Saturdays are usually for sleep but not today. Today was for early rising and a four hour train ride to Amsterdam. We had two switch overs for a total of three different train rides. The train between Maastricht and Amsterdam is 2.5 hours and was very crowded. I tried to sleep and study. I didn’t accomplish much of either. Annah had a migraine today so we lost our city guide for the day. Since we thought she would be coming, we didn’t really prepare any plans or maps for the day. When we got there, we were on our own with not much knowledge of where to go or what to see. We just started walking towards what looked like a promising area and went into the first tourist shop we saw. We like touristy shops, they are fun to see what kind of things cities like to associate themselves with. Like what they are known for. Amsterdam prides itself in its buildings, canals, bikes, tulips, blue and white porcelain, and windmills. Also, marijuana. Also, inappropriate things. I will just say that and leave that be. Lizzy asked the lady there what we should see and do. Her suggestions were the red light district and a flower market. We headed towards the red light district and we were not very impressed. The buildings were cool because they are all lopsided and leaning but it was just restaurants and of course things the red light district is known for. I am not so sure why the lady suggested it honestly. I had heard that it was cool to see during the day when it isn’t sketchy, but it was still uninteresting and a bit scarring. I will also just go ahead and say that Amsterdam is just one big cloud of pot. That is all you see and smell. We all left with huge headaches from all the pot we inhaled today. I thought Verviers smelled. Amsterdam is worse. You know, I went into this city with high expectations. Clean water canals lined with trees of changing leaves. Rolling hills of tulips with windmills on them. Cute bikes on every corner. Um no. That was not it at all. I saw dirty trashed canals. Hardly any trees. Only wooden tulips. Bike riders who will ring their bell at you a thousand times and will run over anyone in their path. Things that will burn your eyes out. And the smell of pot every second. It was pretty disappointing at first. We were a bit bummed, but we knew we were just not in the right places yet. It was also rainy and cloudy all day so that dampened our moods a bit too. It was a day of flower pots, rain clouds, and a big ol pot cloud. Hence, the title of the journal. We worked our way towards the flower market. We wandered and looked in some more shops on the way. We found one store that sells a lot of the blue and white porcelain and china dishes. Hannah and Abby went crazy and raked that store over and bought a lot of adorable pieces. It was fun to see them actually splurge on something since they have way more self control when it comes to shopping than me. I was glad they found something they really liked. After that, we found the flower market. It was just booth after booth of flower seeds, flowers, bulbs, clogs, tourist items, etc. It was very colorful and fun to look through all their cute trinkets. From there, we decided to look up the bench from the movie, “The Fault in Our Stars.” We had heard it had been stolen, but when I looked it up on maps, it took us straight to the bench and it was still there. We were only five minutes from it, so we chose a good time to go find it. We took some pictures of it and on it. I love that book and movie. I do not cry often, and it may be cheesy, but that book made me cry. So I have a soft spot for that book, and it was neat to see the bench. After the bench, we set out for the Anne Frank house. It was about a 15 minute walk. It was closed today for Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday. We took a picture of it and then started making our way back to the train station. On the way back, we stumbled upon a street market. They had handmade goods and crafts, vegetables, fruit, honeys, jams, meats, cheeses, and all the other foods you can think of. They also had a lot of booths with like thrift store clothing and items. It was like everyone brings their thrift store finds to the market and resells them. All of the items were pretty pricey for being old used things. I found some pottery I really liked and bought some. Abby found some doorknobs. Hannah and Abby also looked at fabric because they are both into embroidery. Claire looked at gifts for friends. It was really fun just wandering around the booths, looking at it all. I found some drip coffee and it hit the spot since I had been sleepy all day. It was really good coffee. I was pleased with it. After the market, we wanted dinner, so we continued to the train station. Our next surprise was finding a cheese museum and shop. They sold cheese upstairs and had a museum downstairs. They had samples of every cheese they sold. We just went around to each cheese and tasted it. THAT WAS SO FUN! Probably my favorite part of the day. Cheese sampling is pretty exciting. My favorite kind was the pesto cheese. It was colored green, red, and blue. So bizarre but tasted amazing. We walked towards the train station some more and tried to find some dinner. We finally found a nice restaurant with burgers for 5.50. That was cheap for a non fast food place. We asked if they did to go orders and they did. We placed our order and then finally went to the train station. We had to go back early-ish because Hannah forgot her Eurail pass and had to buy a ticket back. After we got her ticket, we sat and ate our dinner. We then found our platform and got on the train. We met up with some of our group there. That train ride was the most interesting ride ever. It was packed and they tell us not to be loud and obnoxious on trains, but we totally were. We were playing games and just talking and laughing so much. It was hilarious. We had some quite interesting and enlightening conversation….good times good times. We switched at Maastricht and met up with Hannah and Brandyn. They were a little concerned about our group because on the train there, we didn’t meet up with them after we got off the train. We couldn’t because there were just so many people in the train and station. We couldn’t find the group so we just continued on. I guess everyone was worried we missed the station. When we got back, I filled Annah in on the day and some people got some Chinese food from the restaurant next door. Hannah let me eat some of her rice and food. That stuff is yum. Jencie approved. I prepared for bed and showered all the pot smell off. Definitely not impressed by Amsterdam, but still had some cool things and experiences.

Fun Facts: I learned a lot about all the different ways you can incorporate pot into things to sell. If you were wondering, the options are endless. I learned that Amsterdam’s seal has three X’s on it, which are actually crosses that represent things I forget. But they are not a bad thing, in case you ever get confused on that. Like us. We were very confused. There was some concert going on and a lot of other things because Amsterdam was probably the most crowded city I have been to yet. There were mobs of people everywhere. There are still a lot of cars in Amsterdam, but definitely a lot of bikes. The Dutch people are some of my favorite because they actually like Americans and speak English very well. Unlike the French and Belgians. My new name for Amsterdam is sin city.

Shoutout: Hannah Myers is the honey to my tea. Thanks for sweetening my life. Even though you don’t believe me.