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The Netherlands - A Food Tour

The Netherlands isn't really known for its food.  When we told a few Dutch people that we'd booked onto a food tour they looked a bit confused and asked "What are you going to eat?" It turned out to be a lovely afternoon with an adorable guide.

FEBO! It's this crazy chain that's all over The Netherlands (65 stores) and this is the original store. Apparently they do the worst chips, but their croquettes are pretty good (we were surprised).  Early in the day their meatballs were selling out too fast and they didn't know how to keep enough hot to keep up with the demand so they came up with the fun system you can see behind me. They put the food in it's own warm little cubicle and you just put money in the wall and open the slot you want. You never have to speak to anyone!

Next on the stop was a yoghurt store. Maybe not traditionally Dutch but we were told Dutch people love yoghurt. It was pretty damn nice and a bit different since it wasn't frozen yoghurt.

It may not look tasty but it was. Surinamese Sandwich. 

Stroopwafle! :)

Herring - it was surprisingly good, very fresh. 

Of course there was cheese! Red cheese, blue cheese, green cheese

Second to cheese is Chips with Sauce. I always through the classic was chips with mayonnaise but we were told the original is mayonnaise, peanut sauce and fresh onion. Would recommend. 

Then there was dessert. Not really Dutch but it's made by Dutch people and it was amazing. A beautiful little cookie from a little shop that only sells this one type of cookie

To top it all off we got a traditional shot. It was like gin but it has an aftertaste of whiskey. Apparently you can't use your hands to drink it, you have to suck it up from the table. 

The Netherlands - A History Lesson

The Netherlands is a very interesting and beautiful place full of cheese. We spent a total of 8 nights there, 4 in Amsterdam and 4 in Rotterdam.

Some fun facts I learnt while I was there:

• The Dutch traded New Amsterdam (the British renamed it New York) for Suriname (a little country in South America that no one has really heard of). I'm not totally sure why they swapped, we were told it was because of a truce between the two countries. With hind sight it seems a pretty lame swap. 
• So Suriname became a Dutch Colony. When they "released" them (I am not confident that this is the right term) locals were given the option to get a Dutch passport and move to the Netherlands. A lot of them did and there's Surinamese shops everywhere. 
• Indonesia was also a Dutch Colony so you can get a lot of Indonesian food in The Netherlands
• The name of the country is The Netherlands, not Holland. Holland is made up of two provinces - North and South Holland. These provinces were very successful which lead Holland to be the well known name world wide.  
• There's a really nice, somewhat hidden court yard in Amsterdam surrounded by flats. During the war it was dangerous for woman to be living on their own while their men were away so the government put them in this housing for free. The only catch was that they had to do the washing for the whole Jordaan area. Above the entrance to the court yard it has an inscription "HUYS ZITTEN WEDUWEN HOFE" which translates to "HOUSE SITTING WIDOWS COURT". They are a literal people. The flats are now used as government subsidised housing and it was the nicest government subsidised housing I've seen.
• Rotterdam was bombed during the war, most of it was destroyed. They now have the most spread out and newest city centre in The Netherlands. One guy we briefly met said they were even a little bit thankful to Hitler because it meant they got the chance to build a modern city. They really did go a bit crazy with the modern buildings, Rotterdam is full of weird, "modern" buildings. The place has a totally different feel to the rest of the country. 
• Surprisingly the Dutch haven't always been so liberal, before Napoleon brought freedom of religion to The Netherlands there were a lot of secret churches throughout Amsterdam (we got to visit one on a tour)
• If The Netherlands stopped their water management after about 3 months 40% of the country would be under water

But it wasn't all history. We had heaps of fun exploring and cycling around in the rain.

After 3 days in the city we finally found the sign that we'd seen so many pictures of

The Smallest Flat in Amsterdam

Amazing new market place that's just opened up in Rotterdam. There's delicious food stalls through the middle of it and flats all around the outside. I would be huge if I lived there.

The inside of the new fancy market place.

On the ferry to Kinderdijk. I don't think this photo does justice to how wet I actually am. This was after riding about 13km in the rain. 

Kinderdijk - all the pain was worth it to get to see the all the windmills

Rotterdam Skyline 

So Dutch

Cube Houses in Rotterdam. People actually live these!

