Official done in Amsterdam. With school work that is. Yesterday, I had my last class two classes, handed in three final papers and took one final exam. Interestingly enough, I probably won't see any grades until close to September because of all the time it'll take professors to grade, submit transcripts, convert grades from the number scale to the American system and finally get sent to Oregon. Luckily, I've got a lot more to look forward to than waiting to hear back about how I did in my classes.
Kara flies in Sunday morning to spend a few days with me in Amsterdam before my parents arrive Wednesday afternoon. I'm excited to show them where and how I've been living for the last four months. After spending a few days in the city, Woman and Bernie are heading off on their cruise down the Rhine River while Kara and I head up to Scandinavia. As of right now, we are flying into Copenhagen, traveling to Stockholm, maybe an Archipelago island, then back to Copenhagen to flying back to Amsterdam... just in time to catch our morning flight back to sunny San Diego!
I've got some fun things to look forward to in the upcoming weeks before it starts all over again with summer school and work in Oregon.
This past weekend I ventured to the beautiful (and very affluent) city of Geneva, Switzerland. My friend Courtney, her boyfriend Tyler and I caught a short flight out of Amsterdam early Friday and landed around 11am. We took a train to the central station and one of my least favorite things about traveling is the initial frustration of trying to figure out where everything is when you have no map or bearings. We found the tram we needed and head to the outskirts of town to the apartment we had rented for the weekend. It really was the cheapest option since we hadn't been quick to book anything. We finally reached it, checked in, got lunch and settled. I took a walk around in the afternoon to find the local supermarket and check out countryside. I took a little stroll along a river that eventually lead me up to the France boarder check, without my passport on me I decided it was time to turn around and head back. Later, we headed into the city of Geneva and walked around the lakeshore. In the middle of the lake, there is the ginormous Jet D'Eau fountain that pumps thousands of gallons of water almost 500ft into the air. There were also jetties to walk out on and take pictures. It was a pretty cool sight to be standing next to. It was once we head back to get stuff at the grocery store that we realized that were actually staying in France, not Switzerland. Our apartment was literally right on the boarder next to the Swiss checkpoint. Also, another sign was that everything price-wise right next to us was listed in Euros, not Swiss Francs (since Switzerland isn't in the EU and retains it's own currency).
The next morning, we got up and headed back into the city centre. We strolled up to the Old Town section that had small, winding streets with tons of green ivy, staircases, small restaurants, and cafes. We checked out an old cathedral and an art/history museum that was impressive in size, but sort of a disappointment inside. From there we headed back towards the Rhone River, I went off and do my own thing for the afternoon. I hiked up to the "international hill" to check out the UN building. I was surprised when I got there to see that there was a gathering of Catalans rallying for their independence from Spain. Everyone was decked out in their flag and colors with signs saying "Catalan: The Next European State." I obviously wasn't able to get into the UN building, but I got some cool pictures of all the flags leading up to the building. I also saw the Red Cross Museum. I thought the museum really well done and focused around the overall humanitarianism of the past, present and future. I made my way back towards the city centre by walking through the botanical gardens and park along the river. Once I got back into the city, I walked along the big "designer" road with all the fancy shops (like Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Gucci - a little out of my window shopping price range) and back into part of Old Town. Geneva was pretty much what I had expected - a nice, picturesque city set against the Swiss and French mountains.
