No windmills or wooden shoes

This weekend I decided to reward myself with a little trip to Amsterdam. I traveled by plane, train and metro bus to experience a different sort of European culture. I took my trip with four friends and caught a plane to Brussels, Belgium, Thursday. Friday we took a train to Holland -- Amsterdam to be exact -- and then back to Brussels for Saturday night. Let's just say it was a lesson learned while at the same time being an unforgettable experience.\nThe language in Brussels is French, and seeing as I don't know a lick of French, my attempt to be the social butterfly that I am was worthless. The scariest part of the weekend wasn't the prostitutes that lined streets, but the French rap music our taxi driver was blaring in his van on the way from the airport to the hostel. By the way, really look into hostels and guide books before you travel anywhere in Europe -- we almost got kicked out of a few places in Amsterdam, and I met a couple guys that were sleeping in the hostel lobby because they didn't book a reservation.\nBrussels is really an amazing city, and if you're looking for a less tourist-saturated city, plan a visit. They have a lovely square with shops, Leffe beer (pronounced leff, the "e" is silent) and amazing chocolate. My assumption that it wasn't a tourist city came from the fact that the shop owners and bar staff knew very little English. Though I didn't expect them to speak English, communicating turned out to be a nice challenge. The locals didn't take kindly to my lack of French and expressed this by acting quite rudely. I especially found it odd when we ended up in an Irish pub (go figure) and the people there, who did speak English, were equally rude. We ended up going back to our hostel bar and drinking bottles of beer for one euro.\nThe mood drastically changed Friday morning when we were all mentally preparing ourselves for the adventure ahead in Amsterdam. No one in the group had ever been there, so we didn't know what to expect. Our only references were the stories others had shared with us. Though the marijuana smoke was wafting out of every bar and coffee shop and prostitutes were staring lustfully into the streets from their windows, I found there was a bit more to the city of sin.\nWhat I'm about to say may seem lame, but I was truly in some sort of awe. Amsterdam is considered the "Venice of the North" because it is located under sea level and has canals in between every other street. The beautiful architecture lined by the old cobblestone streets adds character and charm to this city. The streets are not filled with the typical stereotypes of Holland, such as windmills, tulips and wooden shoes. I saw a few windmills on the train ride, but tulips and wooden shoes were only at tourist shop. \nOne thing I must note is everyone in the city of Amsterdam rides bicycles. Literally every railing lining the canal had a bike attached. In some cases I wondered how many years some of these bikes had been chained up. While an enlightening experience, I think I have to take a city like Holland in small bites.\nAfter the two days of travel, we headed back to Brussels in order to catch our flight home early Sunday morning. We crowned our trip with an authentic Belgian waffle, which will be something I will dream of every Saturday morning from this day forth.