Day 1 Monday June 8
I picked up Steph and Rachel from the Utrecht train station about 9pm. This was the day that i got home from London at 11am ish and was super tired. When i spotted them in the trainstation i did the classic D’Agostino wave trying to get Steph’s attention. it worked. haha. We then walked back to my apartment and they were both starving and so was I. We cooked up some pasta and salad for dinner. That night they were both tired like I was so we just hung around in my kitchen for the night and then went to bed. Since some of my roommates have moved out already i was able to get a bed for Rachel, Steph slept in my bed and I slept on this half mattress that Mor found somewhere. We all had clean sheets, blankets and pillows. So everything worked out fine. Skyped the paretns and then went to bed
Day 2 Tuesday June 9
Steph made us all eggs for breakfast which was yummy.. then we headed out to see Utrecht. First i took them to the Dom tower and Dom Church. This was actually the first time iwent into Dom Church. Its really pretty. I forgot what year it was built.. but i think something like 1300. The i took them to the Oudegracht. We walked around there pretty much for a few hours walking into differet stores to shop. We stopped at one second hand store and I got an awesome brown leather (i think it is) shoulder bag. Ive been wanting one since i got here… everyone here wheres shoulder bags. and it was only 10 euros. Im pretty much in love with it right now. I also got a pair of bright yellow birkenstocks…not at the second hand store.. somewhere else. I decided i wanted a pair of the thong style sandles and originally i was going to get them when i got home. But steph told me they were more expensive at home so i just splurged and got them here. she also got a red pair. We then grabbed a quick bite at Broodje Mario, an amazing sandwich place on the canal. At this point it was kind of pouring rain. We hung out under the awning for a while till the rain stopped till a drizzle. We then went back to my place..because i needed to do school work. They went to Broers cafe to write some postcards. I went to class at 7 and then met up with them at the cafe. We then went to the grocery store to buy some food and Stroopwafels, which they fell in love with. Everybody does. for dinner we made chicken fajitas and tons and tons of rice. i never know how much to make so i still have leftovers. I was super full and still had to work on my presentation so i decided not to go out with them. I gave them directions and they went to Kafe Belgie… a bar that has mostly Belgian beers and there are about 200 of them available.
Day 3 June 10 Wednesday
The next day i had class from 11-1. My presentation went well. I did fine..and then i headed back to the apartment. I took them to Bagels and Beans a really good bagel restaurant thats kinda like Modern Bagel in Radburn. It was really good..but not that cheap. Then we headed to do the canal tour of Utrecht. I didnt even know Utrecht had a canal tour, but Steph and Rachel didnt do one in Amsterdam, so they wanted to do one here. It was pretty good. It was awesome to see Utrecht from the perspective of the canals.. because they are alot lower then the side walks. Learned some stuff on the tour. it was about an hour long. And then we headed to Rotterdam. I heard a few days earlier that there was going to be a Netherlands vs Norway game in Rotterdam and I really wanted to go. I had no clue how to get tickets…and I wanted to go to Rotterdam anyway, so we decided to go for the rest of the day. On the train there was a guy dressed in a crazy orange outfit so i asked him if he thought we could get tickets for the game, and he said that he had heard on tv yesterday that there were still some tickets available..and he gave us directions on how to get to the stadium. We hopped on a train (we later learned the tram was easier) and then took the somewhat long walk to the stadium. We figured out where to go to get tickets and there were still some available. The only ones they had left were 60euro..which is kind of expensive.. but i really wanted to go and so did they, so we bought the tickets!! woo. there were still 3 hours till the game started so we went back on the tram to the centraal station. we picked up a map at the tourist office and headed out. the entire day the rain was on and off. it was never crazy downpoaring yet.. but it pretty much always rained. We walked around, saw some tall building and the river in Rotterdam and the Erasbus bridge. Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe,,maybe the world, but the port is outside the city center so we didnt go there. But we did see some old boats and a light tower. Then we headed back to get on a tram to the stadium. The tram was absolutely packed. We had to squeeze our way on. We were so short and squished in there. Everyone was in orange and singing dutch football songs. When we got off the tram is started pouring rain. like crazy pouring. We went though the gates and found our seats which were all the way up/….but the stadium isnt that high up, so the seats were actually pretty good. I could see the players faces and there names on the shirts. We got some food in the stadium and the game eventually started. The game was so amazing. Ive always wanted to go to a football game in europe and this was perfect. An actual national game! its the only Dutch national game that has happened since ive been in Holland and its the only one in Netherlands until August. Im so happy we got to see it. Totally worth the money. The fans were crazy and loud and singing like crazy the entire time. We even did the wave a few full times around the stadium. We won 2-0. We also got a free orange scarf and a free flag for the game. It was awesome! Then we waited for a while to get back on the tram, and then once we were in the train station we waited 30 minutes for a train back to Utrecht. We got back to Utrecht around 1 am. Even though it was raining (thank god our seats were covered) it was such a good day. The game was so fun. We went to bed pretty much right away.
last hours June 11
got up at like 9am..steph and rachel packed, ate breakfast and then i walked them to the bus stop at like 10:30. they were catching a train to antwerp at 11am. i got an email from rachels blackberry that they were on the train on their way. The 2 full days we did together were really fun. Even though some hours i spent doing school work it was still really fun. Im glad they came.
Now i have one full day alone and tomorrow my friend from Wisconsin, Ethan is coming. I have to pick him up at 9am tomorrow at Schipol. Im super excited!