Delft - small place famous for pottery

Three Story Parking Facility for Bikes in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese

The City of Light and Love

Paris. We spent 5 nights in Paris, staying in a couple's spare room in Montmartre. Before this trip all I had known about Paris was the fairy tale stuff that gets sold to you from every possible angle. The Reject Shop is plastered with images of the Eiffel Tower and it's all designed to make you feel a certain way. A wistful romantic way. Like all those paintings of Paris in the rain, in reality, the rain isn't romantic, especially when it happens all the time. It's just annoying.


For me Paris feels a lot different to those pillow cases in 15 year olds bedrooms. It's still amazing to see all those iconic images and it can't be denied that when the Eiffel Tower glistens at night it's beautiful. But there's also that metro ride seething with people that you had to take to get to the Eiffel Tower, there's the line you had to stand in to get up there, there's the really tiny expensive apartment you just came from with the crazy stairs and there's the ghetto that surrounds the city, where you can see economic divide either side of a street. But you can't put that on a pillow case.

The Eiffel Tower as you know it

The Eiffel Tower as I know it (I think this
is my favourite photo from Paris)

Hanging out with Lisa

My favourite thing about Paris was the art. You can visit some of the most famous pieces of art in the world for a decent price. We also discovered White Night. A night once a year where they put on a big arts type festival throughout the city that goes from 7pm to 7am, (I think we made it until about 2am). There's heaps of different stuff going on, street art, bands, performances, shows - all for free. Wandering through Paris at night discovering the next piece of art was probably the best thing we did there.

White Night Street Art

My second favourtie thing was the bike tour of "Hidden Paris". We learnt heaps about the history of the city (which I've already forgotten - but I know it was interesting), we got to see lots of somewhat famous street artist's work, like Invader, and we got to ride cute bikes that matched my hair.

Paris is also famous for its food and this also didn't quite live up to my expectations. I was picturing very grand meals but French food seems to actually be pretty plain. Onion soup, steak with fries, baguettes, croque monsieurs. Theses are the things we ate, and while very French, maybe not super exciting. One night I did end up trying snails though - they were ok, had a very earthy taste. It maybe didn't help that both of us ended up getting sick in Paris. You also can't afford to dine in nice Parisian restaurants when you're backpacking for a year and the price of that meal just took a week off your holiday in South America.







The first time you go to Paris you obviously have to participate in all the cliches and I was actually excited to put our "love lock" (Shout out to Darco for the awesome present!) on the famous bridge. Turns out there's campaigns to stop people doing this because it's destroying the bridge. They are slowly replacing all the lock covered wire panels on the bridge with perspex. Obviously we still put our lock on... because you have to, but we have no idea how long it's going to be there or where it's going to end up. Maybe not the best symbol of eternal love, good thing we were given two.

The Broken Bridge

When we initially got into Paris I was worried that 5 days wouldn't be enough but I think I was happy to leave by the end. It really is a massive city and that can be quite tiring. Although I'm sure if you can afford to stay in a nice hotel, take taxi's everywhere and splash some cash about the city you'd be seeing a completely different place. I hope that next time I'll be able to see some country side France.

Disclaimer: It may look like this post contains lots of complaining, but I did enjoy myself!

Barcelona!

We spent a full on 48 hours in Barcelona. It's the capital of Catalonia and they are currently fighting for their independence from Spain. This mean that all the locals were interested in Alex being Scottish, as they were all watching the Scottish vote keenly, and offered their condolences. At one point we found ourselves in the middle of an Independence rally in the pouring rain surrounded by a chant we couldn't understand.

Throughout the city there are people proudly hanging either Catalan Flags (the one in the middle) or Catalan Independence Flags (the ones either side)

Pardon the water blur - it was hammering down.

Spain had awesome food. As mentioned previously, I am in love with Tapas. We found a crazy market full of amazing meats (every part of the animal), fruits, chocolates, mushrooms and shakes. I finally had an empanada! (The gross thing I had in Mallorca doesn't count)

This was some real fancy ham that we tried upon recommendation. This pig was mostly just fed acorns. It's melt in your mouth ham. 

