Amsterdayuummmmmm

Clever blog titles are not my forte
Apologies

The rest of my time in Amsterdam was so amazing!!
The afternoon I spent strolling around Amsterdam, shopping, and trying to find a sweater I liked because it was not the sunny 80 degree weather my iPhone told me about. I never found a sweater but I did find a very cute headband!
The area that I walked around in initially was Leidseplein, a very popular area in Amsterdam both for nightlife and fun daytime shopping! I was there with Rose the previous night and Leidseplein, as well as Amsterdam in general, is stacked with bars, restaurants, and clubs. I walked from there to Rembrandtplein, another man square in Amsterdam. The streets in between are all shopping and restaurants by day and clubs and bars by night. Amsterdam is a city where you can literally never run out of places to go or things to do.

Amsterdam is pedestrian friendly, which I love. I initially doubted Amsterdam's amazingness because of a questionable bike tour but I came around eventually.
I found a great cafe and club sandwich at Calf & Bloom, a unique little place hidden away in a shopping center (with free wifi!). I stayed there for about an hour just to rest up and get in touch with Rose again. She sent me a message that she would pick me up at the hotel at seven and it was already six. This gave me an hour to navigate public transportation in Amsterdam.. challenge accepted…
I cheated and asked the waitress what to do. She gave me directions and I still managed to get on the wrong tram twice! I eventually got back to the hotel and changed to meet Rose.

Rose took me to the city where she lives, Aalsmeer, and was nice enough to drive me around. She showed me one of their remaining windmills which was really pretty. She took me through the neighborhoods, the houses are so nice, they have canals running in front of their homes; they have to cross a mini bridge to get to their house! They have flowers in their yards. Its all so scenic and perfect. Her house is really nice as well. She has a cute jack Russell puppy. The house looks like a nice house in US. That may have been an odd statement, but I didn't know what to expect.

She had many plans for me that night, I picked the perfect night to visit Aalsmeer! That night was the first night of their "party week". Apparently Aalsmeer has a party week just because. The first night is really special. Everyone dresses up their boats with Christmas lights and blasts music from it (and gets hammered) and they drive up and down a canal. At 11 everyone goes the larger lake for the firework show!

Her friend has a small boat and they crammed 12 people into it! It worked though because we were warmer that way lol they all had brought drinks and they were nice to me. The nicest thing about the Netherlands is that everyone speaks English!
One of Rose's friends was so sweet and gave me one of her drinks. Little things like that make me want to do nice things for other people.
The fireworks started and it was the greatest firework show I have seen (sorry dad) and it was such a great time! The whole festivity was a combination of Gasparilla, the Christmas boat parade and the Fourth of July. It was crazy!
It was one of those moments where I was trying to telepathically send Mom and Dad thank you for this amazing trip vibes.

After we made it back safely (there were some close calls and big waves!) Rose then informed me that her friend was having a birthday party and that we were going. It had been a great adventure so far so I of course agreed! Off we went!
You know when theres a foreign person at a party and its really funny and everyone wants to talk to them? That was me! Rose and I are speaking English when we walk in and everyyyyone looks. oooops ahhaha. I met some more of her friends and talked with the people there. They were all so nice. Again, it really helped that everyone knew English! I had a really good time being "the American". I also got to try some typical Dutch food. One thing was basically a croqueta (spelling?) and I was like oh y'all stole this haha. It was around 2 in the morning at this point and I was exhausted!

Everyone at the party was like why are you here you should be in Amsterdam!! And then we were like ya.. we really should. Rose wanted to go dancing and asked if I wanted to go. Hell yeah! Lets go dancing! We head to the city, park, walk (cold), and head to No 129 and daaaaaaance!

Some funny things that happened: this guy tried to dance with me and I pulled away and the whole night he kept asking Rose and I if we were Lesbians..
Guys would talk to me in Dutch and I would have to say English!!? And they laughed and (shocker) all spoke English! Rose wasn't drinking because she drove, I didn't drink much either. We had so much fun together though! I loved every minute of that last night in Amsterdam.

for all these reasons and more Amsterdam is……drumroll please…. my favorite city thus far!!!!

There is something to do for everyone, everyone speaks English, its perfect. I think everyone should go. And yes, for younger readers, there are actually "coffee shops" everywhere..

Bus ride home was spent sleeping. McDonalds was the bathroom stop. McDonalds are really nice in Europe. Its very odd.
I didn't have time to do anything else in Hamburg but get back on the ship. I went to bed at 8pm and slept for 16 hours.
So. Good.

Right now we are docked in Antwerp but we won't be getting off until the day after tomorrow. We have to fit in at least some school days haha. I think I will be spending a few days in Antwerp and then going to Paris. Thats the plan anyways.

Email me at maren.douglas.fa13@semesteratsea.org !!! Leave comments. Also if you have suggestions of things to do in Belgium and Paris please let me know!!

xoxo