Vacance: the First Leg: Amsterdam

We arrived on time, 11h15, and I learned my first word of Néerlandais: Uitgang = sortie = exit. Yay! Canals run through the city and some buildings are right on the water, as in open a window on one side, look straight down and see canal. The whole country is actually below sea level if I remember correctly, and hence the name 'Holland' ~ 'hollow land'. It was very strange being in a place where I didn't understand any of the signs or native language. But thankfully owing to the ridiculous amounts of Anglophones that visit, almost everyone speaks English. I heard a lot of English, though sometimes it took a long time to realize that it was actually English coming from an Irishman’s mouth...so I think we might be a little screwed when we get to Ireland.

Most of the city seems really dark, I think it might be because the streets are kind of small, and the buildings are kind of high, dark-colored and right on top of each other. Although the streets were dark, the open places (French style) were pretty, and so were some of the big city buildings. Our hostel was right in the red-light district, so it was close to everything, but not on a really crazy street with the actual red lights on the buildings. We met a group of Australian students who are also studying in France, but in Lille (up north).

Our first day we just walked around a lot. I tried falafel for the first time. It wasn't bad, but I think I'm set with it for at least a month. The pigeons in Amsterdam are incredibly fat, and they reminded me of my cat Mindy with their fat, round bodies and their little heads. After walking around some more we stopped at a coffee shop and people-watched for a while. I've got to say, the people in Amsterdam are a step-down from France. They're a little better with the smell, but in the facial area... not so good. Although there are ton of tourists.

That evening we went to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. They had a live-actor section with a Pirates-like theme and Dee screamed so loud at one point. It was a lot of fun. Later that night we took a walk around the real red-light district. We walked down one street, then crossed a canal and walked back up the other side. Then we got adventurous and decided to take in a sex-show. It wasn't hard core or anything, but it was pretty hilarious, especially when the SM and the 'Caribbean dancer' woman found victims in the audience.

The next day, Sunday, we walked around some more until we decided to figure out the tram to get to some museums a little ways away. We managed to get tickets, get on the right line, and get off near our first museum... the Van Gogh Museum. It was four floors big: the bottom was an exhibit on Barcelona, the top showed mainly his influences. I took a picture of a Monet, and then two minutes later some one else got yelled at for taking a picture. So I have only one illegal photo, and it's not even a Van Gogh. Only about one and a half floors were actually Van Gogh, but it was still nice.

Our next stop of the day was the Anne Frank House. Not recommended for people with walking problems, or those who have difficulties with stairs, or vertigo. I was on the smallest and steepest stairs in my life, and there were four floors. It was really interesting though. You can go in all of the rooms, and they explain each one. They also show what it looked like when they lived there, and had artifacts and quotes and stuff like ID cards and newspapers they read. It's not as depressing as we thought it would be. They also had two videos to watch, one of Miep, and another of a woman that knew Anne both before and at the concentration camp. It was very much worth the 7,50€ ticket.

Monday Kay and her friend were supposed to arrive, so Dee and I ate breakfast and stuff and waited until they did. More walking around, resting at a coffeshop, then a pizza place (the third time at that place for Dee and I), and a bar. We also went to the Sex Museum, which was funny. By 10pm we were all back at the hotel and ready for bed.

Tuesday morning we all had to pack up and check out. We had a wonderful breakfast at this place next door. Dee has some sandwich, Kay had the best omelette I've ever tasted, and her friend had a pancake (read: crepe) with bananas and chocolate sauce. I, my friends, had the best damn breakfast: pancake (plate-sized crepe), with creamy ice cream, a big mound of slagroom (whipped cream) and chocolate sauce. Oh god I was in heaven. And on top of finishing mine, I helped Kay with hers!

We managed to find and get on our train just fine. It was four hours long, but arrived on time. Around 8h30 we arrived in Deutschland, and that's all folks.