Amsterdangg

This weekend I went to Holland, a.k.a "The Netherlands" (but only the foreigners call it that. And even the locals aren't sure why there are two names.)

Before you get all judgey and let your mind wander, let's address the leaf-shaped elephant in the room: NO, I did not partake, or even think about partaking, in any form of Amsterdam's "greenery". It's just that I still remember all the lyrics to my DARE graduation songs is all.

That being said, I thought Amsterdam was a wonderful city. The whole city's vibe is fun, Dutch people are incredibly friendly, and these cookie things called Stroopwafels are enough to make Jared from Subway want to fit into those old pants again.

I left Friday night with -- pause for dramatic effect... -- the overnight bus. I thought I was really in for a heckuva ride when I got on the bus to leave at midnight, but thanks to my friends at Tylenol PM, I found that without much trouble I was able to be in and out of consciousness for the next 6 hours. I'm especially thankful this overnight bus experience wasn't an awful one, because I'm doing it again on the 22nd in order to get to Paris.

Leigh met me early Saturday morning and after we had our "OmgImissedyouuu!" moments, we headed out and toured the Anne Frank house, walked along the canals, went through The Heineken Experience (basically like a small amusement park/museum based around the beer), and then spent Saturday evening with 40 Dutch people cheering on Holland in their first game of the 2012 European World Cup.

(And by the way, living in Europe makes the European World Cup SO FUN. In fact right now I'm not fully committed to writing this post because I'm watching England v France who are tied 1-1. And I with the rest of the world would love a good frog bake.)

Leigh has some close family friends in a small village 45 minutes outside the city, so we were able to stay with them in their adorable house, complete with a canal in the backyard. We had a blast sitting on their patio entertaining them by trying to speak Dutch. I'm going on record to say it's the most difficult language I've ever tried to learn. Within 5 minutes I had accidentally said the Dutch f-word while trying to say "nose".

It was a great weekend. Since my camera cable is still in another country and I can't show you what I saw in the city, watch this video and just look around. I been there.