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!

Rotterdam

Well, I'm back from my absolutely lovely vacation. Katie, Kyle, Jaron, Olga, and I went to Rotterdam, Delft, Amsterdam, Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, and Barcelona over a span of 12 days. It was, in a word, awesome. Now, how to distill the experience for the benefit of my avid readers...I think I'll do several posts, each one dedicated to a portion of the trip. Let's start at the beginning with Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Here are my notes:

Day 1:
- We traveled for 20 hours, and I slept on the floor of an airport for the first (and hopefully, last) time in my life.
- When we arrived, Katie immediately introduced us to some kind of weird Dutch cookie called a stroopwafel. Jaron goes insane for appelbollen. Dutch food is unexpectedly delicious.
- Our host with the most, Vincent, a friend of Katie's, met us at the train station and took us to our hostel.
- The hostel was awesome, and cheap!
- We meet Katie's other friends, Phe and Rick (a.k.a. "Pretty Ricky")

- They take us in a water taxi across the river to a place called Hotel New York. The driver of the water taxi was a legend. He had a singing turkey on the dashboard to "make us feel more at home." Still not sure how that makes any sense, but it was sweet. This is a picture of Kyle and me trying not to die in the water taxi.

- Along the way, we get a good look at the Erasmusbrug:

- At the hotel, we drink Heineken and eat bitterballen, which are SO tasty. All food in Holland apparently comes in the form of a deep-fried ball, and I'm NOT complaining.
- Rick, Phe, and Vince take us for all-you-can-eat sushi! What am amazing idea. I had been missing sushi something awful. We learn the following Dutch words:

1) gezellig - apparently, there is no adequate English translation for this word. The closest is "cozy."

2) swaffel - I beg you to Google this. It was the word of 2008 in Holland by popular vote and it became the word of this entire trip for us.

3) proost - cheers!

4) biertjes - beers

- We go back to Vince's place and meet Jelle, whose awesomeness words cannot describe. He was SO DUTCH. His computer desktop background was a picture of him shirtless and wet emerging from an unknown body of water.
- Observation: Why are all Dutch people tall and gorgeous?! How do they manage to speak perfect English, every last one of them?? They are seriously the sweetest people. Everyone we met was helpful and open and no one seemed to have an attitude problem. I have never felt so at home in a strange country as I did in Holland, and most of the credit for that goes to our wonderful hosts. Thank you!

Day 2:
- We had a new roommate, who was a weird, older guy. He pretended to count his change 10 or 12 times as he watched me get dressed, hoping I might accidentally flash him. Sicko. I got dressed in the bathroom from then on.
- We went to Albert Heijn (grocery store) and Katie made us kip (chicken) sandwiches.
- Went to the art museum and managed to miss the entire third floor.

- Went to Het Park. No sun, but it was still pleasant. I was trying to carry on my sister's tradition of visiting the nearest park whenever you travel.

- We walked around, taking in the sights. We had coffee, pastries, and saw someone making poffertjes. We saw this shirt, which made our day (It says "I am the swaffel King):
- We met up with our hosts and went to Vince's apartment, where he made us lasagna! We listened intently to stories about Sinter Klaas (Dutch Santa, or as they would probably say, the original Santa).
- We discussed Bob Ross, an 80s TV show called Air Wolf, which I had never heard of before that night, and Chuck Norris.
- We learned that the worst insult you can hurl at someone in Dutch is kanker hoer, which means "cancer whore." According to Rick, the Dutch are the best at cursing because they curse you with diseases, such as cholera, and typhus.
- We played Dutch charades, which is far and away superior to American charades. During the course of this game, we learned that in Holland, Big Bird is blue!

That's all for this portion of the trip!