amsterdam on to belgium

(ok pretend this was posted July 1st.. I've had this ready to go, but we've had no damn internet connection!)

Happy Canada Day!

We haven't been able to find free internet in a couple of days. I'm kind of going through withdrawal, so tonight I'm gonna give in and pay the hostel to use it. Im typing this up in microsoft word ahead of time though so I can just copy/paste quicky and have more time to surf! muahah.. I'm so clever..

I think I left off two days ago, so that's where I'll start! Two days ago was the day we made a day trip from Amsterdam to 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch for short).What a beautiful city! In Haarlem we discovered the Donair.. they are sooo good, and I cant believe I've never tried one at home before! We saw another Donair stand at the Den Bosch train station so we had lunch, then We took a boat tour that led us all around and under the city. There were all sorts of cool bridges and tunnels that went right under the buildings. Its kind of hard to explain, so look at the pics below to get a better idea of what I mean!The guide was all in Dutch, but we got a paper briefing in English. He talked non stop though, so I think we got the brief brief version! haha.. There was a lady sitting across from us from Toronto, visiting her uncle who was Dutch, so he translated a few parts which was cool.

After the boat tour we caught a bus to Sint Michielgestel, which is the town that Oma used to live in. I didn't know what was going to be there or how big it would be, so I though it would nice just to go to the supermarket and have a picnic in a park or something. It turned out that I left the paper Oma gave me with her sister's address on it back at the hostel in Amsterdam (D'oh!), so I called home and got Oma's phone number from my mom. Then I called Oma, who was very excited about where I was, and knew exactly where I was when I said I was at a pay phone in front of a big church! Oma called her sister Ans for me, and she came to pick Mike and I up. She drove us around and gave us a little tour. We went to visit one of Oma's old friends, Dortcha ( I have no idea how to spell her name but that's what it sounds like!), and then saw the house where Oma used to live. Afterwards we went to Ans' home for a while. It was really nice, with lots of farmland around it. Ans drove us back to the train station so we didn't have to try and find a bus that would take us there! It was very cool to visit there, and I'm so glad that everything worked out so we could..

Yesterday we checked out of the Flying Pig and caught a train into Belgium (Brussels). There was no where to stay there, so we caught another train to nearby city Ghent, which is where we are right now. Our hostel here is right next to a castle.. how cool is that?! We did the tour of the castle today, then walked around the city. We had lunch at this soup place.. we got REALLY good soup, two buns and a nectarine for only 3 Euro! I think I know where I'll be having lunch tomorrow.. haha. Oohh.. and we had some Belgian chocolate. From what I could tell it was really good, but I have a cold right now so I couldn't fully taste it =( I hope this cold goes away soon because it's hard to get up early and run around all day with barely and energy.. I've been drinking tea so hopefully that helps.

we are spending tonight at this same hostel, but when we buy internet time tonight we will find somewhere to stay for the next couple of nights, probably in Bruges.

<3 Shanon