Amsterdam!

So on my second day in Germany my host parents were lovely enough to make the two and a half hour drive to Amsterdam in order to show me the city! Did I mention that they are AMAZING? They have some friends there who they spent the day with while their son showed us around, and then we met up in the evening for a boat ride down the canals. It was a beautiful day in a beautiful city with beautiful people! My jet lag aside, it could not have been better.

We began the day in an open air market, where Dutch pride was apparent in the various celebratory decorations hanging all over town; they'd just beat Spain in the World Cup...I think...

To say that the market was interesting, is an understatement. They sold everything there. Here's just a glimpse of the kinds of things that were available:

Is that not a disturbingly large tub of pickles!? After our time at the market we headed over to what I understand to be the main square of Amsterdam (we were communicating via Turkish to English translation). There we saw an exhibit of beautiful World Press photos and had lunch. I mostly just enjoyed walking around and, tourist that I am, shamelessly taking pictures of nearly every single one of the city's 1,200 bridges! This is a city I don't think I could ever get enough of. 

This tower was erected in celebration of Dutch independence. And to comment on the bikes, let's just say I nearly died.

I think these were some of the prettiest houses I have ever seen! And it seems that the people of Amsterdam do not believe in curtains because we could see the inside of almost every house we passed, and let me just say WOW!!!!

After our walk around, we took a touristy-to-the-max boat ride through the canals. We found out the hard way that these places book up fast and spent about an hour going from place to place hoping to find a boat that wasn't completely booked. During the search we discovered some interesting things: 

Finding a boat might have been tricky, but we found these clogs with no trouble at all. Talk about a perfect fit! And this adorable tiny car!!!!

And then there was the boat ride itself! Which was beyond beautiful. We ended up getting to watch the sunset while on the canal and it was truly magnificent. 

After the boat ride, Zeynep (my exchange partner) and I made our way over to the completely packed and characteristically noisy Hard Rock Cafe, where we enjoyed a delicious meal served by a sketchily bearded waiter.

We ended up leaving Amsterdam at around 11:30 pm and arriving back in Gelsenkirchen at 1 am. I'm not proud of it, but the jet lag finally caught up to me and I woke up at 1 pm this morning! All I can say is...I LOVE AMSTERDAM. I should have picked up a T-shirt to prove it.

Despite its near century old history, this city feels young. I think I could spend a week just watching people here. It feels young and alive and literate...if that's a fair way to describe a city. I was shocked by the number of trendy English book stores that spotted the streets.

And though overrun by tourists, there's something very authentic about this city and its people. They rush and cross streets before the lights turn like in New York, but it's clear that the beauty of their surroundings is not lost on them, that the pleasure of crossing a bridge on bike is not taken for granted.

I can't wait to go back!