Pop's Birthday Dinner

I am currently reading “Vagabonding:  An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel” by Rolf Potts.  Since I’ve been back from my trip I was in the mood to find information on how to enhance my travel experiences.  For the most part, I’ve been fortunate to visit cities I have always dreamt about, but I couldn’t help feeling if I was traveling “correctly.”  Lol.  As silly as it sounds, I knew I wanted to visit these particular cities for my interests and no one else’s.  But upon listening to others share their adventures with me, I realized everyone had a different approach to visiting new places.  I felt that my inexperience might fall short, and was worried I wasn’t getting the true essence of a new town or city. 

Listening to others and comparing how they plan (or play it by ear) a trip made me realize that everyone has their own method.  It was up to me to customize my own interests so I could get the satisfaction I wanted out of my trips.  Yet there are other factors that come into play.  While it rained on and off in Amsterdam when I was visiting, I had to adjust my discomfort to go along with my plans.  Normally, back home in Chicago, I would stay inside nice and dry and ride out the weather.  Being on a tight itinerary meant having bad hair days and braving the wind so I could visit my points of interests.  I was on my own and I had to get things done!

In Florence however, me and my friend had our moments of disagreements.  Her interests are different than mine, and we sometimes would get pretty frustrated with one another on what to do next.  I felt as if I should have had a day to myself to go to the museums since it’s not really her thing.  I questioned who was getting the most “culture”, but in the end, we both were.  Reading “Vagabonding” made me feel secure enough to know that I was truly experiencing life out of my travels.

Now the issue of time has been on my mind, and I question if I’m getting enough “experience” out of my short stays.  “Vagabonding” introduces the idea of long-term traveling, but I’m still perplexed this is something I could do anytime soon.  For the idea of retirement; yes.  I could definitely see this as a possibility.  It’s grasping this concept now that has me stuck.  In the meantime, all I could do is focus on paying off my credit cards, so in the future I could figure out where my next adventure lies.  I am excited because I have a strong feeling I know where I’m going.  It’s just a matter of TIME.

Speaking of TIME, I landed back from my mini vacation and went to work that Thursday and Friday.  Me and my friends met up for margaritas after work and I told them about my time out in Amsterdam.  I rested up that Saturday and on Sunday, went over my Dad’s house to celebrate his birthday.  My brothers were interested about my trip, mostly because they were pretty surprised I planned everything on a month’s notice.  Reflecting back now, I’m glad I got a chance to tell my stories with my Dad included.  As I’ve gotten older, I realize the time I spend with my parents is precious especially with everyone having a full schedule.  He complained about his birthday cake being small, but to me, this was a big moment for all of us to have him with us.     

The table is ready!

Mexican tamales!

Selfie time with my Pops

Day Six: Florence

Since we were out all night and did a lot that day, me and my friend overslept.  We woke up around 10am and knew we kind of screwed up if we wanted to go to the museums.  We still weren’t sure which one we were going to: the Uffizzi Galleria, or the Galleria dell’Accademia.  We still had to drive into Florence so we figured we’ll decide once we find parking. 

Walking into the crowd, I mentioned to my friend that since it was getting close to siesta time, the line wouldn’t be so long wherever we go.  We settled on Uffizzi since we were closer to that one again.  We practically walked up front when we stopped.  The line was down the street around the corner.  A tour guide was letting us know that there are tours where you can skip the line, but of course, it costs a lot more.  We were stuck.  We were sluggish from being out all night, and we did not want to wait in that line.  The other setback was that if we sign up with the skip-the-line tour, it would last 2 hours.  Hence, we’re back to spending 2 hours in the museum regardless.  My friend was hesitant, but I decided to foot the cost because I really wanted to experience this.  She agreed and we got very lucky with a tour starting right at that moment.  The tour guide showed us to our group and we put on our headphones.  We followed him around with a small group of 10.  He was going to show us the evolution of art through the ages presented in this museum.  I enjoyed the tour very much since it gave us a perspective on how other artists influenced each other.   Of course, the Boticelli room was amazing!!  People couldn’t stop taking pictures of his masterpieces.  

When we finally finished the tour, I bought my gallery book as a souvenir.  This is something I started doing for myself on my trabels, (although technically I’m missing the book from the Louve museum because I was too tired to carry it back to my hotel).  

