Food from home

In one of my earlier posts about living in Amsterdam I mentioned that you needed to be careful when buying simple things like catsup and soy sauce as they tended to be Indonesian flavoured as that is where the products originally came from. These two items were not at all similar to what many Americans have come to enjoy. I am not a big catsup fan especially after working in a cannery and saw how it was made so that wasn't as much of a problem for me as it was to find a soy sauce similar to what the Japanese used. Many a bottle went into the trash bin while I was in Amsterdam.

What I didn't realize was how many other items were being sought after by the expat community until a German friend told me about his nieces desire to buy Pop Tarts in Amsterdam. Okay another product that I did not consume nor desire but there were stores that catered to that need.

Amsterdam

Absolutely British
Eleanor Rooseveltlaan 102-104 in Amstelveen
www.absolutelybritish.nl/stocklist.html
The Expat Supermarket for Amsterdam / Amstelveen. Buy all your favourite British Foods in Amsterdam, find every thing you need for Alittle taste of home with the largest British Expat Grocer in the Netherlands.
Online orders taken. Minimum order for deliveries EUR 45.


Arkwright's
Rozengracht 13, Amsterdam
Tel: 020 320 0710
www.arkwrights.nl/
Open: Tues-Sun 11am -8pm; Mon 1pm-8pm

Among its collection of goods from home, Arkwright's offers Colman's mustard, Duncan Hines baking products, Cheerios, Crunchy Nut corn flakes, HP sauce, Branston pickles and Crisco. They also have sausage and bacon for those who crave an English breakfast. It is fully stocked with Christmas goodies, including Christmas Cakes, puddings, Brandy sauce, double and clotted cream, Christmas crackers, selection boxes, and more. The shop opened in August 2001 and is conveniently located very close to the Westerkerk and Anne Frank House.

British General Stores
1e Constantijn Huygenstraat 94
1054 BX Amsterdam

Tel: 020 6836191
Fax: 020 675 3518
email: lsargent@zonnet.nl
Online: www.britishstore.nl
Open Monday 13.00 TO 18.00
Tuesday to Saturday 10.30 TO 18.00
Thursday open until 21.00
Closed on Sunday




This cosy shop is much more than a grocery store. In addition to Rice Krispies, Heinz baked beans, Tetley's and Twinning teas, Oxo cubes, Vegemite and mint sauce, the shop carries English greeting cards, colouring books and toys. Baking fanatics will appreciate British baking goods such as cream of tartar and self-raising flour. Owner Lin Sargent opened the store back in 1998 and receives her customers with warmth and care. To end the year in style, the store has a selection of Christmas stockings, tree decorations and chocolates, plus some Christmas puddings. Special mail order packages are available according to the season.

Eichholtz
Leidsestraat 48
Amsterdam
Tel. 020 622 0305
Open. Mon-Sat 9am-6.30pm; Sun 1pm-6pm





Homesick Americans will love Eichholtz. Here you'll find various goodies you never thought you’d see again, including the latest cereals, and Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies. They also carry and Hellmann's mayonnaise, Quaker oats, Special K cereal, Philadelphia cream cheese, Pillsbury baking products, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, marshmallows, graham crackers and real maple syrup. If you bake a lot, you will like the range of sugars. Demerara, light muscovado and molasses. The shop is good for English-style Christmas puddings and mince pies and there is also a great range of chocolate available, plus a jar of vegemite or two for homesick Australians.


Tjin's
Eerste van der Helstraat 64
1072 NZ Amsterdam
Tel: 020 671 7708
Fax: 020 664 3730
Open: Mon-Sat 10am-8pm


Tjin's is an Asian grocery store (on a side street off the Albert Cuyp market) that carries American food. You’ll find microwave popcorn, Cheez Its, Duncan Hines frostings, Hershey’s chocolate syrup, Kraft and Cheltenhouse salad dressings, marshmallow Fluff, Karo corn syrup and best of all, ZipLoc bags. The store also carries ingredients for Japanese, Indian, Indonesian and Filipino cooking, and has cooked dishes (Indonesian and Surinam food) for takeaway.

Kingsalmarkt
Rembrandtweg 617-635
Amstelveen
Tel: 020 643 3751

www.kingsalmarkt.nl/


Kingsalmarkt a large, bright store filled with fresh vegetables, fruits and meats, is one of the better markets around the Amsterdam area. They stock typical Dutch grocery items but also expat favourites like cake mixes, HP sauce, breakfast scones and maple syrup.
Bloemendaal

A.A. Rutte
Bloemendaalseweg 20
2061 CK, BLoemendaal
Tel: 023 525 58 12

8:30 - 18:30 daily.
Fridays until 20:0
Saturdays until 18:00


The very friendly people at A.A. Rutte stock English and American foods such as HP Sauce, Bisquick, cake mixes, cereals (Cheerios, Cap'n Crunch, Honey Grahams), Hellman's Mayonnaise and S&W Chili Makin's. At your request they will also make special orders for items such as Log Cabin Maple Syrup. This small, well-stocked shop is worth a visit.