The next morning, we slept in with plans to go to the train station, store our bags and head to Annecy, France for the day. After much confusion on how to by tickets and where to go, we learned that Annecy wasn't an easy place to get to so we ditched that plan and went to an automated machine to buy train tickets to Lyon, France. We had all day because we weren't planning on going to the airport until around midnight. So bought roundtrip tickets for 10 Swiss Francs (around $10) and jumped on the train. After two hours, we reached Lyon without a hitch. We grabbed some lunch at a French version of Panera and headed up to the beautiful Notre Dame de Fourviere cathedral. Rather than hiking up the huge hill, we took the metro. The last leg of the ride was a small metro car that literally scaled the hill. It seriously felt like Matterhorn at Disneyland. The cathedral was absolutely beautiful, inside and out. It might have been my favorite one I've seen in Europe yet simply because the color scheme and adornments were soft, almost pastelle-like. Next to the cathedral was a great lookout that gave 180 degree views of the city. Next, we walked down the paths through the hillside gardens to reach the old town. Again, Lyon's narrow streets gave way to long staircases, small alleys and opened up into squares. It was absolutely beautiful. After walking around a bit, we stopped at an Irish pub and sat outside on the street. Luckily, it was "happy hour" and pints were cheap. We killed some time by hanging out and playing cards. I also called my mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day, she was pretty surprised and it sounds like she had a pretty good day planned with the family. Made me a bit homesick that I couldn't be there with everyone too.
That night, we ran back to the main central station in Lyon to catch the last train back to Geneva. Once upon the train, we realized that we were actually holding metro/tram tickets for Geneva and not actually legitimate train tickets (thank you Geneva station info people for all your help). With some mild evasion from the ticket checkers, we got away with it and made it back to Geneva with an hour to kill before our train to the airport, we hit up a close by bar. There, they had all the bar's own personal beer on tap. We got a free glass of peach beer. Yummy.
We got to the airport around 12:30 for our 6am flight because of both saving money on a hostel room and we wouldn't had made it in time with the metro system. Also, the volcano in Iceland was acting up and flights were being cancelled in Portugal, Spain, parts of Italy and France with threats of affecting Switzerland airports. After a crappy nights rest and watching flights to France and Belgium be cancelled, we got on our flight and got back around 8am. From there, it was straight from the airport back to bed to go back to sleep.
Overall, it was a good weekend. It's starting to get to be crunch time with school here. The Dutch system is set up so they majority of the work is put off until the end of the term with final pages and exams. With all the work ahead of me, looks like I won't be traveling again until Kara and I head to Scandinavia in early June.
St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva
Jet D'Eau
Out on the jetty
These fountains were everywhere!
Old Town: Geneva
United Nations
Catalan rally for independence
Red Cross Museum
Notre Dame de Fourviere up on the hill
Notre Dame de Fourviere
Beautiful inside
Part of the view from the top
Stairways for days
This past Friday was Queen's Day in the Netherlands. It's one of the most celebrated and anticipated Dutch holidays, Every year, the Dutch celebrate the Queen's birthday on the 30th of April. Though Queen Beatrix's birthday is actually in January, when it's too cold to party, she decided to continue with her mother's birthday in April and she now officially celebrates her birthday on April 30th too. Beyond the basis of the day being about Dutch togetherness, it's simply an excuse to dress up in ridiculous amounts of orange, drink all day, party in the streets and try not to fall in the canals. Success across the board.
To back it up a little, the night before Queen's Day is also celebrated too and dubbed "Queen's Night." The Dutch must have needed an additional reason to party. In Amsterdam, it's a big music/club night. So we went to an open-air (and free) concert at Waterlooplein by some random DJ. The music was just about to get going.... when it started to pour. That wasn't about to stop anyone, so we just went on dancing for a good while. I headed home because I wanted to be ready to start again in the am. I later realized that would not be the case.
The next morning I woke up feeling Queen's Night hard. I spent the majority of the morning watching people walk along the canals going bargin-hunting from my bed perch. Other cool thing about Koninginnedag is that anyone is allowed to sell anything on the streets on this one day. It's a city-wide garage sale with people staking out their spots days before by chalking a big "bezet" (Dutch for occupied or saved) over all the prime junk-sale property. People were selling everything imaginable - clothes, books, boots, appliances, face painting, beer, and even charging people 1 euro to come use the toilet in their homes. Little tykes dominated in the entertainment and sweets department. I saw a few little ones trying to make a few euro by playing their guitars or violins. I also bought some poffertjes (little mini pancakes) off a group of kids for a euro. Goedkoop.
