Ajax, Amsterdam, WE IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT!

Here is how I describe Amsterdam - a half circle, with streets like the West Village, all haphazard, with canals an bridges in between - and the people are all over - not like an American city where they have places to go - but more people just hanging, drinking, smoking, chilling, whatever. Also similar to San Francisco, with the Trams similar to the trolleys and BIKES BIKES BIKES EVERYWHERE. I loved that!

In other news, we didn't get to go to a soccer game, yet...but we got to see an open practice before the Dutch national championship today!!! WOW it was CRAZY. The fans are unreal..comparable to a Big Ten football game, but crazier. We saw the Amsterdam Ajax (pronounced Ay-ax), a professional team practice in front of about 2,000 fans, which only filled up behind the goal. Trust me, even though I'm not a huge soccer fan, this enviornment was AWESOME. The fans cheered so loudly for their team, with chants led by this guy down front, these fans a few rows down from us were beating each other up they were so hype. There was a huge flag waving, and you could feel the energy. Definately not a kid's environment, although people brought their kids. haha. - Update: Video published, AJAX IS DUTCH CHAMPIONS!!!

After leaving the stadium, and having a stink bomb going off in our face...this is Amsterdam afterall. We hopped the train to the heart of Amsterdam. The rail system here is really nice, convenient, and unlike the NYC suburbs, you can park your car for free and lave it as long as you want...wouldn't that be nice? It cost 23 euros round trip from their house...not bad.

Yo, Lauren, and I were the only ones to go, Peter and Laura went on a scouting trip. First we got in and went to the Anne Frank House (Huis). This was an incredible experience that really brought me back. For part of my heritage being Jewish, and having read her book in grade school it was really touching. There is a museum attached to it now and as you enter different rooms they talk about the war and recite lines from her book. There is also video footage of her father and neighbor taking that is truly amazing. Many people, us included, forget these events took place and being there made me appreciate being born in a different time period, but also made me think of my grandparents and their part in WWII.

Then you enter through the REAL, original bookcase where Anne lived in the Secret Annex and was later discovered by Nazis. What a horribly small, dark, gloomy place this must have been. It was eerie to be in such a place as you walk across the floors with them creaking, looking at the original wallpaper encased by glass which Anne glued happier, more cheerful magazine ads. Afterwards we signed our name in the guestbook and took a serious picture outside, we felt wierd smiling next to such a historic and sad site.

We then ventured by foot into more of the city to a Tapas bar, which we thought had a discount from our I AMsterdam cards, but not until dinner. So instead we just got some tapas: croquets, chicken wings (ha), and sweet red pepper in ratatouille, yup just like the movie :) Also, Mimosas..Yo has never heard of one before and neither did the waitress, so we had to teach them how to make them...still good though.

Next, we went to the market, which was about 1 mile long - there they had CHEESE stands, where this one kid claimed there was the "best cheese in the world"..which it very well may be, aged 2 years, wow SO good I just HAD to buy a block for Euros. In his words, "vacuum sealed, perfect for tourists, yup fits me:) So I will be bringing that back home with me, YAY MOM! Lauren and I also fell in love with these "poffertjes" - silver dollar pancakes- with powdered sugar, oh SO good. Trumps American. - Typical. There were shoes, sweaters, and other clothing for sale. Yo bought Laura an Angry Birds t-shirt because she LOVES that game- if you don't have a Droid or iPhone, you may be lost, but if you do, you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. We also had a free voucher for this one place called Bazar, a Turkish bar - we got 2 dessert samples and free Koffie (coffee) or Thee (tea). There was this one dessert that took after cotton candy - but it wasn't as good and LITERALLY looked like Santa's beard. No pictures from my digital camera - only my ALS, so when the film develops you can see - safe to say we didn't eat much.

After that, we went on a FREE boat cruise around the canals because of our great I AMsterdam pass. This was so thrilling to be going around the city through the canals. We learned there were over 1400 bridges throughout Amsterdam and so many of the building were SO OLD. We saw one dated back to 1616! Many had been fully restored but the canals truly gave the city a unique look and feel. There were also a ton of students and young adults on boats of their own partying. Yo pointed out that in the summer - because it is so nice, the canals become so full - like a huge block party. There really isn't much room in the canals, maybe the width of a a two lane highway - maybe.

Now..onto the RED LIGHT DISTRICT! Now I must say, kind of disappointing. Sure weed was prominent in the air and there were some girls in the window - and oh yeah, right when we entered a drunk bachelor hanging out of his pants - but to be honest, it's kind of small with only a few streets and well yes, plenty of XXX shops. But overall, we heard they are trying to clean it up - guess that is a good thing - and no brownies or space cakes - sorry to everyone who wanted us to try them and will yell at us for being in Amsterdam where everything is legal and not. :)

After leaving there we were in search of something to eat - but because of the high price of everything we settled for wine and garlic bread in this small restaurant before leaving for the train back to Yo and Peter's place. Before we left though Yo pointed out these fast food places - oh yeah McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, and KFC! were all over Amsterdam - ugh America stop making other countries obese too! - This one place you put in coins (mind you, the 1 Euro and 2 Euro aren't in bills, they are in coins) and open this small drawer and get something to eat - kind of like a shelf-like vending machine. Interesting.

We then went back to Yo and Peter's house and settled for a few small loaves of french bread, plenty of cheese and wine - this has become our staple meal of choice :) Peter and Laura came back late from camping and I have never seen Laura so zonked - she was exhausted, as was I, and the two of us nearly fell asleep on the couch. Yo was also tired, and wasn't feeling the greatest - so I gave her some good ol' American Advil on the train - and she felt better the next day after some sleep, but did such a great job teaching us about the country and cities - she grew up in Amsterstdam until she was 8.

Amsterdam was really great to see, I would like to go back and explore the shops more, we really didn't see that much of it - like any city you need so much time to truly appreciate it and feel a part of it. Oh, crazy story - because of all the bikes in Holland, and specifically Amsterdam they have bike lanes, so I'm walking on the curb and this woman on a bike shoves me in the side as she's riding and says in English, "get out of the road!" I was like what if I pushed her back? Or Lauren said she wishes she saw her early and gave her a flat tire - literally. Funny though.

More picture and posts to come, we are busy busy busy as you can see, but will continue to update ASAP.

Love from Holland,

Julie and Lauren