So why am I mentioning this now. Well here is a store we found while wandering around the historic center in Sevilla Spain and no we did not buy anything though we did have a good laugh.

Islands in the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic Seas and Chinese tourists

Years ago when I was a much younger wage slave I watched the movie "Shirley Valentine" and agreed that the protagonist's desire to sit on beach on a Greek island drinking wine would be so hedonistic and wonderful. What I didn't realize at the time and did not fully grasp was the attitudes of many Western travelers were like when taken out of their normal environment and how much they feared the things they did not "know" in their day to day life. 

Well movie reality and real reality are not always the same. When travelling to the islands on our cruise I had envisioned sandy beaches where I could sit and sip an aperitif or two. Well I did get to have a few beers at some port stops but if you have travelled on cruises you will know that sometimes the stops are not long enough to have a casual drink and relax. There are shore excursions or other must see sights to be done before boarding the tender back to the ship. And if you do pull into port you may be one of hundreds bombarding an island at the same time overloading the basic infrastructure of the island. The ship we were on had only had 160 passengers which allowed us to go into ports the larger ships could not. At one port I watch a larger cruise (a floating village or a horizontal floating hotel) ship pull into port and it took almost an hour the passengers to disembarked. Now these hoards are looking for, gasp, a hamburger and fries with a Coke. Not the unique food and flavors of the islands unless that happens to contain some alcohol. the other advantage of our cruise ship was that it was an European based line so catered more to European tastes though the second half of the cruise was mostly Americans and Canadians. The entertainment was provided by a classically trained musician who felt he needed to play "Achy Breaky Heart" over and over. He did play some Frank Sinatra and other pop/rock classics but one night played classical piano in the main lounge. He was interrupted by some noisy North Americans trying to get to the bar during the middle of one piece.

Not all of the larger cruise ships passengers were Westerners many were Chinese. The Chinese are now one of largest groups travelling in the Western world and have surpassed the Japanese. This too has changed Mediterranean travel. One of the most annoying things is trying to get past someone from China taking selfies in the middle of a narrow European passageway not understanding that those of us trying to get some where are queuing up waiting for them to get out of the way. China's National Tourism Administration has issued a 64-page Guidebook for Civilized Tourism (Link here). One of  a few items found include:

The caption reads: “Don’t spit phlegm or gum, throw litter, urinate or defecate wherever you feel like it. Don’t cough, sneeze or pick your nose or teeth in front of others.”




But after awhile with or without the Chinese and other Western tourists the islands dis start to look the same. For many it had to do with Venetian rule and for others it was just a fact of geology. I haven't identified where these photos were taken but will admit I did pick the photos that had similar looks just to prove my point but each and everyone was an adventure to explore.

I have heard from a few of you who read this blog and you too have said many of the same things that Shirley's friends did when she said she was going on her adventure. No I am not really brave I just want to see the world as it really is and not in the way I live day to day at home. This may mean I will eat the local cuisine and obey the local rules but I will be on an adventure.

All those who wander are not lost.

Tall ship, islands, and other adventures

Well I have been a bit remiss about posting to the blog so this will be a catch up on where we were and what we saw. Many of have received photo stories from Google from me though they haven't been narrated very well. I haven't yet figured out how to edit the stories when the photos are taken with two different cameras with different time stamps.

We left Istanbul and boarded our tall ship -  SPV Star Clipper. This is our second cruise on the same ship in the Star Clipper line and we will again board it in Malaga, Spain in November. The first 7 days of the cruise from Istanbul allowed us to visit Troy, 5 Greek islands, and Athens while the second 11 days we visited 4 more Greek islands; Kotor, Montenegro; 3 Croatian islands and Dubrovnik; and ending in Venice. No we did not get invited to George Clooney's wedding in Venice but we did arrive a day earlier and walked through Piazzale Roma. There were a few friends we met on the cruise who did stay in Venice reported seeing the madness associated with the wedding prep.

Dick and I were very disappointed with Athens and found the Greek ruins (yes, I know what the word means) not very well preserved compared to the Greek ruins in Paestum, Italy. And yes, Athens is not doing well financially nor politically. There were lots of failed businesses, dirty streets, graffiti, riot police on many streets, and people picking through trash bins. It didn't help that we were left on our own to find our way back from the center of Athens back to our ship by our tour guide. We were able to make our way back but 6 others in our group had a more difficult time. And when I say it is all Greek to me I do mean it. We did find out where to buy the bus ticket for the local bus back to the port before tour guide left but we were the only ones. There is very little signage in English as far as I could see and 4 of the group were from Bolivia but spoke English (they really got lost as there is more than one terminal at the port but made it back before the ship left that night) and the other two American ladies had an interesting ride back without a ticket which was a good thing as there are fines involved if you ride without one as plain-clothed inspectors make spot checks. The penalty for travelling without a validated ticket is 60 times the ticket price. Now the tickets are only 1.20 euros (about $1.50) but money is tight for many riders so a fine is pretty hefty for many.

