Day 59. AMSTERDAM!!!!!!! The were no
problems with the overnight train to Amsterdam, everything went smooth. I slept with my adventure bag filled with my
valuables and had to use my sleeping sack on the ridiculously small bed, but I
actually got some decent sleep. When I woke up I was pretty disoriented and I
almost got off at the wrong stop, but after figuring out where I was (literally
and in my head) I still had a ways to go so I laid back down and rested for
another couple of hours. I am not really sure what I was expecting upon leaving
the train, maybe a mountain of green or everyone to be passing a peace pipe, but upon leaving the train I saw neither of those things and was greeted with a
very nice looking city. Right outside the centraal (the double a’s is on
purpose, that’s how they spell it) train station there is a parking garage… for
bikes! Amsterdam is a crazy awesome city for bikers. They have their own bike
lanes next to the car lanes, their own traffic lights, parking garages, and it
seems that everyone has a bike! To top it all off, people on bikes always have
the right of way. So if you get hit by someone on a bike, guess whose fault it is??
Yup, it’s your fault. Learn to move out of the way faster buddy. I learned real
quick that when you hear a bike’s bell, you had better move and you had better move
fast. As I was photographing the church across the canal (Amsterdam has so many
canals!!) I saw Noah! I gave him a huge hug and we went immediately into
sharing with each other all that had happened in the last two months. He had
lived in Amsterdam for 2 years in the past so he showed me around some of the
streets close to the main station while we waited for the girls to arrive. We went to a coffee shop and I bought a pastery and my very first sandwich in Amsterdam!!!!! Wohooo!!! I have been so excited to
go to Amsterdam and buy a sandwich, everyone talks about it and I can finally
check it off my list! He then brought me to a nice café where I ate my pastery and enjoyed a very nice café latte and some incredible tea!!!! (And just in case you are wondering it was legitimately incredible). It had lots of mint leaves in
hot water plus freshly squeezed orange juice. Perfect! Oh my goodness it was so
refreshing and delicious! I am definitely going to be taking this simple recipe
home with me. Apparently the bathroom at this café was on the list for Europe’s
nicest bathrooms and they were definitely amazing. Tile and mirrors everywhere
in intricate patterns with greens and blues and yellows for a sun piece, very
nice. Noah and I talked some more, and then headed over to the train station to
meet up with the girls. Noah bet me an ice cream that he was right about where
the girls would come out of the train, and I was confident that he was
incorrect so I took that bet (and won). We were supposed to meet them at the
“Meeting point” but I didn’t think they would know what that was (It’s a big
sign that actually says “Meeting point”, but I didn’t know that upon
arriving and didn’t think to ask someone so I presumed they would do as I did
and wait just outside the center exit of the station. Which they did). We
eventually found them outside and it was so great seeing Hen and Kat again!!!
Ugh, it was as if we had never left each other. We gave each other such a tight
and long hug. Instant best friends with a million and one things we each wanted
to say. The pastry I ate was very very mild (I was a little disappointed, they had
gotten such hype!), so I was still hungry. We were going to be staying with one of Noah’s friends
Dave, so we walked all the way across Amsterdam (literally the entire city)
with all of our stuff. We didn’t realize how far of a walk it was, my shoulders
wanted to MURDER me by the time we arrived at Dave’s flat about an hour or so
later. Dave was so nice in greeting us and making us feel welcome. We got
situated at his flat and ate a nice snack that we picked up along the way
(Dutch salad dips with a baguette). Not wanting to walk all the way back to the
main station we caught the tram back (I don’t know why we didn’t just catch it
to Dave’s house in the first place, I think we all underestimated how far it
really was and didn’t want to spend the money thinking we could walk) and
rented our bikes! Holy everything on two wheels with bells!!! You can’t go to
Amsterdam and not rent bikes. It. Is. AMAZING!! I already mentioned how the
city caters to cycling, but what I didn’t know before is that you literally
fly. I now know what being “high” in Amsterdam actually means! Dave bought us amazing chocolates and we biked to north
Amsterdam, catching a ferry across the canal. We saw the newer “I Am Amsterdam”
sign and all got tea, coffee, or a beer at a nice outside café. I climbed on
the sign to the top of the “I” (which was actually pretty high up, I had to
have a boost getting up and help getting down) and we took some pictures before
we biked all around the city. We crossed the city in no time at all; traveling
by bike is so fast and efficient! Amsterdam is literally a maze of canals and
all of the houses pretty much look exactly the same - red bricks, five stories
high, and three windows across (can you imagine trying to orient yourself when
you eat a sandwich?? I don’t know how they do it. It’s not exactly a walk in the
park, let me tell you …because it’s a walk in a city, duh - lame joke, haha). There were lots
of street performers, Brazilian fighting dancers, break dancers, someone telling
stupid jokes trying to get a bigger audience before balancing a bike in his
mouth, and many more. We rode back
towards Dave’s house and went to a huge park to ride around for a bit, it was
so much fun! We ate the sandwich that I bought by a lake in the park and all
five of us got very stuffed (imagine if I had ate it myself, dear god)! It was
a challenge, but I felt compelled to destroy the massive sandwich so I ate it
until there was nothing left to eat. We all were laughing, and talking, and
just having a great time together. We were slightly nervous about riding back on our
bikes to Dave’s after eating, but I wanted to prove that I could do it, so I started
riding and they were quick to join. WE FLEW!!! (If you do it you will agree!). It was crazy, such an amazing
experience!! It didn’t feel like I was merely on a bike, but steering myself
high above everything else. It was incredible! We all made it to Dave’s safely,
but along the way we had to pass (what was to me) different “levels” on the way
back. Navigate the streets, pass a car here, up a ramp there, narrow passage
here, don’t get hit by cars (we played an epic real life Frogger game with our
bikes and traffic, I probably almost died), don’t run into anyone, obey traffic
lights, etc. The “levels” seemed to be
increasing in difficulty as we got closer to his flat, haha. It was so much fun
and eventually we all beat the “game”! Chaining up our bikes proved a little
difficult for me, but with that accomplished (Thanks Kat) we went inside for
some dinner. We were very giggly and chatted a bit while eating more delicious snacks
before Dave served us an amazing meal, twice! Then we continued eating and
talking, catching up and swapping stories the entire night. We had vegetable
lasagna, and veggie pasta, some chips, a small snickers bar, and gummy bears.
