Exodus to Amsterdam

Since taking the Kosman Household Tour videos Scottie and I ventured out to IKEA! Yay!

Technically this picture is from the second time I went with Sapna. Who’s Sapna you ask?

Scottie works with her husband Deeps and this us waiting for the metro after our successful venture. Some people have asked if IKEA here is larger/different from those in Canada. I think this one’s a bit larger but the set up is mostly the same with the showroom being on the top floor with the purchasing area on the main level. There’s a few differences in items but the overall feel is pretty much the same. They still have the first shower curtain Scottie and I bought for the 16th floor apartment! Yep, the stick drawn coloured animals, I’m sure you’ve seen it They of course have the restaurant and Scottie had his tasty meatballs while I ate my erwten soep. Mmm, split pea soup. Not that you care much about that portion of the journey so let me get to the really reason why I’m writing this post.

Ahh, a soft bath mat and shower curtain that’s a neat fabric so you don’t need the liner! Thanks for the tip Greg.

I believe the word delicious escaped my lips when I got under this duvet Nice neutral colours with no pattern so it won’t keep me awake, I love it! Vargos likes it too. Oh yes, the book on Scottie’s bedside table is The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire thank you Papa. He only brought the first four books with him and wow are they ever heavy!

Thank you once again for joining the Kosman Household Tour. Thank you also for your many reassurances that the stairs are in fact treacherous. They are more treacherous while carrying (clean) cat litter apparently but I lived to tell the tale… or should it be tail? (Boo, Shannie, boo, my jokes will never do!) So long for now from the Kosmans!

amsterdam IKEA, living in sin

While I was working my ridiculous schedule over the last couple of weeks, Shannie went around and made a few nice little video tours of various portions of our apartment. Many of our friends and family back in North America have been asking about the apartment we moved into, so here’s a little glimpse into what we call home.

amsterdam apartment, cats, jordaan, living in sin, Prinsengracht

Hooray for Scottie coming home before 3am! The pose he struck was one of sleep but lucky for him I did not capture the moment on film. Instead I wanted to show you a few statues I’ve found in and around Scottie’s office on Herengracht. Naturally there are copious statues all over so this is but a smattering in one concentrated area.

These are the loungers with a head bust. Scantily clad men surveying their dominion below with half a person in the middle. Perfect.

King Triton and his fish. This statue adds a very cool look to the overall building.

I’m looking across the building… window, brick, window, what? Right in the middle of the building is this righteous looking man carved into the wall. I loved it! I had to get the full look of just how much a part of the wall he truly is.

Don’t mind us we’re just holding up the balcony. I was quite taken with these two. I can’t find their feet, can you?

Last but not least a statue of kiddens in the windows. No, wait a minute! Those aren’t statues, those are our kiddens in our windows! Hee, hee! Vargos, our 7 month old male kidden, is the grey one on the left and Poe is the grey and white cat on the right. She is 6.5 year olds who once upon a time belonged to my sister.

There are plenty of statues to be documented so I’m certain I will have more as time goes on especially since they’re not going anywhere!

amsterdam cats, Herengracht, statues

Oh.

Um, hello there.

I think a bunch of people are under the impression that I don’t blog anymore, or that I fell into a canal and got washed into the ocean or somesuch.

Actually, as it turns out, I’ve essentially been working 100 hours a week for the last 3 weeks, as the team I’ve been a part of has been pushing to get a MASSIVE project out the door.

About an hour and a half ago, we succeeded. And, being the narcissistic ego-tripper that I am, I’m going to tell you all about it here.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, I’m working for an advertising agency in Amsterdam that’s currently working on a number of advertising campaigns for adidas. As you may or may not be aware of, the NBA All-Star game is this coming weekend, and adidas, having a very large presence in basketball, wanted to make a splash.

This weekend, Dwight Howard of the NBA’s Orlando Magic (who happened to be the record-setting fan ballot leader to start in the all-star game and also won the Slam Dunk contest last year) is going to be walking around all weekend shooting photos, video, and sending text messages, essentially documenting the entire weekend from his perspective. Our agency built the website around this, and the system that will collect and consolidate all of the content he creates.

See a preview below, and visit adidasbasketball.com for the full experience!

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s 3:40 in the morning, and do I ever need to go to sleep. With a little luck, our regular posting schedule should resume shortly, though Shannie’s been doing a marvelous job of making sure people know we haven’t forgotten about them G’night!

amsterdam, work adidas, nba, radio silence, RIOT

Yep! That’s right. Shannie wandered for a total of 22 kms yesterday! Crazy? Why yes, yes I am.

I went to see Anne Frank’s statue which is on Merwedeplein. I know some of you have already found faster routes to accomplish said task but my goal is to get to know the city. So off I trekked in search of her statue. 

 The park is encompassed by a triangle of buildings that looks to be all one complex. The Frank’s residence I believe was 37C. I read that tidbit of information somewhere and have been unable to retrace my research to know absolutely. In any case the residence has been restored to its original 1930’s set up and is a writer’s residence for 1 year at a time for writers who cannot write freely in their country.

