Our journey to Holland started before the dawn. Since our flight was at 7am (again) we had to be awake at 4:30am (yuck). We called a taxi and it took us to the train station that would get us to Stanton airport. Stanton turned out to be in the buttcrack of nowhere so by the time we got there we were already late as heck. It was a nightmare! We had to run through the entire airport with our luggage in tow (my suitcase weighed about 30 lbs and there were stairs EVERYHWERE). I honestly thought my lungs were going to burst I was running so hard. And we weren't the only ones. Everyone else who had been on our same train was booking it through the airport as if the place was on fire. Luckily, the flight had been delayed so we got there with plenty of time but we vowed to be super early next time (unfortunately, this would happen to us again in Denmark).
Once we actually got to Amsterdam everything was fine, though. The flat we rented was an absolute dream and our host was super nice (her boyfriend was a dreamboat btw). When we arrived she still had some cleaning up to do so we went out for some breakfast. We found a cute spot down the road called Dave's Coffee and Nuts and we even made friends with a dog, Petyr, who lived there. I had the most amazing smoothie of my life and cheese on toast. After brekkie we walked down to the most gorgeous park. Since the weather was so perfect (another beautiful sunny day) everyone was out enjoying the park with their doggies. I even got to see some parrots there that I wasn't expecting to see in Holland. I think we took a little nap after our stroll in the park and later we went to a street market across the road from our flat and bought things for dinner. It was a quiet and peaceful evening, which we needed after our stressful morning.
Our next day in Amsterdam would turn out to be the best day of my life so far. It was something out of a fairy tale. Just a perfect day. We slept in a bit and took the bus into town so we could rent bicycles. We found a bike rental called Mac Bike and the man who helped us was so nice! For the entire day it was 14.75 euros to rent a bike; it was the best 14.75 I've ever spent. I never imagined that something so simple as riding a bike around town could be so wonderful. These bikes rode like a dream and as soon as I got on mine I was overwhelmed with happiness. I kept shouting over to Melissa, "I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!!!" We rode over to the Nemo Science Center and climbed up to the roof and got an awesome view of the city. While we were taking photos up there a bird pooped on Melissa's phone and I just about died from laughing my guts out. We had talked earlier in the trip about how we'd never been pooped on by a bird so I couldn't handle it when it actually happened.
We rode our bikes all over town and it was so amazing getting to ride next to all of the lovely canals and boats. Our bikes had the cutest little bells too and it was so much fun getting to ring them anytime you needed someone to move out of your way. People kept walking into the bike lane so you'd have to ring your bell at them to wake them up. I wish I had a bell to ring in everyday life to signal folks to get the H outta my way! Amsterdam is super bike friendly but I'm still amazed that neither of us ate it or got hit by a car all day. I'm a pretty good cyclist but I was still impressed by ability to not die all day since people kept stopping in front of us.
The first thing on our list of things to see that day was the Vincent van Gogh Museum. Thanks to Melissa we didn't have much trouble finding it and when we did the line wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be. I think we waited less than an hour and tickets to get in weren't that expensive. I think it was about 15 euros. If we had had more time I easily could've spent all day in this museum. Vincent and his art are very special to me. I've always felt an affinity with him that I've never felt with any other artist. His work just moves me so much and has been such an inspiration to me.
We did manage to get in trouble at the museum so that was kinda lame. They only had a no photography sign on the first floor of the museum so once we got to the second floor we thought photos without a flash would be okay. WRONG. I was able to snap a few photos before I had a scary Dutch lady in my face. She was like, "I just told you to put that away. NO PHOTOS! Let me see you put it away!" while I'm like, "Just told me??" It was weird and super scary but at least she didn't insist that I delete them. My favorite painting we saw was "Almond Blossoms" and mostly because we got to learn that the painting was made for Vincent's new baby nephew and that he chose to paint almond blossoms for the baby since they symbolized new life and new beginnings. We were just so touched since we never knew the paintings backstory. The whole museum really touched my heart and I had to try realllly hard not to cry the whole time. His work just inspires so many feels in me (and the rest of humanity).
We only stayed in the museum about 2 hours because we were about to drop dead from hunger. However, the tomato and pesto sandwich I got for lunch didn't settle that well so I had a mini freakout. I got to experience my first pay toilet, though, which was really weird. It was 50 pence to use the bathrooms and Melissa came with me. When I walked into the stall I could totally see her and she could see me! I was like, "NO! How come the door is see-through?! I can't go if everyone can see me!!!" but when I closed the door the door instantly fogged up! It was totally bananas! After that bit of drama we kind of just rode around aimlessly and wound up at another beautiful park. Even though we had the bikes all day we thought it would be best to return them while the shop was open so we could make sure we didn't get charged any late fees or anything. It was rough letting the bikes go and having to walk again, haha.
We found a super cute ice cream shop in town and Melissa and I both got pistachio because we're awesome. While we were sitting there eating our ice cream a little fat pigeon scored a waffle cone that someone had dropped on the ground. He was so cute as he gobbled it all down :) It was really nice to just sit and relax after riding our bikes all day. After our little ice cream break we walked down to the Red Light District since it was almost dusk and we didn't want to be there after dark. It was pretty gross, which we were expecting but at least we can say that we saw it. We took the train back to our flat around 6 or 7pm and Melissa made another very tasty dinner. It was just such a lovely day and I'll never forget how exhilarating it was to ride bikes down the streets of Amsterdam on that beautiful spring day with my favorite girl.
Next stop was Berlin where things went a little...sour! Thanks for reading!
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