Eurotrip 2017: Adventures in Amsterdam

Hello again, friends! Since I've got a few hours to kill on my bus to Prague (whattup 16-hour journeys!), it's probably time for an update. So here's a quick look at the northern Venice--Amsterdam.

Day 1: 

Perhaps my favorite part of my time in Amsterdam was the very beginning. I pulled into the train station around 9:15 and made my way via tram (and the help of a lovely Dutch girl) to meet my friend Anne. Anne and I had spent the last few hours trying to sort out whether it would be best for me to meet her at work or home. And fortunately (for me) she couldn't escape work early enough and asked that I meet her there. FUN FACT: Anne manages a brewery/bar called Troost. So my immediate introduction to Amsterdam was walking into a bar, receiving a giant hug from a friend I hadn't seen in 2 years and then being offered 2 free locally brewed beers. BOOM. I see you Amsterdam. I see you.

After a couple drinks, we headed back to her place and almost immediately crashed. She'd been working most of the day and I'd been traveling--so hooray sleep! The next morning we got up and had a quick breakfast together (boiled eggs on buttered toast with a bit of ketchup--pretty great idea actually). And she gave me a quick lay of the land before I headed off to adventure the city! Apologies in advance for the large amount of canal photos--I've decided it's imperative that I live near water at some point in my life.

(Not a canal--but I loved that this woman turned around at EXACTLY the right moment.) What a perfect  view of the quaint and crazy life that is Amsterdam.

My first ACTUAL stop of the day was...yup, you guessed it: The Tulip museum. Hello FLOWERS! Since obviously it's not actually Tulip season in Holland, I had to do the second best thing. So I spent an hour in a museum learning about how Holland came to be the number one exporter, where they came from, and how they're cultivated and distributed at the end of the season. 

I won't bore you with all the details (unless you really want to know because it was actually super fascinating) BUT here are some general takeaways:

1. Tulips actually originated further East in the region of what is now Turkey. 

2. Because of this a Turkish emperor took a great interest in their beauty, and began to breed them at his palace in what is present-day Istanbul. You may have seen the pictures of it on a previous blog--Topkapi Palace (check out the Istanbul trip obvs)

3. The tulip was considered to be such a beautiful flower, that the name tulip is actually derived from the Anglicized version of an Arabic word that is extremely similar to the spelling of Allah--Lalah.

4. Once the Dutch people discovered them, the various Tulip cultivars became extremely prized, leading to what came to be called Tulip Mania. At the height of the mania, highly coveted varieties of Tulip could go for over 10x the ANNUAL wage of a skilled worker. AKA these people were paying more for tulips than houses. It was nuts.

5. When the tulip exchange collapsed, Dutch started exporting them to other countries (who were eager to see the flower that caused an economic disaster) and that led them to be the world's leading exporter of Tulips--continuing to this day.

Okay, my bad. I got excited and told you a lot more than intended. But that's CRAZY, right?! Anyways, after that excitement I wandered over to the Dam, the town square of Amsterdam. It is home to the Royal Palace, the national monument and you know, like Madame Tussaud's. 

After exploring a bit, I wandered around and happened to find myself by Rembrandt's house. Hurrah!

 (Really going for the Dutch coloring here)

Finally I hit the flower market (which at the present time is a bulb market because cold weather and whatnot.

Ended my day by walking over to the Museumsplein and checking out the famous I Amsterdam sign, which happens to be right by a skating rink, and one of the most beautiful museum building I've ever seen, the Reijksmuseum!

Finally, I made the long walk home through Vondelpark, one of the biggest parks in Amsterdam. It was stunning. And while the pictures themselves don't do it justice, walking through Vondelpark was one of those lovely moments in life when you feel like you're just watching life happen. It was probably 25* out, and people of all ages were biking, running, walking their dogs and just going about life. So lovely.

Day 2:

This was official museum day for me. Amsterdam has a TON of wonderful museums, so picking out just two was rather difficult. Budgeting, people, budgeting. I ended up deciding to do the Rijksmuseum (the national museum) and the Anne Frank House. Okay, the second one wasn't negotiable if we're being honest.

So here's a quick look at some of the fun things I saw:

It SNOWED! So I took the tram this day--walking for hours in the freezing cold isn't quite my deal.

Tulip/Flower vases --each of those little tubes holds a single flower--as shown:

When Dutch people discovered Chinese porcelain...they loved it. And Delftware, as the Dutch version is known, is EVERYWHERE. And while generally I ignored it, some pieces truly were too beautiful to be looked over.

But like really. They were obsessed.

Also, they had WAY better doll houses than us.

Just so we're clear--these doll houses, if placed on the floor--we're taller than me. I'm 5'5".

Got to see some Van Gogh.

And Vermeer--this was by far my favorite piece. So perfectly done.

AND this guy, who really had a terrible life:

ROUGH.

After a few hours spent going through Dutch history, I made my way to the Anne Frank House. Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside and the outside was too blocked by tourists to get a proper photo. But, if you ever end up in Amsterdam, I highly recommend it. Perhaps it's my interest in the atrocities of World War II, the insanity of the pain people could do one another, or maybe that God can use even the smallest of us to do great things; but whatever the reason, the museum, while small (and quite steep!) was really impactful. To walk through rooms where whole families slept and ate and snuck about for 2 years, was just heart wrenching. Beautifully done, and so inspiring to hear her father speak about his daughter and why he published her stories/diaries.

Finally, I made my way again to see the pretty lights of the city and then headed back for a final drink and hangout with Anne before heading off to Prague!

