Amsterdam

Yesssssssss I have finally finished my midterms.  I had one Tuesday, two Wednesday and on Thursday.  Tuesday was hell (Spanish American Lit) and my teacher told us today that we all did horribly.  What does she expect?  She sucks at teaching.  Or wait she doesn't even teach.  Wednesday midterms were pretty hard to predict the outcome, I did spend the full time working on each though.  I guess that could be a good or a bad thing.  Ambiguousness.  Thursday (Writing of texts) was pretty damn easy, although I did get pretty abstract on the essay question so hopefully he likes my creativity?

Okay, now that I have gotten that crap out of the way I should move on to my Amsterdam trip.  Took a cab to the airport last Wednesday immediately after my class/presentation was over in order to make my 20:55 flight.  Had a nice conversation with the Taxi driver.  Got to Sevilla Airport (SVQ ain't no PDX), took our hour and a half or so flight to Barcelona, landed, and then looked for a place to sleep until our 6:00 flight to Amsterdam.  McDonald's had some nice couches to lay on so we slept there.  Good place to wake up, considering Barcelona actually serves breakfast at Mcdonald's.  Well I obviously made it to Amsterdam so I'll stop talking about this boring stuff.

In general:

I went with Jeff and Kelsey (again).  We stayed at a hostel named StayOkay Stadsdoelen in the center of Amsterdam right by the Red Light District.  [Side note] This hostel sucked.  First of all there was no free internet (fifteen minutes costed 1.5 euros), everything was expensive, there were adults (no offense) and children staying there.  We couldn't drink inside, so we had to sit in along the canal (which was pretty) in the freezing weather holding our cold beers.  There are other reasons why the hostel sucked but I don't want to spoil the rest of my blog.

Well as many of you know Amsterdam is absolutely gorgeous.  To my delight it didn't really rain while we were there, although it was a bit chilly (I loved it)...normally I would have been sweating my ass off around Sevilla.  The Dutch people are all ridiculously nice.  We had many stop and give us directions just because we looked lost or maybe we just looked stupid.  On top of their niceness, they all speak perfect English.  It was great to hear and speak like a normal person...not that foreign people don't hear or speak like normals.  Oh ya, I didn't drink as much coffee as many of you would have expected.  I know, I know, I am a coffee aficionado, and Amsterdam is known for its fabulous coffee beans; but, things just didn't work out, okay?

Other things...eat the fries with fritessauss...stroop waffles are a must...buy beer at the grocery store (the bars cost 5+ euros a pint)...I'm not sure.

Barcelona airport upon our arrival. McDonald's couches pretty much directly behind me. I hope the second time sleeping in this wasteland of stone floors and arrival/departure signs was my last.

Crunch balls? Really? Ouch.

Thursday:

Landed in Amsterdam around 9:00-ish in the morning, got our luggage and took the train to Amsterdam Central Station where we bought a metro/bus/tram pass for the next four days (turned out to be a great deal).  Utilizing our new public transportation passes, we hopped on the tram heading towards our hostel.  Worked out pretty nicely, only had a short walk to the place.  We checked into our hostel and then walked around.  I'd say that Thursday we didn't really accomplish much.  We walked around for a while, visited the Red Light district, and drank some beer and coffee.  Ended the night with some really expensive beers and then went home and passed out.  I kind of guessed on the events of this day...so don't hold me to it like I'm that guy who wrote the book of lies that Oprah fell for ("A Million Little Pieces," right?  Of course it's right).

I had no idea! Got my vote (Or wait, I don't have a vote.) Which reminds me, sorry for not voting.

Dam square filled with a carnival rides...damn square.

The thing in the shadows is a penis-pump in case you were wondering.

Friday:

It's never good to wake up to one of your friends having there wallet stolen.  Somehow during the night, someone stole Kelsey's wallet.  After some freaking out, talking to the front desk, pacing back and forth, and hands to the face, we started to get ready for the day.  As we were this really creepy Australian/British/something guy kept trying to talk to us about what happened which made me think he did it.  He was overly involved with us strangers, but you can't really just call someone a thief to their face without any sort of proof.  After getting a new lock for Kelsey's locker (free... what???) from the front desk we headed off the the police station.  While the circumstances were not the greatest, if you ever have a chance to go to Amsterdam you might want to spend an hour in the lobby of the police station on Beursstraat.  One guy came in and started yelling at the police for a solid five to ten minutes before he was thrown out...and then he came back and did the same thing!  It was pretty hard not to laugh.  Even funnier though was the englishman who walked up to the front desk and said (more or less), "can I use your breathalyzer because I want to see if I am alright to drive?"  The policeman didn't know how to respond and the man proceeded to ask again because the police have a better breathalyzer than the one he owns and he wanted to make sure he was legal.  I guess if you think about it its the safe thing to do, but I thought it was pretty stupid (I try to avoid police as much as possible).  Well, the police didn't let him and it ended with the cop telling the man to just walk around for a while before he got in his car.

