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Published: April 2nd 2009
I don't have very much time to write this blog, as internet time here is quite expensive! I thought I would quickly document the last two days. My first impression of Amsterdam was not necessarily a good one, as we meandered through the red light district and it was rubbish day, so the place stank to high heaven. However, upon further inspection (on foot), there are beautiful cobbletone streets and old Cape dutch style buildings that make this a lovely city to hang out in. Peter and I were lucky enough to secure a very nice room in a little hotel that serves breakfast in the mornings and also has sattelite t.v. - great for learning Dutch and also watching some German shows. It is amazing how much Dutch I can actually understand - so many phrases are the same and they have similar expressions. Both Peter and I have also tried the local cuisine - bitterballen (crumbed meatballs), vlaamse fritse (patatjes - french fries with mayo) and also pofferjes (basically just pieklets with icing sugar on them).
Today, we headed out on a "City and Country Tour", where we visited small fishing villages and Vollendam. A beautiful sleepy town with traditional black and green houses. An interesting fact that was pointed out on the city tour was that all of the terrace houses in Amsterdam have hooks at the top of the roof to lift furniture into place, as most of the stairways are too narrow. Now I can't walk past a terrace house without noticing it....they DO all have them! We are very lucky to have space in Australia for our own backyards. Cheese tasting and watching clog making was a part of the day too. There were some lovely South Africans on the tour from Rustenburg also...made for interesting conversation.
Peter and I are heading to Lubeck tomorrow morning (in Germany near Hamburg) - it is meant to look like a fairytale and the home of marzipan - I'll be sure to eat lots of it and think of you Gwen! I've uploaded some photos (if interested) on Facebook.
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Megan
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Dutch dudes
Sounds like you guys are having a ball. I am very jealous as I sit here at work reading this... I was little bit worried when I heard about the earthquake in Italy and I didn't know if you guys were anywhere close by... but i saw on your facebook that you're in Berlin. Enjoy every minute of it. Haha Alex I liked your London blog about the Les Mis tickets. hehe! Glad it ended up being a good experience anyways. Love you lots and take care of each other. xoxo PS. REMEMBER take lots of photos of the cute eligible hot European boys for me heehee! ;0)