This morning started with a solo breakfast and then I met up with the group. For breakfast I had quite a few mini dutch pancakes called pannenkoeken. They were d-freaking-licious. I could have eaten many more, but refrained. There's always tomorrow morning. ;)
Our first tour agenda item today was a bus tour of the city of Amsterdam. I received a ton of history about the city; almost all of it was stuff I most certainly don't have the patience to read in any travel book so I was grateful for the info. It also gave me also more of the idea of the way this city is shaped with all it's horseshoe shaped canals. Very cool.
After that, we headed to the Dutch countryside, to the town (fishing village) of Volendam. On the way there we got some more Dutch history from our tour guide Andi, including that of the lakes and dikes of the area. Because I am an immature jackass, I consistently giggled to myself whenever Andi said dike. Especially when she started telling us the story of Peter, the little boy who stuck his finger in the dike. I mean, c'mon now. I held it together even when she said the dike was leaking. Oh boy.
In Volendam (a place I would have never gone to on my own (because I had never heard of it) but soooo glad I got to see and experience) we saw Dutch cheese and clogs being made. (When I think of clogs I automatically think of the Sex and the City episode where Carrie had just started dating Aleksandr Petrovsky and he had come back from the Netherlands and opens his door with a pair of wooden clogs for Carrie.) It was awesome watching the guy turn a piece of wood into a shoe. Its most certainly a specialized skill. We then sampled some cheese (we had learned how it was made earlier) and a little wine. All before 11 am. (And I even purchased my first souvenirs. Woot.) Then it was on to see a classic Dutch windmill, and then onto the city to eat lunch and enjoy the town. The town was adorable. Many new summer homes lined Lake IJsselmeer and surrounding area and it was simply gorgeous. I enjoyed some Pomme Frites on a bench in the town and people watched. And I did it as the locals do, with mayo (but I still did get ketchup as well). I walked around a bit more and then we were on a way back into the city. And then my individual time began.
We got dropped off in town and I went straight to the Anne Frank House. (I did pass Dam Square and saw the Dutch royal palace on the way.) The Anne Frank museum was my number one tourist priority while in Amsterdam. I was told the line is usually one to two hours long, but I got in within 45 minutes. It was fascinating and yes, I did get teary eyed. It is such a powerful story, such an important part of our history, and Anne was such a brave girl.
After the museum, I made it my mission to see the "I Amsterdam" statue thing and walk around the red light district. I accomplished both of those and so much more. I walked around for hours again and saw the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, Vondelpark, the Homomonument, and shopped a bit in the main shopping strip (Kalverstraat). I even bought myself some new socks. Don't be too jealous of that purchase. I unfortch didn't make any purchases in the red light district. I did go in a few of the shops and peaked around. Holy moly there were some ginormous dildos. And Double sided dildos. And Cock rings. And that was the PG stuff. I didn't see any prostitutes and all the peep show windows had the curtains down. Lame. Ha.
I walked past many-a-coffeehouse and as much as I wanted to go in and order some weed, I thought better of it. It's probably not the best idea to do that in an unfamiliar, foreign country alone. If I had had a partner in crime, then I would have been smoking away, but this time it just wasn't in the cards for me. Sigh. I did however get some more frites for dinner. This time with garlic mayo. I wasn't really hungry and didn't know where to eat but saw the line for the number one frites place, so I got some; this time with garlic mayo. Eating fries twice in one day made me feel disgusting and I didn't even finish them. And on top of that I had some chocolate and candy. Quite the healthy dinner you say?!? Gross. It's was not the best eating day for me, but I'm on vacay so I'm going to get over it.
One thing I didn't do in Amsterdam was dutch oven someone. Tehehe. I don't think anyone in my group would even get that joke or appreciate if I dutch ovened them, but its simply hilarious to me and when it hit me on the street that I was in the home of the dutch oven (the real thing, not the fart-under-the-covers-and suffocate-someone thing), I burst out laughing to myself. I crack myself up! (Mom, thanks in advance for letting me Dutch oven you when I see you next. In fact, that's one month from today. Yay!!!)
Let me just say, everything I have been seeing is so new and exciting to me and I am loving every second of it. I feel like I am seeing and learning so much already and it really is so wonderful. My eyes are wide open at all times taking everything in and it's such a wonderful feeling. Tomorrow we are onto country number three: Germany. When I think of Germany, all I think of are Nazis, sausages, and beer. Obviously this very naive and small minded of me so I can't wait to see the country first hand and all it has to offer.
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