Homecoming - July

Last Friday (20 July), we returned to the United States for our third trip home since arriving in Amsterdam. This trip was the best one so far - we got some excellent beach time, saw tons of friends and family, saw our good friends Drew and Paige tie the knot and ate an unbelievable amount of junk food like burgers, chicken wings and crab dip. Plus it was great to have some warm and sunny weather after being punished to no end with the rainy cold in Amsterdam. Spectacular indeed.

We took our standard flight to JFK that gets in at 8pm on Friday. My parents picked us up and we headed, excitedly, for a weekend in the hamptons. Saturday and Sunday was excellent beach weather - sunny and hot, but with a nice breeze on the beach, and cool in the am and pm. The beaches in eastern Long Island are unmatched - soft sand, clean waters and for the most part pretty desolate. We even found some time to go for a run and a long bike ride - it's nice to do those things without having to worry about getting hit by a tram, or speeding car, some jerk on his motorbike or reams of meandering tourists that are confused by the concept of walking on a sidewalk. My parents cooked up a mean bbq on saturday night, chased by some even meaner caipirinhas, then a late evening stroll through the westhampton town, which has become 80% real estate brokerage offices. On Sunday, my aunt and uncle hosted a luncheon to keep the eating frenzy in motion.

On Monday we took shelter from the rain by indulging in some retail therapy. It's fun shopping with dollars now that we have euros - it's kind of like monopoly money. Quite dangerous. On Tuesday it was back to the beach before heading out of LI and into NYC to meet some friends for dinner at Dos Caminos. Mike, Stacy, Liz and Saurab were kind enough to meet us for what turned out to be a really fun time at a mediocre restaurant (why does Robert DeNiro come here??). It was bittersweet since we knew we only had one night with them. We headed to New Jersey to Matt's parents' house that night.

On Wednesday, I did some damage at the new Anthropologie store that opened up in Red Bank (love that store!). Afterwards we went to an enormous supermarket - not really enormous by American standards, but to us it felt like Disneyworld. We sped along the aisles with our shopping cart and marveled at all of our options - it is truly amazing how many options we have in the US, what a great country. Mrs. Sgrizzi picked up a tremendous pack of ground beef to make hamburgers and I just stared at this thing with wonder, a reaction upon which Mrs. Sgrizzi responded with "You think that's big, you should see what they have at Costco". Wow.

A couple of delicious hamburgers and fabulous eggplant rollitini later, we were spent, also no thanks to the two-glasses-of-wine-and-two-Benadryl cocktail I inadvertenly swallowed (I'm allergic to Matt's dog Casey). Not much time for lounging, though, since we were catching the 7pm train to Baltimore.

We said goobye to the nice, breezy summer weather of the northeast when we boarded that train to Baltimore, where the weather was no less than 90 degrees and humid. A short train ride later and we were greeted by our good friend Ryan, who drove us to our friends and hosts Emily and Bryan's huge pad. After dropping our bags, we head out to the bars and met up with our friend Glowacki. While I was on the phone with a friend, Mattt had ordered me a Coors Light. Now, I've never been a fan of this beer, and especially now that I live in a country where "light" beer has no home, I was quite disappointed by this choice. But we were in Baltimore now, and we had to be as the Baltimorons are.

On Thursday, Matt had a hectic day of going to his office in Baltimore to say hello, then going to pick up his tux in Towson for the wedding the next day, then going to the rehearsal at 5, and the rehearsal dinner at 7:30 (Matt was one of the groomsmen). All this in a suit in nearly 100 degree weather - unfortunate. I, on the other hand, chose to lounge around for most of the day in my good friend Mia's bridesmaid boutique that she opened not too long ago. We gossiped and tried on some bridal gowns - I was tempted to take a picture of me in one and send it to Matt via SMS, just to freak him out. I decided against it though! After a few hours of fun, Ryan picked me up and we lunched al fresco on some crab dip in Fell's Point. Later I met Matt at Sabatino's in Little Italy for the rehearsal dinner. This is also the restaurant where Matt and I had our first date over 5 and a half years ago, so it was nice to go back. The dinner was good, but the portions were incredible! I couldn't finish even a quarter of my pasta dish, and neither could most people. Matt, however, had no issue here. And our espressos were like a triple shot! So gluttonous. When we got home, Kootman "surprised" us by coming up from DC to see us. We then went out to Fed Hill, our old haunts, for some more light brewskies. Our friend Andy also came out to meet us. We were surprised to see that The Thirsty Dog was renamed The Dog Pub due to some copywright infringement and that Ryleigh's was transformed from a sports pub where we used to watch all the Giants games to a suped-up lounge. Life actually does seem to go on in Baltimore since we left - odd.

Friday was wedding time - and it was a very beautiful ceremony and reception. The color of the details was a nice bright tangerine, which was different and worked out really, really well. Paige was a beautiful bride, and Drew looked dapper as always. We were so glad to be able to share that day with them, so many miles away.

Saturday, our last day in Baltimore, was spent lounging for the most part - playing Mario Kart and eating greasy food. In the evening we went back to Federal Hill for milkshakes and to walk up the Federal Hill and catch a view of the harbor. From here we could see the Trapeze School, and they were having a little performance that we vouyered. We also stopped by Matt's old apartment, which Glowacki lives in now. That was a pretty weird experience to see it all again. We decided to skip the Yankee game since it was too hot and there were only standing room tickets left. We were mindful enough to remember what an awful time those games used to be when it was hot and overcrowded. Saturday night we all went out - me, Matt, Ryan, Emily, Bryan, Glowacki and his girlfriend Traci. We all proceeded to drink too much, and I ended up getting into a verbal dispute with a redneck at Royal Farms b/c he was being mean to Ryan for no reason. And because he was holding a pillow, which I thought was weird and felt that I needed to call attention to that.

Great trip overall - and one we hope to continue doing in the future. With three of our good friends getting married next year in the US, all in different states mind you, and none of which are New York and New Jersey, it may be hard to pull off it in 2008. But thanks to all who were able to come out and spend time with us, hopefully we'll catch the rest of you next time!

