Lisa and River, Nick and Jenni, Matt and Emily

We had a really crazy 6 weeks filled with good friends from back home.  Every other weekend we had new guests coming in to town, all ready to experience the beautiful Amsterdam!

Our first guests included my best friend Lisa and her husband River.  Their trip started in Italy (for 2 weeks) and then ended in the Netherlands.  We were also joined by our lovely friends Nick (from college) and Jenni who recently got married and started off their honeymoon in our neck of the woods!

Last fun couple, Emily and Matt, dear friends from Seattle!!!  They started in France, Germany and finished in the Amsterdam.

We try our best to be creative and show our guests the best of Amsterdam so please know when you visit, most likely we will do the following:

Boat ride around the canals with Pap.  Marc Paping owns a few boats and for only 30 euros an hour, will take you around the canals.  It's a nice boat, we bring wine, beer, food, and he conveniently picks up and drops us off right by our place.

 My favorite route takes us thru the Amstel, around the Red Light District and thru the main canals (Singel, Herengracht, Kaizergracht and Prinsengracht).

Bike ride thru Vondlepark.  This park is huge and big part of our life.  If we are not running around the full length of the park, we are bbqing with friends, taking naps during the early evening or playing with Indiana.

Favorite places to take our guests to dine:
Pancakes - for traditional dutch pancakes (pannekoeken).  My go to: Banana, Bacon and Chili Pepper.
Umi - Yummy sushi, nothing like home, but it works for now
Castells - 70's ski lodge atmosphere with awesome fillets
Tabac - good beers, dim sum and bitterballen with mustard
Cafe George - delicious wine and fries with mayo
Kantjil and de Tijger - Traditional Indonesian/Dutch plates (rijstaffel)
Rose's Cantina - Good for now Mexican dishes
Molenpad - Tables by the canal side, awesome bitterballen with mustard
Brouwerij't Ij - Beers and bratwurst with outdoor seating under a windmill
Cafe Loetje - Best steaks in the town
De Bazar - Tasty turkish food in an old Dutch church
Casa Peru - Peruvian dishes and sips of pisco sours - lime juice, simple syrup, bitters and egg whites
Mama Shoarma - Late night eats before hitting bed

Sites we recommend you See:

Anne Frank
Bloemen Market

Van Gogh

Hermitage

Red Light

Albert Cuyp Market

Heneikin Experience

Bike rides thru Vondelpark and to the various plazas - Leidseplein and Rembrandtplein

Kalverstraat - shopping

9 Straats - more shopping

The Jordaan and De Pijp neighborhoods

To die for sandwiches - 

Peanut butter, chicken and cucumber

Goat cheese, chorizo, walnut, arugula and honey - from Hartenkaas

In between guests, we joined friends Courtney and Michael on a quick trip to Delft, Netherlands.  Delft is particularly known for its canals and delft blue pottery (delftware).  We purchased some delftware, and enjoyed some beers/snacks while we waited for the rain to calm down.

Recently Kirk and I purchased slingbox thru our friend Eric.  We now have access to his cable and can enjoy UW football games!  We had our first stab at Sunday brunch and watched UW defeat USC for the 2nd year in a row!  We have a lot of Husky love out here!  Go DAWGS!!!

We just celebrated Kirk's 31st birthday!  It started off with a lazy day walking around the city, then a delicious steak at Cafe Loetje, ending with drinks at Tara!  Definitely a nice time with friends!!!

The next day we made brunch, had some friends over, watched more husky football, tasted the best bloody mary's (made by Ali Watson) and headed on to Pap's boat for some afternoon boating.  We were joined by friends Per, Lisa, Em, Matt, Ali, Jennifer and Johnny!

What a great way to spend Kirk's birthday weekend!  It was really hard to see all of our friends from home come and go, but we wouldn't trade it for anything!

Greece and Croatia

First let me start by saying we are so thrilled and happy that Jake, Noah and Eric came all the way out from the states, and shared their vacation time with us.  The trip definitely would of been a different experience if we didn't have their personalities, spontaneity, and sense of adventure.  So much fun and so many wonderful memories!!!


Now this trip started off with some major hiccups, one being we missed our flight to Crete.  We thought our flight was at 5pm, but it actually was for 5am.  Time and money later, we found another flight, but for the next day.

Crete was our first destination - and definitely had some super frustrating moments.  We headed from Chania to Plakias - what should of been a 1.5 hour drive turned into 3.5 hours.  We ended up on some hillside dirt road amongst goats.  


Once we reached Plakias, the hotel informed us that they were having "toilet issues" and that they didn't have any other rooms for us.  They instead booked us at a pension called Kyriakos.  We walked into town, ate a fantastic meal, drank homemade Raki and observed the massive fire on the hillside.  The winds were roughly 40-50 mph.

The next day we checked into the resort, Calypso, played by the pool and still got nailed by some gnarly winds.  We took it easy that night since we had to get up early - ferry to Santorini.  2 hours to Heraklion and once again, a major hiccup. The ferry was canceled to Santorini due to high winds.  We then had to ferry back to Athens (7 hours), sit for 3 hours, then take another ferry to Mykonos (4 hours).

Unfortunately, we missed our 2am stop on Mykonos, we thought we had more time to get off the boat and next thing you know "last call", we started booking down the hall, but it was too late.  The boat had already left Mykonos, and now we can't off the boat for another 4 hours.  We were told to get off on Samos, buy new tickets and wait for the same boat to finish its route and pick us up on its way back to Athens.  However, the ticket guy told us they were sold out of tickets for 3 days.  We ran back to the boat, convinced them to let us back on, and made our way to the top outside deck area, since we technically no longer had seats on the ferry.  It is now 6am, we have been up for 24 hours and have no clue how we are going to get to Mykonos.  

