an amsterdam(n) good time

Greetings from the lands of Nether. After a stuffy 11-hour plane ride and beautiful 4-hour train ride, we finally arrived in our first city on the agenda: Amsterdam. The old train station's exterior was amazing architecturally (in fact, most buildings we pass are quite misleading. Example: "Oh that must be a church or some sort of important government building...um, it's a shopping center? Wait...wha?") After taking a much-needed and longer-than-intended nap at our hotel, which fortunately was walking distance from the station, we decided to explore the streets of Amsterdam. We ventured out at 9 p.m. and it was still perfectly light outside and continued to be for a couple hours after that. It was sketch, yet helpful. We wandered over to the Red Light District to find something to eat...and, of course, ended up seeing a lot more than anticipated along the way. Truly mind-boggling stuff.

At the restaurant, Mon almost ordered schnitzel, but then thought better of it. If anyone really recommends it, then i guess we'll try it...not a guarantee though. The restaurant/bar was a pretty cool scene. We saw videos of Beyonce that appeared to never have been released in the states and listened to throwbacks like "Hey Yeah" and "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"(ok, some more throwbacky than others). Then we roamed to the De Wallen area and were surprised by the "landmarks" there. We had stroopwaffels that were super delish to round out our eventful first night.

Jet lag proved to be a latent enemy that woke us up crazy early this morning:6 a.m. For those of you who know us even a little bit, Mo and Lo do not wake up at 6 a.m...ever...this would only happen if there was a Tina Fey book-signing (Monica) or some sort of Harry Potter event...it could really been anything Harry Potter-related(Loreli). But, yes, this morning it happened and it happened naturally, which was the weirdest part. We were quite bemused, but decided to take advantage of the time gained (well, first we kind of hung out watching unknown MTV videos) to get ready for the day.

We walked to the Anne Frank house, which is where she and her family went into hiding during World War II. We were able to walk through the secret annex they stayed in and see the original diary, a.k.a. Kitty. It was very moving and we were glad to have done it. Then we got pancakes at "Pancakes!" It was a very delightful hole-in-the-wall establishment with only about 6 tables. Mon ordered this crazy pancake pie and Lo ordered pancakes with brie, chicory and ham. Both were a tasty shock to the taste buds. After, we decided to find a boat tour...didn't succeed for a while but got a nice walking tour of the Southern Canal District. We finally found a canal cruise, which was quite relaxing after having walked a lot. Then we went back to the City Centre to try out a real Amsterdam gem: Abraxas Coffeshop...yum...and now we're in an internet cafe blogging!

It's officially day 2 of our trip and we are having a blast! It's been everything we hoped for and more. We are especially proud of our productivity and city-navigating skills, Mom and Dad. Tonight promises to be a very fun evening...more on that later!

XOXO,

Amsterdam Girls