We sat down at this quaint establishment. It was a medium-sized building and aesthetically pleasing. It seemed to have old-fashion touches, but at the same time was very youthful looking and populated with a lot of youthful-looking individuals. This place was absolutely adorable and smelled so delicious—a perfect combination of savory and sweets.
"Hallo, hoe kan ik u helpen?" Oh... I have no idea what he's saying. It kind of sounds like he is asking for help?
"I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand. Do you perhaps know any English?" He smiled and nodded.
"Of course, we get a lot of English speaking tourists. I asked, how can I help you" Okay, so I was close.
"Yes. I'd like your classic brunch combo, and water, please" I looked up to Hope. She turned towards our server with a smile.
"I'll take the same thing. Thank you." I grabbed both of our menus and handed them to our server, relaying a thank you as well.
Surprisingly the food didn't take too long to arrive. My mouth was watering by the sweet and savory smell of the food. I look up to Hope to find her staring almost lovingly at her food. I just let out a small laugh.
"What's so funny?" She looked up at me questioningly.
"You are just looking at your food as if you adore it." She just rolled her eyes.
"Of course, I am. It looks and smells delicious." We both made sounds of satisfaction from our first bite. Absolutely delectable.
"How are you ladies doing?" I had a mouth full of food. I swear servers always come to ask questions right when you've taken a bite.
"It's delicious," I mumbled out as I swallowed the last bit of food in my mouth. I look over to Hope to see her shaking her head at me.
"Sorry, I sometimes forget that it's rude to talk with my mouth full. Honestly, amazing, thank you. Give compliments to your chef." He smiled at this.
"Will do. I'll check back up on you ladies in a little bit. Enjoy your food." He seems like a very genuine person.
"You too." I absolutely facepalmed at that moment. You too, are you serious? I heard laughter coming from Hope.
"Oh, shut it." My retort just made her laugh more.
We both ate everything on our plates. Not even a crumb was leftover. I felt very content, but not full enough to be uncomfortable.
"Here, let me get those plates out of your way. Can I interest you ladies in dessert?" Hope lit up at this.
"Yes!" She responded immediately.
"Here's our dessert menu. I'll be right back to take your order." Hope squealed in happiness and immediately started scanning the menu.
"Anything sounds good?" Hope looked up at me.
"Everything." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Well, whatever you get, just order an extra one for me. I'm going to use the bathroom really quickly." I rushed to the bathroom. God, I drank too much water.
Once I returned, I noticed a cute little pastry sitting right in front of my seat.
"It looks delicious. What did you get for us?" I asked as I sat down in my chair.
"They are called space cakes. They sounded super cool." I hummed at this.
"They do have a cool name. Alright, let's eat up." We practically inhaled our dessert. We loved the pastries so much we decided to get some to go.
"Here is your check. I hope you enjoyed it." We both just nodded our heads.
"Absolutely delicious. Say, do you know any great places where we could see the stars?" He grabbed the money out of my hands for the bill.
"Of course, I know one just about ten-fifteen minutes from here." Awesome, it's super close. He went ahead and wrote down on a napkin direction of how to get there, which I was very thankful for. I was a very visual person. He was back shortly with our change, but I just told him to keep it as a tip, which expressed his gratitude. Always, always, tip your servers.
Hope and I decided to walk to the location rather than get a cab there. We wanted to explore and see more of the wonderful city. We saw many canals on our journey that were absolutely gorgeous. This place in and of itself was breathtaking.
Due to our fast pace walking and hitchhiking halfway through, we made it to our destination within an hour. It took us another hour to get to this lookout point, and the server was completely right; this view is stunning. I look over at Hope to find her mouth parted slightly and see that she was awe-stricken too.
We lay down next to each other and got lost in the stars while we finished off our space cakes. We were pointing out constellations and connecting random dots to make animals and silly people.
I sat up, starting to feel a little weird. My heart seemed to have sped up; the world around me felt like it was moving in slow motion. I looked over to Hope, and she couldn't stop laughing.
"Hope, why are you laughing?" I started to laugh now. It was infectious.
"I don't know. I can't stop. Why are you laughing?" She kept laughing in between each of her words. She gripped her sides, and her whole body shook with laughter.
"I don't know either." I burst out laughing. I hurriedly covered my mouth from how loud I was being, but couldn't suppress my giggles. My sides were starting to hurt, and I had tears running down my face from laughing so much.
"Hope! Look over at that tree. Doesn't it look like a dinosaur? I shall name them Tony." She continued to laugh. No words could come out of her mouth, so she just nodded her head in agreement.
"I'm starving. Can we go back and get food?" She suddenly stopped laughing then looked down at her growling stomach. I just laughed.
"Yeah. We. Can. Oh, your stomach is talking." I could not for the life of me stop laughing, and it seemed that anytime we were getting to a point where we would stop, something happened again to set us off.
Once we were both standing up, we put our arms around each other's shoulders so we could both support each other. Our motor skills were practically nonexistent. The trip back to the main road seemed to take forever, yet it didn't. Honestly, everything seemed to morph together.
We hailed a cab back to the hostel and laughed the whole way there. As soon as we got to the hostel, we couldn't get to the restaurant fast enough. We were absolutely famished.
"Oh my, I don't think I've ever been this hungry in my life." I looked over to Hope, who was completely out of it. I don't think she even heard a word I said. I softly nudged my shoulder to hers, and she finally acknowledged me.
"Hey, you okay?" I was getting kind of concerned her mood completely shifted.
"Yeah, I'm just hungry, and I feel so anxious." I just swung my arm over her shoulder and brought her in close.
"I've got you," I said as I kissed the side of her head.
We made our way to one of the tables to sit and order some food. We decided to get a combination plate, which was filled with thirteen different items to try. We scarfed that food down within minutes. We waved down our server.
"Can we please get some more to eat?" The server chuckled.
"Sure, you both eat a lot." I just shrugged my shoulders.
"I've never been this hungry in my life. I've never had an appetite like this." Our server just looked at me and scanned my face intently before turning towards Hope and analyzing her as well.
"What have you guys eaten today?" Hope spoke up.
"We had brunch. Oh, and these delicious desserts are called space cakes. They are so good! Do you sell them here as well?" Our server's eyes grew wide.
"Oh. You guys are so high right now." I looked at her, shocked.
"No way. We haven't smoked or done anything." The server just chuckled and shook their head.
"Space cakes are edibles. How many did you both eat?" My anxiety started to flare.
"Two each," Hope responded for the both of us.
"Yeah, you both are going to have one hell of a night. I'll be right back with your food. You wanted the same thing, right?" Hope just hummed, signaling that was correct. I felt Hope now right beside me.
"Hey, everything is going to be okay." She softly rubbed my shoulders.
"How can you say that? I've never been high before. Oh my god, I'm going to die, aren't I?" Hope laughed at this.
"Not at all. We are going to be just fine. We just have to ride out this high." My anxiety calmed down a bit, but as soon as the food was placed in front of me, my anxiety went completely away.
As soon as we were done and our food was paid for, Hope grabbed my hand and led me out to the dance floor.
"Come on, let's go dance." I smiled and let her lead the way. Some upbeat, no doubt popular song, was playing. I couldn't understand a single word, but my body was fluent with the rhythm. Hope and I danced around for hours, laughing and savoring every moment.
"Come on, Hope. Let's go to bed. We have an early bus to catch tomorrow." She laced her finger with mine, and this time, I led the way to our destination. The room we were staying in had bunk beds, but Hope and I shared a bed. She melded into me; our warmth mingled together till they were one. I put my arm over her midsection and brought her closer to me, letting her calming scent and soft breaths lull me to sleep.