Later in the afternoon, my friends headed over to my place due to the location... the Prinsengracht canal where most of the action would be because it is the most popular for boats/people. We opened up my window and watched boats pass of varying states of crazy. Some had themes, others had good music blasting, but the best was one with Queen B's face plastered as the figurehead on the bow of the boat. We spent some time walking around, getting food, and checking out the street DJs on every block. The best picture of the day goes to my new friend and his owner chilling a bar, both were dressed in orange with the little pup wearing a crown on his head. Adorable. We also went to a carnival that was put on in Dam Square. I wasn't game for going on a ride, but I had to get a meter-long bratworst for the road. We spent the rest of the afternoon and night walking around and checking out the sights. By nightfall, the streets were gradually getting quieter and it was becoming more and more apparent that the city was completed trashed. Definite sign of a good party. There were rumors of the sanitation workers going on strike the day after Queen's Day, but for the sake of Amsterdam, they were up and cleaning at the crack of the dawn. By the time I woke up, I could not believe how well cleaned Prinsengracht was. It was like there weren't 1 million people having a damn good time just a little bit ago.
All in all, it was a great day filled with much orange, beer and good friends. Glad I was here to experience it all. Definitely not about to forget about Koninginneday 2010 in Amsterdam anytime soon.
Tom Sawyer-style party boat
Back up on Prinsengracht
Best friends wear crowns
Dam Square and a brat.
My window, orange glasses and Shady.
Last weekend, CIEE organized a trip to the lovely island of Schiermonnikoog in the north of the Netherlands. After a 3hr bus ride and a 45 minute boat ride, we arrived on the island Friday night and got our rented bikes and headed towards our hostel. Note: it wasn't just any hostel, the hostel was actually a farm that we had all to ourselves. We got an "American" style feast for dinner complete with cole slaw, spare ribs, potato salad and all the fixings. The Dutch did a decent job - the spare ribs were delicious. That night we just relaxed and played card games in our little attic room that we discovered.
Saturday morning we head to the water. During low tide, you can mudflat hike where the water retreats. We spent about 2hrs hiking - maybe more like sinking into the mud - and learning all about tons of wildlife, currents, etc. All in all, it was a pretty muddy morning being that we were halfway up to our shins in mud, yet fun. We had some free time after that so we took our bikes and went for a ride around the island and ended up at a little lake set within the woods. We had some balls and frisbees so we improved a few games, then headed back for dinner. Just in case I wasn't already amped off of the first night's dinner, it got better. We got a huge BBQ feast with chicken sate, kebabs, stuffed peppers, and steak. Unreal. After stuffing our faces yet again, we made our way down to the beach for a Dutch style bonfire. It was more like a dumpster fire cause the firepits were just steel boxes, but it was still a good time. After the bonfire, we decided it would be fun to hit the town. And by hitting the town in Schiermonnikoog, I mean going to one of the two bars. After the first one, we decided to go to their version of a "club" which was just janky music and designed like the "Smash Club" from Full House. It gets better. Inside, there was a wedding partying using the space as their post-party, a sorority on retreat dressed up in ridiculous costumes, guys from a stag party and us. Good times.
We took a guided bike tour on Sunday morning around the island. The same guide that showed us around the mudflats took us around the island to see the sea salt marshes, sand dunes, a German WW2 bunker, a lighthouse or two, and a seamen's cemetery. After the biking, we took advantage of our free time to soak in the sun a little bit more before we headed home. The island was really cool to explore and felt amazing to do something that doesn't involve a city, bus or metro. Schimonnikoog was actually voted one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands. Judge for yourself....
