kungshamra71

I’m actually gonna leave temporary to have a sinterklaas brunch with stroopwafels and kruidnoten and all that! Love this season

We got points But most importantly, someone liked mirandese music! Mission accomplished Muchas gracias a nuestros hermanos!

Btw, since this contest is organized in The Netherlands, and since it has not be shown yet, I think i need to mention one of my favorite celebrations that is traditional from this place, specially because it starts tomorrow: Sinterklaas! It's a story of a bishop that comes from Spain on a steamboat, together with some helpers, and arrives in The Netherlands in the beginning of November, with all the kids waiting for him, and then goes with his horse and gives presents to the kids on 5th December (if some part of the story is wrong feel free to correct me @heywoodu!). But if you are a bad kid, you will not get a present, and instead you will be put into a bag, and be sent back to Spain! (i think this was where it began the dutch fascination with Ibiza ) Although it generated some conflicts between the adults and controversy due to the Sinterklaas helpers (the Piets) being dressed with blackface, the kids totally love both it, both the Piets and Sinterklaas. We love this tradition so much that, with the exception of this weird year, we went for 4 straight years to assist to the arrival and parade of Sinterklaas (and even took part in one parade, as part of my gf company segment of Amersfoort parade). Here's a small explanation of the feast, where beyond celebrating the Sint, you eat kruidnoten, chocolate letters of your initial, and other nice things!

No. Cruel is giving you a drop pretending that it's a candy, like my colleagues did to me when I arrived in The Netherlands and thought it was a nice sweet thing. It's not. It's an abomination that deserves to be burned Most of expats i know hate it as well, although the eastern europeans seem to like it just like the dutch. For clarification, this is a drop:

I might be biased because it comes from Portugal, but it's my favourite, so sweet and good! (always bring a bottle when i come back from Lisbon haha)

We used to do (on those times in the past where we could have a life) a prank to all newcomers from foreign lands in my team: give them a bitterballen and tell them you just put it in the mouth and eat it at once

I do understand given the war environment that one experience during the new years eve here. Although I love it, you get fireworks from EVERYWHERE for like 2, 3, or more hours, it's amazing! (but also a bit dangerous, trying to cycle during this time in Amsterdam feels like you can get hit by some bomb at any time haha) For those who thinks i'm overreacting, just take a look

Actually so far the lakes (the ones in the parks and forest here in amsterdam) are the "easy" ones, the canals, since they get water from the big Amstel river, i had never seen frozen. In fact, i think they had to close some barriers between the Amstel and the IJ for the canals to froze. But, even though i hate cold, i wish it could be cold enough so that I could witness the mythical Elfstedentocht around the cities in Friesland!

They locked the canals so it was easy to get thick ice, but still for us who almost never had walked on real ice (and the only images we had on our mind was from movies when people fall into the water) was a bit scary at first. But then it was really fun

Being from a southern country i obviously enjoy the heat, not inside the house as this houses accumulate heat and it becomes hellish, but outside near the lakes/sea/rivers. This past 2 years were great as i think we were able to go a few times to the beach or lake, the first year we only went once As for winter, any chance of snow, even if for a few days, is a proper winter for me as we never have snow in Lisbon. This last year was the first where it not even snowed once, which was quite sad, but I loved the previous ones! Last year it filled the Amsterdamse Bos with white (pics below) and two years ago it even froze the canals in Amsterdam, i walked on some of them! (also pics below)

Actually i think i've read sometime ago that it actually rains less (in quantity) than in Lisbon, for example. But while there it rains A LOT for some short time, here it rains less during much more days. But I think in general the weather is bad, not only because of the rain, but because is SO DEPRESSING Those weeks where for many days you don't even see the sun.... or when it's "sunny" but the sky is not actually blue because there are some clouds above.... i would say that - maybe apart from the food, and mountains, and the beach - it's the only thing i miss from Portugal: vitamine D P.S - This is what it usually looks when the airplane reach the netherlands haha, i took this one the last time i flew here

I know i already shared one about the food, but given the weather we had today it made me wanna watch this one as well P.S - The (extremely accurate!) rain app is among the best ideas one could ever had

Maybe on Friday's sometime after work. And after work is never at 17h, or 18h, or anything bearable. I really love the work-live balance here!

But since we're in a food topic, and given the location of this year's TISC, maybe it's the right moment to share this very interesting video about Dutch food!

Not entirely sure what do they mean with that but my personal experience during this 4 years is that after work many times we would go for some beers and bitterbollen and snacks, for quite some hours (a very much appreciated dutch habit haha )

The feeling I get as I keep seeing all those states turning blue one by one

A good song that brings me memories from Armenia, with amazing people, beautiful landscapes, and a very sad history like the genocide they suffered during the first world war Serj Tankian - Bari Arakeel

I can pick my favourite caucasus country

Nice location, plus not that far from Amsterdam. And the best thing is that quite close to Walibi park

So far the closest i've been was to Vaassen because they have a nice castle there

Looks i found myself the next place for the next bike trip! Also, just a note to say how I love the dutch love for pancakes, there's pancake places everywhere and they're always delicous

Was expecting something like this. But I love all my top songs so please keep sending non-winning songs for the contest because most likely some of them will end up in my playlist!

I expect nothing less than a room at the Het Loo Palace!

It might not win but if one of us like it it will feel equally great. And sometimes the weird ones are the best ones

Yeah that region from the north of Portugal, close to Spain, is the one with more medieval origins since it was the less affected by the muslim occupation, so it is interesting those kind of similarities with some nearby spanish regions (like the traditional music which is similar to the one from Galicia).