Heineken-Sponsored Friendship

Ah Amsterdam. Last weekend was my fourth time there, but each time I've been has been different. The first time I was there was with the National Student Leadership Conference "Diplomacy Abroad" program in July 2005. That trip was overall a good first time out of the country, but in comparison to other traveling I've done and how I'm able to travel now the directors of the program held our hands through the entire thing. Granted, because of some of the people that went on the program they pretty much had to, but that's a whole 'nother story.

The second time in Amsterdam was great! It was right after I graduated from high school, with my mom and sister. The only downside was that we didn't have enough time to explore the city and see and do everything we wanted to, especially considering all the World Cup excitement going. There were so many people there because of the World Cup and it was already tourist season, but we admittedly wanted to take part in the festivities. My third time in Amsterdam was fairly abysmal, considering I ended up going by myself and I got food poisoning during my stay.

I don't think this trip could've been much better, with the noted exception of a little mix-up on the tram on Saturday afternoon. Kellie, Caitie, Lauren and I left from Gatwick (which is so much farther away from Oxford than Heathrow) on Friday around 17:00 and got off the plane at Schipol Airport around 19:30. We ended up grabbing sandwiches in the train station because we had to break bills to get train tickets to coins. For the record, grocery store eating is probably the best way to eat cheaply while traveling. You can usually get a freshly made sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a soda for about 3 euro. So we got on the train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk station (pronounced "slow-ter-dyke", not "slaughter dick") and thankfully a guy sitting across from us noticed that we all looked a bit confused when the conductor said something in Dutch; he then explained that the train was going away from the city and if we wanted to end up remotely where we were supposed to that we should probably get off. We did, and quickly caught the bus to Hotel Slotania where we were expecting to be in a 10 person dorm room but upon arrival we discovered we had somehow scored our own four person room with a private bathroom! So needless to say we were pretty stoked, and got down to mapping out our weekend.

Saturday we got up and went to breakfast, which was included with our two-night stay for only 35 euro(!), which was really good for a complimentary breakfast. None of this continental crap; this place had cereals, hard boiled eggs, toast with a multitude of jams, cold cuts and cheese, juices--even an esspresso/cappucino machine! Our first stop on Saturday was the Amsterdam Tulip Museum:

This is the museum in its entirety, minus a little film room (read: three stools and a small projection screen) to show the process of tulip cultivation. There was a shop on the street level (this was below ground) that sold all kinds of beautiful tulips which Kellie took dozens of pictures of, which I can post if she doesn't. (My old camera that I gave her when I got my new one pretty much died completely on our first day there so we're splitting the pictures that we took on my camera) The guy running the place was extremely friendly and spoke great English--but then again pretty much all of the Dutch do--in addition to French, German, and Italian and we talked for a bit about how he used to live in Connecticut and started a sister museum there and about the CMRS program, studying abroad, etc. There was also a German woman who was visiting and started chatting with us during the cultivation film. Lauren wanted me to prove that I actually spoke German, so I did (suck it L-Ramz!)! She was pleasantly surprised and said I wasn't half bad. The consensus among us was that she was trying to chill with us and go to the Anne Frank House across the street since she was on her own...but we didn't want to wait in line and it's not part of the I amsterdam card.

From there we had to make a quick trip back to the hotel and afterwards set out to the Houseboat Museum, during which we had our tram snafu. I feel like something in our little guide books was misprinted, because the tram stop listed on there was NOT one that we passed, and we ended up on the east side of the city. So we ended up walking south and accidentally found the Foam film and photography musuem (which upon seeing I remembered I had been to with my mom and sister), but it was on our agenda for the day so no harm done! Luckily we got there right as a huge line started to form behind us. By the time we got out 30 minutes or so later, it was around corner. From there, we hopped across the stree--err, canal to the Museum van Loon, which was basically a swanky 17th century aristocratic house. After that we got another grocery store lunch and ate it on the canal. The weather on Saturday was also phenomenal; nice and sunny and a little warmer during the day.

From there we walked south to the Museumplein/Vondelpark and hit up the newly renovated Van Gogh Musuem, but not before frolicking a bit.



