Darmody Eurotrip: First stop- Amsterdam!

My dad conveniently had a conference in Amsterdam May 25th-30th so my whole family came to visit me! Perfect timing too, because they would be here for my 21st birthday! I picked them up at the airport where I was so excited to see them and one of the first things they said to me was, "Wow. Your hair. It's really blonde. We will fix that when we get home." Gee good to see you too! Not my fault my roommate decided to take a shower precisely as I was supposed to be washing the dye from my hair...

We had some time to kill before we could check into our apartment so we went to the Rijksmuseum, which I'm sure is exactly what everyone wanted to be doing after an international flight! Mostly everyone except my mom walked around like this:

My dad, brother, and I then went back to the airport to get our luggage. 

They were tired.

We then checked in and had some crucial nap time. 

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant where my brother proceeded to order simply "Sambuca". The waitress just kind of looked at him and he looked back at her like:

Andrew you simply just ordered a liquer. A straight liquer. 

Here they are!!! My precious fam.

The next morning my dad and I had a half marathon in Leiden, a town pretty close to Den Haag! As I have said this entire time, the Dutch are extremely unorganized (examples: my school moving my orientation date up three days earlier, a week before I was supposed to be there. My teacher not knowing if her class lasts 6 or 12 weeks long. The school not having an official end date. Signing my dad and I up for the marathon somehow for free when it 100% cost money) and don't really know how to run things. This is probably extremely "American" of me to say...but it's true. 

Getting our numbers for the marathon proved to be easy, especially because I was worried I hadn't actually signed us up since we didn't have to pay. We got our numbers and waited in a cafe until it was time to start.

How cool is my dad? 

Then we saw everyone go out into the streets so we followed.

All of a sudden everyone just kind of started running. Was this the beginning of the race?! Shouldn't there be some sort of gun shot or music or announcement or something?!?! After about 1 km in I figured hmmm guess this is the race!

Around 2 kms in I was starting to get really thirsty! Then I spotted what I thought was a water station, but instead they were handing out these yellow sponges in the shapes of runners. I thought, "Hm maybe this is some sort of new Dutch way to drink water instead of using plastic cups?" I looked around to see what everyone else was doing with the sponges, and saw a couple people putting them in their shirts or squeezing the water on their heads. But I was really thirsty. So I kind of just...drank the sponge water. Pretty sure when people saw me do that they were like:

The whole race was entirely flat (obviously...another joke here is the biggest hill you will see in the Netherlands is when a dog takes a crap. Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all night) and I ran past way too many cows. The smell was not pleasant. But I had Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on tape to keep me company!

Please let this be over soon.

I was also starving during the race! I remembered I had some energy gummies left over from a year ago when Megan and I did our first half marathon in Annapolis! They were a wee bit stale but I was desperate.

You know how some people get this burst of energy near the end of the race because they know it wil be over?

This was me.

But I finished! Only ten minutes over my time a year ago which I figured to be pretty good considering my only form of exercise includes walking between the refrigerator and my room. 

We are from Maryland in case you couldn't tell!

After walking around Leiden a bit we went to have some Dutch pancakes! I love Dutch pancakes. 

Then we paid a visit to good ol' Den Haag, so my parents could see that I live in the ghetto. They agreed. But my dad changed the lightbulb that I couldn't reach so that was nice. 

The next day we hung out before my dad had to go to his conference at Amsterdam University. 

"Act like you like each other"

Then my dad left and we enjoyed Amsterdam!

Excuse meeeee

"Do I look European?"

Mom popping up to say hi! And to bring us more beer and wine. 

Oh hey dad! Eating peanuts, of course.

We love the rooftop!

We decided to forgo dinner in favor of alcohol. 

That time my sister locked herself in the bathroom. 

Which reminds me of when I got locked in my apartment the same time I was supposed to be giving a presentation in my Comm class. I think that was the first time my professor ever got an email with the excuse, "Sorry, I am currently locked in my apartment and can't get out"

We eventually had to go inside because a man a few houses over came out on his deck and our conversation went something like this.

Man: "Hey hope you guys are enjoying Amsterdam!"

Mom, sister, and I: "Oh we love it!!!!" Giggles uncontrollably due to three bottles of wine.

Man: "That's great but unfortunately we had a newborn and he is trying to get some sleep."

I think that was his way of saying:

So we begrudgingly went inside and went to sleep. 

The next morning was my 21st birthday! I woke up to this birthday sign! Close enough.

This is my sister on the morning of MY 21st birthday. Shouldn't I be the one hungover on the couch?

My sister stayed in bed while my mom, brother, and I explored Haarlem!

They finally tried some delicious Netherlands fries! 

Some delicious poffertjes! A traditional Dutch "pancake puff".

On the way back from Haarlem I got this awful pain on the outside of my right foot.

I started walking around with some serious swagger.

When we got home from Haarlem we found Melissa to be alive! There she is from the view of our apartment!

We went to Vondelpark right by our apartment and then went to Maoz Vegetarian for some delicious falafel. 

In the morning we went to the Van Gogh museum (second time for me...pretty sure I know more than the average person does about Van Gogh now) and then went shopping because it was pouring outside. Still walking with some serious swagger here. Painful swagger. For dinner we went to an Indonesian restaurant and had some amazing food. 

It was so much that even the Darmodys couldn't finish it all. And we never let a plate go un-licked. My pants remained unbuttoned for the remainder of the night. In the morning we were heading to Paris!