It's been over a week and I should have updated a few days ago, but you know the story.
Let's see. We have to go back to last Saturday. So, I updated last Friday night when I got into Utrecht and I thought I was going to bed soon after that, but no. Carly and Taylor and the rest of the gang got home from the soccer game around midnight and I was exhausted, but we all went down into the kitchen/living room and started a game of texas hold 'em. Let's just say I have the Hald gambling spirit. Don't know if that's a good thing. But, as soon as we started playing, I suddenly woke up and was super energized. After about three hours of playing, I was the winner!! I have the Hald gambling luck/skill. Dad, can't wait to go to Vegas or Biloxi with you! ha
This is Utrecht:
And this is Carly and I 'fighting on' in Utrecht:
Anyway, so we went to bed late that night, but we wanted to get an early start Saturday to visit Amsterdam so we were up early. We rode bikes to the train station in Utrecht (about fifteen to twenty minutes) and took a 25 minute train ride into Amsterdam. The weekend I went, it was freezing and windy, so after getting over the fact that I was going to be cold all day walking around Amsterdam, I had a little better attitude. I just hate being cold. But even when I'm cold, I can have a smile on my face. I'm in the Netherlands!!
When we first got into Amsterdam we walked through the Red Light District - funny story. So, I was getting my camera ready and Taylor was showing us around but I she didn't say that we were in the Red Light District yet. She just told me that I couldn't take pictures in the Red Light District because the women will get really angry, which makes sense. So, I was like okay well when we get there I'll just shut off my camera. Little did I know we were already there, so I'm just walking along and Carly was all "oh my gosh... this is crazy... like I didn't think it would be like this." And I'm totally oblivious to the women standing in the windows just wearing lingerie. So then we walked by a church and I took some pictures. Still oblivious that we were in the Red Light District. And then all of a sudden I looked over and I gasped because it just shocked me a little. And then I started laughing. I was like "yall I didn't know we were already there!" And Carly looked at me and was like "what did you think I was talking about? You seriously haven't seen the women in windows yet?!" No... haha
So that was an interesting sight to see. It was one of those things that you didn't want to look, but you just had to because it was just so interesting to me. We walked around some more and the other thing about Amsterdam is that selling weed is legal. So, there are a bunch of 'coffee shops' that sell weed lollipops, weed brownies, weed anything. And then we walked past a bar that had a bunch of mini piles of weed and you could pay to go sit at the bar and roll your own joint. What? The term 'coffee shop' in Amsterdam refers to a place that sells weed. A cafe or coffee house is what actually sells coffee. Found that out when I was so confused as to why there was a sign that said "Ages 18 or older" for a coffee shop. That didn't make sense to me at all until Taylor explained that there's a big difference between a coffee shop and a coffee house. And if you're wondering, no, I did not get high in Amsterdam even though all my Budapest friends said I HAD TO DO IT. Nope, not my thang.
After walking around the city, we stopped to get lunch at a little pub. We just had panini's, but it was nice to sit and get out of the cold for a little while. After lunch, we went on a journey to find the I AMSTERDAM sign. Its a giant 3-D sign in Amsterdam that moves around the city every so often. We finally found it and it was really hard to get pictures of it without people getting in the way. Too many tourists... ugh. There was a group of four teenagers who literally did not understand the concept of getting in someone's way. I was taking a picture of Carly and Taylor with one of the letters of the sign, and this girl just dropped her giant pink purse at the base of the letter. So, in this picture it's all normal and then BOOM a giant pink purse. Carly asked the girl "Is this your purse?" And she just shook her head yes... and Carly was like "umm... can I move it?" Like she didn't think anything was wrong with just leaving her purse there while Carly and Taylor wanted a picture. And when I was trying to take the picture...I was only about ten feet away from them, one of the teenagers literally walked in front of the camera five times. Right in front of me. Clearly I was taking a picture, but whatever. They were annoying. Rant over. Here are some pictures from the sign:
Now, imagine a big giant pink purse at the bottom of the 't' - wish I actually had the picture. It was on Carly's camera.
And while I'm posting pictures, here are a few of Amsterdam. Beautiful.
These machines are all over the Netherlands. Basically you put in a euro or 2 euro coin and then you open the door and get food. And it's made fresh and hot. It's like fast food, but really fast. There's just a bunch of little windows and you can grab whatever you want. There are people behind the machines making the food and loading it into the little windows when more food needs to be made. And they're open 24 hours. 'Food from the future' as Carly called it.
Street art:
Around 5pm we walked back to the train station and literally we were battling a wind storm. The wind was blowing against us so hard that at one point and had to use all my strength just to walk. We were all holding hands just trying to get in the train station.
On Sunday, we stayed in Utrecht and biked around this little rural area behind Taylor's apartment. It was really, really beautiful back there.
