Amsterdam....The Venice of the north

My dream city has always been Venice. I loved the idea of the canals and the city on water, I thought it was the most magnificent picture in the world. I haven't been there but now I think I have a pretty good idea of what it would be like. Amsterdam, Holland seems to have many similarities. We arrived in Amsterdam 11:00 in the mourning we were all so drowsy as we went through customs and got on the bus with the rest of the United employees. The bus went to a hotel where we wondered down the street until we convinced my dad to go back and ask for directions to our apartment. It took about 20 minutes until we got to the apartment. We saw all the amazing canals, house boats, and gorgeous buildings. We walked over a bunch of bridges until we came to a small street where bikes were everywhere! There wasn't a clear spot on any of the bike racks or buildings or railings. We went in and the owner of the apartment, Vladimir (also the name of my Halloween bouncy ball) gave us a tour of the small house. There was the living room where Isabel and I would be sleeping, there was my mom and dads' bedroom, a kitchen (which my mom loved!"), and an outdoor patio that was enclosed by the other 3 walls of the apartment building. We were so exhausted but my mom and dad insisted on us going for a walk to stay awake and get used to the time so we walked around for about 2 hours. While we were out we decided to find the famous pancake bakery. There we had the most amazing pancakes in the world!!! Isabel had an animal one, which is pretty much a bunch of candy and a stuffed animal, my mom and I split a Thai pancake. It was so good it had chicken, vegetables on a crepe like pancake. Finally, we headed back pretty much right when we sat down we all fell asleep, we slept for an hour then we got up and my mom, dad, and I had tea. Isabel was still asleep when we decided to go out walking again so we woke her up, then headed out. (Let me just say Isabel was not the happiest person in the world.) On top of trudging around half asleep, it started to rain. I actually enjoyed it, we searched for the 9 streets where we ate burgers at a restaurant nearby. We walked down some streets and saw a bunch of cute little shops including a toothbrush shop. It was so funny it even had a toothbrush Farris wheel with toothbrushes in the seats. It reminded us of Gabe who brushes his teeth like crazy. When we headed back I wrote in my journal, then went to sleep. The next mourning we woke up fairly early because it was not only our second day, but our last. We first walked to the Anne Frank House. It was the most sorrowful moment in our trip, we saw Anne Franks' room and her mom and dads, people that new her talking about her. I had a lot to think about in that museum. After we left we headed to the flower market, it was gorgeous we saw all kinds of flowers, and souvenir shops (I'm sure they make a lot of money off tourists). Finally, we just walked around until we went back to the apartment. Isabel and I found our souvenirs at a local shop, Isabel got a singing bird and I got a paper mushroom to hang on the ceiling. It took a while to get home, but when we did we were both sad and happy, but mostly sad. I think I can say I had a wonderful time in the Venice of the north!