Europe! July 10, 2009 - continued!

Where did I leave off? Oh, yes... Anne Frank Huis. I won't forget this visit, ever. I have been touched in ways I never imagined. At the end of the "tour" there were several books in display and they were written in different languages - "Diary of Anne Frank". Now I have to get the Diary of Anne Frank so I can fully grasp the experience Anne had during her time of hiding. Suzy and I both talked about that - we both felt the need to get the book and read it.

So, we finished up that "tour" and decided we wanted to go see some old churches in the area. Suzy had listed a church for us to check out - located somewhere within the Red Light District. So we headed over that way. On our way, we got to an area that was quite open. We saw a lot of people walking around in this area, there was an obelisk of some sort, and a building of some royalty family. We decided to check out this building - only to find out they were guided with some kind of audio tours - and they would only give us a discount of ONE euro! Not worth the price if we have no clue as to what the heck we're seeing if it's all audio and no scripts of any type! We decided to fore go this sighting. We also saw a mass of people in a circular format, surrounding something, at least thats what it seemed like to me. Sure enough, they were watching a couple of street-entertainers. They did a variety of things, that most normal people wouldn't do - risky stuff, of course!

We then walked onward to the Red Light District, to the church in that vicinity. Upon our search for the church, we found another building that seemed like a church - and could not find the entrance, but then found a signage that it was not the church we were looking for. So we walked beyond that church, so we could walk along the canal, and as we were looking for the canal, we realized that we were in the actual Red Light District. Now I know why they call it that. All of the men would stop in the area the minute they found a pretty girl at some doorway, half-dressed. Ew. It was not as sleazy as they are on Bourbon Street, 'nawlins - much "cleaner" but they were at every doorway along the street - much more than 'nawlins. well, okay, it wasn't night time, and there was no loud music blaring from a club a couple of buildings away. Suzy and I talked about the possibility of taking a photo. I simply refused because I didn't want to lose the photos I had taken up until now!

So, we went on our quest for the church... and we finally found it but it was on the street we were on in the first place, and not on the canal - well at least the entry of the church! So we walked around the block, only to find the church had closed 30 minutes ago. We both had to visit the ladies room and had waited until we got to the church, so we wouldn't end up in a bar in an awkward situation - it was in the Red Light District after all! So, we walked back to where we came from, with our bladders full... I spotted a hotel and told Suzy that we should go in there to visit the ladies room - it was better than trying to find a bar and using their bathroom - who knows how clean it'd be! Sure, you don't wanna hear all about our trips to the ladies room, so I'll spare you now, and probably for the rest of my entries on this trip!

So, we headed back towards the Hostel, and we had a goal - we wanted to get some souvenirs to bring back home. We walked and walked, and saw this large wooden shoe! We had to take our photos taken! We went in this store and looked around for souvenirs - some nice shirts and sweaters, but nothing worth buying at least in my opinion. We also saw a bunch of clogs on the wall - def not something I want to haul around for the rest of the week!

So we continued our walk, onto a street with a bunch of stores. So we walked down that way and it was not going in the direction of our hostel. We saw some stores - like regular clothes stores, like your typical GAP and a few other similar stores. We also saw souvenir stores... checked them out for some sweaters and stuff - nothing we liked in particular. So we carried on, down a ways. Then we realized we better head towards the hostel, but I hadn't found a sweater I wanted! So we went back on the same street with all of the stores on them, and into a souvenir store. I reluctantly found a sweater/jacket that I liked (thanks, Suzy for bearing with me and the help!).

We were starving at this point and found an Italian place, again. This time we decided to share a "personal" pizza. The waitress had to ask if we only wanted one, and we confirmed. Our pizza arrived, and it was the same size as a Small pizza here in the states! boy we were glad to have only ordered ONE pizza! Looking across the quaint restaurant, we saw that other people ordered TWO pizzas! One was ENOUGH for the two of us! HA! We also spent some time at this restaurant to write home on some postcards!

We then walked back to our Hostel - it was probably only about 8 pm, but we were spent after a long rainy day! We got into comfortable clothes as soon as we arrived at Shelter Jordan, our Hostel. We prepared our things for our departure to paris - our train was at 7:26 am the next morning, and we knew we could not make noise at the break of day, so we had to get everything ready - the clothes we'll wear, and pack everything else but the PJ's that we'll stuff into our backpacks after our shower. By 9 pm we both were knocked out.

This photo of the hostel here shows you some bunk beds. There were 18 beds in this room, and everyone in this room (and on the entire floor) were women. We had a sink in our room, so we didn't have to trek over to the bathroom just to brush our teeth or wash our hands, or whatnot! That was definitely a big plus!

zzzzzzzzzz - we definitely got a full night's sleep that was long overdue, in the cheap bunk beds!

Adventures on 11 July 2009 will be in the next blog entry!