Last week our entire group booked a trip to Amsterdam. At first I was not too excited about this trip. I just assumed Amsterdam would be filled with grungy hippies and tourists. A dirty city that smelled like smoke was the last place on my mind to go, but I did not want to be left behind in London. As the day of our flight started approaching I grew more excited looking up tours, museums, and things to do in the city.
Friday came way too early. We had to leave Nido (the name of our flats) at 5:45 am to make our flight, which was at 9:30 (or so we thought). Our group was flying from the Gatwick airport and consequently it is the furthest and most expensive airport to get transportation to. We took the tube to the train station at 6 a.m. then the express train to the airport to get there around 7:30 am. Security here does not take nearly as long as it does at the Atlanta airport so we had plenty of time to spare (which was nice considering most of us got only a few hours of sleep). Going through security in Atlanta normally I put my shampoo, conditioner, face wash, and body wash in a plastic bag but that is about it; in London they put EVERYTHING that is a questionable liquid in plastic bags. I tried my best to sort out everything from lip-gloss and mascara to shampoo and face medicine. We all checked in and began to go through security. Where they would normally ask for ID and boarding passes at the Atlanta airport, the employees only asked me for my boarding pass and let me proceed without checking any form of identification; this obviously made me a little nervous considering I could have been anyone. Then, we go through the scanners and I learn there is NO need whatsoever to be nervous to fly from this airport. Security made Atlanta’s security look like a complete and utter joke. They scanned all bags. Jessica, Brittain, and I went through the same line of security and all three of our bags got pulled aside. They searched our bags from top to bottom, pulling out every trash wrapper. All I had to do was put my solid deodorant and toothpaste into my liquid bag. It was an intense security check, but the airport employees were all surprisingly friendly.
The flight took off, drinks were passed out, and it landed; possibly the quickest flight I had ever been on. We then had to figure out how to get to our hostel, which was a more complicated process than we thought due to the language barrier. Unfortunately, no one in our group spoke Dutch. We finally arrived to the hostel. It was not the best hostel to say the least. Thank goodness Mary Margaret, Elle, Brittain, and I had a private room. I might have cried if we were in the public one. The beds were at least comfy, but just one example of how “cheap” (in terms of facility not price—we definitely overpaid in my opinion) the hostel was can be taken from the shower curtain, which looked as if it was cut into thirds so it barely blocked the spray from the shower head so it definitely did not cover one body. Again, this reinforces how happy I was to have a private room (including private bathroom) with 4 girls. Next, we just went exploring and walking through the city. We ended up at a square filled with fun restaurants. We ate at a little Italian place outside because the weather was gorgeous! We then decided just to talk around and find different pubs to go into. Walking was interesting because we did not know the sidewalks had “bike lanes” and those bikers are not afraid to hit you so people probably knew we were coming a mile away from the screaming and jumping taking place. We ended up at a pub filled with people and we made lots of friends. There were tons of
“stag” parties (aka bachelor parties) taking place and in Europe the trend is to dress up the stag in a “sexy” women’s outfit—HILARIOUS. Everyone in the pub loved us and chanted “USA, USA…” throughout the afternoon. Then we went to a pub-crawl. It went to 6 bars throughout the red light district (which was just weird and made me feel sad for those girls). After 3 half of us decided to go home; it had been a long day.
“stag” parties (aka bachelor parties) taking place and in Europe the trend is to dress up the stag in a “sexy” women’s outfit—HILARIOUS. Everyone in the pub loved us and chanted “USA, USA…” throughout the afternoon. Then we went to a pub-crawl. It went to 6 bars throughout the red light district (which was just weird and made me feel sad for those girls). After 3 half of us decided to go home; it had been a long day.
Saturday we woke up and went to a pancake house for lunch/breakfast. For some reason I decided to get a hamburger, don’t ask me why. Elle, Brittain, Mary Margaret and I then rented a paddleboat for an hour and paddled around the canals. It was SO great to be on the water and the canals in Amsterdam are beautiful. Next we met up with the rest of the group at Bloenmmarkt (sp?), the famous flower market. I loved looking at all the types of flowers from Holland. Then, we walked to the edge of Vondelpark where the I AMSTERDAM sign is to wait for our bike tour. This bike tour was AMAZING and definitely my favorite part of the entire trip. Our guide took us all around Amsterdam. We went to Anne Frank’s house, saw the leaning houses, tried raw herring (their delicacy), and even went all the way to the only windmill in Amsterdam where a brewery (famous for brewing delicious and cheapest beer in Amsterdam). It was a blast and we literally saw the entire city of Amsterdam on bike. We then went to ANOTHER Italian restaurant. We went there because we found out every single item on the menu was 5 Euros and could not pass up that deal. It ended up being such a long day we were all exhausted by the end and wanted a relaxing and enjoyable night. So, we decided to go to a funky jazz bar. The jazz bar was filled with mostly older folks, but it was really fun for a bit, until it put all of us to sleep and we went home. OH! We also made a Swedish friend in our hostel who just packed up and left home one day. His name was Bjorn and he was the most optimistic 19 year old I had ever met with such a neat story.
Sunday we all woke up and went to breakfast. We decided the last thing we all should do is go to the Heineken brewery. It was so fun and interactive. I learned a lot how beer is brewed and now love Heineken (Dad would be so proud!). Elle, Mary Margaret, Brittain, Nick, Jessica, and my flight was not until 9:40 p.m. so we wandered ate some lunch and headed back toward the airport to get there around 7. Once we got there we found out our flight had been delayed an hour…We were suppose to land in London at 9:45 p.m. and did not land until 11, getting home at 1:15 a.m. Needless to say, I am exhausted today and cannot wait to get a great nights sleep and shower in my own shower!
All in all Amsterdam was AMAZING and could very well be my favorite place in Europe, which is a surprise to me! This week is back to work and hopefully they will give me more things to do then they did last week (but maybe not too much J).
Hope all is well in the States!!
Xoxo
-Kara
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