Wednesday, July 30, 2014

watch out for flying pee

Amsterdam Part Two - 

First off, we were/are FASINATED by Amsterdam, aka the whole prostitution thing. 

I think because it's so far from home life - as far as we know...Simi Valley is a little sketch - we didn't know what to expect. We had so many questions! Still do for the most part BUT we found out some fun facts we thought we would share for those who have not been to Amsterdam/experienced the whole women in windows thing. 

Top 3 Fun Facts:

1. You CANNOT take pictures of them! 
Huge signs all around each window, but of course there's that one creeper that needs a photo to show off to his friends...listen buddy, it's not worth it. Each woman has a water bottle full of pee, ready to throw at you if she sees you taking a picture! And they're in it together, so watch your back. Plus, the internet has ya covered, no need to photograph the women of Amsterdam. 

2. They take pity on drunk girls - 
We found this out at the pub crawl when a new traveling friend shared her personal experience. This girl had a little too much fun the night before and was puking on the side of the alley. One of the prositutes came out of her room and brought her water/a napkin. You can rate that however you want but I'm goin to say that's definitely going to be a high point in her trip. Solid story to tell her grand kids one day. It's a shame Casey and I keep it together so well...

3. You can't ask them questions - even if you offer to pay for them. 
Another fact we found out during our pub crawl - drunk people are the most entertaining...the drunk girl from fact #2 had a friend traveling with her who was just as curious as us but she took it one step further - or was more determined to solve the mystery behind the red curtains. During the crawl she went up to a window and asked if she could ask the girl a question - she said no. Then she yelled, "what if I pay you?" Still no. #fail. 

We could really go on and on but I'll spare my grandmother from having to read paragraphs about prostitution :)

Anyways, there's so much more to Amsterdam - like the beautiful and huge Vondel Park!


Which has an awesome high tea island thing! Too bad it opened 4 hours after we left. Casey almost cried.  

But at least she has a picture to remember not drinking tea on this awesome floating flower oasis. 

And then there are the park sculptures. Obviously had too much fun with these. Don't act like you wouldn't try it too...


Next was the Amsterdam Ice Bar! Yes, Casey wore sandals...Fool. 

It's literally a bar made out of ice. Even the cups! Thus the big ass jackets and gloves - which smelled like they had never been washed and felt like a ton of beer had been spilled on them...ugh

The penguins helped us to forget about the smell and the cold. 

Oh, and the polar bear helped too.

Pretty sure Casey's feet were frozen at this point. 

HIGHLIGHT! They played Titanic inside the bar! Well, just the iceberg scene. Understandable. #iloveLeo


So many things I could say...This is why we can't have nice things.

Another fun fact for those of you without glasses - they do not like when you go from extreme cold to hot temps and will fog up. Welcome to my life. 

After the ice bar, some food and a small nap, we decided it was time for a European pub crawl and no better place than Amsterdam to do it in!

We survived 4 bars, watched multiple guys go into the red light windows, saw a few emerge as if nothing happened and made it back to our hostel before the all night/next day rain and lighting showed up. I'd say it was a successful last night in our favorite city!

Sad to say goodbye but looking forward to the next country - Belgium! 

Bring on three days of beer, waffles and chocolate! 

Roxanne in Amsterdam

Country #3 of 5 has come and gone but here's a recap of everything we did! Which was a lot. And included prositutes. It was an experience to say the least...

But first, we actually had seats on the 7 hour train ride this time! We were way too excited but actually slept so it was worth the 8 euro it took to reserve those puppies. #noregrets


Third country "we made it" picture!

Casey & her backpacking essentials - map, neck pillow (attached to her purse) and her water proof walking shoes. On a mission to find the hostel!

A beautifully chilling experience to visit the "Anne Frank House", learn more about her & walk through the tiny place where she hid for years. 

Possible bench they sat on in The Fault in our Stars...even though I heard that one was stolen. A girl can dream, can't she?

