I'm going Dutch!

My trip to Holland started very early on Sunday morning. At 4 a.m. Mike and I walked to the bus station where we took a bus to the train station where I hopped on a train to Gatwick airport. I had checked in the night before so I just had to give them my bag and wait. I bought some chocolate with my remaining British Pounds before boarding the plane. It took 40 minutes to fly from London to Amsterdam.
After I got off the plane I went to collect my luggage at baggage belt 2. When my luggage didn’t come (along with several other people from my flight) we went to ask the airport guy. He looked at us very plainly (and as if I were dumb) and asked if we had checked belt number 7. I looked at him and I said no. Incidentally our luggage was not at belt number 7. After awhile our luggage came out and 45 minutes later I got to see Lieke who was waiting for me!
It was so much fun to see her again. We went though a lot together and it was nice to reconnect again, especially since it’s so hard to find time to write and call because of the time difference.
We took a train to her house in Raalte where I got to meet her mom (I had met her dad before in Mexico) and her sister Fiep. We had a traditional Dutch dinner a mix of potatoes, carrots, and onions and then a beef gravy on top.



Dinner was followed by ice cream, of course.
Lieke and I rented a movie for the night. It was strange at the rental place because they have all kinds of movies….comedy, suspense, horror, cartoons, and porn….that’s right porn! I was really surprised because on one side was the Disney movies and the other was porn. I don’t think we have that stuff in movie rental places in the United States, and if we did it would be really understated and protected like in a back room. Interesting, I thought.
Monday Lieke and I went to Zwolle and met Sietke, a girl who was in Mexico with us but from a different program.


Lieke, Sietke, and me enjoying a typical Dutch snack.

We went by bus to this little town has a river that runs through it and its main tourist gig is to rent boats and then you can go on a little tour.
I have this innate fear of water. I don’t like it. I’m scared of it. What happens if I fall in? I can’t swim. What do I do? Anyway, we rented a boat and I just stayed put. As we were crossing the lake that separates the two rivers a few gusts of wind came along. I didn’t appreciate them. I thought I was going to fall in! It was a relaxing ride and fun to talk about different things.
After our exhausting boat ride we got some French fries, at which point some birds and ducks decided they liked us. Lieke especially made some friends.






We had dinner back at Lieke’s house in Raalte (apparently it was my choice, so I said I wanted chicken, broccoli, and potatoes, haha) and then they had a birthday party for Lieke with her family. It was fun to meet them, I just had no idea what was going on. Luckily Sietke was still there and so we could talk.
Wednesday Lieke and I went to Amsterdam by train. We walked around and went to the Anne Frank House Museum. It was very nice, to say the least. It was powerful and important. I read her diary when I was about 12. I don’t remember a lot of the details about it, but it was still nice to be able to go in.
We grabbed lunch in a supermarket for about 2 Euros a person and that was really nice. We walked to a park and laid down for awhile and then just bummed around the rest of the afternoon.




I love how bikes are parked anywhere where it's possible. It's the main mode of transportation! I think that's a very cool part of Europe.



We ate dinner at an Argentine restaurant. It was nice because there was a lot of things in Spanish. The meal ended up being really expensive for me. I guess I had no idea how much going out to eat cost. It as 36 Euros. Lieke thought nothing of it, but when they rung it up it was $50 for 2 people! Granted we got an appetizer and drinks. We got 2 Diet Cokes each and we had to pay for each one. So that made it more expensive.
We couldn’t go to Amsterdam without seeing the Red Light District. It was an interesting experience, you can ask me about it later.