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Athene Palace (Or: Greek food in the Hague)

Posted on August 5, 2012 by Niki

As Marco visited Athene Palace in July for his birthday, he was kind of enough to give me a picture of the menu.

And not just any page of the menu… but the page with #95, which reads:  Sirtakischotel: kipfilet, suflaki, sutzuki en giros. Each time I have gone to the restaurant (2 or 3 times?) I have always ordered #95. The gyros are my favorite for sure.

Oh, and if you want to spell 95, it’s vijfennegentig (5-and-90, with the classical Dutch refusal to add spaces).

Marco was also kind enough to get a shot of ouzo in the picture. I like it — it tastes like licorice, though it does burn a bit going down. If you’re with a group of people, you can clink your shotglasses together and say Proost! which is their version of “Cheers!”. (It rhymes with “boast”.)

And for dessert, I like to get the Dame Blanche, which is vanilla ice cream with hot fudge sauce. My ideal method for attacking that dessert is to be stingy with the sauce and add a little bit every few bites, to prolong the chocolate heaven.

Categories: Food, The Hague | Tags: | 2 Comments

Greeting cards (Or: Marco’s response)

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Niki

As I wrote last week, I had sent Marco 13 greeting cards in the last two months leading up to his birthday.

Well… his response came last night! Happily it came in the middle of one of our videochats, so he got to see me open the package. The highlight was four cards.

Four cards from random Dutchies… well, not *random*. I do pretend to know them as long as they aren’t acting too crazy… (look’s at Marco’s mom!)

The four cards came from different people.

Upper left card: Roger’s card… thanks for the little fancy card that made me feel special. I was very amused by your handwriting while trying to write on a speeding train way too early in the morning. 😉

Upper right card: Marco’s card… apparently he bought it before the first of my seventeen cards arrived. After the third or fourth one arrived, he thought it would look silly to send a card back, so he waited a bit.

Lower right card: Marco’s mom’s card… she definitely knows how to get to my heart. Put anything edible-looking on it and you are good to go! Eten, eten, eten!

Lower left card: Marco’s dad and his wife’s card… yes, that butterfly (vlinder) has 3D wings. Very cool and I had to stop myself from moving the wings up and down. All of the cards are homemade and take a while to complete.

Thank you for the cards, everyone! 🙂 It was an unexpected but welcome surprise.

Also included in the extra large box: a bag of chocolate covered stroopwafels, and another that was labeled as “chewy caramel”. Two boxes of speculaas (regular flavor) and one box of chocolate covered…Mmmm…. and two boxes of pickwick Dutch tea. Good times.

Those treats should last me the 6 weeks or so before Marco comes back in late September… (ha!)

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: | 3 Comments

Hijacking (Or: Marco takes over)

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Niki

Marco: I’m taking over the blog again. nWo style.


What? You might ask yourself.. What? I’m taking over. What? Coming to power. What? Assuming control.
If you are thinking right now “Could you please shut the heck up!” You might not be with one of my favorite forms of entertainment.


If you are thinking “Awweeeesome!!” You probably know that the above lines are filled with references to pro-wrestling.

Continue reading →

Categories: Marco&Niki | 8 Comments

Black cats (Or: Being followed)

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Niki

Somehow it is already 10PM. Where does the time go? So in the interests of getting to bed at a sane hour, I am just going to post a few pictures.

Both images are of a small black cat which followed Marco for a while on his way to work. Always staying far enough away, but obviously curious. Running ahead, and then ducking underneath cars – just to get a safe look at Marco.

Definitely someone’s pet, since it has tags. Very cute looking.

It followed him for a while, darting in and out of bushes. But not all of the way – doubt Marco’s workplace allows pets!

Categories: Daily Dutch living | Tags: | 9 Comments

Cycling (Or: Rooting for two teams)

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Niki

Note: I took this post idea from a Georgia Peach Abroad – and the concept of rooting for two teams equally.

Of course, I am not yet in the Netherlands. I am still in America, so that means that the coverage is dominated by American athletes. So hearing that there is a sport that will feature a Dutch athlete as a clear favorite means that I am much more likely to tune in (oranje!). This morning was the women’s road race in London and the surrounding area.

When I first turned the TV on, one of the comments was how the Dutch were aggressively attacking. This strategy did not let up at all. Near the end of the race, there were four riders left from four countries: America, Great Britain, Russia, and the Netherlands. I remember thinking: Who do I root for? America or the Netherlands? Although it would have been nice to see both teams medal. At some point the conundrum was solved, as the American had to drop behind after having mechanical issues with her bike.

Originally from dailymail.co.uk (article has some other nice pictures)

 

So it was down to three… and I was trying to not watch, but trying to watch all the same. So nerve wracking!  I suppose that I should be glad, since I was rather clueless about the history behind the Dutch rider (Marianne Vols). I later found out that she has a tendency to do very well in races – but fade at the end. But she won!

Of course, after the post-race hugs and congratulations, NBC focused on the rider from Great Britain (partially because it was an English speaking athlete). So that was the end of the Dutch coverage. For now…

Categories: Sports | Tags: | 1 Comment

Olympics (Or: That’s a lot of volunteers)

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Niki

So far my favorite part of this opening ceremony was during the industrial age, with the rising of the Olympics rings and the sparks flying from underneath. The LED lights on the stadium audience seats are pretty cool too.

The weirdest thing has been realizing this is on tape delay (just like Beijing in 2008) and that NBC in America loves to add lots of commercials to the program. Marco and Roger watched the ceremony live, with it lasting about 4 hours. With commercials, the American version lasts 4 hours (8PM – midnight EST) so there is definitely some bits that will be cut out.

