Netherlands

Another week has passed, and this time it was very stingy with the internet. Otherwise, these pictures/stories would have been up earlier. Last Friday, I stayed up extra late to talk with important Hendrix people. (read: potential money-givers). It wasn't a big deal because most everyone else had gone to visit Lena's family in Antwerp and I got to borrow Ben's computer with a webcam. After I finished this bizarre form of alumni speed dating, I got to see random people who were working the event. Such lovely faces surprised me and made it worth staying up until three in the morning. Plus it wore me out just enough to where I slept the entire time I was on the bus. What bus, you ask? Why, the bus that left from the metro station by school at 6:30 am and took us to Amsterdam. Yup, a short four hours later, I was suddenly confused by what language to speak (French? Nope. German? Nein, this is Dutch, not German, an important distinction. English? Yes, most understand it, but I kept having French come out of my mouth. I am not allowed to forget my mother tongue!) I was also being blindsided by the beauty of Amsterdam. I had somehow missed the fact that Amsterdam is essentially a city built on bridges and around canals. The first thing we did upon arrival was to take a tour by boat.

We rode one of these

And saw a lot of this;

Did you know that there are over 1, 000 bridges in Amsterdam?

Or that at least one car per week falls into the canals?

I have since determined that I want to own a houseboat in Amsterdam at some point in time. Who's up for it?

Anyway, I just kind of took off walking, not wanting to wander around in the GIANT group that makes you feel like an annoying tourist. An Australian and an Italian decided to join me.

We started off in a direction looking for an information center and ended up with a very undetailed map and vague directions. Luckily for us, we started looking at the street signs that pointed us to things like "Museumplein" which we figured probably was near where we wanted to go— the Van Gogh Museum. On the way there, we ran into about 20 of these life size music box things all pretty close to each other.

I can't even really begin to describe the music that they were playing, but the parts on the outside were moving and there was a guy in the back turning the wheel to make it all work.

We really hoped that it was a festival and that this sort of thing did not happen all of the time. We did, however, decide to sit down on this gazebo and listen for a while, eating our lunches.

Side note, walking in Amsterdam is not something to be taken lightly. I saw more bikes than I have ever seen in my entire life in this one city. And these bikes don't share the road, they own in. So, stay out of their way.

for example, a bike parking garage like thing

a typical street

and, bikes are NOT allowed in church, in case you were wondering.

Dodging bikes, we did find the Museumplein, which is a beautiful square surrounded by Museums… like the Rijksmuseum:

And the Van Gogh Museum, which was incredible. I saw his Sunflowers, Irises, Crows Over Wheat fields and so many more that I had only seen in photos. Indescribable.

I went ahead and left on my own from there, wandering around a bit more. I came across some fun things, such as:

a croc store!

a map of the waters of the world, maybe? It was kind of confusing, but I did find the Mississippi:

a brewery!

an interpretation of Rembrant's painting Night Watch in statues

There, I ran into a festival! There were a lot of people hanging around Rembrant's square and a bunch of them were crowded around something taking pictures. Well, I wanted to take a picture, too. So I crowded around as well and made my way up to the front. This is what I saw:

Turns out I had run into the festival for the biggest croquet in the world. Or at least that's what my logic and little bit of German helped me figure out. This is like a mixture of potatoes and meat and veggies, fried. I think.

Please, note the size

www.grootstecroquet.nl

They gave away free, normal sized ones too. I, feeling generous, gave it away too.

Whoohoo for random festivals, no?

In short, absolutely blown away by the beauty of this place. (I think I need to live by water and something green, two conditions that Lille does NOT satisfy)

I definitely plan on going back someday.

Once back in Lille, the time changed (meaning it gets dark around 5 pm) and I had class. Then came Halloween.