Amsterdam!

Woke up a little earlier this morning since we were able to switch to a room facing the back, and it was much quieter! Be sure to request a room facing the back if you are booking rooms at Hotel Opera in Brussels. It was raining throughout the morning and we had to catch our train at 13:50, so we stayed around the Central Station area after we checked out. We learned that we had to pay extra for the Sunday stay because a weekend rate only applies to Fridays and Saturdays in Brussels (really?)! @_@ First we walked to St. Michael’s Cathedral, which is only a short walk from the Central Station. The church is truly magnificent and the architectural style reminds me of the Notre Dame in Paris. Brought a cross for my new home and two mini rosaries there. Poor Olivia’s been sick since the beginning of the trip and her cold seemed to have gotten worst, so we went to a Pharmacy to get her some medication. We try to act out Olivia's symtoms (such as coughing and sneezing and a stuffy/running nose) to communicate with the pharmacist and it was just funny.

After we had lunch and stocked up for snacks for the train, it was time to leave Brussels. As the train arrived Olivia and I parted ways with Bo and headed to our next destination: Amsterdam!

The train ride to Amsterdam was great! I always love train rides in Europe, because the scenery along the way is peaceful and relaxing! It also gave me some time to unwind a bit because our schedule was kinda hectic for the last 3 days, and the 3 hr ride gave me just enough time to think about the things that happened so far and get ready for what’s ahead. Olivia was very tired after taking her medication and quickly dozed off, so I was able to listen to my Ipod (finally :P) during the ride. I watched the beautiful scenery passing by my window and my Ipod was playing the right songs. It was just fantastic! Just beats a plane ride any day. Why can’t they have more passengers train in Canada?

After 3 hours, we arrived in Amsterdam and Olivia looked sicker than ever! I think the medication had quite an affect on her and made her really tired. We headed straight to the Tourist Office at the train station and booked our Bike Tour for the next day. Spent quite some time walking/finding our place to stay for the next 2 nights: Passenger Ship Maria Alberta. We arrived a bit early and I was surprised that it’s just a boat! Why do they call it a ship when it’s only a houseboat??? There was no one on board, so we headed to the “Nemo”, a ship-shaped green building which is a Science Centre for kids. The guy at the Nemo was extremely nice; he tried to help us and let us use his phone to contact the ship owner.

We were able to get on board at last and we were just a little shocked on how tiny our room was . The room (with the bathroom and etc) was just a little bigger than my bathroom back home! A bigger room with 3 beds was only 9 Euros more, so we jumped to the deal, and later we found out it was well worth the 9 Euros. The upper bed was almost impossible to get on (sorry not a wall climber). Actually attempting to get on the upper bed was a lot of fun and we laughed so hard while doing so. (If you follow that link on the last paragraph, there are some pictures of the boat, and the one on the right is actually a picture of our room!)

Olivia made the smart move of asking the locals on where to eat, as we tried not to fall into tourist traps again. On the way to find food we walked straight into the famous Red Light District without knowing, which was quite a shock at first because the first “Display” we saw was this very very fat woman with little clothes on. @_@ Finally we made it to Chinatown and decided to go into the restaurant with the most Chinese patrons. :D The food was good and it was quite a treat after many days of eating just burgers and fries. Afterwards we went to a supermarket to stocked up on fruit, hoping that the extra Vitamin C can help Olivia fight her cold.