Wood and bricks.

My alternative office.

...where I have no end of magazines (you name it, they've got it), movies, music, music, music, concerts, exhibitions, instruments to play, a radio studio, studying cabins (might upload pictures of them some other day, very cool), free internet (not for my computer until I become a member though), a cafe with yummy snacks, chill out zones to read, incredible views and much more. Oh yeah, and books.

http://www.oba.nl/

(At the top of those tower-like shelves downstairs, kids can chill and read a story. Cushions and blankets are available.)

I want.

I can see myself living in a house like this.

The Movies.

The coolest theatre I've been to. You can get a special dinner-movie deal for around 27 Euros. The atmosphere is super cosy and red and soft, it feels like you can stay there for ages and ages because the sofas are so comfy and the waiters are so friendly and give you peanuts for free.

The Movies
Haarlemmerdijk 161-163
http://www.themovies.nl

Can't wait.

A proper breakfast.

And Lucy's top-lipless smile.

City vegetable garden.

Waiting makes us draw.

I think this is what a grown cabbage patch kid would look like.

This time we flew over Amsterdam!

Had a go in Dordrecht with Mar in the summer. Now with Lucy here in Amsterdam. Finally the structure of city is completely clear in my head and I will never get lost again. I wish.

These long, dark beings following their steps.

And they didn't even seem aware of them.

PostSecret to start my Sunday.

More here: http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

Sandwich village.

Where breakfast is served like at home.

Tea and inspiration with Janneke.

Merijn Hos at Pecha Kucha night.

Funny, nervous chap he is.

Last night at Pecha Kucha we listened to a whole lot of creative and inspiring people. This guy was my favourite. Check his site out for more lovelyness: http://bfreeone.com/

Overtoom 301.

Lucy's always making friends.

Overtoom 301 is the former Film Academy now legally squated by EHBK (Eerste Hulp Bij Kunst, translation: First Aid Art, I think), a group of artists and innovators not focused on profit. You can find more info on their site: http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/home.html
And you can also download a pdf from here: http://squat.net/overtoom301/pages/info.html

Lucy and I enjoyed a vegan meal there. You can chose to pay from 6 to 10 Euros, depends on your generosity. We had beetroot soup with aniseed and a big plate of aubergine curry, black beans, mushrooms, rice, salad and pumpkin tempura. Yum.

They have two great big game rooms where we watched a massive table tennis match, about 20 people playing at the same time around one table, amazing! We decided we would have a go the next time we went. People here were really friendly and welcoming, "gezellig" is the best word for it.

The circle closes.

Yesterday I decided to go and find Noord Amsterdam out a bit better. I found this park, Vliegenbos, with beautiful, tall trees, fresh smelling air and muddy, cold grass. Funny how nature has been what I've enjoyed seeing most since I moved to Amsterdam.

While cycling through the park I saw campsite signs. I realised this was the campsite where I stayed when I travelled around The Netherlands with my friend Isa. And it was after that trip when The Netherlands stuck in my mind as a possible destination to live abroad. 7 years later I am living here. And yesterday I found where it all began.

Paul Wyber's screen printing.

Yesterday I visited Paul Wyber's studio, a professional screen printer that mainly works for artists and designers. He kindly dedicated over an hour of his time to show me around his place and explain how things work. I was too shy to take photos while I was there (yup, silly me), but I'm uploading photos of these beautiful posters he gave me, printed by him of course (he says they're collectors items, lucky me!). You can't really appreciate the quality of the colours and print in the photos, but I can assure you, you'd be impressed if you saw them live. They're designed by Experimental Jetset.

While I was at Paul's I met Harmen Liemburg, a dutch graphic designer and illustrator also based in Amsterdam. I might go to see his studio soon. He's also into screen printing and has his own atelier.

Amsterdam Noord.

Oh the skies here! The skies!

For the second time since I live in The Netherlands, there's a river between my home and the city. De Ij. I have to get a boat every time I leave the house (unless I stay in the North), but it's a nice little ride, with beautiful views and you get to see the amazing colours of the water changing with the sky.

A little wiki-info:

In historic times, the IJ was a long and narrow brackish bay that connected to the Zuiderzee (itself a bay of the North Sea) and stretched from Amsterdam in the east to Velsen in the west. At its west end, only the natural dune ridge across the Dutch North Sea coast prevented the IJ, which grew ever larger through the centuries, from directly connecting to the North Sea and so making the North Holland peninsula nearly an island. By the seventeenth century, however, access to the IJ became difficult due to sand bars across its mouth, and ships becoming bigger, and it was nearly impossible for seafaring vessels to reach the city. At the same time, the bay gnawed away at the surrounding farmlands, almost connecting with the Haarlemmermeer (Lake Haarlem) and seriously threatening the cities of Haarlem and Amsterdam.

Plans were put forth to reclaim both the Haarlemmermeer and the IJ and turn them into polders. The Haarlemmermeer was first, falling dry in 1852, and the largest part of the IJ followed suit between 1865 and 1876, with only a small lake remaining at Amsterdam that was closed off from the Zuiderzee by the Oranje locks. At the same time, the North Sea Canal was constructed in the former IJ basin to provide Amsterdam with access to the sea again and revive its ailing port. It cut through the isthmus to connect to the North Sea near the town of Velsen; a new port, IJmuiden ("Y-mouth") was built at its west end. The east end of the IJ polders near Amsterdam was given over to industry, and a large new seaport area was constructed.

Time for a change.

Last day as a Rotterdammer. La cuqui. Guapa.

Lekker coffee at Western Pavillion. Invita la Mar. Merci cuqui!

Man and van that helped me get to Amsterdam. Top service!

Acting all cool cuz we're Amsterdammers now.

Amazing market in the North!

Not warm enough for this bitter Dutch weather.

Qué bien lo hacen, los puñeteros.

Still no winter jacket.

First meal at my new home!

It turned into home.

Amongst all the junk I'm moving to Amsterdam, I found a notebook I was using when I moved to Rotterdam. I wrote that right before leaving Barcelona, I had fallen in love with it.

That's exactly the feeling I have now, but for Rotterdam.