The Greatest Love of All

Amsterdam.  I arrived sometime after 8 in the evening I believe.  I meandered my way out of the train station and found the appropriate tram that would take me to the hostel.  I was immediately glad that I arrived at night because the city was lit up in all its glory with Christmas lights.  My 10-minute tram ride permitted me to see a good portion of the city and all the beautiful lights that adorned it! 

This building had my favorite Christmas lights of all
the buildings I saw!  They changed and moved!

When I arrived at the hostel I was greeted by the beautiful Katie Reshel.  We didn’t waste anytime before heading straight up to our room and catching up on the past 3 weeks of our lives (and there was a lot to catch up on, such as my trip back to America, and her tour of Europe).  After our splendid love chat we went to bed, as we were both tired from our busy days of traveling. 

The next day we made sure to get up in time to get the free hot breakfast that was included in the price of our stay at the hostel.  Afterwards, we made ourselves beautiful then took a day trip to Haarlem—a little city just outside of Amsterdam, approximately 20 minutes by train.  We decided to go to Haarlem because it is not a tourist town and we would be able to get a feel for what real Dutch life is like.  Well, I must say, getting there was quite the adventure.  We took the train, but proceeded to get off at the first train station for Haarlem instead of the second one.  This meant that we would have to walk what ended up being about 1.5-2 miles down the world’s windiest road until we actually got to Haarlem.  This ended up really enhancing the experience as it gave Katie and I lots of bonding time.  I serenaded Katie with Whitney Houston music for a good portion of this walk; she’s so fortunate, isn’t she?!  The other portion consisted of me threatening to go-all-South-Park-on-Katie’s-ass.  As most of you know Katie’s walking speed is the average person’s 50-yard dash speed.  Therefore, I proceeded to threaten to beat Katie with the bikes I found tied up on the sidewalk if she didn’t slow the stink down!  Katie’s so lucky to have such a great friend as me!  Hahaha, I’m joking.  Well, I’m not joking about this happening.  These threats were actually made, and for some of you this may sound like something that should be reported for physical abuse.  But trust me, the greatest sentiments of love were shared on this walk! 

By the time we actually got to the Haarlem city area we had to ask about 3 different people which direction to go to get to the city centre.  It was nuts, but none of the people we asked knew where we needed to go!  Well I guess one old lady did, but she was muttering away in Dutch and pointing and we just weren’t sure how trustworthy she was.  Some more wandering occurred and eventually we made it to the city center.  Phew!

Haarlem delighted us with its lovely market in the main square of the city center.  Katie and I had to walk around the whole market and look at all the booths before we could officially decide what we wanted to eat for lunch.  We bought some bread and delicious homemade pesto to dip the bread in.  Then for the main course the fish stand caught our fancy.  I got a fried piece of fish, while Katie chose the smoked salmon.  Both of our choices were absolutely delicious!  Then for desert we bought some fresh pineapple (while I don’t really understand how pineapple can really be “fresh” in the Netherlands in the middle of winter.  I mean, it’s clearly imported, and therefore it couldn’t have been picked recently…).  Regardless of the degree of freshness of said pineapple, it was truly phenomenal!  I ate so much pineapple that I think I have permanent acid damage in my mouth.  Seriously, my mouth hurt for the rest of the day!  After finishing our fish and while enjoying our pineapple, we enjoyed watching the Dutch carolers who had stationed themselves at the far end of the midnight.  It was so Christmas-y and cute with their little accents; I just loved it! 

By this point we were pretty darned cold, and what is the best solution to having to stand out in the cold?  Shopping!  Yes, we decided to check out the local Dutch stores and see what they were like in order to get of the cold for a bit.  After shopping resulted in no purchases except a .18 Euro cent water bottle, (YES!  A water bottle only cost .18 euro cents!  I know!  It’s incredible!  It blew my mind so much, that I just had to take a picture—this embarrassed a lot, so that was a plus!) we decided to sit down for a coffee and desert even though we weren’t the slightest bit hungry.  As everyone knows, this girl doesn’t drink coffee, so I got a hot chocolate and desert.  I chose a cherry tart type of desert with a creamy middle.  Nom nom nom!  Katie chose something with nuts and it was therefore gross, hahaha. 