We witnessed such an event on our ride back. Though in fairness to the lady who got fined I think she was scammed by another rider. Like in Italy you need to validate your ticket upon boarding and it is good for a limited time. What I think happened was that another lady offered to validate her ticket at the machine on-board but handed her an expired ticket back using a slight of hand trick. As the inspector was checking the tickets she protested that she was handed a "expired ticket" from another passenger and the other lady who did the validation just replied something to the effect that she had a good ticket and didn't know what she was talking about. As the argument proceeded with the inspector the one holding the "good" ticket got off the bus as did most of the rest of the bus riders at the next stop. We got a little worried but had already had our ticket confirmed by the inspector so knew we wouldn't get in trouble. We did finally find the correct stop by asking the driver to tell us when to get off. Granted there were two possible stops we did find the correct one.

Once we got back on board the ship and headed for the rest of our cruise things we fairly well. The Star Clipper is a square rigged sailing ship with automatic sails. This means that the crew doesn't need to climb the masts to set the sails but it does mean that a motor is required to get the sails down. Something happened to one of the top gallant motors so we did not have all of the sails set. there were enough sails to do sailing without the engine assisting most of the time. That was until we sailed between Hvar and Mali Losinji Croatia. As storm came up that but the ship on a 20 degree list in winds equal to a Category 1 hurricane. We didn't really notice it until there was a loud bang and everything in our cabin pitched to one side. I woke up the next morning with a sore spot in my back and realized that it was from Dick's knee hitting my back when the ship listed suddenly. One of our cruise friends reply was "Who said sleeping is an contact sport!" Funny but true. The next morning you couldn't tell there had been a storm other than one of the Staysails was now sitting on the deck with a torn grommet. Not a good thing as the said had just been replaced 3 weeks earlier.

Now for some photos before I describe our return to Italy.

Pantheon in Athens 

Ruins at the New Acropolis Museum

Ruins at the New Acropolis Museum

Acropolis

The Parthenon at the Acropolis

 

Front of the Odeon of Herodes Atticus

 

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

 

Athens beyond the Acropolis

Propylaea

The Erechtheion

The Porch of the Caryatids

 

Theatre of Dionysus

The temple of Hephaestus

Old fort in Myrina Greece

Ouranopolis, Greece

Look upper right hand and note the two crew members hanging off one of the lower topgallant yard

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

We are on our last day in this city full of a wonderful mix of cultures. Istanbul is a transcontinental city, straddling the Bosphorus—one of the world's busiest waterways—in northwestern Turkey, between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical centre lies in Europe, while a third of its population lives in Asia. We were able to visit both European Turkey from Asian Turkey by taking a ferry across the Bosphorus, that blue ribbon of water separating the two sides for less than $4 round trip. 

Istanbul is Turkey's largest city and is constantly reinventing itself in a bid to become Europe's new capital of cool. Istanbul's Past and Future is the story of transformation of modern in Turkey from the last days of the Ottoman Empire through to the fledgling days of the republic, the nation's early aspirations of modernity and the resulting clash between values. Every where you look you see women still dressed in traditional garb, modern clothes with head scarves, and a small minority in full black burkas. Men seem to manage most of the businesses but in many shops women also work. Cats and dogs wander every where while being fed and watered by everyone. It does appear that there is a neutering program as many dogs had ear tags indicating being neutered. Didn't see the same with the cats and saw many intact tom cats.

But the citizens of Istanbul are very friendly a welcoming. Yes, we tourists are a main source of income for the city but it all is a sincere warmth. Many times we got lost an someone would stop and help us find where we wanted wanted to go even if they did not speak much English. Dick got a haircut and shave (something every man should try when visiting) and the barber asked me if I would like some tea while I waited. The haircut and shave was also an interesting experience to watch. Not only did Dick's hair get cut but his ears were waxed to remove his "wisdom hairs" as well as taming his unruly eyebrows. 

The transportation system is also modern and old. Modern light rail whisk commuters around the city while old tired looking but functional ferries transport you across the Bosphorus or up the Golden Horn. And it is very cheap to travel option for tourists.

We are now off to catch our tall ship and will stop in Troy on our way to Greece.

Entering the city from the Ataturk Airport

Not sure why this was below our hotel room window

Looking from European side to the Asian side of Istanbul

Dolmabahçe Palace

Galata Tower

Tile detail at Topkapi Palace

Blue Mosque interior

Very functional light rail

Ferry to the Asian side

Shoe shine stand and also does shoe repair

Blue Mosque segregation  

Spice Market-this doesn't even begin to capture the frenzy and multitude of people crowed in a small market space