11/18/19 - On Monday I went to all of my classes, which take up most of my day. When I got home, Hannah and I went to dinner at a place just down the street from our apartment called Dante and Beatrice. I got a soup that is traditional Italian with basically tomato soup, basil, and rice. It’s probably one of my favorite soups. My mom got it one night when she was here, so that’s when I first tried it. For my entree I had pici with rosemary ragu. I sometimes am not a rosemary fan, but with the ragu it was actually really good. Also, the plating at this place was awesome (made taking foodie pics a lot easier).
11/19/19 - I had my Italian fashion history class Tuesday morning. After that I worked on homework until dinner time. For dinner, Hannah and I finally decided to get aperitivo. Basically, aperitivo is common in Italy for a light dinner. You just have to pay for the drink, and you get to eat anything off the buffet the restaurant provides. So we went to a really cool place called Colle Bereto and paid 12 euro for the drink and buffet. It was so much fun, I want to do it every night. I don’t know why we don’t have something similar to this in America. After that, we walked to the street with most of the Christmas lights. Last time, they were still setting up the light up ornament, so we went back to see it. Down the other direction on the street, we discovered a light up present, which was also really cute. Then we walked past the carousel and realized we still haven’t been on it. It was only one euro to ride, so we thought why not. I haven’t been on a carousel in a long time, and this one in Florence is quite beautiful. It has paintings of all over Florence and Renaissance pictures. To end the night, we went to the Beatles tribute band again at La Menagere. It was quite a bit busier than last time, but still super fun. We brought our friend Lauren with us this time.
11/20/19 - I had my afternoon Italian class on Wednesday. When I got home I spent the rest of the day basically packing and working on homework. I’m going to Amsterdam this weekend to meet up with my Aunt Calla and cousins Elayna and Cameron, then we are going to Belgium too. I’m excited to visit two new cities I haven’t been to and see my family.
11/21/19 - Thursday morning my flight to Amsterdam was at 6:30am, meaning I woke up at 4am. I got to the airport, got through security and waited at the gate. They were beginning boarding and the lady said to have your ID open. That’s when I realized I forgot my passport. I literally remembered to pack everything else, from the chargers to the hair ties, but not the most important thing. I ended up having to pay for another flight later that day. Unfortunately, I missed my ticket to the Anne Frank house too. I’m still mad at myself. If they would have checked it at security (like they should have), I would have had time to run home too. Frustrating. Anyway, I took a nap and waited for my next flight. This time I triple checked I had my passport. I finally got to the Netherlands, but it was pretty late when I arrived. We ended up just going back to the Airbnb and planning out tomorrow. Turns out if you get online at 9am you can try to get Anne Frank house tickets, because they save 20% of tickets for day of sales.
11/22/19 - On Friday morning, we woke up fairly early to catch the train to Amsterdam (we were staying outside of the city). We were still on the train at 9am. I had a reminder set for 8:55, but we started talking. By the time I realized I had forgot, it was 9:04am. I got on the site, but I was 450th in the queue. I waited until the end, but it said there was only about 200 tickets (which I didn’t believe). When I got to the end of the queue, the tickets were sold out. We were gonna try again Saturday. Finally we arrived in Amsterdam. First things first, we got pancakes (my favorite). I got the mini pancakes, which apparently are traditional in the Netherlands. They are the size of a silver dollar and have butter and powdered sugar on top. AMAZING. It was time for our tour after that. We booked a tour that takes us out to an area with windmills, and if it were summer, the tulip fields. When we got to the small city of Zaanse Schans, it smelled like chocolate. There are 3 separate chocolate factories in the city. The guide said it usually smells like one of three things: chocolate, cheese, or cow poop. Thank god it smelled like chocolate today. The smell was so strong, it made me crave chocolate though. First we walked through the small area with green houses. She said that green paint used to be the cheapest because it was made with trees, so that is why the houses are all green. Next we went into a clog workshop, and got to see a guy make the clogs. There were a couple machines, but the heel and toe are always carved by hand. After he finished, he said part of the wood is made up of just water. Then he blew into the shoe, and water literally came out. It was pretty crazy. I got some cute wooden tulips (even though we didn’t see any tulips). I think I will have to come back when the tulips are blooming one day, though. After that we went to a cheese shop where a lady told us how they make gouda cheese. Then we got to sample some. My favorite was the garlic and herb cheese, but I didn’t think I had room in my suitcase for it sadly. Next we got to go inside a windmill. The specific windmill we climbed crushed powder used in paint. Others made oil from seeds and lumber. Then we stopped in a small chocolate store, which was pretty tempting, since I had been smelling chocolate for about 2 hours at this point. We headed back to Amsterdam after this, and got back around 1:30pm. We decided to walk through the red light district, since it was really close. It was definitely a unique place. At least I’ve never seen anything like it in the world before. Then we got a quite a bit of fries, which are a must try in Amsterdam. We got curry sauce and mayo on top. They were really good, but pretty filling. Then we stopped to get a little more to finish lunch. I got a burger with my cousin Cameron (since i haven’t had one of those in a long time) and my other cousin Elayna and her friend Kate got stir fry. Cameron had a tour of the Ajax soccer stadium after that. Elayna, Kate, and I just explored more of Amsterdam. We walked over by the Anne Frank house, so I could at least see it if I didn’t make it there. Then we did a little bit of shopping (which Amsterdam definitely has a lot of). We met back up with Cameron and finished shopping. It was getting pretty late, so we were going to grab a bite to eat before we headed back to the train station. I wanted to try bitterballen, which is a traditional food and supposed to be really good. We didn’t really find a place with them (although we didn’t look all that hard), but we ended up getting croquettes from a place called FEBO. It’s basically a fast food place where you put in coins and grab a snack from “lockers”. It was pretty fun. I got one that tasted kind of like an eggroll, one with beef and then one with chicken (I thought it tasted like Thanksgiving dinner). Then we walked back through the red light district on the way to the train station just to say we went at night. It was definitely a different vibe at night, but still not like scary or anything (but it wasn’t really that late yet, only like 9). We did see a fight though, so that was kind of exciting (but also scary because we were right next to it but there were lots of police so no worries). Anyway, we walked through it. I couldn’t take pictures because rumor has it they will throw your phone in the river or throw pee on you, so didn’t want to take a risk, really. Definitely not somewhere I personally would spend a lot of time, but interesting to see once. Finally, we got on the train and headed back to our airbnb to go to bed.
