CIEE and the Universidad de Alicante gave us a pretty hefty Spring Break: April 21-May 2. After a little debate about where to go, my friend Allison and I ended up deciding on not jetsetting around Europe, but instead spending five days in Amsterdam. Another friend, Kirsten, also joined us, in addition to Kirsten's Spanish
novio Borja (at the last minute).
On April 21, we flew out of Alicante into Eindhoven. Ryanair doesn't fly direct to Amsterdam, so we save quite a bit of money flying into Eindhoven. From the airport, we took a 20 minute bus to Eindhoven's train station, and from there a one hour and 20 minute train right to Amsterdam Centraal.
First order of business was to figure out where our hotel was. Allison, Kirsten and I decided on a hotel instead of a hostel, because the prices were comparable and we wanted more security for our luggage, since we were staying five nights. We eventually located the hotel which was conveniently located about 100 feet from Dam Square, near the train station, and pretty close to the Red Light District. After we got some pizza for an early dinner, we walked around to see what all the coffeeshop hype was about. Coffeeshops are places in Amsterdam that can legally sell (and where one can legally smoke) marijuana. Later that evening, I met up with one of my old friends from my soccer team! We arranged to meet the next day for a walking tour of the city. (Photo: Dam Square)
We met Halsell the next day (Friday) and walked toward the other big part of Amsterdam that includes all of the museums, the brewery, the parks, and the shopping. We told Halsell the things we wanted to see and do, and she pointed us in the right direction for everything. She had to get back and do some schoolwork, but it was certainly nice to have more direction. The first thing we decided to do was tour the Heineken Brewery. For 15 euros, you get to tour the "experience" (which is a lot like Chocolate World in Hershey, except better, because it's beer) and you receive 2.5 pints of beer. Pretty cool. On the way home, we swung by Dampkring, a famous Amsterdam coffeeshop and where they filmed a clip from Ocean's 12!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3DmtUJ3MWs&feature=related Ocean's 12 clip from Dampkring!
On Saturday, we were up bright and early and on our way to the Anne Frank House. The line was pretty long, but it was good that we went early, because it only got longer throughout the day. The AFH was very interesting and moving. It's one thing to go to a museum of something, but this was actually where everything was taking place when she wrote her journal. We wandered through the front of the house and the annex and read lots of quotes from her journal in addition to extra information about the people that were helping her family and things they did inside the house.
Afterward, we headed to Albert Heijn (Amsterdam's Giant or Mercadona), bought picnic lunches, and ate them at Vondelpark. Vondelpark is a huge, beautiful park right near all of Amsterdam's museums where people sit, eat, hang out, play music, whatever. I forgot to mention the flawless weather we had all five days we were there, which is apparently unheard of in Amsterdam. The beautiful weather made for a really nice picnic and a really nice trip in general. Allison and I made a short detour after our picnic to find Douwe Egbert's coffee for her mom. The concierge at the hotel sent us on a wild goose chase to find only the Douwe Egbert's equivalent to Starbuck's, even though the coffee grounds (which she was looking for) could be found in any Albert Heijn. But the coffee was worth the walk!...and we got to see another very pretty part of Amsterdam.
Later in the evening, Borja suggested to go to the bars at Rembrandtplein, which was suggested to him by a friend. It turned out to be THE Amsterdam night spot, with lots of young people from all over hanging out there. We had a few drinks, but we were all pretty exhausted (and broke - drinks were pricey) and headed home.
Sunday of our spring break was EASTER! Allison and I woke up and went to a Dutch mass near the Anne Frank House. Dutch is a Germanic language like English, so the intonations are very similar and mass was very easy to follow. I mean, I couldn't understand anything, but I knew exactly where in the mass we were. After mass, we met up with Kirsten and Borja and met up with our tour bus to the Keukenhof to see the tulips. The Keukenhof has huge gardens with lots of beautiful flowers and it is only open during April and May, so we really lucked out. We walked around, took lots of pictures, relaxed, and then came back to Amsterdam. On the walk back to the hotel, we scoped out a nice Italian place to have dinner. And after that, we found a really cool outdoor coffeeshop in between the restaurant and our hotel. It was a very springy, appropriate way to celebrate Easter! :)
We decided to sleep in a little bit on Monday. The only thing on the agenda was to make it to the Van Gogh museum. On our way there, we stopped at a café, where we waited forever to be served but the food was very good. It was the first time I felt like I was eating authentic, Dutch food. It was just a sandwich, but probably not a sandwich you'd find in the US. We made our way to Van Gogh, which was a very cool museum. Short, sweet, and to the point. It was four floors and they were each very easy to navigate, unlike the Prado in Spain. That evening, we found one last coffeeshop to check out, and ended up finding an awesome seat right by the open window; it was a nice way to end out our trip.
And that was pretty much it for our Netherlandish escapades. We woke up at the crack of dawn the next day, walked to the station, rode the train, found the bus, got back to the Airport, and headed back home to Alicante. Amsterdam was by far my favorite destination of the semester!
