Goodbye Hamsterdance...

Well, today marks our last day here in Amsterdam (or more affectionately known as "Hamsterdance"). We've been feeling pretty bittersweet about it. On one side, Amsterdam started to feel like home to us! But on the other, we're very excited to tour around Italy and explore a place that will be entirely different of what we've been experiencing.

We've grown to love Amsterdam in a number of ways, but our top 5 favorite things (in no particular order) of this place are as follows:

1. Our apartment - Although we've been co-habilitating with the spawn of satan (aka Keessie), our apartment has been pretty bad-ass. With the Albert Cuyp market, handfuls of restaurants, and a park just around the corner, it's been the perfect location for us. Not only that, but we had our own bikes to use, and getting downtown only took us 10 minutes on bike!

2. The food - Vlaamse frites, poffertjes, stroopwafels, Indonesian food, Dutch pancakes, ossenworst, Dutch cheese, beer, hagelslag, bitterballen, verse haring, appelgebak....it all was amazing. And we ate at least one of these foods daily.

3. The bike lifestyle (Adam) - Adam loved to see everyone biking, and loved to be able to bike everywhere. It also felt communal and more efficient here in Amsterdam. He just liked biking!
    Walking along the canals (Alyssa) - I loved just walking all around the canals. There was a romantic feel and certain beauty that you don't get anywhere else.

4. Day Trips - Being able to visit all the other towns within an hour (or less) was a lot of fun. Being able to hop on a train and get to a nearby city was very easy, and we felt like we were able to learn and experience a lot more of the Netherlands as a whole. Our top favorite city has to be Delft!

5. Learning about the history of the Netherlands - Not many people know/understand the importance of Dutch history (at least in the US), and being able to learn about that was enlightening.

Our last day in general was pretty low-key. I'd say the highlights were the food! We took our time getting out, since it was pouring rain this morning (there was even a HUGE thunderstorm last night). We got downtown around 12:30 with one goal in mind: pannekoeken (or Dutch pancakes). We've only had Dutch pancakes one other time when we first arrived, and the place we had them at were not good. But we wanted to give these pancakes another try, so we settled on The Pancake Bakery. I'll just say that we're kicking ourselves for waiting this long to get pancakes again, because these pancakes were AMAZING!

Inside of The Pancake Bakery - so cozy!

Big ole jar of syrup!

Adam had The Hungarian (pancake with chorizo, salami, paprika, onions, and cheese) while I had a traditional pancake with apples, raisins, powdered sugar, and syrup. Both were just too good. We didn't want our meal to end!

Adam's Hungarian panacke

My pancake

No regrets

After our lunch, we walked around the downtown area for a couple hours and took a break at the Rembrandtplein area before heading home where we rested until around 8, which is when we went out for our last dinner. 

Not sure what this was for, but it was really cool!

Former Dutch East India Company (VOC) buidling)

The owners of the apartment we've been staying in told us we needed to try out a nearby restaurant called Wink. But because the owners were on holiday, we couldn't go until today. And we're so glad we did! The restaurant is owned by JP and Natasha (husband and wife), who were so welcoming! As soon as we walked into the door we felt like special guests in their home with JP shaking our hands and introducing himself. He walked us through the menu, and what they typically do to serve their guests. We decided to "go with it" and told him to serve us the chef's choice (who is Natasha) for a 4-course dinner. We started off with pan-fried pumpkin and mushrooms with a smoked-yogurt sauce. The second course was squid and vegetables with rice bitterballen and a pesto sauce. Third course was pigeon 3-ways with fig and artichoke heart. Ending our meal was a poached pear in sangria/lemon with fried dough and ice cream. All throughout the meal, JP came by to make sure we were enjoying our meal. Natasha even came by to introduce herself as she served us and bid us farewell once she was done for the evening. It was definitely a meal to remember, and a great way to end our stay here in Amsterdam!

Tomorrow we set off for Venice. We're both excited to see what Italy has to offer, but we will most certainly miss Amsterdam and all of it's charm!