Saturday morning we head to the water. During low tide, you can mudflat hike where the water retreats. We spent about 2hrs hiking - maybe more like sinking into the mud - and learning all about tons of wildlife, currents, etc. All in all, it was a pretty muddy morning being that we were halfway up to our shins in mud, yet fun. We had some free time after that so we took our bikes and went for a ride around the island and ended up at a little lake set within the woods. We had some balls and frisbees so we improved a few games, then headed back for dinner. Just in case I wasn't already amped off of the first night's dinner, it got better. We got a huge BBQ feast with chicken sate, kebabs, stuffed peppers, and steak. Unreal. After stuffing our faces yet again, we made our way down to the beach for a Dutch style bonfire. It was more like a dumpster fire cause the firepits were just steel boxes, but it was still a good time. After the bonfire, we decided it would be fun to hit the town. And by hitting the town in Schiermonnikoog, I mean going to one of the two bars. After the first one, we decided to go to their version of a "club" which was just janky music and designed like the "Smash Club" from Full House. It gets better. Inside, there was a wedding partying using the space as their post-party, a sorority on retreat dressed up in ridiculous costumes, guys from a stag party and us. Good times.
We took a guided bike tour on Sunday morning around the island. The same guide that showed us around the mudflats took us around the island to see the sea salt marshes, sand dunes, a German WW2 bunker, a lighthouse or two, and a seamen's cemetery. After the biking, we took advantage of our free time to soak in the sun a little bit more before we headed home. The island was really cool to explore and felt amazing to do something that doesn't involve a city, bus or metro. Schimonnikoog was actually voted one of the most beautiful places in the Netherlands. Judge for yourself....
The island from the dike
Free tractor rides!
Mid-hike
Lookout by the bunker
Pathway down to the beach
Mudflat hiking!
I spent this past Easter weekend in the gorgeous city of Paris. It definitely lived up to it's name - "City of Lights". I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful city at night.
My friend Rachel and I took the bus from Amsterdam to Paris. Which will probably be the last time I ever take the bus. After 9hrs, some traffic and a horrible bus driver who kept getting stuck mid-turn - we finally made it into Paris Friday afternoon. After getting settled in our hostel, we headed out for some dinner and a drink. After a panini and a beer, we spent the night just strolling around the city. We saw Notre Dame, the Parthenon, the picturesque Seine river, and the always entertaining foreign McDonald's menu. It's funny how they try to incorporate each countries own food into the supersize menu or in France - "The Best Of."
Didn't really sleep too well that night considering there were 20 immature French teenage boys staying on all sides of our room. None of them understood English or the phrase "Please shut up, it's 2am and people want to sleep." As they went on with their running, jumping, and slamming of doors, we had to ask the hostel security to please explain to them the need to be respectful. This promptly caused us to ask if we could switch floors the next morning, without having to explain, the girl at the front desk goes "Oh, you're on the 2nd floor with the really bratty French kids?" Most definitely. Hello 6th floor and a decent night's sleep.
The next morning, we checked out the free tour that meet at the Saint Michel foundation. Us and 100 other people decided to show up as well. Since the group was so big (50 people per guide) we stuck around for a bit, then just went off on our own. We checked out the Louve, the surrounding gardens, a church I can't really remember name of and headed up Champs-Élysées to check out the L'Arc de Triomphe right as a storm set in. Once we got to the Arc, we took a few quick picks and headed straight to the metro. For dinner, we decided on a good sushi place. For 17 euro, we got a delicious spread of miso soup, salad, rice, rolls, sashimi, and a variety of meat skewers. We may have not spent a lot of money on the touristy stuff because of the Easter crowds, didn't really spend money on many drinks but we most definitely ate well while we were in Paris! After dinner, we headed to the Latin Quarter to explore the streets and our plan of making it to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower were quickly demolished when it started to pour. So we found a little bar, had a drink and tried to avoid the creepy winks of the bartender and the waiter telling us how wonderful it was that we were American. From there, we agreed it was safe to call it a night and head back.
