Time Is On Your Side

I was doing so well with updating this right after fun things happened for a little while, and now I'm getting a bit more lax about it! Jessie just reminded me that I hadn't written about last weekend yet. My apologies, because I know you've all been waiting with bated breath.

Last weekend I went to AMSTERDAM. It was a trip organized by my housing complex, so a lot of people who live near me went, as well as several of my friends who live around here and a few who live across town. Amsterdam isn't that far from the UK, unless you go by bus/ferry. Which is what we did. So, at 2pm last Thursday, 300 students climbed aboard 2 double decker buses, and off we went into the sunset (er, daytime?). Drive Drive Drive. 12 hours later, we arrive in Dover in the south of England. No that wasn't a typo. 12 hours. Unfortunately, the white cliffs of Dover are not so white at 2 am. Anyway, we got on a ferry--bus and all--headed for Calais, France. A few hours across the channel, and off we got. Still in our bus. Our bus from the UK, which is designed for UK roads, which are the exact opposite of cars in America and Europe. Do you get what I'm going for here? Our driver is on the right side of the GIGANTIC bus, but we are also driving on the right side of the road. Yeah. Terrifying.

Anyway, he seemed to do a pretty good job (well, they, since there were two drivers per bus). Through France we went, stopping in Belgium to refuel. So in the span of about 15 hours I had touched ground in Scotland, England, France, and Belgium. Insane. It's kind of like when people from the Mid West come to New England, and they're shocked that in 3 hours you can go from Vermont to New Hampshire to Massachusetts since they couldn't even get to the border of whatever massive state they live in by then. Except with countries.

Another EXTREME difference about this bus trip was that every single person on the bus was drunk. I'm talking hammered, trashed, wasted, etc. On the bus. A moving vehicle, with probably several hundred open containers on it and windows the size of, well, bus windows. My group of friends was the only group not drinking, because we had no idea that this was acceptable. And honestly, I'm pretty sure it's not legal. But no one even thought twice about it. We marveled about how they could even stand up on the ferry after drinking for a solid 12 hours without stopping. Then we saw the line of people outside of the bus, throwing up. Everything was clearer then, and we were pretty happy we weren't among them.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 8 or so the next morning, about 2 hours ahead of schedule. Our hostel wasn't anything special; large, with a particularly angry staff. Since we were early, only about half the rooms were ready. Fortunately, mine was among the half that was good to go, and I was able to go upstairs and change, wash my face, brush my teeth, lament my terrible hair, etc etc. Then it was out into the city!


I feel like I often go event by event in these posts, and it probably gets a little confusing. Since we did a lot of wandering around, looking at cute canals and tiny buildings, I'm going to format this post with the main places we hit first, and then comment a bit on the city itself:

1. The Anne Frank huis. This was one of the most interesting things I saw in Amsterdam. It's not just the annex where the Franks hid with their friends, but a museum filled with information about Anne and her life and things about the war. The whole thing led up to the annex, which is kept empty just like the SS left it after discovering the people hiding there. As you walk through, it's so strange to think that people could actually survive there without leaving. It's so dark and small. There are still clippings and photos on the wall in Anne's room, which she put up to make the place feel nicer. All through the museum, quotes from her diary are written on the walls where they fit with what you're seeng. Descriptions, information, etc. It makes the whole experience much more moving, and it reminds you that what you're seeing is the real thing. At the end, there's a display case with the original diary in it. I don't know why, but I really wasn't expecting to actually see it. It's easy to just think of it as a book that you read in middle school, and you forget that it's actually a little girl's diary. Very moving. Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Amsterdam. We were lucky that we went there first, because when we left the line was wrapped around the building.
2. Dam Square. One of the main tourist spots in Amsterdam, we wandered off to Dam square by following a road of clothing stores. It's got your typical European tourist city attraction: human statues/people dressed up like movie characters (in this case, it was Darth Vader and the Mask). It's very pretty, but kind of overwhelming because of all the people. The royal palace is there (I think?) as well as Madame Toussauds, in case you need to look at wax people while you're in Amsterdam.
3. The flower market. This place has a name, but I lost my map with all the little tourist attractions labeled, so I can't remember what it is. I was super excited to go here, because I love flowers and I was hoping that there would be a good selection even though it's only March. At first, I was sorely disappointed. Everything we saw when we went in was silk! About to lose hope, I wandered towards the back of the first stall, only to find that THAT is where all the real flowers are kept. It was very very beautiful. They have all sorts of funny things there, like cactii (sp?) and cannabis "starter kits." Hilarious.
4. Rembrandtplein. This was another square, much smaller than Dam square and skirted by pubs and cafes instead of Madame Toussauds. There were artists set up, peddling their wares, as well as musicians (like an accordian player!) playing all around for the entertainment of the people sitting outside the cafes. There's also a lot of greenery which was nice. We sat in a cafe and had an Amstel Bock, which is a beer from Holland. Not my favorite, since I don't really care for beer, but it was pretty good and definitely better than Heineken.
5. I AMsterdam. This is a silly sign, but I really like it. Pretty self explanatory and I'm sure you've all seen it before in pictures.
6. Van Gogh Museum. I spent a really long time in here and everyone I was with had to wait. Oops. Van Gogh has never been my favorite artist, but I really enjoyed seeing his work from start to finish. It changed SO MUCH from the first painting to the last. There was also a special exhibit which had Starry Night, his most famous painting. We were lucky, because I think it usually belongs in New York City and it was on loan for awhile (which seems wrong but whatever). I actually missed it the first time around, because of the way I looked at the museum (first floor through third, then went down to the basement where the special exhibit was, and didn't realize it ALSO had three floors!). But my friends laughed and guided me back to the right place. People were not very nice in this museum. They were kind of pushy.
7. Red Light District. We started at the Sex Museum, which I thought would be fun and kitschy but by the end was a bit much for me. There were pornographic photos in there from 1890! Good God! Then we wandered around the streets of the district. Honestly, I had heard about the whole women standing in windows thing. It still didn't prepare me for the reality. We saw SO MANY women, and we saw a whole lot of rooms that were occupied (in the middle of the day, even!), and we saw money exchange hands a few times, too. It was a super intense experience. Obviously you aren't allowed to take photos, for privacy reasons. I heard that you shouldn't even have your camera out, because they'll just take it from you. And if you try to take a photo of one of the girls specifically, they'll honestly throw a cup of urine on you. Intense. But totally valid. Needless to say, I left my camera safely tucked away.
8. Vondelpark. A very pretty park near where our bus picked us up to go home. Didn't have much time to walk through but I saw the entrance and had a short walk around. It was very pretty, and made me feel like spring was coming.

So those were the main sights to see in Amsterdam. I'm sure we missed a bunch of things, because we honestly just wandered around. They made ME navigate for a lot of it, and fortunately I didn't get us terribly lost. Other than these sights, we had a good time hanging out with the people we traveled with, many of whom we didn't know beforehand. There was a pub night the first night we were there, but we were too exhausted to enjoy it much, so we went to bed pretty early. Saturday night there was a pub crawl, which ended up being a lot of fun. Unfortunately, because there were so many of us we rented out entire places at a time, so there were no local people to mingle with. Oh well. That's what you get for traveling in such a large group. We also experienced STROOPWAFELS which are these amazing cookie/waffle/maple syrup deliciousness that I don't really know how to explain. They sold them for very low prices pretty much everywhere. Chloe told me there was a guy who made them fresh, but we didn't get the chance to find him! Next time I'm in Amsterdam, though...

I shall leave you with a happy picture, designed to induce happy thoughts until we meet again: