Chillin with the locals

So today was what's going to be my "usual" day of work. My co-worker had to keep reminding me today "Ambika, you're not in public accounting anymore. You have plenty of time to get your work done." You have no idea how great those words sounded to me. I actually had time to take care of other stuff (admin work, life, etc) and not feel guilty about it. I still wasn't feeling 100% today, so I'm gonna head to bed early again and rest up for my big weekend. After work today Rafael and I walked around the local square, checked out the restaurants - some touristy, some not and just checked out the scene. We settled on a pub in the square called Three Sisters so we could sit outside and do some great people watching, one of my favorite past-times...and here in Amsterdam, you'll never get bored of it.

We sat outside and talked a little bit, got acquainted some more and did A LOT of people-watching. Oh, I almost forgot about the bikes....bikes everywhere! and I almost got runover by a few. oops!! It was really interesting to see the different clothing styles, hair styles, every kinda style was there...you name it. No one looked the same, everyone definitely had their own personal look. I thought of my friend Aditi and how she would definitely love it here...she definitely has her own style even though I usually don't agree with it ;-).

Another observation - everyone's chill. People aren't running around looking stressed or rushing to get somewhere. Most people are strolling with friends, riding their bikes or just hanging out after work grabbing a beer with co-workers. It was a great change of pace from what I'm used to. Maybe it'll get me to chill a little bit more, well, hopefully.

Rafael (pictured at right) and I grabbed a couple of burgers (cheeseburger for me) and had a few beers while we talked, watched as people walked by and discussed our observations. It was a great day to sit outside - sunny and 60ish but a little windy. After dinner we needed to digest a little and I wanted to explore, so we went down one of the streets and checked out the other local restaurants and shops. Everything you needed was here. Funny thing about the restaurants - there weren't really any "Dutch" ones. There was Thai, Indian, lots of Italian places, pubs, etc...but I only saw one "Dutch" restaurant. Shopping galore! clothes and soooo many shoe stores!! (again - Aditi, you'd love it here) - pretty dangerous for me, but it's a good thing that I didn't leave much room in my suitcase to bring stuff back.

I did buy myself an orange shirt for Queens Day, but it was fairly cheap so I didn't feel too bad. We walked until we hit a dead end and passed a couple of small canals. One of which apparently had flower shops lined up and down it. They were closed by the time we got there (after dinner), but Rafael told me that they're usually open in the morning. I might try to check it out sometime this weekend.

It started getting a little chilly so we headed back and here I am in my hotel room finishing off this blog as promised. I'm also attaching a couple of pics from today's walk.