Afterwards, we knew that siesta was over, and that the restaurants that are opened would be a little emptier.  We found La Bussola ristorante pizzeria nearby.  I told my friend that I wanted to have pizza for lunch and gelato for dinner.  Lol.  This worked out perfectly!  I ordered a Margarita pizza since it was more tomato based.  I had cheese and prosciutto again for breakfast, and was craving tomato sauce really bad.  My friend decided on a Tuscan pizza instead which included cheese baked into the bread.  She loved hers as well.

We ate like queens and decided to walk around and shop.  My friend found a salon that could do manicures, so while they took care of her, I sipped on their complimentary coffee and took advantage of their wifi.

We checked out some interesting shops afterwards.  We ended up at the higher end retailers, but we couldn’t help but admire the stores.  We spent the rest of the day looking around for goodies.  Once it got later, we still had to find some gelato to check off my list.  By this time, both our phones had died out.  Luckily, we ended up finding Perche no! which I would definitely recommend.  It was delish!

As we were walking back to the car to charge our phones, we found the famous boar statue our tour guide had mentioned earlier.  This boar specifically ate truffles, which has been the number one consumer goods imported from Italy.  Legend says you have to drop coins in his mouth and rub his snout.  Hopefully it will bring me good luck!  Lol

We went back to the car to charge up our phones for a bit.  We wanted to have one last drink out and head back to the house so we could say our goodbyes to the couple who were hosting us.  We had seen a nice restaurant earlier while we were walking around and ended up there for drinks.  I will miss my friend.  My flight was leaving at 6:35 in the morning, which meant we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30am.  That to me was cutting it close, but she reassured me that I should be fine.

On our way back to the car again (this time to head home) we ran into the iconic Arno river.  We decided to take one last photo together, but were having a hard time finding that perfect shot.  An Italian man noticed our struggle and offered to take the shot for us.  He was very nice.  We chatted for a bit about the history of the infamous Gold Bridge and how many of the buildings surrounding it were destroyed during WW2.  He knew so much, I wish we had met him earlier.  We exchanged info off facebook and hopefully our paths will cross again.  I loved his energy!  He was a very passionate, happy, proud Italian who love sharing the history of his country.  I love that…

We came home and said our goodbyes to the lovely couple who had waited for us.  I couldn’t help but tear up a bit while I was packing my belongings.  This trip had surpassed my expectations, mostly because I did not know what to expect.  The sense of clarity it brought me had calmed my nerves.  There are good people in the world.  Sometimes you just have to look for them…

Day Five: Florence

We woke up early next day.  We took our time getting ready, but we also decided that we would do things differently.  We wanted to bring a change of clothes so we could go out and enjoy the evening and not have to come back to the house to change.  Getting our things together took time.  For breakfast I had bruschetta and cheese.  I could eat this all day...

The lovely couple suggested we go to a town nearby called Monteriggioni.  They have a castle there and it’s surrounded in the infamous Tuscany landscape.  I fell in love with the cypress evergreen trees.  We even found lavender bushes, as well as basil growing around the castle.  

Basil amd lavender...

My knight in shining armor?

Where is everybody??

It was barely 11am, and not many people were in town.  It made it easier for us to look around.  We were getting the itch for our next cup of espresso.  We decided to go to Siena instead for our fix.
Since it now was the afternoon it was starting to get busy.  We found a café called Nannini and sat down for a while.  When we decided to walk around the plaza.  We were enjoying the town and later on we grew hungry.  Now that siesta was calming down, it was perfect for us to grab a bite.  I wasn’t in the mood for a full meal, so I settled on a glass of red with some focaccia bread.  My friend ate buffet style.  Off we went to our new destination!

Siena early afternoon...

Quick bite in this cafe...

We drove to Florence and I immediately noticed how populated it is.  There are a ton of people walking around.  I believe it is a busier city than Rome.  We found parking and walked to the main plaza.  There were so many shops and people it was getting a little overwhelming.  We were walking through so many streets we practically walked into the Duomo chiesa!  It blew my mind away!  The detailing of this church is beautiful.  I wanted to go inside but my friend started to get anxious with all of the people around.  Luckily inside we felt better and took our time admiring the cielo of this church.  We saw a huge line charging people to go upstairs, but because my friend felt claustrophobic we decided to skip that too.  Apparently the view up there is amazing.

