Day 10 in Europe: North Holland, Netherlands

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Dear Diary, Dec 22nd 2012.:

I am glad the world. Did not end o.n the. 21s because I had thee greatest time today! Emma' s. Family as nice enough to invite us over for Lunch and Dinner to experience a non- tourist look at eating genuine Dutch food with a Dutch family! We spent the whole day here in North Holland in the outskirts of Amsterdam. We took the. Trolley/bus thing. to meet Emma at her place, it was a very quick and convenient jurny that was only about 30 minutes with no transfers to the outskirts of Amsterdam. It was a little more run down of an area ane it was coolt only be surrounded by locals. It was fun trying to read the map on the transit when its all in Dutch! Lol.

When we made it to her place we were warmly welcomed by her. And her motber. There house was cool, it was a long and narrow place, but it expanded vertically by 3 or 4 storries by the coolest and steepest windy staircase that I've ever see ! The house was cozy and we chatted wi th her Mom about how sh liked living in such an Aewsome place. We then ate a really cool Dutch lunch wi th the best bread I've ever had. It was something like cereal bread where we put butter and chocolate sprinkles on it, kind of like the type of sprinkles you would put in your ice cream. Their bread is super good and expires in about 1 to 2 days, so is not preserv to last weeks like American bread, and this madwe it really good. Their milk was the best milk I've ever had and tbey had good chocolate, peanut butter and it was col. They were nice enough to do our laundry which was pretty awesome. Emma then drove us to this Awesome place where they had tons of Windmills that was in this super Awesome smal community of cottages surrounded by moats, rivers, lakes and showed the true culture of. Holland.

This place was super cool, the Windmills were Huge and Awesome and we got to go into one and check out the town and shops. We then went to a place in the co.munity that hand mad cclogs, those classic Dutch wooden shoes, so I had to get one! They had millions of different types and it was a blast looking at them.

We then made it to a building that sold nothing but cheese!!! It was Amazing!!!! There was a Milk Maid wherein g traditional Dutch attire who gaves us a ton of free samples of manybtypes of wines and the bes cheeses I've ever had in my entire life! I wish I would have bought some. She said th ey arre usualky packed with pe ople, but since it was the off season, we were pretty much the only ones there and she talked with us for awhile, she was super cool. I got a lot b of great shots of the town, cottages and. Windmills, but no.ne on my phone unfortunately.so you'll have to wait for Facebook to see them.

We then went ba ck to her place again for dinner, we we has an Awesome dish of mashed potatoes. With kail and gravy called Boerenkool and Rookworwhich ia a type of smoaked sausage and it was Amazing! We then headed over to Emma's friends place for her birhday party. It was also here friend's Dad's birthday as well. It was an Amwesome house, it was very long and narrow, but it went up 7 Floors! it was crazy, each floor had people on it and had its own cool kind of setup. Here friends were realky cool and we hungout for about an hour before we left to go to Emma's Brother's Grilfriends Party, and that Party was epic!

This Party was Epic!!! All the places we were at today were far on the outskirts of Amsterdam, and I dwfinitely am getting a true al Dutch experiance with the Locals, somethin tourists don't get! The fridge would get filled with beer, then emptied and filled again and I was wonderin where all the beer was coming from. Tourns out they bought 7 twenty-four packs of Bottled Grolsche beer and it was Awezome! All the people were Amazingly nice and realky cool. There were tons of people there, and we got there at abiht 11pm. The Birthday girl then put together a Awesome game for us all to play, kind of like a drinking trivia game. But the cool hing about that gamebis that they played the qhole game speaking Dutch! It was a totalky Amazing experiance, completely seein what a Dutch Party is like!!! We broke into about 5 teams of 5 and my group would translate the questions to me and I would help them try to answer them. The game spanned about 2 hours or so and when the 6 rounds were all over my team Won!!! We were called Team Powershot because that was the name on my Camera Strap lol. It was Absolutely the Coolest experiance ever to hangout with thwm speakin Dutch and hwen translating for me, everyone was really really nice. They all spoke English as well.

For the rest of the nght we hungout and drank and talked in English and met a lot of really nice locals that I hopebto stay in contact with. I was the only peraon takinbpictures durin the niht and theyvwant me to share the photos wih them on Facebook. Parties in Amsterdam are Crazy! We didn' t end up leaving until 5AM and even then the Party was still going strong. Thanks to Emma once again, thatvwas one of my absolutebfavorite nihts of my trip. Increadibley fun.

Everyone said that this teip would be the time of my Life, and onky 10 days into my Adventure they couldn't possibly have been more right!

-Chris

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Photos

The. Dutch Party!
Parrying. With the locals. From 11PM TO 5 AM!

Eating at Emma's House!
Eating a Traditional Doutxh Dish!

The Birthday Girl!
Emma's Brother's Girlfriend who organized the Games and Party! She also made Aw somw Orderves throughout the Night!