See, even when I'm cold, I can smile! :)
After we took a bunch of pictures and biked around the boondocks, we went back to Taylor's to warm up and get tea. It was FREEZING. Once we were warm again, we bundled back up and Carly and I biked to Utrecht and spent an hour just biking around the small city. It was fun just to bike and look at all the restaurants, cafes, and shops. Around six, we stopped into some place that looked good for dinner and it ended up being a cinema with four different restaurant/bar areas. We were really confused at first and we had to ask the front desk what the place was. haha I went up to her and I just said, "umm.. what is this?" I didn't really know what to ask but she gave us a brochure of the films being shown and apparently there was a week long film festival there. Pretty cool! Carly and I didn't actually see a film, but we got drinks and appetizers and played cards. They had a bunch of board games and cards so we grabbed a stack and played Egyptian ratscrew and war. Won both games - I was on a card winning streak this weekend. haha! Carly and I spent about an hour or so there and then we biked back to Taylor's flat. Taylor didn't come with us because she had to study for an exam coming up.
Monday morning we went to a dutch pancake house and got 'all you can eat' pancakes for 10 euro. Not a bad deal! I got a jam pancake, a banana pancake, and a mushroom pancake. All of them were delicious. And so not vegan. ugh. But, "when in Rome.." oh wait, I can't use that to justify it. I just had to try dutch pancakes though. What would a trip to the Netherlands be without trying dutch pancakes!?
After that, Carly and I went to the train station and I headed back to Eindhoven to catch my flight later that evening. Carly went back to Amsterdam for the day to see a friend from USC who was visiting Amsterdam.
I got back safe Monday night after a long day traveling. From 2:45pm until 10pm. Bleh. But totally worth it! I loved Amsterdam/Utrecht!
This week was fun! Pretty relaxing.. caught up on laundry and a bunch of Glee episodes. Made it to the gym every day - the lady at the desk knows me by name now and she says "hey girl!" every time I walk in. haha I'd say we're bff's!
My thursday morning class was canceled because the teacher was sick, so I just had one class Thursday afternoon and that was all my class for the week since I missed class on Monday for traveling. Friday night I met up with a group of people at a bar and then went to Szimpla after (carrot bar!). Ben's dutch friends are visiting, so we had to show them Szimpla! Of course, they loved it! Saturday night, Ben, Anthony, and Dany had a pre party at their flat before a giant bath party! The theme for their flat party was Cardboard Hat theme. We had to wear hats made of cardboard. Hmm... Istvan (Hungarian ESN organizer) wrote on facebook that he found a bunch of cardboard for about ten people, so I decided to have a few people over around 6pm to make the cardboard hats before the party! I wanted to make a snapback hat, but it turned into the Pope's hat. No joke. So I drew some crosses on it. I also made another hat that I liked better. Henrik brought a cereal box over and I cut out the bowl of cereal from the front of the box and attached it to my hat. I also found the word 'Flakers' on the box, so I cut that out and put it on my hat, too. Supporter of the Budapest Flakers. Get it? Like LA Lakers!? haha so I had two hats, but I wore the Flakers one most of the time because I liked that one best. I know someone took pictures, so I'll try to post them once I get the pictures! The best hat was one of Ben's friends hats! He spent hours making it - he's an electrical engineer, so you can only imagine. His had lights and a radio on it. He bought a radio or lamp (I can't remember what he said) and took it apart to make it for his hat. I wouldn't even know where to start. Very impressive! Afterward we all trekked to the bath party. Starting in March and going into April, there is a bath party every Saturday night! Basically the bath stays open until around 3 in the morning, music is playing, and everyone is just hanging out in the baths! I didn't pre order my ticket, but all my friends did, so when I got there they told me it was sold out. I was so bummed. And I didn't really know how to get home, so... I was screwed. I started walking with a group of girls I know, though, because they couldn't get in either and I turned around and said, "No! I'm getting in there.. whatever it takes!" So I went back to the baths, found people who were leaving, asked for their ticket, and went to the lady and said the thing that you rip off fell off. I told her that I would even buy a 'new one' so that I could get in. She bought it. I handed her my money and after about twenty minutes of waiting in line, I got in! I met up with my friends and they were like, "What are you doing here? How did you get in?" haha I just said long story, but glad I finally got in! We stayed until around 3:30am and then the clocks changed last night, so while we were there it actually turned into 4:30am by the time we were leaving... Yes, the clocks changed here, so now I'm back to being nine hours ahead of California and 6 hours ahead of Georgia time. For a while I was only eight and five because the United States had daylight savings time, but Budapest didn't.
This morning I got up early and headed to church! Ben and two of his Dutch friends wanted to come with me so I told them to meet me at a bus station, but they weren't there at the time we were supposed to meet so I waited for a little while longer and then just hopped on the bus without them because I didn't want to be late. I walked into church and there was Ben and his two friends!? Apparently they couldn't find me, but Ben knew how to get there and they were late for our meeting time so they just found their way there! Ben kept saying how American the church is - it really is, though! I think almost all the people there are from the United States. And the preacher is from the south.
After church we got some coffee at... Burger King! ha delicious. and now I'm blogging! We are planning on going to the Buda castle soon - there is a big Easter festival there with food, music, artwork, activities/games! Should be fun. It's raining, though, so hopefully it's still going on!
Happy Easter, yall! Have a blessed day! He is risen.
"Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Romans 6:8-11 ESV
P.S. - Don't know if yall noticed, but my pictures aren't sideways anymore!! YAY!
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