P.S. Several people have indicated to me that they don't feel we are blogging enough. And to those I respond - we have quite boring day-to-day lives. But I do realize that certain things do go on that I am undecided as to whether or not they merit a blog. And from now on, I will choose yes. I will also try to post some of our many random musings for your enjoyment. Just remember that you asked for it!

Matt's first blog! - The Caledonian Challenge

So I had my long-awaited hike in Scotland over the weekend.



The idea was to hike 54 miles in under 24 hours through the West Highland Way of Scotland. I was incredibly and retardedly under-prepared for the hike, having been on vacation for 2.5 weeks before and having approximately 2 hills in this entire country on which to train.



We started at 8am and I was amazed at how fast people were moving and I didn't think anyone would be able to hold the pace they first made. Amazingly, most of them did. The landscape was vicious in a word. Constantly really rocky (small, loose rocks) and narrow paths or roads. Mostly wide open areas and awesome views. Inclines were tough but fun, declines were just terrible. It was overcast and rainy and no more than 50 degrees all day, which isn't so bad with the right gear. The bugs were freakin horrible, I had to wear a net over my head and lather my hands in repellent.



There were 4 checkpoints, 10-12 miles apart, where we had support people with food and water ready and our packs containing other things (extra socks, clothes). I was pretty stupid and carried way too much stuff 'in case' I might need it, which of course I never did, so I just carried a heavier than needed pack around the whole time. Without these checkpoints it would have been brutal, and our support team from my company was awesome. It makes for great format in which to attempt something like this. So the hike was boring and we were getting passed, often. Let me tell you, when you're at mile 30, with nearly a marathon to go, and a group of middle age women overtake you, you just want to kill yourself. We jogged a lot of the downhills to make up time and it was a bit easier on the feet. Obviously my legs were tired and my feet hurt, but I felt reasonably good almost the entire time.



Anger over a faster pace turned to fear of getting a crappy time turned to fear of not finishing. About 2 miles from checkpoint 4 my feet started to hurt, real bad. Not sure why, but the arch of my foot just locked up and I was forced to limp. We get into a large, warm tent at CP 4 (mile 42) at 12:30 am and and it looked like a military triage center. People were crying, Royal Marines were running around, people getting first aid and massages. Then I made a huge mistake: I laid down. I waited to get a massage on my foot and calves. I cooled down considerably. When I left the tent, I went into what felt like hypothermia. So the support staff shuffled me into a van and started feeding me. Then I got completely stiff and my foot was killing me. I was doing the hike with 2 buddies from my old Baltimore office who are also working here abroad, and they weren't feeling good by any means either. We get out of the van to try and walk around and see if we can continue, and we were all real iffy. I made the call first and refused to limp 12 miles in what probably would have taken me 6 hrs starting at 1 am. We also didn't have head torches (retarded) and because it was overcast it was real dark. It was also tough from a competitive standpoint, because these two german guys who were hardcore hikers had an hour lead on us at CP 3. When we got to CP 4, they got in 5 min ahead of us and quit, an emotional blow (if they couldn't do it what the hell was I thinking). We all decided to throw in the towel. That made it 42 miles in something like 16 hrs. Of the 1500 people who did it, our time at CP 4 was around 450th. 1000 people finished.

Ciao bella!

18 days in Italy, and sweet tans, inflated guts and easy smiles to show for it.

I won’t even try to detail all of our adventures. Especially since Matt already says my blogs are too long. I will merely mention the highlights, and show only a few of the 330 pictures we took (which you can see on snapfish – let me know if you need the link).

We started our week in Florence on Saturday, May 12. We arrived at the Rome airport, and the first Italian I see is wearing a t-shirt that says “Orgasm Donor”. Matt warned me about the quirky fashion sense so customary of southern Italians, but I wasn’t prepared for such in-your-face tackiness.

An easy train ride later, and we were in Florence. Matt studied in Florence 7 years ago for a semester, so he was anxious to see the city after so many years. We took in a few sights, but mostly chilled - drinking wine and eating pasta by the kilo and enjoying the beautiful weather. Our hotel had a great rooftop terrace which we frequented often – thanks to Stacy the book she gifted us, “1,000 Places to See Before You Die”, which recommended the hotel for that very reason. The rest of the Sgrizzi clan arrived on Tuesday, May 15.

Florence highlights:

When we went to the Duomo, I was wearing a lovely top with thin straps. Apparently, this is quite sinful attire. When I didn’t have a sweater or shawl with which to cover my shoulders, the security man forced me to don a stinky oil rag with a hole in the middle to stick my head through in order to enter the church. I was so embarrassed that I don’t remember much of the inside. Matt found my new outfit hilarious. I wasn’t the only one wearing this though, but it didn’t make me feel any better. I threw it out as soon as we got outside to go to the entrance to get to the top of the dome. There I had a similar problem, except this time the guy had nothing to offer me. I was annoyed, because the steps weren’t even inside the church, and I was sure that God or whatever wouldn’t mind. Luckily, a little Greek lady offered me her shawl, and I avoided an embarrassing expulsion from the church.

We took a bike trip one day through Florence, riding around in these huge mountain bikes. It took a while to get used to riding nice bikes, given that my bike in Amsterdam is no less than 30 years old, a rusty pile of steel with no hand brakes. More than once I tried to brake by back-pedaling, only to be completely exasperated when it didn’t work. My first time braking I almost flew over the handlebars. But we soon got used to the bikes, and enjoyed a stressful ride through the city (I also missed my bike’s bell!) up to Piazza Michelangelo, then out of Florence and into Tuscan olive country. Absolutely stunning views, and we also were treated to a delicious lunch with lots of Chianti.

