amsterdam.

i am trying to find the words to describe amsterdam, and i can't! 

our trip was beyond amazing. it was short, but long. we were literally only in amsterdam for 12ish hours.

saturday we left maktbergel around 2pm and headed to ramstein air force base aka america. we arrived at ramstein around 5pm. we immediately headed to chilis to grab a bite to eat. it was magnificent. after dinner we went to the PX to shop and pick up snacks for the bus ride. we finally made it to our hotel room where we attempted to sleep. our bus was scheduled to leave at 2:00am. we got maybe 2.5 hours of sleep prior to that. thanks to some drugs we slept the entire 6 hours on the bus :) 

our first destination was the clara maria cheese farm, where we got to see how they make their cheese and wooden clogs! after the demonstrations it was time for breakfast! they served us fresh milk, butter, cheese, bread, and hard boiled eggs. i had a few slices of gouda cheese, but i mainly stuck to the bread. once we finished breakfast, we headed to the gift store to shop! i could not leave the farm without my very own pair of wooden clogs :)

after the cheese farm our final destination was the city! it was only about 45 minutes from the farm, and our tour guide did a fabulous job of talking about the history of the netherlands. 

when we got to the city our first stop was a boat tour of the amsterdam via the canals. it was absolutely beautiful and hot. so hot i had to run into h&m and buy a tank top, which wasn't that horrible :)

after the boat tour lyn and i were on our own. since she had already been to amsterdam, we decided just to walk everywhere, versus spending 18 euro on a hop on and hop off bus. i will say we saw soo much by walking, but my feet hate me right now. a few major things we visited are anne franks house, i AMsterdam letters, red light district, central station, lots of art shows, and im sure a few other places i can't remember. we wanted to see van gogh's museum, but we couldn't find it! we spent a total of 8 hours exploring the city.

 this was at 2am.

and this was at 7am. she is going to kill me for posting these :) it's amazing how happy we look in the first picture...

 beautiful wooden clogs :)

 CHEESE!

 lyndsay and i were the only ones brave enough to take a picture with a cow. thanks grandma and granddad!

 we're in love.

my very own wooden clogs! i will put these in my classroom :)

 our boat tour!

 lunch! french fries and coke. so healthy.

 these are the i AMsterdam letter.. although you can't see the 'i'

 this slogan is all over germany!

 anne frank.

 the front of the her house.

 this was the only picture i could 'legally' take. they tell you not to take pictures, but there were so many people doing it. i thought about it, but then i remembered that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and im not going to mess it up because i want a picture. 

touring the frank's secret annex was such a humbling experience. you've seen pictures and the movie, but it doesn't hit you until you are standing in the room where they were captured. anne's room was so small, yet so large with her memories scattered on the wall. i was very surprised with how i handled the experience. personally, i thought i was going to be a mess. i think they purposely set up the museum to not make you sad, but to inspire you. throughout the entire house, excerpts from anne's diary were on the wall. it was truly breathtaking and moving. the documents they have on the display were unbelievable. they had her actual diary and pages, the franks and friends concentration camp registration cards, and the actual jew registry with the franks on it. i could seriously go on and on about it. i will say one thing that made me smile was seeing a little girl on the bus reading anne frank's book :)

the next four pictures were taken in dam square with the crazies.

 i had to photo bomb these pictures because they make you pay to get a legit picture. photo bombing is much more fun, and free.

 i was trying to fly, but it didn't work.

 batman.

 take a picture with a creepy easter bunny. check.

 :)

 food via vending machine. legit.

 no, this is not on the red light district, and no, this does not stand for triple x nastiness. there are many different stories of the three x's but from what i remember they stand for the three catastrophes that hit amsterdam, fire, water, and plague. who knows, i could totally be wrong.

 TEXAS!

 i really wanted to rent a bike and ride it around amsterdam. lyndsay said no. we would have totally crashed and burned. bikes are a serious way of transportation in amsterdam, there is a bike for every person. seriously, it was crazy. since lyndsay wouldn't let me rent a bike, i asked a stranger if i could take a picture with his! he was very confused.

 the coffee shops are not coffee shops. let's just say they smoke marijuana like we drink water in america.

COLA!

it you ever get a chance to travel to europe, go to amsterdam!

next trip: BERLIN!