DUOMO!

Bella chiesa...

We continued to walk around the area and decided to go towards the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge aka the Gold Bridge.  There my friend explained how people from all over the world buy their jewelry from the shops. What beautiful pieces!  I wish I had brought more loot with me.  Lol.

We were growing tired again by all the walking.  She suggested we go find a nice bar with a view of the bridge and the Arno River.  We settled on Signorvino wine bar.  They seated us at the balcony and me and my friend couldn’t stop taking pictures.  We started having a conversation with an English woman who was seated next to us.  I think she was enjoying our conversation so we decided to include her in it.  She was staying at a hotel by the bridge and was enjoying her time there.

Light bites again.  The view was amazing!

At one point we received a phone call by the lovely couple we were staying with.  We had just ordered some apretivo and they were inviting us to dinner again.  I didn’t think my friend had agreed to dinner again, but I warned her I might not eat very much since I just ordered some food.  My appetite doesn’t work like most people.  If I’m not hungry, I’ll play with my food.  She understood and was going to tell a white lie for me by saying I had a tummy ache.  I didn't want to get their feelings hurt in case I wouldn’t eat as much.

We drove back home afterwards and had a light dinner with the couple.  They were cute because they knew we wanted to go out so they told us we were free to go.  Lol.  We quickly showered and got ready.  A friend of theirs suggested some spots for us to go out to.  Off we went back to Florence again. 

I noticed right away that the streets were pretty empty.  My friend thought about it for a second and realized that northern Italy does things differently than southern Italy.  She was worried some places close early.  We found parking but got lost trying to find this one wine bar.  This took over 30-40 minutes, at one point even jumping into a cab because my friend’s feet hurt from all the walking we were doing.   When we reached our destination on the GPS we still couldn’t find it.  My friend realized after the fact that the wine bar had closed at 9pm.  So much for that.

We walked into here to get directions.  We figured we would come back if we couldn't find the other spot.

Our back up plan was Sesio at the Westin Hotel.  We took another cab there and had a better feeling about that place because it was in a fancy hotel.  We made our way up to the rooftop and there was a relatively small group up there, but as the night went on, more people showed up.  We ordered a bottled of wine and as usual, it came with complimentary cookies, nuts and chocolates.  That was a nice surprise.  My friend noticed there weren’t any Italians up there; mostly tourists, which was fine by me because the view was amazing.  We stayed and talked the rest of the evening and off we went.  We did a lot that day!

At the rooftop at the Westin Hotel.

Cin cin

The lobby was breathtaking...

Add caption

Day Four: Florence

I shared a cab with a woman who was heading to the airport as well.  We chatted about our trip in Amsterdam.  She was here for work but took some time to walk around and do some sight seeing.  She loved her trip.  She wants to take her children there one day.  She was flying back to Seattle.  

Once at the airport I got on the wifi and my friend from Italy was messaging me.  She was going to meet me in Florence much later than anticipated.  I wasn't given much details so I got on my flight. 

When I landed in Florence I got a call from her.  She was just leaving her region!  I did not want to be waiting at the airport for 6 hours so she gave me suggestions on what to do.  I was pretty upset but what can you do?  You can't cry over spilled milk.  I did my makeup and ate some lunch at the airport before venturing out into the city. 

I took a bus from the airport which drove me to main train station in the city.  This station was their Union Station.  Luckily there was a place I could place my luggage in storage while I walked around.  That was a nice feature.  

There was a mini mall there and I took advantage of it.  Eventually I got the nerves to venture out of the station.  I was getting nervous because there were so many people around.  I started to walk into some small shops.  I didn't want to venture out too far since I needed to check up on my friend's status.  After a few hours I waited back at the station and my friend finally came after 5pm.  Now it was time to find the place where we would be staying.  Some friends of her boyfriend offered up their place to stay.  They were located right outside of Florence.  We were going to have dinner with them at 7pm.