One night we took a cooking class and made some delicious dishes. We arrived to class late from our appointment to see the David at Academia, and missed most of the preparation for the tiramisu. We were promptly handed aprons and sharp knifes and got to work. We made stuffed tomatoes, gnocchi with homemade sauce, fried zucchini with mozzarella. Then we gorged ourselves. There were 12 of us in all, and we were all Americans. Except for Matt and I, everyone else was from California. It was funny talking to the other Americans, especially since the way Americans travel is so funny. Granted, it’s a function of the very few vacation days that people get. But people were hopping from Rome to Florence to Venice to Pisa to Cinque Terre to Capri and etc all in matter of a few weeks! I thought it sounded more like work than vacation.

Positano was definitely the hit stop. We stayed at a villa about midway up the mountain, and the views from our terrace were stunning. We had a clutch little bar a few doors down from us, which was great for double espressos and sweet buns in the morning and dessert and digestivos at night. We also had an excellent restaurant nearby called the Grottino Azzuro, and we ate here 3 times whilst in Positano. We made a day trip to Capri one day – not my favorite. I thought Positano was much more beautiful and much less commercial. Walking the 700 steps up and down from the beach also helped work off all the olive oil which we were consuming.

Some highlights from Positano:

The 4 "kids" (Matt and myself, along with his brother Danny and Danny’s girlfriend Caitlin) did (what we think is) the Path of the Gods hike. We can’t be sure that we did the correct path b/c of the lack of clear markers. Plus at times the path was pure sketchiness. I couldn’t allow myself to be scared, b/c one wrong step and you could be catapulted down the mountain. The views were beautiful though, and we ended up in the next town called Praeano. Here we found a “beach” bar (it was more like a bar on a rock with a little pool ladder to get down to the sea). We then took a speed water taxi back from Positano, and this was super fun.

We made good friends with one of the workers at a beach bar in Positano called Fratelli Grassi. If you are ever in Positano, go here! It’s on Puppeto beach, and the food is great. This guy was hilarious too, and he kept promising to give me a gift – a photo album of pictures he took of Positano in the 70’s. So on our last day I asked him where my “regalo” was, and he brought me a bag of lemons and oranges! Not exactly pictures, but still thoughtful. On our last day we also learned that he used to be a professional soccer player, playing for Milan and Madrid and other teams. Not a bad way to retire!

We hired a boat to take us to Amalfi, with a pit stop at the Emerald Grotto. The weather turned suddenly, from sunny and cloudless to a freaky lightning storm while we were on the boat. Typical Italian style, our worried looks were met with “No problem! This is Italy!” from our boatman. When his expression changed and he was frantically trying to call someone on his cell phone – that’s when we started to wig out. He told us a bigger boat was coming to meet us to take us to Amalfi. When it arrived, we realized that they expected us to jump from the little boat to the big boat, in the middle of the sea, with waves teetering both boats and nearly crashing on us. It was an adventure, but the reward was worth it. (Well, except for the Emerald Grotto – 5 euros each for 2 minutes of uneventfulness. For all we knew, the cave could have been lit up by floodlights.) When we arrived in beautiful Amalfi, we took the bus up the mountain to Ravello, which was spectacular. Here we saw the Ravello gardens and had drinks in the big square and a pizza dinner.

When our week-long visit to Positano came to a sad end, Matt and I took a boat to Ischia. In typical Italian fashion, a trip we expected would take less than an hour turned out to be a 4 hour journey. In Ischia, we were surprised to see so many Germans. We spent our 3 days here relaxing on the beach, reading, drinking wine and playing cards.

On Tuesday, we took the boat to Naples, got ripped off on our cab ride to the train station, and tried to ward off sketchy beggars at the station while awaiting our train to Rome. The Naples train station is just disgusting – it’s completely unmanned by security, so it’s just a free-for-all for very aggressive panhandling. The beggars then get on the trains and try to force tourists to allow them to help them with their bags, only to demand 10 euros after the deed is done. With our trip starting at 8am, by the time we arrived at our hotel in Rome at 1pm we were completely spent. Nevertheless, we walked around Rome and saw a few highlights – namely the Spanish steps (we think) and the Vatican – stopping for lunch and to knock back a few espressos.

Some other photos for your viewing pleasure: (from top to bottom) Boboli Gardens in Florence, the Duomo in Florence, Ponte Vecchio, Positano, Amalfi, Ischia, the Vatican, dinner in Roma.

Queen's Day 2007

Queen's Day is arguably Holland's most treasured holiday. For the past century and a half, the Oranje family has been the royal family. Queen's Day commemorates the former queen's birthday (30 April). Queen's night, the night before, is also a huge celebration. Queen's Day 2007 was our second installment.

On Queen's Night (Sunday) we went to a cocktail at a friend's house. We mistakenly imbibed on sangria, dacquiris and mojitos (Matt only) so the next day was pretty rough. Matt had to work until 1pm, but after he got home we had a few friends over then went out into the madness. The Prinsengracht is the canal just off our street, and it was jam-packed with people. People were selling junk everywhere, and the city turned into a huge yard sale. We walked by a little boy about 6 years old painting portraits of people so that he could earn money for a gameboy - very cute. There was music playing, beer flowing and the canals were filled with crazy party boats. We walked around a lot! Next year we are going to try to get on one of those party boats. That's where the good looking people are apparetnly. Everywhere else, the city is filled with ugly "festival" people, drunk and stoned and sweaty and puking and being ugly.

Viva le France!

Before I start this particular blog, I must mention that Matt and I do realize how very, very lucky we are. This whole European experience has been so wonderful in so many ways - we absolutely love living together, Amsterdam has become one of our favorite cities, we are seeing so much and really, truly experiencing this time to the fullest, and it's also really great that we can share our experiences with our families and friends, be it through this blog, pictures, hosting guests or going on trips with them. That being said, it's now time to brag about our Easter in Paris :-)

Matt has been to Paris a handful of times, mostly for work. I, on the otherhand, had only spent a total of 4 hours there when we took a too-short pit stop there on our way back to Amsterdam from Normandy last Spring. I fell in love with the city then, and love it even more now.

