I got back a few days ago from my travel adventures in Hyderabad and Amsterdam.   Amsterdam was my last stop where I spent 2 days with Didi before returning to Seattle.  In retrospect, the decision to stay was good to help “soft-land” my jet lag as I eased back from teh 13.5 hour time difference between Hyderabad and Seattle.

Amsterdam was a total blast from the reported 600,000 bicycles, friendly people and completely walkable (or bikeable!) city center.  Luck as on our side weather wise, as it stopped raining pretty much as soon as we arrived, and poured on the morning that we left, leaving us 2 days of relatively clear weather.  Luckily I had brought my tuque as the weather got down to 1 or 2 celcius at night.

While there, I completely fell in love with the Van Gogh museum.  The museum itself is a stark difference from the Rodin and Marmottan-Monet museums in Paris (my other 2 favorites) — both of them are in what feels like run-downs shacks in comparison.  The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam however, is in either a new building or quite recently renovated. This gives them tons of floor and wall space allowing them to constantly run special exhibits in the lower portion of museum while keeping a large permanent Van Gogh collection on the main and upper floors.  The current exhibit is one dedicated to Expressionism running through March 2007. Kadinsky and Schiele anyone?

Rest of my time in Amsterdam was spent at the Heineken museum, Bloemenmarkt (floating flower market), Waterlooplein flea market and the Westerstraat market.  Eating wise, food was MUCH easier on my stomach than India and for the first time in 9 days I didn’t feel like I had a crazy tape worm eating me from the inside out.  Sunday night was spent with Mark, one of Didi’s friends originally from Texas but now working in Amsterdam as an ex-pat.  We hit an Argentinian grill with Mark and a few of his local buddies for an amazing meal.  Argentinian spareribs…yummm…

Aside from the sight-seeing and photo taking opportunities, I also got to get to know Didi really well on this trip. It’s funny how much you find out about your co-workers when you travel with them.  Luckily she’s a super cool chick and we got along famously.  It’s rare that I meet new people that I work with and form friendships. Awww….

In terms of photos, I haven’t gone through all of them yet, but a few of them are posted up on my flickr page.

Hyderabad: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevin/sets/72157594416100336/

Amsterdam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trevin/sets/72157594416094196/