Destination: The Netherlands

Since I stayed so close to the train station, my exit from Germany went very smoothly. After a couple of changes, I arrived in Rotterdam. When I was there this past winter, I only saw a block of the city because I was too cold. So, I was able to appreciate the city much more in the gorgeous summer weather of the Netherlands.

After only a small detour, I made it to my hostel and, after getting rid of all my stuff, headed to the train station to meet up with Julia and Stephen! We then wandered around Rotterdam, and it was just gorgeous. It was really cool just to see how Dutch people live (OK pretty much the same as us, but it was fun to explore a non-tourist area).

We went to an awesome courtyard for lunch, a library, a market, the harbor and so many beautiful places... and I have no pictures because now that I was with Julia, I could now rely on her for pictures. 

While we were exploring the city, a man came up to us on a bike asking for money because his bag had been stolen and his wife was trying to figure it out at the station... blah blah blah... I looked at Julia with a flabbergasted expression on my face. It was the same exact man who had asked me for money 6 months earlier in the Rotterdam station. AND IT WAS THE SAME STORY. I had gotten confused and given him money that time, but no such confusion happened this time. I made sure that we continued on.

We had an incredible assortment of appetizers and fondu for dinner which we all LOVED. I had to leave dinner early for an interview (yay!) and after that realized that even though it was 9:30 it was still light out. Perfect time for a run. It was so cool to run while hundreds of people that live in the city were out running too. I wasn't sure where to go, but Rotterdam has running paths along the water and over the bridges, so it was probably the most beautiful run that I have ever been on.