50 twitter feeds to follow for the Olympics (athletes, reporters, etc.)

Bringing things a bit closer to my home… Empire State Building lightning schedule – Each day of the Olympics, the Empire State Building will light a side of its building in honor of a country in the Olympics (four countries per day). The Netherlands will be featured on July 31, along with New Zealand, Brazil, and Romania.

Categories: Sports | 4 Comments

Birthday cards (Or: Marco’s viewpoint)

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Niki

As Niki mentioned she sent me 13 cards in the past few weeks.
It’s hard to explain why that’s so cool.
What I mean is, on one hand it’s sort of cliche to send cards.
But that is probably what makes it so cool.
And then there’s the factor that she didn’t just send one card.
No, she kept a steady stream going. And that’s what makes it awesome! 🙂

The backs of each of the cards, showing the numbering system.

I live two floors up, and the mailbox is downstairs.
So often I’d get home, get the mail (leaving the spam in there) and when I saw the card from Niki,
there were only two choices. Either RUSH (needs to be capitalized) up the stairs and read it once inside.
Or..and this was usually the case, I’d rip it open while going upstairs, and at least look it over, big grin on my face.

Often I couldn’t help but chuckle because Niki has the tendency to write a LOT on those cards.
One of them was written with such fine print that I think she managed to fit about a thousand words
on that tiny piece of paper. But for the record. I love it. 🙂

The first 9 cards, non-birthday themed.

I think it took me until card #3 to realize there was a serious pattern developing.
Probably not coincidentally that was the first time I noticed she had numbered the cards.
Of course she denied everything when I brought it up (and sly-ly asked her if I she would be sending more)
It was after card 7 or so that I realized she’d at least keep it up until my birthday.

So last night, during our chat, I actually asked “Do you have any more cards?”
And I got a “There are no more cards in my home” back. Which of course made me laugh.
Since that could mean “I shipped five more this morning…” but we’ll see.
I do know that for the next two-three weeks I’ll sort of eagerly open the mailbox 🙂

It does remind me of the count down I did when NIki came to the Netherlands two years ago.
I created our own little advent calendar. One picture with a number on it a day 🙂
Maybe that’s another blog?

Another thing that I’ve mentioned to her is that now I cannot randomly send a card back.
Though this is 99% a joke, it does feel like a cheap trick to send her one.
Maybe I’ll think of something else soon. Send her a candy-gram or something 🙂

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Birthdays (Or: A flood of cards)

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Niki

Today is Marco’s birthday! (Well, technically due to the time zone differences it’s already over for him.) But I had some fun with my scheming…

In early June I got the idea to send him lots of cards in advance of his birthday. Someone I knew back in the day mentioned sending cards to a friend of his: one for each of her years (thankfully I think she was only 18-20 years old) to surprise her.

When I first had the idea, I didn’t know how many cards it would end up being. First I went to Shoprite and picked up some cards, with a mix between birthday and non-birthday. That same weekend I went to the mall, and got some more. I ended up with 6 non-birthday cards and 4 birthday cards. About halfway through I went back to Shoprite and supplemented that with another 3 non-birthday cards, for the eventual total of 13. And when I get an idea I try to go all out… each card had both sides filled out with smallish letters to fit more in.

Continue reading →

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: , | 2 Comments

Irony (Or: Summer schedules on rain-filled days)

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Niki

There’s just something very ironic about the following photo which Marco gave me a few days ago. It is taken from the inside of a bus, and focuses on an advertisement.

1. “Summer schedule returns next week!”

2. We’re going to promote this with a picture of a smiling happy family at a beach!

3. Don’t look out the bus window, or you might see the dreary rain-filled day which lies in stark contrast to this promise of sorts.

Categories: The Hague, Transportation | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Yellow jerseys (Or: The end of the Tour de France)

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Niki

Hi,
This is Marco again, taking over Niki’s blog.
And once again I’ll talk a bit about sports.

You see, I like sports, but for Niki it’s a way of life.
Every now and then it seems like she doesn’t even care what type of sports, as long as she gets to watch something on tv. Like, the many times she puts on golf.
It amuses me (but in a good way.)

So a few times she told me she is really looking forward to indulging herself into the more European sports. We’ve already discussed voetbal (soccer) and how she wants to watch that.
We’ve already agreed upon me taking her to a few games (I haven’t been to a game in like..20 years?)

As part of her preparation for the euro-sports, she tried to follow the Tour de France this year.
Of course this isn’t easy to do, since it’s not on the radar in the USA.
I gues interest took a nose dive when Armstrong retired (and being under drugs scrutiny doesn’t help).

But even if she had been able to closely follow it, this year was boring.
You see, I like cycling for three weeks a year. The Tour is fun to watch..if the competition is strong.
Now I never like the flat surface races, because they follow the same formula and the sprinters always win.
But the mountain stages can be awesome. This year? Meh..the same team dominated everything and nobody was strong enough to challenge their superiority and threaten the race leader.

So the best thing the past three weeks was explaining some of the ‘behind the scenes’ happenings to Niki,
like race orders and tactics and such.
Like how each team comes with a designated leader, the guy that goes for the general rankings position.
They usually build the rest of the team around his needs, give him helpers for the mountains, stuff like that.
Oh, and I got to tell that the yellow jersey winner (the leader in the rankings) gives the money he wins to be distributed amongst the team. That’s one way of making them cycle for your benefit. 🙂

So that was the fun part. Again, the race itself was boring this year.
Oh well…Now we can get ready for the Olympics. Zet ‘m op, Holland!

Categories: Sports | Tags: | 2 Comments

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