Amsterdam!

Ok, so...Dutch people eat a lot of carbs. Don't get me wrong, it's incredible. Every time I moved, I saw signs for waffles. Sandwiches (lots of bread with the occasional piece of lettuce somewhere in there). French fries with mayonnaise. Pancakes. Cheese (oh my god, so much cheese). Cakes. Donuts. Fried cheese filled pastries (called kaasoufflés). And it's ALL delicious. I was there for 4 days and easily walked about 10km per day and still probably gained weight. And they have incredibly cheap peanut butter. Finding that stuff for about 2 euro a jar was like seeing the heavens open up and a higher being smiling down on me via a ray of sunshine. Unfortunately, I've recently learned that you can make a bomb from the oils found in peanut butter, making it unacceptable in my carry-on (and I never check bags. Because I always am that kid that gets the bags left in the previous city. It doesn't matter the departure or arrival cities. It's always me.)
But seriously...find me someone that can make an explosive from peanuts and oil. That's a skill I wouldn't mind learning.

Something else I found a little strange was that water in restaurants costs the same as a soda. My American mentality was like, why would I spend that money on water when I can spend it on soda? Needless to say, I didn't make brilliant health decisions over that weekend.

Amsterdam is a lot like New York. Which, fun fact, was originally called New Amsterdam. It's wild, it's busy...and it's kind of tiny. It only takes about 45 minutes to walk across the entire metro area (or, at least, from the top of our city map to the bottom. I'm assuming anything off the map is just windmills and tulips.) Another fun fact, I finally realized why Holland, MI is called Holland. It's the tulips, right? They both have a lot of tulips? At one point I actually said "I don't need to see the tulips, I've been to Michigan in the springtime". And then there was that moment when I hated myself a little bit for saying it.

OK I CAN'T CONTAIN IT ANYMORE.
I'M IN LOVE WITH THE HAGUE.
Undoubtably the most incredible little city on the planet. It's about an hour train ride from Amsterdam and is the capital of the Netherlands, so it is the center of a lot of political activity. Half of the city is consumed by skyscrapers. A metal and glass jungle. But the other half is a tiny Dutch town. It's a beautiful area of shops, squares with statues in the middle, winding little streets. The sun was shining bright and the canals were lined with daffodils and daisies. It has museums, palaces, a little castle/fortress thing, and cobblestone streets galore. I could spend the days changing the world in the skyscraper part and then come home to the cobblestone part and buy a baguette and head home to my successful, attractive, adoring husband and prodigy children (that would have incredible lives because they would grow up in the cutest town ever, but be really politically aware and little badasses because they'd sneak off to Amsterdam once and a while to go clubbing or smoke weed or something.)
I'm so aware of how creepy it is that I was thinking about that. The Hague changes people.

The first night I was there, I was waiting for a bus to come. It's like 11pm in the middle of this really sketchy station and this hooded girl walks over to look at the bus schedule. Here's what really got me--as she was looking over the maps and times, she pulled out a joint and lit it. Right there. In the middle of the train station. As you probably know, weed is legal in Amsterdam. But nothing really could prepare me for the shock of someone just smoking IN PUBLIC. I don't know. It was completely normal, and I just stared at the smoke billowing from the hallowed substance between her thumb and index finger. She took a drag, nodded, then walked away. I stared at her in awe. How rebellious. How progressive. It hit me like a wave. This is normal. I have no idea why this was such a culture shock for me...it was kind of like the first time you have a drink when you turn 21.

The sun is coming out in Sweden a little more and I'm trying to take full advantage of it.