After this last pit stop we decided to head back to Amsterdam.  This time we managed to take the correct train back, which was only a short distance walk from the city center.  Upon arrival back in Amsterdam we went to a little grocery store where we bought some salads, crepes, and nutella to have for dinner at the hostel.  After nomming down our dinner we got ourselves ready for a Dutch night on the town.  It was nearly midnight by the time we arrived at the club, which ended up being perfect timing.  At this point the line wasn’t terribly long, but there were still enough people inside that the dance floor wasn’t empty.

In this club, which is supposedly the biggest club in all of Amsterdam, there are two dance floors.  One dance floor is rockin’ your classic American pop songs that we all love so much.  The other floor was much larger and had a DJ who played a lot of techno/house music.  We started dancing on the U.S. music floor.  It was a lot of fun, but we wanted to explore the other floor as well.  There were tons of people on this floor, but the music was not good dancing music.  This meant that there were a lot of people who were just bouncing, or swaying back in forth—something that was very entertaining in and of itself.  There was one man who was quite the hoot.  He was a very good dancer and he knew it.  He came up to Katie and they had a spicy little dance off until he concluded that she was equally good.  This kid was all over the place and all over everyone, but he was very funny to watch.  After having had enough of that we went back up to the pop music dance floor where we shook our booties all night long!

After an intense night of dancing we decided to sleep in the next day.  Well, we woke up to go eat our free breakfast, and then went back to bed afterwards.  A couple more hours of snoozing did us some good.  The plans for the day included the infamous Anne Frank House.  This was quite the interesting experience.  It was absolutely fascinating and incredibly sad to stand in the very rooms where Anne and her family spent months in hiding.  There were a couple of spots in the museum where I almost broke into tears, such as at the end of the exhibit during a video interview with Anne’s father.  However, I managed to keep it together because I didn’t want to look like a freak being the only one in the whole place crying. 

To lift up our spirits after some sad WWII reminders some shopping was in order.  We wondered the streets of Amsterdam trying to see if anything tickled our fancy.  Katie was in the search of spicy birthday outfit, but nothing seemed to be just right.  After successfully browsing the entire shopping district, and walking around all of downtown Amsterdam we were ready to eat and relax a bit.  

While walking back to the hostel we stopped at an Italian restaurant, where we were the only patrons in the joint during the entire time we ate.  I had a pretty decent spaghetti Bolognese and Katie had a vegetarian pizza.  From there we went back to the hostel where we spent the rest of the night.  The weather was a poopy combination of rain, wind, and cold, so we were cool just chilling.  I did some reading in whichever of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books I was reading at that point (these books are amazing by the way!  Seriously, if you haven’t read them, you need to!  You need to read them ASAP!), and Katie did some blogging before we settled in to our bunk beds for the night.   

The next day was our last official day in Amsterdam.  We started the day at the Rijksmuseum, where we got our fill of Dutch art.  Even myself, being much less of an art fanatic than Miss Katie, enjoyed a lot of the cool things in this museum.  The first thing I noticed was the manner in which the walls were painted.  They all had a Victorian Era pattern painted on the wall in a glaze that was the same color as the rest of the wall.  This meant that the pattern was visible but only when looking at an angle.  I decided that there will be at least one room in my future home that will be painted in such a way.  Additionally, this museum not only housed art in the typical sense of paintings and sculptures, but it had an amazing collection of Delftware.  I thought all of these pieces were absolutely beautiful, and I particularly enjoyed a rather original planter—big surprise there, Emily likes something that has to do with flowers, woohoo! 

