bill on tour: amsterdam, part 3...
I knew that once I got back to work I wouldn't have time to continue my report anymore. *sigh* Anyway, here's the next part, sorry for the delay!
V. Amsterdam, second stay, part 2: Amsterdam ArenA & Ajax training.
Thursday was Ajax day. I'm not really what you'd call an Ajax fan, but they're my favourite Dutch club, and since a holiday to a city is never complete for me without a stadium tour, there were two good reasons to visit the Amsterdam ArenA. Also, Lhun told me that Ajax had public training, so we decided to go there as well. And it was absolutely fantastic. Not only did we get to see hilarious things at training, but we also got to meet the Ajax players and take photos with them! And the stadium tour was incredibly interesting as well as funny because we had an awesome (and incredibly cute) tour guide. :D
The stadium and the training pitch.
The supporters' home. I LOVE graffiti like this.
Awesome, isn't it? By the way, the three crosses are the city of Amsterdam's sign.
O hai, Ajax!
These guys were playing a very funny game during which everyone had to hold hands. I approve! XD
Horsing about! I loved how so much stuff that we write in fanfiction actually happens in real life! XDD
Goalie training. This is Maarten Stekelenburg diving for a ball.
This is how close they were. OH MY GOD.
Darío Cvitanich looking a bit confused. By the way, I took LOTS of pics of him. Consider that a warning. Also, the guy on the right totally reminded me of Santi Cazorla. ;) His name is Ismaïl Aissati, which sounds like 'Santi' and doesn't really help me remember what he's really called. XD
Oleguer and Evander Sno, who was obviously training with Ajax for the first time because someone had to explain one of the exercises to him. At length. And it wasn't even such a difficult exercise! I don't understand Dutch, but I got the rules of the game after about 30 seconds of watching it. Oh, and when the explanation was over, Evander repeated it for himself, and the other guy went "Yes... yes... yes..." all the time. Lhun and I nearly died laughing. XD
Pretty butts! :D
Oleguer was totally Darío's stalker. XDD
Told you there were a lot of pics of him. ;)
Maarten! At the beginning, he always turned around when I wanted to take a pic of him, so I had to take lots of pics of his back or his side. *pouts*
Hee! :D
Smiling emo!goalie! What a rare sight! XD
Action shot.
The beginning of the game that Evander didn't get. ;)
I love this pose. XD
Who are you hiding from?
I loved how both goalies kept shouting stuff at their players, directing them and coaching them. The coach himself didn't say as much as the goalies did. Lhun translated a couple of things to me, and apparently Kenneth Vermeer told several players to keep their legs closed. XDD
I also made a couple of videos of this little game, the links are below.
Training pitch!
The stadium café. We had a couple of drinks there and admired the interior and the many jerseys of former players on the walls.
Obviously David Villa is going to transfer to Ajax in summer. They've already built an arena for him, after all. It's located right opposite the stadium café and amused me muchly.
Outside the fanshop.
***
Training videos:
[currently in the process of uploading, drop me a comment and I'll notify you when they're available!]
- Are these guys really at work? XD
- Red vs Orange.
- "Darío! Darío! Darío!"
- And then, suddenly, they dropped to the floor.
Red won, by the way. ;)
***
When we had more or less calmed down after training and meeting the players (I have pics of that as well, of course, but they'll be filtered because I'm on them and I don't want everyone and their mother to know what I look like), we took the stadium tour.
This is where it starts!
Graffiti in front of the Ultras block.
Main terrace! The way the seats are decorated actually has a meaning. The figure in the middle is the Greek Ajax, who gave the name to the club. It's drawn of 11 lines, standing for 11 players. Red and white are Ajax' colours. The three red crosses stand for Amsterdam. Yellow, green and blue are the colours of other sports clubs that used to play in this arena, but I forgot who exactly they are. They're not using the arena anymore today, though.
This line of club honours goes through the whole stadium. What an impressive record.
The press seats.
View from the highest level of the stadium. :D
The bench! OMG, those seats were so comfortable. I definitely wouldn't mind spending 90 minutes sitting there! XD
Everyone taking the stadium tour had to stand on this little carpet and got photographed. The photos were offered for purchase later.
Press conference room! And a little glimpse of Dirk, our adorable tour guide. *snicker* The seat on the far right is the one for the Man of the Match, the one next to him the coach's, then there's the press official's, and the one on the far left is, according to the tour guide, the least important, the one of the away team's coach. XD
Ajax's three shirts of this season.
