Bike lovers paradise, aka the Netherlands!

My train ride to the Netherlands to visit with Arno and Blaire (friends i met in moscow -- as in Idaho. Arno and i met on a little skiing trip with some mutual friends, he's originally from holland and his wife Blaire was studying at the University of Idaho) started off quite uneventful, and then quickly turned for what was an interesting ride. I had a few connections to make and only minutes to make them. When i arrived over the border into Venlo, i sprinted to catch my next train in 4 minutes... And of course the platform was a few away. Somewhere i caught it and the person i sat next to was a little, well, a pyro? He was a little younger with some hip haircut and was burning some plastic part of his shoe which i assumed was causing some sort of discomfort. It was weird and i just tried not to stare with a confused look on my face. When we got to boxmeer (not my connecting point) someone came on the speaker and started speaking Dutch about something. I saw some confused looks on the passengers faces and then pyro boy asked me in German something. I just said, uh i don't know. Luckily, the guy next to me knew how to respond and also helped translate for me in English that apparently a train ahead of us hit a car which was causing a delay and everyone had to get off the train at the next station. That's good to know information i thought! They said there would be a bus that would take us to the station after where we could catch our train. I decided to make friends with this guy (Nick, I later learned) so i wouldn't be stranded in this quite small, countryside town that seemed rather uninhabited. We ended up waiting a long time for the bus, and when it finally came the driver said the accident was cleared and we could either take the train that might come or the bus. If we chose the train and it didn't come, we'd be stranded because his shift was over and apparently there were no more buses. Nick and i decided to trust the train and luckily, we made it. Although, we initially were on the wrong platform but thankfully there were only 2. I then made it Wageningan station where i reunited with Arno! We had a lovely bike ride back to their new place which is in this really awesome campground/not-your-typical-American-trailer-park and settled in. Biking proved to be a little challenging with my hiking bag and getting used to the backwards peddling, but i managed to survive without falling over. Impressive i think. Wageningan is in the countryside and is so incredibly beautiful. Community gardens, bikes, fresh air, farm animals, and adorable houses are everywhere and I instantly fell in love. It's a place i could absolutely see myself finding any excuse to get a job at and live -- it's THAT amazing and so KFo. After some talking, we biked into the town center and passed by lots more fields and even a really big patch of black raspberries along the road that you can just pick, which we did, and they were SO good! (reason #153 why i could live there) we tried going for Dutch pancakes but the place was closed (apparently everything closes at 6 -- very Pomeroy-like) so instead went to this rather fancier restaurant at a hotel where Arno is holding a conference at. The food was incredible and i started to realize just how local, fresh, organic, and  health conscious the Dutch are. The whole town smells like the Moscow Co-op, which is like a mini Whole Foods. Do you see why i like it here? We had a beautiful night and sunset. On Saturday, Blaire and i headed to Amsterdam for the day to go to the Noordesmarket (basically a Saturday farmers market) and explore the city. It was incredibly busy with so many people and bikes everywhere! I mean, they have bike parking garages that are about 4 stories. It's incredible. We brought our bikes and i got to experience Amsterdam on bike which was kind of crazy. Actually, it was down right ridiculous. It was so overstimulated especially when we realized that the city was extra crowded because it was gay pride. Boy are the dutch proud! I learned its the gay capital of the world and is so accepted and apart of normal life. There's no stigma and people can be free to be themselves. We ended up watching some of the parade, which was on boats in the canal, and the energy was just so contagious. It was really a lot of fun despite being really overwhelming. The market had the best fruit and veggies I've ever seen and i had some really awesome fresh apple/pear juice and blaire and I split this to die for raw lemon square. Mouth watering. We stopped in a lot of cute shops, smelt a lot of pot coming out of the coffee shops, wandered around the red light district (but there were none on), and met a nice couple at a cafe. when the sky starting turning really dark and the wind picked up, oh and we were just so overwhelmed and wanted to get back to the countryside, we headed home. The ride went by really quickly and we biked our way back to the house. Along the way we stopped to adore some miniature horses and when we got back arno had supper ready for us. We had a nice relaxing night of watching Dexter. It poured rain SO much! I mean, monsoon! We ended up going for a little walk in the rain which was pretty refreshing. So far, I'm in love with Holland. Everything about it is just wonderful and perfect... Maybe one day! Until my next (and last) stop, will write again soon.