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Amsterdam, roof of Nemo Museum.
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In summer 2012 I was lucky to be able to travel to Rotterdam for . It was the first time I have been in Netherlands.
We reached Rotterdam in the morning, fog was on the fields and sun had just started to raise.
25.7.2012 around 6am we came to Steven's house. Only Jamie, Kelly's boyfriend was awake because he needed to go to work. We slept till 11am I guess and than, because it seemed to be unexpectedly nice weather, we decided to visit the beach Rockanje and spent there entire day. I was talking with Kelly about school systems in NL and SK. It is way different, but for me it sounded to be good. Of course we were swimming in the sea and had fun.
In the evening we went biking. The biking roads are everywhere in NL, so even in traffic we were relatively safe.
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Rotterdam, industrial city. Susnset while we were biking.
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In the every evening family always meet together, talk about the day, new experiences or random stuff and eat dinner. It somehow surprised me in a good way, maybe because I didn't experience it for a long, long time. It holds all family members together, know the news about everyone. It was nice :).
Thursday we went to Snowworld, indoor ski resort. Steven has been working there for some time. I was trying to ski for the first time since I had my ACL surgery in the beginning of March. My knee felt good about riding, I was able to ski pretty fast, hehe. Luckily for me, not park was there in that time, just small 2 obstacles, so I didn't feel so sad.
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Happy to be able to ski again :).
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Later that day we met Steven's best friend Anouck. We was walking on a small hill, from which we say little bit of Rotterdam. The hill was close to artificial ski slope, where you could slide on plastic surface.
The plan for the next day was zoo Diergaarde Blijdorp In Rotterdam. This zoo visits around 1,5 million people a year and it is consider to be one of the biggest attraction in the Netherlands. It includes also Oceanium. We started with the seals, which were pretty lazy. I laughter about them a lot, it reminded me people in general. We also saw Oceanium with plenty kinds of fishes, Nemo, sharks, turquoises. We also walked trough some areas with butterflies and birds, close to tigers or elephants, tigers and pumas. We were lucky to attend a bird show. It was focusing more on introductions of birds, not show itself. Anyway, when the bird flew so low over our heads, we were screaming a lot :). While we were traveling home it was raining.
In the evening we visited Steven's grandmum.
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This shark was so real. I was scared to put a hand into his mouth!
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Saturday 28th I will remember till the end of my life. We visited Efteling, theme park. Almost 60 years old, high-professional, full of attractions not only for kids. We was there soon, but it was already full of people. I have never seen that much people on the one place (for this kind of entertainment). I think pictures will show you more than any words.
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The first roller coaster i have every tried. AWESOME!
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With Kushiii!
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Next day was chilling day. We visited Steven's grandparents from other side.
Finally, at monday we went to downtown of Rotterdam. In the end, I realized that something is not 'good'. Yea, the city was so industrial and modern and … i don't know. I guess i really missed the history there. The city is nice, but not that special for me to be honest, just another huge city.
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Such a turist :).
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To say it shortly: nice city, more history buildings than in Rotterdam, narrow streets full of people, houses with hooks in the top of them (for carrying stuff to higher floors, not for hanging people!), A LOT of bikes and water canals, Nemo Museum. Oh, and i almost forgot. The red lights too. Hihi :).
The 9th day in NL was 2nd of August and it was Steven's birthday. He invited me, his sisters Kelly and Marisa with their boyfriends Jamie and Robin to Snowworld. He gave us a snowboard lesson. My first snowboard lesson in Dutch!
In the evening entire family met together to celebrate. Littbe bit less than 30 people sitting in the living room and talking.
I am not really sure, where Steven's parents, sisters, Jamie, Robin and me went to restaurant for spare ribs where everyone could eat as much as possible and than to McDonalds for McFlurry. That was awesome evening too! :)
We returned to Pha in 5th of August.
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Snowboarding lesson in Snowworld :).
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I must say TWO HUGE THANKS TO Renca for renting us a car - it was a great experience, and to Steven's parents and family - it was awesome time and I look forward to visit Rotterdam again! :)
