amsterdam, netherlands - city of bikes and canals

I'm officially done with my first week of grad school! This week was filled with errands, running between HR, financial aid, IT and many other places. I met a lot of people, drank a lot of coffee (I attribute this to 8am classes), and attended classes. Overall, I'm enjoying my experiences here in grad school. After being here for 7 months now, I do have more knowledge (in terms of school-wise logistical things) than the newcomers of Spring 2012. While I am expecting certain things, I am realistically hopeful and know my own limits.

Anyways, back to my travel reposts. This time, it's Amsterdam (October 24-26, 2010)! After leaving the museum of comics in Brussels, I headed to the Euroline bus station to find my travel buddy and wait for the bus. The entire ride took about 4 hours, in which I spent sleeping and enjoying the view as we passed by Rotterdam and many other places. I spent about the half the ride mind-drooling over the places I saw and wanted to visit.

On our way to Amsterdam!

Castle

After arriving at the bus station, which was right next to a metro station (Central Station), we thought we'd take the metro. We bought the ticket, which was quite expensive; around 2,10 euros, but there was no place to punch the tickets! So we just waltzed right into the metro. Turns out you can't get out of the metro station if you don't have your ticket punched. Luckily for us, there was a metro police who took pity on us and let us out and told us to stamp the tickets next time. Our hostel was the Shelter City Christian Hostel located not too far from the Central station, but also next to the Red and Green light district. I think our room had probably 16 beds. Guys and Girls dorms are separated in this hostel. After dropping our stuff down, we started to wander around the city enjoying the canals. For one, there were a lot of people, and second, it was slightly chilly. Nonetheless it was exciting to see Amsterdam for the first time. I ended up buying a 5 euro Amsterdam umbrella because it was sturdy than the one I used in Brussels. We also decided to splurge a bit for dinner and spent about 25 euros per person for a 3 course meal. It was quite delicious.

Ferris wheel! Apparently they were having a fair of some sort

Canals

Salmon salad

Chicken

side of potatoes

Our hostel actually has bible study every night around 23h, something I was all for. After taking a shower, I headed over to the cafeteria ready to meet some people. It was really nice meeting people from all over the world, but English was the language that everyone could connect with.

The next day, I was rudely awakened by a girl sleeping in the next bed snoring loud enough to wake the dead. Our beds were so close I could have probably stretched out my arm and punched her. Not being able to get back to sleep, I got ready around 7h30 and went to breakfast. My travel buddy soon joined. I sat with a bunch of people who were also studying abroad and travelling and others. Actually one girl told me that she thought Copenhagen is in Bucarest. I was like....... what? After breakfast, I set out with a guy I met at breakfast and went to the Van Gogh museum together. My travel buddy went to the torture museum. The Van Gogh museum was amazing and totally worth the 14 euros I spent.

Getting close to the artist

The museum covers Van Gogh's life, his paintings, sketches and many other art work. It also gives some works of art that influenced his work or were influenced by his work.

Just like what they have in Lyon!

Walking to the Anne Frank Museum

Along the canals

BIKES: reminds me of Davis

After the Van Gogh museum, in which I had spent a good 3 hours there, I made my way to the Anne Frank museum (bascially the place where she and her family were hidden during World War II) to meet up my buddy. There was actually a line there, but luckily we didn't wait too long, probably around 30 minutes. I can't remember how much we had paid, either 4,50 euros or 9 euros. You can check the price here. Photos are not allowed in the house, but it was still kind of strange to see this house where she was hidden after reading her journal. The entire family must have lived in fear every day of being discovered. Everything was kept the way it was. We basically got a tour of the entire place from bottom to the attic.

Anne Frank's statue

After seeing this museum, we decided see Amsterdam on bike and rented them at 7 euros (I think). I missed bike riding after being able to ride my bike for the 3 years in Davis. It was a beautiful day to bike around. We saw a small market for clothes, jewelry and other random things. I bought a pair of owl earrings.

Towards the sea

Crossing the bridge by bike

My travel buddy unsteadily riding her bike :)

John, an amazing Hungarian guy who kicked butt at chess and absolutely hilarious

Red light district

The funny thing was that even though we were next to the red light district, we didn't really notice much until the last night that we were there. Trying to head back to the hostel, we took a different alley and saw a lot of red. Oh gosh.

The last day we were in Amsterdam, we checked out of the hostel and went to the Rijksmuseum, which featured the Dutch Golden Era. In the afternoon, we met up someone I had contacted through couchsurfing.org.

Remember that metro ticket we bought but didn't stamp? Well it came into great use as we had to get to the airport in the later afternoon. So we took the tram which you use the same ticket for and made our way to the airport to catch a flight to Prague.

So all in all, great food, great people, beautiful city. I'd definitely go back there again. but can only dream of it now.