We literally found out that we had Good Friday and the following Monday off just a week before. Back in Baltimore, we didn't get any time off. So it seemed as good a time as any to shoot off to Paris for the weekend. We took the fast train on Friday at 1pm, and arrived in Paris just after 5. The weather was perfect! We cabbed it over to our hotel in the Latin Quarter, dropped our bags then went out for a stroll. We walked over to Notre Dame, then to the Old Island and awed at the views over the Seine. We stopped at a cafe for some wine, then walked off to another cafe for some more wine, before heading to the restaurant recommended by the lady at our hotel for our 9pm reservations.

I'll just say this one thing about the food in Paris, and then I will leave it alone. We are now not at all curious about why the French say "uoohoohuhoohhouuu" all the time. The food...just spectacular. Everything, everywhere we ate was sublime.

After dinner, we rolled our way back to the hotel. The next morning, we woke up early (7am - way too early for vacation time) and got ready to go to the Louvre. We stopped by the Boulangerie/Patisserie across the street for some delectable crossaints and espressos (all coffee in Paris is espresso). After a rather long walk, we arrived at the Louvre, only to find it completely empty. Walking through the doors to the square and finding this incredibly majestic empty space was breathtaking. It's something we'll remember for the rest of our lives. And we have the pictures to prove it!

We arrived about 40 minutes before the Louvre opened, and there was already a line. We knew that Easter weekend would be a bit crazy, so Matt's plan to get there early was clutch. The Louvre is enormous, and we spent about 3 hours there. Probably the highlight of the Louvre is the Mona Lisa. It was behind glass, which kind of ruined it for us, but it's amazing how small it actually is. And yes, her eyes do follow you around. I tried it :-)

After the Louvre, we walked the gardens to the Champs-Elysses, where we had lunch and wine al fresco. We then walked around the insanely busy streets and did some shopping. We ended at the Arc de Triomphe, and the line was, as aspected, retarded, so decided not to go up to the top, which was fine by us. We then made our way back to the hotel, passing the Military Museum and the Eiffel Tower along the way. We figure we must have walked about 20k that day.

That evening, we had hoped to meet up with Matt's friend Mattheu to go to a rap-jazz concert. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get tickets, and Mattheu got so drunk that he couldn't even answer his phone when we tried to reach him. Instead, we had dinner at a bistro nearby and stayed out for some beers (which are quite overpriced compared to Amsterdam).

The next day was Easter Sunday, and was fantastic because the weather was great, and we had nothing that we had to do, since we did pretty much everything the day before. The only thing on the schedule was having a coffee/croissant breakfast, strolling around, eating chocolates and going to the Eiffel Tower. Before we arrived at the Eiffel tower, we decided it would be fun to take the boatbus around. I love boats, and it's such a nice perspective to see the architecture. We hopped on and did the entire 2 hour loop, and got off at the Eiffel tower stop. We stopped at a cafe for some Nicoise salads and wine, then walked over to the tower. We decided not to wait on the line to go to the top, it was enough just to see it. It's really such a beautiful structure. And to think that it was created to be only temporary!

We laid around on the grass, looking up at the Eiffel tower, eating chocolates and people-watching. By far, the best Easter ever. You just can't beat that.

We then made our way back to the hotel, showered and got changed to go to dinner. We thought maybe we would go back to the Eiffel tower to go up to the top and catch the views at night, with the city lit up, but decided against it. Instead, we went out for another eating fest in a busy square in the Latin Quarter. But not before Matt entered into a 45 min "politiking" session with the guy behind the desk at our hotel.

On Monday, we did some more exploring around the Latin Quarter, walked along the Seine and sat on the banks, picking out which apartments we would want to live in. We walked along the Botanical gardens and ate ice cream, then grabbed sandwiches to take on the train with us. At 2, we went back to the hotel to get our luggage and then took the metro to the train station.

On the train back, we met another American that is on assignment in Amsterdam. It's good to know that Americans are traveling and taking opportunities like this. Matt and I have met more people since we arrived in Amsterdam than we have since our college days.

So Paris comes recommended. And don't let the French people scare you. Everyone we met was friendly and helpful, and Matt and I went in there presumptious enough not to know much more of the language other than "bonjour" and "merci". Just imagine if it was the other way around: Americans would also be pretty angry if a Frenchy came into a restaurant and didn't know how to speak English.

Au revoir!

Castricum Challenge

In June, Matt will be participating in the Caledonian Challenge, in which he will be hiking 54 miles nonstop along the West Highland Way in Scotland. He thinks that things like this are fun. I think they are work. The hike benefits the Scottish Community Foundation, and each hiker must raise 500 GBP in order to even sign up, and is expected to raise even more. Matt's company is sponsoring him and many of his colleagues from the London and Munich offices. He is the only one in the Amsterdam office signed up to do it. As my itty-bitty corporate communications company can't even get it together to have a proper cash forecast, I got a "get-out-of-hiking-free" card. ---- www.caledonianchallenge.com

In preparation for the challenge, Matt, myself and our American friend that lives in Rotterdam, Craig, took the train up to the small village of Castricum for a 15k hike up to Egman on Zee beach. Matt had a rugby game in Castricum once, and his Dutch teammates described the town as "there is no f*cking reason for anyone to ever go there." Except for a rugby game apparently. And a hike.

The hike started off as expected - very, very flat. But eventually the scenery started becoming more beautiful, and we actually walked up hills, which is pretty much unheard of in Holland. One of the highlights of the day came when we saw a Dutch cowboy brushing his horse and then jumping on and riding it into the sun...sun. Very odd.

The day was amazing - beautiful clear skies and our first peek at spring temperatures. 3 hours and just over 15k later, we ended up on the beach. Aside from the fact that it was not typical beach weather, it was packed with people hanigng out, having beers, walking their dogs. We stopped at a beach-front cafe for some Heinekens and french fries. We then bussed our way to Alkmaar, where Matt and I took the train back to Amsterdam, and Craig to Rotterdam. An excellent day overall, and it's great to know that Amsterdam actually has places for decent hikes. Matt and I wil be doing this hike again, but he says next time he wants to do a roundtrip for a total of 30k. I think he could train even better if on the way back he pushed me in a little wagon.

