Guest sheep Dennis van Hoof
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Dennis van Hoof - Amsterdam

It's fun to get out of your comfort zone!

Dennis van Hoof is our first guest sheep. He was the first person who popped up in one of our compi's. It was october 2014 when DDTS visited New York City. We promised Dennis at that time that if we developed our website DDTS he would be the first guest sheep. Half a year ago Dennis moved from Breda, in the south of the Netherlands, to a very nice apartment in the north of Amsterdam. Surrounded by vintage with one brand new furniture piece: his velvet mustard coloured couch!

Most of my stuff is vintage.

Dennis is a flight attendant and spends a lot of time abroad. He visits every vintage store he can find on this planet. Eager to find hidden treasures like the old hotel telephone 'suite 301' or an old nice vintage cookbook like the one by Sophia Loren. Since he lives in Amsterdam he knows every vintage store and vintage market in the city. Always trying to find new special odd stuff. But he also finds his way easily on the vintage Chatuchak market in Bangkok. Most of the vintage stuff he bought came from the United States of America. Los Angeles and New York City are the main hot spots for that! Lately he bought a nice painting in the Ijhallen in Amsterdam. That was a golden catch. It appears that this painting belongs to a family who really want to buy it back. And it is pretty expensive. Dennis bought it for just twenty euro's! How funny is that. Negotiations started.

I am flying to see the world and I couldn't do without it.

His full time job as a flight attendant for Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) and being a vintage-shopper are the two main focal points in Dennis life: "Fulltime flying and vintage stores...that's it!" he says with a big smile. Beside that he loves photography. His goal is to post at least one Instagram picture for every journey he makes, private or work related.

I like to travel on my own so I don't have to explain what I am doing.

Plekk is his local pub, just around the corner from where he lives. That's where we met Dennis for the interview. G's in the Jordaan is the ultimate place to have breakfast with friends, he says. Hotel de Goudfazant is his favorite restaurant and a hidden gem in the industrial district near the water. In early days it was used as a garage, now it is one of the hotspots in town! Butcher Louman is the shop where he always buys his meat, it is situated in the Jordaan near the Haarlemmerstraat. After half a year living in Amsterdam Dennis knows his way very well. He can easily find the most hip and trendy places. He says: "I like to spend time with friends but I also love to travel on my own. I went to Russia, a country that integrues me a lot. I just visited it on my own. A brilliant adventure all by myself!"

A new goal during my travels and plan B.

Dennis visits restaurants all over the world. He is joining a culinary platform. In cooperation with KLM and Special Bite, Dennis is traveling around the world to specific places to review restaurants and their menu. On the review list for this year: Lima, Barcelona, Singapore, Bangkok, New York City and Hongkong. The ultimate job in a job! He says: "Beside that I have a plan B: My dream is to be the owner of a vintage store one day. Good stuff, good trading...that's my dream job in future besides my job as a flight attendant. A perfect combination!"
We thank Dennis for this interview. Beside the interview we have the guest sheep vlog. Check it out!

Rio de Janeiro
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Rio de Janeiro
We had a great day in Rio de Janeiro! Unfortunately we spent a lot of money on taxi rides. On Sunday you have to pay the double amount. But it was worth it. We went to the hippie market in Ipanema, only open on sundays. We stayed there for a short while and after that we drove to the harbor where we took the ferry to Niterói. We visited the Contemporary Art Museum designed by Oscar Niemeyer. Unfortunately this gorgeous building was under construction after twenty years of total neglect. With the ferry we went back to the main land. At Felice in Ipanema we had a delicious lunch. Then on to the beach were we consumed the traditional caipirinha. We enjoyed the sea, the sun and the great view over Ipanema beach.

New York versus Bangkok
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New York versus Bangkok
Desiré

New York! This time I walked around in the neighborhood of NoHo. I wanted to go to the New Museum ….. closed…. ok, then to 41 Cooper Square … not open for public ….. sigh … O well, this neighborhood has enough other nice things to offer, from a candy store, chic Bond street to great wall art!

Margré

Today I arrived in Bangkok after a long long flight. I went by boat to “The endless summer” restaurant. Such a super beautiful industrial-style restaurant! It is nestled between old buildings. You must know where it is or you would never find such a beautiful gem located in between those houses. Very good Thai food and a Hammond organ provided the music from the speakers!

Taipei
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Taipei

After sleeping till late in the afternoon, we had a delayed breakfast and took the taxi to the Old Cigar Factories, the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. We arrived in the middle of the interesting, trendy and inspiring Design Week ’15 Taiwan. We had a coffee break at Café Solé, situated in one of the factory buildings, where in early days the tobacco was manufactured. Then we visited Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Here you will find many bars. A lot of photo shoots took place against the green natural walls of old buildings or against a crumbling wall in the beautiful late afternoon light. The night market near metro stop Jiantan was the next destination. We had a delicious dinner at Fashion Bangkok in a courtyard far from the hustle and bustle of the market. Later on we went back to the hotel, changed our clothes and visited the hidden bar Ounce situated in Relax. How much fun was that. We got a lovely cocktail after we told the bar tender which taste we preferred. Taipei is fun. The city is hip and happening. And the people are so friendly. Taipei, we’ll certainly be back again!