After like an hour of sitting there Jeff and I decided to leave.  We walked through the Red Light district for a while and then chose to check out the Hash Marihuana and Hemp Museum. and meet up with Kelsey after she got her report filed.  It was actually pretty interesting, even though it didn't really talk too much about the controversial and fun products of the plant.  The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.  Back in the day, after wood, hemp was the most important material in ship building.  (Other random hemp facts).  After this museum on drugs we headed off the the museum by an artist who appears to have never not been on drugs: Vincent van Gogh.  There was a ton a ton a ton of information on van Gogh and his life and all of his paintings and I really enjoyed it.  He was a pretty crazy guy and checked himself into mental hospitals multiple times throughout his life before he killed himself at the age of 37.  The museum never really elaborated on what he suffered from, it just kept saying how his illness took over him blah blah blah.  I guess they didn't have the same diagnosis-friendly shrinks that exist nowadays.

We have one in our backyard in Portland!  Taken on the fun walk to the police station.

I bet you can figure this one out.

Bulldog Original, really famous coffee shop in Amsterdam.

That's where the prostitutes stand when they're working in the Red Light district.  Saw a guy get bitch-slapped by one of them for taking a picture when they were in the window so I played it safe.

Caption in picture.

Me, myself and I in front of the Rijksmuseum (I keep second-guessing myself on the spelling).

So after the van Gogh museum and taking a couple pictures in front of the Rijksmuseum/I amsterdam sign, Kelsey and I headed off the the Anne Frank house while Jeff headed back to the hostel.  My initial impression was that it was a lot bigger than I expected.  It was pretty interesting to read all of the little quotations that were taken out of her diary and posted on the walls.  While I've read the book (a while ago), I never really recognized the intelligence or strength behind her words.  The museum left me with a greater understanding of the horrors of WWII.  I was also really impressed by the efforts of Otto Frank after the war to fight racism and prejudice.  It seems like he was a pretty cool dude.  I've always wondered what it would be like to go through something so horrific and how I would react to the same situation.  Its incredible how much stronger Anne Frank was than most of us are today.  But I guess we rarely have a chance to show similar courage.

Huis=House...hopefully you got that.

Anne Frank used to move around in the attic of this building when it got to be this time of night.

After the Anne Frank house we ate some dinner (I really didn't keep track of where we ate or when, but I certainly had a ton of fries, some doner kebobs, grocery store sandwiches, etc.), hung out for a while around the stupid hostel, and then went outside to the bench and drank some beers, wine in Kelsey's case.  It was pretty nice to have a spot like that right on the canal, but I realize that everyone in Amsterdam is pretty much right on a canal.  Oh well, anyway, we spent an hour or so doing whatever people do when they drink on benches in Amsterdam and then headed out to the bars.  Bar-hopped for some time, realized that we didn't want to pay 100 euros to have a good night and after a while ended up in our hostel beds.  Well, Kelsey and I ended up in our hostel beds.  Jeff's bed had some random dude in it (this happened to him like every night that we were there).  He went to the front desk and they basically just told him that shit happens and to find another bed.  <-- another reason why our hostel sucked.  Oh ya, either this night or the night following Jeff's one warm piece of clothing (great planning haha) got stolen from his bed too.  Such a shitty hostel, I wish I had gotten an email requesting a review!

Bench Heineken

Amsterdam at night. View from the bench where we'd drink some beers in front of our hostel. I also thought this was one of the cooler pictures I've taken so you should enlarge it.

Saturday:

We began Saturday with a free walking tour.  In reality its only free if you're an asshole, because the guides are all fantastic and work on tips.  Our guides name was...I don't remember, but he was from somewhere in Scandinavia (I want to say Sweden) and had a nearly perfect California-style accent.  I guess he went to school there.  Well, he took us around Amsterdam and showed us a bunch of spots that might not make it into the tour guide books.  One being the boob in the ground from my previous post.  Well the tour was like three hours long, and it started around eleven so I guess that means it ended around two!  Impressive math.

One of my friends told me about this store. I'd never heard about it before but I took a picture for her. It's actually pretty funny.

Headquarters of the Dutch East Indies Company, like one of the most powerful companies of all time and also the first multi-national corporation. Super cool. Now part of the University of Amsterdam. Fun being a tourist in the middle of a bunch of classrooms filled with college students.

