Amsterdam, ma'am

Last weekend on a whim my friends and I went to Amsterdam (my friends = Julie, Alex from USD, Cyndee from Manhattenville). So we found a cheap flight and a cheap hostel on Thurs and flew to the Netherlands on Friday.



We left our manor to start our adventure at 4:15am on Fri. We took a taxi to a bus and a bus to Heathrow (airport). We got to the airport and the airlines (KLM) told Alex that she had no reservation. Oh my goodness, what trouble that caused. Good thing we got to the airport a couple of hours early! Apparently because we bought our tickets through lastminutetravel.com, and lastminutetravel.com had some problem with processing Alex's ticket (which they didn't alert her about until 5 hours prior to the flight via email), KLM just had Alex's name and no reservation to go with it. So she was on the phone for a while and we spent a good hour at the service counter and finally the woman agreed to sell Alex a cheap ticket for the flight we were on. She had to wait on standby, but in the end she got on our flight. Whew.



So we got into Amsterdam and walked around for a while. Alex's roommate is Dutch and she told us some places to go visit. We went to a shopping district and walked around that for a while and then decided to find somewhere to eat for dinner.



Then we went to our hostel by a ferry. Our hostel was a boat and the bottom level of it had been converted to a dorm type sleeping area. It wasn't exactly a five-star resort, but what can you really expect from a hostel anyways. The only real downside was that I wasn't prepared for how cold it was going to be at night. What a silly Arizona girl I am.



The next day we went to the Anne Frank House. First we got lost because we had a map taking us to the Anne Frankhuis which apparently is not the same thing - it was quite far from the actual Anne Frank House. We got there and then decided that the line was incredibly long and the ticket was too much. So I at least saw where she was in hiding from the outside.



From there we went to the Van Gogh museum. That was pretty spectacular. Not only was the collection fabulous, but the outside stairs provided a gorgeous view of Amsterdam and the park nearby.



Following the Van Gogh museum visit, we went to a little Italian resturaunt for dinner. We had a 3 course meal for pretty cheap - it was the first real meal we had eaten thus far on the trip.



After dinner we went to a dischotech that had been recommended to us by our hostel-owner (his name was Captain Rene - isn't that precious?). It's name is Dansen bij Jansen (pronounced Dancin by Yansin - in English it would be Dancing by Johnson) and it's the "student" club. This translates, apparently, into a cheap club. It didn't have what I would call attractive interior decorating. But the music was good. They played some hip-hop, some techno, and some house music.



Unfortunatly everyone was smoking in the club so, because of the lack of shower facilities, I smelled pretty gross until I got home on Sunday. The air was so thick with smoke it was like a fog machine. Ew.



Also, unfortunatly, people were being rude and when they finished their drinks they would just drop them to break into pieces on the dance floor.
Plus, Europeans dance very oddly. They kind of bounce to their own beat and flail their arms wildly.



The next morning we flew back to London and then made the multiple bus journey back to our manor, exhausted and smelly. But it was worth it to see Asmterdam - it is so pretty!



I tried some french fries with mayo (it's a Dutch thing) and it's not too bad, just very heavy. It is served to you in a cone!



Everyone rides bikes. EVERYONE. I almost got hit by a bike like 3 times. And they have those little bike bells that they ring as a substitute for a horn. But they aren't by any means forceful enough and give you hardly any warning that you might be standing in a bike lane.

this building was right outside of the train station - what is it? I don't know.
our hostel-boat. It was called the "Marietta"
this store had cows on the ceiling - those crazy DutchI was very excited to try frittes (fries) out of a cone with mayonaise

They also had "american sauce" as a topping - I sampled it and it tasted like odd spicey vegetables, not like America

view from the Van Gogh museum
look how artistic I am, I got the "Van Gogh Museum" sign in this picture

this is the Palace in the Dam Square. Did you know that the Netherlands still has a royal family? The current Queen is Queen Bellatrix. She uses this palace for entertaining foreign guests. This picture doesn't really capture the beauty of the palace. It looks like what I would imagine the Winter Palace in Russia to look like. Think about the Anastasia movie, for reference. another picture of the palace - myself, Alex, and Cyndee are in the bottom corner. I'm the one in the black jacket and black hat, green shirt.
The Palace is on the left side and another beautiful building is on the right.
a 3 floor parking garage for BICYCLES!!!! No wonder the Dutch are so thin - they don't drive cars, just ride their bikes everywhere.
this cafe didn't allow food that comes in cones (frittes and ice cream)
view of a street in Amsterdam. I think this perfectly captures the essence of Amsterdam - canals, bikes, no sunshine.
Did I mention how cold it was? Brrrrrrrr.

Well, that's about it!

Fun fact: in England they don't say "zee" for the letter "z" - they say "zed"