"It looks a lot like Texas.."

I'm tired.

-Ashley

We survived the nine hour flight to Amsterdam, and really, it didn't seem too long!

We did have kind of a rough start to our trip, though.

Ashley and I got to the Houston airport, checked in, and were getting a bite to eat.  We decided that we needed to take a picture to "document" everything that was happening on our trip, so Ashley reached for her camera.  She started freaking out because she couldn't find it, so I told her not to worry, that we would use mine.  I fished around in both of my carry-ons for my camera, only to realize that I had forgotten my camera, too! We were traveling to Amsterdam, Burundi, Istanbul, Greece, and Paris, and NEITHER of us had a camera! Looking at the time and realizing that we only had twenty minutes before we were supposed to board the plane, we began to scramble around the airport looking for a camera! Five minutes before boarding time, we shelled out $120 for a camera (apparently they don't sell disposable ones in the airport!), and hurried to our gate. 

The flight was not bad at all, and didn't even feel very long. We read books, made plans for Amsterdam, watched movies, and slept for a grand total of 1 hour (Ashley didn't sleep at all!). Needless to say, when we arrived in Amsterdam, we were a little tired. 

PS- Never take a taxi in Amsterdam, they are ridiculously expensive. Seriously.

When we got to our hotel, all we could think about was taking a hot shower and a nice, long nap.  Unfortunately, we were informed upon arrival that our room wouldn't be ready until 2 pm (It was 10 am at this point!).  So, we took a canal tour, which was an interesting way to see most of the famous sites of Amsterdam. The rocking boat made it very hard to stay awake, though! After the canal tour, we went back to our hotel, and were pleasantly surprised to find that it was ready! We skipped lunch in favor of a nap, and woke up around 5:30 to go eat and explore a bit.

What did we choose for our first meal? Classic Dutch fare, McDonald's. But hey, it was close to the hotel, and fries sounded good. We'll get more adventurous tomorrow. We walked along the Blooemarket, Amsterdam's floating flower market, and looked at a few shops.  Among the different varieties of plants, mainly tulips and marijuana starter kits (do people actually think they can take these home with them??), we also found some interesting souvenirs, which we will have to post pictures of later (because the internet is too slow to upload them right now...). Also, we discovered that the magic mushroom shop and the sex cinema are close to our hotel, so that's always good news.  We wandered around Amsterdam's canal ring for a while before heading back to the hotel.  

Before we left, we had heard from several people that Amsterdam was awful, but so far, we are really enjoying it! The city is a great mix of old and new, and everything is very compact and mostly within walking distance.  The architecture is cool, too, even though neither of us knows much about it (The houses are too skinny to fit furniture in the door, so each house has a hook on the roof to lift the furniture in through the window! ).  The people have all been friendly and helpful, even offering to share their marijuana with us at one of the gift shops, which we politely declined. :) 

Anyway, we will hopefully be able to post pictures soon! We wish you all were here with us!

-Sarah