Adventure: Hillegom, Holland

For the summer of 2015, I had it easy. I was without a job, and waiting to move to Colorado.

Sometime in July, 2015, I ended up on a plane to Amsterdam.

Can you say, "lucky"? Because I can!

I flew Delta, thank goodness, and journeyed on my eight hour flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam.

I stayed awake for a majority of the flight. I was too excited to sleep!

I, admittedly, did doze off once or twice but would awaken to my brain shouting "We're going to Europe!"

Somewhere over Ireland the sun started to rise. I felt my heart ache as we flew over Ireland, as it is one of the number one places I desire to go.

The sun decided to make the moment even more meaningful as it filled the sky above the clouds with its colorful morning rays.

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That first day I took it pretty easy as the jet lag settled in. I got a rental car from the airport and drove to Ron's townhouse, a friend, in Hillegom where I would stay for the remainder of the week.

When I arrived, I was amazed by all the gardens. Almost all of the townhomes have gardens in front of them. You can really tell who the slackers are, to put it nicely, but Ron's garden was beautiful.

I made my way inside, and immediately, in front of you and to the left is a stair case. It's a winding staircase with stairs just big enough for feet of a child. There was a coat rack to the left on the wall before the staircase, a closet to the right, and a little hallway went down the right of the stairwell. At the end of this little hallway was a half-bath, and the entrance to the living area. The living area and dining area shared a longer room, with glass-top tables, and black and white furnishings with white floors. I believe he had one purple wall too. At the end of the long room down by the dining room were doors that opened up into the backyard. The kitchen was to the left of the dining room (so if you had x-ray vision, it would be straight ahead of you through the stairs and through the half-bath upon entering) and also had a door leading to the backyard, though this one was smaller.

Going up the stairs to the second level you would find the master bedroom, laundry room, shower room, and a secondary room. You step upon the second floor and the secondary room would be to your left, the master bedroom front-left, the laundry room front-right, and the shower room all the way to the right.

You had to walk down towards the shower room (which was a total of about 3 steps) to continue your journey up the stairs to the third floor, which was an office area. There is a guest bed on the third floor, and there is where I stayed for my visit. At the top of the walls (which the ceilings are not that tall on the third floor) are these windows that tilt open to let the fresh air in.

It's a super cozy townhome, and absolutely adorable. It has quite a sizeable backyard, with gardens, a patio area, and a shed in the back.

After carrying my bags upstairs, using the restroom, and changing clothes, I went back downstairs to the main floor. I took myself and my camera to the back yard for some shots.

The first thing my eye settled upon was this pair of clogs on the shed door. How stereotypical is that? I found it hilarious, and laughed about it. I was told that people DO actually where those wooden clogs in Holland. Ha. Guess it's a stereotype for a reason, eh?

I started to notice all of these snails, so I looked just a teensy bit harder and noticed they were, indeed, just about all over the back yard. I found one on the patio furniture, promptly named him Fred and had him slime around on my hand as I took photos of him.

After a while, I put Fred back down, I went grocery shopping, then came back, ate dinner, and spent the rest of the night resting and watching television.