So this weekend was fantastic! My friend Stephanie came into town on her own European adventure and stayed with me for a few days. Granted, it was a rocky start and a rockier ending, but the in-between times were great :)
I met Stephanie at Amsterdam Centraal on Friday (about an hour after I was supposed to because I'm incapable of being on time), and we started our day of touristy Amsterdam. We began at the Anne Frank Huis, where we took the tour of the house the Frank family hid out in to avoid detection by Hitler's Nazis. Unfortunately they were eventually found and all but the father died in concentration camps, and the museum is set up to show just how much they suffered before even getting there. Most memorable was a page from the diary noting the only option for food in the house, which was fish, I believe, that was several months old. Horribly sad.
So as not to dwell on that depressing state of affairs (not to minimize the effects of WWII, just to move on with the day...) we decided to take a Canal Bike-- basically a paddle boat-- to see what we could of the city from the canals. It was a lot of fun, though thank God Stephanie was with me because I'm apparently incapable of steering.
We docked near the Rijksmuseum and I pointed out some of the things I knew of from my previous trip. We decided to eat over at the Cobra cafe, which is the suggestion from the museums and travel guides. It was pretty good actually, and we had the official AmDam drink of choice, Heineken, so that filled that requirement, too.
Then, of course, it was time for the obligatory (but not any less interesting) trip to the Red Light District. It was insane! I guess I didn't think that the ladies would literally just be hanging out in front of windows, but yeah, they are. Little tiny pieces of cloth were pulled firmly against their not-so-private parts, but that was it. One even had one of those bodysuit things from Borat. It was ridiculous.
We headed back to my little house and the next morning was spent chasing the two youngest around. They actually weren't that bad, so they must have been showing off for Stephanie. Hey, I'm not complaining, whatever works. Later we went to Den Bosch to see the Jazz in Duketown festival that was going on. I have no idea where this Duketown is, but there were several stages set up and everyone was having a great time. We even heard "Sweet Home Alabama," which we thought was hilarious, since it was being sung in the Netherlands by a Dutchman at a JAZZ festival. He may've been a little confused. Then back to the house again.
Sunday we went to Keukenhof to see the Tulip Festival! There were literally thousands and thousands of lillies and tulips, and the estimated time you're supposed to spend there is FIVE HOURS. I don't think I can do anything for five hours, much less roam around a garden, but we set out on the path. After Stephanie explained how to work my camera, we got some great shots and had a nice stroll (maybe three hours, but definitely NOT five). When we got home Stephanie packed up and got ready for her super early trip to the airport in the morning. Unfortunatly, since every day here is some random holiday that no one tells me about, we misread the bus schedule and she got stuck at a hostel in Amsterdam for an extra couple days before heading to Oslo instead of Copenhagen. I felt terrible! But, at least she got there eventually :)
STEPHANIE- Thanks so much for coming! Hope you had a great time, too!
Fin, for now.