We took advantage of the first Sunday of the month being free museum day and one tip we walked away with from the free tour. We went to the Louve at 9am, but not to the normal entrance where the line was already wrapping back through the courtyard. We learned that there is another entrance - Porte de Lions - where we were the second people in line to get in right at 9am. By 9:05, we were looking at the Mona Lisa... from about 15ft back. Over the next 4hrs, we made our best attempt to see almost all of Louve's exhibits. This was definitely a daunting task but we got a very wide range of all that the Louve holds within it's walls. My favorite wings were the Louis XIV apartments and the Egyptian artifacts. After our morning tour of the Louve, we headed towards the Eiffel Tower as the clouds began to part and blue skies started to show their face. We snapped some good pictures of the Eiffel Tower and laughed at all 5,000 people waiting in line to go to the top on our way to lunch. Rachel was on a mission to try some French delicacies. We found a streetside cafe and ordered some escargot and two salads. I've had escargot before so I was excited, maybe a little two excited. As I grabbed the shell to extract the snail, it went flying and hit Rachel in the chest. We had a good laugh about flying snails and she loved the escargot and wanted to order more. That night, we had dinner at restaurant where Rachel dived into the fixed price menu featuring duck mousse, some steak dish and flan for desert. I had chicken and cheese crepes, just enough to hit the spot. After dinner, we checked out a popular bar street/alley, Rue des Lombard, where we found a cool Jazz bar and a fun Irish bar. At the Irish bar, some French guy who now resides in Dublin decided it would be a great conversation starter to go off about the lack of cheese in Ireland and how much he loathes cheddar. Once again, we decided it was about time to head back home.
We spent out last day in Paris exploring the gardens. We started out at the Luxembourg Gardens (which were absolutely gorgeous and full of joggers) and made our way down to Plantes Garden which hosts the Paris Zoo. After seeing the kangaroos out in the open, we got excited that the zoo might be free. Negative. The line of strollers confirmed that we would have to pay to see the rest of the animals.
After another delayed 8hr bus ride back to Amsterdam, we were barely able to catch the last metro into the city central. I made it back to my place and crashed. Here are some to document my Parisian weekend :)
The Louve!
Luxembourg Gardens
Yummy (polished off) escargot
Eiffel Tower
Crepes with Nutella :)
Rachel and I not appreciating the smelly Paris metro
Wow. So I just got back from an amazing weekend in Barcelona. I had to play some catch up for being gone and pump out two papers after getting back to Amsterdam Monday morning. Anywho. All school aside, I cannot wait to share how much fun I had in Barcelona. I could easily move their in a heartbeat.
I set out Friday morning from Amsterdam on a short, less than 2hr flight. I landed around noon to beautiful sunshine and immediately had to rid myself of my sweater and jacket because I was sweating. I'm pretty used to this routine when I fly home from Oregon to San Diego. The first impression I got from Spain was that it felt oddly enough home to me. I had a hard time trying to find the train to the city that I was looking for (because I later realized that I was in the wrong terminal), so I just settled for a bus. I started talking to a girl, Mia, from Sweden while we both new to Barcelona and trying to figure out if we were getting on the right bus as the bus driver lady is barking at us to keep moving. I started talking to her about Kara and my plans to backpack through Scandinavia in June and she was a great source to bounce ideas, cities, and plans off of. When we got to Plaza Catalunya, I had a few more hours to kill so I joined her and her Parisian friend, Paul, for tapas nearby. Paul again was a great resource both for finding out places to go and see in Barcelona and for my trip this weekend to Paris. Needless to say, I have little expectations for the French to be pleasant, some must-see sites and the knowledge that the Paris nightlife is a joke.
After I said goodbye to Mia and Paul, I grabbed a map and started wondering. Naturally I had to check out Las Ramblas to see what it was all about. Just as touristy as I imagined with some creative street performers. I made my way down to the harbor, took a bunch of pictures of everything around me to get it out of my system for a few hours. I loved how blue the ocean was, all the palm trees and Barcelona's love for bright, vibrant structures. My friends got into Barcelona around 5pm, so I met up with them at Plaza Catalunya and headed up to our place for the weekend.
