Grolsch, Girls and Ganja

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Long, LONG, day of travel. I left at about 10 AM this morning and got into Luxembourg at about 5:45 this evening. Just after sunset. I can already tell this city is fantastic. Even in the dark and in the rain it looked beautiful. I can't wait to see it tomorrow. I had the great idea that I would just walk to my hostel from the train station. It said it was only 3 km which didn't seem TOO bad and it was nice outside - that is, it was nice until I got far enough from the train station to not know how to get back and not be able to catch a cab anymore. It took me about an hour to find the street that intersected the street that my hostel was on. And about half way through that hour... it started POURING. At this point, I'm walking around the outter wall of some castle and there's a 500 foot drop to the lower town on the other side. I am so dead lost I don't know what to do with myself. I ask two nice looking people for help, one couldn't understand what I was asking and the other had never heard of this 'Rue du Fort Olivay' before... GREAT. So I made my way to a busy street and stood there and waited... in the rain... for a taxi to come and take me down the 500 foot plunge into the lower town (I never would have guessed that it was down there). It's nice and warm. I am grateful to be here.

Last night was great fun. (Ear Muffs - Kate Z.) Nate and Brian called me shortly after we last spoke and I met up with them and two of Nate's friends Matt and Eddie. We went to the bulldog so they could go to the 'coffeeshop' and get 'supplies' then we went to a bar and drank Grolsch and Heineken and they depleted their 'supply.' It was really quite amazing to me that this all went down in a bar. We walked down the street to another locale and passed a special Mushroom store that sold only mushrooms... again... interesting. And of course there were all of the girls in their little apartment looking things in the dark alleys... this town cannot be real. It seems so innocent during the day (except the Cannibis museum that you can go to). I had to be back by my 2 AM curfew, but the boys say I missed out on a whole lot more of the same thing. Grolsch, Girls and Ganja (i may have butchered that so forgive me for not being a pro).

The train ride today was beautiful. There was so much water and so many birds. Swans were everywhere in the countryside. There were canals leading every which way and the little sheep in contrast with the green green grass was just so pretty. And of course, there was the occasional windmill too. And the occasional reindeer. And the occasional Nuclear Power Plant (I swear I saw 4). One place I do want to go back to is Trois Ponts. It looked like Crested Butte but in Belgium. It was so pretty with the mountains and the trees and this little river with rapids running through the middle. It was definitely somewhere worthy of a second glance.

I had a lovely little lunch and dinner en route. I bought 2 baguettes, a chunk of gouda, a chunk of some sort of ham sausage stuff and a bottle of wine for €7.50 and had both lunch and dinner on the train. It was SOOOO yummy and I felt so cute and back-packery. Oh and when I got into Luxembourg the country, I got a cute little welcome text that said "Welcome to Luxembourg and LUX GSM!! We wish you a Happy New Year 2008!!"

Well, thank you Luxembourg... I wish you a Happy 2008 as well!!

Out for now, I'm sure I'll have a lot tomorrow.

XOXO

PS - Terri and Becky... you guys owe me some brownies :)

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Eaten en Drinken

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Today was fantastic. Fantastically COLD, that is... I spent a good portion of my day inside a café analyzing the Dutch language. Don't worry... we'll get to that in a little bit.

First... I swear I'm trying REALLY hard to get pictures posted but life is just not agreeing with me. I will have all the remaining from Scotland, London, Brussels and Amsterdam up as soon as humanly possible. I thought tonight would be the night, but alas, its not looking good.

I got up pretty early today almost feeling not sick. But again, after a few hours of being awake, everything started to get all clogged up again. I went to a bike rental shop and rented a cute little red bike (don't worry, I took a picture of it - oh, and thanks Sarah and Zaff for the recommendation on the bike riding!!!). I rode my bike ALL over town to the flower market - which is this road FULL of flowers for sale. Literally, there was a booth dedicated to tulips that had HUNDREDS of different kinds of bulbs and they were all for like €3/lb. After that I went down the canals (which I had no idea existed... Amsterdam is ALL water) and went to the Anne Frank House and then over into the old Jewish district. There were still a few places where there were high walls to divide the Jews from everyone else.

After this, I rode down to the Van Gogh Museum and the accompanying park (which was fun, but cold). I didn't stay long because of the temperature, but I did look and acknowledge that the museum exists and people do go there. At this point, I was really cold and decided to go home. I rode down past the Heineken Brewery (just to look at it) and then up through town and back to my lovely little hostel. On the way back (I had to stop quite frequently in order to re-charge myself and ensure that I was going the right way. I almost got hit by like 400 cars) I was looking over one of the bridges near Jordan (Jewish town) and saw these two duck things RUNNING on the water. It was the strangest thing I have ever seen. I took a picture of the duck, but he wouldn't run on the water when I asked him nicely.

I just ate some New York Style Pizza for dinner because I couldn't figure out what else to eat solo. I also picked up a Snickers and a Diet Coke. Good well rounded American meal. I just talked to my friends that I met on the train yesterday and I believe we are going to attempt to do Amsterdam after dark tonight. I'm sitting here waiting for a phone call but in the mean time I think I'll finish Eat, Pray, Love. Nat - it's been a good one, I appreciate you giving it to me!!

Oh, and now, of course... it's time for your Dutch lesson for the day. Ok... I'm going to give you some words in Dutch, and then you have to guess what they mean in English. Ready? (I promise.... its not hard, they're just funny) Ok, I'll even give you a practice round.

1. Eaten en Drinken = Food and Drinks... see EASY

These are the others I found entertaining

2. Kippensoep
3. Tortillachips met chilisaus en guacamole
4. Kipnuggets
5. Jonge en oude (pronounced 'yong en ode')
6. Sap (ex. appelsap, tomatensap, perinsap)
7. Chocomelk
8. Kerks

Ok... ready for the answers?

2. Kippensoep Chicken soup
3. Tortillachips met chilisaus en guacamole haha Tortilla chips, salsa & Guacamole
4. Kipnuggets Duh... chicken nuggets
5. Jonge en oude (pronounced 'yong en ode') Young and Old (get it?)
6. Sap (ex. appelsap, tomatensap, perinsap) Juice
7. Chocomelk Chocolate Milk
8. Kerks Churches

Another funny thing to note is that the churches in Amsterdam are all just named by where they are or how old they are... examples...

Noorderkerk (North Church)
Zuiderkerk (South Church)
Westerkerk (West Church)
Oudekerk (Old Church)
Nieuwekerk (New Church)

Not kidding... those are all real names of churches in Amsterdam. I looked for Easterkerk but I couldn't find it. Anyways, hope you enjoyed your lesson for the day. Talk to you tomorrow!!!

XOXO

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