A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

Well, how lucky am I to have a beautiful Saturday for my first weekend in Amsterdam? I went for a 9 mile run this morning to take advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining, snowing, or hailing! I got a little lost, but not so much that I couldn't find my way home.

I was supposed to meet my friend Rosa at Dam Square, but, since neither of us have cell phones yet, and she had to take a train from Hilversum, I was almost expecting it not to work out. I waited for 30 minutes there, and then figured that there must have been a problem with the train... I'll see her Monday at work, and hopefully we'll both have phones soon!


The Dutch Palace, New Church, and Dam Square

Anyways, after that, I decided to go and visit "Our Lord In the Attic", which is an old church basically in an attic. What happened was that the Catholic faith was forbidden for two centuries (mid-1500's to mid-1700's), so those that wanted to practice their faith had to do it in secret. A rich businessman built a church in the attic of his house, and it was used for worship during that time period. It seats about 150 people, and is pretty ornate for what it is. The balconies above the alter are SUSPENDED FROM THE CEILING... I was a little nervous walking out on them, but it was fine. :)

Before I actually made it to the museum, however, I really needed to eat... so I just started walking around. The part of town that this church is in is kind of sketchy, and most of the places I passed were "coffee shops". Now, if you've never been to Amsterdam, you wouldn't know this... but here, coffee shops are places where you can buy and smoke pot legally. So, I didn't really think I should go in there for lunch! Next, I'm walking along, and, literally gasped out loud when I realized I was in the middle of the red light district! Oh boy! I high-tailed it out of there, and eventually found a British pub, where I had a nice time chatting with the bartender and chef. It's really not so bad here. :)

So, here are some photos from the church:

The Outside of the Church


The Seating Area


The Alter (note that the balconies are suspended from the ceiling! Yikes!)


The View from the Attic

All in all, it was a beautiful, calm day. I'm still feeling really good about everything. I think my "cultural coach" would call this part "expat euphoria"... the calm before all my walls come crashing down. ;) Well, I'm enjoying it for now! Thanks for all the e-mails and support... it's so nice to hear from everyone! xoxo