Amstadam….remember: this is a marathon not a sprint

WARNING: THIS BLOG MAY BE HAZARDLY LONG…BUT IT NEEDED TO BE THAT WAY, IT WAS AMSTADAM. ENOUGH.SAID.               

So here’s the deal…Amsterdam was a doozy…Everything about it was bucking wild.  On the train ride back to Lugano I had some mixed thoughts and smells.  Let me try to create a vivid image

My hair smelt of a mixture of five different smokes…they only one I recognized was cigarette, but I could use my imagination to think of the others.  I hadn’t showered in 2 days and yes this is a major big deal for me.  I tried to look at the glass more half full for the fact that the grungy look I was pulling off made my image more Euro than ever, so I just let it fly.  I had a few bruises on my legs and arms and I can tell you (although some of you may have thought differently) that I didn’t get these from doing a double kickflip in front of the Heineken brewery, I fell around 6 a.m. one night on the sheeted ice that covered the city.  My feet were dying from the awesome new boots I purchased, but in the state of Amsterdam nothing really mattered, I feel like it was a city released.  So I figure I want to tell you everything that happened to me in Amsterdam because some of it was way too funny/wyld/crazy/super super swaheet!  So I guess the best place to start would be at the beginning, being that it began with not only with German border cops but also our train coming to a halting stop in Germany due to a “human accident”.

The Beginning

Please take a moment to imagine me sitting on a train in a section with just Morgan and myself.  Then imagine 3 huge German border officers screaming in German tongue at various people to open their bags and sticking their sticky fingers all over your things…so I was nervy when I saw this obviously.  Trying to act cool was just sat there and waited for our turn…ill give a little play by play (PBP) because its more fun that way…

• German boy #1 I’ll call him comes up to me and asks me if I smoke cigz…I say no.

• He then looks at me in a very confusing way.

• I look back.

• He asks again-I give the same answer.

• He then asks me if I smoke marijuana.

• I say no and at this point he’s making me very nervous.

• He stares at me again. Then turns to Morgan and asks her the same things in the same way.

• I almost wanted to admit that I smoked cigz so he would just leave me alone but I was scared.

• Marijuana? No.

• He moves on…border line patrol in German voices is scary…but I got through it like a champ.

Moving on—we were supposed to arrive in Amsterdam in the morning so I tried to go to bed but it was hard because it’s weird sleeping on trains. Somehow I doze off (kind of) and find myself to a halt on the train tracks somewhere not in Amsterdam…new PBP

• Speaker phone chimes on like the ones on a cruise line: “fewiof hioewh guirgsdji  dhwiehfow”

• Who knows….the glories of speaking English in Europe.

• We hear this one woman behind speaking in some sort of slurred/accented/kind of English, “Accident wit person takes long time to clean up”.

• WTF

• We get off of the train because of the pre-described human fatality and find ourselves on a German charter bus that not only gets lost and asks direction roughly 4 times, but also begins to drive on a 1-way road…when in Germany right?

[Side-note] I am listening to “Angels We Have Heard on High” by Aretha as I write this—go figure.

• So we finally get to the train station and I have decided two things: one this land is absolutely freezing and I didn’t pack enough warm clothes and two my trusty cowboy boots were leaking..awesome..but it was okay because I’ve learned the definition of “roughing it”

The Freezing Beautiful CrazyAss Land of Amsterdamn

Day One

• BOB’s: known as “sketchy”
  1. True to his word.
  2. The super sketchiness was due to the people in the “hangout” room.
  3. Our roommates (two guys from Spain and two from Finland) were also pretty sketchy.
  4. The shower that turned from scorching hot to ice cold randomly and was so dirty I couldn’t take a showerexcept for one time I while i was there–also pretty sketchy
• Juice boxes: a couple swigs kept us warm and allowed our explorations to begin with some type of warm feeling.
• Wok to wok: one of the best places to eat hands down.
• Psychedelic Herbs and Pills, Magic Truffles, etc: stores like this followed me throughout the city.
• Burger bar: first spotted on the first day i was there, little did i know it would save me life on the morning after night one.
• Coffeeshop Free1: my first coffeshop experience
• Heineken Brouwery: very cool.

Night One

1. Wild pregame at Bob’s: met another Australian guy= way too funny. Learned some new games.
2. noticed a sign that read: Funky people party…and i liked it.
3. Confusion when trying to get to this club called Paradiso.  Laura Me and a few of the guys were the only y ones who were adventurous to make it to the club…the others went somewhere else. We Met a guy who graduated from JMU and he showed us the way…and gave us a cab driver’s number (JMU kids love those cab drivers). We were thankful for him.
4. Me and Laura learned to tell people we were from Canada.
5. Take risks live it up: me and laura: to each their own…duo: livin your life: Red light district.
6. laura and i thought a a clever way to get us drinks…and it worked the whole night…fo free!
7. …6 a.m. rolled around and we made our way back…swagger of a college kid.

