Am-ster-dam Tag 1

The morning we left for Amsterdam Adrian had had to spend some hours sleeping at my place before the busses started to run again. He shook me awake before he left saying set your alarm! Set your alarm! Don't forget! i was totally out of it in a wonderfully deep sleep but fortunately I set my alarm, crawled off the floor into my bed and went back to sleep for 4 more hours.

Good-freaking-thing i set that alarm. I was sleeping so well i could have slept for ages, even though it was 9 which is kind of a late morning for me. I didn't have to meet him till 10:30 but I got up early enough to shower and collect my things...

Not early enough. This time around I wasn't anything as close to prepared as when I went to Berlin. I took my large duffel bag and I was in such a rush I think I packed just about everything in sight, yes, including the kitchen sink and his/her handtowels. JK. I was late meeting Adrian by 20 minutes. I had the tickets and knew the train didn't leave until 11:10, Adrian, poor guy, thought it was at 11 and man why was the girl with his ticket late! I came around the corner grinning and patted him on the back. His eyes were huge. "Sorry, did i scare you?" hehe, kind of evil but i had no way of contacting him. No matter, i was there, we could go.

We boarded our train and had reserved spots. Turns out, we sat in a little cubby (yes, a lot like Harry Potter), with a married couple and a woman with a 2 year old. The ride was well enough, I was bored and slept. Then we changed trains. We had an hour layover there where I got coffee and some aspirin. So american of me. It was even from Starbucks! Our second train we were able to sit next to each other instead of across and not in a cubby. It was all going well until we sat a little too long at a stop and then the captain comes on saying something in German.... it doesn't sound good. suddenly EVERYONE starts deboarding. A friendly english speaker lets us in on the info: Technical problem. That train wasn't going to be going anywhere. She told us we could board the train to our right and take it to Amsterdam. We followed some other aboard, ticketless and unsure how far away we were. I picked out some American back packers and most of the people in our car were also displaced from the first train. We didn't know where to deboard..... but then suddenly we started seeing really colorful buildings and signs in Dutch. Then a HUGE colorful arena and then... Amsterdam Hauptbahnhof! We'd made it!!!!

Immediately after leaving the Bahnhof I knew I was in love. People were everywhere. Swarming. I also had no idea where I was going. Neither did Adrian, but as usual, I was the one with the map and he followed me wherever I thought i wanted to go... probably right over a bridge. Miraculously i got us there on the first try, as in we didn't get lost first. We went past 'the Dam' (Dutch are creative right? what should we call this dam? how about The Dam!) and right into the heart of hustling bustling Amsterdam.

The woman at our hotel was so wonderfully helpful and nice. she had piercings all over her face, big black earings and choppily cut red hair. Hello Amsterdam! We rented a lock for a locker and they gave us two key cards. Our room was two floors up and holicrapamolies those stairs are STEEP and the flight to the second floor CURVED. Rough. Our room was about the size of two McCollum dorm rooms and had 6 sets of bunk beds, lots of lockers and a table with chairs. Adrian and my bunk was right by the door. I took bottom... we've already discussed my feelings toward bunks.... at least these didn't squeak whatsoever. The ones in Berlin squeaked like the dickens if you looked at them wrong.

There was only one other person in the room when we stopped by. Matt from Florida. Nice guy with a big camera.

Adrian and I unloaded then hit the streets. It was maybe... 6 or 6:30? First we stopped in at the Irish Pub immediately below our hostel and got some dinner (25% off on everything for staying at the White Tulip!) We watched some soccer then pretty much spent the whole evening walking ALL OVER Amsterdam. The first thing we learned is that the city doesn't change no matter where you go. You know how most cities have parts? This part all looks alike, and that part looks all alike but the individual parts look different with different styles? Not in amsterdam. Its the same style houses in the same rows street after street. and it LITERALLY goes houses, houses, street, brook, street... start over with houses, again and again and again. And they are the prettiest most adorable houses you could ever imagine. EVER.

It was warm in Amsterdam and I was in a white tank top.... then it started to rain. Not coolio. We tryed to wait it out but it wasn't giving up so we booked it home. Even more not cool. Ah well, it works.

This time there were more people in our room. The first was a fit, dark complected guy who walked right up and gave us an entergetic Hi. I love how we introduced ourselves:

'I'm Vlad! From Boston'
'Megan, Kansas'
'Adrian, Mexico'

So we're from a city, a state and an entire country? Order of importance ;) stab! We laughed over it though. Vlad was crazy spunky and really friendly. He'd spent the last 6 months studying in Barcelona and was now out to see Europe. He was there with a German friend he had met in Barcelona, who was there meeting two guys he had met while he was studying in America. Where had he studied in America?

FREAKING LACROSSE KANSAS!!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?????

I didn't know the two guys from Lacrosse, they were 1 year younger but they LOOKED like i should know them, there was just something about them that looked sooooo familiar, but they looked nothing alike at all. One was tall and thin with a long face and blond hair (think Troy Fisher if you know him) and the other was shorter, pudgier and had dark hair. sooooo familiar looking it bugged me. I guess they just looked western kansas to the T.

After the rain we wandered around the city more in the late evening. Then put ourselves to bed for our first night in Amsterdam. :)

---

---