Wine tasting, fun day

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Last weekend encompassed a lot, including Valentines Day, wine tasting and my roommates friends visiting. Thursday night a big group of girls went out to eat at a cool outdoors cafe and had a great dinner with lots of food, wine and excellent chocolate cake and tiramisu. We went out to a few bars and cafes after that and ended the night on a positive, fairly late note. The next day, my roommate Molly and I had a play day and did all of the things we had wanted to do, but couldn't find the time, like wander around the other side of the river, sit on one of the bridges and have a picnic, draw on the bank of the river, have excellent panini and caffe and bellini. Then her friends came in, and we continued the evening and took them out to some of our favorite night spots. It was great to show other people around and feel like a local (well more local then them!).
Thursday I went to my first FIORENTINA soccer game!! It was sooo much fun and absolutely crazy! From what I was able to see, football fans in the States have nothing on the futbol fans in Italia! Im talking choreographed moves, cheers, chants, and storming the glass at the field anytime we scored. You have to run, or be run over....so we ran and barely survived. The game was a ton of fun, and the best part was that we won!! I cant imagine the scene if we hadn't! The next day I got up before the sun and got on a train, then plane to Amsterdam! We arrived and immediately started our trip with a visit to the Anne Frank House and Museum. It was amazing to see and touch the actual place where the family hid for 2 years. The history behind everything was really overwhelming, but informative, and well worth the trip. After that, we wandered around the city, taking pictures and enjoying the sites, eventually making our way into the famous Red Light District. We were not there too late in the night, and so things were not as sketchy as they probably could have been. We grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed to our hotel for the evening. The next morning we ate delicious crepe-like pancakes, apparently famous in Amsterdam and eventually found our way to the Van Gogh Museum. Wonderful works of art, though I would have appreciated them had the crowd been a bit smaller. Still, it was a great museum and really cool the way it was set up in the time line of his life and work. A canal cruise followed the museum visit which took us all around the smaller and lesser known parts of Amsterdam. It was really cool to see all of the architecture that is fairly unique to the canal houses and buildings, as well as the hundreds of boat houses lining the canals. Overall, one of the most interesting and different cities I've been to so far, though I didn't take a whole lot of pictures. I think I was just soaking everything up. Pictures to come...

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Comments

[Dad]

Amsterdam
What a great trip! I would love to go there. Of course the food is great everywhere you go. I would love that. I remember the pace of life being much slower and more enjoyable. They should live to be 150! Definitely a different perspective. Soak it up and enjoy. Take care. Dad