My trip to Amsterdam started the minute I left my European Union Integrative Seminar Class. After running back to my apartment to stuff everything into my backpack, I met everyone at the bus stop that would take us all to the Basel Airport for take off! During the hour and a half flight, the 8 of us (the 6 girls: me, Rachael, Annie, Liz, another Molly, and Sally with the 2 boy: Sterling and Carter) started to plan out our weekend. We decided that we would have a chill first night so that we could wake up early to get as much in before the four of us (Rachael, Sterling, Carter, and I) went to the concert, Energy The Network.
We landed at 6 o’clock, right on schedule. Since we had a relatively large group, we decided to stay at two separate hostels (the four people who weren’t going to the concert stayed in one hostel near Remembrant Platz and the four of us who decided on going to the concert stayed near the Red Light District). We made plans to meet up and then my group was off to take the train to Red Light District…oh man!
Before we new it, we eventually made it to Centraal Station. It didn’t take long before we had to ask two friendly women to show us the way to The Meeting Point, our hostel. Walking into the hostel, we were met by the hostel’s or the “hostile’s” white kitty cat and the four other guys that were staying in our room who were from Brazil and France. You could tell they already had gone to a few coffee shops, lol.
The four of us freshened up and went out to a nice Italian Restaurant to celebrate Rachael’s 20th Birthday with a nice bottle of red white before we met the other girls to hit up the Amsterdam bars. From The Pancake House (and no, they did not have the apple pancakes like Walker Brothers) to Surprise, us Americans ran the clubs! Before I went to bed, I had the famous fries at Manneken Pis.
At 8:45am we woke up to check out and go to the Heineken Experience. This was definitely very cool. My papa would surely appreciate it. There was a virtual video of how the beer is made and transported, tons of old Heineken posters, a horse stable, and plenty of cold beers to top it all off (even though they haven’t brewed beer there since 1987). After having a little buzz in the morning, we walked over to a coffeeshop before going to the Van Gogh Museum. (We thought this would help give the paintings a better effect.☺)
I was really impressed by the set up of the museum. (One floor was devoted to his inspirational artists, another to his painting, and a third floor about his life’s history.) I never realized how sad and lonely his life was… from his ear being cut off to being put into an asylum. Nevertheless, I loved all the paintings…some darker than others but all so detailed. We finished admiring Van Gogh and headed back to the hostel to rest up before the big concert. This was to be the climax of my trip!
The four of us that were brave enough… or maybe should I say crazy enough… got ready for the concert that started at 10. Taking the train and walking there, I could not help myself but jump and down. DJ Tiësto, the king of techno and sick beats. Never once did I think about sleeping during the whole eight hour rave. I would totally do it all over again it was so unbelievably good.
At 7am we left and went to go get a nice breakfast in our system, we needed a good meal after that. I had a chocolate pancake that tasted just like the Dutch pancakes I have back home: warm, flat, doughy and yummy with a nice cup of coffee to help me stay energized for the day. For the rest of the day, we met the other girls and went to the Tulip Museum since the Anne Frank House’s line was over a two hour wait. It was small, but smelled amazing and very pretty. We then walked to the Red Light District to go to Cannabis College to educate ourselves. On the way, I could not help but catch my eye on so many dirty products being sold from condoms to bongs to young horny prostitutes. You can’t avoid this when you go to the Red Light District though, that is for sure. At Cannabis College, I found out that coffeeshops are closing in numbers due to selling to minors and the poor maintenance plus other reasons (from 350 in 1995 to 241 today).
Finally, my trip was coming to an end. We decided to have a nice hearty lunch at a nice café called Poco Loco for healthy sandwiches. Afterwards, we headed to the train to take us back home to Freiburg. On the train, I could not help myself but to reflect how lucky I am to be able to do this, and how much I had accomplished while in Amsterdam. This weekend could not have been any better, definitely the perfect amount of time to enjoy it all. Yayyyy
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