (in Amsterdam).

Although President's Day, Memorial Day, and (my favorite) Thanksgiving are nowhere to be found on the Danish calendar, since moving here, we have discovered that Denmark has no shortage of national holidays.  And it only took us one month of living in Denmark before we decided to put some of those Danish holidays to good use.  Unlike the US (where you don't usually get any special time off for Easter since it's already on a Sunday), Denmark gets not 1, not 2, but 3 (yes 3!) Easter-associated days off every year (Thursday and Friday before Easter and Monday after Easter).  So it didn't take long for David and I to decide that this was the perfect time to take advantage of the short distance between us and new European adventures.

After a quick flight to Copenhagen, we flew another an hour and a half and soon found ourselves in the land of tulips and canals...the Netherlands.  And (how's this for good timing?) our good friend Matt was able to meet up with us in Amsterdam before flying back to the US.

First impressions..."wow, it's really pretty here".  Every other street had a canal running through the middle of it, and the layout of the canals basically determined the layout of Amsterdam.  Along the canals, trees cast their branches over the water, and the cobblestone streets were lined with old canal houses.  (And that reminds me, roll-y suitcases and cobblestones are not friends.  There's nothing like your suitcase wheels going click-click-click-click-click along those old streets to announce "hello everyone, I am a tourist".  At least, we weren't the only ones.)

Second impression...whoa, watch out for that cyclist!  Like our friends the Danes, the Dutch are very comfortable on bicycles.  And it's a good thing they are because I did not envy anyone I saw trying to drive a car through the streets of central Amsterdam.  In addition to the narrow streets and throngs of cyclists and pedestrians, cars had to park along the canals, and I don't know how drivers got out of their cars without falling into the water.  

We spent two and a half days walking our way through Amsterdam with stops at the Rijksmuseum (ruled by Dutch master painter Rembrandt), the Anne Frank House (still decorated with pictures of celebrities and royalty put up by Anne herself), and the Heineken Brewery (where they not-so-subtly proclaimed Heineken the perfect beer) with breaks for pommes frites as often as possible.  Seriously, the frequency of places selling fries was kinda a dream come true for me.  The popular mayo topping that they put on the fries, not so much.  I tried it once then stuck to ketchup.   

Rijksmuseum

Rembrandt's The Night Watch

Anne Frank statue outside her house
(pictures weren't allowed inside)

Heineken Brewery

In addition to the ubiquitous fries, we were also constantly surrounded by...other tourists.  I guess this is expected since we wanted to see the same things that other tourists wanted to see.  But there were just so many, and so many speaking English.  And on that note, I want to express my sincere gratefulness that somehow the rest of the world decided to learn English as a second language.  Ok, that's probably an exaggeration, but the point behind it sure has made European travel a lot easier for two English-only-speaking Americans.

Since we didn't venture outside the city, we didn't get to see some of the quintessentially Dutch things like windmills and rows and rows (and rows and rows) of tulip fields. But we did pass by the bloemenmarkt which has been bringing flowers and bulbs to central Amsterdam since 1862.

The Flag of Amsterdam

Besides its canals, Amsterdam is usually known for its more...uh...seedier side.  Even the Amsterdam flag has XXX on it (which apparently comes from the city's coat of arms, but what an amusing coincidence).  What surprised me most about the red light district was how normal, even pretty, it looked with its canals and canal houses just like the rest of they city.  I would show a picture, but I didn't take any photos there for, uh, obvious reasons. 

Anyway... 

I was gonna write one big blog post about our entire Easter travel week, but this seems like enough for now (and after 4 days in Berlin, I have even more to write about that city).  I'll end with a few recommendations in case anyone reading this happens to be planning a trip to Amsterdam anytime soon.

Amsterdam is FULL of art from the Renaissance to the present.  We only visited the Rijksmuseum (and didn't even have time to go through that entire building) because it had the most in one place and we were only in the city a couple days, but art fans would not be bored in this city.

Anne Frank House was thought- and conversation-provoking, as expected.  You actually walk through the small spaces where she and 7 other people lived in hiding for 2 years.  They also have the original copies of her diaries.  Because this museum is so popular, there's usually a 2 hour long line snaking around the block.  We went at 7:30pm on a Tuesday and only waited an hour but almost didn't get in because they close the doors at 8:30pm.  It's definitely worth the wait.

We enjoyed some delicious Thai food, falafels, beers, pancakes (the Dutch kind), and of course, fries.  Amsterdam is loaded with restaurants, but I can vouch for these as being good and not too pricey.  Oh and there are these delicious caramel-syrup-waffle-cookie things that are often served with coffee.  (Just looked it up; they're called stroopwafels.)  We liked them so much we bought our own pack from the grocery store.

