“Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”
– G.K. Chesterton
Two mornings ago, with about five hours to kill on a layover in Amsterdam, I caught a train into the city center.
The journey took but twenty minutes, and within half an hour, I was seated along the Singel Canal at a little English tea room called Greenwoods, fleece blanket over my legs, order placed for Eggs Benedict and a pot of Darjeeling tea, second flush.
It isn’t often that I know with such specificity how I’ll spend my time in a city, but it just so happens that three months earlier, I had the exact same layover on my way to Prague, as well as the exact same meal at Greenwoods. It only felt fitting to end this sketching trip the way it began.
Over these last three months, some things in Amsterdam hadn’t changed. The city was still beautiful, especially its tall narrow houses. The canals were still lively with boats, and I still walked in the way of every cyclist, invoking their wrath as they pedaled to work.
But really, more had changed than not. The lingering summer warmth of early September was gone. This time, the air was biting and I could see my breath as I began to sketch the canal. I was also missing someone – while I began this trip with my mother, I had said goodbye to her in Vienna and continued down through the Balkans and Turkey alone.
In my mother’s place, the chair opposite me was now occupied by my portfolio – bursting at the seams with Christmas presents and full sketchbooks.
In September, these books were nothing but blank pages, anticipating the adventures to come.
After I’d finished my Eggs Benedict and was about to begin painting, a couple named Patrick and Britt stopped at the table and asked me if I sketch much when I travel. I could only smile and say that as a matter of fact I do.
Patrick told me he always buys a piece of original artwork wherever he visits, and asked if I had any other sketches with me. Again, I could only marvel at the coincidence. Soon I was taking off the fleece blanket, digging through my portfolio, and pulling out sketchbooks from Prague and Vienna, Mostar and Dublin, and of course, from the Evliya Çelebi Way in Turkey.
As they looked through the sketches, all of us shivering in the cold, it felt almost like a sketching-trip-in-review, and a crazy wave of gratitude washed over me – to see what so many blank pages had been transformed into in just three months.
And really, that’s what is most on my mind this Thursday morning – which also happens to be Thanksgiving here in the US. I’ve snuck upstairs to write this, as my pumpkin pies cool in the kitchen and our 12-pound turkey continues to bake. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is on TV and I’m awaiting the arrival of my grandmother and aunt in a couple of hours. For the first time in six years, I am home for Thanksgiving.
My Thanksgiving posts over the years have focused on different themes – be it the people who made my time in India so meaningful, or the travel experiences I was grateful to have had. But this year, I really just want to say thank you to you, to those of you who take the time to read this blog, and how through doing so, have helped me find my path as a writer and sketch artist.
Your support and kind words throughout the year, and on this most recent trip in particular, have been hugely influential. This time last year, sketching was something I occasionally did on the road. Now it has become the very thing I travel for, and plans and projects for next year are already unfolding because of it.
I have loved sharing stories and sketches from this trip with you (and will continue to do so over the next few weeks!), but I just want to take this moment to thank you for following along – and more importantly, for helping me believe in what I do.
Whether you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today or not, I hope you find a bit of time to say your own prayer of gratitude.
For life’s many crazy blessings, for new cities to explore, for the gift of home, and of course, for pumpkin pie.
Happy Thanksgiving, my dear friend! Though we don’t celebrate the holiday, I still delight in the opportunity to give thanks, and offer mine to you – thank you for taking me with you on so many beautiful adventures, and thank you for the adventures yet to come. Now go enjoy that pie – I actually have an apple pie cooling here in France, so I will think of you as I eat it, and raise my glass of wine to you and your family xxx
Thank you for your lovely comment, Hannah! That apple pie sounds just wonderful (as does the glass of wine, of course), so please enjoy it for me. Can’t wait to read your next slice of life from the French countryside! Will you and Lee be spending Christmas at the chateaux as well, or heading back to the UK to be with family? xx
Lovely sketch. I really like the detail in your buildings behind the canal. The bike just had to be included too didn’t it- there’s so many!
Thanks, Katie! The bike was actually what drew my eye to this scene right away, and I initially thought I might focus only on the bike and the little planted shrubs. But then I realized that as this would be my only sketch from Amsterdam, there was no way I couldn’t include even a few of the city’s quintessential houses and a signature canal 🙂 Really glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, what a wonderfully written post… it makes me sad I couldn’t be home for Thanksgiving this year! I just had a quick question- what camera and lens do you use? I LOVE your photos!
Thank you, Ashley! I’m sorry you weren’t able to make it home for Thanksgiving this year, but I’m sure future celebrations will mean that much more after having missed a few of them 🙂 By the way, I sent you an email today with details about my camera and lens…please let me know if there’s anything else I can help!
I have to say that I’m very impressed you stepped out of the airport on a 5-hr layover. I’d be way too paranoid to do that, but now that I know it can be done, I’m going to try it next time (given that the airport is easily accessible and doesn’t take forever to get to, like Newark or JFK, ahem).
Lastly, Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, Candace!! It must be nice to be home for the holiday 🙂
Thanks so much, Pauline! It is indeed wonderful to be home for the holidays 🙂 And if you have a longer layover in Amsterdam (I’d say at least 4-5 hours long), I definitely recommend popping into the city center. As I wrote above, the train only takes about 20 minutes, and there are lots of beautiful canals and alleyways to explore right by the central station. I asked some of the security guys at the airport how much time to give myself on the way back in, and they suggested being back about 1.5-2 hours before your flight to go through security again. Hope that helps!
‘Thanks’ for ‘giving’ us a wonderful and beautiful experience through your written words and artistry. May it continue!
Thank you for that, Mark! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed glimpsing the world through the lens of my sketchbook 🙂 Have a wonderful holiday season!
A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you, Candace! It’s great that you got to be home with your family to celebrate and write this lovely post. Oddly, I felt thankful for your gratitude – if that makes any sense? ha!
Thank you so much for the Thanksgiving wishes, Alyssa, and I so appreciate your kind words! By the way, I just went and got a little caught up on your blog and saw you recently got a job! Looks like we both have lots to be grateful for right now 🙂 Huge congrats!
Thanksgiving is already long gone and the turkey, pumpkin pie and other goodies no doubt completely dealt with. Family too have gone their separate ways.
But I couldn’t let the moment pass without in turn thanking you for your sketches and writing. You have laid open a world to explore (vicariously), and also lent impetus already to a couple of journeys. In conjunction with Hannah you belong unashamably to my favourite blogger ‘collection’. The list is not long.
Best for the festive season ahead. And to where the path leads in the near future.
Gerald, I can’t thank you enough for your kind words. I’m so grateful to you for following along, and loved hearing that you’ve enjoyed these visual journeys as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing them! I’m also really glad you’ve found inspiration here for your own travels and can’t wait to hear where you decide to visit next. Have a wonderful holiday season with your family!
What a blessing that you could get into the city so easily on your layover. Canal gazing is SO much better than waiting at the airport!
Amen, my friend! I specifically chose Amsterdam as my layover for this trip, as I’d read it was very easy to get into the city – thankfully, the forums I’d read were right 🙂 Now I just need to get to the Channel Islands! Any idea of how long you plan to be there? xo