Yummy (talk about stuffed)!! We talked until we passed out in our beds. I
attempted to watch The Walking Dead… and of course fell asleep (Thanks again
Kat!). Such a great first day in Amsterdam with such amazing people!!
Day
60. Today we slept in (no surprises there), we got cleaned up and then decided
to ride our bikes and go for a picnic. We wanted to go into the country side a
bit, but we were quite sore from the bikes (seriously sore, I didn’t think we
even biked long enough to get sore. My butt was in some pain when I sat back
down on the bike seat) and tired from the previous night so we settled on a
nice park in the city instead. Our morning brunch picnic was very nice, it
sprinkled for like 3 seconds and then the skies cleared and it was sunny and
warm. It felt so good to lie down in the sun and just relax. The food was great
and the company was even better. Dave and Noah rode off to meet up with one of
their friends and Hen, Kat and I talked and relaxed in the sun. I tried to get
on a rope swing that was far too high for me (The Dutch and Danish are so
tall!) and we ate so much food we were completely full. We had this cream
covered in chocolate dessert that was melting in the sun but oh so tasty. Dave
and Noah came back and then went to another friend’s exhibit in the city
center, so Hen, Kat and I got to explore Amsterdam. We rode our bikes to the city and found/Kat recognized a really cool bell tower/church. The bells were chiming away to
some pretty intricate songs and after chaining up our bikes we stumbled upon a
couple museums. Dave had given me a small sandwich and I ate it as we walked around. It was merely a
pleasant sandwich, not enough to really stuff me and we walked around so see
what we would find. We stumbled upon a cheese museum where I got to try some
SUPER old Gouda cheese that was very tasty (the pesto cheese was also really
good). We saw a tulip museum and wanted to go inside until we realized it was
just a museum about the history of the tulip, not a museum with actual tulips.
In fact, the tulips bloomed very early this year, so I really wanted to go see
the fields and fields of tulips, but it was already pretty late in the season
and they had already been harvested. Drat. We found a great niche of a store
and got some great souvenirs for pretty cheap. We walked past the Anne Frank
house and then rode our bikes more towards the city center where we walked
through China town and many many coffee shops. In one of the shops I bought a sandwich!!! We rode our bikes to the square that put the dam in
Amsterdam, haha, no really. We rode our bikes to Dam square, the main square in
Amsterdam. Across from the white spire in the center of the square is the royal
palace, a massive and impressive building and it is right next to the red light
district (Hello prostitutes beckoning me into your lit window, I am gay and
have a boyfriend, but thank you for the offer. I hope you have a nice day (a
lot of the prostitutes were on their cellphones, I thought that was kind of
funny because of how casual they were)). We walked through the red light
district and then went into a huge shopping center for a bit where Hen got a nice
dark blue watch. After a missed text and a little miscommunication we met up
with Noah and Dave at the illusive “meeting point” outside of the centraal
station. Hen, Kat and I had already shared some fries under the pouring rain
that lasted about 7 minutes and then was gone (The weather is crazy so close to the Sea), but we joined Noah and Dave for
dinner at a Chinese restaurant. (Maggie, my Sensei, you would have been so proud of my skills at the restaurant!) I got some soup
and we ate and then we rode our bikes back to Dave’s flat, picking up some wine
along the way home. We hung out at home drinking the wine and we ate a quick snack. We were really planning to go out, but it
just didn’t happen, haha, we just have too much fun together. Hen and Kat got stuffed with me and we got silly and then super
tired and I passed out cuddling with Hen attempting to watch The Walking Dead
again. Oh how I love Amsterdam!