Taipei
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Taipei
What a luxury: both of us travelled to Taipei in the business class without working. After twelve hours we arrived at the airport of Taipei. We were still tired just like our colleagues who worked on this trip. The next day we started a new day and went with the subway to the Da’an District. Their are a lot of bars and small shops to find behind the main street. We visited the 101 Tower, the tallest building in Taiwan. We had a small lunch on the ground floor of the 101 Tower in the famous Din Tai Fung where you can eat the most delicious steamed dumplings. Taiwan is a very wealthy city and therefore you can find a lot of luxurious shops in the 101 Tower. All big expensive brands are represented. On the rooftop of the W hotel we nipped on a glass of wine having a lovely time in ‘hanging chairs’ near the pool. A very expensive drink in cheap plastic glasses. But we enjoyed the view and that was worth the visit. We encountered squid, chicken legs and more of these Chinese delicacies on the Raohe Street Night Market later on. But sushi was more our kind of food for the day, that we bought from the luxury supermarket Mitsui Style near the hotel for dinner.

Los Angeles
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Los Angeles
We headed to the north with our red Camaro via Highway 101 to Ventura. In Ventura are a lot of vintage stores on Main street. We took a ceviche and a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc for lunch at Lure. A nice fish restaurant. Then we drove to Santa Barbara. The Spanish Court building is a must visit spot. The Pier of Santa Barbara was so beautiful in the evening light. We left the rooftop open and drove through the evening back to Los Angeles. We smelled the eucalyptus and sea salt on the road back. Just another day in paradise!

Los Angeles
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Los Angeles
Plopped into the sand of our beloved Manhattan Beach after a long working day. Intensely happy that we are back in our second home town, overlooking the Pacific. The sun, the surf boys who passed by, the cheeky seagull, the smell of the sea and swaying palm trees. Dancing in the sand and enjoying every minute. Los Angeles…we love you so much!

Los Angeles
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Los Angeles
Bloody hot in LA! We drove in our convertible towards the art district in down town LA and walked around despite the heat. Cool buildings, beautiful grafiti and refurbished factory buildings. Cooling down in the Urth caffe on the corner of 5th street. We went down town LA to West Hollywood where we obviously could not avoid a vintage store. With our car with the top down we drove to PUMP (Lisa van der Pump is one of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills). We even saw Lisa van der Pump in person. Then around the corner we party crashed in the famous The Abbey and we ended up in a Christmas celebration in September. Wicked LA! With the rooftop down we drove through the night to Manhattan Beach where we finished the day on the beach with wine, music and dancing in the warm sand!

San francisco
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San Francisco
After a long sleep, a delicious breakfast and inspiring magazines, we drove with our red rascal to the Korbel Champagne house which is near Guerneville. We had our entrance through the back yard, and in the mean time managed to steal a bunch of grapes. We were able to join a tour that was really interesting. After tasting four champagne varieties we had huge fun with the staff and we got a huge discount on our purchases. After an incredibly beautiful route through the Sonoma countryside we arrived on highway 1 along the coast. We visited the little town of Bodega where Hitchcock shot his movie Birds. Its easy to understand why he picked that place. A mysterious atmosphere with a lot of sea fog, screaming seagulls and the rocky coastline makes it a nice spot for such a scary movie. We drove afterwards to Tiburon, a peninsula with a stunning skyline view over San Francisco.

San Francisco
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San Francisco
With the smallest car we ever rented in the States, we drove the Sonoma Valley Champagne tour. We had a hotel arrangement in the little village of Guerneville in a hip boutique hotel called Boon. A wonderful atmosphere including bright orange beach cruisers that we could use for free. We cycled to the Redwoods. We saw amazing breathtaking tall trees and cycled through that beautiful redwood forest. We explored Guerneville, a funny mix of hip versus old and rich versus poor. We had dinner in the restaurant which is connected to the Boon. What a wonderful special day! Sonoma is such a beautiful region, very laidback and surrounded by beautiful redwood forests.

Curacao
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Curacao
We have never rented a car so easily. We just got the key and had fun with it. Nothing signed, nothing in the way of a driver’s license to show and no insurance at all. This is a really chill island, that’s for sure! In the supermarket we bought lunch. We improvised a cool box: an aluminium tray, ice cubes and a cardboard box. Then heading to Cas Abao Beach. What a breathtaking place to be. Exotic birds also used our cool box and took a dip in the melting water. At the end of the afternoon we went to Karakter, a very cool beach lounge restaurant and bar. In the dark it was hard to find our way back to the hotel, but we made it. It was a lovely day, despite swollen ankles and mosquito bites at the end!

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