Ajax legends. I only recognised Johan Cruyff, but Lhun managed to recognise a lot more. XD
Control room!
Security monitors. The cameras in the stadium are so good that you can even read the numbers on the seats if you zoom in. I commented that this was excellent for getting a good view of injured players. Of course, I meant the one sitting in the audience, but Lhun was thinking of the ones on the pitch and said, "Yeah, like when their shorts ride up..." Our tour guide who was in his very early twenties heard that, blushed, giggled a little, and then walked away quickly. XDD OMG, we laughed so hard.
Trophies! If you didn't know, Ajax have won the Champions League four times, just like Bayern München.
This shirt belongs to Lokomotive Leipzig. Yeah, they actually were in the European competition at some point in history, even though it's very hard to believe. :D
Huge wall with pictures of all national team players that came from Ajax.
Like Rafael van der Vaart and Ryan Babel.
Or these two pretties. :D
Someone must not have approved of Huntelaar going to Real Madrid. His portrait was all scratched. :(
Nigel de Jong when he was at Ajax, still had hair, and still seemed nice. He somehow changed his image in Germany. And Oranje's most recent call-up, Urby Emanuelson.
Would you have recognised them? I must say I find it very difficult to recognise Edgar Davids with short hair and without the glasses! He looks like a completely different person! XD Van der Sar was a lot easier to recognise, but... THE EARS! XDD
People who ordered coffee at the stadium café got this little bunny on their saucers. I thought that was incredibly adorable and had to take a photo of it. Funnily enough, I didn't even understand the reason for it at first and said it was hilarious that they had bunnies at the café, not footballs or something else. Yeah, I totally forgot it was close to Easter. XD
Also, I have two pics of Lhun's flat that I forgot to post earlier:
Lhun's Atmospheric BathroomTM. The light was broken, so we had to use candles, and it just ROCKED. XD
New Ajax poster on Lhun's wall!
AND! Of course I have to show you all the souvenirs I brought from my trip! :D It's rather funny how I spent lots and lots of money while the rest of the world seems to be in a financial crisis. *LOL* But of course, this crisis doesn't affect my wages, and I had worked hard for my money, so I thought I'd spend some on things I liked, especially since they're a lot more expensive when you order them online. Yes, I thought this through. ;)
Of course, I couldn't leave Liverpool without buying a jersey. :D
CROATIA! XD
Is anyone surprised? ;)
More loot from Liverpool: menu from Carra's restaurant, Rafa mug, milk chocolate, This is Anfield mug, Liverpool vs Real Madrid programme, ManU vs Liverpool shirt (couldn't resist XD), Hillsborough CD "Fields of Anfield Road", LFC Family Album, museum guide (the only language available was Spanish - I'm not kidding, they didn't even have an English guide there XD). I also bought a towel, but it's currently in my Mum's laundry so I couldn't take a photo.
I didn't order this but was very tempted to. XD
Hee! :D
Of course I had to buy this as well. As soon as it's completely flat, I'm going to hang it on the wall opposite my front door so it'll be the first thing people see when entering my flat. :D
Lhun gave me the penis-shaped egg fryer and the Jelly Willies as a present. (And penis pasta, but I didn't manage to fit it into my suitcase.) XDD The eyeballs are from the Amsterdam Dungeon, you put salt and pepper in them. I thought that was perfect for my next Halloween party. And, finally, I bought McFly's "Radio:ACTIVE" album. Can't believe it took me so long to get this. ;)
I gave Lhun a gift voucher for a Real Madrid shirt for her birthday, and she ordered it while I was in Amsterdam. We didn't want to waste the shipping cost entirely, so I also ordered this shirt for myself. :D
Souvenirs from Ajax: a museum guide, autograph cards of Maarten Stekelenburg and Darío Cvitanich, and Ajax's captainband. So fucking awesome.
This is the last public post of my trip. (I can hear relieved exhales. XD) I hope you enjoyed the reports, and I hope I managed to convey how much I enjoyed my vacation! I'm definitely going to visit Amsterdam and Liverpool again as soon as time and money permit! Again, please don't repost these pictures. If you want to repost them, please ask me first.