Some canal. 

Figured it was a good photo opp. 

Then it started to rain and SOMEONE forgot their hat...

A little Wok to Walk action - bomb. 

Walkin with my wok

And of course we had to check out the Van Gogh museum! Sad news, no Starry Night to be seen...but they had this big ass wall decal, so that was fun to stand in front of. 

This ones for you mom! Fun fact - you're not allowed to take pictures of the pictures but everyone was doing it so that means it's fine, right? 

Apparently not. Everyone was yelled at. I'm just super sneaky...minus Casey seeing me and scolding me. 

Every city should have one of these puppies! Obviously a tourist magnet which we fell for. Too. Many. People. 

'I' for Interdonato! 

'A' for Ali!

And 'M' for MEATBALLS!


And then the rain, thunder & lightning started...

But the Heineken Brewey tour saved us. And provided some bomb photo set ups!

Look! We all have hats on! Yay

Fun Fact : they like their beer foam here! It helps to keep the beer fresh - we had no idea. So next time you complain about too much beer foam, know they are doing it for your own good...

Clear sky's and big clogs. 

We had to see one Windmill while we were in the Netherlands! Sadly it was attached to a restaurant and not in a poppy field...slightly disappointed. 

Classic Amsterdam...

Well those were the first two days of our Amsterdam adventure. 

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Ich bin ein Berliner!

We've been running. We've been biking. It was time for some yoga! 

We stumbled upon this studio while we were exploring the allyways around our hostel and we figured, "when in Germany...!"

It was a beautiful studio and the teacher even led the class in German and in English for us. Pretty much the same concept minus the whole growling, breathing thing...yes, we were told to use our lion voice. 

We also got a mini massage during the cool down/relaxation part of the class. Ummmm, bomb!


We couldn't take a picture in the studio but this is basically what we looked like - nailed it. 

Then we finally got our waffles! Fun fact - they actually run out of them! How? I don't know. You'd think they would have an endless supply. Well, they didn't have them the day before and we got the last two this day! They were alright...

Then we visited the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp - a Nazi Concentration Camp holding more than 200,000 people from 1936-1945. It became a memorial in 1961. 

It was a very powerful experience for both of us walking through the original buildings, barracks, and roll-call area. 

Difficult to believe this was only a few generations ago...


After our tour of the museum & memorial, we wanted to get some OG German food - aka sausages and beer.

But that beer though! 

Casey got her sausage and bretzel - which was entertaining considering she had to de-skin the sausage herself. I'll attempt to share a video later. 

We ended up having a great, beer filled night, got a tad lost using the train again but managed to find out way back. I think we are slowly getting better at this whole finding our way home thing. 

And now for our last day in Berlin before we hop on another 7 hour train to Amsterdam. But this time we actually have seats that arnt the floor of the train. Livin like royalty over here!

The picture above is the view from our morning walk/run by the river! 
This is the running Casey pose. 

Then there's the lazy running Ali pose. 

And here is our route! Two countries down. Three more running exeriences to go. 

This is how we reward ourselves. Gonna miss our usual cafe spot - Tee Haus. A 30 second walk from our hostel AND the breakfast is cheaper than the buffet at our place - perfection. 

WHAT IS LIFE?!

It has been so hot, like sticking to seats, too much sunscreen, hot. And now we have rain. Can't hang. 

We wanted to get one more tourist attraction in before we peace out tomorrow, so we went to the top of the panorama building to get a 360 degree view of Berlin!

Too bad it was te one day the gloom took over...

The building was a triangle - here's an end! Whoooo!

Tripy. 

One of us was excited to be there...

So that was our last tourist adventure in Germany, now we are headed to our red light district hostel! Don't worry - it's a Christian run hostel where we can't drink or do drugs. And I'm pretty sure there is a curfew. Oh and no mixed dorms! 

I can only imagine the excitement our mothers are feeling. 

PROST!