See that arrow? That's where I am. See that circle? That's where I'm supposed to be.
Well great. An hour later and I'm back where I started. At this point I'm two hours late to meet Katie and Chelsea but thank goodness they know about my sense of direction, so I figured they weren't too worried. Once I get off the Prinsengracht stop, the email said, "make a left once you step off the tram (the canal should be on your left) Then, take the first right which is Leidsekruisstraat." I see a canal on my left! *Turns to the right* I see a canal on my right....Crap. Now it's snowing, I don't know which way to turn, and I'm really hungry which is the most important thing. After wandering the streets for about a half hour, praying to God that somehow Katie and Chelsea will miraculously spot me on the street, I'm about to turn the corner when I hear the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. I turn around and see Chelsea and Katie running towards me screaming my name!!!!!!!!!! I was so relieved I just started bawling and laughing at the same time. Good thing they found me too because I had already past our hostel and was going to keep walking! We put my stuff down and then went to meet their friends from Rome, Stefanie, Zach, Pat, and Ben to eat some delicious Nutella and banana pancakes.
It was so big I couldn't even finish it all!
If you believed that, get out.
Once we ate our calories for the entire week, we went to the Heineken museum which was amazing! We got to see how Heineken was made, taste Wort which is heated and filtered water and Barley, and lots of other cool things.
Kady I didn't know your eyes could open that wide!!! Good job.
After the Heineken experience, we decided we simply hadn't eaten enough, so we went to a tapas place for all you can eat tapas (when in Amsterdam?) After trying to communicate with our waiter for about 15 minutes, he got another waiter to come out who just took our menus from us and told us the kitchen would decide what we were going to eat. Before he took our menus, we saw some of the options were anchovies and raw Spanish ham which we thought the kitchen would give us since we were being difficult.
We were right.
Surprisingly the anchovies weren't that bad! I probably wouldn't ever say, "Wow I could really go for some anchovies right now" but they were tasty. The kitchen just kept sending out different plates which we all shared and I'm pretty sure we tried everything on the menu. Shrimp, mussels, olives, cheese, ribs, chicken wings, corn fritters, garlic chicken, potatoes with spicy sauce, potatoes with garlic sauce, more potatoes with garlic sauce because they were that good, empanadas, mushrooms, meatballs, calamari. Everything was so delicious and I loved how they brought us whatever they wanted to make.
After our meal feast, our pants were feeling uncomfortably tight, so we decided to walk it off and go to the Red Light District. Definitely an experience, but somehow I don't think I'm going to take my parents there when they come to visit. Still, it was a gorgeous night!
The next day we went to Anne Frank's house, saw the infamous I AMsterdam sign and took the typical touristy pics.
We then decided to go on a pub crawl (some of us didn't make it out but I won't say who). We quickly found out we were the only Americans in the entire bar when the announcer said, "All the Americans make some noise!!!!" and we screamed expecting the entire bar to join in but it was dead silent except for us. Apparently everyone is from England. However, it didn't matter where you were from when this song came on.
That bride-to-be was really having the time of her life.
On Sunday we forced ourselves to get up early and go to the Van Gogh museum with Gangnam Style still ringing in our ears. I don't have a passionate love for museums as much as my dad wants me to, but this museum was amazing. I actually recognized a couple of the lesser-known paintings from when we studied Van Gogh in grade school and patted my fourth-grade self on the back for paying attention in art class. My only complaint was that Starry Night wasn't on display, but other than that it was incredible to see how he taught himself different techniques and how his paintings changed over time. Thank goodness we got up early too, because it snowed the night before and was the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen.
After the Van Gogh museum, Stefanie, Ben, Pat and Zach had to catch their flight, but Katie, Chelsea and I couldn't get the thought of those delicious pancakes out of our mind, so we naturally went back.
This one had onions, bacon, ham, and mushrooms on it. Some serious nomming was happening.
After our breakfast we had to catch the train home so Katie and Chelsea could go back to Rome.
As sad as I was, I will be seeing them in Ireland for Saint Patty's Day and in Rome!
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