Oh, I forgot to say that I also bought a very funky, short (mid thigh), olive green raincoat, with the belt low on the hips. Soooo sexy my Angelos said ;)

And to clear my reputation, I got to inform you that there is not a pair of trousers left in Kenneth Cole because Angelos got them all! Plus a very fancy pair of Prada shoes, plus a great leather jacket! Luckily, shops in Amsterdam are open 10 to 9 on Thursdays (and this is why we went on a Thursday) 10 to 6 Mo to Sat and 12 to 6 on Sundays too!!! And we were in the shops all day long!!! Besides Monday morning that we went on a tour … but we were back by 3 and continued shopping…hehehe

So now I got to speak about food huh?

(Clears throat)

Well, the first day I was like a balloon. Airplanes do this to me, I get so swollen! But we went straight to the shops and we were shopping and walking from 1 p.m. till 9 p.m. that we got suddenly soooooooo hungry. So we just had to have dinner! First night’s dinner was chili con carne and chorizos split between us, and then spare ribs and salad for main with no dessert. And I met my first online buddy too! A Dutch guy with whom we used to play backgammon online. It was nice, though a bit awkward, since we were never really close, so the discussion had some silent moments. Plus I think he thought it would be the two of us for some reason.

Then Friday I had a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and 2 stripes of bacon, and lotsa coffee and water, and then we hit the shops again. We were actually outside the best shoe shop waiting for it to open so that I’d try boots. Three pairs of boots later we went to see one lady I worked with for the congress whom I really liked, had tea with her at 11, then we left at noon, and went to Leidseplein to wait for our friends who had just arrived in Amsterdam.

A thing I love about Amsterdam is that no one really stares at you. While waiting for our friends, we were sitting on a bench and I was rolling joints in raspberry paper with funny raspberries on it, and not a person looked at me! So, like silly teens, we got our friends (who had never been there before and were shocked with the joint freedom) and we were walking in the canals, smoking joints, laughing and teasing each other. Me in my total silly mood were doing total silly things like asking a police officer for a lighter to light my joint, which totally freaked out our friends, were singing and dancing folk greek songs in the corner of the street carrying my hat asking for money, etc.

But then we got hungry. Yeah yeah. You are right. We did not get hungry really. We simply got the munchies! So we had chips with tartar sauce on the go. And a small chocolate bar each. And then more shops. And more walking. And more shops. And another small chocolate bar. And then a round of cappuccinos with yet another joint in The Grasshopper, my favourite coffeshop. And then we took a night tour in the canals with a small boat. This would have been so romantic if we were not in the aforementioned silly mood. So instead of holding hands, smiling softly, looking into our sweetheart’s eyes, we were singing silly greek kiddy songs, or acted out disastrous scenes from Greek Ancient Tragedies (you should see me as Medea). The canal boat left us in the Central Station, and the closest place to eat was a falafel kiosk. So that was dinner. A small Arabic pita bread with 4 falafels, veggies, yogurt sauce and humus for me. 2 of those for the men.

And then we returned to the hotel at 10, totally spent and tired (our friends flight was at 5.45 am!). But we wanted …ummm…summat sweet. You know…

Our hotel was very nice. And had a very fancy restaurant too. With excellent desserts. This is what we had:

Me & the other woman shared: Chocolate pie with blood orange sherbet
Angelos: Poached pears with chocolate mousse and coffee sorbet
Friend: Crème brulle

And we all slept happily ever after….at 10.00 !!!!

On Saturday morning we were all awake by 7! Scrambled eggs for me again and coffee. The rest of the gang had it all. Eggs, all different kinds of cheeses and salamis, hot croissants with butter and jam, toasted bread with peanut butter and nutella, they ate and ate and I was soooooooo craving the toast with peanut butter and nutella, but thought I better save some calories for later!

We left the hotel at 8.30 and walked 4 km to the Albert Cyup Market. A gorgeous colourful market with everything you can think of. Fruits and veggies, fish and meat, cheese and candies (chocolate penises and breasts galore), second hand clothes, shops with gorgeous clothes, and great leather shops. Here I got 2 trousers, the leather goodies, and 2 sweaters. Angelos got his leather jacket, and my girlfriend got 4 pairs of trousers. To give you an idea about the sales there, the trousers we got were between 100 and 140 hundred euros each and they were in special: 3 pairs of pants for 100 euros!!!!!!! So she got 4, I got 2 and we split the burgain!

We walked back to the hotel (another 4 km), left our bags, and hit the centre. Y., our male friend, had seen Angelos’ Kenneth Cole trousers and wanted to go try some too. So off to the centre again, but this time, our “shy” friends were demanding that I’d roll some joints to have for the road! And who was I to spoil their fun huh? More were rolled, more were smoked. And we managed to arrive to Kenneth Cole without getting lost. And this is where I got totally embarrassed, red like a beetroot, shamed like a little girl!