Tommy, a kid I was traveling with, has a few friends studying in Barcelona and it worked out that they were on spring break. We lucked out and got to stay at their apartment kinda in the Gracia area. It was 3 guys' place, so it was necessarily the cleanest so I just kept reminding myself "free, free, free". One of Tommy's friend, Ben, was still in town so he played host and took us around. Friday night we got paella off of Las Ramblas and came back and napped. Yes, napped after dinner from 9 to 11pm. Then got ready and went out to Pippermint's, a popular place that has the biggest drink imaginable. The 5 of us spilt a 6L of rum and come. Needless to say, I did not need another drink that night. Even though we were pretty tired, we headed out to get a sense of Barcelona nightlife. We went to some cool clubs on the beach, Catwalk and Opium. It was pretty cool to be able to walk on the beach and go from one club to another. Without even realizing it, we were out until 5am. Even though the metro stops running at midnight Sunday-Friday, it's not uncommon for kids just to catch the first metro in the morning at 5am. At first I laughed, but after my first night in Barcelona. I understand now.
The next morning I woke up, still feeling the rum and coke, and was determined to not waste too much time in bed. So Courtney and I headed to see Gaudi's Segrada Familia. Easily one of the craziness churches I could have ever imagined. The line was around the corner, so we just walked around and took pictures. I'll go back when it's finally finished (whenever that is). That afternoon, once everyone got up (around 2:30pm), we went to the beach and relaxed with some beers. After being endless solicited to buy beer (when we already had a 12pk) and 5 euro massages (which is just creepy), we head back home with some color. Some dinner and another nap, we headed out for another crazy Barcelona night. We went to a popular music club, Razzmatazz, pay a cover with an included drink and had a good time exploring all like 30 rooms in the club. Not uncommon, we again caught the morning metro and got back at like 7am. Such an unreal experience for me cause I'm not really a night owl. But when in Barcelona...
The next morning was a struggle, not do to drinking but just to lack of sleep, but I was determined to see the city cause I was leaving soon. I took a trek up to Gaudi's Parc Guell and spent an hour or so walking around with my jaw dropped. The landscape and view was gorgeous. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, seeing more Gaudi architecture, historical buildings, and made my way down to the beach to meet up with my friends. We headed back home around 7pm and stopped for dinner on the way back. After an attempt to nap and rally up, we decided that we were all too sleep deprived to do anything. I turned in but couldn't really sleep cause I was much too nervous about getting to the aeropuerto on time. The metro doesn't start running until 5am and I was trying to catch a 5:25am train to the airport that would get me there around 6am and my flight started boarding at 6:15am with the gate closing at 6:35am. I probably only got an hour of sleep.
I got up the next morning at 4:30am, got all my stuff together and headed down to the closest metro I could take without having to take the time to transfer. Needless to say, I was about 98.34523% sure I was going to get mugged walking down the streets of Barcelona alone at o'dark hundred. I took everything valuable and hid it in my purse under my jacket and keep looking around every 30 seconds. Luckly, I had no problem and caught the first metro to Sants Espcio. From there I ran around trying to find the train, bought my ticket and sprinted to catch an earlier train that was leaving in a minute. That was the first thing that really saved. I got to T2 at like 5:40 and had to take a bus to the next terminal. Finally got into T1 at like 6 and sprinted, yet again, to the security only to find the great gift from the Spainards. Even though the airport was packed, the security was so well organized that I made it through in less than 5 mins. The only loss of the morning was my corkscrew which got confinscated. I made it to the gate with time to grab something to eat... I stressed so much over nada. I made it back to a much colder Amsterdam and got home with some time to take a little nap and head off to my 1pm class.
I had a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather, fun times with my friends and got to see a great city! Here are some pictures :
I set out Friday morning from Amsterdam on a short, less than 2hr flight. I landed around noon to beautiful sunshine and immediately had to rid myself of my sweater and jacket because I was sweating. I'm pretty used to this routine when I fly home from Oregon to San Diego. The first impression I got from Spain was that it felt oddly enough home to me. I had a hard time trying to find the train to the city that I was looking for (because I later realized that I was in the wrong terminal), so I just settled for a bus. I started talking to a girl, Mia, from Sweden while we both new to Barcelona and trying to figure out if we were getting on the right bus as the bus driver lady is barking at us to keep moving. I started talking to her about Kara and my plans to backpack through Scandinavia in June and she was a great source to bounce ideas, cities, and plans off of. When we got to Plaza Catalunya, I had a few more hours to kill so I joined her and her Parisian friend, Paul, for tapas nearby. Paul again was a great resource both for finding out places to go and see in Barcelona and for my trip this weekend to Paris. Needless to say, I have little expectations for the French to be pleasant, some must-see sites and the knowledge that the Paris nightlife is a joke.
