Last Few Days in Amsterdam

On a canal.

On Tuesday, Lieselotte and I rode our bikes into the city and did a little tour of Amsterdam. She showed me some different highlights in the city and it was so beautiful with all the canals and boats and churches. We also saw the building where Anne Frank was hidden during WWII. We didn’t go in, as it cost money and there was a long line, but it was crazy just seeing where it was (right in the heart of Amsterdam) and to think that the man who worked/lived there was hiding people right under the officials noses.

The Anne Frank house.

We also stopped in a little Dutch bakery and ordered two pieces of pie (which were gigantic) – one apple, one turtle. They were both delicious, but I think the turtle “took the cake”. ;) From there We went and met two of Lieselotte’s friends, Paul and Danny, at a pub. It was actually quite funny, because Danny is from Holland and he and Lies were talking on the phone trying to find one another, but they both know Amsterdam by different sorts of land marks. (Danny makes note of places to eat, for example, and Lieselotte notices shops and famous buildings). So anyway, next thing we know we are under a tower where Danny was supposed to be – except he was under a different tower. Lol It took a while, but we finally found them. We sat outside the pub on the canal and just chatted for a while. Paul is from Kenya but is Indian by heritage and studies linguistics in Amsterdam. Danny is from a small Dutch town in the countryside and is starting his PhD in Chemistry in Amsterdam. He also has an uncanny resemblance to Lieselotte’s older brother Peter.

Lies, me, Danny at the jazz pub..

It started raining so we moved indoors and borrowed some cards from the bar and taught Danny and Paul how to play Klaverjassen (the card game that Lieselotte’s family taught me last summer). We played several rounds, and the luck was completely against Paul and me. But we had fun and it passed the time until the rain ended.

We didn’t leave until 7:30 and we biked back to Lies’ house (during which it started raining again and we got pretty wet). And let me just say, that if I thought my butt hurt the first day, it was ten times worse by Tuesday. However, by Wednesday (as Lies says, the magic “three day rule,” it was fine!).

We ate the leftovers from the pasta the night before with fresh squeezed OJ and other various deliciousness. She really is a great chef! :) While she cooked, I finished up a column for work. After dinner, we dressed up (in Lies’ clothes since I didn’t have much in the way of dressy clothes), and went to this music hall where a classical band was performing sort of jazzy tunes. Danny met us there and it was a really nice evening (except I left my SD card in my computer so when I tried to take a photo, it said “no memory card”). Danny’s English is surprisingly good, and, like my friend Anna from Greece, it stems from watching a lot of American TV shows. Lol

Beautiful tulips at Keukenhof.

On Wednesday, Lies and I had a lazy morning, then I went into the city via tram to reserve my train ticket to Paris for Friday. I had to wait in line for about 20 minutes and then they said that even though I had a Eurorail pass, I still had to pay 49 euros because it was a high speed train so there was a surcharge. But, it was still better than just buying a ticket without the Eurorail.

When I got back to Lies’, we ate lunch and then took the metro back into the city to go shopping. (Dressing up the night before had inspired both of us to want new, cute clothes). We both got a new pair of skinny jeans – mine in a salmon color and hers in cobalt blue. It was 2 pair for 30 euro, so only 15 euros each. I also bought some simple t-shirts from H&M (which are surprisingly hard to find other places), a scarf to match my new pants, and earrings. It was nice to do something that felt very normal – like we were back in NC shopping together (except with way cooler shops).

In Keukenhof.

When we got home Lies cooked delicious Dutch meatballs that I need to get the recipe for. She also made yummy potatoes cut up and tossed with spices on a skillet, as well as some cucumber salad stuff. It was all so good. That night we wore our new clothes and biked back into the city to meet Danny and a few of Lies’ other friends at this jazz bar. It was probably the best jazz I’ve ever heard. I wish we had jazz bars in Charlotte – these guys were truly amazing. However, to get there before 9 (and avoid paying a cover charge) we had to bike furiously for 20 minutes from Lies’ house and by the time we arrived, I was sweating like I’d just run a marathon. Danny was smirking at us, because we were late the night before and this night, we got there by the skin of our teeth and I looked like I was going to pass out. You get this strange loopiness after riding a bike like that – when you get off and sit down, you feel sort of loopy and dizzy and it takes about 10 minutes to fully recover. On the plus side, Lies said I am the first international friend whom she’s had visit and been able to keep up with her fast pace. That made me feel good. :)

Danny had taken public transport, so he had to leave by about 11:30, and the rest of us stayed until 1 a.m. When Lies and I biked back to her house (don’t worry, we have lights on the bikes), it was so silent and calm and the temperature was just lovely. The wind wasn’t strong at all, which is unusual, but made the bike ride very easy. It was so quiet and Lies said that’s what she’s going to miss the most about coming back to the states – the bike rides – especially the late night, calming ones like that was.

