Amsterdam

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July 15-18

Amsterdam was perfect. We’d just come from chaotic Bastille Day/Paris, so it was a perfect spot to take a minute to relax and slow down. We arrived by train and found our hotel within walking distance. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW EXCITED we were to be in a hotel room after weeks of hostels. It was simply AWESOME. I never thought I’d be so excited to stay in a hotel room. The location was great - very central, clean towels (a dry one all to myself since Caitlin and I had been sharing), there were helpful hands at the front desk, free maps, an excellent breakfast, etc.

The first night we walked through the central part of town by the Dam (which I found out is not a dam, but a building) 😊 and crossed a canal or two for dinner. DELICIOUS! Amsterdam had WHOLE WHEAT bread as an option - my heaven. Amsterdam really catered to the organic minded, vegetarian, etc. Very health choices were all about and very delicious. I still can’t give up the cheese, so I have to point out how delicious my goat cheese salad was with honey dressing on top, along with spicy tomato soup - soooo tasty.

We then read in Caitlin’s book about a brown café (AKA: beer pub, called brown café due to the amount of cigarette smoke consumed inside over the years which has turned the ceiling brown - sounds gross, but it was such a great time). This brown café, Gollem, had over 200 choices of different beers. One of the breweries was the oldest breweries ever. I can’t remember now, but it was something like 1000 years old! The bartender was super nice and introduced us to some famous Italian music (since he knew Caitlin had studied there) and gave us quite a taste testing of the beers on draft. Caitlin and I finished out the night there since we loved the hospitality and the drinks so much.

The next day it was raining, so we slept in and hit up the shops in the afternoon when the rain let up. We walked around the city and ended up in the Red Light District that night. It was a little weird seeing the ladies advertising themselves in the windows, and even weirder to see the guys bargaining or leaving the ladies’ rooms…but none the less, we walked the streets. On the way home we HAD to try this waffle covered in chocolate, thick whipped cream, kiwi and strawberries. THANK GOD we did. It was so delicious. I included a pic because it was so extraordinary to me.

We continued to take it easy and the next morning we woke up and beat the line at the Anne Frank House. It was pretty intense seeing the attic that 8 people shared for over 2 years, but I’m glad we did it. This morning we tried some famous pancakes. I never realized you could dress up pancakes so much. I mean I’d see IHOP’s menu before, but these pancakes were thinner and dressed with anything you could imagine. I took a picture of the menu. Here’s some options from the list:
-Pancake with banana, mocca/caramel sauce and whipped cream
-Pancake with bacon, cheese and banana
-Pancake with chicken, cheese and onions
-American Pancake: with banana, vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice-cream, chocolate sauce and whipped cream
-Belgian Pancake: with apple, raisin, marasquin, whipped cream and nuts
(Basically whatever you wanted with a big thin pancake. Mmmmmmmmmmmm!)
Afterwards we headed to the other side of town to see the flower markets and the VondelPark. When we got off the bus, we saw some stores, including PUMA, which I ended up creating my own pair of shoes in. I’m not sure why,… I just figured why not? I had been looking for a new pair of kicks since I arrived in Europe and just hadn’t found what I was looking for, so I decided to take a stab at designing them myself. The guy working there was really helpful, and within 30 minutes, I had a pair of shoes order. Sparkles included. 😊 Hehehe. The guy gave us a tip that the Ocean’s 13 crew hung out at a café around the corner, so Caitlin and me checked that out and it was a very colorful and a nicely decorated café. He said Brad Pitt and George Clooney always had really red eyes when they were walking around town. We thought that was a funny fact. Go figure. A crew of 13 boys - having fun in Amsterdam.

We made it to the park and just sat for awhile and made friends with our neighbors. We checked out the rose gardens and the naked kids swimming in a community fountain area, pretty funny.

I went out by myself to find a pedicure and to ride the canals for a night cruise. Too bad I lost most of the pictures I took on the cruise. I accidentally deleted them somehow. And the pedicure I found was so weird. It didn’t include the nail paint and she wanted to charge me 35 EURO! She even scratched off my skin so bad that I still have scabs hanging around my feet from the scrapes. Gross, right?

Anyway, Amsterdam was super chill, just the way we wanted it. It was a beautiful city with interlocking canals and beautiful people who were nothing but kind with smiles. I would definitely like to visit again.

Next stop - Greece and the Greek Islands.
Tata,
Erin

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