My Amsterdam Weekend

July 30

Today was just not my day at all!!!!! I woke up so tired and not wanting to go to work at all! Then I froze all the way to work because I didn’t wear my sweats. It was like 90 degrees on Friday and sunny and today it was freezing and windy! Thankfully the morning went by fast but then when I left work it was still freezing and raining! I had to ride back in the rain and I was so cold when I got back!

Then I feel asleep again when I meant to work out and this time it was on the phone with Will. I was just so cold that I got under the covers to talk to him real fast (completely prepared in workout clothes and everything) and next thing I know, I woke up to the loud sound my phone makes when the person on the other end hangs up! So then I put my sweats and jacket on to go back to work and it looked still overcast, rainy, and cold but it was hot! When I got back to the center, the worst part of my day happened. I just had some not so fun times because I got into a confrontation with a staff member and it really did nto go weel. I ended up crying more than once at work it kind of sucked.

Then I tried to eat some amazing looking left over chicken wings but they were gross and still red on the inside so all I ate was a pb& j sandwich and WAY too much left over cake. Yeah real healthy… I definitely feel a lot better about myself from Friday not working out, a ton of unhealthy and huge portions of food all weekend, and not working out today… yay…. NOT. Tomorrow some changes are going to happen.

July 29

So we got back in from the Red Light district about 12:30 am and we actually got the most sleep I have gotten my entire trip here!!! We slept in until 8:15!!! It was amazing! It was also nice to go to sleep with the Olympics going on and wake up… we were always watching reruns and the live stuff it was so cool to watch. After we got all packed up we went to the restaurant right underneath us for breakfast. I got some French toast and coffee. It was really tasty! They make it differently than we do in the states but I couldn’t really understand what the waitress was saying. All I know was I put some strawberry jam, syrup, and powder sugar on it and it was amazing! After that we headed to the Anne Frank house. We got there before it opened and there was still a huge line already. We weren’t allowed to take any pictures inside, so I can’t show you what I saw, but all I can say was it was really intense! All the stairs were extremely steep (as in you were hitting your knee on the next stair up with every step)and creaked really bad. It was just such a crazy feeling being inside her house! All along the walls were excerpts from her diary as well as explanations on what used to be in that room (because all the rooms were unfurnished. Her dad wanted it that way). There were also videos from different people that knew her. One was her dad talking about how parents never really know their children because the whole time he never knew she had all these fears and thoughts because she never showed them. We got to see where they hid (in the back of the house behind a bookshelf doorway) and how the rooms were set up. One room was a couples bedroom, the living room, and the kitchen. It was just absolutely insane and almost a weird eerie feeling as you walked through the house. I kept imagining how they ever got by without making any sound or going anywhere. What really got me was the footage from the concentration camps and the war as well as the videos of people like her best friend and her dad talking. It just really made you think about what life was like and how people lived. She was only 13. I couldn’t imagine living and hiding like her… and too be able to write like her. I had that crazy feeling in my chest almost like on the verge of tears and my skin was cold and crawling. It was just unbelievable. I can’t even describe it any better than that. She described all the different rooms of this tiny, narrow, three story house that was really not good enough to live in. it was an unforgettable experience and it makes me really interested to see Dachau next weekend.

After the Anne Frank house we only had about an hour and a half before our train left… so what did we do??? Of course… more shopping. But this time I actually bought stuff. I found some cute little things that I actually thought were worth is and I was happy with the money I spent. Also while a lot of the girls were still searching all the stores, I went over to a cheese shop I saw earlier in the weekend and sampled some cheese. I ate green cheese!!! It was pesto cheese and I was completely intrigued. They had all types of cheese with all different flavors and they were all so good. It was like putting cheese and spread on a cracker but all in one little bite of cheese! I’m really glad I was able to try most of the food Holland is famous for before I left!

Then we had the train rides of hell coming back! Every train was delayed and our super long train ride took forever because it kept making random stops (for who knows what reason) in the middle of no whwre. We also had annoying people sitting around us, a rude ticket checker, and just an uncomfortable time in the train. It took us almost an hour and a half longer than it should have to get back. But all in all Amsterdam was pretty cool. Everyone there was so nice, helpful, and most of them spoke English. I am glad I got to visit and I really wish I could have gone to at least the Van Gough museum. I don’t think I will ever really want to go back to Amsterdam, but I am at least glad I got the experience.

July 28

So the 20 minute power nap actually worked out. I felt really energized and ready for the day. We finally made it to our first train on time and I literally just caught up on sleep by sleeping on every train into Amsterdam. When I finally woke up and started looking at what Holland was like I was really surprised at what I saw. It was so cool! It was a lot of fields, all the hosues were made of brick, and EVERYONE rode a bike! I also actually didn’t know Amsterdam bad a bunch of canals. So when we got to Amsterdam I thought it was so cool with all the canals throughout the city. The city was packed with people and there were bikes everywhere! They also have the right of way and will run you over if you are in the bike lane or in their way! It almost reminded me of San Francisco but in a different way. On the main street we were on there were restaurants, souvenir shops, and hotels galore! The entrances to hotels were tiny little doors with steep stair cases that lead about the shops. Ours was a tiny little place that was split between the upstairs of two different restaurants so there were two different doors and to get in the not main door, you had to ring a bell and say what room you were in in order to be let in.

