The city of many canals and houses that tilt. Oh, and bikes.

I did it. I can't believe I did it. I traveled to another country where I really, truly, felt like a foreigner.

We were very tired - I woke up at 4:30am and we left at 5:20 to walk to the train station. Our train left at 6:25am!

Amsterdam Central Station

Me waiting for Miranda and Megan as they went to the "WC" (water closet aka bathroom, haha. You  have to pay 0.70 euros to go)

I definitely do not understand dutch. I should have been a good girl and at least looked up how to say, "Please," "thank you," and "have a nice day," But alas, I did not, and so I feel like I really learned what it's like to feel completely lost and without any direction. It's called embracing a new culture on the spot.

Rule number one. NEVER CROSS THE STREET.

Rule number two: If you absolutely have to cross the street, only cross at crosswalks, only cross when the traffic light shows green and you can hear the strange ticking noise, and above all, watch out for trolleys, cars, trucks, people, and BIKES.

Crossing the street is an adventure because you have to look both ways to first cross the bike lane, then left to cross the one half of the street, then right to cross the other half, then look both ways to cross the bike path on the other side of the street. There are literally four cross walks you have to cross to make it to the other side of the street :

I am quite in love with this city though, particularly because of all the bike lanes. I wish I could show you how many times I saw a dad or a mom with a child strapped into a front or a back bike seat. This is just normal morning routine to them. If they're going to the store, if they're going somewhere, the child comes with them in the bike seat. The coolest bikes were those that were equipped with both a front and a back baby seat. I want this to become a normal thing in the USA. The only problem is this works in Amsterdam because the streets are so small, and there's no way any bus could make it down the street without killing someone or breaking something. There are too many bridges and canals without fences to take the risk of large vehicles plowing their way down the street. Parking a car seems like a nightmare since they risk to fall into the canal.

Thank goodness for bike garages, though! Take a look at this one:

And here is a picture of one of the hundreds of street bike racks:

One very fun part of this culture, aside from the bikes and canals, are the waffles and the pancakes. Oh man. Oh. Man. Doesn't this picture of a traditional waffle just make your mouth water? They are so good and so heavy that my stomach freaked out after I ate it, but all in all, I'd say the whipped cream, strawberries, and ice cream atop a delicious sugary waffle made everything worth it.

These are traditional pancakes - they are tiny, round, and very delicious. We think they are cooked in a special pan that resembles a cupcake tin, but this one is for little pancakes. Not too sweet, and 11 was the perfect number to eat :)

Here's my waffle topped with cherries, whipped cream, and ice cream:

We got to visit the Anne Frank house and Corrie ten Boom house while we were there. I got to actually walk up inside the Secret Annex where Anne and her family and several family friends lived for over two years. Then, I also was able to see the Corrie ten Boom house, and the secret hiding place that her family asked someone to build so they could help hide Jews. This spot once held six people for a straight forty seven hours during which time Corrie ten Boom and her father and sister were arrested and taken to a concentration camp for hiding Jews. It hurts my heart so much to think that these people had to go through that, and that today there are similar sufferings in the world. I had an interesting perspective on their suffering because unfortunately, I was sick with a fever and a cold while we were there for two days. I was tired after standing and walking for three hours, so it made me appreciate so much more the suffering the Jewish people had to experience.

This is the original clock shop her dad was the owner of. Above it is their home. You can see the front windows are the living room.

During WWII, Corrie ten Boom, her father, and her sister were a part of the Dutch resistance, and helped about 800 people escape Germany through a network of homes and underground organizations. When the Germans found this out, they raided the ten Boom home, and Corrie, Betsie, and their 84 year old father were imprisoned. One of the many miracles of her story is that she was able to sneak her bible into the camp and read it at night to the other people. One night, her sister said that they needed to remember to thank God for everything - including the lice and the fleas. Corrie refused to do this until she realized that the fleas and lice kept the guards away from their barracks, which allowed them time to read the bible together. She is the only one of her family who survived. This is the sliding door that covers the little entrance in the bookcase. The house was equipped with an alarm system that someone from the family could set off if they saw any German patrol in the area, or if they sensed danger. It would give the refugees in the house about one minute to get inside the secret hiding place built behind a wall of bricks. Many times, the Germans who searched the house would knock on walls to see if they could her a hollow space behind it, indicating a secret room or hiding place. But because this false wall was made of bricks, they never discovered it. There were at one point 6 people in here for 47 hours before they were able to come out. It was after Corrie and her family had been arrested, and these 6 people waited in there until the Dutch Resistance came to retrieve them.

We got to walk around the streets quite a bit, and our adventures lead us to many a cheese shop :

The architecture is incredible. Shop owners would often place stone pictures on the outside of their shops to indicate what they specialized in. For instance, a shoe maker may have an image of a shoe, and a baker would have the image of kitchenware on the outside. 

This was a wonderful trip to a new culture and a new language.  While there, I realized that while I may be more comfortable now with traveling and meeting new cultures and feeling out of my comfort zone, there truly is no place like home.

I miss my family dearly, but I'm grateful that modern technology allows us to communicate still. And Happy Birthday, Grandmother!!!!

Love, Sunshine :)