We are so amsterdown

hello- so we are skipping one trip (barcelona) and updating you on our most recent expedition, amsterdam. We dont know if anyone has heard of this fair dutch city but it does have some unique features like the something called the red light district and coffeeshops, that sell weed. anyways, this city is beautiful- we leave the train station (which looks like it Hogwarts in Harry Potter) and walk to our hotel which is about 5 minutes away. Yea thats right, i said it, HOTEL, not hostel (thank goodness). Annie's awesome cousin hooked us up and we lived the lap of luxury this weekend at the Renaissance Marriott. We passed about 10 shops with the regional cuisine, waffles and donuts covered in chocolate ( which we should have realized our inevitable death by consumption would be imminent). After we admired the fluffy clouds which we would call our beds for 3 nights, we headed out to meet Kimbo's friend, Ross, who is studying abroad in Amsterdam for the semester. Ross took us to a 'coffeeshop' to try some of the local fare. You could look at the weed underneath a microscope and see the surface- so we got our science lesson in for the day. Rachel and I watched on while sipping on our mint teas- it was an interesting place. Then we went to dinner- first of all- it needs to be said that Amsterdam has more chinese, thai, and indonesian restaurants than China and Thailand combined. It wasn't hard to pick a place but we ended up at Jasmine, a thai restaurant. Heiniken, from the nederlands, was ordered all around and we embarked on our oriental food journey. After consuming an insane amount of curry, eggrolls, and pad thai the group began barhopping, amsterdam style. We met up with Ross's french friends, alexi and arienne, who have fantastic accents. We went to a bar in a free-standing house on a canal, visited the red-light district (hmmm) and then we went to a bar that was 600+ years old before retiring to our fluffy clouds of comfort. Friday was jampacked- we woke up and ordered some local Dutch pancakes and waffles and then hit the road, literally. Ross talked us into renting bikes for the day- Amsterdam is a bike city. Everywhere you look there are bikes and people riding bikes-  there are more bikes than cars. So, we hopped on and hoped for the best. We are proud to say, there were no collisions with people, animals, cars, etc. After what seemed like an hour long bike ride with lance armstrong, a.k.a. ross, we arrived at a beautiful park with lakes and ducks. Then we went to the Albert Cuyp Market, rumored to be the biggest open market in Europe. They sold everything here- shoes, fish, fruit, clothes, cameras- you name it, they got it. Bri and rachel bought a stroopwaffel. Now we need to devote some time to this amazing gift from God- it is two very thin waffels with a hint of cinnamon that taste like perfection and in the middle is a caramel sauce. Oh.My. God- annie fell in love. it was game over after the first bite- she was in heaven. That is all she could talk about for the rest of the trip, stroopwaffels. Well, we headed back to the hotel, got in the eucalyptus sauna (mhmm, we were spoiled) and then headed out to eat a dinner of Indonesian food. We found this hole in the wall restaurant that seemed to be a couple's house. The wife was the waitress and the husband was in the back cooking our delectable delights. Our mouths enjoyed the scrumptious flavors of lamb, coconut, fried bananas, curry, lots of red pepper, peanut sauce (yumm) and heinikens. If you are wondering how much weight we have gained, wait until i describe saturday's damage. Then we went to Ross's friends apartment and sat around conversing, drinking vino rosso, and eating some dutch cheese. We capped off our night by heading to a corner restaurant and ordering mint teas (we are so healthy, HA). Saturday we woke up bright and early so we wouldn't have to stand in hour long lines for the Anne Frank House. We made it there only 45 minutes behind schedule (we blame the beds- too comfortable to get out of). Anne Frank's house is amazing- surprisingly they have kept it in very good shape. We got to walk through the exact rooms where the Frank family and others had to hide out for 2 years before being discovered. There wasn't any furniture b/c it was all taken when they were discovered but there are pictures of what it looked like. It was so surreal and very sad- at the end of the tour, they had Anne's actual diary on display. We left and made a pit stop for stroopwaffels (annie is really obsessed) and then went to breakfast at Bagels and beans (coffee beans, not real beans- the blondes both were confused about that). We all had never tasted such perfection in the form of bagels before in our lives. After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed to the flower market to check out the scene. There are sooooo many flowers- we saw some that we never even knew existed. But it was raining so we dashed to a coffeeshop. Guess who we met inside?? A passenger from the Turkish airline flight where 9 people had died when it crashed in Amsterdam just weeks before. Surprisingly, he was pretty chill and said he still wasn't scared of flying (it was prolly the weed talking). Then we headed to the Van Gogh Museum to see Starry Night,which was part of an exhibition. The painting isn't normally at this museum (it calls the MoMA in NYC its home) so we got very lucky. The painting didn't disappoint either. After the museum trip, we headed back to the hotel. By this point, Annie had consumed about 9999 stroopwaffels and was so round that she looked like a rolly polly. Everyone went to the sauna but annie and bri b/c there was NO way annie was getting in a bathing suit at this point. Then we headed to dinner at Top Thai  (bad news for annie but of course, the food always wins). The food was fantastic but the insane amount of stroopwaffels that annie ate earlier got the best of her and she had to go home because she didn't feel good. Everyone else went to a coffeeshop and then called it a night because the gals had a 6:55 a.m. flight back to roma, our homa. Soooo that was our amsterdam adventure, folks. Needless to say, it was a success. Naples and Pompeii next weeekend- until then arrivederci ragazzi!