The architecture in Barcelona is amazing. It's full of beautiful apartments and Gaudi's creations, who was briefly mentioned in Mallorca. Antoni Gaudi is a famous Spanish architect who has designed some incredible buildings, most notably La Sagrada Familia (AKA Gaudi's Cathedral). La Sagrada Familia has been under construction since 1882 and I think they are planning to have it finished by 2030. The place is insane. You can tell what was first constructed on the cathedral due to the huge differences in colour. The thought and detail that have gone into it are amazing, the photos really don't capture it. I think the craziest thing is that it's already so huge and the tallest tower is still to be built. I hope that I'll be able to come visit it again when it's complete.

Just a typical street

This is one of Gaudi's other creations - Casa Batllo. I think the balconies are supposed to represent skulls and some of the pillars are supposed to represent bones. The hostel we stayed in was just up the street from here. 

La Sagrada Familia

Beautiful stained glass inside

Inside - these columns represent trees

We were told the other must see cathedral in Barcelona is the Gothic Cathedral. We visited it the same day we saw La Sagrada Familia which dwarfed it a bit in comparison, but it's impressive in it's own right. There's a lovely courtyard to one side of the church where 13 white geese live, something to do with a local legend.  

Barcelona also had some interesting night life to offer. We watched a Barcelona vs Paris soccer (football) match in a small bar filled with some very passionate locals nibbling at tapas as they watched. It was a pretty different vibe from watching a match back home (UK or Oz)!

Note the bar is named after La Masia.

I had absinthe in what we were told is the oldest bar in Barcelona (it really looks it). Apparently Hemingway would often hang out here drinking absinthe (that is the bar's specialty).  It's called Marsella if you ever want to give it a try. I'd say it's worth one drink in there, but only one. It looked to be mostly tourists in there on our visit.

I was a little bit excited when I was told there was a 90s Grunge bar called Nevermind in the city. Obviously we had to check it out. Good Music. Free Popcorn. Indoor Skate Ramp.

Barcelona might just be the coolest city I've been to. It has a really nice vibe and I very much hope to visit it again, fingers crossed I won't be staying in a hostel.

Mallorca

We made it to Spain!

 Mallorca (Pronounced Ma-yor-ka) is the biggest of the Spanish Islands. It’s well known as a popular British and German holiday spot which can be a bit gross.  But we were lucky enough that Alex has friends who live there and didn’t mind putting up with us for a week; so we got to see a whole other side to the island.

Apologies in advance for the length of this post but Spain’s so cool that I want to share all of it. As requested I've also tried to include a bit of food porn. 

We stayed in Puig de Ros with Jayne and Chris (our amazing hosts). It’s about a 15 minute drive from Palma, the capital of the island. These were the digs:

We spent our first day in Spain exploring Palma. Our first attempt at getting a meal was a fail, the waitress brought us our drinks but forgot our food completely (it ended up being easier to just pay for the drinks and leave). But after that it was all smooth sailing. People seemed pretty happy at our attempts of Spanish. We walked the streets of Palma, stumbled upon a Gaudi building we didn't know existed and got some delicious tapas.

Our Fist Meal in Spain - a plate of meat and cheese and a Spanish Waldorf Salad

Detail on the surprise Gaudi Building - it's used as a dentist

The Cathedral - turns out it's also a Gaudi design

We explored the local area around Puig de Ros. There’s a nice spot for snorkeling and hanging out by the water. Since there’s no beach it’s a pretty quiet place to visit, except for the photo shoots.

It was slippery

We also found Oktoberfest near-by

We stayed at Jayne’s parent’s apartment in Soller one night to visit a real Spanish village. We had amazing tapas (I love tapas) and got to test taste at the local market.

The view from the apartment we stayed in - amazing

Local olives at the market

Test tasting some ham. mmmmmmm.

This is half a rabbit roasted with Garlic. It doesn't look so photogenic (I maybe need to work on my food porn) but it tasted pretty good. (They eat a lot of rabbit in Spain. You can buy whole ones, head included, at the butcher)

On the way home we had a pit stop in Valldemossa, another cute little village.

The Mallorca we got to see on this little trip was beautiful. 

Olive Tree