spreek engels?

"Spreek engels?" a small blond woman asked me, possibly trying to start up a conversation for our 2 hour plane ride to the Netherlands. I looked at her, utterly lost. It sounded like she was trying to speak English, but was handicapped with some sort of alien/robot accent?? This was my first encounter with the dutch tongue, frankly a silly sounding language, yet similar to both English and German. Later I would watch in amazement how this woman, who was no more than 5 feet tall, could successfully finish off six beers, preciously toasting each one to her small Dutch husband seated next to her.

Although I flew into Amsterdam, I stayed with a friend from Davis who is studying for the year in Utrecht, a sweet and humble town similar to Davis in that everyone and their mother owns a bike. It was refreshing to be in this strangely familiar environment, complete with a farmer's market, a killer Kabob stand, and smiling towns people. I also found that Dutch desserts top all with their stroopwafels and ginger marzipan-stuffed golden pastries.

Yet remember, this town is still located in Holland and for this, did not lack an abundance of "coffee shops" nor a bustling Red Light district, both which remain very controversial. It was hard to grasp that these sorts of activities are decriminalized yet it was very believable that the majority of their consumers and clients are tourists.

An awesome tree in the main quad of Amelia's school

A canal in Utrecht, the tallest church stands in the distance

Amelia introduced me the famous stroopwafel, appropriately, it's too waffle cookies bonded together with either caramel or maple syrup


The tallest church of Holland stands in downtown Utrecht


We made it into the Amsterdam for an afternoon and walked past its famed canals and through parks painted with fallen colored leaves. Madrid's autumn scenery lasted a mere week so I was very happy to have caught a glimpse of Holland's autumn. Our greatest find was a bagel shop without a doubt. No, they did not have my favorite holiday seasoned pumpkin flavor, but I thoroughly enjoyed a whole wheat bagel, lightly toasted with a side honey-almond cream cheese.





Serenity. A biker pauses for a moment



Ofcourse, the group shot in front of the canal. Our photographer thought himself to be a funny man as he at first pretended to run away with our camera...

did I mention it was FREEZING? Amelia lent me her silly hat that so nicely attracted everyone's attention. "Are you cold miss? hehe..."

a canal in Amsterdam at night. a possible inspiration for Van Gogh's "Starry Night?" I think so...


The great company of my friends Amelia and Elyssa, the Netherlands' gorgeous countryside scenery, and a reunion with our very dear friend, the bagel, made this trip exceptional. In just a few weeks I will return to Amsterdam to check out the Van Gogh Museum and Anne Frank's house during my Europe tour over winter break, and I promised myself that I would return to this lovely land again in spring time, in hopes see the country's famed tulip fields!