Amster to the dam, Holland

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So the past 3 days have been utter craziness and oh so much fun! The trip to Amsterdam (Feb 2-5) was awesome although quite long, longer even than my flight from L.A. to London but well worth it I think. Here are the awesome details of my trip with Broadgate Park to an amazing city in Holland.

Thursday: We left Broadgate at about 9:15pm, loaded everyone up on a double decker bus and were on our way. Only 10 minutes away and the bus made an amazing u-turn on a 2 lane British road....an amazing feat. It seemed like we were on the bus for forever with only two stops for the toilet and food. Our journey took us to the Port of Dover, and yes the cliffs really are white, to catch a ferry to Calais and then the drive continued through France and Belgium on into Holland. There was a lot of traffic in Belgium and there was snow so the landscape was a giant black and white photo, very bleak.

Friday: We arrived in Amsterdam at 12:30pm and were dropped off in front of the Heineken Brewery. Our hotel, the Hans Brinker, was a 10 min walk from the brewery and across a few canals. It wasn't too bad and it was awesome to see the city a bit more as we walked enmass to our hostel.
Sights: Heineken Brewery
Leslie, Erin, Taylor and I headed over to the Heineken Brewery after checking into the hostel. We paid 10 Euros/person which included 3 half pints of Heineken (of course), a self-guided tour of the ex-brewery and a free gift at the end (a half pint glass). We went on two simulation rides; one was to show what it felt like to be a bottle of Heineken...it was very random, and the other was to see what it was like to deliver Heineken through the streets of Amsterdam by horsedrawn cart, which apparently still happens today. There was an area also where you could take pics and email them to people so we took a few and emailed them home which was quite fun.
We stopped at a coffee shop after that for a bit and then headed back to the hostel for a bit. For dinner we went to Wok the Walk which is a really good noodle place that's fairly inexpensive and yummy. I got noodles with tofu and sweet and sour flavor. Afterwards we went to rest and then I headed out to the club night planned with Leslie and Erin. Taylor opted to not attend.
Dansen bij Jansen
This is apparently the premier student nightclub in Amsterdam and according to Lonely Planet is third best in Amsterdam. Well, it was alright but not really great. A lot of people left to go elsewhere and some enjoyed it the best they could.
After the club, which we left at around 12:30am, Leslie, Erin and I stopped at a Croissanterie for some pastries. It was crazy that this place was open so late but it was really good. Leslie had a chocolate croissant, Erin an almond marzipan-type pastry, and myself an apple turnover. They were all really delicious. And then it was time to sleep!

Saturday: I woke up and showered then ran down to a horrible free breakfast of basically toast. After breakfast the four of us (Leslie, Erin, Taylor and I) rented bikes at the place next door to the hostel, Mike's Bikes. It cost us 5 Euros for 4 hours which was awesome. We rode all over, heading north towards the Red Light District. On the way we spotted a cool open market/fair and wandered around there for a couple hours. I found a really cool photo album that was made in Bali by families living in the rainforest. The bike riding was really fun although a bit dangerous at times. After shopping we rode over to the Anne Frank House but we didn't go in because we didn't have time (bummer). From what other people have told me about it, there is no furniture in it because the Nazis confiscated it and Anne's father refused for it to be refurnished. Instead there is a computer simulation of what it would have looked like. The bookcase is still there and it's a bit eerie inside. It would have been really cool to go in and look around, maybe the next time I'm in the area. After photographing the outside of the house, in which there was a bit of a mixup as to what building it was so the pictures might be wrong, we returned the bikes and went to the hostel to grab a few more layers and maybe a rain coat.
We then split into two groups since Leslie and Erin had made plans with some other friends. So Taylor and I headed out to look around. We were trying to get to the red light district to look around but got turned around and ended up in the opposite direction, in the museum district. So we went into the museum shop and found a few interesting things. Nearby was a skating rink set up which was pretty cool. It was about the only thing in the middle of this giant square.
Finally we made our way to the red light district. This area apparently is pretty famous so we had to at least see it. It's quite an interesting place with crazy stuff happening everywhere. After wandering around there for a while, we wandered back towards the hostel and took a bunch of night pics on the way. I was hungry so we grabbed some food and sat at the edge of one of the many canals and ate dinner. Taylor had bought some gouda so we munched on that a bit and fed the swan a bunch too. This crazy swan flew at Taylor as she was sitting down next to the canal but eventually became her friend as she kept feeding it. It was quite entertaining! We also did a bit of souvenir shopping. I saw a shirt that I really liked and almost bought (I probably should have but oh well) that said 'Gone Dutch' on it. I thought it was cool but alas it will remain in Amsterdam.
By 8:30pm we made it back to the hostel, mainly because I was a human popsicle (it was freezing outside) and couldn't feel my toes. Taylor wanted to take more pics so she left and I stayed to get some feeling back into my body. That was basically the end of the day.

Sunday: We woke up and packed up our stuff to be out by 10am. The four of us also made it to another awful free breakfast. All of Broadgate headed out at 11am for the bus and we began our return trip to England. Once again there were only a couple stops for toilet/food, but this time we stopped at particular places. In Belgium we stopped at The Factory for Belgian Chocolates and cigarettes, and in France we stopped at a place where you can buy cheap wine and such. We continued on and caught the ferry once again from Calais to Dover. This time they checked our passports....which meant that they just had to look at all the Brits and okay them but they had to take the four of ours to stamp. It took a little while especially since Taylor's visa wasn't stamped upon entry to England and so she had to fill out a card and they stamped it for her in Calais. After the ferry we drove the 4.5 hours to Nottingham from Dover and made it in at 11:30pm.

Our trip was awesome and soo much fun. It was also quite tiring. After I got back I headed over to a Fling gathering to say goodbye to Jeffro and to watch the superbowl while enjoying some homemade chili. And because of the time difference the game ended at around 3am and I made it home and into my bed at 3:30am. It's a good thing that I don't have class on Mondays this semester!! :)

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