11/23/19 - We woke up to go into the city a little later on Saturday. We were still at the house just before 9am to try for the Anne Frank tickets again. It claimed it opened at 9am, but I got on at 8:57, and I was already 430th in line. When we were on at 8:55 the day before, though it didn’t put me in the queue. So we aren’t exactly sure what time it opens, but I guess it’s between 8:55 and 9am. Anyway, Elayna and I wait in the queue. I finally get to the end of the line, and I got the same message that they were sold out. However, Elayna refreshed and there were times available for her. I refreshed and I also got times, but none of them worked in our schedule. Finally after we refreshed for a while we got a 1:30 ticket for me. I’m still surprised we got that, but somehow we did. Then we got on the train to Amsterdam. We were pretty hungry. I wanted pancakes, but it was either pancakes, or more time to explore, so we chose time. We ended up getting more fries, but from the place with the really long line instead. It wasn’t long when we went though, surprisingly. Our windmill tour guide said that all the fries are about the same, but the one just has a long line for some reason. Since the line was short, we decided we might as well try them. This time we got a garlic sauce and ketchup. They were pretty good, but I think I liked the mayo and curry sauce toppings better. But french fries are french fries in the end, and I love them all. Then we stopped at Topshop, since I can’t get that in Florence or the USA anymore (sadly). After I got a cute yellow sweater, we walked to the flower market. On the way, we stopped and got a stroopwafel, which is another popular food. It is a small waffle that has caramel in between the layers. They dip half in chocolate and then cover it with a topping. I got M&Ms. They were sooo good. We made it to the flower market finally. I would have liked to buy some flowers, but I wasn’t sure if they would make it through customs. Apparently you can take certain types or something, but I wasn’t sure so it wasn’t worth the risk. It was nearly time for my Anne Frank house tour, so we walked in that direction. At 1:30, I went in and got my audio guide. The museum was really well done, and had an audio guide throughout. There wasn’t too much reading, which was nice because 1. I’m not a big reader, and 2. It kept the flow of the museum moving and took exactly an hour. It was cool to see the bookshelf and secret space I have heard about in person. They also had the diary. I was surprised by how big the space was. I expected it to be just one room, but it was bigger than I imagined. I’m glad I got to the museum though, it was really good. After that we hurried to the train to meet up with my Aunt Calla to drive to Belgium. It was about a 2 hour drive to Ghent, where we stayed in Belgium. We didn’t get there until about 7pm. We were starving so we went to grab some food. We walked through the city at night, and it was so cute. We found a spot for dinner, and I got the traditional Ghent chicken casserole. It wasn’t like our American casseroles, but it was really good. It was more like a chicken stew or soup almost. Not sure the word casserole translates directly.
11/24/19 - On Sunday we got breakfast at the hotel. I was trying to get salt out of the salt grinder. I twisted it and the whole thing fell off and salt went everywhere. The waiter thought it was funny too. Since I only had half a day, we decided to just stay in Ghent and skip Brussels (apparently Ghent is more beautiful anyway). We first went to the medieval castle from 1180. It was huge and really well preserved. There was an audioguide, and it was actually pretty funny. We weren’t sure if it was only funny in english though, because we seemed to be the only ones laughing. Maybe other people just don’t have a sense of humor about medieval torture (lol). After that we went to find some Belgian chocolate! We stumbled upon one place and I bought a bar. They use local cocoa bean farmers. I tried it and it was amazing. I’m not kidding, I think it might be the best chocolate I’ve ever had. I can see why they are known for chocolate. We just spent some time exploring after that. There was a cart with colorful candies on it, so we went to see what they were. Turns out they are famous in Ghent and called “The Nose of Ghent”. They were like a gummy in several flavors. A bit too sweet and sugary for me, but not bad. A lot of the shops were closed since it was Sunday. We found another chocolate spot, and Elayna and Cameron got some. I tried it, and it was good, but not quite as good as mine. After a bit more exploring, it was pretty much time for me to go. We went to meet up with Calla and to pick up her colleague Kris. Then Kris and I headed to the airport on a train (but Kris is staying in Brussels tonight). I left Brussels for Amsterdam at about 6, and then Amsterdam to Florence around 9.