After I said goodbye to Mia and Paul, I grabbed a map and started wondering. Naturally I had to check out Las Ramblas to see what it was all about. Just as touristy as I imagined with some creative street performers. I made my way down to the harbor, took a bunch of pictures of everything around me to get it out of my system for a few hours. I loved how blue the ocean was, all the palm trees and Barcelona's love for bright, vibrant structures. My friends got into Barcelona around 5pm, so I met up with them at Plaza Catalunya and headed up to our place for the weekend.
Tommy, a kid I was traveling with, has a few friends studying in Barcelona and it worked out that they were on spring break. We lucked out and got to stay at their apartment kinda in the Gracia area. It was 3 guys' place, so it was necessarily the cleanest so I just kept reminding myself "free, free, free". One of Tommy's friend, Ben, was still in town so he played host and took us around. Friday night we got paella off of Las Ramblas and came back and napped. Yes, napped after dinner from 9 to 11pm. Then got ready and went out to Pippermint's, a popular place that has the biggest drink imaginable. The 5 of us spilt a 6L of rum and come. Needless to say, I did not need another drink that night. Even though we were pretty tired, we headed out to get a sense of Barcelona nightlife. We went to some cool clubs on the beach, Catwalk and Opium. It was pretty cool to be able to walk on the beach and go from one club to another. Without even realizing it, we were out until 5am. Even though the metro stops running at midnight Sunday-Friday, it's not uncommon for kids just to catch the first metro in the morning at 5am. At first I laughed, but after my first night in Barcelona. I understand now.
The next morning I woke up, still feeling the rum and coke, and was determined to not waste too much time in bed. So Courtney and I headed to see Gaudi's Segrada Familia. Easily one of the craziness churches I could have ever imagined. The line was around the corner, so we just walked around and took pictures. I'll go back when it's finally finished (whenever that is). That afternoon, once everyone got up (around 2:30pm), we went to the beach and relaxed with some beers. After being endless solicited to buy beer (when we already had a 12pk) and 5 euro massages (which is just creepy), we head back home with some color. Some dinner and another nap, we headed out for another crazy Barcelona night. We went to a popular music club, Razzmatazz, pay a cover with an included drink and had a good time exploring all like 30 rooms in the club. Not uncommon, we again caught the morning metro and got back at like 7am. Such an unreal experience for me cause I'm not really a night owl. But when in Barcelona...
The next morning was a struggle, not do to drinking but just to lack of sleep, but I was determined to see the city cause I was leaving soon. I took a trek up to Gaudi's Parc Guell and spent an hour or so walking around with my jaw dropped. The landscape and view was gorgeous. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city, seeing more Gaudi architecture, historical buildings, and made my way down to the beach to meet up with my friends. We headed back home around 7pm and stopped for dinner on the way back. After an attempt to nap and rally up, we decided that we were all too sleep deprived to do anything. I turned in but couldn't really sleep cause I was much too nervous about getting to the aeropuerto on time. The metro doesn't start running until 5am and I was trying to catch a 5:25am train to the airport that would get me there around 6am and my flight started boarding at 6:15am with the gate closing at 6:35am. I probably only got an hour of sleep.
I got up the next morning at 4:30am, got all my stuff together and headed down to the closest metro I could take without having to take the time to transfer. Needless to say, I was about 98.34523% sure I was going to get mugged walking down the streets of Barcelona alone at o'dark hundred. I took everything valuable and hid it in my purse under my jacket and keep looking around every 30 seconds. Luckly, I had no problem and caught the first metro to Sants Espcio. From there I ran around trying to find the train, bought my ticket and sprinted to catch an earlier train that was leaving in a minute. That was the first thing that really saved. I got to T2 at like 5:40 and had to take a bus to the next terminal. Finally got into T1 at like 6 and sprinted, yet again, to the security only to find the great gift from the Spainards. Even though the airport was packed, the security was so well organized that I made it through in less than 5 mins. The only loss of the morning was my corkscrew which got confinscated. I made it to the gate with time to grab something to eat... I stressed so much over nada. I made it back to a much colder Amsterdam and got home with some time to take a little nap and head off to my 1pm class.
