Disneyland, What Happened in Belgium, and Being Assisted by Drunk Dutchmen

So!

Thursday evening-ish, after Remco picked me up in Amsterdam, we had another whirlwind adventure driving through the streets of Amsterdam to get out onto the highway - I swear, every time Siri or Remco picks me up or something, we get led by the GPS through the sketchiest, scariest parts of either Utrecht or Amsterdam (also known as A'dam, in case you were wondering). We always make it out alive, though...

Thursday night, Siri, Remco and I went to the grocery store and bought everything I needed to make chicken paprikash, which I made, and which was summarily consumed with gusto. I love chicken parikash. My number one comfort food. I was up really late on Thursday, just talking to Jonathan, and getting settled in my pretty princess bed (yes, the guest bedroom is set up for Siri's little sister, and therefore features a large number of princess things, including Ariel stickers. Which I loved. So, I got to bed on Thursday around 12:30. We all woke up at about 4:15 on Friday (yes, I know, BRIGHT and early), and headed out around 5 to pick up Siri's mom and little sister. Once we were all in the car (along with necessary snacks and drinks) we started making our way through Holland, and Belgium, and France, until finally, around 10, we arrived with great aplomb at Disneyland. Hooray! A lot of the following photos, it must be mentioned, are here thanks to Remco, who is an excellent photographer (as it turns out). It was amazing to be in Disneyland this weekend, by the way. It was sunny, and 28-30 (degrees Celsius, that is, so like, in the 80's).

Disneyland Castle!

Welcome to Disneyland!

Noah and I celebrating being in Disneyland. We were about equally as excited.

Because we were with Noah, we did a lot of things I haven't actually done before (having only been to DisneyWorld once), like go on all the storybook rides. I got to see (in real, lifelike detail) Snow White, a Haunted House, the It's a Small World Ride (wow, was that terrifying), Sleeping Beauty, and I think Ariel? I can't remember which ones we did! You know, those rides are kind of short, but they're actually really fun, because everything is life-sized, and if you, like me, enjoy the Disney classics, seeing the characters all around you is actually really fun. Like you're in the movie. Heh. I kept thinking to myself, "Ahh, it feels like I'm back working in the Disney Store." Which is an excellent feeling to have, because I loved working in the Disney Store. It was like being Santa Clause. Every Christmas, little children would come in with these amazed expressions at all the life-sized, porcelain characters on the rim around the ceiling, and would gaze in wonder at all the toys, and the huge movie we always had playing in the background, and at the giant mountain of stuffed animals at the back of the store. And if we didn't have something out that a kid wanted, we would just pop on back to the giant warehouse in the back of the store to scramble up a ladder to go get it. It was basically the best job ever. And people brought in home-baked goods all the time to share with the other employees. What could be more awesome than that?

Anyway, that's how Disneyland felt. Like you're surrounded by happiness and joy. And while that may seem nauseating to some (and yeah, okay, happiness and joy, like on the "It's a Small World" ride can be caustic and suffocating, but the overall Disneyland happiness and joy was so much better than that), I loved it.

One of the rides we went on was this little boat tour of miniatures from classic Disney movies. They were so cool. I loved them. They were intricately detailed little towns - from Fantasia, and Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast.

Me on aforementioned ride.

From Fantasia.

The Beauty and The Beast miniature. Belle is on the fountain. Singing. Because that's what you do when your dad is a wee bit mad and your best friends are sheep.

Belle with sheepsies.

And then Remco and I sort of broke off from the group and went to Tomorrowland and rode the Space Mountain ride. Which was awesome. And terrifying, as you're going, like, 60 mph in the dark.

Tomorrowland! And, as I explained to Remco, oddly full of Steampunk imagery.

The rocket-launcher part of Space Mountain.

Space Mountain! And Random Dude.

Going on Space Mountain was awesome. It's weird, because on all the rides, you could bring your bags on the coaster with you. Even the upside down ones. So different from Cedar Point, eh, where we have to pay $2 to shove our bags into a locker for the Millennium Force or the Top Thrill Dragster!!

Friday afternoon, we left the park around 6, went to the condo where we were staying (about 15 minutes away from the park), went grocery shopping really quick, ate dinner, and kind of chilled for a bit until about 10, when we went back to the park and watched the nighttime parade (I cried), and the fireworks (I cried again). It was just so...joyful. All the little kids were laughing and singing and dancing with the princesses and characters and stuff, and they were playing music from Tangled, and it was so great, like being five again. I really missed my family, and boyfriend, and friends in that moment though! Things that like are meant to be shared with those you love!

Saturday morning we kind of slept in (we were so beat from the whole Friday morning leaving at 5 AM thing), and went to the park kind of late. We stayed for a good long while, and went on the Tower of Terror, the Aerosmith rollercoaster, and the Finding Nemo roller coaster (which was freaking awesome. The coaster is a four-seater round shell-shaped thing, and while you're going upside down and stuff, it SPINS. How COOL is that??). Around 8 or so, we decided we were all pretty beat, so we started to head back towards the entrance, stopping first to see the dragon that lives underneath the castle:

Poor Noah. She insisted on going to see this dragon both Friday and Saturday, but both times, as soon as she got inside, near the dragon, she refused to go any closer. It was really sweet actually. Like, on the first day, she even took my hand before we went in and was like, "Don't worry, okay?" And then as soon as we got inside, she was like, backing up, terrified to get too close. The dragon is actually really neat - this castle is Sleeping Beauty's castle (Cinderella's is at Disneyworld) and so this dragon is the Sleeping Beauty dragon - and it moves, and makes scary noises, and growls, and it even looks like it's freaking breathing. I mean, if I was a little kid, I would be scared too. As it so happened, I was just fascinated and in awe. I mean, it's right under the castle. It's like being IN a story. Awesome.

