Amsterdam Recap!!

Hey Everyone!

So despite the craziness that is currently European travel, I am back in Lux! I am so lucky that I chose to go to Amsterdam on the train this weekend, it was easy and quick and I had no trouble at all getting there and returning at the times I planned. Other people from my program were not so lucky, and everyone’s flights were cancelled Thursday and Friday. People who left on Wednesday made it to there various destinations- Barcelona, Oslo, Dublin- but they are currently stuck there and wont be making it home until the end of the week! They have to miss a whole week of classes, which I am so thrilled I am not doing, that would make for stress and make up work which are not fun. I cant believe a random volcano in Iceland is doing so much damage!! Cross your fingers that by Wed night airspace will be operating normally! I have my last trip of the semester plan- I am supposed to fly to Barcelona on Wed night and stay til Sunday. Barcelona was/is one of my absolute CANNOT MISS cities, and I will be beyond sad if I miss it. My sister, who spent a semester there, will also be devastated if I don’t make it. Today, I am going to go to the train station to check into alternative ways to get there in case my flights are cancelled! Wish me luck!

But now, I want to tell you about Amsterdam! Right off the bat, I just want to say Amsterdam surprised me! Obviously, it is a city with a reputation that is not always positive! Many people think drugs and prostitution (both of which are legal) define the city, but take it from me, it is so much more than that! I found Amsterdam to be gorgeous, friendly, fun, and full of great things to see, eat, and do! I loved it, and would say it was one of the most unique and vibrant places I have been! I highly recommend it!

My trip started Friday afternoon. I had classes in the morning and right after had to head to Lux city to pick up my passport from the Ministry! I have had all kinds of problems with the process of getting my visa from them, and I was worried I would face another glitch and not be able to make it in time for my 2:20 train. Luckily, everything went smoothly and I got my passport- with my visa stamp inside it (its pretty cool)- with time to spare. I was going on this weekend trip with a friend from Miami named Cody, and we were meeting up with some of my UVa friends once we got there. I was so thankful Cody was coming along, originally I was going with my friend Kelly but she cancelled at the last minute and luckily Cody was able to fill her spot. Before this blog starts rumors, just want to clarify Cody is just a friend and absolutely no romance between us (he is actually not interested in anyone of my gender to be clear) and I am still happily dating that boy in Roanoke, VA.

So Cody and I boarded the 2:20 and headed to the Netherlands. It was about a 6.5 hour journey in total, we had to go to Brussels and change trains halfway through. The trip really didn’t seem that long (I must be getting used to trains) and it went by quickly. I bought an English novel at the train station and spent a good chunk of the ride reading. (Its weird, English paperbacks aren’t that expensive, but magazines are ridiculous! It would of cost me the same to buy either, so I went for the book). I also chatted with Cody a lot, he is a history major and pre-law too, so we have a lot in common!

We got into Amsterdam around 9pm and I called my friend Clare to meet up. Clare is the friend who I went to Dublin with and visited in Lyon. Originally we had planned to meet up in Amsterdam once during the semester, but then luckily all the other visits/trips worked out too! I cant believe we managed to meet up 3 times, I wasn’t even sure if we would be able to work out one! It has been so fun and I am so glad I did! We had some trouble meeting Clare- there was confusion about which station we had come into- but in the end it worked out. She had gotten there earlier and found our hostel so was able to guide us there. It was a bit of a walk- 20 or 30 minutes- but it was nice because we were able to see the city a little bit, even in the dark. Despite its reputation, Amsterdam is quite beautiful, and very unique from other cities I have visited. It is full of two things- canals and bikes. The canals are wider than in Venice and there are streets as well- but the canals run everywhere and I loved to look at all the small boats and houseboats that line them. Biking is the preferred mode of transportation, and I am not lying when I say they are everywhere. On our walk back we decided Amsterdam was a good place to get hit by some kind of vehicle- there are lots of options including bikes, scooters, trams, buses, and cars- so we better watch out. Clare also told us on the way that there had been a problem with our hostel booking- something went wrong on hostelworld.com- and we would all three in different rooms tonight. Apparently though, we would be put in a private 3 bedroom the next night to make up for the confusion. We agreed this would be fine, as long as we had a place to sleep! We checked in and put our stuff down- each in our separate rooms- then decided to explore the town. As we were walking and comparing notes on our room, Cody and I realized we had probably been switched- my roommates appeared to be guys and his girls- but decided not to worry about it since we had already locked our stuff in a locker in our rooms and didn’t want to make a fuss that night.

