Holland

My time in Holland came and went much faster than I'd ever expected it to. I was greeted at the airport by Fleur, who was one of my best and first friends while I was in Australia. She hasn't changed much in the 6-7 months it's been since I've seen her, and she has a wonderful apartment with some friends at Marnixstraat 417 in central Amsterdam.

I spent the first few days getting to know her friends. The Dutch guys were really nice and had humors similar to mine.

We spent the first evening BBQing, joking around, and talking about America and Holland, and the various stereotypes assigned to our respecti

ve countries. Their English is truly exceptional in Holland, and they were quite comfortable speaking in English. It was a nice change from the week I spent where Finnish dominated the conversations and I had absolutely no idea whatsoever as to what was going on.

I spent the rest of the week exploring Amsterdam and taking in the sites and walking throughout picturesque little Amsterdam.

One day I went with Fleur's friend Emma to buy groceries and she drove me around on the back of her bike.

It

was a truly Dutch experience. Here Emma and I are sitting at a table at a beach cafe, pondering life.

After all the BBQs and meeting friends, Friday hit and it was time for the World Cup game against Brazil. Nobody thought Holland was going to win. I mean NOBODY.

But, as it turns out, Holland did knock out the #1 ranked team, Brazil. The Dutch went crazy and exploded into pandemonium in Amsterdam. It meant a great deal of partying, national pride, and blaring car and scooter horns.

After the madness in the city of Amsterdam came to a close, Fleur took me further out to the Dutch countryside. We drove to a touristy spot with windmills, and also to her parents house, which is near Haarlem, which is a place that Harlem, NY gets its name from, as old as the once named 'New Amsterdam.'

Holland was a lot of fun. I learned many cool Dutch words, and already knew some good Dutch words, such as 'lekker.' The canals and trees of Amsterdam truly make the city unique, and 3 level bike racks along with the fact that bikes truly do rule the streets made the city only more charming to me.

Holland is truly a unique and beautiful place, and a surprising amount of the country is actually below sea level. The Dutch for centuries have used an elaborate system of hydro engineering through windmills and various levels of water drainage to claim a large portion of their own land from the sea.

A place like Amsterdam in the summer, which had perfect weather for the entire time I was there, with wonderful cafes, cyclists cheerily riding by, an active yet not quite busy city life, and Dutch youth meeting on bikes for BBQs in the park, and then later in pubs for a good night out, makes me promise that I'll come back to Holland, if only for a little while.

With that, I was off to Denmark, as quickly as I came, on the overnight train through Germany.