Also, thanks a million to my kind and wonderful hosts, lhuneldaiel and sebastiona. Meeting you was awesome, I had a fantastic time, thank you for showing me your cities, taking me to all the major sights, allowing me to stay with you! lhuneldaiel, I still can't believe you spoiled me like that. You totally need to give me the recipes for the noodle soup I had on my first evening and the blue cheese & broccoli soup! :D And sebastiona, I wish I could have spent more time with you, you're an angel. *mwah* You guys are the best ever, I'm so lucky to know you. ♥♥♥
V. Amsterdam, second stay, part 2: Amsterdam ArenA & Ajax training.
Thursday was Ajax day. I'm not really what you'd call an Ajax fan, but they're my favourite Dutch club, and since a holiday to a city is never complete for me without a stadium tour, there were two good reasons to visit the Amsterdam ArenA. Also, Lhun told me that Ajax had public training, so we decided to go there as well. And it was absolutely fantastic. Not only did we get to see hilarious things at training, but we also got to meet the Ajax players and take photos with them! And the stadium tour was incredibly interesting as well as funny because we had an awesome (and incredibly cute) tour guide. :D
The stadium and the training pitch.
The supporters' home. I LOVE graffiti like this.
Awesome, isn't it? By the way, the three crosses are the city of Amsterdam's sign.
O hai, Ajax!
These guys were playing a very funny game during which everyone had to hold hands. I approve! XD
Horsing about! I loved how so much stuff that we write in fanfiction actually happens in real life! XDD
Goalie training. This is Maarten Stekelenburg diving for a ball.
This is how close they were. OH MY GOD.
Darío Cvitanich looking a bit confused. By the way, I took LOTS of pics of him. Consider that a warning. Also, the guy on the right totally reminded me of Santi Cazorla. ;) His name is Ismaïl Aissati, which sounds like 'Santi' and doesn't really help me remember what he's really called. XD
Oleguer and Evander Sno, who was obviously training with Ajax for the first time because someone had to explain one of the exercises to him. At length. And it wasn't even such a difficult exercise! I don't understand Dutch, but I got the rules of the game after about 30 seconds of watching it. Oh, and when the explanation was over, Evander repeated it for himself, and the other guy went "Yes... yes... yes..." all the time. Lhun and I nearly died laughing. XD
Pretty butts! :D
Oleguer was totally Darío's stalker. XDD
Told you there were a lot of pics of him. ;)
Maarten! At the beginning, he always turned around when I wanted to take a pic of him, so I had to take lots of pics of his back or his side. *pouts*
Hee! :D
Smiling emo!goalie! What a rare sight! XD
Action shot.
The beginning of the game that Evander didn't get. ;)
I love this pose. XD
Who are you hiding from?
I loved how both goalies kept shouting stuff at their players, directing them and coaching them. The coach himself didn't say as much as the goalies did. Lhun translated a couple of things to me, and apparently Kenneth Vermeer told several players to keep their legs closed. XDD
I also made a couple of videos of this little game, the links are below.
Training pitch!
The stadium café. We had a couple of drinks there and admired the interior and the many jerseys of former players on the walls.
Obviously David Villa is going to transfer to Ajax in summer. They've already built an arena for him, after all. It's located right opposite the stadium café and amused me muchly.
Outside the fanshop.
***
Training videos:
[currently in the process of uploading, drop me a comment and I'll notify you when they're available!]
- Are these guys really at work? XD
- Red vs Orange.
- "Darío! Darío! Darío!"
- And then, suddenly, they dropped to the floor.
Red won, by the way. ;)
***
When we had more or less calmed down after training and meeting the players (I have pics of that as well, of course, but they'll be filtered because I'm on them and I don't want everyone and their mother to know what I look like), we took the stadium tour.
This is where it starts!
Graffiti in front of the Ultras block.
Main terrace! The way the seats are decorated actually has a meaning. The figure in the middle is the Greek Ajax, who gave the name to the club. It's drawn of 11 lines, standing for 11 players. Red and white are Ajax' colours. The three red crosses stand for Amsterdam. Yellow, green and blue are the colours of other sports clubs that used to play in this arena, but I forgot who exactly they are. They're not using the arena anymore today, though.
This line of club honours goes through the whole stadium. What an impressive record.
The press seats.
View from the highest level of the stadium. :D
The bench! OMG, those seats were so comfortable. I definitely wouldn't mind spending 90 minutes sitting there! XD
Everyone taking the stadium tour had to stand on this little carpet and got photographed. The photos were offered for purchase later.
Press conference room! And a little glimpse of Dirk, our adorable tour guide. *snicker* The seat on the far right is the one for the Man of the Match, the one next to him the coach's, then there's the press official's, and the one on the far left is, according to the tour guide, the least important, the one of the away team's coach. XD
Ajax's three shirts of this season.
Ajax legends. I only recognised Johan Cruyff, but Lhun managed to recognise a lot more. XD
Control room!