There was also a horrendous line when we walked around to the entrance because 1.) it was Saturday and 2.) an exhibit titled "Colours of the Night" had just opened. Luckily for us, I noticed that people with I amsterdam cards could queue in a separate lane and bypass everyone else! I had seen the main part of the museum before, but the exhibit was nice and tastely done, if I do say so myself. From there we hoofed it to the Heineken Brewery and barely made it in time for the last ticket sales. I had also been to the "Heineken Experience" as it's called before but I was by myself and food poisoned so I wasn't really in the mood to drink beer, as much as I love Heineken. It was also newly renovated with a couple nice new touches. This was probably the favorite activity of the weekend, and I really can't recommend it enough. I think it's one of those "must do" things in Amsterdam.


Afterwards we went to grab tickets for a canal cruise--which are SO much better at night--and walk around before we had to board. Again if you're in Amsterdam go on the Blue Boat tour at night. They have a person explaining the different parts of the city instead of a recording, and since it's at night you can see into peoples houses! After the cruise we went to the Leidseplein (the hip part of town with all the great ethnic restaurants) for a dinner out at an Argentinean restaurant.

In getting back to the hotel there was a little trip up which I will grudgingly mention because I'm sure someone else will if I don't. We took the tram from the Leidseplein back to the Centraal Station since it would be easier to navigate the trams back from there. I was pretty sure I had it figured out, but figured I'd hop on the tram and ask the ticket checker before I told everyone to get on the (potentially) wrong tram. After confirming that it was indeed the tram we wanted, I turned around to signal everyone else to get on, only to see the doors shutting as the tram pulled away. All I had to do was get off at the next stop and catch the tram back, but the looks of horror exchanged between us were pretty funny. We eventually crawled into bed around 01:30.

Sunday wasn't nearly as packed as Saturday, but we were all pretty tired (Saturday was more walking than I make it out to be) so I guess that's not so terrible. We got up, had breakfast, and checked out of the hotel. Our first stop was the Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt and Dutch history), but unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice as Saturday so we didn't hang out on the Museumplein for as long. We headed back to the Centraal Station via tram to take the second of the two canal cruises (Holland International) included in the I amsterdam card, which was pretty lackluster in comparison to the Blue Boat tour. I guess that assertion is a bit biased considering:

a.) it was better at night
b.) I was the only one of us that didn't fall asleep
c.) all the tour information came from a recording and
d.) the weather wasn't as nice

However, we did notice what was essentially a three-story parking garage for bikes which we all thought was pretty silly. After that we had another grocery store lunch in the Dam Square and went to the New Church (Neue Kerk...I think). We should've gone to the Old Church, which we were planning on bit it closed before we would've been able to get there, because the New Church isn't really a church anymore--at least from what I could gather. Inside the Church there was an art exhibit about the use of religion in modern art. I'm not really into modern art, so that kinda sucked, but I liked the inside of the Church or at least as much as I could see.

After that we swung by the hotel to grab Caitie's bag and off to the airport! Once we got there we polished off the rest of the food we had in an endeavor we lovingly refer to as "Snackfest '09". When we got to Gatwick we thought we'd missed the bus and would have to wait another hour for the next one which would've put us back in Oxford at 01:00 but luckily we caught it about 20 minutes after landing. We still didn't get to Oxford until midnight, but whatever!

This upcoming week is the second to last week of tutorials and essentially the same for my seminar since my 3-4,000 word essay is due on the 10th. So I'm in crunch mode to crank that paper out with tutorial essays at the same time buuuuut once I turn in my seminar paper on that Tuesday I've got a long weekend in Ireland with a bunch of people. Kellie and I have also booked our trips to southern Germany, Prague, and Spain as of this morning! I'm particularly excited about Spain; we get in to Barcelona at 14:00, have a day trip to Valencia planned for the next day to see the worlds biggest aquarium, another day trip to Figueres to see the Dali Museum, and then another day in Barcelona with our return flight leaving around 21:30 that day.

I'm gonna go make a sandwich and then head to pub quiz, and possibly call my mom afterwords! Toodlepip!