wow so its been a while since ive updated this

but here goes

Amsterdam was wild, the red light district is truly indescribable and certainly one of the weirdest places in the world. Literally window shopping for girls who are trying to get you to sleep with them. It was slightly uncomfortable. Hard to believe that only three weeks prior we had been in Morocco, a muslim country! things wouldnt fly so easily there I dont think.
Quick story from Amsterdam:
Dallas and I are riding on the tram, the police board the tram and demand to see our tickets. I had yet to see anyone buy a ticket, people just get on and sit down, yet somehow everyone but us magically produced tickets. I tried to explain that we were travelers and we didnt realize, and that we would happily buy tickets now, but the officer saw that we were american and didnt like that. He said, "what, where in the world is there free public transportation?" I said, "Our city, Portland, has a free light rail". He said, "Thats not how it is in New York", I said "I dont care how it is in New York", he said "38 Euros. Now." It sucked.
Other than that though, Amsterdam is great. They have this incredible donut type treat called an Ollie Bollen that are only served in December, and they are FANTASTIC. They are doughy and covered in powdered sugar that inevitably gets all over you as soon as there is one wind gust. The city is also quite small and very walkable, so we were able to see pretty much all of it. Its all built around canals and the ambience that the water creates is very cool. We saw the Rembrandt house, the Van Gogh museum, and the Anne Frank House. Anne Frank was the most powerful for me... being there connected me so strongly with her experience. The simple fact that I stood where she stood, I looked at the stairs she looked at when the SS stormed the annex, made the experience incredibly moving. Rembrandt and Van Gogh are cool museums, but you really need to go to the Anne Frank house if you are in Amsterdam.
Then, we rolled to Geneva where we met up with my good friend Jon. Jon has been working in a thinktank based around foreign aid for developing countries. Its exactly what Jon wants to do, but the hours were long so unfortunately we didnt get to see him all that much. The first night we came to his place, got a kebab, and slept. SIDE NOTE: Im becoming addicted to Kebabs END SIDE NOTE. The next day we were going to take a train to Gruyeres where the views are supposed to be incredible, but we woke up too late and missed it. It was okay though, we walked around Geneva, did a little shopping at the xmas markets, and then came back and relaxed. Jon was working all day, but eventually he came home, we got another kebab, and went to a hookah bar where we chilled for a few hours. It was actually really fun and relaxing.
Observation: Im amazed at how much Ive been able to use my Moroccan/North African Arabic. Literally every single country in Europe has been full of opportunities for me to converse in Arabic. Its proved to be way more useful than it would originally seem.
The following day we grabbed a train to Florence from Geneva, stopping in Milan. First, the train trip from Geneva to Milan is one of the most beautiful things Ive ever seen-- glacial lakes, snowy peaks, small villages... switzerland at its absolute best. Milan, however, is terrible. The train station was aweful... we had a 4 hour layover between trains that we managed to cut to 2 hours by catching an earlier train to Florence. Glad to be out of that place. Florence is awesome, our first night we basically just walked around, grabbed some awesome pizza/calzone, and crashed. The next day, we walked around more, saw the Duomo, saw David and the Museum of the Accademia, had amazing Gelato, then met up with Tom and went back to the apartment hes staying in where the party was just starting. We ended up partying all night with Tom and his friends, as well as Jasons girlfriend Jadie. Lots of fun.

Okay thats all for now, im going to meet up with Tom and Dallas at Toms apartment, Ill try to hit you up one or two more times before I come home. Less than a week now! Amazing.

Love
Andrew
PS I got this awesome incredible notebook thing. Youll see it.