Amsterdam, July 11-20

I know, what a long time in Amsterdam. To be fair, we had to extend our stay because our flight wasn't on the 17th like we thought it was, it was the 20th. Great job, EasyJet. So, Amsterdam.
Our train was PACKED to the brim going to Amsterdam. Everyone wanted to get there for the finals, and there were many a vuvuzela blast to be heard, and there were even guys dressed in milkmaid outfits drawing flags on everyone's cheeks. The city was just one big, happy, excited party. It was also wall-to-wall orange, and as we walked around trying to find the right trams and our hostel, we agreed that we needed to find something orange and quick! The tram ride into the outskirts, where our hostel was, was absolutely horrendously packed. There were so many people on the trams that we, with our big bags and lack of pride colors, were very much unwelcome for the time being. We got lost, got on and off trams, and finally, as we were really losing our tempers at each other, a nice random Netherlander biker gave us directions to the road our hostel was on. The two obviously lost backpackers we were, it was so nice of him to stop and help, especially on such a big day.
We wandered into the city for the game, and food. Every bar, every house, even the boats in the canals had tvs on and people crowded around in a sea of Orange. We found some food and wandered around from tv to tv. We couldn't understand the language, so it was more the people we wanted to watch than the game. Our hostel was just seconds away from the main showing, Museumplein, where they had six screens and over 20,000 people crammed into every available space. We wandered that was towards the end of the game, but we left pretty quick when the mood turned sour, hoofing it back to the safety of the hostel. There was a balcony in our room, so we watched the people stream away after their defeat, and the sirens and shouting carried on well into the night.
The next day, when we wandered past the now-empty square, we found it piled high with rows and rows of trash. People were using leaf blowers to pile it up for cleaning, just so much trash. We were over there for the grocery store, which was hilariously hidden underground, but it was one of the better grocers we'd been to in a long time.
Not that day but the next they had the screens still up, and we found out that the team was coming home, so the whole city was pretty much shutdown and back at museumplein to welcome their team back. The mood was happy, even through defeat, because hey, how can you be mad you lost when at least you made it to the final? That party lasted well into the evening as well.
The next few days were spent wandering the city from museums to parks to interesting little eccentric shops. We had fun trying to take a nap in every park in Amsterdam, it was like a game. There were three days of rain, cold, grey, heavy rain which had us inside reading or playing cards with the hostel people. We had a lot of fun wandering around with the people we met as well; we went to museums and churches, and we even had fun going to chip shops and falafel.
We visited the Van Gogh museum (crowded but cool) and walked past the Anne Frank house (too crowded and expensive for us to go into, but it was so small to see, and it really struck a chord in everyone, I think, to see how small a space it really was for them to be hiding in). There were huge cathedrals as well, most of which were free to enter.
The best (and most frustrating) part of Amsterdam were the canals. Great because they're so beautiful (for the most part) especially the ones in the outer city. Quiet little residential "streets", they had ducks and geese and lots of families who took evening boat trips just like evening car trips. The real setback to the canals is that you could so easily get lost because they all look the same! All the architecture resembles itself, so finding your way was really more like discovering a place you'd been lost in before.
Only once did we have anything big happen, that was when clumsy Air decided to bite it on a tram track. We were walking past this tram stop, and a biker(the bikers in Amsterdam are vicious, vicious creatures who take pleasure in knocking over tourists and unwary locals alike) whizzed past us too close, tripping up Air and knocking her over. She kissed the bike curb with both knees, skinned 'em up good. But otherwise we cam out with no injuries. We lost the only other platypus water bottle, though. Someone stole it when we accidentally walked out of the kitchen without it. I cam back down not 30 minutes later and it had disappeared. I was pissed, asked the reception guy if he had it, or who took it, and to no avail. I'm really unhappy about losing that bottle! Three of them, all int his trip!
And then came the flight to Croatia...