The next stop on the list was the infamous Van Gogh museum, but before we had some grumbling tummies to deal with.  We found this nice little restaurant to stop at that must be some kind of French people stomping grounds.  Seriously, we walked in and sat down at a table next to a French man and his son.  Then, once they left a different French couple sat on the other side of us.  (SIDE NOTE** This is just the beginning of a journey filled with French people.  Don’t get me wrong; I think this is absolutely awesome!  Everyone who knows me knows how much I love French.  But it was just surprising how many French people I saw in all of the countries I visited.  There were definitely more frenchies than any other nationality, and it seemed I heard more French speakers than I did English speakers.  But anyway…)

After a delicious meal we proceeded to the Van Gogh museum.  This museum was interesting; I thought the beginning of the museum was well done.  The first couple of rooms were about Van Gogh’s inspiration and his training as he grew up.  We could see his progression as an artist and how he developed his skills.  Throughout the rest of the museum, however, I found the explanations very repetitive and strangely vague.  For example, they mentioned that Van Gogh submitted himself to a psychiatric hospital but there was no explanation as to why.  They did even mention anything anywhere about him cutting his ear off!  I mean, I know those aren’t the best memories of Van Gogh, but he was a troubled artist.  If I’m gonna learn about an artist, I want to know all the nitty gritty details.  I don’t want to don’t want to be shown this edited story of ponies, rainbows, and unicorns!  I want the truth, dang it!  Regardless, it was still a cool museum, and it was pretty sweet to see a lot of famous pieces.  I even sneakily took this picture (which happens to be the cover image of an awesome David Sedaris book), despite not being allowed to. 

Visiting Amsterdam wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Red light district, so that is where we head next.  After a little questioning of where exactly is this “district,” we found it.  After a walk through one of the sketchy alleys (yes, it was sketchy even in the early evening), we had seen about enough.  We continued to walk about the downtown area for a while before we went to the nearby theatre to watch a movie.  We were nervous because we weren't sure if the film was going to be in English or even have English subtitles.  To our great fortune the movie, New Year's Eve, was in English, woooo!  The movie was in this awesome theatre that was all painted in a style that made me think of the 70's, but Katie liked it.  After the movie we were tired and decided to call it a day and head back to the hostel.   

The next morning Katie was up early, as she had to get to the airport to catch her flight home.  I joined her for breakfast before we said our goodbyes and she took off.  I decided to catch a couple more zzz’s before starting the day.  After I finally woke back up and got ready for the day, I walked to the downtown square where I bought myself a “hotdog,” for lunch.  I say “hotdog,” because this was not a hotdog like any I had ever had before.  It was rather soft and mushy, and not the best lunch purchase I could have made.  After finishing my mushdog and fending off pigeons, I continued walking.  Eventually, I reached my touristic destination, Museum our Lord in the Attic.  This is actually a catholic church that was built in the attic of a house during the Reformation.  It was interesting to see how they managed to built a rather large church in an attic, and learn about how people would secretly go there every week for mass.  Upon completion of my audioguide tour, I decided that I would do some more shopping. 

I wondered back to the shopping district in search for a winter scarf that would do a better job of keeping me warm than the one I was currently rockin’.  I successfully found a versatile black scarf that would do just the trick.  I also managed to buy a sweet ring at my new favorite store Bijou Brigitte before heading back the hostel to pick up my suitcase.  

Off to the train station I was.  I was taking my first night train to Prague, Czech Republic.  I had booked myself a bed in a two-bed sleeper cabin.  I was very lucky as the woman who was sharing the cabin with me was very nice and spoke English.  We spent about two hours chatting before we watched a movie and then went to bed.  With many stops throughout the night, I wouldn’t say I got my best nights sleep, but it was better than nothing.  I woke up in the morning thanks to the train attendant’s alarm 30 minutes before our arrival at Prague.  My cabin mate had already gotten off the train at a stop in Germany, and to my surprise she left me a Christmas chocolate bar!  That was a very friendly and fun surprise that really helped me start my day off on the right foot!