Nederland!

As my last big trip (and by big, I mean overnight), I visited my friend Michelle in the Netherlands!  She studies as an international student in Utrecht, which is the 4th largest city in the country...which doesn't really say much.  I took the ICE to Utrecht and it was so pretty riding through northern Germany during the first snow of the season!  When I arrived in Utrecht, I took the bus on my own to Michelle's campus and we had some lunch before heading to Amsterdam for the afternoon!  Amsterdam was really cool with all the canals and whatnot, but it was SO cold!  I got some really delicious Dutch pancake thing covered in butter and powdered sugar called poffertjes!  Then we got some pizza for dinner and headed back to Utrecht.  I know, LAME, but it was so freezing!  That night we went to an awesome party on her campus with free drinks and 4 rooms of dancing!  Because of that, we may have slept in until 11 the next day (that's really late for me, but I guess it's not actually late for a Saturday)!  We walked through the countryside and saw some sheep and farms!  That was cool, but once again freezing and I couldn't even think!  We got some lunch and then toured downtown Utrecht for a bit, which was really cool...and cold!  It was pretty much like a mini-Amsterdam :]  It was rather interesting to visit during the Christmas season, since the Dutch kind of invented Santa Claus; however their traditions are WAY different!  Sinterklaas, as he is called, comes to the Netherlands every Christmas on a steamboat from Spain with his little African slaves called Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters).  He gives good children presents and the bad children get thrown into burlap sacks and get kidnapped back to Spain by the Zwarte Pieten.  It's somewhat scarier than our American traditions.  Also during this time, there are people dressed up as Zwarte Pieten who run around the cities with sacks of candy that they just throw everywhere.  It's rather racist though (and incredibly frightening) to have Dutch people in full blackface running around in public!  Anyhow, we went to a cafe and talked for a while and then walked back to campus, where we had dinner with Michelle's roommates, who were all really cool.  Then we just crashed on the couches and watched Ratatouille on on the English TV channel since it was too cold and tiring to do anything else.  So basically, I didn't do too much in the Netherlands, but it was still fun to see and experience the culture, if only for a little while!

De Dam - the main square in Amsterdam

A typical canal in Amsterdam!

The streets of Utrecht!

Sheep!

Everything was so pretty...and flat!

I loved the little Dutch gables (not to be confused with a Dutch Gable, which looks rather different)!

The Dom Tower in Utrecht!

A canal in Utrecht!

Zwarte Pieten were everywhere...even if they had absolutely nothing to do with the display!