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Published: March 8th 2008
Ryanair...
That was our little plane. We got to walk out to it and climb some less-than-sturdy stairs to board. I loved it!The whole of spring break was a wonderful time. It was a much needed break from school work and I am so happy with the plans that I made, the people I traveled with, and the things that I experienced. All fantastic! It was nice having one night at home to do some laundry and sleep in my own bed (I'm pretty sure I mentioned that last time too...). Anyway, first thing Tuesday morning I was up and going again. Flying was ten times more ghetto for this trip... We went to the smaller airport in Rome, first of all. Secondly, we flew Ryanair, which is a low-budget airport that is super affordable for traveling students. BUT - they don't take you to your real destination. Instead of flying into Amsterdam, we flew into Eindhoven, which happens to be a two hours bus ride from Amsterdam. But, in spite of four hours of travel, we ended up in our hostel safe and sound.
The hostel was great, and it was fun because there were three of us and we opted for the 12-person dorm style room. We meet four kids from Texas and chatted with them, some guys from Brazil,
Bikes
Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world. It looks like they start them pretty young... and a kid from California, all of whom were so friendly. It was great to hear their travel stories. The first night we just hung out and strolled around the city. The Red Light district was certainly something to see. We learned that it is completely legal, and it's "safe" because Amsterdam had the insight to ban pimping. Lovely.
The next day we did the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank house. I LOVED the temporary exhibit (John Everett Millais) in the Van Gogh Museum. His work is so beautiful. He captures emotion so well; I could have looked at his paintings forever. The gift shop didn't have a postcard of my favorite painting, which bummed me out. I highly recommend going on Wikipedia and searching Millais. One of his more famous works is "Ophelia", and be sure to check out "The Huguenot" - my favorite one. The Anne Frank house was really interesting. It was very eerie to be in the exact rooms where such devastating history took place. It is one thing to read the book for a class, it is another thing all together to be learning her story in the very rooms she was
shut up in.
The rest of the week was very relaxed. We walked up and down canals, found Madame Tussauds and went through there, and were disappointed by the construction going on at the Heineken Experience. Alas, everything was still very enjoyable. This week back has been hard to re-adjust to, so I'm spending the rest of this rainy weekend doing catch-up reading. AND THEN - my family will be here next Thursday! I'm looking very forward to seeing them and showing them around the city that I love so much. We're spending that first weekend in Venice, and I've heard wonderful, beautiful things about it, so I'm looking very forward to that as well. I will certainly post pictures of that when we're back!
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