That night, we set out to explore the city and decided to make a trip to the Red Light District. We weren’t going there to engage in all the craziness that goes on there, we just wanted to see it with our own eyes- everyone told us it was an experience that you just had to witness yourself. I would agree with this. I would never want to stay there, or probably even go back, but I am glad I saw it. Basically it is a few blocks full of sex shops, coffee shops (where they sell marijuana and other soft drugs), and windows where real prostitutes stand in skimpy outfits and attempt to lure in customers. The women in the windows were the worst part to see, I couldn’t help but wonder what their story was- how did they get there and how did they feel about their job? Were they really happy? What made them enter into that profession? And what kind of men really visited them? It was pretty disgusting to see and I mostly felt sorry for the girls. After awhile of wondering, our feet got tired and we decided to take a rest in a bar/coffeshop. We had a beer- Heineken of course- and just talked. We were all pretty tired and knew we had a full day the next day, so we called it a night after a little bit. I went back and slept in my all male dorm- ha- but luckily none of my roommates were there when I returned so I had some privacy.

The next day, we got up early and began our journey to the most famous tulip gardens in the world- Kukenhof. The park is outside of the city and we had to take two buses to get there, but it wasn’t a difficult trip and probably took about 45 minutes. We were boarding the second bus when outside the window in line we saw our friend Diana, another tri-sig from UVA who is studying in Paris! We had planned on meeting up with her and the two friends from her program that she was with at some point this weekend, and although we both were going to the gardens in the morning, we didn’t expect our rendez-vous to be so easy! We rode the bus together and were able to catch up a ton. Both of Diana’s friends also go to UVa, and it was great to be with a group of UVa people, just talking about life and gossip back in cville. We also talked a lot about their semester so far in Paris, they absolutely love the City of Lights just like me, and it was cool to here about the experience of living there! We chatted all the way to the park, and when we arrived, explored the grounds together. It was so beautiful. I adore tulips, and this was the place for me. We were lucky enough to be there during the prime season of tulip bloom, literally mi-April is prime season, so all the flowers were in glorious, peak form. I was surprised by how big the gardens are, you could literally wander through the grounds for hours and not be bored. There were rows are rows of gorgeous flowers, mostly tulips but with other types mixed in as well. My favorite part was the arrangement of different types and colors of flowers, there would be rows of deep, vivid purple, next to a bright, vibrant red, next to a pure, serene white. I loved it all and most definitely plan to use these tulips in my wedding one day, so I better remember to get married in spring, when the tulips are in peak form! This is something that no matter how much I describe it, I can’t do it justice, so check out my photos on fbook!

After visiting the gardens for several hours, climbing to the top of a model windmill on the grounds, and buying a little miniature pair of wooden clogs (its tiny and I couldn’t resist), we headed back to the city center for the afternoon. It was getting close to 2pm and we soon realized we were starving for lunch. After wandering a little bit, we decided to have lunch at a place that advertised itself as a “pancake house.” I’m not sure what traditional Dutch food is, but apparently pancakes and bagels are huge in the Netherlands, we saw restaurants selling them everywhere! All of us were really excited by this taste of America, and were fantasizing about a stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes covered in syrup. We were a little surprised when we read the menu and saw the EXTENSIVE, and boy do I mean extensive collection of pancakes they offered – they had everything from banana and chocolate to bacon, cheese, and pineapple to chorizo pizza- but we still were optimistic. I chose one with chicken, cheese, pineapple, and raisins. Random I know, but it sounded intriguing and I was craving something both salty and sweet so I just went for it. In the end, it was good, but it was a far cry from a pancake stack. It was more like a huge thick, semi fluffy but odd crepe. The cheese and pineapple combo was good though, and we were all so hungry we scarfed down those strange dough things!

We then walked through the city center to a quite famous Amsterdam landmark, the Heineken Factory! I had visited the Guinness Factory in Dublin and really enjoyed it even though I don’t really like Guinness, so since I actually enjoy Heineken, I was uber excited for this tour! It was pretty similar to its Irish counterpart, but perhaps had more interactive, technology based exhibits. You basically walk through rooms with fun exhibits, games, and displays, and learn as much as you can about what the Dutch believe is the best beer ever. A highlight was when Clare, Diana, and I made a video on this one program. It records whatever you want and then sends the video to any person of your choice through email. We decided to send it to not just one but over a hundred people- our whole sorority (we have a list serve that makes it possible to send one email to this many people). It was a funny time and I hope it gave them a laugh, I miss those lovely tri sigs!

