Weekend Playtime in de Pijp

What happens when you mix no sleep with three cups of coffee and two early hours of Nicki Minaj??
Back story: on Friday night I had to work until 1am. When Saturday morning generously followed in suit (sigh), I started climbing the walls. Why hadn’t the weekend started yet?! It was already half way over! When I hit ‘send’ on my last e-mail ’round lunchtime, celebration was in order. Cue kitchen dance party! I got through approximately three Nicki Minaj tracks before B kicked me out of the house, embarrassed, because he had friends over. Fine, I didn’t want to play with you guys anyways!

Enter my Saturday playground, lovely de Pijp. A cozy corner of Amsterdam where I spend my early mornings, evenings, and weekends shopping, strolling, and taking in the views.

I live on a pedestrian-only street that is lined with shops and restaurants and bikes. It’s pretty ideal – everything I need is literally at my doorstep! There are butchers and yogurt shops and concept coffee stores.Vintage clothes and toys for kids. Can you believe this cute little giraffe is my neighbor?If you’re thinking it’s all a bit too urban for you, simply stroll on to the next block. Here you will find Sarphatipark, a brief oasis of greenery in an otherwise very cramped city. In the park dogs play, and ducks swim. And at this time of year, all of the trees are dying in a brilliant shade.Hyper and lacking play buddies, I befriended some really cool turkey-ducks. Or lat least that’s what I started calling them, because it’s close to thanksgiving and they do look like some kind of exotic game you would stumble upon in a fall walk., IE. a turkey. But they’re really ducks. Turkey-ducks. I made pretend to feed them (just did a throwing gesture!) and they came right over to say hi. Hi duck with a cool purple feather, you would make a pretty hat but I like you as a duck.There were lots of seagulls in the park too, all just kind of chillin’ for once which was a nice change, seagulls are normally quite bothersome! Across from the park is B’s favorite street in all of de Pijp. When B and I go for a walk and he gets to navigate, we always end up on this street. It’s his usual to end the walk on, saying goodnight to our favorite houses last. On the other side of the park is another de Pijp gem, de Emaillekeizer. They mainly sell enamelware (damn my lack of storage space!!) but also have a lot of handicrafts from West Africa, such as baskets, lamps, mats, and jewelry (I stole that from the website, go look, it’s cool). If you and I are friends, you can expect to get a token from there for Christmas!!Venturing down the Albert Cuypstraat is not my favorite thing to do on a Saturday afternoon, as this is peak shopping time and it’s usually swarming with people. But to close the loop this was the quickest way to get home, so I took a deep breath and dove into the crowd. Some of the purses really crack me up – check out these owl ones!And of course some of the last stalls I pass before reaching home are the absolute smelliest. But I don’t mind. Fresh squid might not smell delicious but it sure does taste good. And it looks so squiggly and fun!And on that note I am now going to say goodnight. I hope you enjoyed weekend playtime in de Pijp! Night night. Xx