Adventure Time!: Day Fourty-Nine: Cheese! Beer! Fries! Friends!

This morning we had some cheese and tomato on toast and went through some more brochures and decided to get a 'holland pass' which gives you entrance to 5 attractions/activities and also some transport. We went to get the train which is just down the road from the camp and it turned out we had to get one train, then another train, then a bus to get into town since they are doing some construction on the line or something. It ended up taking about 45 minutes when it is supposed to take 15 but oh well.

We went to the tourist office at the central station and got the passes and then went to do out first activity, canal cruise! The place it leaves from was just near to the central station too so that was cool. We got on a boat straight away and went all around the city. It had commentary as well so we learnt some facts, like the houses are all tilting and leaning on each other because the soil is so soft that they sink, and they are built on piles which rot. Lots of other interesting stuff too. It was awesome to see everything from the water!

After the boat tour (which was about an hour or so) we were hungry so we went for a walk around the city to find somewhere to eat. One of the first things I saw was a fries place which said it was the best in the country or something so obviously I had to try them. I think we have better chips in New Zealand though! Also the fries are always with mayo here which would be great for Ganny but not so much for me since I don't like mayo very much. I got them to put ketchup instead though. Then we went to this place where you can do a cheese tasting and booked that in for later.

We found a place that looked pretty promising for lunch and had dutch food which we wanted. Everywhere here has heaps more seats out on the footpath than they have inside and noone sits inside, probably because it is so hot! Anyway one of the foods that the guidebook said to have in the Netherlands (apart from fries which it also said) was croquettes and luckily they had them at this place so I got them and Quentin had a cheese, pesto and tomato panini. The croquettes were awesome but I have no idea what was in them and probably don't want to know!

After lunch we had an hour or so before the cheese tasting so we just walked around the city checking out all the interesting stuff. We went into a really amazing church which had tonnes of awesome stained glass and all sorts of wooden sculptures and stuff. It was super cool. The whole city is full of places to eat and interesting shops and other stuff like sex museums! It is a really interesting place to walk around anyway. Oh and the coffee shops where people go to smoke pot are everywhere as well so the whole city sort of smells like it.

For the cheese tasting we went to a cheese shop whhich had heaps of different cheeses including massive wheels of cheese which looked delicious. Downstairs they had set it up like a classroom with desks for two people and each desk had wine glasses and cheese boards with all different cheeses. The lady in charge told us about some of the history of the company and the cheeses and we watched a video which was a bit ridiculous and not informative but funny with how serious it seemed. Then we got to taste all the different cheeses which were matched with wines (and one with port) and we had to write down information about each like the smell and the texture and the taste and everything. At the end we all got certificates to say we were cheese tasters, it was so much fun, and delicious!

After the cheese tasting it was time to go and meet some friends of Christines, Anna and Josh, at a bar near the central station. We totally got lost on the way and had to go into a hotel to ask for directions but we got there in the end and were only 15 minutes late! The bar was really cool, it was right on the water and had heaps of picnic tables outside and people were just sitting on the edge of the canal and some people had brought their boats over to hang out at the bar! Anna and Josh were super nice and easy to get along with and it was awesome to hang out with some people again after being alone for so long!

We ended up staying there for about 5 hours drinking beer and eating dutch croquettes. Apparently it's quite normal to eat horse here so I didn't ask what was in the croquettes! It seemed like there was a little bit of meat in there but I just tried not to think about it! We had some nachos too which was awesome because I hadn't had guacamole in ages. We had to leave the bar eventually since Anna and Josh had work the next day and we didn't want to keep them out too late. We walked back to the central station and got the bus then the train then the other train back to where we were staying and went straight to bed because we were tired from all the beer!