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Published: February 17th 2009
In honor of Valentine's Day, President's Day, and most importantly our three day weekend, Rachel, Michael and I went to Amsterdam this weekend. Since I've been here, this is the first place we've visited that I hadn't actually been to before. So, as you can imagine, I was incredibly excited.
The trip, unfortunately, did not start off too well. We left Saturday morning and as Rachel and I walked halfway to the metro stop to the train station, she realized she had forgotten our tickets to some of the museums we had already purchased. We had to run back to the apartment and then try to flag down a cab to get to the station in time. On the way there, I realized I didn't have our confirmation number for our train tickets. Not good. We ended up getting it out of my email off Rachel's Blackberry (thank God for that) and safely made it to our train on time. As our train left the station we feared that would be an indication of how the rest of the trip would go but decided to leave all of that back in Brussels and that we were going to have an
Big Wooden Shoe
Can't get away from those wooden shoes in the Netherlands...at least not in the touristy areas.amazing time in Amsterdam no matter what.
After arriving in Amsterdam, it only took us about 10 minutes to find our hostel, The Flying Pig. We had heard from everyone that if you go to Amsterdam you have to stay at The Flying Pig and as soon as we walked in we could tell why. It was full of people, the receptionists were really cool, and the atmosphere was just incredible. We instantly knew we were going to like staying there. And we absolutely did.
We put our stuff up in our room and decided to go check out the town. Our hostel was only a couple of blocks away from the Royal Palace and the "New Church" in a very large square. The square was full of people and street artists. After frolicking through a flock of pigeons, Michael tried to give 40 cents to a Merman/ Triton looking guy who looked at him and said "1 euro" as if Michael had offended him by only giving him 40 cents. Michael didn't really like that.
From the square we decided to take a canal tour of the city. What better way to see Amsterdam than by
On the train to Amsterdam
Note the wind generators in the background. So energy efficient those Dutch! a guided tour in a boat? We couldn't think of any. We saw lots of really beautiful canals and got sort of oriented to the city center. Our next stop for the day was the Heineken Factory. This was rather interesting as we got to see how Heineken was made and even got to "be the beer" in a ride simulating how it is made. The free Heinekens included weren't bad either. After that we decided to walk through the infamous Red Light District. Strange place that Red Light District. I couldn't really wrap my head around it.
Next we went out for a very nice Valentine's Day dinner. If you are ever in Amsterdam, I would highly recommend looking up Dulac. It was an amazing, I believe, Italian place. We had incredible appetizer, pasta, and desert. Luckily, we got there early enough and didn't have any problem getting a seat. We were very excited with our little Valentine's Day outing. So excited that we didn't even end up going out afterwards. When we were done eating we just went back to our hostel. Now, the truth of the matter is that our hostel had a bar, so there
The Flying Pig
Our crazy hostel. really was no need for us to go back out. We met some really cool people there and spent the evening just hanging out and having a few drinks at the hostel.
The next day, however politically incorrect, we termed our "Jewish Day". We started off by visiting the Jewish Historical Museum. Next, we visited the Anne Frank House. Oddly enough, we visited on the same day as Miep Giep's (one of the people who helped to hide the family) 100th birthday. If you've never been, it's hard to describe what it was like to be there. It's so simple, yet so moving. Just to be walking through the rooms and imagine the things that went through each of their minds, the fear they must have felt, and to stand in the place where Anne wrote her diary was incredibly moving and touching.
Since we didn't have to work on Monday, we got to stay Sunday night as well, yet once again, we didn't leave our hostel. I stayed up until the very early hours of the morning just talking to one of the people I met there. Much more fun than just going out.
On our
Michael and a bunch of pigeons
I asked Michael if he would run through the big group of pigeons and he gladly accepted my challenge. final day in Amsterdam we decided to hit up a couple more museums. First we went to the Rijks Museum, which is dedicated to the Dutch Golden Age. The incredible building with a few incredible treasures was less than expected. It was really cool to get to see some of the treasures from the height of the Dutch empire, but there was not as much there as we had expected. This was absolutely not the case for the next place we visited though.
Our final museum was the Van Gogh Museum. This museum is absolutely amazing! I fell in love. It's so well put together and shows so many of Van Gogh's works and the works of many of the artists he worked very closely with. It was also a great testament to his life. I think this may be my new favorite art museum. I loved it.
Since it was President's Day, for our final stop in Amsterdam we decided to pay tribute to all of the great Presidents of the U.S. past and present by eating at McDonalds in honor of their great efforts to spread American culture worldwide and their overtures in globalization. We said
The New Church
This gorgeous church was just a couple blocks from our hostel. Note the crazy Merman/ Triton in front of it. 'here's to you President Obama' while devouring chicken nuggets and Mcflurries.
All in all, it was an incredible weekend. We got to relax and see a city that none of us had ever been to before. We got to visit a few museums and see part of a culture that is so different from our own. We were rather sad though when we had to get on the train to come back to Brussels, but really, there are much worse places to come back to.
This trip and my weekend trip to Paris have really made me realize how lucky I am to have the opportunity I have right now (even more than I already thought). I truly love being here and I love that a weekend trip to a historic city is always only a train ride away. It's so hard for me to believe I've been here for over a month already and only have 2 more left to go. As I was walking back from a luncheon discussion today about the Lisbon Treaty with my boss, I decided it's going to be really hard for me to leave here. Luckily though, I do have 2
Amsterdam's Skinny Bridge
One of the most famous in the city. more months.
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Chelsea
non-member comment
I love it!!
I'm so jealous you got to spend Valentines Day in Amsterdam!! Your trip sounds so amazing! So we're the ladies in the Red Light District decked out in V-day gear (V for Valentines, not venereal)? That would be hilarious, red hearts in the window? I'm so glad to see that you're enjoying your trip, the pictures are quite telling!