Christmas Holiday Part II (Wales and The Netherlands)

We spent the next 2 days, resting, watching movies, going to the grocery store, talking. On the 27th my Grandparents arrived and I took a train in the afternoon to meet them in Chester. We had dinner and headed back to their hotel, we spent the next day with my step-grandma's pen pal Shirley and her family. And the next day we went on a drive through Wales. It was really nice to see them. and Shirley was fun. They left the following day for Paris, and I went back to Lancaster.

Rayna had planned on going to see her cousin for New Years Eve, and so we had a ferry the following morning (Jan. 31st) to go to Rotterdam. Since the ferry left at 9am we had to take a train that night to make it. So we took the 8pm train from Lancaster to London. From there we took an 11pm train to Colchester where we had to wait from 12am to 5:45 am. Yes thats right 5 hours in a closed train station. I was not looking forward to it. We got there and there was a crazy girl who bought beer from some random people passing through the train station. She said she had fallen asleep on the train and missed her stop and now she was lost. She claimed not to be drunk, we still are undecided on this. She talked a lot, and lucky for us, she somehow talked the station guards, to put us in the 'white room' which supposedly had heat. It was freezing in there. We moved into a warmer waiting area at 4am, when the station opened. We got on our train at 5:45, we were at the ferry docks a little after 6. We slept in the waiting area until we got to board at 8. We were exhausted, we got on the ferry, and we had the bright idea to save money and not get a cabin, having been up all night, we slept on chairs pushed together in the waiting area, and played rummy until we docked at 4pm.

We took a train with Rayna's cousin to her moms house. Showered and left for a new years eve party, with some friends of the family. We had traditional dutch new years eve, oilie bollen, or something like that, and then watched the fireworks and had champagne at midnight. there were so many fireworks. Apparently its the only day they are legal, so people buy tons of them. and burn christmas trees, it was amazing, and crazy all at the same time. We stayed there until about 2 am and then went back to Rayna's second cousin's house. And finally got to sleep. We slept in until 3pm.

Then next day we met Raynas great aunt, and her family. Raynas great aunt is adorable, and funny. I have never kissed so many strangers before. by the end I got used to the three kisses on the cheek, though. We ate dinner with raynas extended family, and then headed off to Rotterdam. We talked to Rayna's cousin Nina for a while and then went to sleep.

Nina is a squatter which means she lives in an abandoned building and doesn't pay rent. The first night it was freezing. but after that it warmed up. The next day we went and explored Rotterdam. We went to museums and had drinks and dutch food at the New York Hotel. Apparently there was a photo-shoot going on there and we saw some models. Rayna and I went into a 'coffee shop' just to see what it was like. The coffee shop is where they sell marijuana, we were buzzed in and immediately had to show id. There were all different brands for sale.

The next day we went to Amsterdam and had raw herring, I don't even want to talk about it. We also went into Anne Franks house. Which was very interesting, I loved her diary when I was little, and so walking up the stairs behind the bookcase was amazing. We walked around for awhile, and then headed back to Rotterdam. The next day Rayna and I went to the Hague. We saw the peace palace and the peace flame, and took some crazy pictures. We went to the sea, looked at it and decided it was too cold. We got on the tram and just rode it for a while, then we went back to Nina's spent the rest of our euros, and got on the Ferry. We took the night ferry and got a cabin so it went much smoother.

The back to Lancaster for a day and a half, before rayna went home.

All of the pictures that were taking in The Netherlands, are gone, my camera says they aren't pictures and they are no where on my computer....I'm pretty sad about that.