prize winning cheese and dutch wooden shoes

So the next day once we were in hoorn erin's relative i don't know quite what you call the relationship...had off work and said he would take us out into the country to a city that has the old fashioned windmills and what not so we were definitely excited!

On our drive Geerte informed us how the area is pretty but a lot of people don't actually like living there b.c of its proximity to a cookie/chocolate factory so the air smells like chocolate mixed with cow (there are cows everywhere! it made the drive very idyllic though seeing them just roaming the pasture grounds to the side of the highway...also instead of having ugly fences they have little creeks that keep the animals from crossing onto the roads and what not)

• when we got out of the car we could definitely smell the chocolate and liked it at first! but then it did get kind of old...

Once we were there it was as if we had walked on to a movie set with an old fashioned dutch background.  There were fields with goats and sheep and cows than a little further around 4 old fashioned windmills and then past them a river.  Then to the right were old fashioned looking houses with pretty white trim and signs saying they sell dutch wooden shoes and then a cheese shop!  We were finally in my homeland :]

Geerte was nice enough to give us free reign of the whole village and told us to take our time because he had a book with us, thank goodness because we are good at taking our time haha

What we saw/did 

• walked over a cute little bridge across a stream to get to a cheese house, the cheese sold there is all made a prize winning cheese maker and they had a room where all the huge wheels of cheese were sitting..
• funny side note - there was a sign on the door saying don't let the chickens in...but then when we walked in there was one just clucking along...we later found out that geerte had accidentally let it in

• then we walked inside to see cheese heaven! there were soooooo many samples from fancy goat cheeses to garlic and herb cheese to a green pesto cheese to a red something cheese and then with all the cheese samples were these two sauces they make too..one was a type of honey mustard and one was a balsamic mustardy type thing but they were delicious with the cheese! we ate so much and finally decided we should go see the rest

• walked along the path where the windmills are and outside each one was a label explaining what type of windmill it was ex: woodmill, grainmill etc. and it would tell you how it worked...then you could go into the windmills but it was 3 euro and smart us hadn't gone to the atm in a while (not quite our falt b.c the ones that are every where only work with the european credit cards that have a chip thing in it so ours don't work) and erin forgot her wallet...lovely...but we didnt miss too much going inside b.c you could get the most of it from the writings and seeing it outside!  needless to say they were so gorgeous looking and it was crazy they were still in use but it was fun to see the history of them

• then got to the end where there was a sign saying ferry to the other side of the river (we needed to get over there so we could use the atm that we were told was in the town there) and it was only 1 euro each
• trying to figure out where the boat was we saw a sign that said pull rope and there was a basketball attached to a flag and rope so when you pulled it, it brought the ball up so the people could see you from the otherside of the river!

• the little boat run by a man and his wife came along and we got a ride to the otherside even though we only had 1.75 euro to our names!
• the town was pretty cute with the houses but it seemed deserted which was quite strange, making it seem more like a movie set!

• got to the "center" of town where there was a cute bakery we went in and fell in love with everything we saw, so we hurried to the bank next door to get money so we could buy some fresh stroopwafel..mmm yummm and so erin could get coffee...obvi

• we were ready to make our way back when we looked to the bridge which was quite a site...it had opened up so a barge could pass under but it looked quite comical with a road leading straight up into the sky

• On the other side were the shops of the cute historic area and we found one where the lady made her own little silver charms and erin got her "holland" charm for her necklace as well as a unicorn charm and i got a little windmill charm and a pair of woodenshoes charm
• then on our way back we stopped again at the cheese shop had even more samples to the point that neither of us wanted cheese again for a while! and ended up getting one for Geerte! as we walked out we noticed the goats had gotten out and took the opportunity for a photo shoot!

• realizing it was getting late we headed straight to the wooden shoes store/ making place/ museum and learned all about the history of them, saw the "wedding" version of the shoes, the boot version etc. 