The next day, Lies planned to work on her thesis and I met Danny at the central station at noon to go to Keukenhof (this is a very famous place in Holland where they grow millions of tulips and they have this 14 acre garden you can go to visit). Many tourists go here and I really wanted to go, but Lies really wanted to work on her thesis and didn’t really want to pay 14.50 euros to see flowers. However, Danny had also never been (even though he grew up in Holland), and since Lies didn’t go, I got to use her student transportation pass which meant the hour long trip there was pretty much free.

From the moment we entered the front gates at Keukenhof, I knew it was worth 14.50 (at least for me). I was like a little kid at Disney World (who am I kidding, I was like I am now at Disney World) – but anyway, I was so excited. The flowers (mostly tulips of course) were just out of this world. Danny found it quite amusing that I kept jumping up and down and skipping and exclaiming over a new batch I’d spot. It was like, every corner you turned, you’d see flowers more beautiful than the ones you just saw and were sure were the most beautiful you’d ever see. The art of breeding flowers here is a multi-million dollar industry and they do a fantastic job of breeding them beautifully.

There was also an old Dutch windmill in the park and we got to climb to the top and look out over the tulip fields around the park. Unfortunately, almost all the tulips have been cut except for a few rows. For lunch, I’d made us PB and banana sandwiches (which Danny had never tried before), and an apple, and he brought 2 croissants and I also brought spekolass (these amazing cookies that are sort of like gingerbread but entirely different from anything we have in the US).

We ended up spending from about 1-5 p.m. in the park. Then we asked the woman at the gift shop how we might be able to get to the tulip fields, and she told us. So when we left the park, we went left down this long dirt road toward these few rows of tulips we’d seen from the windmilll. On our way, this guy drove up and asked (in Dutch) what we were doing, and Danny told him, and he said it was fine to look, but we couldn’t go into the tulips because we might spread diseases from some of the other tulips. Well okay then. They take this flower thing quite seriously.

As it turned out, we couldn’t actually get to those tulips anyway because right before we reached them, there was a canal in our way. Meanwhile, the sun had come out from behind the clouds and it was so warm and beautiful. We sat down by the edge of the canal and just enjoyed the beautiful weather for a bit before walking back. As we walked back toward the buses, it started raining. (Dutch weather is crazy). At one point, there was a muddy puddle and Danny picked me up and carried me over it, but my sunglasses fell off my head. We got them, but then when we got to our bus and I reached into my pocket for Lies’ transport pass, I couldn’t find it. I started searching my bag frantically, but it wasn’t there. I slightly started freaking out, as this is the way Lies gets everywhere and she’d have to pay to get it replaced and it takes about a week. Danny tried to keep me calm and we went to the lost and found and described what it looked like, but I felt certain it had been in my jacket when we started walking back from the canal. So we walked back down the dirt road and right where the muddy puddle was, there was the card. I was so relieved. Danny laughed and said I reacted to crisis exactly the way Lies does – get all freaked out and tear up and act like it’s the end of the world. Lol. I said it would have been a little different if it had been my own train pass, and not hers. So anyway, we finally made it back on the bus, then transferred to a train to get back to Amsterdam.

Trying to get a photo w/both of us and the sign.

From there I took a tram back to Lieselotte’s where she was, per usual, cooking a delicious dinner. She’d gotten a lot of work done, so her day was also productive. After dinner (at which I decided fresh goat cheese is the most delicious thing ever), we biked to the city again to meet her American friend Justin for mojitos. I’d never had one before, but I tried once since there isn’t much alcohol in them. It was very minty and not bad. We sat and chatted for a while and it was a really nice temperature. It rained while we were there, but stopped by the time we biked home. The ride home was much like the night before temperature-wise and it was a beautiful night.

Mojito night - I think Lies' was sour. lol

Danny stopped by for a little bit after we were home (he’d gone to a meeting with some friends to plan a Europe trip for August). Lies’ friend Markus also came by and we all sat around eating cookies and chatting. It was a nice end to my stay in Amsterdam, but I realized how much harder it will make the rest of the trip when I don’t have my best friend there being a wonderful hostess and where I’m in a city surrounded by people who speak English (since almost all Dutch people do). It was just such a lovely time and I’m going to miss her and my time there much.

Now, I’m on a train to Paris, and from there I will catch a train to Caen, Normandy, where I will CS with a French girl named Marina. I am excited about seeing Normandy.