 I then retraced my steps as a test for myself. Along the Amstel River there are many true houseboats… 

I turned down one street too soon after a bridge I crossed and it was all head scratcher from there on in. A local, thankfully, was kind enough to come to my aid. Off I went to meet Corinna for a walk in Vondelpark and again I lost my sense of direction. Eventually she told me to meet her out front of the Riijksmuseum which is a hard building to miss. A stroll in Vondelpark with a stop at the Blue Tea House topped off the afternoon.

Today I decided it was time to hit the books so where to go to find some solitude… the Bibliotheek of course! Along my walk I passed Centraal Station.

So many buses, trams and subways. There is a significant amount of construction going on along that entire strip that I walked the wrong way. Bike paths are generally in red brick with pedestrian paths in grey. Well, the grey quickly disappeared and was replaced with a yellow curb. I suddenly had busses turning to the left of me and swarms of bikes to the right. Being an agile light-footed wonder I avoided contact and quickly found my feet beneath grey bricks again. *Whew* I eventually found a pedestrian who looked like he knew where he was going and followed him to this walkway that took me straight to the library.

It is such a wonderful open air concept library with plenty of work space available. Each floor is dedicated to a specific collection that is written in large letters on the ceiling of each escalator. There is also quite the security presence that I didn’t dare take out my camera for fear of it being confiscated. The top floor is a cafeteria so people could spend an entire day without having to leaves the premises. Hmmm, what a thought.

amsterdam, you big tourist Anne Frank, bibliotheek, houseboat, walking

It was my (Scott’s) first day at work today (more on that in a bit), so while I got to trundle off and sit in the office for the day, Shannie got to boot down to the street market that appears right outside our temp apartment on Saturdays and Monday mornings. Saturdays are more “Farmers Market-esque” days, whereas Mondays are more “Flea Market-esque.” Used clothes, antiques, vinyl records, chandeliers, and the like. And, since the market appears out of nowhere only to vanish completely a few short hours later, it’s not exactly… how would you say… “organized.”

Items for sale in haphazard stacks and piles, yet everyone who was there shopping seemed to know exactly where to go and what to look for. People seemed to know that they could “part the sea” and find exactly what it was that they wanted.

Today was also a bit damp, which is why Shannie only spent 10 minutes out at the market, instead of the much longer walk she had originally planned.

Shannie also, through the course of the day, managed to figure out and solve the problem we had in our temp apartment with it always being REALLY STINKIN’ COLD, and why we could feel the wind blowing IN our living room.

I hope the people who own this place don’t mind that we used their placemats to plug the fully 1″ wide gap in the window. Replacing placemats is probably cheaper than the heating bill being jacked up by essentially having no windows.

As was mentioned, it was my first day at work today. I don’t have any photos of the office (yet), which is fine since we’re apparently all moving in a couple of weeks anyways. Seems like a really good group of people to work with, and do we EVER have our work cut out for us over the next little while. Kinda wish I’d been here a month ago to start working on some of this stuff.

Shannie tells me that many of “her people” have been asking exactly what the heck it is that I DO for a living that brought us here in the first place. Long story short, I’m a computer nerd. When you go to a web page on the internet that lets you do all sorts of fun things, that’s what I do. I make things on the internet work. Other people make pretty pictures, I make them functional. The company I was working for in Calgary partnered with a company here to work on a number of advertising campaigns for a small athletic apparel interest headquartered in Amsterdam that you may or may not be familiar with.

Apartment update: We got word back today that we are indeed getting the first place we looked at last Wednesday (Apartment #8, for those of you keeping score at home). Requisite paperwork has been delivered, and we should be moving in on Friday. Anyone in Amsterdam that wants to come and help us haul boxes for 4 blocks just might be rewarded with beer.

amsterdam, work, you big tourist adidas, apartment, living in sin, market, rain, RIOT

Today was market day. Right around noon we put our walkin’ pants on and saddled up for a hike down to the Albert Cuyp markt, a large (4 blocks long, at least) open-air daily market in the De Pijp district of Amsterdam. Google Maps puts it at a 3.4 km, 41 minute walk from our place, through what is quickly becoming very familiar territory to both of us. Today also included the first real steady drizzling rain that we’ve seen since we arrived, which seems to be pretty standard weather here for most of the winter/spring seasons — those of you from cities such as Vancouver and Seattle will be well familiar with this. Shannie felt that the rain actually made her grow. She’s still just as short as ever, though.

Plenty of new sights, sounds, and smells at the market. Not only were there mannequins for Shannie to pose beside, but also stacks of severed fish heads for sale and even a couple of bike shops. Much of it was typical Farmers Market-esque fare (lots of fresh vegetables, baked goods, crafty knick-knacks), but there were also some things we didn’t expect to see, such as drug stores and lingerie shops.

