Holland!

Sorry I haven't been updating recently. Until November 1, I was working on a paper and not doing much else. But on Thursday, I left for Holland to visit 3 friends from camp! I was really excited!

I left at about 1:45 to get to the Liverpool Station to take the Stanstead Express (a train that goes straight to Stanstead Airport and back) to the airport. I sat around waiting for the plane for a while, having to get there 2 hours early... I thought about changing my money (from pounds to euros) but decided that I'd do it when I got there because I thought I'd have more time. Anyway, the flight was very very short. We had been at cruising height for about 20 minutes when we started descending.

When I got out of the plane and into the tiny, tiny airport at Eindhoven, I was kind of overwhelmed by the language change.. I knew it would be weird, but I was tired and so I was kind of overwhelmed by it.

My friends were not able to pick me up at the airport so I had to get a bus to the train station and then catch a train to a town closer to them. But, there was no place to change my money there since it was such a small airport!! Thankfully they had an ATM and I had my credit card... To make a long story short, I had a lot of trouble getting a bus ticket, getting in contact with them, and getting on the right trains...but I finally made it! And I was sooooo happy to see them!!!

We went back to Gijs (the closest American's can get to saying his name is 'Hi-sh') and Paulien's house, going through Belgium--I was in 3 different countries in 1 day!!! I met their parents and they heated up some food for me since I hadn't eaten since lunchtime. And then we headed to bed.

On Friday, Paulien had to work so Jemima and I went to a town in Belgium called Brugge. We took a boat tour of some of the city since it was interlaced with canals. Then we wandered to the city centered and looked around. As we were heading back to the train station, we had some Belgian waffles and Belgian chocolate! They were both really good! It rained about half of the time we were there, but it was a London sort of rain, really really light with tiny raindrops. We found a shop devoted entirely to TinTin, the cartoon character who originated in Belgium. We had a lot of fun just wandering around aimlessly.

When we got back home, Paulien's mom fed us a late dinner. She gave us mushroom soup, which I was rather wary of at first, but it was wonderful!! It was very creamy and had chives, bits of ham, and slices of mushroom in it. It tasted great after wandering around in the cold, wet all day. Then we had some more typical Dutch food, mashed up carrots and potatoes with sausages. It was really good too! Then we headed to bed for an early night so that we would be well rested to go to Amsterdam the next day with Paulien and Gijs!

I'm going to finish my Holland update tomorrow...I'm tired from traveling and need to get my clothes washed in time to be ready for Germany in 2 days!!

Prayer requests: that I would get enough sleep and that my trip to and from Germany would be safe and go well. Thank you!!!