Brugge part deaux

For what would be our second realization that there is no such thing as the "quick weekend trip", even in Amsterdam, the hub of Europe, Matt and I cheerfully made plans to visit Brugge for St. Patrick's Day weekend. Todd, and friend from Baltimore and one's of matt's colleagues from Lasalle, flew in to spend the weekend with us while he was traveling around Europe for business. Since he'd already been to Amsterdam and wanted to visit someplace new, we decided Brugge was the place to go. We considered Ireland or Scotland, but heard the St. Patty's Day festivities were cheesy, and that they were, of course, overpriced this time of year.

We chose the 10:26 am train out of Amsterdam Centraal to Brugge, via Antwerp. The train was delayed, and finally cancelled due to technical problems, and then subsequently replaced by another train which ended up leaving around 11 am. Due to the delay, our train decided it would no longer stop at Antwerp Central, but at some other rinky-dink station in Antwerp, which pretty much only has trains that go to Antwerp Central (now I ask you, why not cut out the rinky-dink stop and stop at Central instead?). We de-board, find the next train to Antwerp Central (all while poor Todd has to lug his suitcase around), only to find once we arrive at Antwerp Central that they have cancelled all lines to Brugge (because of this technical problem). We are told that if we want to get to Brugge, we have to go via Brussels North, which, by the way, was the destination of our first train. By now it's 2 pm, and I'm getting hungry and cranky. We decide to swallow the ridiculously high rate for a cab just so that we can get some daylight time in Brugge.

Once we had arrived, we felt immediately calmer. Brugge is such a beautiful little town. Not only has it not been spoiled by time, it's ever the more charming because of it.

Just as an aside, this town and all of its glory may soon be crushed once the infamous Colin Farrell, an "actor" that is almost villanous in his poor ability to act, films his sure-to-be flop there. The film called, which will be called "Bruges" (aka Brugge - depending on what country you are in and what language you speak, Brugge has several different spellings), is about a down-trodden businessman (said Farrell) who goes to this town to relax and unwind until trouble follows him and pandemonium ensues. This film will surely join the ranks of Farrell's grand performances, such as "Phone Booth."

We spent the rest of the beautifully sunny day perusing the various fashion, toy and chocolate shops, and lunching al fresco with some clever beers. Eventually we end up at the bar/restaurant that Matt and I went to with his parents the last time we were in town. The lively banter we had started with the waiter last time continued, and he provided some comic relief at times. We ended up sitting and drinking and eating and talking and laughing for several hours. Our converstaion ran the gamut from the quirky artistry of our favorite Buffy the Vampire episodes (this was just Todd and I) to why homosexuality of the male variety is often rebuffed while the female variety is found to be endearing and welcomed, to scary ghost stories provided by Todd (I had nightmares).

The next day we walked around some more, though the weather was much less convivial. We took a canal boat ride around the town, and the tour guide said the various canals in Brugge are the reason why it is known as "Venice of the North." Now, I'm quite sure this name is used to describe Amsterdam, so I hesitate to belive his other little stories about the town. He also showed us the "spy windows" that we thought were so hilarious last time. The old buildings, some of which were constructed during the 15th century, had these tiny little windows that were used to spy on what was going on outside. You can almost picture a little old man sitting behind the window scoping out his neighborhood all day. Other than that, there is little exciting history in Brugge - it's just a quaint little town that kept to itself all these years and was thus able to preserve its culture.

Later, we toured the chocolate museum (mostly for the samples!) and learned that milk chocloate is really really bad for you! It may even force me to eat dark chocolate instead, which we learned is mostly cocoa bean and very little additives, so it has many health benefits. Inspired by our visit to the chocolate museum, we stopped by one of the many chocolatiers in town to buy a bag of goodies. We then went to one of the cathedrals in town and saw Michelangelo's famous sculpture Madonna and Baby. It is the only sculputure of Michelangelo that is outside of Italy.

Just before 4pm, we headed back to our hotel to await our respective taxis. Todd would be heading down to Brussels to catch a plane to Zurich, while Matt and I would go back home to Amsterdam. Little did we know that the 5 hours we spent traveling the previous day would be topped by the 5.5 hours we would end up traveling the present day.

All in all, however, the trip was really great. The town is so lovely and inviting, with tasty beer and chocolate, and it was a great to be able to spend time with Todd.

For now, Matt and I are enjoying our weekends in town by spending time with friends and going to concerts. We've booked our year solid, with trips planned to go to Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and Warsaw, as well as our 3-week tour of Italy in May :-) We also planned trips back to the US in July and November, and a June weekend in Scotland for Matt to do his 56-mile hike, so it'll be a busy year for us! We'll keep you posted!

Christmas in St Anton

For certain our most glamorous Christmas yet, this year Matt and I had the pleasure of joining 5 of our friends in the posh ski resort St Anton in the Austrian Alps.


St Anton is very near to the Austrian-Swiss borders, so our plan was to fly to Zurich then take a 2.5hr train across the border to St. Anton. We left our apartment on Saturday, Dec 23rd and headed to Schiphol for our 3pm flight. Turns out, this day (of all days) is the busiest day of the year at Schiphol. I should have been suspicious when I tried to check-in for our flight online an hour before we left for the airport and got an error message that check-in was not available for the flight. Things should have clicked yet again when we arrived at the airport and attempted to check in at a kiosk, and got the same message. The computer told us to go to the check-in counter to speak with a representative. There we were told that the flight had been overbooked and that we may not be able to get on this flight. The rep still seemed a bit hopeful though, so we weren't too worried yet. When we arrived at the gate, we sat while everyone else got on our plane. While we were waiting, 2 African ladies come through super-late, with bags (literally) of half-used full-size lotions, creams, hair gels, pomades, and anything you can think off. The new flight regulations do not allow these things, so it turned into a junking fiasco as the security people and the ladies proceeded to take turns dumping all of her belongings into the garbage bin. Some arguments ensued, but they managed to get the 2 ladies on (our) flight. No luck for Matt and I however, and a handful of other unfortunate souls. We were escorted to counter after counter, to airline rep after airline rep. Turns out, all flights to Zurich for that day were over-booked, and we couldn't fly out until the next morning at 7am. To make a long story a tad shorter, we received €350 airline vouchers each, a free sushi dinner, taxi service home and back to the airport the next morning, and postage-paid envelopes in order to write to the airline president and bitch him out. We placed a phone call to the guys already at the apartment in St Anton, and find out that there is no snow anyway. So yeah, it was a pain in the butt, but at least we were spending the night at home, and we didn't have any hard-set plans or connecting flights.

