Would you rather be wise, or would you rather be cool?

That was the million Euro question during last Saturday's stroll through the super cool Albert Cuypmarkt, supposedly the "best-known market in Europe." (I'm talking about Sat., June 14, by the way. Admittedly, my darling blog readers, I'm a little behind in terms of chronology, but stay patient.)


Anyway, it's an outdoor market, kind of like a flea market, and you can find ANYTHING there -- food, fruit, flowers, toiletries, antiques, you name it.


Named for Dutch landscape painter Albert Cuyp, the Albert Cuypmarkt has about 20,000 visitors on weekdays and twice as many on Saturdays. According to Anouk and Anne, it's a great place to get a good deal on shoes or jackets, so that's what I was out to do on Saturday, as I had learned quickly that I didn't bring enough warm clothes with me on the trip.

If only Laura had been with me to make this crucial shopping decision! I was going back and forth for a very long time between a very practical brown leather jacket and a "cooler" green one, which came in a sleeker style. The store owner posed the question to me: "Would you rather be wise, or would you rather be cool?" (The Dutch onlookers were all very clearly rooting for the green.)

So sorry, Mama, for once I decided to be cool.... when in Amsterdam, right? And after wearing the Blokker shirt the night before, I really needed to shed some of my American look.

The rest of the day was spent just immersing myself in the city and trying to take fun pictures in my new green jacket. ;) Anne took me to some typical Dutch stores, where I first experienced Holland's version of Target - Hema - which is awesome.


Here I'm in Hema eating some type of Dutch snack -- a rookworst -- with hot mustard. I swear, the Dutch can get me to try any type of food - it's all so delicious!

Later in the day, Anne and I visited Anne's friend Astrid, who just had a baby, Menke (picture below). Whenever someone has a baby in Holland, you eat a special kind of hagelslag: "beschuit met muisjes." The expression actually means "crackers with mice." Orkin team at JS - don't you just love the notion of me eating something named after a rodent?

In this case, the "mice" were pink and white.

Finally, Saturday night Anne and I, worn out from all of our shopping and city navigating, decided to go and see Sex & The City, which just premiered in Holland. Boy, did we get lucky! Though we had reserved tickets by computer, we got there too late and the ticket reservation machine said they'd been given away. So, we got in line to buy tickets for something else. Suddenly, the guy standing behind us at the ticket reservation machine walked up with two S&TC tickets in his hand. "The machine printed your tickets," he said. Anne and I looked at the tickets with glee - who knows how it happened, but we scored FREE tickets for the sold-out movie! We thoroughly enjoyed the flick, too, despite what the New York Times review said.

Once again - if you were Dutch, you could say I fell with my nose in the butter. (Or maybe butter and some Tigerslokken (tiger-colored hagelslag)?