• we were also there at the perfect time b.c as soon as we finished watching the video and reading all the historical info, the man who works there did a demonstration of how they make wooden shoes..
• they have machines that work very similarly to how you make key copies and it only takes them 5 min to carve the shoe (that doesnt include polishing and painting etc.) 
• walked back and found geerte and headed back

Sad now to think about our last day together was almost over but we finished it off nicely cooking dinner together and realizing how well it would work if we did live in apartments instead of dorms on campus 

• we had gotten some supplies at the grocery store and made a delicious tomato soup with garlic, potato, and lots of spinach (our favorite :] )

Even on our last night together we stayed up into the wee hours sharing stories (god knows how we still have plenty of stories to share!) and giving advice and just being besties :]

The next morning came quite early and it was sad to leave eachother but alas it was  GREAT TRIP!

I LOVE YOU ERIN! 

good by holland!

The country where my last name actually means something :]

aka Holland and Amsterdam!

I started writing a blog entry when we were in Amsterdam I was sitting at my computer, but I didn't get internet for a while and only wrote a little...so here is what I wrote:

"Amsterdam = cultural experience 

Right now I'm sitting in our hostel room waiting for Erin to finish getting ready and this super gruffy man who we originally thought was sketch is now talking to us but he's pretty funny.  He's saying how he likes how we have regular bags and not backbacks and how its actually much better its pretty funny.  Now he's talking about how America has good smoke and now is using terms we have no idea what he is actually talking about.  So we just asked him what the difference between weed and hash b.c ppl keep talking about it but we have no idea.  He's telling us how it is nicer if you smoke before you go to work." 

Back to now! 

I am sitting in Hoorn Holland with Erin at distant relatives cute house, Geerte (side note: so erins grandma on her dads side is Geerte's mothers cousin...if that makes sense).  We are waiting for the pouring rain to stop so we can walk to the grocery store which we think is kinda close b.c we need to get cash from the atm before we go to the train tom.  Speaking of which my nice travel plans begin tom: 

1. get to Hoorn train station for the 630am train
2. train to Airport 
3. fly to London Gatwick 
4. airbus to center London
5. tube to station to stay with mom's friend Diana
1. afternoon in london, hopefully finding a pool to swim in! then spend the night
6. wake take tube to Heathrow, 
7. fly from Heathrow to Vancouver 
8. Vancouver to SFO
9. BART to walnut creek
10. packing and night in walnut creek
11. drive down to Stanford with madre & move in!

aka WOW let the craze begin...it's pretty sad thinking about having to leave europe and traveling we've had so much fun! and although living out of a suite case isn't my favorite it's been a pretty awesome and i can't believe Erin and I are going to be separated for 3 months crazyyyy everyone has commented on how they're impressed we still have stuff to talk about after all our time together!

well now about amsterdam! 

I love all the canals and old townhouse buildings, and thousands and thousands of bikes! It's ridiculous Erin and I have almost gotten run over a few times.  The roads are pretty confusing because it's all cobblestones and in some places its not clear at all where the bike lanes are vs. walking sidewalk vs. above ground tram so it is pretty entertaining trying to watch out for everything and cross the streets at the same time. 

Although we only had a day and a half in Amsterdam like always we squeezed as much in as possible!

First day  

• arrived and had interesting time trying to figure out where our hostel was..but fortunately we found it without too much trouble and showed up in style with our huge roll bags and hands full which always brings interesting looks when the front desk people are used to seeing intense backpackers...went to our 10 person room and finally took a shower..however the hostel didn't have free towels so we had to share my tiny wash cloth i squeezed into my bag right before I left 
• it's also hard to find coffee because here "coffee shop" that is on signs everywhere referes to some weed thing or hash thing i'm still not quite sure but it has to do with palces where you can go in and buy things you smoke..hahahah 

running from the not-coffee- coffee shop

• went out to find internet so we could contact her relative...when we left we turned the corner down an ally and there in red lights was a sign for a sex shop...welcome to amsterdam!
• but there was a place with fricken amazing falafels & sauce for one of the first times since our travels and the sauce they call "garlic" is kind of like ranch yay

