Pancakes and Waffles for Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving trip was a little bittersweet. I loved all the places I went to and everything I was able to see and do. (I even found STARBUCKS at the airport in Amsterdam!) The bitter part is that I lost my camera. Somehow I left it on the plane.

The seats had this really awesome green and blue hippy pattern so I wanted to take a picture of them. I thought I put my camera back in my purse, but I guess I didn’t or it fell out or something. My friends even said they saw me put it back in purse! (Oh! I was on the trip with my room mate Sayuri and our friend Katie, by the way.) I am hoping to be able to get it back from the airline or the airport. But I was able to console myself because unlike credit cards or my passport, a camera is more replaceable. But it was a new camera and my Mom bought it for me to take to Europe. So it was a sad day. But I was determined not to let this get me down. Even I lost something very important to me I was still in Amsterdam and I might never go back there again so it was in my best interest to move on with life and enjoy my trip.

We got to Amsterdam Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning. We took the train from the airport to the central station. On the train there was a total creeper who kept touching me. I was about to punch him in the face but the train arrived at the station. First he walked by and touched me on the jaw. It could almost have been an accident, but I could tell it was on purpose. When he walked by me he was going to get his accordion…

He stood in front of us and played for a while. We didn’t look at him, but stared intently out the window. Eventually he tapped me on the shoulder and walked away when we still wouldn’t acknowledge him. When the train was nearing the station he walked by again and pulled on my hair. Yes, I know I have curly hair, and I think some men in Europe must have never seen curly hair before. They like to touch it. Please stop. Even some of my friends with straight hair like to boing my curls, but I don’t mind them so much as the random creepy strangers on the train.

Ok moving on. We got to the hostel without further incident and checked into our room. Our hostel in Amsterdam was pretty cool. It was a hotel turned hostel so the rooms were hotel rooms but with bunk beds so you can put six people in what was a two person room. It also came with free breakfast. The breakfast was exciting because it had butter (not olive oil) to put on the bread. I’d almost forgotten about putting butter on bread.

After checking into the hostel we went out and explored the town. First things first, we found some food. On trips we all seem to forget to eat after breakfast until like 5pm because we get so excited to be traveling in new places. When we finally ate, I had a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. Delicious! We did some shopping after eating; there are a lot of cool stores in Amsterdam. I found these really cute boots and I almost spend 150€ on them. Luckily though I was able to walk away with my euros still in my wallet, but it was a close call.

For Thanksgiving dinner (which we ate at about 10pm when we were finally hungry again) we went to the Hard Rock Café Amsterdam. First I had a salad that came with salad dressing! I was so excited to have salad dressing. I do love the oil and vinegar salads we get in Italy, but that blue cheese was some of the best I’ve ever had. We were all so excited about the food, I’m pretty sure the waiter thought we were completely nuts. Then I had a sandwich that came with fries. On the fries I had HEINZ ketchup. It was such good ketchup. The ketchup we get here is kind of weird.

After dinner we explored more of Amsterdam before going back and getting to bed. We were mostly around Liedseplein, a really great square. There were street performers and so much cool stuff to see. Amsterdam is such a cool city! I loved it. The atmosphere there is just relaxed and laidback. Plus the city is beautiful! The canals make the streets look so picturesque, plus all the trees. I really wanted to see a windmill and there was one in town that we passed by a lot riding the tram from our hostel into downtown

A canal in Amsterdam. I love it! So beautiful!

Friday morning Sayuri and I got up early to go see the museums. Katie had already been to Amsterdam so she slept in. There are three really great museums and we went to all of them. First was Anne Frank’s House where the family lived in the annex. We got to go in all the rooms except the attic. The decorations Anne put on the wall are there. In one of the rooms downstairs there was a display that had a yellow star that the Jews had to wear. The staircases in the house were so steep; you almost bang your knees walking up them. The bookcase that hid the stairs up to annex is there, so you have to get up there like Anne and the family did, there’s a really big step up and you have duck considerably at the same time to get through the doorway. It was so weird that the Holocaust came to a place like Amsterdam; it really doesn’t fit with the city at all and the general attitudes of the people that live there.

