Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Berlin, Deutschland

Wowwwwwwwww Amsterdam. Hate to love it and love to hate it. Lets just say as soon as I stepped off the train I was ready to get the heck out of there. I feel like I could just not open up my heart even enough to give Amsterdam a chance. Walking through the city on the way to the hostel, all that consumed me was the stench of cannabis and the smell of greasy food joints, there to satisfy the "munchies". I felt like everyone roaming the streets were on a search for something to satisfy a deep hunger within. I was at peace from my panic when we walked into our hostel that was very self declaringly Christian. While I was there I talked to many people about what they thought about Amsterdam, and how it has effected them. I particularly enjoyed talking with two UT students I met that are spending their entire summer working at this Christan hostel as sort of a mission trip. One of them is going to law school and wants to work with social justice issues such as human trafficking. I began to see Gods love through her as she passionately told me about groups in Amsterdam that are working hard to help prostitues by providing counceling and a way to get passports so they can get out of The Netherlands. Nevertheless I learned that out of every bad situation, God is always working for good. With all this said, out of all the cities we've visited so far Amsterdam definitely is the one the tres amis have the most differing views on. This is only Amsterdam through Maria Landry's eyes.
Today was a very special day for us because it was indeed Tim's birthday!!!!! We had yumny Dutch pancakes this morning, did some last minute shopping and hopped on a train to Berlin!! The train was alright. The only problem wasthere were three very obnoxious teenage Brits that felt like the train was all theirs. It wasnt too big of a bother to us though. I was so excited when we arrived in Berlin. Tim and Daniel navigated us sucessfully through the very confusing Berlin metro system to our hostel. By then it was 10pm and I was sooo hungry. We headed off for a FABULOUS birthday dinner at the Hard Rock cafe. It was soo awesome to have a good ol American hamburger and to see a menu in English!! Thank you sooo much mom and dad!!!
Tomorrow we have a busy day of seeing Berlin, with a fabulous walking tour in the morning! Thanks all of you for reading our blog.
Love to the top,
TheTresAmis