Eating our way through Amsterdam

I think I've made you wait long enough to hear about Amsterdam.

We left Friday afternoon and our plane got in at about 7:30pm. Of course, after passport control, a train from the airport into Amsterdam and then a tram to the hostel, we were pretty exhausted and just grabbed some food at a pub nearby and passed out for the night.

Funny airport story: Going through security on the way to Amsterdam, we forgot to take the liquids out of our bags, and so they had to search them individually. And guess what I forgot I had? Pepper spray. I had put it in my checked luggage on the way here, cuz obviously I knew they would have an issue with me taking it on the plane, but I completely forgot it was on my key chain and it's illegal in the UK. They were really nice about it considering it's legal in the US, but I did have to talk to a police officer about how it's illegal here and blah blah blah. We had extra time so it wasn't too bad, but it was semi-amusing.

On our first full day we got up early and went to see Anne Frank's House. There was a line around the block once we got there, but luckily Jackie thought to get tickets early and we didn't have to wait. After that, we needed something a little happier to do, but Bri and I still needed to get our I am Amsterdam cards that get you discounts on all the attractions and give you passes to all the public transport, so we started heading for the tourist center. On the way, we saw a shop called Lots of Cheese and just had to stop. We all got cheese and bread or crackers and had a little picnic before heading back on our way :)

Once we'd gotten our Amsterdam cards, we headed for the all you can eat pancake cruise! It was pretty awesome, though it was cloudy and raining by the time that we got there, but at least we were inside by then. We spent the whole time coloring (it was a family cruise) and eating way too many pancakes.

That night we had tickets to a comedy show, Boom Chicago, at 10:30 so until then we wondered around, hit up an internet cafe, did some tourist shopping and finished what was left of our cheese and crackers from the morning. We also witnessed a canal race. Two girls with rafts paddle the width of the canal (with their hands) and once they reached the other side, took a shot and started paddling back. Unfortunately, one girl fell out of her raft in the middle of the canal. But, it was quite a sight! And there were a whole group of people gathered to cheer for them.

Anyway, the comedy show was very good. All the comedians were american so there was only a few skits that we didn't really understand. There was one part about how to pretend to be a Canadian if you're an American in Europe which was really funny considering I keep having people ask me if I'm Canadian and now all my friends are teasing me about it.

On Day two it was very nice weather so we decided to take a canal cruise (the pancake cruise wasn't through the canals). It was really amazing how many canals there are throughout the city. You don't really notice as much when you're just walking over them rather than going down them. We got to see a lot of the city then.

We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, which I know, sounds weird, but we've been obsessed with having nachos lately. Scotland had really good nachos... This restaurant was very authentic though, so it's hard to compare with pub nachos... moving on.

Then the Van Gogh Museum which was out of this world. They had an exhibition called Colors of the Night, and they had brought in Starry Night from NY for it! I hate how cliche it is for me to love that painting, but I can't help it. But that was just the big finish to the exhibition. Although it wasn't all VanGogh, the other artists were ones that he admired, and all of the works were of nightime, or twilight. Plus, they were date order, so you could see the progression.

On a whim, Bri and I checked out the House of Bols afterwards. We had split with the other 3 after lunch since they had other things that they wanted to see. The House of Bols was pretty much a 10 euro ad for Bols with a cocktail at the end. There was a supposed museum that we went through, but it wasn't amazing.

That night was just a little more tourist shopping and some amazing Chinese food for dinner, plus chocolate covered waffles for dessert.

Our last day, we went to the Rijks museum, which was only mildly interesting. There was a room for Dutch pottery that was kind of neat and we got to see a few Rembrants. Then onto the flower market which was very cool. Just a whole strip of tents selling flowers and bulbs. Unfortunately, we wouldn't have been able to bring any back, but Jackie bought a bouquet of tulips anyway and we all carried one around for the remainder of the day.

Then, we headed back to the hostel to get our stuff, and on the way stopped at a park nearby to take pictures with the big I am amsterdam sign that they have there. And had another chocolate covered waffle. We were running pretty ahead of schedule but we figured it was better to hang out at the airport than some random place where we ran the risk of getting behind, so we went and ate at the airport, more cheese and baguettes :) where we sat around and talked about how we had eaten our way through the weekend and were sursprised that they didn't have to roll us out of the country.

Now it's just the rush of homework to get done before we leave for Spring Break! The dates that I know for sure right now are as follows:

April 1- fly to Prague
April 14- fly from Rome to Barcelona
April 17- fly home to London

We will be taking a train from:
Prague to Vienna either the 3rd or 4th
Vienna to Venice the 5th or 6th
Venice to Florence the 7th or 8th and
Florence to Rome the 10th or 11th.

Most likely we'll take trains overnight between the two dates, so that we don't waste time on travel and don't have to pay for a hostel those nights.

I miss everyone so, so much. 11 weeks to go! Love you!

-Kendyl