Hi Everyone,
So as my first days have passed, I figured I would give you all a quick update on our trip so far.. I arrived without problems in Amsterdam on Saturday afternoon. I trained it back to my sisters where we had a great relaxing night.. The next day we hung out at her place, had some of their friends come and visit and then Sandra, Gijsbert and i had an awesome BBQ. It was really nice out (23 degrees or so) and I already sunburned that day!! The next morning my sister and I left for Amsterdam at 6 in the morning. I went to pick Janet up from the Airport at 9 and Sandra had to work at 9, so it was perfect timing. Janet and i went to find our hostel and got a big shock. Since it was Amsterdam everything in the hostel just smelled like weed and a bunch of people seemed really stoned and it was only 10 in the morning!! So we dropped off our bags and decided to head to the beach for a bit. We hung out at the beach for a couple of hours and I intruced Janet to some of my favorite foods. May 5th is also bevrijdingsdag in holland, which is similar to independance day. For this day there were about 11 music festivals organized accross the county. We decided to to the one in Haarlem. In the end we think there was over 20000 people there and it was set up in this gorgeous park. We stayed here and listened to some awesome bands like Matt n Kim and this older Rock band. It was very entertaining and we definately did some great people watching. This day definately did not help my sunburn, and Janet got started with a nice burn as well.. We also learned a lesson and that is not to wear big necklaces when your in the sun all day! We went back to the hostel around 7 pm because we were just worn out. We had both gotten up around 5 that day and the effects of the jetlag were definately there. We got back to the hostel and we hung out in our 32 person room for a bit. This is where we met some awesome Aussie people, who convinced us to just have a shower and come explore the Amsterdam nightlife with them. So we did. I finally got to see the red light district which cracked me up. People tried to get us to come into their "shows" and were yelling the most hilarious stuff!! We ended up going to many pubs here and may have gotten lost on the way home. This is where my being dutch came in handy when i went into several places to get us directions.. So we made it back to the hostel and I was very happy to have my earplugs!!! I am such a light sleeper and there was definately a lot of snorers in our room!! Overall it was a great way to spend out first day together.
The next day we were however run down, so we went to another beach and just tanned all day. At 5 in the afternoon our night train left for Milan. We were in a cabin for 6 people and they told us there would only be one other lady coming into our cabin somewhere in southern germany. We enjoyed being on there by ourselves for that time though!! I did not sleep great here either.. There was a couple screaming in the middle of the night and the train had its share of jerking. But it was comfortable and we got some nice downtown. We arrived in Milan this morning at 730 and so far I dont know what to expect from this city. The place is not as nice as i expected but we will have to go and find out. The people seem nice and we found our hostel without problems. We also tried to go and find the Duomo which is supposed to be the nicest cathedral here, however we had some difficulty finding it and so far it has ended us up here in an internet cafe. Tomorrow we leave for Ancona from which we are taking a boat to Greece. We are hoping to spend the weekend in Athens and then slowly work our way accross a couple of the islands there. I will post another update when we get to Greece sometime, and I will let you know how Milan works out for me!! Hope everyone is doing great, and thanks for the messages!
