Farewell Amsterdam

I just read some of my old blog about Korea, and I realized that I really struggled there with my professional life. I had a blast in Korea, but the job was really wearing me out even before the 6 month mark! Here I am at the end of my stay in Belgium and I think it's going to be much harder for me to leave here. My jobs were all great (except when I worked at Café Belga for 10 hours a day with no breaks... but at least then I was working and happy to be getting money), I taught English which I liked, the juice bar was really easy but paid a decent amount, and the job I had taking pictures of hotels, well that was just sketchy.

Belgium, a country I knew almost nothing about before I got here, has wiggled its way into my heart. Even though it's been without a government for 425 days, it seems to be functioning just fine.

Here are things I like about Belgium:

The beer!! It is 1000% times more delicious than beer at home. I used to think Canada had good beer, but that was just because I was comparing it with American beer, which tastes like fizzy water. Sorry Canada, but Belgium definitely trumps you for beer. Once again, my favourite is Bush.

The Fries!! My favourite french fry wagon (what the French speaking Brusselites call a Fritkot) is at Place Flagey and I will miss them immensely. Every visitor that I had went there. It's a must see if anyone ever comes here.

The people!! Of course, I will miss the people the most. I always meet the best people. People ask me "what do you miss most about Canada", and I always say the people. Anyway, I can't even list all of the people I met in Belgium, but I'll miss you all very much!

Ok. I will type a good bye message when that day comes, but today is dedicated to the trip I had in Amsterdam where I had a reunion with my University friends Paul, Trevor and Christine!

Here are some things I did this visit that I didn't do before:

Climbed the Westerkerk: It's the church right next to Anne Frank's house, and the one whose bells she mentions repeatedly in her diary. It meant a lot to me to go up there and see her house from above - it's hard to imagine that she was there for more than 2 years, without ever going outside.

We also visited a diamond museum which was really cool. They had historic crowns on display and I've decided I want the British royal crown. It's the best, let's not lie.

British Imperial State Crown

Next, we went to a newly opened optical illusion museum called Op-Art. It was fun too!

My favourite part of the trip, aside from meeting up with my friends and spending time with everyone, was the cheese & wine tasting we did! I have an official certificate from Reypenaer Cheese that says I'm a certified cheese taster!! I love it! Here are some pictures from that

It was sooo fun and even more delicious! You can see how thrilled I am to be learning about cheese! Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone who is going to Amsterdam. The cost is about €12.50 and the location is Singel 182, Amsterdam (at one end of the widest bridge that has the Multatuli statue on it).

That's all that is coming to mind right now about what we did, so here are the rest of the pictures from that trip! Enjoy!