canals + tulips aka TFIOS

Let it be known that I did not enjoy The Fault In Our Stars like every other person and their mothers. It was a sad story, but it also pissed me off because what teenagers were that eloquent and witty and why wasn't there an Augustus Waters equivalent when I still believed in romantic mush like that? And how pretentious was that unlit cigarette metaphor. GUH. Nevertheless, I do applaud you John Green for tugging at my heart strings about Peter van Houten's backstory. He was the only part I liked.

If you're wondering what else John Green got right, Amsterdam is damn romantic though. I would love to go back. I almost went back before I came back to California (but bank account statements said otherwise). Yes, the allure of, shall we say, illicit activities is an attraction of this city, but it is not the only one. I am so smitten.

Fun fact: the average height of people in the Netherlands is much much much much much taller than Christine or I. Emerging from the train station, we immediately had to seek out a map. The only one we found, however, was very very very much taller than either Christine or I. Mattie, the only one who could probably comfortably read this map, was on her own quest for a toilet. Using my camera phone to snap pictures of the taller regions of the map, and Christine using her hawk eye abilities to locate which areas to take pictures of, we got a good system of pointing and picture-taking going. We turned to the sound of "Um, excuse me do you guys need help?" and were met with the very entertained looks of two very tall, very blonde Dutch men.

Another thing you don't see on this video: we went back for stroop waffle McFlurries at least three times in the span of two days. Also not on this video: we went to the red light district and had a crazy night involving a couple prostitutes. Kidding. But we went and it made us feel kind of sad.

I am a little obsessed with tulips, by the way.