Happy Halloween everyone! I'm sad to miss my favorite holiday. Italy doesn't celebrate it and their candy sucks anyway.

Asia Town

Instead of China Town, Amsterdam has Asia Town. I had been missing sushi so I hit up a Japanese restaurant. Italy likes their food and no one else’s so it was nice to have options again.

They had a Buddhist Temple which I hit up. The caretakers taught me the sutra of compassion and I bought some prayer beads.

Traveling had taken its toll on me and I stumbled across a Chinese massage place that gave a 60 minute full body massage for 35 euro. How could I refuse? I melted and felt so refreshed afterwards.

Touring the Countryside

I left Amsterdam for a day tour to go look around the Holland countryside.
First stop was a museum.

The traditional dress of the peasants. The snowman looks really out of place.

The religious attire.

A replica of a sailor’s boat.

A replica of a house.

These three are pieces of a larger mosaic made out of 22,000 cigar stickers. That man is going to die of lung cancer.

Flags of the provinces.

If I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, Netherlands, I’d go home. Being as I’m here, I want to see more of your stuff.

One can’t think of the Netherlands without thinking of windmills. Many are out of commission in favor for electric ones now and are falling into disrepair.
Too bad tulips weren’t in season. I would’ve loved to see the fields of them.

Cheese is a big thing in the Netherlands. Sheep, cows, and goats are everywhere. Much of the country is below sea level and completely flat, making for great grazing territory.

A cheese factory. Milk is heated in the silver cauldron in the lower right to separate the curds and whey. The curds are pressed in the red machine in the back right. Then the cheese is soaked in a salt bath for flavor and preservation. Later, the cheese is wrapped in a layer of wax allowing it to exist 2 months outside the fridge.

The third symbol of the Netherlands is the wooden shoe. It used to take five hours to make a pair but now it takes five minutes thanks to machines. The right ones carves the shoe while the left one hollows out the inside. When they dry, they’re sanded and ready to go.

The finished product. Surprisingly, the wooden shoe is still used today. They’re great to protect the foot of farmers from horse hooves and construction workers from dropped steel beams. They can be worn plain or painted.

Troglodyte Village

Troglodyte homes are little more than tunnels dug into the side of a mountain. Originally, they were used as hiding places from invaders. People stay in them nowadays because they can be pretty comfortable with a natural way of keeping cool.

The paintings on this door are signs of welcoming to friendly visitors and a way to keep evil spirits out.

This was the entryway.
A sign of hospitality in Tunisia is to serve the guest mint tea. To refuse the tea is one of the worst signs of rudeness. In a real show of generosity, they made freshly baked bread with a mixture of honey and olive oil for dipping. Delicious.

The family was pretty open to 20 students stomping around their house taking pictures of everything. Everyone left a donation in thanks.

I could happily live in a house like this.

They have electricity, cable, and phone lines but they still do many things the old fashioned way. This woman is grinding up grain for bread between two flat rocks.

This little girl was adorable and insisted on showing everyone her pet chameleon.

Italian buses do not announce where they're going or what stop they're at. You have to constantly pay attention and know exactly where you are. It puts me on edge every time I go somewhere new. The first time traveling by myself I hopped on a bus and it ended up in a suburb. The school director had to come pick me up.

After eating so much pasta and pizza, I'm beginning to crave them at meal times. They've wormed their way into my blood.

A dump truck driver honked at and cat called me. What.

Underage in America + Over the age in Italy = dumb college students

Capri Island

I didn't take many pictures. I wanted to relax.

This sums up the entire island. It's paradise on Earth.

This seagull let me get real close to him. Being a bird lover, I named him Scully and took his picture.

This isn't an American tourist spot at all.

Gnocchi

Gnocchi is a wierd potato dish in Italy. It has the consistency and taste of a kindergartener's macaroni art if it were rolled into a ball.

This is gnocchi:

This is what I see when I look at gnocchi:













I swear, if it weren't for gelatos, I'd be out of here so fast.

Cappacino

It's hard to remember that to make a "ch" sound, you write ci or ce. To make a "k" sound, you write ch.

Good God, the Italian youth are into PDA. I should not see people making out in St. Peter's. I'm not even Catholic and it offended me.

Pasta. Pizza. Pasta and pizza everywhere. All so delicious. All so redundant. I miss waffles.