Ticking off the list.

A rain-free last weekend of September in the city of Amsterdam has come and gone ever so kindly. October holds a significantly busier academia schedule for the life of a psychology exchange student with all deadlines and exams taking place in three weeks from now. And hence, the September sun was taken full advantage of, and ticks were added to the bucket list. And here's how:

Post-exam celebration at Brouwerij 't IJ - A microbrewery in Amsterdam situated right infront of The Gooyer mill. Although contrary to popular belief, the windmill in fact serves no collaborative purpose with this bar/brewery.

Thuishaven Festival:
Beautiful day. Friendly neighbours. Dancing.

Jacob the cocktail/smoothie guru. 

The sky that day was beyond.

Jacob and Mich doing some bonding before he moves to greener pastures, away from the good-old shipping containers.

'The Cool Pose'

The beautiful Parisian bringing some French Flavor to the equation.

Beauty. 

En Route.

Thuishaven - The home by the harbour. 

Een kleine feestje!

And to round off the weekend - Monday Muiden. Shannon and I hopped on a bus Monday afternoon and explored the small picturesque town of Muiden. With a mere five minute walk from the highway, one immediately enters a quiet scenery where wind and birds chirping are the sounds which fill your ears. As you can imagine, this certainly is a change from the ringing of bicycle bells and tram signals. Muiden is a minuscule town. We initially went there with the purpose of seeing the Muiderslot Castle, which was a vision in it's own. Yet we were equally impressed by the town surroundings. Large stretches of green land and lakes suddenly became more beautiful than ever and the sight of a good couple of cows mindlessly chewing was peculiarly appreciated. Unfortunately our time at the castle was limited because we arrived slightly before closing hours, so perhaps lucky for you I won't be delving into a historical rendition of the Muiderslot Castle. There's always Wikipedia for that. Nevertheless we were able to enter the grounds and gain a slight understanding of the inner realms of the Castle.

TOURISTS!

Muiderslot

To The Tower

Irish Muppet ;)

From the top of the Castle.

Too much fresh countryside air.

Definition of content.

'Bench of dreams'

The day ended with an unbelievable sunset and minutes wasted waiting for my lost wallet which I so cleverly left on the bus and as a result have landed myself a mountain of admin to sort out. But as the Chinese philosophy of yin and yang so often reminds me, there is no 'good' without 'bad'. It's an intertwined whole. And things such as loss of objects can be (and is) trivial if the positive is your primary cognitive focus. And if the above photo's are anything to go by, there sure was a lot of countryside positivity in my Monday.