.Our Summer In Hamburg. : The Netherlands

Off to our very first weekend trip!
The Netherlands.
We arrived in Utrecht at around 5pm and walked very enthusiastically to our couchsurfing buddies apartment. We laughed and danced all the way past their house and miraculously Astrid (couchsurfing buddy #1) saw us from her window (side note: she barely knows what we look like) and ran out after us. There apartment had terrifyingly steep stairs up to it that we thankfully never slipped and fell down. But Astrid did tell us a hilarious story of her falling.. with a vacuum. I tell you its so steep it would be like falling off a whole story. We then met Pieter (Couchsurfing buddy #2. also Astrids boyfriend) who had the BEST speaking voice ever. It entertained me the whole trip. Cailey.. I just thought of you the whole time because it was just the type of thing that would drive you nuts/make you laugh your head off. For every S he said "Sh" and for every "D" at the end of a word he also did an "Sh" sound. Now try it and that's how he sounded. It was hilarious. I took a video so I could show it but my phone erased all my videos. Bummer.
The night started with us getting dinner and they paid. They said "Don't worry bout it, you guys can just buy us a beer later tonight to make up for it.." :/
The food they got us was.. interesting. It was those fried tater-tot type things except inside is ground up meat until its a sticky, slimy type substance. and then fries. The fries were good! Haha at least I can say I ate it! Dad, do you know what I am talking about though? They seem to be on every corner like Döner Kababs are here in Hamburg.
They took us around Utrecht and we fell in love! Its a great place with a beautiful church called the "Dom." To make it cooler the youth Olympics was being held in Utrecht and so we saw them all out eating everywhere. That was pretty cool. The canals were beautiful and they say that if you fall in you have to get a tetanus shot. HAHAH That kills me. How disgusting. So there is a big clinic right at the front of town just for getting them.
Once it got dark they took us to their favorite bar.. we kindly let them know our beliefs but we said we would get some Fanta. (4 euros for a glass bottle half the size of a regular coke class bottle).
It was a fun night. All four of us get along so well. Astrid and I had so much in common and Matt and Pieter were loving their discussions of apps and fantasy novels. After our first bar experience. We went on the "Illuminated Tour." This is a bunch of green arrows in the ground leading you around the city to where you come upon a blue eye in the ground. Then you have to look up and see something that has to do with light. So it was these colored lights by a church, or the light coming from the church, or a light illuminating the water. Just anything to do with light. It was such a cool idea and really fun.
It was a successful day and an even more successful first couch surfing experience. They are so kind and hospitable and they even made sure we had some of the traditional breakfast from them in the morning.
So the next morning we had toast with Hagelslag! Yum yum! Love the dutch!
Then we took the train to Amsterdam for the day!
Another fun tender mercy happened when we were pretty confused as to how to find the rijksmuseum. We saw a family with a map so we asked how they got it and they said "Oh sorry from our hotel" Bummer. So we left and pretty soon they ran after us when they realized they had an extra! It was perfect! We walked to the Rijksmuseum with stopping for pictures along the way and for a small bagel.
The Rijksmuseum made me giggle with joy. I am going to be honest.. with the exception of the National gallery of Art museum seeing the "whistlejacket" this is the first museum I reeeaally enjoyed. Most likely because I got to see what I wanted to see and I know a bit more about what I am doing. So it was really fun. But don't get me wrong.. nothing tops seeing my good ole "Whistlejacket."
My favorite painting I saw and I got to get a post card of was the "Children of the Sea." I can't wait to frame my postcard! It was all so fun. But we were pretty tired after and so we got a nice long rest laying at the park in the middle of the museum square. And Dad, we got an Apfelslap! It was delicious! I wanted a hundred more. And that was our last time to eat.. we walked for the rest of the day with out an actual plan. We got to lots of flohmarkts and got to smell a LOT of weed. Always a delight. Unfortunately as we were trying to avoid the red-light district we ended up dead in the center. Saw a lot. When we later told Astrid and Pieter about our day, they said, "It's always fun to see all the tourists in shock when they end up in there. haha did you like seeing everyones shocked faces?" and I said "uhhh.. no everyone seemed completely at home. I was the one with the shocked face!" They got a kick out of that. I did not.
Pretty soon we were both restless and then laughing pretty hard because we were so hungry from the piece of bread, bagel and half an apple turn over that we had had for the day. So we said what the heck! Lets go crazy! We hit up the hard rock cafe! Crazy for us at least.
Oh it was good and we got to sit right on the canal so it was beautiful and perfect weather! A perfect end to our day! Over all I loved the experience and hope to go to the Van Gogh museum and Anne Franks house next time we go.
That night we had a great discussion about the church with Astrid and Pieter. All they thought of us was that we had multiple wives and that we didn't celebrate birthdays. Haha. I was just so happy to see Matt in missionary mode. It was awesome. We also got to talk all about Riga, Latvia cause they had traveled there! They gave me an awesome place to tell maddie to go. So I emailed her about that.
Sunday came and we walked 40 minutes to church. It was a fun ward and every one was so kind and had perfect English I loved it. A nice RM translated for us which I am grateful for. But I did want to hear them just speak the language cause it makes me laugh. It's so awesome sounding I just love it!
We got a Book of Mormon from one of the women and wrote our testimonies and thanks to Astrid and Pieter in it by a beautiful little pond. I was so excited!
After some games with them (we played ticket to ride and I thought of you Laura. I also lost horrible again.) we said our goodbyes and gave them our parting gift. I was scared all the sudden right when we gave it to them, don't know why, but they were so touched. They understood what a special gift it was to give it to them and Pieter turns out, after our discussion, had researched it a bit more. I was so glad that even if they don't read it, we planted a little seed.
We arrived in Haarlem to find out that the Corrie Ten Boom museum isn't even open on Sundays, so I was pretty sad but Matt lifted me up to look inside the window. I lost my breath just seeing that. I was speechless and teary eyed and am so grateful I even got to see it. We grabbed a quick döner and piece of bread for ham for dinner and of course a tin box of stroopwaffles to go and headed back to Hamburg! It was an awesome trip and am so grateful we got to go!

Ps I got a Judy Garland vinyl from the flohmarkt! I love it!