May 31

The ferry to Amsterdam was AMAZING. If you're traveling from London to Amsterdam, it has got to be the best way ever. The ticket we bought included the bus to the ferry port too (more than an hours ride). No security obstacle courses, we sailed on a gorgeous ship that made its maiden voyage on May 16th, private room ensuite for only 32 euro (amazing prices for what we got), travels overnight so you don't miss those 8 hours or so that it takes and the waves rock you to sleep. It was like a cruise ship, but with the bottom floors as a ferry for car transport. There were dining places and other things in there. Best travel experience yet! Our two tix plus the cabin was 125 pounds, which is pretty cheap for the two of us to travel.

We landed in the Hook of Holland and took a train up to Rotterdam and then transferred and took a train to Amsterdam. All of this was included in our ferry tickets as well :) From the train we took a little tram to Ramon's house and since I messed up what time we'd arrive, he was out, but we waited and eventually caught up with him. We have a nice cushioned couch thing to sleep on, warm clean showers and a very clean house to stay in until Friday when we head to Switzerland. Ramon has been working as a volunteer journalist at night so we don't see much of him.

We were pretty tired so we just walked around exploring the city for a while, ate some Indonesian food to go then came back to the house, took a quick nap and then went out on a mission from Ramon to the BEST ice cream. A company called Australian has a few little stores throughout Amsterdam and the mango flavor is to die for!! After ice cream we relaxed with a tea and a beer at a cafe across from Ramon's house and then headed to bed.

Jun 1

Amsterdam is a very unique place. Ramon has two bicycles for his guests to use as well as a museum membership (yearly) for each of us that gets us into the museums for free. Today we visited the Van Gogh and the Rijksmuseum as well as the Historical Museum and New Church. We tried to visit the palace, but couldn't figure out how to get in past the construction. We ate falafel for lunch sitting on the side of the canal and Ryan put some sort of sauce on it from the toppings bar that burned his mouth up, and then he wiped it across his nose so then he was really hurting. To cool him down, we grabbed more mango ice cream and relaxed in Leidsplein. We took our bikes to the park and rode around Vondelpark for a while which was really fun. Once you figure out how to nagivate the roads and not get hit by trams, biking around Amsterdam is GREAT. Even if your host doesn't have two free bikes, I'd rent them from one of the companies - about 9 euro a day. Then we found a sports bar to watch the Netherlands play Ghana (friendly pre-World Cup game). They won and it was a fun place to be with all the local fans cheering too. We decided it was time to turn in and headed back to the house to make all our reservations for Switzerland! At midnight here, Ryan attacked me with hugs and wished me a big happy birthday :)

Jun 2

We went down to the Monument in Dam square to go on the free tour by New Europe company, but they were already maxed out on tours for that day so we couldn't get the little tickets to go. Not wanting to miss out on the tour on such a gorgeous day to be outside and my birthday, we just went with one of the tour guides anyway. The tour was really interesting and along the way we went through the red light district and saw firsthand the things offered there, got free samples of Gouda cheese (amazing), learned more about Anne Frank, saw the narrowest house (1.8m wide), heard the story of the miracle of Amsterdam, learned a lot of history around the Jewish quarter and about the squatter's movement so it was a good tour.

We walked to find some places for later that night for my birthday parties: the Sauna Phenomenon and MKZ. Once Ramon got back from work, we all three went to MKZ for dinner. It's part of this series of squats around a courtyard that's hidden. It's really wonderful there. All of the people who work there are volunteers and don't get paid. We paid 5 euro for a three course meal of soup, huge main dish and massive piece of chocolate cake (all organic and vegan and delicious!) and only 1 euro for a bottle of organic beer. We got to sit outside in the courtyard in the gorgeous weather and enjoy the meal and the day. I had bought little candles, so we put them in the cake and I got to blow them out :) Then we went over to the Sauna (same courtyard) and for 9 euro we got in for unlimited time! It was a hippie kind of place, so no clothes were allowed and it was a co-ed sauna. Sounds crazy and weird, but everyone was a local there and it was easy to adjust to it when no one cared. Everyone was really nice there and one older hippie man told me in dutch (and then in english) that I had a pretty face. The sauna was a really cool thing to do. Then I got a massage, again from a volunteer, for only 25 euro for 1.5 hours!!! Crazy good prices. It was a nice relaxation massage and was wonderful. We did another round in the sauna and then headed out. Then we went back to the house to relax and get some sleep.

Jun 3

This morning, we woke up and had breakfast with Ramon since he didn't have to work night shift and was home. We went up to the roof of his apartment building where his neighbor had set up a small garden of potted plants, a pond with goldfish and a buddha statue by which he meditates. It was beautiful!! We got more of Ramon's dark bread with sesame seeds (delicious) and many different kinds of spreads for it that were all organic and super amazing.

Then Ryan and I went out on a canal cruise since we hadn't done that yet while we were waiting on Ramon to do internet stuff with couch surfing. The cruise was nice because it was gorgeous weather and we got to sit out on the back of the boat where it was fully open.

When we went back to the house, Ramon led us on a long cycling tour of the Dutch countryside which was beautiful, though Ramon can pedal his bike a lot faster than me and I was certainly struggling to keep up riding into the wind on brick paved roads. :) We caught some thai to go for dinner and sat by the canal to relax before heading home.