nykeiko shops: Links of London Sample Sale [September 2015 NYC Sample Sale]

I'm back for less than a week and back to covering sample sales. The first one is 'Links of London'. Here's my report for Racked NY. Hoping I can snag some friendship bracelets as gifts but at $50-$75 a pop, I decided it wasn't worth it and came out empty handed. Some of the silver effervescent bracelets looked really nice on me but with no occasions to wear such shiny baubles, $300 for a bracelet seemed steep.

nykeiko travels: 2 weeks, 4 countries later...and Valais blacknose sheep!

Four countries make a lot of selfies #noselfiestickrequired

We are back!

Although I am very sad that our vacation has come to an end, I am very relieved that we are back home. Back home in our own bed, using our own products and eating home cooked meals instead of eating out all the time (thanks Dave's parents for picking us up at the airport and offering us home-cooked food and fruits and vegetables for the week!!). When Dave and I parted ways on Monday to head to work, I thought it was weird we would be apart for the whole day after spending so many days non-stop together. I told him I would miss him.  "At least we are not sick of each other yet!" he replies. He says the sweetest things!

I was hoping our trip would be a semi-relaxing one since it is after all, a vacation! We did A LOT of walking. We calculated maybe an average of about 17,000 steps each day. Some days we reached over 30,000 steps and walked over 110 miles in total. We know this because of Dave's Fitbit and my iPhone 'heart' app. We walked a lot but also ate a lot. I think I have never ate so much cheese in my life like a whole pot of fondue with bread and potatoes in one sitting.

Here is one of the highlights for me on our trip which was meeting these Valais Blacknose sheep on my birthday.

They had this waxy smoky thing on top of their hand that stained us for days...

Nykeiko travels: On our way to Gruyeres ...

Random journal entry. 

Switzerland day 5:

Dave stops the car by this old dumpy cabin, jumps out of the car with our SLR. I don't see what he wants to take a picture of but I stay in the car to wait for him. 

"You should be happy I want to take pictures!"

I was. Although Dave bought the SLR, I am usually the person taking pictures of our journey while Dave is more picky about what he decides is picture worthy. I, on the other hand document everything we do, eat and see. 

Today is our last day in Switzerland. Next stop is Paris! 

nykeiko travels: Hello from Amsterdam!

Hello!

In Weesp Amsterdam

Dave and I have finally made it to Europe. We planned this trip in less than two months (again, Dave gets all the credit in planning). I took care of the hotel in Amsterdam (courtesy of Citizen M) and that is about it. It's our fourth day here in Amsterdam and we leave tomorrow for one evening in Milan and then to Switzerland for 5 days! We are then off to Paris for 7 days and then back home! Dave booked some apartments for Milan and Switzerland and in Paris, we will be staying at a friend's for one night and the rest at fancy Hyatt hotels around town (courtesy of our Hyatt credit card). 

Amsterdam has been great but cloudy, rainy and cold. I had to buy a blanket to keep extra warm and Dave reluctantly bought a souvenir hat (although he loves how his head is super warm!). We're a bit worried about Switzerland now where temperatures in Zermatt are hovering around sub freezing temperature.

We managed to meet up with a couple of friends and even randomly bumped into Dave's coworker! We have stayed mostly in the city but today, we borrowed bikes from the hotel, took a train and rode around Weesp all day. I haven't been on a bike for a while so now my butt is super sore. Dave's souvenir hat became my butt mat and it was great. 

We tried most of the recommended dutch delicacies such as the Flemish fries (at Vleminckx Sausmeesters), smoked herring and stroopwafel (both at the Albert Cuyptmarkt). We didn't do the croquettes nor pancakes. What we did try is lots of Asian food. The city is filled with Thai, Indonesian and Chinese cuisine. We tried two thai restaurants (delicious noodle soup at Sawaddee Ka) and a Surinamese one in some hip neighborhood which we wouldn't recommend. All the dutch restaurants we tried have been misses. I'll try to blog about some of them later!

I didn't bring my laptop on this trip so here are a couple of pictures from my phone. Here is one of us on a cold rainy day by one of the many canals in the city. My blanket cost $49.50 Euros. It's made in Italy and only 20% wool but has served me well.