• then we did what we do best, explore the city through wandering around, the canals are lined with all different boats, some are canals that you are allowed to live in and have house boats then the others are full of small fishing type boats, some of which are sinking and only have the bow sticking up out of the water

• we then stumbled upon a lovely cathedral by which was a statue of Anne Frank, then from looking at our map we found out we were right by the Anne Frank Museum and unlike all the other museums it was open still! so we got to do a tour of the Anne Frank House which was pretty intense but interesting seeing the hiding spaces, replicas of their floor, read original letters, watched a video, saw the original pictures Anne had decorating her wall!
• Our afternoon wanderings gave us a better sense of the city and we got to see the more popular tourist spots that were bustling at night 
• we then decided to venture into THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT! but had to first ask instructions haha...and on our way I had to try one of the dark chocolate covered waffles they had in all the shop windows 

• a few words on the red light district, when we got to the proper street we were standing outside of a sex show theater, the business man who stands outside trying to get people to go in noticed our shocked expressions and asked where we were from 

art made out of condoms...

• after we got a little used to the whole idea (only a little i don't think I'll ever get used to the whole idea) we realized it wasn't so strange to stare and that that was kind of the whole purpose, the weirdest part was when men actually walked in and then the girl would close the curtain behind them
• we also walked up to a few doors with the curtains drawn and in the top curtain there was a sticker with the price! the average was 140 euro for 15 min

Second day 

• We had planned to rent bikes and bike around the city but when we got up it was raining pretty hard and the forecast was for rain all day so we decided it would be perfect to start the day with some of the famous Amsterdam museums 
• side note - first we discovered we couldn't leave our bags at the hostel and because we were leaving that night to go to Hoorn 
• INTENSE SIDE NOTE! erin and I are sitting here both working on our blogs and she has boymeets world stuck in her computer that we haven't watched any of yet and its the end of our time together and we looked at each other and for the hundredth time this trip started saying the same thing at the same time about how we could watch it while we pack! crazy too much time together :]
• we went to the Van Gogh museum and got a student pass b.c if we went to two museums it would be cheaper!

• I really like Van Gogh so I found the museum very informational and interesting with the pictures next to quotes from his letters which put the pictures in his perspective
• one quote i really liked and actually wrote down was what he wrote before he began what he called his first masterpiece, the potato eaters he said he was starting to 

" paint what I am not yet able to, in order to learn how to do it"

• after the museum we stopped at took pictures at HOUSE OF BOLS  bar tending academy which was across the street, I felt pretty cool :]

• we ended up walking to the shopping district, going into one of Amsterdam's parks, seeing cute little shops, getting money on erins phone 
• the flower market!

wooden tullips

• we also passed by this super sweet shop that made this intense custom bikes with different added decorations on it...it's complicated to explain but here was a picture I snuck while standing out side of two cool ones! 

and yes the horse is the seat for your bike...

• because it was mid afternoon of course erin needed another coffee so we saw this one shop that was very in style with a lot of amsterdam advertising...we really like the font and colors and modern type furniture and styles a lot of shops and hotels use here...its kind of ikea style, but here's an example from the coffee shop we stopped in!

• realized that it was getting pretty late, then asking a shop owner we had found out that the museums closed at 6 and it was 6:05, so we just missed it grrr
• we decided to take the tram to museum park again hopeful that maybe they were wrong but no...we did meet a guy from America who we later walked around with and I was able to sell my student card for 10 euro so it wasn't a complete waste of money purchase
• Also in museum park is a super sweet sign that has the city new slogan I amsterdam (picture below)

• now we were going to Hoorn at  soon so we decided that the last thing we wanted to do was one that had been recommended by numerous people, books etc. the canal cruise, to give us a different perspective and view of Amsterdam! 
• we also got to learn a lot about some of the buildings we passed, for example we learned that a lot of the buildings that are leaning forward into the street were actually designed that way, there are a bunch of theories why such as it helps lifting stuff into the top stories, it shows off the fancy decoration and makes them more noticeable etc. 

river lights turned on during our cruise

big theater carre 

That's all for now b.c im getting tired and I need to pack before I leave tomorrow but I have lots of pictures from our Dutch countryside adventure today and final remarks on Holland! 

