Amsterdam Update!

Hey Everyone!

WOW have we been crazy traveling!  It's been hard to find wifi in Germany, but we are at a couchsurfing host's and luckily he has wifi!

WE LOVE AMSTERDAM!

The bus ride was a long one from London.  We took megabus, and had to ferry, or something, we were not quite sure what was going on.  No one really was.  You basically drive onto a large cargo hold, and then sit for about half an hour to go across the channel.  The other side is France, and that took a while at the border with everyone checking into the EU.  We arrived to Amsterdam after sunset, so about 10pm.  The bus takes you to a "park and ride" station of Amsterdam's public transportation.  We couldn't figure out how to buy tram tickets, so we found an intercom "INFORMATION."  We proceeded to basically yell at a man who spoke better English than us, trying to explain we couldn't get on the tram because we couldn't figure out how to buy tickets.  Finally he made us understand you buy the tickets on the tram!  We felt pretty stupid, but figured it had to have been our non-stop journey and sleep depravity talking.  So we bought tickets, and when we got to the Centraal Station, the tram driver laughed and said you HAVE to get off here!  We were seriously tired.  We found the correct bus, and thanks to Dori, she saved us some money.  In Amsterdam their trams, buses and underground are all on one ticket (€2.80 for one hour of use).  When we finally got to our host's, he was already asleep but there were four other surfers there!  We were exhausted, and all slept in the kitchen, and slept in the next morning.

We woke up and took showers (YAY SHOWERS), and met Yanina (sha-knee-knee is how she pronounced it) and the four of us took off to explore the beautiful city.  Amsterdam is very clean, and has a cool vibe.  It's an old city with young people, so we felt safe the whole time we explored.  Twana has an international plan, so we were able to map out places to go, and Amsterdam isn't that big so we walked a lot.  You're easily transported to another time. 

We went to the city center and explored some shops.  Lots and lots of flashing lights and techno music, and pretty much any kind of psychedelic drug you could imagine for sale.  

It was really fun though, and we stopped at a coffee shop, then later before dinner went to a little bar for a drink.  We shopped for groceries - seriously guys, if you can grocery shop! You save so much money!  We made some simple pasta but it was so delicious!  We all chatted and sang songs while Yanini played her ukulele, then went to bed.

The next day was a little rainy, so we left later in the day.  We went to the Albert Cuypmarkt - the largest street market in the Netherlands.  There was all kinds of things for sale, but we just went to see and experience.  

Then we walked to the floating flower market on Singel (one of the main streets/canals) and then finished off sightseeing with visiting the Anne Frank House.  I would highly recommend going to see this.  It's €9 per adult, and very sobering.  You walk through where this courageous girl lived.  The line is long, but you can reserve space to skip the line.  It's a self guided tour with videos and lots to see and read.  Find out more info here.
We walked back and picked up some rice to make dinner.  We finally met our host, Teago! We made dinner for everyone and chatted and had good laughs, but went to bed early.  Walking really takes it out of you!

Thanks so much for reading, we are excited to share our journey with you!  We are currently in Berlin, and will be updating again soon (sooner than this post hopefully!)

Ciao!
Chels