Amsterdam

I was privileged enough to go with CHOICE humanitarian to Kenya this fall and miss a few weeks of school (not the best idea in your graduate program). My roommate Willi joined us, and we had a nice stop in Amsterdam on the way. Amsterdam is one of my favorite cities. It's super clean, each building is unique in its self, and everyone rides bikes around. The Netherlands is one of my favorite places to visit.

I saw these all over in Amsterdam. It fascinates me seeing what people are into. 

Hopefully I am on top of things and I post about my amazing trip to Africa here soon!

Here is a little about Amsterdam and why I loved it last time.
We only spent a day in Amsterdam this time so it was a pretty quick tour of the city for the people that hadn't been there before. 

Amsterdam

I took a train to Amsterdam.

My initial thought was, I feel like I'm in Disneyland.

I think it was the futuristic bus posts with the old buildings. Maybe?

 Here was the beginning of The Red Light District. I don't know if you've ever been to the red light district before, but I'd always pictured it a little more like pretty women. With hookers standing by light posts on the side of the streets cat calling you. Nope. 

It's like window shopping for shoes.

You walk down an empty street, and then you'll pass full length windows, and behind the windows their are women standing in lingerie. All you have to do is window shop. It's simple. Great right.

 All the homes along the canal have to be up-kept, so it was always interesting finding one of these guys along the way.

It's tough finding a home with even peeling paint along the window seal. Everything looks so nice.

I also loved how every home was completely unique to the home next to it. They wouldn't worry about making them the same height, out of the same materials, or even each level the same size. One home would have 9 foot ceilings, with it neighbor having 12. Both homes being only two windows wide.

I forgot what this fish was called, but I was told by Marielle that it was very Dutch and really tasty.

 I agree that it's Dutch, but not really tasty. It was alright, just had a weird texture and tasted extremely fishy. It was just a raw whole fish, Yumm.

Well that is my short tour of Amsterdam. We did have a nice day though, and finished it off with a great dinner of Shepard's Pie at an Irish Pub.

Huib's parents live near Amsterdam so they were kind enough to let us stay the night. When I arrived they had "American looking cakes" and tea for us. His mom thought they looked American so I'd like them. So so nice of them. They were really sweet. When I woke up the next morning his mom had made us a really nice breakfast of good breads, cheeses, jams, egg, and the most amazing freshly squeezed orange juice and tea. She also drove me all the way to the airport so I didn't have to take a train!

Groningen

I spent the last few weeks in Europe. My first week I went and visited my friend Marielle in Netherlands. She showed me around her town of Groningen. It's a very charming European town. I love it.

I took some trains from Amsterdam to meet her. Took a few detours. Spent a lot of time sitting in empty train stations. Finally made it.

She thankfully picked me up at the train station. 

Everyone rides bikes in the Netherlands, even in the snow and rain. This is the train stations bike parking. Times what you can see by ten and that is how big it was.

I loved Marielle's apartment. She has her own apartment, and she's made it really classy. Its on a very cute street. She also has huge windows over looking the canals. 

Dutch eat bread, butter, and chocolate sprinkles a lot. It was our typical lunch.

I went to dinner for her mothers birthday with her family. It was really fun to get to know them a little and see how different Marielle and I grew up.

We ate at an Egyptian restaurant her parents love. Her step dad had us go take picture pretending to smoke the Huka.  Sadly it took us both a while to figure it out, and her dad told us we looked very unnatural. 

The owner was good friends with them so he made her mom a very special birthday desert.

I did all the Dutch things, and was able to ride bikes everywhere which I loved. Even though it was freezing there.

Im practically Dutch now.

I was there the only days it had been sunny in a really long. It was beautiful.

The city has hidden gardens all over. Since everyone rides bikes everywhere you can walk behind a few buildings and it's completely quite and calm. Its very relaxing.

There also is amazing architecture, and cute cobble stone streets everywhere. You can't beat that. I've been to a lot of European cities and Groningen is one of my favorites

Netherlands has canals everywhere, which in my opinion really adds to its charm.

They have really terrible suckers. There was a really unpleasant surprise in the center of my sucker. Apparently its delicious to them. I like almost any food, and it definitely wasn't meant to be in a sucker.

Marielle, Huib, and I made dinner one night then went out after. I loved seeing what they do for fun and getting a small glimpse of their lives. It was fun seeing them in their element since they'd been to my house, met my family, and seen how my life usually is. 

I hope they are able to come back to Salt Lake sometime and stay with me.