the photographer. [zdh]

twenty-seven

"all i can say is, you'll love it. both things."

leah groaned as we walked along the streets of amsterdam, me searching for the little restaurant i'd discovered on the internet the previous night in preparation for our date today. we left the bus before breakfast, considering what i'd planned was a full-day out.

"here it is!"

pulling leah's hand, i opened the door of a cozy restaurant named mamas & tapas. it had pretty good reviews, and the atmosphere looked great.

"wow!" i heard leah whisper as she surveyed the surroundings. taking a seat at a table for two at the corner, a smiling lady came to us with menus. leah and i didn't know what to order as it was our first time in amsterdam, so we told her to serve us their best.

a lot of food came, but enough for two people.

"this tastes delicious," remarked leah, putting something into her mouth whole. we were told that it was poffertjes.

i smiled as i picked up a stroopwafel from the plate in front of me. "how's this to start off the day?"

leah grinned, wiping her mouth as she finished up the last of her cup of koffie verkeerd. "amazing. where to next?"

"oh, here and there."

**

zach stopped me in front of a shop named a-bike vondelpark.

"let's go in. we're renting bikes for travel."

i gasped as zach pushed the door open, still holding my hand as he spoke. "i know how much you love cycling. not as much as photography, but still."

i was speechless that he still remembered that. we hadn't spoke of cycling and bikes in ages. i followed him into the shop as he rented two bikes, one for each of us. it was only until we got out of the shop did i speak again.

"wow...thank you," i managed. the amount of thought that this boy put into planning our dates was incredible. we'd been on about five so far, including this one, and each time was better than the last.

he smiled. "anything for you, lels. now, where do you want to go? i rented these for a whole day."

pulling out my phone, i looked at my bucket list. "uh, let's go to jordaan! i really want to see the antique shops and gardens there; it's so beautiful, and we can take pictures, even though i didn't bring my camera."

zach smiled. "sure!"

**

the day passed by all too quickly, and by dinnertime, we explored so many different places. having returned the bikes earlier than expected, we managed to visit several museums, such as the anne frank house, the rembrandt house museum and even the hermitage. it was rushed, yet both of us didn't mind; we wanted to see as much of amsterdam as possible.

we also got to take a canal cruise along amsterdam's UNESCO protected canal belt, and it was beautiful, both of us snapping pictures the whole time. of course, we also stopped at the i amsterdam sign to take pictures, like any other tourist.

we also tried herring from a herring cart. according to the website, the fish was sweetest between may and july, and since it was june, we had the best raw herring of our lives. not that we'd eaten much raw fish.

choosing to not head to kalverstraat, amsterdam's busy shopping street, we visited their markets. both the albert cuypmarket in de pijp and the waterlooplein flea market were beautiful, and i bought several books while zach ate almost all the food he saw.

for dinner, we headed to foodhallen, an indoor food hall with a variety of delicious dutch street food from some of amsterdam's most respected kitchens.

we tried stamppot, which was mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables. although stamppot is traditionally served in winter while it was currently spring, we still managed to sample the delicious dish. we were recommended to try stamppot together with rookworst, dutch smoked sausages, and we did. it went together perfectly.

we also learned that dutch pancakes, pannenkoeken, were normally eaten for dinner instead of for breakfast. drizzling sugar syrup on the pannenkoeken made the simple dish more amazing than it already was.

after the stamppot and pannenkoeken, both zach and i were already full. however, we didn't want to return to the bus without any dutch snacks to enjoy while on the road, so we bought many to enjoy in the weeks to come while on tour.

after enjoying the stroopwafels and poffertjes so much that morning, we had to buy some more. we already bought eierkoek (egg cakes), drop (liquorice candy), and vla (a milky dairy product made with egg and sugar and a vanilla flavour) at the market earlier.

and with that, we returned to the bus. although both of us didn't want to, we had to go back to get some rest for the show tomorrow.

"i had a lot of fun today, z. thank you."

"i know i'm great."

i scoffed and swatted at his arm as we headed back to the bus.

**

when we arrived, the boys were already back from their day out. they informed us that they had visited both amstelpark and westelpark to take pictures and jack had almost fallen into lake at amstelpark.

like us, they'd also bought a ton of dutch snacks. we decided to label our own snacks with our names to prevent any arguments or misunderstandings if someone else finished our snacks.

yes, we were very protective over food.

afterwards, luckily, none of the boys pressed us for details about our date. they'd given up asking by the third date, as our responses were getting more and more vague.

once we'd all bathed and changed into fresh clothes to sleep in, zach approached me.

"i wanted to ask. you know how we're extending the europe tour dates?"

i nodded.

"we'll have a break for about a week before we go for those extended dates, and i know you probably want to spend all your time in portland, but could you come to dallas for about half the week? i have something."

confused, i said, "sure. but there's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

he grinned. "it's a secret, for now. good night, lels."

zach kissing me on the cheek was the last thing i felt before drifting off to sleep.

✎

a/n tessa thinks the last part is cringe but i'm the main writer anyway :) winks hannah is evil
we both don't know about the europe stuff because we're not from europe so that part might be off, but yeah