Also if you want I have a bunchhhh more pictures on facebook that you can feel free to enjoy :]

adios le pido

The country where my last name actually means something :]

aka Holland and Amsterdam!

I started writing a blog entry when we were in Amsterdam I was sitting at my computer, but I didn't get internet for a while and only wrote a little...so here is what I wrote:

"Amsterdam = cultural experience 

Right now I'm sitting in our hostel room waiting for Erin to finish getting ready and this super gruffy man who we originally thought was sketch is now talking to us but he's pretty funny.  He's saying how he likes how we have regular bags and not backbacks and how its actually much better its pretty funny.  Now he's talking about how America has good smoke and now is using terms we have no idea what he is actually talking about.  So we just asked him what the difference between weed and hash b.c ppl keep talking about it but we have no idea.  He's telling us how it is nicer if you smoke before you go to work." 

Back to now! 

I am sitting in Hoorn Holland with Erin at distant relatives cute house, Geerte (side note: so erins grandma on her dads side is Geerte's mothers cousin...if that makes sense).  We are waiting for the pouring rain to stop so we can walk to the grocery store which we think is kinda close b.c we need to get cash from the atm before we go to the train tom.  Speaking of which my nice travel plans begin tom: 

1. get to Hoorn train station for the 630am train
2. train to Airport 
3. fly to London Gatwick 
4. airbus to center London
5. tube to station to stay with mom's friend Diana
1. afternoon in london, hopefully finding a pool to swim in! then spend the night
6. wake take tube to Heathrow, 
7. fly from Heathrow to Vancouver 
8. Vancouver to SFO
9. BART to walnut creek
10. packing and night in walnut creek
11. drive down to Stanford with madre & move in!

aka WOW let the craze begin...it's pretty sad thinking about having to leave europe and traveling we've had so much fun! and although living out of a suite case isn't my favorite it's been a pretty awesome and i can't believe Erin and I are going to be separated for 3 months crazyyyy everyone has commented on how they're impressed we still have stuff to talk about after all our time together!

well now about amsterdam! 

I love all the canals and old townhouse buildings, and thousands and thousands of bikes! It's ridiculous Erin and I have almost gotten run over a few times.  The roads are pretty confusing because it's all cobblestones and in some places its not clear at all where the bike lanes are vs. walking sidewalk vs. above ground tram so it is pretty entertaining trying to watch out for everything and cross the streets at the same time. 

Although we only had a day and a half in Amsterdam like always we squeezed as much in as possible!

First day  

• arrived and had interesting time trying to figure out where our hostel was..but fortunately we found it without too much trouble and showed up in style with our huge roll bags and hands full which always brings interesting looks when the front desk people are used to seeing intense backpackers...went to our 10 person room and finally took a shower..however the hostel didn't have free towels so we had to share my tiny wash cloth i squeezed into my bag right before I left 
• it's also hard to find coffee because here "coffee shop" that is on signs everywhere referes to some weed thing or hash thing i'm still not quite sure but it has to do with palces where you can go in and buy things you smoke..hahahah 

running from the not-coffee- coffee shop

• went out to find internet so we could contact her relative...when we left we turned the corner down an ally and there in red lights was a sign for a sex shop...welcome to amsterdam!
• but there was a place with fricken amazing falafels & sauce for one of the first times since our travels and the sauce they call "garlic" is kind of like ranch yay

