Weekend Trip to the Netherlands

Hey there,

It's been a tiring past 72 hours, but I'm finally back in Rome after a weekend trip to the Netherlands with a few of my roommates.

We started off on Friday morning at around 4 A.M. to get a cab to the airport for our 7 A.M. flight to France.  We had a quick layover in Paris before we flew into Amsterdam, and got in around 1 P.M.   We stayed at my roommates Uncle's house which was a few tram stops away from the main part of the city. We were pretty tired, so we walked around for a bit and then went to bed.

Saturday started early, around 8 A.M. where we went to see the Ann Frank house.  It was a very powerful and sad exhibit to see in person, but definitely something that I'm glad I saw.  We then got our very own guided tour through Amsterdam from our roommate's Uncle.  He walked with us for about 5 hours in the city, giving us historical details as we went.  It was really cold that day.  We stopped at a place called "Winkel" where we had the "best apple cake in Amsterdam" (that description was according to my roommate's Uncle, who has lived in Amsterdam for 50 years, and his description lived up the hype, it was awesome!).

That evening, my roommate's Uncle invited us to a Jewish ceremony called "Purim."  This was a new experience for me.  Guests came dressed up in all sorts of creative costumes (e.g. headbands with flowers on them, girls dressed as princesses, etc...).  For those who don't know, this ceremony was a reading in Hebrew (about 15 pages or so) and every so often, the reader would say the name "Haman" during which all guests are to make some sort of noise by banging something together (e.g. banging hands on table, using noisemakers, clapping hands.  My roommate's Uncle even banged plates together, and broke two of them!).  We then sang some traditional songs and left to go back to sleep.

We slept in a little later today on Sunday, and managed to go back for some more apple cake.  It was cold to be walking outside for too long today as it was snowing.  Our flight back left around 9 P.M.  and we finally made it back to our apartment a little past midnight.

This week is a big week in Rome!!  Tomorrow the Italian presidential elections wrap up, and Thursday the Pope officially resigns.  Secretary of State John Kerry is also visiting Rome some time this week, just not sure when.  It'll all be updated here!!

JC