Once we arrived we settled in our rooms and had a massive dinner.  I was super stuffed!  It was like a thanksgiving feast!  I kept drinking wine and eating and eating that I started to nod off at the table.  I was embarrassed but I haven't ate like that in a long time.  I'm one of those people that starts shutting down if I sit too long after eating so much.  I need to move around or else I get too tired.  

The grand fest!  Everything was delish!

Sheep's cheese

The infamous Florentine steak!  The inside is pretty raw...

For dessert we had this hazel almond cake.

We had a sweet liquor to go along with it.

We talked and talked and then made our way to watch a movie with them in the living room.  I was nodding off again.  Since my friend drove 6 hours to meet me we figured we'll call it a night and begin our day early the next day. 

Day Three: Amsterdam

Since I had technically booked my hotel for 2 nights; I knew I had made a wrong choice.  I bought my flight to Florence on the last minute and figured I would break night on the 3rd day in Amsterdam.  It was Saturday after all and I've done it before in the past.  But now as I've gotten older, I knew I was kidding myself.  My flight was leaving at 9:55am and even if I got to the airport at 8am, what was I going to do with myself this whole time without a room?  I needed to rest at some point.  I booked another night but because my room was given to someone else, they assigned another room for me.  I still had to get up and checkout in the morning.  I woke up early and packed my things.  Luckily my new room was ready, but since I was up already, I got hungry.  I decided to grab breakfast and search for some Dutch pancakes!

I walked my way over to the same area where I had brunch the day before.  But with some many restaurants nearby, I could find a place that served the pancakes.  I DID see however, a crowd of locals standing around a deli.  That's when I realized they were serving the hering sandwich.  A decided to try this favorite Dutch treat.  I was nervous the fish would have bones, but a customer informed me it didn't.  They added the pickles and onions and I took my bite.  It was definitely different but I managed.  I was proud I tried this healthy treat.  Not bad, but I'm not sure if this is something I would crave.  But who knows?

I suddenly got a wave of tiredness that came over me.  Since I had been out the night before, and checked out in the morning, I got super tired.  I had a cup of espresso but it still didn't help.  I decided to go back to the hotel for a nap. 

What a nap it turned out to be!  I slept until 3pm!!  I was losing my day again.  Ugh!  My new friend was messaging me to see what I was doing but I told him what happened.  Both he and my friend in Italy had suggested that I should book a boat tour in the canals.  I went down to the hotel and arranged one with the front desk man.  

I made my way over to the coffee company to have my 2nd cup so I could wake up.  I was so groggy.  The deskman gave me directions to take the tram down to dam square where my tour would start.  It seemed simple enough.  

I found my stop and hopped on.  I got a chance to see just how many people visit Amsterdam.  There were so many people.  Once I entered Dam Square it reminded me of time square.  There were so many people.  I got off my stop and continued my walk over to the boats.  That's when I noticed two guys eating the famous Belgium fries with mayo.  I asked them where it was and they showed me to Minnekan Piss.  Here were the infamous fries.  There was a line but luckily it went quickly.  Hence; that was my lunch.  

I found the spot where my tour was meeting.  Boats run every 15 minutes and I just made one starting now.  I hopped on and found my seat.  What an amazing tour!!  I enjoyed the whole thing.  It was truly breath taking seeing the city this way. 

Me and my new friend had made plans to meet up around 8pm for drinks at my hotel.  By the time I got off my tour I still had time to walk around dam square.  I saw some many interesting stores.  

I took the tram back and made my way to the hotel to get ready.  I was getting nervous because I didn't know where we were going.  He came right on time and he drove us back to museum square.  We took a walk and made our way to Weber Bar.  

There we got a chance to get to know one another.  He was very sweet.  We were having a good time.  He wanted to take me to Red Light District.  I was going to pass up on this if I was by myself, but now that my friend was with me, I figured why not.  

What a change of scenery!!  First of all, there were so many people.  This area is very busy at night.  It was overwhelming but my friend was with me so I felt safe.  I was mostly concerned with walking through a crowd like packed sardines but we were fine.  

He took me to a peep show and that was something I'll never forget.  But there were so many people trying to get in, all curious to see what was going on.  People from all over the world. 

He got hungry and went to a vending machine to grab a burger and drove me back to my hotel.  My flight was at 9:55 to Florence.  So far, Amsterdam was amazing!