The next morning our cab showed up to pick us up at 5am (blegh). We managed to get on the plane and fly to Zurich, and we arrived a little before 9. We headed to the railway ticket counter and got tickets for the next train to Zurich - which wasn't until 1:40. We then took the train to the downtown Zurich station, since our train to St Anton was leaving from there anyway, in hopes of maybe getting to do some sight-seeing and kill some time. True to our luck, it was Christmas Eve and a Sunday, and everything was closed. We found an austere cafe with overpriced coffee and no food and sat there for nearly 3 hours. Then we headed to back to the train station to find food. We toasted the half-way point of our journey with some teeth-shatteringly-cold beers.


Finally we get on the train and are off! The sights from the train are absolutely beautiful, but also quite brown. There was some snow, but things were looking grim. When we arrived at the St. Anton train station around 4:30, we took an embarrassingly short cab ride to Apartment Daniella - our residence for the next 6 days, which we would be sharing with 5 others.


Our motley crew included another couple from Malaysia (Hilda & Tristan), a Dutch guy (Frits), an Australian (Ross), and a New Zealander (Carl). I will try to briefly explain how we know each other: Hilda, Frits, Ross, Carl and I all work for EY. Hilda and Tristan live in London, but used to live in Australia, and used to work for EY there. That is how they know Ross, who was working for EY in Australia and then transferred to Amsterdam. Frits and Carl also work at EY Amsterdam (as do I). I work directly with Carl. Oh, and I go out with Matt :-)


Christmas Eve started off with Matt and I learning rule #1 of the household: There is to be no talk of work, and such an offense if punishable by a shot of Jagermeister (ugh). I blame my fatigue from the travels on the fact that I violated this rule about 6 times that night (that's as far as I remember). Luckily Matt took some of those shots for me (what a gentleman!). That made for an ugly Christmas morning - our first day of snowboarding. On Christmas Eve, we were also introduced to the "fish slice". This handy tool, known as a spatula to those in North America, is great for opening long-neck beers. We all took turns putting dents on the walls and ceiling. Never was opening beers so fun.


Christmas Day was our first day of snowboarding. Hilda and Tristan were also learning how to snowboard, and had taken a private lesson for a couple of hours the previous day. The resort also has a school that you can join but it started at 9 am (waaaay too early), and for the cost of that, we could get private lessons for the 4 us for about as much. So we opted for the latter, and thus met Austrian Christine. This girl made snowboarding look so easy - she just glided on the snow like a little ballerina, albeit one in much heavier clothing. Still suffering from mild travel exhaustion and a horrible hangover, I must mention that I have never been on snow or ice before, aside from some sledding, which requires no skill. Also, there was very little snow - just ice. That being said, I fell. A lot. But to my defense, even after nasty falls, the ones where people around you have to turn away from, I would get up and go at it again. After 2 hours of beating myself up on the mountain, we headed for an utterly humongous but fabulously delicious Austrian lunch. Sore, hungover, and full to the point of vomiting, we head back out for one more hour of "fun". This was also the first time that we met the J-bar. That was ugly, ugly, ugly. Matt got it with no problem, having been on it before with skis. It must be noted that it is much more difficult to do this J-bar thing on a snowboard, since you essentially have to snowboard up the mountain (something I was not prepared to do). After Hilda, Tristan and I had our share of terrifying falls from the edge of the mountain, we gave up (for the day). Matt had some good runs down the bunny slope and was really starting to improve.

That evening, we headed back to the apartment to get ready for our big Christmas dinner. Another group of friends were staying at the resort nearby, so they came by our place for a little Christmas gift exchange. We decided to do the pull-a-number-out-of-a-hat thing, where you pick a gift and someone can steal it. This was uneventful since nobody stole gifts. Matt ended up with the best gift of all - a small gem of a book called "God's Gift"(which Matt also repeatedly pointed out that the title is also the meaning of the name Matthew), which is just cheesy pictures of "heat-throbs"from the 70s, 80s and 90s. This book brought a lot of laughs during the week.


After the gift exchange, we took some shady cabs (they said "Dirty Harry" on them) all the way to the top of a mountain outside of our resort. At the top of this mountain was a traditional Austrian restaurant, where we all boozed up and ate deer steaks. The rule of no work talk was still in place, and some people were thoroughly punished.

The next day was more snowboarding and falling, eating and drinking. This night Matt made his famous penne with vodka sauce. As we were feeding 6 normal people and one Kiwi (Carl), we had to make the pasta in a pot large enough to cook a human head in. This was our first battle with the garlic - the whole house reeked of it, and would continue to reek of it for the rest of the week. But it was a delicious meal! Afterwards we settled in for a fun game of Kings. This is a drinking game you play with cards. Everyone became quite hammered. The most fun part of this game is the "rule" card. Everytime one pulls this card, he/she can create a rule for which the offense is punishable by a gulp of beer - so that night we had to make sure we made little taps on the table every time we took a sip of a drink, that we did not point at people with our fingers but rather with elbows, that we did not use any words that start with "w", and everytime someone violated a rule (rule #1 regarding work references was still in place) you had to call them out by telling them to "consume!" because we could not say the word "drink". Fun. No, really. It was.

