Amsterdam Top Five

Blogging has now become my study break...which means, hopefully, a lot of these will be coming your way this week as I study for finals. First off will be the Top Five from Amsterdam...short and sweet:

1) Orange. Now I discovered that orange is not a particularly flattering color, on ANYONE. But, you had to wear it on Queen's Day or you just weren't celebrating properly. I also would have never bought a hat that style, OR with glitter all over it if not for this holiday. Other people though wore large, inflated orange crowns - so my hat wasn't to THAT level of obnoxious. (See left, those hats were EVERYWHERE!) I also now possess an orange shirt - though the phrase is sweet (If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much), that won't really go with anything I wear from here on out. I'm learning to tolerate the color though...but we're still not good friends. Think about it...do YOU look good in orange?

2) Rain. When one sees the forecast is rain - perhaps it would be best to carry an umbrella. We all KNEW it was supposed to rain that Thursday night of Queen's Day Eve, but yet three of us didn't bring umbrellas OR jackets OR wear long sleeves. I don't know what I was thinking. After getting completely soaked and QUITE cold, I learned my lesson. When in doubt, bring that stupid umbrella, even with the two prongs on it that don't function. It's better than nothing! Ironically though, ON Queen's Day it was also supposed to rain (brought the umbrella this time) and it was sunny all day! Isn't that just ironic?

3) Who needs restaurants when you have Albert Heijn?!? We discovered truly how cheap we could be by eating only random things from the grocery store...I especially enjoyed how cheap bags of chips were! :) We did attempt to eat healthy with sandwiches and apples...but I always snuck some chips to the checkout too, mwah ha ha! Seriously though, on a weekend where prices were jacked up everywhere due to the holiday, we really were smart by just eating from the AH store. I even found a cute, Dutch-looking tin with cookies inside - which I bought more for the tin than the cookies. Who know grocery stores could also provide one with souviners??

4) Simple pleasures. We did a LOT of card playing over the weekend, even more so than the Spain trip...and it was the best part of the trip, from my point of view. We were in our small hostel room with barely any room to sit, yet had a great time. It didn't cost any money, we didn't have to go anywhere, and we all were enjoying ourselves. Looking for something fun to do tonight? Pull out those cards! My family does that frequently on our vacations and they always turn into some of the best trip moments. :)

5) What are we celebrating? Although we all knew the basis behind Queen's Day, it was odd that there weren't any real celebrations ABOUT the Queen. The whole day reminded me of Homecoming - a celebration where everyone has a great time, but you're not really sure WHAT you're actually celebrating. The streets were packed with people, the canals were stuffed to the brim with boats, dancing and loud music was everywhere, and just a general good time was had by all who were in Amsterdam. But all day I kept looking around and taking in the festivities and wondering how the festivities I was witnessing were celebrating the Queen's Birthday. Like how does playing football celebrate Homecoming? We always think it makes sense...but...does it? (Picture above right was of us dancing to the music of a boat that was passing by...they liked our dancing. Who wouldn't?)

Amsterdam was a very short trip, a we did very little 'touristy' things, hence the short top five. I have three trips left to document, and then a few final Maastricht things to say before I come home. I have only ten days left here in Maastricht, and the majority are going to be spent studying for finals. It's going to go SO fast and before you know it, this blogging thing will be over! AH! But for now - you know that more blogs are on the way, so calm down. :)