This weekend could have been the greatest weekend of my life. I'm not 100% sure, but its a safe bet. anyways, let me start by saying trains are not as easy to catch as you may think. For example, last thursday, Nathan,Brittany, and I needed to go to Leige, which is a few stations down fr the Maastricht station. We had 3 hours of break between classes so right after class we headed out. We were speedwalking the whole way there, even started sprinting at the end. But of coarse, right as we get to the station the trains doors shut and it pulled away. It was a classic.
Luckily, we didn't miss a single train this weekend. after that experience, we get to train stations pretty early. So thursday after class, we pack our giant backpacks and get on a train to Amsterdam. So we pull in, and the first thing we see when we get off the train was a giant beautiful church, the river, and a garage of bikes. The directions to the hostel were difficult though. It is so easy to get lost in that city let me tell ya. It took us about 30 minutes to find our hostel, and when we did... I was shocked. Not to complain or anything, but I was so scared to sleep there. We check in and go up to the room, and I got even more freaked out. There were 5 beds in the room and 3 of us were staying in the room which meant 2 other people were staying in the same room. It was definitely weird... btu we locked our backpacks up and went to dinner.
I had pizza for dinner but the pizza was so good at this place! The waiters arent very attentive anywhere around here, but the food was good so I was happy. After dinner, we walked around Amsterdam, and there were so many people on the square! We stopped at a few places and ran into some other Baylor students which made this country seem real small. After chillin with them for a while, we decided to walk down and witness the Red Light District. This felt like the longest walk of my life and none of us thought we were going to find it but we did. And it was a very eyeopening experience.
The street is lined with 3 things: Bars, prostitutes, and red lights. And when you hear that prostitutes have their own windows, they mean they have their own 6 ft tall 3 ft wide window. Most of them were dancing in front of their window, motioning for people to come to them, and even bargaining with potential clients. I, personally, thought it was sad to see all these girls selling themselves so openly. This was not a private street for potential buyers. It was a street open to the public and everyone that walks by sees them. Maybe it was just culture shock, but I found it very surreal.
We finally start making our way back to the hostel, and by the time we get there it was about 2 in the morning. When I walked into the room, I thought the other 2 people seeping were girls and that made me feel a little safer, and I went to bed. When I woke up the next morning, I looked up and saw they were guys, but hey, I had made it through the night safe so I wasn't worried. We went downstairs for "breakfast" which ended up actually being a piece of bread. Yum. But we checked out of the hostel by 10 and we were on our way to the Van Gogh museum. It was kind of pricy, but it was HUGE and I actually learned quite a bit about art history. We stayed there for a few hours, but were all driven out by hunger because our breakfast wasn't exactly filling.
The guy at the museum suggested a burger place for lunch and gave us directions, but following directions in foreign cities is the hardest thing I've ever done. We never made it to the burger place, but we ended up at a sandwich shop and enjoyed some paninis for lunch instead. We were in the middle of who knows where Amsterdam, but we had ended up close to our next destination; The Anne Frank House.
The Anne Frank house was probably the coolest museum this weekend. It took you through the house she hid in and told us a ton of history. It makes kme want to go visit a concentration camp when I get to Germany. But anyways, that was the last of our adventures in Amsterdam and we hoped on the next train to Rotterdam.
I'll tell ou about Rotterdam tomorrow because I am exhausted and have to get up early tomorrow to study. But until then, I hope everything in Texas is well and even though it might feel "nice" here I miss the weather!
Lauren, Your dad gave me the blog site. Sounds like you did Amsterdam right. There is alot of things to do in that country besides the city of A, I'm sure you will get to most of it. As you may have found out, street shoes are better than flip flops when your doing that much walking. Have a good time. You didn't go to the Bulldog did you?
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