On Wednesday, I decided to take a day off from snowboarding, since all of my limbs ached and I felt defeated both physically and emotional. Coincidentally, Matt decided to try out the real-people run (that is, something other than the bunny slope). Ross would accompany him. So the 3 of us go went gondola number 1. I hung out in the not-so-fun cafeteria, and Ross and Matt hit the slope. I learned that the ski lodges in Europe are not as cozy as the places they show in the movies. They are more like cafeterias here. The tables are huge, so you can't cozy up to a fire on a big love seat (no fire, no love seats, no cozy corners). So I read my book in a big cafeteria, drinking an overpriced (and lukewarm) coffee, while being continuosly interrupted by either people asking me if they can share the table with me or people having conversations with each other at my table. Also, people smoke like chimneys in these places.


Finally, Matt retuns, a broken man. He had a really bad fall down the mountain and was in so much pain that he was pallid. We met Ross, Carl and Frits outside and took 2 more gondolas up to the very top of the mountain. I think we were 2700 meters up. Matt says 2900 - so let's compromise and say about 2800 meters. This is incredibly high. You really feel small up there. And you can definetely notice that the air is quite thin. After some time up there, my feet got dumb and we headed down one gondola to a little café for another massive Austrian meal. When we met up later with Tristan and Hilda, they tell us that they had a great day on the bunny slope, made some real snowboarding progress, and even mastered the J-bar!

Wednesday night we decided to try out another Austrian tradition - fondue! The 7 of us headed to a fondue restaurant in the town. We had so much food that we coudn't even fit everything on the table, and everything was fantastic. After dinner, we headed back to Daniella to chill out. The 2 boring couples stayed in, and the 3 single dudes went out. With their walkie-talkies. They apparently had a lot of fun with these that night, and I think many bar-frequenters at St. Anton that evening were displeased as a result. Matt and I were woken with a jolt in the wee hours of the morning when Carl stormed into our room to "clear" it. They had decided to ensure the apartment was safe by clearing every room FBI-style. We were a bit frightened and confused at first, until we heard Carl scream into his walkie-talkie - "Are there eggs in the bulding? Repeat! Are there eggs in the building? Over!" and Ross respond "I confirm that there are eggs in the building! Repeat - there are eggs in the building!" Then we felt safe and went back to sleep. When we awoke the next morning, inevitably the kitchen counters, sink, floor and ceiling were covered with scrambled eggs.


Thursday - this is the day I vowed to master the J-bar. And master it I did. Matt was so proud he even took a video - whilst on the J-bar himself, mind you (what a showoff). This was quite an emotional feat. Not only did I feel energized for having accomplished it, I also was able to get quite a few good runs down the bunny slope. It is much easier to learn how to snowboard if you have enough mountain to practice on, and when you don't have to expend all of your energy walking up the mountain.

Thursday night was another night of fish-slicing and drinking games. Hilda and Tristan prepared a hearty stew on our giant pot, and we once again stunk up the apartment with garlic overload, and then our 4 friends from the resort close-by come over and we all head out to the St Anton bars. We bar-hopped a bit, and danced to cheesy 80's music (the Austrians really do love the 80s). When we decided to go home, Hilda realized she didn't have her purse anymore, so it was a mass frenzy to find it. Luckily, we were able to locate it (sans the walkie-talkies) and also locate some very New Zealand-style meatpies. Carl was especially excited about these. When we got back to Daniella, we took videos of Carl eating his meat-pie. We were expecting him to finish it in about 27 seconds, but instead it took him a good 2 minutes. He was really in another world while eating it, b/c he managed to ignore our taunting cries for him to eat faster. Kiwis and their meat pies...

Friday was our last day of snowboarding. Matt had improved a lot during the week - he really looked almost professional. But he's skiied all his life, so he started out pretty well on the snowboard. So I can say that perhaps I improved even more, since I was a retard on ice on that first day! Now I can say that I am able to get down on a mountain on a snowboard. I even enjoyed myself doing this after a few days. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks, eh?

Hopefully Matt and I will take another snowboarding trip before we completely forget what we've learned. We're thinking of maybe doing a similar trip to France next year, with the same group of people, since we all got along so splendidly. St Anton truly was a lovely place, and the views from the top were amazing. Though there was no real snow (all was man-made), it was still a fun time, and the weather was amazing - sunny and pretty warm in the sun every day. We are still beach people at heart though!

Homecoming

On Wednesday, November 22 at around noon, Matt and I arrived in beautiful Newark, New Jersey for the first homecoming for both of us since we arrived in Amsterdam. We had been planning this trip since June, and were very excited to see everyone. And to eat cheeseburgers.

Mr. and Mrs. Sgrizzi definitely made it a comfortable arrival for us, by promptly feeding us chicken wings and eggplant and chicken parm and turning on the big-screen and handing us blankets on the couch. After brief naps, we headed out to Basil's, a nice restaurant in Red Bank, to meet a bunch of our friends for Big Wednesday. It was really great to see everyone, and Ryan (aka Elf) gave us some beautiful pictures he had taken during his visit to see us in Amsterdam. It was also nice having full-size beers to drink, though a bit daunting. The cheeseburgers were delicious, and such a great welcome home! The fact that we had been up for pretty much 24 hours, aside from very brief naps, became apparent at around midnight, so we headed home care of Chauffeur Chima.

We spent Thanksgiving day at the Sgrizzi's , and it was a very fun and food-filled time. It was a good way to stretch our stomachs for the food fest that would become the rest of the week. The next evening we took the train to my parent's house in Long Island.

The weather was spectacular while we were home. On Saturday, it was sunny and about 65 degrees, so Matt and I decided to go for a long walk on the beaches along Dune Road in Westhampton. It was so nice to see the ocean again.

On Sunday we had planned a late lunch with my parents and Matt's parents at the Brazilian Churrascaria Plataforma in NYC. Matt and I hopped on the train on Sunday morning to do some walking around the city, see the tree at Rockerfeller Center, and of course to SHOP! And shop we did - we went on a bona fide shopping spree on 5th Avenue. It's nice earning in euros :-). After we arrived at Plataforma carrying our various shopping bags, we filled up on caipirinhas and meats served on skewers.

The rest of our time at home was spent relaxing and catching up with our families. Six days is definitely too short, but hopefully everyone can make it out here to visit us soon. Next year we hope to make it home for Christmas, but this year we'll be staying at a ski house in the St. Anton resort in the Austrian Alps with some friends.

