Amsterdam Dash!!

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Feb. 11
So today is Sunday…..we got back from Amsterdam this morning. I feel like from Friday night to this morning was just one really long day…..possibly the longest day ever! I had class Friday morning then Monica and I went into town to get some snacks from the grocery store. We were going to be in the bus for about 9 hours each way…… some junk food was going to make that a little bit more enjoyable. Monica, Whitney, Alison, Lee and I went and meet the rest of the people going on the trip at Falmer bar around 9 and then the bus left around ten. We rode for a few hours to Dover where we caught the ferry to Calais. We actually had to wait in Dover for about 2 hours before the ferry left. Once the ferry docked we got back on the bus for about 6 more hours to get all the way into Amsterdam. Once we got there the group leaders took us all to a main square that was the meeting point and then they turned us loose. The first thing the five of us did was get breakfast…..lots of it. We went to a pancake house…..where I found out that there are multiple meanings to the word pancake. This was not a cracker barrel pancake….it was more like a crepe and nearly a foot and half wide circle. There was about a trillion things you could choose to put on them too --- anything from nuts to salmon. I just got a plain one and put butter and chocolate spread on it along with some powdered sugar. Then I rolled it up and cut little circle bits off. It was absolutely delicious….if I do say so myself. I also discovered that a glass of fresh orange juice costs more than just about anything over here. I ordered a glass of orange juice and it cost almost as much as my food…..crazy! After breakfast we set off to the Anne Frank house……we figured we should get the sad part over with first. When we got there though the line was out the door and around the block……Whitney decided that it was worth it to her to wait in line but the rest of us didn’t really want to start things off with a line so we went to the Heineken Brewery Museum and made plans to meet Whitney afterwards. It ended up being a good idea --- there wasn’t a line at all and it was something that could take as little or as much time as you wanted it to…..it was really interesting too. They set it up so you actually walked into the old tanks and machinery where they used to brew…… the actual brewery moved a while ago b/c it was in the middle of town and there wasn’t room to make the building any bigger. After walking all through the brewery tanks we got to look at displays about the advertising and global campaign stuff. There were these little space age pod looking things that you could climb in and watch commercials from like the last 40 years. So we watched the ones from the years we were born and things like that. At the end of the tour you get a complimentary drink…..Heineken of course. I got a post card and Alison got some nice mugs for her dad. Then on the way out we actually got a free gift --- a bottle opener that looks like….wait for it…..a bottle! Ingenious!! We got a text message for Whitney saying she was done so we headed back to get her. When we got to the main square and found Whitney it turned out that she had been done for like and hour and the phones just weren’t working for her to get in touch with us. We all felt SO terrible! She told us not to worry about it b/c clearly the phones weren’t working for us to know she was done and the line was crazy long the last time we saw here. Apparently that line moved fast! Once we had everyone together we set off exploring. We didn’t really know where we were going or how to get there and the roads in Amsterdam are quite complicated so from that point on we did A LOT of wandering. On top of not knowing our way around the weather got pretty bad so we would only stay outside to look for something for about 30 min before we would go into a shop or restaurant or coffee house or something and stay there for an hour or so at a time. We did eventually decide that we wanted to see the Red Light District…..scandalous I know! We thought the same thing too which is why it took us forever to find it b/c we didn’t really want to stop and ask for directions to somewhere that is known for hookers. It was silly of us to be worried though b/c when we finally got there we realized just how touristy a place it really was. Granted we were there in the early evening and if we had come back after midnight or so it would have been into “business mode” and therefore a place we shouldn’t be…….but when we were actually there it was almost all other tourists. Apparently going to see the Red Light District is the thing to do. Of course we didn’t go into anything…but we definitely walked up and down the streets. After a little while though we got uncomfortable in the rain and decided to find some where to sit down so we found a bar ….. outside the red light district- don’t worry….. and sat there for a while. By the time we warmed back up and had a drink it was about time for us to head back to the main square b/c we wanted to stop and get some food along the way. Now that we weren’t going anywhere strange we had no problem stopping and asking for directions so we actually found our way back very quickly…..should’ve tried that early. We got some food and then got back on the bus. The bus ride home is sort of a blur b/c I slept for as much of it as possible. I even fell back asleep on the ferry while we were on that. We got back to the campus at about 9:30 Sunday morning and we all came in and went straight to sleep. Except for Alison who went to London to see her friend ----- I dunno how she was still awake. I slept for about 7 hours and then got up and did some homework before falling back asleep. Overall Amsterdam is a very neat city….I think I would like a little more time there the next trip but it really is pretty.
What I miss: bacon, eggs, grits, and biscuits - that’s what I want to eat when I get home……I hope you are paying attention mom and dad 
What I love: the canals in Amsterdam

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