Along with all the sight-seeing I had been doing whilst in Holland. My friend decided to take me to the country’s famous theme park, Efteling.

Efteling is a fairytale based theme park, that has some rides that were the first of some of the favourites you know at other theme parks.

I came to the realisation extremely quick that fairytale stories in Holland are a bit darker than they are in America. Not all fairy tales have happy endings…and not all of them are pretty when it comes to the characters.

Efteling was quite an experience because it was so different that what I am use to…which would be places like Disney World, where the fairy tales all have happy endings and the characters are happy and cute…not dark and scary.

Efteling made the fairy tales more realistic than America makes fairy tales out to be. You felt like you were really in a fairytale, good or bad.

There were roller coasters, walk through rides, a fairytale forest, rides that played with your mind, and shows to entertain the whole family.

The fairy tales in Efteling seemed to have originated from the Grimm Brothers stories..and had not been altered. They had stories like Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and Little Red Riding Hood…with all the fun details included. It was really a lot of fun to see the differences that this theme park has compared to other theme parks.

If you are ever in Holland, I suggest going to Efteling to see the differences in theme parks for yourself. It was something I will always remember. Plus, my friend’s boyfriend helped build some of the rides and attractions, which is even cooler to see the things he worked on…so he gave me good insight on the rides before we went.

If you go, I would suggest a two-day trip…we did not cover everything and we were there for 7 hours. It would definitely take more than one day to see the entire park, but again…totally would be worth it.

The next day, we went to visit my friends parents. They took me to see what Holland is known for….WINDMILLS!

We went to this little town called Alblasserdam. Now, the only reason I know that is the town’s name is thanks to my phone’s GPS locating through a picture I sent to my mommy. Don’t ask me to pronounce it…and I did Google is to make sure it was spelled correctly.

We took a walk down this path where there were windmills on every side and they were working. The view was so pretty, just walking with the windmills on either side of you. The wind was extremely strong that morning, so the windmills were going extra fast! Which made it even more exciting to see.

Now, I have seen windmills before…however I never knew people could actually live in them! That was quite interesting. I got to go inside a windmill and see what it would be like to live there.

I can easily say, I would not want to live in a windmill. Not enough space for one person, let alone three or four family members. That would be a little cramped.

Seeing all of Holland’s culture and being able to see what they are known for, windmills, was truly incredible. It was such a sight to see and I would completely visit again…except maybe when it was not so windy. At times I thought my friend and I were going to blow away. Luckily we did not, but seeing the windmills go at full force was something I will never forget. Holland. Beautiful.