HALLOWEEN AMSTERDAM STYLE

As some of you may already know, Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday. I love autumn, carving pumpkins, dressing up in stupid outfits, watching scary movies and the whole concept of knocking on the doors of strangers and demanding candy.

So when I heard that Halloween is a foreign concept in Amsterdam, I was quite distraught. We thought about having a Halloween party at our flat; unfortunately, we don't know a party-full of people here yet, and 3 of my coworkers that we hang out with were not going to be in town, and all the Dutchies we know were not interested. So we threw in the towel and decided to go to a Halloween party at Boom Chicago instead.

Boom Chicago is an improv comedy club with an all-American cast. We've been there for a show before, when Matt's old roommate Drew and his girlfriend came to visit. It was a fun show, and it was a piece of America in Amsterdam, so we thought it might be an interesting party.

The theme of the party this year was "4 Funerals and a Wedding". We had no idea what this meant. The website suggested some lame-o costumes like dead bride and groom, priest, vampire, bla bla bla. We wanted to be unique. Unfortunately, Matt did not bring his default Halloween costume, a too-tight Superman uni, to Amsterdam. Thus, we had to come up with some fresh ideas. Much to our MO, and my utter dismay, we waited until the day of the party to decide what we should dress up as. We did, however, manage to find a costume store that a coworker had alerted me about, and that helped out a bit.

As we were rummaging through the overpriced items in the too-small store that smelled faintly of body odor, I came across a box of strange looking masks. They weren't full masks, but only from-the-eyebrows-up masks. One in particular looked quite bizarre, so I handed it to Matt, and said "Put this on". The sight I saw next may be one of the most belly-ripping, funniest things I have ever seen. He looked absolutely ridiculous. He checks himself out in the mirror and also starts roaring with laughter, as well as some random older dude in the store looking for costumes too. We decide then that it doesn't matter what we decide to dress up as, this mask needs to be incorporated somehow.

I fall in love with a Snow White dress that costs €50. Now when I fall in love with a piece of merchandise, it is hard to pull me away from it (or out of it). The next 30 minutes I am debating what to be, while wearing this rather unbecoming Snow White dress around the store.

"I can be Snow White, and you can be...grumpy!" I cry with enthusiasm.

"No."

Matt was right. Paying €50 euros for a snow white dress is retarded. I settle on a cop hat, some handcuffs and a beating stick. Our costumes evolved into me being the fashion police, complete with ready-to-serve fashion citations, and Matt was a greasy, Elvis-y cheeseball, who warranted an extreme fashion citation to the tune of life in prison.

Matt had picked up 2 mini-pumpkins from the supermarket across the street, and we carved them up into silly faces (see picture at the top). We drank some beers to get our nerves up to walking the 4 blocks to the party in our stupid costumes in a city that views Halloween as a stupid American corporate holiday (more on this matter to come). On our way, we passed a typical Dutch brownhouse where a guy barged out so violently it looked like he had been set on fire and tried to convince us to come into the bar so that he and the other bar-goers could make fun of us. We're like, "uh...we can't." But he pulled us in anyway. We walked into this small, disgustingly smoky bar full of grumpy Dutch people who looked like they have already had a few too many. They were utterly confused by us, and I think they really thought I was a cop, and that Matt's hair really looked like that. They were not the least bit amused. Other than, of course, the jolly guy that pulled us into this hell hole. We tried to explain that it Halloween was coming up soon, we were going to a costume party, we were a fashion cop and a greaseball, but there was still no sign of life coming from these zombies. We waved silent goodbyes and walked out, almost as confused about what just happened as the people inside. We started thinking that perhaps dressing up tonight and going to one of the main squares looking like a couple of retards may not have been the best decision. But once we got to the club, we saw a lot more people in costume, and the fun really started.

The party was very entertaining. There were Americans, British, Australians and even some Dutch people. There was a DJ playing on the stage where the comedians usually perform, and a screen behind him showing creepy footage. Sometimes the DJ would put this crazy-looking werewolf mask on, and it would look super scary. He must have been very talented to still spin records with that thing on, b/c the eyes were glowing red, which probably meant the eye holes were tiny on that thing, if any even existed.

At one point in the night, we are accosted by a kid with a microphone and a dude with a huge video-camera that must have been in existence now for at least 40 years. I don't recall his questions exactly, but I do remember they were not at all intellectual. And neither were our answers, b/c aside from the beers, we were dressed up as a police office and greaseball at the time. Those kinds of distractions can really taint a sophisticated image. His questions were specifically geared toward making Halloween seem like a foolish, "corporate" holiday. I don't know about any of you, but my company doesn't give me a day off for Halloween. And isn't that the definition of a "corporate holiday"? And since when did people start calling Halloween a holiday? We pretty much just blew these kids off and told them not to take themselves too seriously because it is quite unbecoming to be so young and so jaded.

We stayed at the party for a couple of hours, then went into the infamous FEBO for a shake and some fries. FEBO, or "eating from the wall" is a fast food joint that could probably win in the fight for nastiest place to eat on Earth. There are rows of vending machines set up, where a hand reaches from the inside and sticks various food products that should never see the inside of a vending machine. We're talking cheesburgers, chicken saté, croquettes, etc. The back is a counter where you can order "fresh" things. Sufficiently filled with enough beer that I can look past the fact that I am actually eating food from this place, we order fries and a chocolate milkshake and then make our way back home. Thankfully there was not a lot of people out at this hour, so we didn't have to worry about getting weird looks like we did on the way there. We're walking along, chatting, when all of a sudden I get totally slammed into by a girl on her bike. For whatever reason possessed her likely-drunk mind, she swerved off the road for a passing car and onto the sidewalk, where Matt and I were walking. It was a total hit-and-run. She almost fell after bumrushing me, but then kept going. I looked down and saw that I was completely covered in chocolate milkshake. I was more upset about the loss of my milkshake then my dirty clothes. Nevertheless, it did make the two of us an even odder sight.