Eurotrip 2017: Marvelous Maastricht

I left Brussels for Maastricht early Sunday evening. The train was calm and comfortable, giving me enough time to read a bit and enjoy the darkening view outside the window. And during our one 3 minute stopover--luckily I remembered JUST enough French to understand what platform I needed to get to for before my next train took off. Three cheers for language learning!  

Upon arrival there were a few brief minutes of confusion where I attempted to get wifi to reach Jessica, found out I was one station off (I'd gotten off at the university hospital instead of Maastricht central--OOPS!) and then waited a bit for her to come find me so we could walk back to her flat. But getting to see Jessi was PHENOMENAL. 

Just so you all have a bit of background, during my first year at UVA, Jessica stayed with my family as an exchange student. Given that she ended up staying in my room for those 7 months we always joked that she had replaced me in mi familia. Luckily, rather than actually replacing me, she just added on to our family. Plus, she's German and goodness knows I'm all about getting to use my Deutsch whenever possible :)

That evening on the way back to her flat, we wandered through the old city of Maastricht. It's a university town, so lots of bars, restaurants and shops intermixed with the buildings that have stood through centuries. Plus the holiday season just passed so it was a gorgeous night of lights glimmering over the quietly moving city.

Jessi making dinner for the two of us :)

The next day after getting to sleep in a bit, Jessi showed me around her city. From the old town wall, to other more recent school buildings. In between we grabbed a small lunch with some of her friends where I got to try Bitterballen which is a Dutch favorite--just don't ask what's in them. No one knows. Afterwards we all decided a waffle was in order, before we all parted ways.

Bitterballen

The building behind the little pergola is where they signed the paper to create the EU. --obviously I didn't deem that as important or pretty as the churches behind it.

They made sure to keep his jaw in case anyone questioned whether or not he was real.

WOOF. What a sad, blurry, last picture. But This is where I finally headed off that evening to make my way to Anne in Amsterdam!

So, more fun stories to come!

Eurotrip 2017: Flemish Fun (sorrrryyy French side)

I ADORE Belgium. Out of all the places I'm going in this trip, Belgium is the one I would have been least likely to go to of my own accord. Nothing against them, just wasn't a high priority before. WELL, let me tell you people--it's phenomenal. 

Day 2: Ghent

I arrived by bus into Ghent, Belgium mid-afternoon on Friday and was welcomed by Robin's smiling face! After a short moment of jumping out of excitement, we made our way to Robin's house and then out for an evening of sightseeing in Ghent. Ghent is a gorgeous little city that was a main city-state during the Middle Ages, and still has some beautiful medieval buildings in the city center to show for it. Plus, with a river running through it, it's hard to beat the views. It really was perhaps my favorite city in Belgium. Such a mix of a university town with the culture and nightlife, while still being easily accessible by public transport to major cities around the country and continent. And I am SUCH a sucker for old buildings and town squares that you can wander through at leisure. Loved it. And we ended the day with a giant rack of ribs at a restaurant called Amadeus. Genuinely perhaps the most I've ever eaten.

"Noses"a well loved Belgian sweet!

Day 3: Brugge/Bruges/The Little Venice 

According to Liza, "...if you've seen the film In Bruges---ignore it. The Real Bruges is better." And no, she tried to be in the film, but didn't make it as an extra. Fair enough, when everyone in town is vying for spots! Liza, another wonderful friend from Aussie-land, showed me around her hometown of Bruges all day and it was a GLORIOUS day. Again, nothing overly exciting to share, but a gorgeous (but cold) day of simply wandering streets finding pretty photo spots. Though I will leave you with this fun fact about Brugges: there is a beer pipeline under the city. Look it up. After that discovery, we made sure to have a Belgian Waffle, and ended our day with a Beer Museum chatting about life, love and becoming Belgian. 

Eating my first proper Belgian waffle (Brussels waffle)

Oh yeah, and thi group of people in Carnivale dress kinda hung out and just walked through the city posing. No idea why. So that was fun.

The world's largest bottle of wine. Okay, fine. It was just the beer menu. But still.

The most DELICIOUS part of the day was dinner. Robin had gotten everything we needed to make Vol-Au-venti and so after cooking up a storm (mostly Liza and Robin--I was taking pics). We had the best Belgian meal everrrr. Okay, I probably can't make that distinction. But, it was really really good. And I've promised them I'd make it at home and send them a picture of the results--ssoooo who's in?

Day 4: Brussels

The final day in Belgium was great because I got to spend it with not one but BOTH of my wonderful Belgian  tour guides! Since Robin actually works in Brussels, we made her lead most of our tour. But it was fun pretending to be a tourist with both of them in the city. I found Brussels to be surprisingly--meh. The historic portion of the city was absolutely stunning. But, beyond that--it was a very normal city. For me, the best portions of the day were eating various strange fried meats at a Frituur, laughing at the Mannaken Pis, a famous statue of a little boy peeing into a fountain. Brussels is a pretty serious city. 

Robin haggling for tea cups at an Antique Market (she CRUSHED it)

The Atomium

Couldn't get rid of these two paparazzi. Followed me all friggin day.

They take their waffles VERY seriously. And I did get the second (Liege) waffle. Don't worry.

Frituur lunch! NOMS.

Mannaken Pis

Making sure our waffles don't go to waste

Town Center/Town Hall

Finally, at the end of the day--the girls dropped me off at the train station. After some long goodbye hugs I made my way to Maastricht, where I'm currently sitting on a couch with Jessica, a friend I haven't seen in SEVEN years. Life is crazy. Tomorrow we're off to explore this fun little college town--so until then people!