I had a wonderful weekend with beautiful weather, fun times with my friends and got to see a great city! Here are some pictures :
Last weekend, I explored the wonderful city of Berlin. Me and four other girls took a 10hr night bus on Thursday night. For the price, it wasn't a bad option. Minus the obnoxious Dutch girls sitting behind us who proceeded to talk all and braid each other's hair through the entire night. The downside to having 99.9% of the Dutch population speak fluent English is that you can't talk about them without them knowing. So with a few hours of sleep under our belts, we got into Berlin at 8am and got started on the S-Baun to head to our hostel. The public transportation was amazing - cheap, efficient and very easy to use. We bought a 2-day pass and made it our best friend.
The first thing we decided to do was to check out the 3hr "free" walking tour. Best choice we could have made. There's an organization that hosts great free walking tours in most of the big metropolitan cities in Europe. The tour guides aren't paid, but depend on tips based on the quality of their tour. They mainly attract young student travelers (like us) so the guides gear the tour towards a younger crowd and it shows that they truly love what they do. We had an Irish guide named Finn who lead us through Berlin to see all the sights and told great little anecdotes. Over about 4hrs of walking, we saw everything - The Brendenberg gate, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out the window, the Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Hitler's bunker, some of the few still remaining Nazi buildings, a section of the still-standing Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and the ever popular big Europe cathedrals. I found it so interesting that 90% of Berlin was destroyed during WWII so most of what I was looking at was a complete reconstruction to look like the original. Amazing, cause I probably would have never been able to tell.
That night, we weren't too sure where to go out to. So after a few failed attempts, we found a big pub area and settled. As we were walking down the street, we noticed about 30 Scottish guys dressed up in Oompa Loompa costumes and a Willy Wonka walking into a bar. We obviously found this to be hilarious and asked them why they were dressed up so ridiculously. They were doing a "stag" party which I guess would be a UK-version of a bachelor party where it's common to pick a theme and go all out. All out as in a complete costume, orange faces, green wigs and white eyebrows. A "hen" party would be the same as bachelorette party. Needless to say, they provided us some free laughs because they were so ridiculous.
The next morning, we decided we'd spend the day in Oranienburg which is just outside Berlin to visit Sachsenhausen - one of the first concentration camps. Obviously, it wasn't the most fun day but it was really important to me to at least visit one camp to grasp an better understanding. Sachsenhausen was an all male concentration camp and mainly used for political prisoners in the mid 30s and later for all types of prisoners in the 40s. For me, it took an abstract event that I've read and learned about and made it very real through that experience. I'm really glad that we took the time to go out there.
On the second night, we decided to join a pub crawl put on by the same company that organized the free tour and the Sachsenhausen camp visit since we'd had such a great experience with them. For 12 euro, we definitely got a deal. Free beer, Jagermeister shots and entrance to a club which normally charges 10 euro at the door. Goedkoop!
To expedite the journey back on Sunday, my friend Lisa and I caught an early train back. 6hrs later and literally barrels of laughs about the weekend, we made it back to Amsterdam. I love coming "home", it's always so sunny and beautiful. As much as I love traveling right now, I absolutely love coming back to Amsterdam. I wouldn't have picked any other city to live and study in.
On Friday, I'm heading out to Barcelona for the weekend. So frickin' excited! It's supposed to be 65 and sunny, let's hope that stays true. Kara gave me a great list of places to see, eat and drink. Wish she was coming!
Berlin Wall
Brendenberg Gate
In front of Hitler's favorite Opera House
"Work will set you free" sign at Sachsenhaus
Memorial to all victims of the holocaust at the cremation building
