Amsterdam

Two weeks ago a group of us traveled to Amsterdam.  It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend after Kenna, Katherine and I had worked our tails off putting our final project for International Issues Reporting together.  Amsterdam has a very distinct reputation, but there really is more than meets the eye.

In order to get to the airport for our 7 am flight, we had to catch a bus at three in the morning.  Just one of the many perks of flying cheaply.  We opted not to sleep, not that there was really any time to.  It wasn’t until 1:00 or so that we finished our presentation, and then there was the whole matter of packing.

Somehow, we pulled ourselves together in time and headed to the bus station.  We spent then next 5 hours traveling and waiting to travel, until we finally touched down in Amsterdam around 10 in the morning.  It was the first time in my life I had been someplace where I couldn’t speak the language or at least decipher the language to some extent.  I think it was Mike who said that whoever invented the Dutch language must have just thrown down some Scrabble letters in no particular order and called it a day.  The language barrier made it difficult to figure out where we were supposed to go to catch a train/bus/taxi to our hostel.  Luckily, most of the airport employees spoke English and pointed us in the right direction.

On the train, we ran into a couple of people from Washington DC.  Mike struck up a conversation with them, since he too is from Washington.  They gave us a few pointers of what to do and what to avoid.  The train took us to the central station where we had to take a tram to our hostel.  An attendant, seeing our obvious confusion, led us into a shop, ordered our tram tickets and told Mike to pay.  I think we got a deal or something.  None of us knew what was going on and the attendant, an old Dutch man, kept saying, “I’m the boss.  I’m the boss like Bruce Springsteen.”

We weren’t able to check into our hostel yet, but they let us drop off our bags, and we headed out to get something to eat.  Once 2:00 rolled around, we went back, checked in and headed to the room to take a nap.  When we got to our room, one suited for six people, someone’s stuff was already on one of the beds, spread across the dresser and hung up in the closet.  It was quite a bit of stuff, not something you’d expect to see at a hostel.  We were obviously intrigued by the situation, but not enough that we weren’t able to fall asleep.  For the next six hours.

When we woke up from our nap/the only sleep we’d gotten in the last 24 hours, our mystery sixth roommate was there.  She told us that she was from Finland and had been living at the hostel for 26 days because she had to move out of her apartment.  We never learned her name, but she was nice enough to answer the many other questions we had for her.

We got ourselves ready and left for dinner, where I accidentally spent five Euro on an orange juice.  I have to say it was the best (and most expensive) orange juice I’ve ever had.  Once everyone finished eating, we headed to the Red Light District.  I wouldn’t say the area was dirty or sketchy, but it does catch you off guard to see women basically selling themselves in the window fronts.  It also caught us off guard that men actually went inside.  It appeared that some of them were even regulars.

Then next day, we got up and decided that pancakes, a traditionally Dutch meal, were a must.  They were more of a mix between American pancakes and French crepes, but mostly they were just delicious.  Then our sightseeing began.  Amsterdam is a beautiful city filled with canals and quaint waterfront buildings.  It turned out to be a really sunny day, which was perfect since we walked for about six hours that day.  Our first stop was the house Anne Frank and her family lived in while they were in hiding.  It was a really interesting experience, and so eerie to be walking through the rooms that the family stayed in.  The most touching things were the scraps of wallpaper that still had the posters and pictures Anne put up to decorate the space.  One of the other pieces had a height chart that her dad had put up to keep track of his daughters’ growth during the years they were there.

After the tour, we wanted to head back to the Van Gough museum near our hostel.  Unfortunately, we turned the wrong way, and ended up walking until we were off the map.  We stopped in at a shop to ask where we were, and realized we had gone 20 minutes in the opposite direction.  That meant we had about a 45-minute walk back.  By the time we arrived at the museum, it was only going to be open for 45 more minutes.  I opted out and decided to just buy a postcard instead.  We reconvened at the hostel and went out to grab dinner and walk around some more.  We saved room for waffles though!  Another Dutch specialty, the waffles could be topped with anything from fruit to powdered sugar to ice cream.  I think we all tried something different, but they must have been good because we devoured them.

Other interesting food we ate on our trip included croquettes that we got from a warm food vending machine.  We also bought some Stroopwafels, more sugary Dutch fare, to share.  They were basically really thin waffles with a layer of caramel inside.  They were so sweet they made my teeth hurt, but I think they would’ve been great with a cup of coffee.

Our flight left Monday morning at 8, so we went to bed relatively early.  We got back to London an hour before class started.  Katherine, Kenna and I scrambled to make ourselves look presentable enough to stand in front of the class and talk about diversity in advertising for twenty minutes.  The presentation went well, but we were beat.

Thanks for Reading!

-Rachel

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