Amster-DAMN! (Think HIMYM)

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!