I'm not sure that a post can do our trip to Amsterdam this weekend justice, but I am going to try!
After taking 2 exams on Friday morning, it was off to Amsterdam....for me, Juliet, and Esther it was via Charles de Gaulle airport, for the rest of our 14 person group is was via unknown French, Belgian, and Dutch roadways (I think I made the right choice). Our train ride to the airport was perfectly timed and without any major events, unless you count the karaoke singer on the RER who decided to perform upwards of 5 montages complete with background music and special effects. We walked right into the Air France terminal, printed off our boarding passes and headed through security without anyone even taking a glance at Esther's passport. We had a whole row to ourselves on the plane and had a very enjoyable flight which consisted of the sticky-note game, takeoff, cokes and tortellini crackers, and then immediate touchdown. We walked off the plane in Amsterdam, out of Shiphol airport and onto a train, once again without anyone so much as glancing at our passports. We somehow managed to navigate ourselves to the hostel via one train, one tram, and a lot of walking. Inspired by the name and nice website we had hopes (or at least I did) for the Flying Pig Hostel, but we turned out to be very wrong....
We walked into a tiny little building and squeezed ourselves and our bursting bags down the 2 feet wide staircase to the reception area....which was actually a bar and lounge room with a small desk to one side. Upon checking in we were told that due to overbookage, our 8 person hostel room would be broken up into 2 rooms of 4 (translation in our heads: 2 separate rooms with 4 beds each, no problem!) however after we paid she gave us the sheet with our room numbers on it which looked like this: (room 11 beds 1, 3, 5, 6 - room 15 beds 2, 4, 6, 7). After we realized that this meant other people were sleeping in beds 2, 4, 7, 8, 1, 3, 5, and 8 the arguing began. She somehow managed to convince us that it was fine and that there was nothing we could do about it so we placidly accepted free drink chips and stalked off to put our stuff down. With three keys to room 11 in hand we decided it couldn't be that bad and with a lot of pep talking from Esther we thought maybe it could be a good experience.....then we walked into room 11 and found 2 girls in combat boots passed out on their beds, there was also another pair lined up against the wall. After about 2 minutes of gaping at each other and our "roommates" we stalked right back down the 2 foot stairs and attempted to argue our way into an 8 person room. Instead we ended up getting an 8 person room for the next night and keys to room 15 so we could decide which of the roommates were better. Luckily, room 15 was much better; the girls were from upstate New York and much nicer/lacking combat boots. We decided we could live with them for one night and pawned the combat boot girls off on the people in our group who had yet to arrive.
We spent the rest of Friday night exploring Leisenplein, the lively little square about 5 minutes from the hostel. We ate dinner at a Mexican Restaurant which had frites as a side with everything and found the best Belgium waffle place for dessert!
We woke up multiple times Saturday morning, first to a mysterious alarm clock, then to a "grizzly bear" snoring in the bed next to Lauren and me (she had refused to sleep in the combat room and was therefore sharing my bed), and finally to our roommates getting dressed with the lights on way too early in the morning. After waking up for good we found an amazing Dutch Pancake Corner right down the road. I ordered a hot chocolate and junior apple pancake which turned out to be huge! It was kind of like a crepe but a little doughier in the middle and with the apples baked right on the top. While everyone else went to the Anne Frank house (which I had already seen) I found Westerkerk, the church in Amsterdam with the highest steeple. I then managed to stumble upon the Kath Kidson store, (which is Kitsch Kitchen in Dutch). Esther and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Amsterdam and loving the cute the apartments, canals, and boutiques. The people watching was also phenomenal…it was so refreshing to see the Dutch women wearing color as opposed to France where for 95% of the people, back is the color of choice. We stopped for coffee at a cafe just in time for it to start pouring so we ended up taking the tram back to the Flying Pig.
We met up with the rest of our group at the hostel and then ventured out for dinner after deciding it wasn’t worth it to shower in the small and dirty bathrooms with questionable towels. Our original plan was to try a restaurant called Envy we had passed earlier…so we all trekked through the POURING rain for 20 minutes just to find out they had a 1.5 hour wait. So we wandered around some more, cold, wet, and famished until we finally stumbled into an Italian restaurant. After dinner we went to walk around the Red Light District…it was definitely something to see while in Amsterdam but after having seen it I have no desire to go back!
We woke up on Sunday morning and went to buy postcards and visit the I Amsterdam sign at the Museumplein. I felt like I was at Amsterdam’s version of the bean…everyone there was having their own photo shoot. After walking around the plaza, Juliet, Esther, and I had to book it to the airport. We made it just in time to grab a sandwich before boarding another short and easy flight. We were once again amazed to walk out of Charles de Gaulle airport without so much as a glimpse of customs or security.
Getting off the plane from Amsterdam and STILL being in a foreign country was a little weird, but then I realized how truly lucky I am that although such a fun weekend had to end, the next day I would be starting another fabulous week in the city of Paris!
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