I'm Behind...

So, Amsterdam has come and gone, just as Michelle has. But I'll start with Amsterdam:


Sean and I left Freiburg late Thursday night to take a direct night train to Amsterdam. Since we only had reclining seats, and sleeping on trains is uncomfortable in any way (even on the sleeper beds) we woke up fairly tired the next morning. Since we couldn't check-in at the hotel until two, we left our stuff in a locker at the station. The first thing we did was try to buy 72-hour transportation passes (the hourly transport passes were way handy and paid for themselves) and since I owed Sean money for the train tickets, I was going to buy his pass, so the sum was 31 euros. I put in a 20, and then it wouldn't let me put in a 10 euro bill, so I put in a 2 euro coin. It still wouldn't accept the money, so an employee came over and cancelled the transaction. Then it only gave me 2 euros back. When we tried to tell him what happened (that it basically stole 20 euros from me) he didn't seem that concerned and told me to talk to the main office. Since I live in the real world where people don't just believe that they owe you 20 euros that their machine ate, I knew it would be futile to a) even try and b) speak english because I don't know Dutch. So then I cried and Sean tried to make me feel better but TWENTY EUROS COME ON. I had also just been told by my mom not to just be spending money willy nilly so I felt even more guilty and texted her. She told me that "wasn't what she meant" but then told me I wasn't a spend-thrift so she really just made me feel worse. OH WELL. We spent the rest of the day wandering around with me in a semi-bad mood until we left to go to the hotel.

Getting to the hotel was another challenge. We never really got accurate directions, and I almost got trapped at an Amsterdam metro station (it wouldn't let me swipe out!) and then we finally got to our hotel, which while much cheaper than any other location we had found, was waaaay out near the airport. And then the guy tried to give us a different room that was different than the one promised on our reservation but being my father's daughter I glared him down and wasn't going to take that shit after the machine bested me that morning. By the time we got to our room, it was about 4:30 so we passed out and took a nap. Almost three hours later, I woke up panicking because it was pitch black outside already. Then I looked at the clock and realized it was only 7:20. So we went to eat and figured out what to do the next day.

The next morning we got a late start but whatcha gonna do. We got lunch, and stood in an incredibly long line to see the Van Gogh Museum. It moved fairly quickly so no biggie, and there we made our second wise money-saving purchase of the Museumkaart. For 20 year olds, it's 24 euro, valid for a year, and paid for itself in the two days we used it. SO WORTH IT if you are planning on going to 3+ museums in Amsterdam/the Netherlands in general. We saw some great art, ran into some fellow IES people also spending their weekend in Amsterdam, and then I got us lost. Terribly. I am the WORST. I felt guilty but of course Sean was nice so he didn't say anything about my terrible sense of direction when I am in an unfamiliar city. We got to the Anne Frank House (where our Museumkaart was also accepted!) and stood in line and got to be one of the last groups of people let in. We were a little rushed at the end, but I found the museum really moving. However, have I ever mentioned that I hate people? I really do. They are pretty terrible as a species. When at the house of a girl whose life knew more pain than most people today will ever experience, you FOLLOW THE RULES PUT FORTH BY THE CARETAKERS. You also shouldn't take your four-year-old who will act his age (rightly so) and not be able to understand what is going on. However, a four-year-old doesn't belong in the Anne Frank House in the first place, and should act his age somewhere else. Then dinner and back to the hotel for sleeps, etc.

The next morning, we had to pack up and check out, and once again left a little late but LIFE. Then Sean humored me and we went to the NEMO Museum on the reccommendation of our friend Mina, who is a genius and multiple other positive adjectives. It's a science museum for kids (read: AWESOME) and we got to explore a little bit. The best parts were the neuro part, the DNA/genetics, and the PUBERTY part. Also the sex exhibit which was only for older people? But I mean clearly any SCIENCE museum that uses the term "knob" in an exhibit as a euphemism for "penis" is most excellent. I will share stories by request. Then we left, I got us more lost (It was not my weekend, I guess? Not terrible, but not in my top 10) and we went to the Rijksmuseum. Which was also really cool. It's currently being remodeled but they've chosen really cool stuff to leave on exhibit. The first floor was pretty much all Dutch history, which is insanely interesting and makes me want to know a lot more. The second floor was Dutch masters, where I saw a painting of my boyfriend (google images Gerard Bicker for a visual, sadly he wasn't on a postcard) and I learned that I wasn't a huge fan of Rembrandt, but I still love Vermeer. Then I got three postcards (one was free!) and as soon as I paid the guy was like "GET THE FUCK OUT, THE MUSEUM IS CLOSED BITCHES" so once again we left the museum just in time. Then we went and waited for our train.

The train was fine, except when I finally got to sleep (for like two hours, my own fault) Sean was like "the train isn't stopping in Freiburg." This wouldn't be a problem except Freiburg was printed on our ticket, the sign inside the train, and along the OUTSIDE OF THE TRAIN. Apparently there was construction on the tracks and they didn't find out until too late so DeutscheBahn thought that the best thing to do was NOT TELL US. We got off at Basel and luckily got a free ticket back to Freiburg but really it just added an unnecessary hour to our trip home.

And that was Amsterdam. Sorry it was so long. I know Wing doesn't like that. But I promise my other posts will be shorter.