Netherlands!!!

FINALLY I am posting my Holland post. Sorry about that. The old computer hasn't been wanting to access the internet. Anywho, Holland was incredible. I stayed with a couple whom Emmy and I had met in Prague (kinda' fun to start the trip and end the trip with the same people)! I stayed in my own little guest house (as pictured here. The white part was the breezeway/my kitchen that connected me to the rest of the house. Gosh I had it rough!). The couple, Zolton and Jose, had three kids, Max, Zee, and Lex, with whom I absolutely fell in love!

Zolton picked me up at the train station when I got in on October 31st, and the first thing we did was find pumpkins to bring back and carve with the kids (they do not have Halloween in the Netherlands). The kids had a blast reaching their hands into the pumpkin and getting all gooey and designing Jack-O-Lantern faces. I think the hardest part of my stay for them was the next night when Zee (the little girl) noticed her Jack-O-Lantern was missing... and we had pumpkin soup for dinner. After the kids went to bed, Zolton gave me a tour of the house... including the large wine cellar.

Jose had majored in wine in college, so they had a rather extensive collection of very nice wines. We had a little wine tasting/drank a few bottles of nice wine after that. It was very interesting because Jose got out all of her text books, so we were learning all about the regions, and soils in which the grapes were grown and we learned all about the flavors and aromas of the wines. Very cool.

The next day Zolton took me up to Amsterdam (about 45 minutes north)! We started with a boat cruise all around the canals... which actually took most of the day due to the beer stops along the way (it was a hop-on-hop-off kind of cruise with many stops). We saw the Rijks Museum (most of which was closed for renovation, so we didn't go in), the Heineken factory, Ann Frank's house, basically we saw the whole city via boat. Quite nice. After the cruise we grabbed some sushi and waited

for the night to begin so we could check out the Red Light District.
This is me outside of "The Grasshopper", one of the most famous "coffeeshops" in Amsterdam. We went in and checked out the place (No worries Dad, we did not partake in the goods they offered). It was actually a really cool joint (No pun intended).

I wasn't sure what to expect, walking by all of the windows at night. I mean, the ladies of the night... Ok, let's be honest. Amsterdam is really a place about which one can blog.

We got back from Amsterdam and decided to get into Zolton's Scotch collection. WOW! If I thought the wine tasting was interesting!! I learned SO much about fine whiskeys. I can now taste how many times a whisky has been distilled, and I learned all about how they get so many different complex flavors. I think we were up tasting until about 3:00 in the morning. It was awesome.

The next day I helped Zolton clean windows at one of his office buildings. And slept. It was a pretty low key day.

And that was it! The next day I took a train to the airport, and flew home. It was a pretty good trip. I managed to sweet talk some Cuban cigars into the country (thanks customs officer) and an earlier flight from Minneapolis (which the lady told me she was not allowed to do since I had luggage arriving on the later flight... but patience and a smile go a long way).

So here I am! Thanks for following my trip! I know you didn't have as much fun reading it as I did living it... but I hope you enjoyed it none the less. Don't stop checking in though! Big developments on a MUCH bigger trip will soon unfold.

Belgium!

Well, what DIDN'T I do in Belgium?! There was the day where my host, Edwin, took me to the trenches in which the Belgian troops held off the German troops for four years in WWI and other war sights like the biggest cemetery where most of the commonwealth soldiers were buried. Then there was the day in Bruges, but I already told you about that.

There was the day I went up to the North Sea. I just walked and enjoyed watching the families on the beach like this one where the father was teaching his son to fish - VERY cool set up they had with 4 lures all along the line. After my walk, another couch surfer came to stay with Edwin. Her name was Sara. She had played as an extra in a film that Edwin's son had produced. That evening the movie was premiering at the local theater, so we all went into Oostend for the event!

The three of us (Edwin, Sara, and I) walked around Oostend for the afternoon as there was a carnival going on. We ordered hot fresh sea snails right on the water's edge (YUM!) to munch while we wandered. The show was quite an event! Red carpet rolled out to the street, exclusive guest list, and they closed the entire theatre complex for the event. Big reception with wines and hors d'oeuvres afterward. Of course I didn't understand the words, but it was a zombie movie and rather easy to follow. Zylkon Zombie it was called.

Sara and I figured, since we didn't know anyone, we could sneak out of the reception (after a couple glasses of wine, of course) and continued exploring the town. Then we met up with Edwin and his whole family (two sons +girlfriends and his siblings) at a jazz bar where we spent the rest of the evening tasting even more Belgian beers and dancing.

The next day was Brussels. Very interesting city. Dirty, but cool! After checking out the market and enjoying a tour of the town, Edwin decided to try and find this little back area of town he'd once wandered into. We walked down some SKETCHY alleys until we came up on this little row of African restaurants. I sat down at a table outside (Edwin went in for the toilet) and within seconds, a really nice guy came over from the other table and asked if I liked peanuts. He had just come from Senegal the day before and had a backpack full of fresh, raw peanuts. He gave me a HUGE pile and said to just ask if I want more. Edwin came back out, and soon our table was full of Congolese, Nigerians, Kenyans, you name it! We ordered dinner and a reggae DJ from Somalia and I shared our meals, eating with our hands. Soon a big man with dreadlocks came out of nowhere with a bongo drum and sat down in the middle of the street. He started playing, and we all danced like crazy! GREAT last night in Belgium.

Of course, now I am in Holland. Oh, what a country. Very wealthy country so everything is very clean and beautifully kept. I am going to wait to post about Holland though because I want to make sure I put up some pictures.
Thanks for keeping up with me! See you soon!