October 21 was a good day for running, with a nice cool morning and with a small chill only later in the day. The nice weather was a piece of good luck since that was the day of the Amsterdam marathon. I would have loved to take part but this year I'm again relegated to the sidelines. I couldn't run the marathon, but I could at least watch and cheer people on.

My first spot was on the Stadionweg, a few kilometres from the start. Here are the leaders as they came by for the first time. For the first time, because the marathon had a short loop at the beginning so runners ran this portion of the Stadionweg twice. They then started to head south towards a beautiful stretch of the Amstel river.





The marathon was not just for the professionals, of course. A lot of regular folks took part as well, as can be seen in the next video. The runners are moving quite fast and looking fit. I moved to the Vondelpark's entrance later in the day to watch runners pass the 39 km mark, and most of them didn't look so enthusiastic anymore. I can understand; I didn't take any photos at that point.




There was also some wackiness. Running a marathon is difficult, but running it while dressed up as a giraffe must be something else.



It was also fun to see many runners wearing flags from their home country. The English, French, Belgians, and (of course) the Danes were out in force. One of my clear memories from the 2005 race was that there were relatively few people watching from the side of the road but many of them were cheering for Denmark!

Emmanuel Mutai from Kenya won the men's race in 2:06.29 and countrywomen MagdalineChemjor won her race with a time of 2:28.16. Twenty six runners clocked in at under 2:20 which I think is extremely fast.

Last week was my birthday, which in my opinion is a perfect time to eat interesting and tasty food. There are a few things I tried out for the first time.

First off, I tried to take part in an amusing Dutch habit: buy inexpensive cake at the supermarket, bring it in to your place of work or study, and invite everybody whose around to eat it with you! So this is exactly what I did. It didn't go off without a hitch, since there were no clean forks and a big group of people was just heading into a lecture. But all in all, very nice. I can't help thinking though that since it's your birthday, somebody else should be buying the cake for you! I'm told that is the wrong way to think about it.


Dutch habits are all well and good, but what about Danish birthday habits? I was treated to some of those as well, thanks to Anna Juulsgaard Breum. Below you'll see photos of us posing with an authentic Danish birthday cake, with some ingredients brought all the way from Denmark! A big success with lots of layers and fruit, and only the Albert Heijn whipped cream unable to hold its own.






Last but not least, Maoz falafel by the Albert Cuypmarkt. I'm can't claim that it is associated with any birthday habits, but it is really, really good. The falafel is fried right before your eyes, and you can keep on going back to the salad bar to load up your pita with goodies. And it's all vegetarian. This was not my first time to Maoz, so I can give you a word of advice: if you're not sure which of the green sauces is the hot one, ask someone. The hot sauce is incredibly hot, and a large accidental dose once left me unable to move for 15 minutes.



It was nice to hear from so many of you!

Who are these mysterious men?




Well, it's Jesse and Lazar of course, who I met up with last weekend in Amsterdam. Jesse was heading towards Palestine where he'll be working as a journalist - he has now safely arrived if I'm to believe what I see on the internet and has posted a first story. Lazar is also studying in the Netherlands, at the Institute for Social Studies in the Hague. It was nice to see them!