There's no place like home.

Well, now it's really back to reality... and I hate it.
I am sitting at my computer at home, wishing desperately to be back among the cows and the sloten, where there are achres of land between houses and windmills along the highways. It's hard to imagine that three weeks have come and gone. I feel like my whole person has expanded and become much bigger.. it's really hard to explain -- but I feel different. Nothing feels as satisfactory here, but yet there is still a Canadian pride that keeps me going... Everybody loves Canadians in Europe (but not Americans... Europeans usually asked for our forgiveness if they had assumed we were Americans tee hee) . It is also helps knowing that there are people here I love and dearly miss.. But without that...
Our last couple of days in Holland were pretty fun. On Monday we relaxed all morning, then mom, Trish, my aunt Pat and myself went to Utrecht on the train (just hadn't had enough train travel for one trip) to do some shopping. Shopping with my mother can get a little wearisome (as we found out in Amsterdam) but it was still fun none the less. Utrecht is a pretty nice city, full of narrow streets and shops. Trish and I didn't buy anything but it was still a fun cultural experience.
On Tuesday my family spent the day in Amsterdam. When we arrived (we went again by train) our first order of business was ... a coffee! Go figure. I had a hot chocolate and they gave me a whole bowl of whipped cream to go on top! Yummy yummy... We then took a boat tour on the canals. Amsterdam is a beautiful city. The streets are full of narrow houses all connected together. They are so tall and narrow that most of the houses have pulleys jutting out of the roofs so that when they are moving they can tie up their furniture and hoist it up to the appropriate room. It was rather fascinating. We then went to the Anne Frank huis (or house) which was exciting and depressing all at the same time. Being rather tired, I felt like crying most of the way through the house. I'm sure lots of you are familiar with Anne Frank and her diaries, but if not, Anne Frank was a dutch Jewish girl that went into hiding during WW2 and wrote diaries during that time which were later found and kept by friends. Her family was discovered and brought to a concentration camp. She died a month before the camp was liberated, thinking her whole family was dead, not knowing that her dad still lived. Her dad survived the war and made the diaries into a book. It was quite a moving "museum".. we went through the actual house and all the rooms and stuff. They had eight people crammed into this small little place.. sad sad sad. After that we toured around the city for the rest of the afternoon and tried to find T-shirts for my neice and nephew (which prooved to be quite a trial --- we had had quite enough of souvenir shops by the end of the day!) Our tour also included going through the red light district. I don't think I've seen anything so blatently and publically geared to sex in all my life. It was disgusting. The streets were full of sex shops and sex shows and obsene fountains (dad wanted to take a picture of one of the fountains but my mom wouldn't let him.. it was quite the masterpiece!). One man called out to us to come to some sex show, telling us that we could get family discounts! :) We had a good laugh over that one. In many of the doors and windows, women were just standing there, scantily clad, to try and entice men to come in. It was so sad. You just have to wonder what is going through these prostitute's heads.. And we were there at maybe 2:00 in the afternoon! I would hate to be walking there at night.
Yesterday was another relaxing day. We went to a big garage sale in an old village (I bought two shirts and a really cool guinness glass that ended up breaking.. I was rather bummed about that one), we saw a Dutch castle that was right by my aunt and uncle's house, and we went to my cousin's place where we got to go on a boat ride on one of the dikes.. The boat was about 40 years old though, so halfway through our ride we had to stop and bail... :) It was fun. Then last night was our last night with my dutch relatives. It was really sad to leave them because I hardly ever see them so who knows when the next time will be.
And today we left. We were at the airport by 7:00 in the morning .. meaning we were up at 6:00.. My mom's aunt and uncle surprised us by showing up to say good bye... and then my aunt/uncle/cousins etc all had a coffee with us and we said good bye. It was really sad to leave. Our plane left at about 9:30 and then we had a 8 and 1/2 hour plane ride. I was exhausted by the end of that one. But we had three in flight movies -- Raising Helen, 13 going on 30 and Love Actually. All chick flicks. But ah well, it kept the time going and it was something to watch. We arrived at about 12 our time here and now we have returned and am starting to unpack. My enegy is draining though because it's now getting to be 10:00 PM Holland time. Jetleg is such a wonderful thing.
I can't wait to catch up with everyone and get my pictures developed!
Hopefully I'll be back in Europe in my dreams.