After we checked in and put all our clothes and stuff in our room, we headed out to see the town. On our way to Dam square (the major city center) we stopped in a tours place and got a map as well as booked getting into the Ice Bar (where the entire bar and glasses and stuff are ice) and a boat tour. We were really excited to do that stuff later in the day, and we had a huge to do lots of things we wanted to see before the boat tour so we headed out with our map and figured out this huge path we could walk to see everything we wanted to see. Well, typical us… we got lost… and all the girls got side track with every little souvenir shop we passed. We wanted to actually go inside the sex museum, the hash museum, and the torture museum… but none of that happened. We wanted to see a windmill and go to the only market left in town that sold fresh, warm stroopwafels and that didn’t happen either. I didn’t even end up eating real Dutch food (which is mostly Indonesian I found out) because we went to a pizzeria instead. But what we did see were a lot a canals, some cool houses and house boats, the entrance to a park, the I am Amsterdam sign (I (Am)sterdam), and the outside of the wax museum, the outside of the Van Gough museum, and a few other museums near the I Amsterdam sign. In case you can’t tell… that is the biggest thing I have been frustrated about while here… we go to all these different countries and we do not get to do a lot of stuff. I saw a lot of cool buildings and got to see the city on all the canals on a boat tour (once again and amazing experience) but I did not learn as much as I wanted to because there were a lot of people on the boat that were all speaking different languages and talking to each other. I did learn that some canals were wider than other and were all manmade based on class and what the canals were needed for. Also all the houses have pulley posts on the outside because the staircases are so narrow and steep inside that you can’t get goods and furniture in your house. So just like all the cartoons, you have to lift the piano on the outside of your house and bring it in through the window! During our boat tour (as everyone was going over all the purchases they made) I started thinking about how I should have started collecting some sort of item from everywhere I have been. The one thing I haven’t been doing (which is probably why I get so annoyed by it) is shopping.  So after our boat tour I finally decided to find something cute to get. I also got fries (because Amsterdam is also famous for those) and I got my first stroopwafel. While inside this huge souvenir shop I also got to watch the Olympics on a big screen and I was so excited to see Ryan Lochte win (and beat Michael Phelps) in the 400 IM. It was actually probably the high light of my day to be honest. After all that fun stuff we went back to our room at relaxed and watch more of the Olympic games in our room before our reservations at the Ice Bar at 10:30. I got to eat my stroopwafel and watch the Olympics and rest on my top bunk. It was amazingly perfect and my food was so good. The fries were perfect and amazing… the best I have ever had and the stroopwafel is not my new favorite cookie/dessert. It looks like it’s going to be crunchy like a waffle cone type thing but it’s chewy with syrup in the middle and it’s just so sweet and good.

Then we made our way to the Ice bar. It took forever to get there and we should have known something was weird when a lot of people did not know where this place was that we each paid 16 Euro for. When we entered the place it was this small area with this weird music video of an ice queen awkwardly dancing on the screen. Basically in this bar, you pay 16 Euro for entrance fee, two “drinks”( in a glass the size of a shot glass that is made out of ice) and like a weird trippy 3d movie and 30 minutes in this 10 degree below freezing room. It was really odd and some of the girls really started freaking out that it was some weird thing where we were going to get taken and like killed. I think is was a cool concept but such a tourist scam and not worth 16 Euro to watch some Eskimo dude roll down a snow hill in a 3d movie and stand around in a big coat and gloves freezing my butt off. After that we went to the red light district. That place was crazy! I couldn’t believe how these girls are all dressed up just standing in these huge windows and guys just come up, knock on the glass, come in and the girl closes a curtain to show she’s busy! There wer ealso live erotic sex shows going on at every corner and just massive amounts of people! The only cool thing I did there was get a scoop of stroopwafel ice cream (it was AMAZING!). It was so sad to see this girl in a window that looked like she was 12 and almost just as sad to see an ugly old lady below the 12 year old. They really had a type of girl for any guy that has any type. I also feel like a few of them were men and not actually women haha.

July 27

Today was Anneke’s birthday and it made the day really fun and interesting. Work was pretty hard because a lot of the kids were super tired and cranky from having a camp out the night before (which means they didn’t sleep at all). So all day they were cranky and I could not get them to participate in any activity or be nice to each other for more than 2 minutes at a time. It also did not help because I was super tired for some reason. On my split I tried to work out in my room and I was literally falling asleep while trying to do an ab workout and I ended up napping on my floor. But some kids were still good and they were so cute because everyone made Anneke birthday cards. After the day was finally over, the staff threw us a “welcome here, happy birthday Anneke and bon voyage” party/ potluck. Not a lot of staff actually shwoed up and yet there was still enough food to feed the entire continent of Africa! There was seriously so much food I was full after just appetizers!!!! And Miss Betty was seriously cooking in the kitchen the whole time! She never came out and the food just kept on coming! All together we had chips, guac, chicken dip (my favorite), salsa, rice, texas toast for pulled pork sandwiches, beans, pasta salad, corn on the cob, chicken wings, chicken breast, ribs, homemade bbq sauce, rice, tons of drinks, and of course the cake! Miss Betty also gave Anneke and I birthday gifts, but I didn’t get to open mine because Karissa gave them both to Anneke and said they were from Miss Betty and Anneke didn’t know there was a problem until she opened both and each box had the same thing in them! It was really nice of them but what sucked was that we were there until 9 pm! As in we still had not left work at all! But after we finally came home (with tons of left overs and our gifts), we got ready really fast and went out to Habeneros for Anneke’s birthday. It was really fun and it was happy hour so I was able to get 2 drinks for 5 Euro each. By the time we got home and ready for bed and packed for Amsterdam it was already 1:30 am and we were going to be getting up at 4 am to get to the train station. I decided it wasn’t even worth it to go to bed and I just stayed up through the night and I only took a 20 minute power nap.