Security monitors. The cameras in the stadium are so good that you can even read the numbers on the seats if you zoom in. I commented that this was excellent for getting a good view of injured players. Of course, I meant the one sitting in the audience, but Lhun was thinking of the ones on the pitch and said, "Yeah, like when their shorts ride up..." Our tour guide who was in his very early twenties heard that, blushed, giggled a little, and then walked away quickly. XDD OMG, we laughed so hard.
Trophies! If you didn't know, Ajax have won the Champions League four times, just like Bayern München.
This shirt belongs to Lokomotive Leipzig. Yeah, they actually were in the European competition at some point in history, even though it's very hard to believe. :D
Huge wall with pictures of all national team players that came from Ajax.
Like Rafael van der Vaart and Ryan Babel.
Or these two pretties. :D
Someone must not have approved of Huntelaar going to Real Madrid. His portrait was all scratched. :(
Nigel de Jong when he was at Ajax, still had hair, and still seemed nice. He somehow changed his image in Germany. And Oranje's most recent call-up, Urby Emanuelson.
Would you have recognised them? I must say I find it very difficult to recognise Edgar Davids with short hair and without the glasses! He looks like a completely different person! XD Van der Sar was a lot easier to recognise, but... THE EARS! XDD
People who ordered coffee at the stadium café got this little bunny on their saucers. I thought that was incredibly adorable and had to take a photo of it. Funnily enough, I didn't even understand the reason for it at first and said it was hilarious that they had bunnies at the café, not footballs or something else. Yeah, I totally forgot it was close to Easter. XD
Also, I have two pics of Lhun's flat that I forgot to post earlier:
Lhun's Atmospheric BathroomTM. The light was broken, so we had to use candles, and it just ROCKED. XD
New Ajax poster on Lhun's wall!
AND! Of course I have to show you all the souvenirs I brought from my trip! :D It's rather funny how I spent lots and lots of money while the rest of the world seems to be in a financial crisis. *LOL* But of course, this crisis doesn't affect my wages, and I had worked hard for my money, so I thought I'd spend some on things I liked, especially since they're a lot more expensive when you order them online. Yes, I thought this through. ;)
Of course, I couldn't leave Liverpool without buying a jersey. :D
CROATIA! XD
Is anyone surprised? ;)
More loot from Liverpool: menu from Carra's restaurant, Rafa mug, milk chocolate, This is Anfield mug, Liverpool vs Real Madrid programme, ManU vs Liverpool shirt (couldn't resist XD), Hillsborough CD "Fields of Anfield Road", LFC Family Album, museum guide (the only language available was Spanish - I'm not kidding, they didn't even have an English guide there XD). I also bought a towel, but it's currently in my Mum's laundry so I couldn't take a photo.
I didn't order this but was very tempted to. XD
Hee! :D
Of course I had to buy this as well. As soon as it's completely flat, I'm going to hang it on the wall opposite my front door so it'll be the first thing people see when entering my flat. :D
Lhun gave me the penis-shaped egg fryer and the Jelly Willies as a present. (And penis pasta, but I didn't manage to fit it into my suitcase.) XDD The eyeballs are from the Amsterdam Dungeon, you put salt and pepper in them. I thought that was perfect for my next Halloween party. And, finally, I bought McFly's "Radio:ACTIVE" album. Can't believe it took me so long to get this. ;)
I gave Lhun a gift voucher for a Real Madrid shirt for her birthday, and she ordered it while I was in Amsterdam. We didn't want to waste the shipping cost entirely, so I also ordered this shirt for myself. :D
Souvenirs from Ajax: a museum guide, autograph cards of Maarten Stekelenburg and Darío Cvitanich, and Ajax's captainband. So fucking awesome.
This is the last public post of my trip. (I can hear relieved exhales. XD) I hope you enjoyed the reports, and I hope I managed to convey how much I enjoyed my vacation! I'm definitely going to visit Amsterdam and Liverpool again as soon as time and money permit! Again, please don't repost these pictures. If you want to repost them, please ask me first.
Also, thanks a million to my kind and wonderful hosts, lhuneldaiel and sebastiona. Meeting you was awesome, I had a fantastic time, thank you for showing me your cities, taking me to all the major sights, allowing me to stay with you! lhuneldaiel, I still can't believe you spoiled me like that. You totally need to give me the recipes for the noodle soup I had on my first evening and the blue cheese & broccoli soup! :D And sebastiona, I wish I could have spent more time with you, you're an angel. *mwah* You guys are the best ever, I'm so lucky to know you. ♥♥♥