• then we did what we do best, explore the city through wandering around, the canals are lined with all different boats, some are canals that you are allowed to live in and have house boats then the others are full of small fishing type boats, some of which are sinking and only have the bow sticking up out of the water

• we then stumbled upon a lovely cathedral by which was a statue of Anne Frank, then from looking at our map we found out we were right by the Anne Frank Museum and unlike all the other museums it was open still! so we got to do a tour of the Anne Frank House which was pretty intense but interesting seeing the hiding spaces, replicas of their floor, read original letters, watched a video, saw the original pictures Anne had decorating her wall!
• Our afternoon wanderings gave us a better sense of the city and we got to see the more popular tourist spots that were bustling at night 
• we then decided to venture into THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT! but had to first ask instructions haha...and on our way I had to try one of the dark chocolate covered waffles they had in all the shop windows 

• a few words on the red light district, when we got to the proper street we were standing outside of a sex show theater, the business man who stands outside trying to get people to go in noticed our shocked expressions and asked where we were from 

art made out of condoms...

• after we got a little used to the whole idea (only a little i don't think I'll ever get used to the whole idea) we realized it wasn't so strange to stare and that that was kind of the whole purpose, the weirdest part was when men actually walked in and then the girl would close the curtain behind them
• we also walked up to a few doors with the curtains drawn and in the top curtain there was a sticker with the price! the average was 140 euro for 15 min

Second day 

• We had planned to rent bikes and bike around the city but when we got up it was raining pretty hard and the forecast was for rain all day so we decided it would be perfect to start the day with some of the famous Amsterdam museums 
• side note - first we discovered we couldn't leave our bags at the hostel and because we were leaving that night to go to Hoorn 
• INTENSE SIDE NOTE! erin and I are sitting here both working on our blogs and she has boymeets world stuck in her computer that we haven't watched any of yet and its the end of our time together and we looked at each other and for the hundredth time this trip started saying the same thing at the same time about how we could watch it while we pack! crazy too much time together :]
• we went to the Van Gogh museum and got a student pass b.c if we went to two museums it would be cheaper!

• I really like Van Gogh so I found the museum very informational and interesting with the pictures next to quotes from his letters which put the pictures in his perspective
• one quote i really liked and actually wrote down was what he wrote before he began what he called his first masterpiece, the potato eaters he said he was starting to 

" paint what I am not yet able to, in order to learn how to do it"

• after the museum we stopped at took pictures at HOUSE OF BOLS  bar tending academy which was across the street, I felt pretty cool :]

• we ended up walking to the shopping district, going into one of Amsterdam's parks, seeing cute little shops, getting money on erins phone 
• the flower market!

wooden tullips

• we also passed by this super sweet shop that made this intense custom bikes with different added decorations on it...it's complicated to explain but here was a picture I snuck while standing out side of two cool ones! 

and yes the horse is the seat for your bike...

• because it was mid afternoon of course erin needed another coffee so we saw this one shop that was very in style with a lot of amsterdam advertising...we really like the font and colors and modern type furniture and styles a lot of shops and hotels use here...its kind of ikea style, but here's an example from the coffee shop we stopped in!

• realized that it was getting pretty late, then asking a shop owner we had found out that the museums closed at 6 and it was 6:05, so we just missed it grrr
• we decided to take the tram to museum park again hopeful that maybe they were wrong but no...we did meet a guy from America who we later walked around with and I was able to sell my student card for 10 euro so it wasn't a complete waste of money purchase
• Also in museum park is a super sweet sign that has the city new slogan I amsterdam (picture below)

• now we were going to Hoorn at  soon so we decided that the last thing we wanted to do was one that had been recommended by numerous people, books etc. the canal cruise, to give us a different perspective and view of Amsterdam! 
• we also got to learn a lot about some of the buildings we passed, for example we learned that a lot of the buildings that are leaning forward into the street were actually designed that way, there are a bunch of theories why such as it helps lifting stuff into the top stories, it shows off the fancy decoration and makes them more noticeable etc. 

river lights turned on during our cruise

big theater carre 

That's all for now b.c im getting tired and I need to pack before I leave tomorrow but I have lots of pictures from our Dutch countryside adventure today and final remarks on Holland! 