Pee reflectors... wanted to try one but never got the chance. I guess that's a good thing.

Definitely brought home a bottle of fritessause... I could eat this all day long.

Instead of house numbers, Amsterdam used to use pictures to describe who lived where.  I'm guessing the bottom right was a window maker?

I forgot what this place is called but it looked pretty damn expensive.

Uh...bridge with three arches and water under it...

After our tour we headed off to the old Heineken factory to experience, the "Heineken experience."  Fifteen euros for a tour and two free beers.  Seems super cheap in this city of expensiveness. Pretty cool place.  They had a whole bunch of old Heineken ads, equipment, bottles, etc.  Showed us their ingredients, a special section on the Champions League (European football incase you're one of those) which they sponsor, and there was even a "ride".  I was made into a beer during this 3-D thing (I feel weird calling it a ride).  It was like Back to the Future at Universal Studios but way less fun/crazy.  There was some other stuff that must not have been important enough to register in my memory we ended up in their awesome bar downstairs.  Clearly spent a lot of time on the design, materials, everything involved with it.  We probably should have spent some more time drinking our beers, but whatever we're trying to live up to our American college student stereotype.  Afterwards took some pictures in front of the I amsterdam sign and then did some other Saturday-type stuff.  I'm bored with writing this part.  Night similar to the previous.

Heineken Experience!  According to my old neighbor Tom however, Heineken is horse piss.  I guess I like horse piss.

I amsterdam sign (oh really?) and Rijksmuseum in the background. Total tourist spot/photo.

Even more touristy photo.  But I do like how it says I ams...cott.

I just really love this picture.  You should enlarge it.  It's beautiful.

Hot food vending machine type thing.  Jeff tried one of these and it was really good but I feel like whatever was in it was completely disgusting.

Sunday:

Sunday was cool.  Really cool actually.  Woke up around 11:00 and fumbled around for about an hour until we made our way back to Amsterdam Central Station.  Destination: my old house.  We caught the train headed to Hilversum and after guessing on our actual exit point, we found our way to the proper bus outside and told the bus driver where we were trying to get to.  He told us he'd give us "the sign," when we got there.  Well the sign was just turning around and telling us that it was our stop, but it was a pretty effective sign.  Luckily there was a map where we got off of the town of Huizen/Blaricum/so many names... that allowed us to find my old street.  Pretty weird experience walking up to someplace that you lived and haven't been back to for fifteen years.  I actually remembered some of it, which surprised me considering I was pretty young when I left (and I forgot all my Dutch).

I look like an idiot but this is my old house and I wanted to be in the picture.

After walking up and down my old street a few times and sneaking up the driveway of my old house to take some pictures, I finally got the balls to ring my old neighbors bell.  Boy were they happy to see me.  Annerie looked as if I were her own son returning after being at war or something.  I felt pretty special, I guess thats how the Dutch are.  She invited Jeff and I in emphatically and got us some beers.  We sat around and talked for a while, she made us some sandwiches and then Hans (the father) came out and talked to us.  It was pretty weird.  Like not in a bad way, but imagine going and hanging out with people that knew you when you were a little kid fifteen years ago.  A little kid that still spoke Dutch and lived across the street.  Ya, weird.  We talked about all the normal stuff that people talk about, then Annerie called Janneke, the daughter, and I talked to her on the phone for a while.  Tom, the son, came home with his girlfriend and we caught up.  It was really weird because he is completely Dutch and yet when he speaks English he sounds like he was born and raised in England.  Like exactly, no joke.  I'd bore you with more talk about conversation but the rest of my time here was spent walking around the old trails and park down the street.

Old neighbors. Very nice. Gave me and Jeff beer(s), and sandwiches. Tom, the younger guy drove us back to the station as well!

Our last night Jeff and I ended up pretty drunk walking around the Red Light district.  It was pretty fun.  Apparently for 100 euros I can get two girls.  I must admit that like 70% of the girls there were super hot.  Ridiculously hot.  But then I remembered that they're prostitutes and I fell out of love.  Got back pretty late.

Monday:

Woke up pretty early, couldn't find the key to my lock.  Blame it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol baby... Well I found it inside my jacket in my locker after the guy from the front desk cut the lock for me (now I have to buy a new one...).  Check out was at 10:30, the hostel was closing at 11:00 for a couple of weeks and they pretty much like shoved everyone out the door with their words.  Went straight to the airport and caught our direct(!) flight back to Sevilla at 1:30.

I wrote this really late ate night after a couple of beers and a week of midterms.  I hope it isn't as poorly written as I feel it may be.