After Anne Frank we headed over to the art museums. Both the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum on located on the well-named Museumplein. We went to the Rijks first, it was amazing! It is a great collection of Dutch masterpieces. Lots of Rembrandts and Vermeer, I have decided that Vermeer is probably my favorite Dutch painter. It was interesting to me that at the Rijksmuseum all the walls were painted black and there wasn’t a lot of light. But over at the Van Gogh all the walls were white or yellow and there were tons of windows, it was so bright a cheery. And yet, Van Gogh spent time in an institution, cut off part of his ear, and eventually

committed suicide. I felt like the brightness went with the color schemes of his painting, but not who he was. The Van Gogh Museum had so many great paintings, even though the most famous things are at The Lourve, it had the painting of the sunflowers, the self portrait of him in a hat, and the sailboats. I don’t know if you guys know the paintings I’m talking about, but there were a lot I have seen before in school and on magnets or what have you.

After we finished with the museums late in the afternoon. We missed lunchtime because of our museum going. But we had some Greek food as a late lunch. Amsterdam has tons of restaurants with foods from all over the world. We did some more shopping and I bought a purse on sale for only 7.99€! I was very excited about that find. Some of our other friends from school came to Amsterdam that day and we met up with them. For dinner we went to Pancake Corner. The pancakes were more like a crepe and were so good! I loved it! I got mine with chicken in it and ate it with maple syrup. There’s whole list of toppings to you can get on the pancake.

This is Leidsplein. You can see Pancake Corner on the left if you look hard enough.

After dinner we went to the Red Light District. It was an interesting experience and it certainly is a sight to see if/when you go to Amsterdam, but you don’t need to spend more than about 20 minutes there. Its just one street down both sides of a canal so you walk down one side, cross a bridge and walk back down the other side. Most of the girls in the windows looked bored to be there and were just waiting around for a customer, some where trying to work it a little but. We did see one of the women rope in a customer. That was entertaining for us. The men who stand on the street try to sell you crack. Hard drugs are illegal in Amsterdam; they do have some laws there. We just walked down without talking to anyone or making eye contact. There’s also these clubs that have live shows and guys stand outside trying to get people to go in. We declined. Also in the Red Light District do not even try to take a picture. Prostitution is a legitimate job for these women and they don’t want to be photographed like a tourist attraction. If you try, the police will come after you.

I was sort of glad when we left the Red Light District, I felt so sketchy being there. For the rest of the evening we just hung out around town. Our last night in Amsterdam was really fun, we went to a few bars and such, pretty low-key.

The next morning we got up early and took a train to Brussels, Belgium. Brussels was really cool! Such a beautiful city! But we really only needed a day there. There are only 2 things to really see: Grand Place and Mannekin Pis. The Grand Place is so beautiful! There’s a market in the square in front of it and there was a Christmas Tree so that made me really happy. Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing, quite the thing to see. For the rest of our time in Belgium we had some amazing waffles, incredible cheese and delicious chocolates. We also tried some Belgian beer, and it was really good. If I had more time in Belgium I would have liked to go see Bruges and Waterloo.

In Brussels we stayed in a really nice hotel. We booked at the last minute and got a really good deal on a hotel room, it was cheaper than staying in a hostel. So we had a super nice bathroom and really comfortable beds. Heavenly. Also the main language there was French, something I do not speak at all. So getting around was a little difficult. We mostly had to stick to the tourist places where they speak some English. Amsterdam had more English speakers, though we heard a lot of Dutch.

This is the Grand Place in Brussels, its on all four sides of the Grote Market Square, so you cant get it all in a picture.

Here's a view at night. It was night time when we saw it, and it was so beautiful all lit up!

Sunday we again had to get up early; I got up early everyday of my vacation. This time we were up early to go back home. We had to take a taxi from our hotel to the train station and then a bus to Charleroi airport. The budget airlines like to use the secondary airports that are far away from town. We got back to Florence safely once again and with no new stamps in the passport! They really don’t stamp passports like they used to.

Of all the things I saw while on this trip, one of my favorite was on the flight back to Italy. We flew over the Alps and it was incredible! I stole this picture from google images, but it gives you an idea of what the alps look like from an airplane. If you even have a flight that takes you over the alps, pray for a window seat and a clear day.

These pictures have all been taken from friends and the google searching.