The best part of tour came at the end, of course, because that is where they reward your attention with FREE BEER! Each person gets a wrist band with two tokens that they are theoretically supposed to redeem for two beers. We were told by our friends however, that you could definitely turn two tokens into many more beers, especially if you used your charms on the young and attractive male bartenders. We did that, and we must have been very charming because we got quite a few free brews! It was also one of Diana’s friends bdays on Sundays, so we milked that to our advantage. In the end, I am proud to say they had to repeatedly tell us to leave when the bar was closing at seven, we just were having too much fun with our free beer! Feeling substantially happier, we eventually left and made our way back to the hostel to freshen up before the night.

At the hostel, we were slightly annoyed (ok, more than slightly but I don’t dwell on the negative) to learn that the room situation hadn’t been fixed and we would be sleeping in different rooms again. We finally managed to convince them of their wrongdoing, and they put me and Clare in a 4 girl dorm and Cody in a private. It ended up working out because we could just store all of our stuff in Cody’s room and not worry about a locker, but it was still lame. Overall, this is the worst experience with a hostel I have had in Europe, so that is saying something about how awesome my accommodations have been! I really can’t complain, I have had great luck so far!

That night, we enjoyed the craziness that is Amsterdam’s nightlife. We hopped around the bustling main square that was full of fun bars, coffeeshops, and clubs and just took it in. We were pretty relaxed and spent most of the night talking and people watching rather than dancing, but it was just what we needed after a busy day. We had some delicious eats during our night out as well, for dinner we went to a place called Wok to Walk, basically a “fast food” Asian place where you pick your noodles, sauce, and toppings and they make a personal stir fry right there for you. It was sooo good, thinking of it right now is making me hungry!! Also, several hours later in the wee hours of the morning we got “birthday mcflurries” to celebrate it being our friends actual birthday. This one was quite delicious, it had waffle cone pieces and caramel swirled in, and I inhaled it. Yum! Overall, a really fun night! I am so glad Cody got to meet my friends from UVa and that they got along so well! We made a good group!

The next morning, we were pretty tired, but squeezed in some more activities before we had to leave mid afternoon. After a quick hostel breakfast, we headed to the Anne Frank House, a place I had really been looking forward to visiting. It is a museum housed in the actual secret annex where Anne and her family hid during the war. I read the book quite a long time ago, but I remember really enjoying it and thinking Anne was a very brave young girl. The museum was really interesting and it was fascinating to learn more about her and her family’s lives. Tragically, all of the 8 people living in the annex, except Anne’s father, were killed during the Holocaust. Although Auschwitz had a greater impact on me emotionally, this museum really highlighted the personal suffering caused by the war and Final Solution and was moving in its own way. I am really glad I was able to visit it!

After the tour, we stopped for lunch at another place that had been recommended – Bagels and Beans- an adorable coffee and bagel chain found around Amsterdam. This time, the food did not disappoint! I had a whole wheat bagel with aged Dutch cheese, pickles, sweet mustard, and warm pine nuts. Sounds random I know, but it was incredible. The aged cheese was awesome and you could taste how fresh it was. I could almost imagine the quaint Dutch cow it had come from. The mustard was very good too and just added an extra burst of flavor. I am still craving bagels from Panera and Bodos and cant wait to eat them when I get home, but this was a great Euro spin on one of my favorite foods, and I really enjoyed it. The restaurant itself also just had a nice atmosphere and a warm, sunny vibe. Clare and I also loved that we could order LARGE coffees (a rare species in Europe) that came in huge mugs along with a huge basket of various sugar cubs and gumdrops! If you go to Amsterdam, check this place out I tell you!

After lunch, it was time to board our train. The journey home was about six hours, but this time it went even faster than before. Cody and I talked a lot again, and I got to know him so well it was great! I also read my book (the new novel by the author of the Shopaholic series) and it was excellent. I was home and settled in by 9!

Overall, a great weekend filled with new and old friends, yummy food, gorgeous flowers, tasty beer, more canals and bikes than I can count, and some history thrown in. So glad I got to go to Amsterdam, it was such a pleasant surprise!

Hope you are well!
Going to do a separate post about my plans for this weekend, which have changed drastically but are still good (I wrote the beginning of this post Monday morning and now it is Tuesday night).

Love you guys!


Care