Day 2

1. Burger Bar was my and Laura’s hero.
2. Bought some rad new bootz.
3. Walked around in the freezing snow and loved it…kind of.
4.  Noticed amsterdams obsession with bicycles…if they can go green so can we!
5. Also noticed their crazy manicans…they made me laugh everytime I saw them and at the same time they scared me…they look like theyre glaring right at you..it waaaas weird.

weird…little freaky…

1. It was also weird seeing the people in Amsterdam…lots of young and crazy ones, and then just some weird ass ones…
2. Anne frank museum was amazing and im so glad I went to it.  One of my favorite times this far for sure!!

3. Pancake bakery also saved my life this day…so so good

[side note] this reminds me of the water in amsterdam…other people will tell you different, but this comes from someone who will drink tap water…the water there is wack! It tastes so incredibly thick like substantially thick hot chocolate…it was difficult for me to drink…this could have been a major problem (but it wasn’t)

1. Walking around town I noticed some pretty funny characters…my favorite scene was a man playing an instrument on my left hand side, trying to serenade the general public, while on my right side was a man laying amongst the pigeons trying to serenade a young boy and his father who were trying to feed the pigeons.  In the end the man got up and I still don’t really know what he was thinking/doing…probably not very much at all…amsterdamn does that to some people.
2. Bought a really cool turquoise shell ring
3. I am now aware that in Amsterdam you can get bulbs and send them to anywhere in the world…they were so proud of this! And if I could have managed to buy some for my mother you would be damn sure I would have <3

Night 2

1. Everyone was so infatuated with me and Laura’s description of Paradiso that we all decided to go rage there again…and this time believe it or not, meiss, was even better than the last!!!
2. Imagine walking into a crazy euro atmosphere with a ticket booth on your right and a coat check on your left—we learned the first night it is best to suck it up and check your coat…having around your arm=burden in the party galaxy. Anywho, so you walk through huge doors and see a never ending staircase to your right and as you turn your head to look in front you are blinded by a crazy site of Euros…dancing wildly and the techno bumpin…it was wonderful…
3. One of the most fun parts of the night was the break dancers…it was a girls world for break dancer badazzez.  I was feeling a little excited as I was watching all of this and almost jumped in at the action…actually it sort of happened…it was more like Laura trying to push me in thinking it was the funniest thing in the world, and me thinking I was the coolest person in the world, and the breakers telling me to come in, so I stepped in…
   1. And I realized who I was surrounded by
   2. And then I jumped out…to say my little Euro dignity that I have gained…
   3. It was the.best.night.ever…
   4. 5 a.m. rolled around and I guess it was time to say goodbye to Paradiso and a big old HELLO to McDonalds? Guilty as charged unfortunately…but at the time it was ridicolosz
   5. This would be the night I gained my battle wounds…it was not really cool…walking a lllooonng way in boots on a sheet of ice introduced my knee to the ground real quick…but I shook it off

Day 3: Final Destination

 Once again waking up and getting only 3 hours of sleep was nice because it was cold out.  I still didn’t shower…I couldn’t deal.  So, we made our way around town.  A part I hadn’t been to before.  There was a cheese shop and it was really goooood.  I sampled like everyone and it was neat.

Next I went to the Van Gough Museum and this is when someone caught me doing something against the rules and it was a little scary.

So we get to the museum and I hear someone talking in the backround being all like “don’t take pictures, it’s illegal” your doomed basically.

So I get to this one painting of Van’s and it not only was magnificent, but it was a picture of two companion ponies that reminded me of me and Morgan.  So, I tried to be as sneaky as ever and whipped out my camera, put it on no flash, and

1. Raised the camera still making sure to hide it at a hidden angle.
2. Pushed down on the button and jumped out of my pants upon hearing a frightening man’s voice in my ear.
3. Forbidden was all he said as my heart dropped into my stomach and I tried to play it really cool…dumb American style.

[side note]FYI, don’t break the rules in a famous Art Museum such as Van Gough, it can only lead to disappointment and butterflies…

I couldn’t deal anymore after this…we got Happy Wok for the 3^rd time this weekend and it was just as good, if not better than the last time.

We sat around in Bob’s and chilled for a little while then went to the train station and made it back safely.

End

Amsterdam was nothing like I have ever seen, experienced, tasted, smelled, fallen on ice, gotten in trouble, gotten crunked, had butterflies, danced with Euro breakers, witnessed before.  And I love it for that.  I will always remember it for not only a lot of my firsts but a lot of my lasts…

As I was leaving the great land of Amsta I heard it whisper to me: “Wish I could keep you much longer, I know you gotta go cas you got things to do” and sure enough Amsta was right. I’m off on my first crazy 10-day long break and the anticipation is killing me.

This week was examination week:

1. My Italian midterm: A

2. My Consumer Behavior Semester Project: TBA

3. My readiness to roam and live my life wildly: ASAP

My itinerary for the next 10ish days:

1. Paris: LOVE

2. Dublin: KEWL

3. London:HOLLA..ill be there for VDay WITH mah boyfriends!

4. I’m so excited. You only live once so I gotsta make the best of it!

Smile on me baby

FinLEY