In KC there was a wonderful gorgeous and super kind chocolate skin salesman. He was very sweet to us as we entered, since we were there the day before too. So Angelos got more trousers to try on, and so did Y. My gf and I were browsing around for more stuff for the guys when I saw a very nice pair of pants with “Super Sexy Fit” on the label and looked at it for Angelos. But his size was not there so I went to this sweet salesman and told him: “Trianta dio – Trianta is too short for him, I need a Trianta dio –Trianta dio please” The poor guy looked at me puzzled. My gf was in her knees laughing her heart out. “Can I have these pants in trianta dio – trianta dio please?” I insisted. “Sorry ma’am” the gorgeous salesman said “I don’t understand what you are saying” “I need it in TRIANTA DIO – TRIANTA DIO” I said again, a bit edgy. My gf got up and pulled me in the corner. “Do you realise what you are doing???? She said with tears in her eyes from laughing” “Well, I am asking for a pair of trousers in trianta…” and then I started laughing too. For hours actually, I would remember this and I would laugh to the point of loosing my breath.

Trianta dio – trianta is 32 – 30 in Greek. But I was pronouncing trianta dio with a very American accent. And I thought I was speaking english too!!!! Then we went to another coffee shop, and had more cappuccino and a few more smokes, had some M&M’s and continued shopping.

We shopped more, smoked more and then, with more bags at hand we entered our fav tex mex, at around 8 in the evening. They took us to our table and then it was time for some serious spare ribs!!!! So we each got ribs and baked potato with sour cream. But this place is one where you can order more ribs and more and more, so we finished our first plate, and then asked for 2 more, which we shared among the 4 of us.

In the table next to ours, there were 6 Italians, aged 35 to 45. All very business like looking, with their suits and all. But you could tell they were really stoned. They were eating enormous quantities of food like maniacs without saying a word or looking at each other. At some point, one of them started laughing. Then another joined. Then another. In five minutes they were all laughing like mad. Then Angelos joined. Then I did. Then both our friends. We were all laughing like crazy people. Everyone was looking at us. Suddenly, the entire floor (we were on the 2nd floor) begun laughing. Waiters from the first floor came up to see what was happening. The Italians and us got really embarrassed, and without stopping laughing we all asked for the bill. We paid the bill still laughing, and run down the stairs, still laughing, to the basement where the toilettes were, still laughing, we peed, while still laughing, and we run out to the street, still laughing, where we sat on the pavement and laughed some more. Then Angelos exclaimed: Puccini!!!!

Now Puccini is a very fancy chocolate shop, the one I was remembering too well. So we went there, and took two choccies of each of the following:

Chocolate with pepper
Chocolate with ginger
Chocolate with green tea
Chocolate with raspberries
Chocolate with Drambui
Chocolate with pine nuts

And each couple shared a small choccie (you know the small round, or square ones, like Leonidas)

Then we decided to walk to the hotel, but we could not. Because someone will always say Trianta dio – trianta dio to me and I’d laugh, or we’d remember the Italians and laugh, and suddenly the need to pee was too much so we took the tram for the last 3 stops. Back in the hotel at around 11, and straight to bed for some more laughs.

I just realised that I was supposed to just write about food. But I got carried away. I am reliving each day as I type for you. Oh we had such a great time, I am really sad to be back. I know I should not, but it only got better each day.

And I miss my man so much. It is so difficult from spending each and every second of the day together to go back to seeing him half an hour before leaving for work and again at 9 in the evening when we get home. *Sigh*

So now you have Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tomorrow you will read the rest three days. Before that I have to tell you that I ate too much on Tuesday we returned and yesterday too. We were both too depressed to be back. So Tuesday night we went to Sofia and Vangelis and shared chocolates we brought with them, and last night I had a huge plate of pasta amatricianna I cooked for Angelos – yep…pasta with tomato and red wine sauce with lotsa onions and garlic and bacon too. And parmesan on top. And we drunk the entire bottle of the red wine. And then had some crème caramel too. And this morning I got on the scales. And I am back to the 90’s again. 90.8 Some of it is water retention from my period. Some is Amsterdam. But most is yesterday and the day before. The post holidays blues gain I will call it.

But I am back at it today. Had my banana for breakie, and a grilled chicken breast filler with salad for lunch. And I cooked dinner this morning too, since I have my therapy session tonight and I don’t want to return late with nothing ready to eat. So I cooked skinless chicken legs and bulgur, and because I’d rather write a novel here than getting back to work, here is the recipe:

Take as many skinless chicken legs you need
Boil them in as little water possible (but not too little) till they are tender.
Remove the chicken legs when they are ready, with a little of the broth in a new pot.
Use the broth in the old pot to boil the bulgur in.
Now in the chicken pot add the juice of a lemon, oregano, carry powder, chilli powder, garlic powder and 2 big Tsp of mustard. Simmer it for 5 mins till the sauce thickens.

Enjoy :)