Hula Hoop Rescue in Amsterdam..

So my host Shannon went to work, and I was out and about before noon! I figured Nat and Pete were not going to be up yet, so I had a walk around... I was armed with a small map but of course I ended up completely lost...

I didn't mind though, because the city isn't massive, and I found canals, a park, and then this MASSIVE market on the street that went on for a kilometer or something!





While walking around said market, I heard from Nat and Pete. They wanted to rent bikes for the day, which sounded good to me, so I looked at many tram maps and found my way into the center and met them!

We found the bikes, then we were off!!!



This is the house of Anne Frank. It was crazy busy and expensive to go into the museum, so here is a boring picture of the outside...


We took a ferry over the other side of the big canal/river thing and had some yummy apple pie right on the water :) This is a bike park near the central station - so many bikes here it's insane!!



We utilized our bicycles and went all over the place! It's not as easy to take photos when you are on a bike paying attention to traffic though, so I will just have to remember!




We were trying to get to Vondelpark but we ended up in Oosterpark. We lay on the grass,



then I tried to hula hoop....



... and the adventure of the day began... I am using Natalie's pictures for this story because she was so good at documenting this!

I was hooping around my hand when the thing went flying as it often does. It flew, and rolled right into the pond/lake thing...



you can see that we tied my nylon that held them together to a spare piece of hoop and it too went flying into the lake! Some old guy started ripping at this tree and we all scrambled for branches to try and fish it out... but the thing just kept getting too far!! It was looking grim... you can't see my face here but I am worried!




Pete saw a dog and ran to fetch said dog!

Meet Pie the dog. And one of his British owners!


We were throwing the ball in the water and then he would nudge the hoop... it was very exciting! He had been taught not to chew her hoops at home though, so she would try and go through it!



This went on for a while... poor dog! It seemed to have limitless energy though!





Everyone started watching... people were sitting on benches just to see the show lol





... but then....


he's in the hoop!!!


I was so excited!!


The owners were also very proud and happy!



Highlight of my day:


I was so happpppyyyyyyyy

everyone was soooo happpyyyyyy



now that is an adventure!!

After this epic day, we had to return the bikes, so we hopped on, dropped off, and went to the supermarket. Natalie had been mentioning Australian burgers and I was intrigued.

The houses here are built on wooden foundations sunk into the ground, and they rot and sink so there are lots of tilted houses... like this one!!


We went to her host's house and we made said burgers. Tom arrived as well. We sat on the roof top and once again watched the sun go down.

This time it was even later on! Whoops! I hopped on the tram with Tom and knocked on the door. No answer. I didn't think she would be asleep, but no answer means I don't get in the house. She also did not have a phone. Crap.

I called Tom and he let me sleep on his floor. It was honest mis-communication with her having no phone and me having no internet access at Stephs... ah well I still got to sleep somewhere safe!! What a day!