Livin la Vida Local

Guys something super exciting happened this week – the other EY US GEP members came to Amsterdam. Work friends! I have been getting along well with the people in the office so far but it’s different to have other Americans here especially when they are going through the same random struggles as I am. We can definitely bond over all the random stuff that would be no problem to figure out at home but in a different country, different language it’s a brave new world. We had a small work event on Tuesday and a few of us decided we would meet up on our own Thursday as well and those of us with spouses could bring them along. Bill and I were running a little ahead of schedule so we decided to stop for a drink and a snack before meeting the group. We went to a bar we had discovered when Barnes and Cathy came to visit called Helst. I can’t remember how much I may have written about it in a previous blog so I won’t get too in the details. It reminded me of a bar we would go to in Arlington with Derek and Drew as they have one of those boards that tell you what beers are on tap and how much is left in the keg. The only difference is this place also has food. After making some beer selections we ordered the Dutch specialty – cheese board – to accompany the beverages. One drink was all we had time for so we headed a little farther down the road to our dinner destination called Paskamer. The restaurant was a wine bar with tapas style dishes. You probably have gotten the sense from my other posts that I appreciate a good tapas establishment. The place was very cozy and it was nice to spend time talking with new friends over some tasty treats. The best of our tapas was hands down the eggplant dish we had. It had this tomato sauce on top with a fresh basil leaf. After a few glasses of solid Tempranillo, it was time to sleep and greet Friday.

Friday work was completely forgettable but I do want to share with you all something that is common practice in the Netherlands that frankly, needs to make its way to the States. They have happy hour every Friday at the office. Let that soak in. Every single Friday all EY employees can come to the cafeteria on the ground floor if the office and have free beer and wine and snacks. It was like a Christmas party or something. I hadn’t been to one of the happy hours yet as Friday’s since we arrived have been pretty booked. Now that I am staring to feel more settled and the new batch of GEP people are here I figured it was about time for me to start meeting more people in the office. I’m glad I went and got to know some new people but I didn’t want to leave Bill alone for too long so I returned home to find a dinner spot. We had been eyeing this restaurant on Ferdinand Bolstraat for a while called the Seafood Bar and I was craving oysters so that’s where we settled. The atmosphere was very chic, clean with white subway tiles and neon lights. Everything was bright and light and the distinct smell of seawater filled the room. There were no tables so we sat at the bar which I personally thought was more fun. We got to watch as the cooks prepared elaborate seafood towers. The towers were out of our budget – shocking I know – so we went with a more modest display of 8 oysters and 2 appetizers, pesto scallops and crab cakes.

It was all excellent. The oysters were all from France and to my uncultured oyster palette tasted very similar to oysters from home. That’s a good thing though since I like the oysters from home. It was interesting because instead of cocktail and horseradish sauces they were served with onions and vinegar. That’s probably how you’re supposed to eat them but we already established I don’t have a huge knowledge of the finer points of oyster eating and I like horseradish and cocktail sauce. Never the less they were very tasty. It would be fun to come back here and splurge on an elaborate tower and/or more oysters. It will go on the recommend list. We still had some space in our tummies so we attempted to find froyo. We failed. We did, however, find gelato and that was delicious. Bill said “I think we messed up” after taking one bite implying that there was a good chance we would be visiting this stand many more times to come and endangering our general physiques.

Saturday was brunch and beer day with our new GEP friends. Christy (from Seattle) joined us for predrinking brunch. I had been looking on TripAdvisor the day before and the number two ranked brunch spot in Amsterdam (Brunchroom – very Dutch name i.e. very self explanatory naming) happened to be 2 blocks from the brewery we were visiting. How could we not go?? These are the important questions of life. I didn’t think we could make reservations so we just showed up. Turns out you could make them (not sure how still) but they happened to have three spots at the “reading bar” where we could sit. This was in retrospect very lucky because there were no joke maybe 5 tables and as we were sitting we saw several people come in only to be turned away. We started with drinks – lavender latte for me – and progressed to the main events. I had the “Eggs on Fire” which was a poached egg in a spicy tomato sauce with lots of basil and the bacon I added because bacon. I also tried the peanut soup. It was a little thick so more of a sauce than a soup but I love Southeast Asian peanut flavored dishes. The chef came out to ask how everything was and was particularly interested in getting our thoughts on the soup. Turns out they had just turned over the menu for the fall season and I was the first one to order the soup. Call me a first adopter.

Now that our stomachs were adequately filled it was off to the Windmill Brewery. I call it this because the brewery is in fact in a windmill but also I cannot pronounce the name of the beer – Brouwerij IJ. It’s been our favorite beer we have tried in Amsterdam. We have been meaning to go so with the return of nice weather this was the perfect chance to check it out. It opens at 2 pm so we arrived on time to be sure to get a table. Within the first 30 minutes the place was packed so that was definitely a good choice to arrive early. We learned a thing or two at Oktoberfest I guess. After a while a few of Bills new friends from KPMG also joined. A regular public accounting party. Bill and I had purchased tickets to a Simple Favor (highly recommend by the way) so we said goodbye to the group and headed out to catch the movie.

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We didn’t have any major commitments so we started out the way every good Sunday starts out – more brunch. We went back to Omlegg but the one in the Pijp this time. It was just as good the second time as it was the first. I mixed things up and got the pastrami avocado omelette which tasted like a sandwich surrounded by eggs instead of bread. I approve.

We decided we wanted to get some culture on this Sunday as well so post brunch we headed to the Moco museum to see the permanent Banksy collection and the Icy and Sot exhibit. For those of you unfamiliar with Banksy, he is a graffiti artist from Britain who is a bit of an enigma – no one knows who he actually is. His pieces namely seem to be social commentary focusing on an anti violence message. Many of the pieces were interesting and made you think. I tend to not favor more modern art but both Bill and I were fans. We learned a lot of fun facts but here were a couple of my favorites:

• Banksy is represented by a series of agents known collectively as “Pest Control”. If you think you have an original Banksy piece, it must be sent to Pest Control for authentication. If it’s a fake, it’s destroyed. If it’s real, it is certified and you get half of the £10 note made by Banksy (see below). Fun fact about that piece, Banksy had those passed out but they looked so similar to actual currency people used them and Banksy is in trouble now for “forging” money. Good thing no one knows who he actually is.
• Banksy’s sister at one point starting getting rid of his pieces prior to his rise to fame. When he asked her why she was getting rid of them she responded “well it’s not like you’re in a museum”. With that, Banksy decided to randomly hang his works in the major museums of the world – Lourve, Met, etc. – complete with description plates. Many stayed up for several days before being removed.

With Banksy’s pieces were works by Icy and Sot – 2 Iranian brothers who are also street artists. Their work was very reminiscent of Banksy, however, in the Iranian bubble they had no idea who Banksy was so it’s truly their own vision.

There were a few other pieces in the museum from a variety of artists including the 3D room which when photographed looks like a 2D room.

There was also a sculpture in the garden you could climb and take a picture on. Of course, Bill wanted a picture. So I will leave you with a photo of Bill on a metal horse. Until next time!