I guess that about sums it up.  Overall, I'd say I really enjoyed Amsterdam.  I'm not sure that I'd plan another trip there because, even with only 2 days, I feel like we did everything we wanted to do in the city.  But the trip was totally worth it.  And it was definitely worth it to see one of my favorite people from back in the US here in our part of the world.  We miss you, Matt!  And to the rest of you, come visit us any time!  (And I'll write about it in the blog!)

One month in.

Yes, you read that title correctly.  We have been living in Aalborg for one month!

"What have you been doing this whole month?" I hear you asking.  Where are all the pictures of you guys gallivanting to one European city after another?  (We'll get there.)  How do you feel?  Are you adjusting?  Do you speak Danish yet?  What's the food like?  Have you been hit by a cyclist?  Do you have any friends?  David, how is it working for a Danish company?  Alana, what do you do all day while David is at work?  Do you sit around crying while looking at pictures of your friends back in Boulder?  (No, but I love you all and think of you often.)  Do you eat danishes everyday for breakfast?  (Also, no.)

David will have to speak for himself about working in Denmark (and hopefully, I'll get a job one day and experience that for myself), but here's what I've been up to for the past month:

FINALLY!

1)  Finishing grad school stuff.
Yes, I defended back in January, but it's pretty common to have to make some revisions to your dissertation after you defend and to prepare papers to submit to scientific journals.  But, of course, right after defending, the last thing I wanted to do was more work.  Then, shortly after defending, David was offered the job, and planning to move to Denmark was much more exciting that finishing my dissertation.  Fortunately for me, the deadline to turn in the final copy of my dissertation isn't until April 18, and I can do that electronically, and last Thursday, I did!  So most of what I've been doing here has been putting the finishing touches on my dissertation, and now I am officially done with grad school!

2)  Looking for an apartment.
This has been harder than I expected.  There is no equivalent to Craigslist (at least that I've found), and Craigslist has always been my go-to for finding apartments.  Instead, there are several different websites that have listings of available apartments.  But most of the listings have no pictures, and many have only generic (read "useless") descriptions of the apartments, and every listing has to be translated into English by my new best friend Google Translate which can lead to some funny descriptions (like "the apartment can house no livestock" which I assume means "no pets").  Most surprising to me was that all of these housing websites require that you buy a subscription in order to have access to the landlord's contact information, and the subscriptions are only valid for a set amount of time.  Also, for several weeks, neither one of us had a phone.  So I didn't want to buy a subscription and then not be able to contact any landlords because we didn't have a phone.  Fortunately, one of David's co-workers let us use his subscription because he found a place (Thanks Daniel and Bailey!).  So the search is on.  But now, for every 5 landlords I contact, maybe one will respond.  We have our temporary place until May 15 so I'm not too worried yet, but this process has already taken longer than I expected.

3)  Figuring out what to cook and then cooking lots of it.
I like to cook, and I really like to eat, and Denmark isn't that different from the US regarding food so there haven't been too many surprises in this area.  But cooking here has taken a bit more time than I'm used to.  First, our kitchen is TINY.  We don't have a lot of space to store food, and we'll be moving anyway so the less we have to move the better.  Therefore, I don't have the usual stock of ingredients to work with.  Second, we don't have an oven so anything baked is not an option.  Third, and the thing that requires the most planning, I'm not always sure what ingredients the Danish grocery store will or will not have.  Canned black beans have been quite elusive in Denmark, and these were a staple of our diets back in CO (I miss you burritos!).  However, avocados are all over the place.  So I scour the internet looking for recipes that have minimal ingredients and don't require baking and have ingredients that I know I can find here and, ya know, taste good.  Then, I head to the grocery store and walk up and down every aisle because I still don't know where things are (and I'm embarrassed to ask anyone).  Once I find a winning recipe, I make ton of it because our kitchen is so small that cooking in it is more of a chore than it used to be.  So now we have a ton of food, and it is at this point that I realize that I've always taken microwaves for granted.  Of course, Denmark has microwaves; it's this little apartment that doesn't.  It also doesn't have another thing I've taken for granted, a dishwasher.  :(

4)  Facebook-ing, Skype-ing, and trying to stay in touch with people around the world.
Can you imagine that just 100 years ago when people moved from Europe to the US their only way of communicating with people back home was writing a letter that would float on a ship across the ocean?  They would maybe get a reply in a month.  (And forget about visiting back home.)  Technology is something I'm not taking for granted.  I think I would feel a lot more alone in this new country adventure if we didn't have an internet connection.  So post all the pictures you can on Facebook...I'm the person commenting on them at 4am (when it's already noon here).

5)  Planning adventures.
The most exciting benefit of living in Denmark is the entire new continent that we get to explore.  Yes, most of the past month has been spent getting settled in Aalborg.  (And I don't even feel that we're really settled yet.)  But the traveling starts this week!  David gets off work on the Thursday and Friday before Easter and the Monday after Easter so we are headed to Amsterdam and Berlin!  Pictures to come next time!