After seeing the dragon for the second day in a row (it's a tradition) we went shopping a bit.

Krista, if I could have bought you this teapot, I totally would have.

Siri and I both chose really cool, fashionable hats.

Siri's was even cooler.

Then, as we were shopping, total chaos broke out because it started pouring outside while everybody was watching the parade. Parents and children just started running, pell-mell, into the stores, hauling crying children, and giant strollers, and frazzled teenagers, out of the rain. One French mom just completely lost it in front of me, screaming at her teenage son in rapid French. We ended up just sitting down in a hallway for a while to wait out the madness. Eventually, we made it out of the shops and into the car, a little bit damp, but not too worse for wear. And without the screaming that accompanied almost everyone else's departures to their cars...We left the park around 8 or 9. We started driving, and just snacked, most of us falling asleep around midnight. It just kept raining. We had to drive slow, because it was such a downpour. It was scary, but I think I was just so tired, I just didn't care at that point... I woke up to get some McDonald's around 2, I think. The whole drive is a bit fuzzy for me because I was so out of it, and I kept falling asleep and waking back up again, so the times when I was awake I remember in that odd, dream-like sense...

Anyway, after our 2 AM dinner (somewhere just outside of Antwerp, Belgium), we hit the road again, only to come to a complete halt on the highway around 2:30 or so. We waited for a while, the car idling, until we realized there just wasn't going to be any movement any time soon. So we turned the car off, and waited, wondering why there were so many cars stopped. We could see ambulances and police flying back and forth on the other side of the highway, so we assumed it was some kind of accident, but it literally just shut down the entire highway. By this time, the rain had stopped, so we opened the windows, and Rem took some pictures, and a strange old dude in the car next to us came up and kept making strange conversation with Siri (who was very displeased).

The giant line of cars. And those were the people BEHIND us.

Siri read about the accident the next day, and apparently, the line of cars ended up being something like 7 km long. Luckily, we were near the front (or not so luckily, seeing as that means it could have been us...) and got to go fairly quickly after the got the cars off the road. The rain had caused four cars to massively smash into one another, so badly for one of the cars that they had to use the jaws of life to rip the entire top of the car off to get to the people. Hence why it took so long. No one died, though, and everyone is in the hospital doing okay. When we drove past it though...I'll be honest, it was the worst accident I've ever seen. What a bizarre way to end a weekend of sunshine and fun. Anyway, because of the accident, we didn't make it back into Holland until, like, 5 AM. It was VERY late. And when we got back, it was all I could do to just drop into the bed and position the pillow under my head. I slept till approximately 12:30 the next day, which was glorious. And then Remco drove me home, and I spent a nice, calm Sunday afternoon around the house. On Sundays in Holland, pretty much everything is closed (it's actually the law...). So, no grocery shopping, or shoe shopping, or buying new bike locks... All of which I did this afternoon. I now have paper towels, more juice, salad, beer, a U-lock for the back of my bike, a little green bell (it's so adorable), and a new pair of totally rad brown leather boots (Well, faux leather. I don't have LOADS of money). I also spent this afternoon doing a photo shoot around Utrecht which was VERY fun, with a lovely young woman named Amelie, who is, yes, from France. It rained. We drank lots of cappuccino. We took some pictures. I looked windswept but nicely European and world-traveler-esque. Hooray! I will post them later when I get them from her. She was quite lovely. She's a professional rock-climber and photographer. How cool is that??

I miss Ohio. I'm looking forward to fall here, but they don't really celebrate Halloween like we do, or anything, and I LOVE Halloween. Maybe I can find some American people who will have a costume party with me...Otherwise, I may just dress up and give candy to kids (I live in a place where they will probably do that), and make tons of cute decorations and food and stuff. Just for me. Little Homemaker Lupas.

Also today: while trying to install aforementioned U-lock, I was totally lost. The damn thing didn't come with directions, but it did come with a whole bunch of random nuts, bolts, screws, metal plates, and rubber strips, all of which I had no idea how to use. So, here I am, struggling, and this random Dutch dude just like, comes over to the fence and is like, "Can I help you? Eh?" And I was like, whatever, sure. So he came in, and he smells strongly of alcohol, which, whatever, the dude was having a beer after work (we hope, right? Right?). And he tries to figure out how it all goes together. And he can't. So then we're on to using rubber bands to attach it. Then he uses a bungee cord I had strapped to the bike to hold stuff (just in case for big things), and now it's on there like a champ. So, actually, he ended up being really nice, despite being slightly intoxicated. He kept asking me out for drinks. And I kept insisting I have a boyfriend, and it would be odd for me to go out alone with a guy. And he kept saying, "No, no, we just drink. We won't like, do anything! Right??" Maybe with a good friend, buddy. Not with a slightly tipsy Dutchman who just wandered into my yard to help me with my bike lock. God bless him, though, because my lock is on and working, and he is wholly responsible for that.

Anyway, here's to an excellent rest of my week! Welterusten (goodnight)!