We decided at this point that we were going to stay on the boat, hide out on the top deck while the crew clears all the passengers from the main decks and hope to God no one spots our little hideout.  It was a really intense 45 minutes, waiting for a crew members to come around the corner and wonder why the hell we were still on the boat.  But that never happened and soon the ferry started letting on new passengers, and we eventually blended in.  

Now finally making our way back to Mykonos, only about 6 hours away.  We made it Mykonos, met up with Eric, checked into our lovely apartment (Yakinthos), ate some delicious food in the Old Town and went to bed (almost up for 40 hours).  The one good thing about this hiccup - we saw some spectacular sunsets and sunrises!  I was told by my Aunt Judith that Santorini has some of the best sunsets, I am hoping this grueling 40 hours on a ferry gave us that picture - it sure felt like it!

The boys got up early the next and made an amazing breakfast.  We hopped in our rental car and cruised the small island, making our way to Psarou. On the way we spotted 2 dogs, hanging out on the fence....they sat there everyday!

Mykonos is gorgeous.  Beautiful clear blue water, white sandy and small pebble beaches, and the perfect temperature.  I have never seen anything quite like it, this beach was superb.  We drank beer and pina coladas, jumped in the water to cool off from the scorching sun, lounged under umbrellas, the list goes on and on.

Jake ran into friends from home - small world!  We met them later in Old Town for dinner.  Old Town is magical, beautiful white and blue buildings, cobblestone roads, adorable cafes and shops.  Old Town in also like a big maze. We got lost, literally, trying to make our way back to our car.  The town is built is such a way to prevent intruders from invading the city.  Only the locals truly know the way in and out (and wouldn't seem to help us out - almost like they enjoyed our struggle).  We proceeded to get lost for about 2 hours.  We lost Noah, kept going in circles, I thought I would cry when we walked by the same bar that we started at for the 5th time.  Finally made our way out, found Noah by the car.  Ugh, can Greece throw anything else at us?

The next day we caught the ferry back to Athens (2 hours delayed ofcourse) and met up with my friend Evie.  We worked together in Santa Monica, but now she is law school at Columbia and visiting her mother in Greece for the summer.  

She gave us a wonderful tour of the Acropolis Museum and took us to one of the best views of Athens!  We had dinner afterwards beneath the lit up Parthenon.  Kirk, myself, Noah and Evie went out for one final drink at Jokerz before heading to bed!  

The next morning we headed for Rome (early flight) and went straight into a 3 hour walking tour by an archeologist (we actually went to one of her digs).  We saw the Pantheon (my favorite), Trevvi fountain (yes I made a wish), the Forum, the Colosseum (2nd favorite), and many other beautiful sites.  

We ate tasty granita con panna and had little pizzas, chips, olives and wine before a big dinner near the Pantheon.  A nice long day in Rome led to an early nights rest, since we had to get up at 7am for our flight to Split.  

We decided to skip Split and head directly to Hvar, about an hour ferry away.  We were approached by dozens of folks offering up rooms - we decided to stay with Luka and his friends Lily and Sonya.  His place was nice, small, simple and conveniently located in the town so we really had nothing to complain about!

First stop, Hula Hula.  A popular beach spot, Hula Hula sits right on the rocks.  You can rent your lounge chair and umbrellas for the day, take dips in the ocean when you are too hot, sip drinks and eat snacks at the bar, and finally stick around for the 6pm dance party!

  
That night we opted for the popular club Carpe Diem.  Lots of techno, drinks on fire, and plenty of dancing!  We stayed there for most of the night, before heading off to the bed! 

We rented a boat the next day and took it around the various islands and found a little cove.  Crystal clear blue water, perfect temperature for a nice dip and lounging.  We found a nice spot on the rocks to have our lunch before heading back to the town.

For our last night, Luka, Lily and Sonya took us for a nice drive throughout the island.  You could smell the lavender in the air and eat the figs right off the tree.  Luka took us to one of his homes on the hillside, such a beautiful view.  

 

After our excursion, we went to a family friends vineyard, sat out on a beautiful terrace and sipped on yummy wine!  Next stop, cliff jumping! 

To finish the night Luka took us to Zorace, the best place for skirt steak.  It was covered in blue cheese, and served with frites and vegetables.  We took the scariest scenic route (one lane dirt road on a cliff) back to our place, all worth it in the end!!!

Hvar is a fantastic island !  Kirk and I are already planning a long weekend back.  We met some really lovely people and would love to see them again next summer!  

Next stop, Korcula, the home of Marco Polo.  We had one night and one full day to check this island out.  Most of it was spent roaming around, watching a polo match, drinking our wine from Hvar, and going on a mini pizza crawl!  

That evening we took a ferry to Dubrovnik, our last destination.  We checked into our rental, a nice big place, about 30 minute walk from the Old Town.  Our friend Jenn and Ryan were also in Dubrovnik so we met them for a late dinner.  Dubrovnik at first feels a bit like Disney World.  The main town is surrounded by huge stone walls, cars do not have access inside, and the inside is filled with shops, cafes, tourists and locals.  

The next day we rented a boat with a driver (Sasha).  He took us to 2 islands, the last island we went to the main beach, played Left Right Center, dipped in the water, napped, and enjoyed each others company!  Good friends, good times!

On our walk back to our rental, we were lucky enough to see a stunning sunset.  Worth the uphill 30 minute walk!

We were truly sad to leave Croatia, such a stunning place!  We hoped that Noah, Eric and Jake left on a good note -  seeing our new home!  Hopefully they had a nice time biking, exploring the canals, eating bitterballen, and sipping on mint tea!  Miss you guys!