Amsterdam

NOTE: I'm writing these Europe posts on a hotel computer, so I'll be revising them with photos when I return to the States.

As mentioned previously, I'm currently on a two-week trip in Europe to celebrate my last summer of freedom before I sell my soul to a medical career. My mother and I decided to join a tour group instead of having to stress about the itinerary ourselves--plus, there were a lot of places in France I was interested in but my confidence in my French is sorely lacking for these more remote places. I should have expected this, but I was still slightly surprised that I turned out to be the youngest member in this tour group. In fact, my mother is probably second youngest (or at least, she looks significantly younger). Nearly everyone else are elderly, retired Taiwanese-American couples from California and Texas whose children are already full-grown and married.

I flew into Amsterdam on Friday morning, and we left this afternoon to go to Brussels. Since I'm going to be editing this post later, I'll just write some quick notes about Amsterdam:

• Really love the vibe of downtown. There's history in all the architecture, and I love being near water, so it was nice seeing the canals everywhere. Houseboats!
• Briefly walked through the Red Light District with my Asian tourist herd, which was a bit awkward and funny at the same time lol. I did not realize that the hookers literally are on display in the window, so one nearly scared the crap out of me when she started posing behind the glass. Also, there are sex show advertisements in plain sight, which was a bit strange having to see those while walking next to my mother.
• We went to two museums today: the Rijks Museum and the Van Gogh Museum. The tour only gave us about an hour each to roam freely. I have never seen my mother move through an art museum at neck-breaking speed. Normally when we go to the museums in SF, she peruses the exhibit for hours and even backtracks to admire her favorites once more. Also... when we were outside the Van Gogh Musuem, a GoogleMaps car drove by. So there's a chance I might be in front of the Van Gogh Museum on GoogleMaps street view in the future lol.
• I don't really get a chance to do this since we're always hurrying off to places, but I would LOVE to sit down at a streetside café and just people-watch. In Amsterdam, people are dressed so much more fashionably then what I see regularly in the States. There are interesting characters everywhere. Also, some of these Dutch guys are quite handsome... tall lean figures, beautifully-colored eyes, yup.

I don't know when's the next time I'll have access to a computer. I have a tablet and my smartphone but I hate typing on mobile devices and would much prefer blogging on a keyboard. So I have no clue when's the next time I'll be writing another post. We're spending another day in Brussels tomorrow before heading to Paris (YUSSSS) so I'll write about my adventures in Brussels next time. Toodleloo!