Shannie, being much more the open-air-market connosieur than I am, felt that it had a good “vibe” about it, and that the general bustle about the market showed that the locals knew exactly where their regular stops were, and the tourists were able to walk the entire strip and take it all in. A good mix of cultures, both local and foreigners (like us!).

amsterdam, you big tourist de pijp, market, walking

For those of you writing to ask us about what’s up with the apartment, it turns out that the owner of the one we thought we were now getting (#8 for those of you keeping score at home) is trying to jack the rent up by roughly €200 per month, which is ridiculous. We’re attempting to negotiate, and we’ll find out on Monday if we get it or not. If so, awesome. If they won’t budge and continue to be stupid, we’ll likely end up with Apartment #3 from our first day of searching unless something else in this area pops up. We’d still like to stay in the Jordaan area, but the De Pijp snobs (Hi Kyla!) tell us that living there is awesome as well, so we’ll see what happens.

We’ll post more details as we find them.

amsterdam apartment, de pijp, jordaan, living in sin

Just got back from our second stop on the Immigration Train, this time to get registered as residents and get our BSN numbers (think Social Insurance or Social Security numbers).

In an interesting turn of events, due to an improperly-legalized form, it turns out that according to the Dutch government, Shannie and I aren’t legally married. Once the form gets filled out properly our marriage can be properly recognized in the Netherlands, but until that time, we’re registered as two single adults living at the same address.

So now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go pick up chicks.

amsterdam immigration, living in sin, red light district, taxi

It’s been a full last couple of days on this side of the ocean. Where to begin…

First things first, we looked at 2 more apartments here, right in the same area of town (Jordaan) that we’re temporarily staying in. Both of these places are just a matter of a few blocks from our temp apartment. As per usual, kitchens!

Apartment 8

Pros:

• In Jordaan. Seriously, we love this part of town.
• Look at all that counter space!
• HUGE bathroom off the bedroom. If it wouldn’t be kinda gross, the bathroom could double as a guest room. It even had a chair in it.
• Balcony/terrace off the bedroom, big enough for a little table and deck chairs. Slippery, though… no running!
• One and a half baths, so guests can use the facilities without having to traipse through the bedroom.

Cons:

• More counterspace to clean.
• A little bit pricier than we’d wanted to spend, but again not deal-breakingly so.
• Slippery balcony could lead to plummeting.

Chances: we adored this place. We would have put an offer on it right then and there, but we knew we had one more place to go see. Unless the last place was going to blow us away, this was the one we wanted. As it turns out…

Apartment 9

Pros:

• Blew us away. This was pretty much EXACTLY the kind of place that we wanted.
• Completely fulfilled my romantic notions of an Old European Building.
• Quiet little side street, right in the heart of Jordaan.
• Front windows have a gorgeous view of the Leliegracht canal.
• HUGE bathtub. When one of you is 6′3″, you appreciate these things.
• Plasma TV and DVD player included.
• The most comfortable bed out of any apartment we’ve seen so far.
• Rental price is right around the higher end of our price range, but includes all utilities.
• I could go on.

Cons:

• Slight mess to clean up where our jaws collectively hit the floor when we walked in.
• At this point, we’re still waiting to hear if the cats are allowed. Silly cats!

Chances: we told the broker showing us the apartment right then and there that we wanted it, hands down. As mentioned, he wasn’t sure if cats were allowed or not, so we’re waiting with bated breath to get the final word. This, out of all the places we’ve seen, is clearly the one that we want most of all. If, by some ill-fated stroke of luck the cats aren’t allowed, we already know that Apartment #8 is fine with them, so we’ll take that one. We’re supposed to hear back today, but it’s just after 5pm local time, so who knows. Might be tomorrow.

What else, what else, what else…

Oh yeah, immigration. We had to go to the Immigration Center this morning to get, I dunno, some sticker in our passports or something that says… oh, who am I kidding. I don’t understand immigration law at all. Stickers, stamps, a stack of paperwork I couldn’t see over, a slightly panicky phone call to the office when the agent we spoke to (mistakenly) said I wasn’t allowed to start work for another 4-6 weeks, and other arcane processes that were way over my pay grade all culminated in one less page in my passport for international customs stamps.

Did I mention the cab ride? The Immigration Center is in Den Haag, about 55km from Amsterdam.

It was about 1 hour each way. We were inside the office for maybe MAYBE 15 minutes, if even. Thank goodness the cab fare was paid for, it would have been about €115 (close to $190 CDN) each way. Yowch. Richard, our driver, was fantastic. Gave us all sorts of good info about Amsterdam, Holland, windmills, house construction, bike locks, and we got to listen to Madonna and Sinead O’Connor. What’s not to like about that?

And, um… banks. We have Dutch bank accounts now (currently empty). Converting our savings from Canadian dollars to Euros is going to be a little painful. Meh, it’s only money.

UPDATE: just before finishing this post, the realtor called. The cats are a deal-killer on the apartment we really wanted, so #8 it is. Good thing we love the little furballs. #8 is by no means a booby prize, as we loved the heck out of it, too. #8 is also much closer to the best cheese shop in the universe (that we’ve found so far).

amsterdam apartment, banking, cats, immigration, jordaan, taxi