Our first meal started out with a English breakfast in this dark lit restaurant right off the street with odd 80’s music faintly playing in the background. After this we headed over to see the house of Anne Frank not realizing before the trip that Amsterdam was the city she fled to. Following that we dragged ourselves over to see the Museum of Rembrandt. This was another attraction filled with famous art that was accessible from climbing tightly spiralled stairs from floor to floor. Pretty interesting history seeming that this guy went completely bankrupt.At this hour of the day my mind was about to go and I was short of just finding a corner to crash along the street but as many people would have seen me, they probably would have figured its just another tourist who smoked too much than what he could handle. haha At this point I have been up for about 26 hours so finding the homebase of my friend Irene in Leiden was my main mission. My sister and I made it back to the tram station in Leiden but finding Irene proved to be a little difficult since it was past five and everybody was getting off work. After doing a few rounds looking for her, I just started to pull out my iPod to look Irene’s number up but there she appeared across the terminal pointing at me. My savior for sleep has finally found me! We had a nice reunion but I was ready to get some dinner then off for a good nights sleep.For the next day we went again to Amsterdam, just Katie and I. We woke up a little late from getting the much needed sleep but we found out that starting your day at noon then getting all the way into town takes a good hour on the trains. So we only had time to see the Van Gogh museum and eat a complete danish lunch.

Irene made some great plans for later that night to meet up with a bunch of her salsa dancing school friends for dinner. This would be a night with a bizarre group of people coming together for a dinner. Some were from Spain, Mexico, Nigeria, England (just shy of Scotland) and lastly us from the bush nation. We had a blast eating and talking trying to talk about little things that were different among us. Some about what was going on in the U.S, some about the news of Tony Blair stepping down and what that means to England, to discussing the all too common phrase “mi casa es su casa.” My sister was even nicknamed Katie from California by the Nigerian guys just for the fact that she was from the states. Before it was too late we walked in the all too common rain down to the salsa studio. What a fun night!!

Today, we again woke up late from a long night but it was worth it. Irene’s boyfriend, Pascal needed to purchase a present for his mother so I took up the venture of heading down to the nearby market to help out. The neat thing of where Irene lives in Irislaan (just outside of Leiden) is that everything you need is right outside of the apartment building. There is no need to drive in a middle eastern gas eating american made SUV made for 6 down to a huge supermarket aka Wolly World. Here everyone values the time of socializing and going out so the stores mostly all close after 6pm. Clever idea huh? After doing some errands with him we met up with Irene and my sister. Today’s trip was going to be downtown Leiden which was home to Rembrandt and to one of the Netherlands oldest university. Here old cathedrals reached for the sky and old cobble stone streets wrapped around every old building. We had a chance to go up unto a swaying windmill which my trip wasn’t complete until this was done!

Unfortunately the reason I hadn’t mentioned anything about tulips is because just last month they had to cut them all since it was time so I missed out on the tulips!! Aye Anyways, dinner tonight was going to be made by the three of us and I once again prepared my favorite Cuban appetizer, Tostones which I actually found plantains…these things were huge!!!

Now I’m here writing this blog knowing tomorrow is going to be my last day in the Netherlands. Here I realized that life is much more slowed down. People stay very active and are fit because everybody rides bikes everywhere. Weekly plans usually consist of working 8-5 during the week and on the weekends times with friends at outdoor restaurants eating soups with lovely bread, much like our Italian bread but much better, is very common. You can get anywhere by taking public transportation or by renting bikes. I actually got a chance to ride a bike tonight while Irene was hanging on to her dear life on the back carriage. I had to relearn my balance since I haven’t rode a bike in some time but with someone on the back was even more challenging. My front wheel kept wobbling back and forth but I just knew …keep pedaling harder!! Fortunately I got Irene to her location safely and my sister enjoyed relearning the art of riding a bike too….but of all places Amsterdam!!I know you can always take a trip to a country that you’ve never visited but it’s a whole other experience staying with locals and actually doing local things. Plus not getting stuck into the typical tourist traps. The plans tomorrow are to head to a small town outside of Leiden for more windmills and some cheese markets. After that we head to Switzerland. Jaa. I can’t wait!!