Also if you want I have a bunchhhh more pictures on facebook that you can feel free to enjoy :]

adios le pido

Galway to Goodbye Ireland

I am SOO happy we fit Galway in, even if it was super fast less than 24 hour stay in the city!  But it ended up being a super cute water town and those are my favorite.  The worst part of course was dragging all of our luggage from the bus stop, trying to find out where our hostel is and the dragging it through the cobblestone streets after traveling all day and finally dropping everything off...wow so trying.  However without too much pain we arrived at Barnacles Quay (pronounced key) hostel and it was pretty decent all considering..it included towels and free internet in the kitchen/lobby area / had a kitchen/ lobby area and everything was decently clean.  It also was our first experience staying at a hostel sharing a room with 8 other people..quite interesting, but fortunately no one was there when we had to drop off our stuff and dig through our bags to get clothes for the day.

Also the front desk was really nice and gave us recommendations and gave us a cute little walking map of the city with major sites pointed out and little blurbs about each site so that gave us a starting ground for our whirl wind tour

what we covered:

• lots of walking like usual
• love the quay street, reminds me more of europe with just walking paths, cobble stones, pretty colored stores, flowers hanging, etc. 
• little pubs everywhere
• went into the official claddagh maker shop and learned about the history of it 

• walked across the river to the original claddagh neighborhoods
• saw lots of swans..gorgeous looking but when we later fed them they have a ferocious growl

• went through the Spanish arches that date back to the 1500's!
• took a bajillion pictures of the row of colored houses along the shore

• saw the irish  "canoe polo" open taking place, when we asked how cold the water was they splashed us
• went inside St. Nicholas Church/ cathedral - the oldest still in use parish in Ireland 
• walked through St. Nicholas market that happens every saturday and sunday 
• pretty cute saw a man that makes sweet htings out of wood, a lady selling baby hats very similar to the style kathy kelley makes (but not as cute, all theirs were rainbow and no bows or buttons or cute stylings)
• got AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS crepes (three cheese, fetta, homemade cooked spinach, homemade sun dried tomatoes & homemade pesto) from a little stand run for 19 years by an irish couple
• did a little souvenir shopping aka more postcards to send out and Ireland shot glass b.c it was our last day, 
• when it was getting colder and shops were closing quickly made our way to pennys (super cheap but fashionable store, think h&m and forever 21 type thing but european style and even cheaper) they were having a huge sale and we had seen sooo many people walking down the street with bags from there so we had to ask where they came from and why everyone had bags!
• walked out to the point of the city in the water when the sun was almost set (couldnt' really see the setting though b.c so foggy & what not)

• went to irish pub, met locals and went to the local pub...think frat party crowded, but it was after a football game so you can imagine irish football fans..fun to see and talk to people! 
• we met an old man who said he was a famous irish muscian back in his day but we were so confused by the accent and his story we arent quite sure how true it was...

• witnessed the "collegeness" of the town after the pubs close the clubs open and soo many girls in not too much clothes, representatives from the clubs stand on the streets giving you stamps trying to get you to go to your club
• erin and i needed to sleep by this point so we didnt join but unfortunately we could hear EVERYTHING! from our hostle, irish singing in the streets, some intense fight, trash trucks in the am, so very little sleep before waking up at 6am to make our journey to AMSTERDAM!

final ginger count!! 298 CRAZYY! galway was def the winner there were way more there than anywhere else 

pictures

some stag party during pub crawl :]

outside st. pattys cathedral in dublin

self explanatory bah

gravity bar at the top of guinness tower

puzzle with nic-nic @ maxwell's house

super early morning picture of me...but jeans JM gave me for Uttica!!