Delft and Amsterdam

Hi there, folks. Here's the next installment of Xtreme Xmas Trip 2008:

Day 3:
- Nice little breakfast at the hostel.
- Phe had graciously offered to take us to Delft, a quaint little town about 10 minutes by train from Rotterdam. Famous expensive ceramic pieces with blue scenes painted on come from there. A sea of bikes confronts us as we exit the train:
- We saw a crazy old windmill:
- We did some sightseeing. Notice that this sweet church below is tilted to the right because it's falling over!



- Phe took us for lunch at a sandwich restaurant and we had an impassioned discussion about the clear superiority of Dutch bread to all other breads.
- We went to Nieuwe Kerk, where we climbed a seemingly endless set of stairs to the tower at the tippy top. I slammed my head against a wooden beam during this ascent, which made it all the more enjoyable. The reward was the beautiful view at the end. You can see Rotterdam in the distance in this picture.

- After we got back from Delft, the boys went to find fries slathered with mayonnaise while the girls went to Phe's place to watch the season finale of The Hills. That show has gotten fake to the point of hilarity.
- When we got back, we went to dinner at Rick's apartment, made with love by Phe. She made us a traditional Dutch dinner of stooompefelllsomething or other...the name isn't important, it was delish. In the corner of the picture below, you can also see a bottle of the best Chardonnay ever.
- Post-dinner, Vince and Jelle take us to a nearby bar, where there is a serious sausage fest happening. This is when I really realized how tall Dutch people are. I swear, no one in the bar (women included) was under 5'8". I don't remember seeing even one guy who was noticeably shorter than me.

Day 4:

-Vince accompanies us on a train to Amsterdam!
- For lunch, I eat a broodje kroket and some fries with pindasaus (peanut sauce, but it's much cuter in Dutch).
- Vince gets us to try raw herring with onions, which is some kind of Dutch delicacy. It was verrrry interesting.

- We get to our hotel (no, not a hostel) and it's not too bad, but I wish it would have had a common room/kitchen.
- We meet our weird French roommate who we all feel is staring at us.
- Went out to a bar and decided that I needed to do karaoke with Katie in the near future.
- Found a Chinese noodle restaurant and devoured bowls of noodles/rice.

Day 6:
- IT'S CHRISTMAS!!
- Apparently Katie had had a rough night due to our creepy roommate walking around all night, smoking weed in the bathroom, breathing hard, turning on the lights, eating things, etc. I slept through everything. Eventually, he left at like 3AM. Weird.
- Van Gogh museum.
- Went for Mexican food for dinner. Very good! We saw the restaurant cat kill a mouse, which was subsequently swept INTO the kitchen, wtffff?!
- Got some warmedranken and free oliebollen!
- Went ice skating, but Olga wasn't a big fan...I'd had my fill after about 15 minutes of it, too. How many times can you go around in a circle? We did get to see a couple (?), who were FAR too inebriated to be ice skating fall all over each other laughing, though. Katie loved it:

Day 7:
- Bikes, bikes, bikes. We rented bikes. Awesome.
- Had a tasty vegetarian breakfast.
- Went to the torture museum with Jaron and Kyle while Olga and Katie went to the Rijksmuseum.

- Dinner at a Greek restaurant. The waiter hates us pretty much immediately and our food doesn't come for like FORTY minutes.
- Bye, bye Holland!