Well, if you’re reading this on Saturday (March 5th) I’m currently in the countryside of England in a little “market town” called Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire. I’m on a HOST program visit with another girl, but I’m not sure where she’s from yet.
My latest adventure (besides my current one) was to Amsterdam! We took the coach there, obviously, and it was scheduled to leave at 7pm London time and arrive at 7:45am Amsterdam time (1 hour ahead). When we got on the bus, some guy came on and asked if he could sit next to me. I wasn’t going to say no, so I let him. He turned out to be very creepy. Since it was such an early bus, I couldn’t fall asleep right away. The guy sitting next to me kept talking to me; he started talking about traveling, which is my favorite topic, so we talked for a while and I was fine with that. We took the ferry again and when we were parked, we went upstairs and were walking around when the creep guy tried to talk to me again.
When it was time to board the bus again, I put my iPod in, so that the guy knew I was sleeping, and fell asleep. Luckily, I was in and out of sleep the rest of the time. Around 5:30am we were coming to a stop; Mary and Kate asked me if we were there and I said no, we still had about 2 hours left. I happened to look out at the station sign and it read “Amsterdam Amstel”. I was so confused because I knew that was the name of the station but I couldn’t figure out why we were there so early. We were all still half asleep so we got out, got our luggage, and wandered into the station. I was a bit nervous at first because every sign was in Dutch and none of them were translated into English. I wandered over to the maps to look but had no clue what I was looking for. I pulled out the hostel paper and we tried to find the street name on the map but it was impossible; the street names looked like letters jumbled together. The three of us sat down on a bench and just stared at the floor for a while. We didn’t know what to do since it was so early and we were seriously still partly asleep. All of a sudden, the creepy guy came up to me and asked me for my number; I told him that I didn’t have a phone (and then I realized he saw me on it earlier). He then proceeded to ask me for my yahoo, g-mail, or facebook name. I told him I had a facebook but that my profile was private so he couldn’t find me. About 10 minutes later, he came back over and told us to give the woman he was with the name and directions to our hostel so she could tell us how to get there. I ignored him and told him we were fine; there was no way I was giving him that information. We must have been so out of it; no one would go up to the security guards to ask them how to get to the hostel and I was apparently reading the directions wrong that the hostel has online. After almost 2 hours of sitting there, I realized that the directions told us exactly how to get to the hostel. We saw people just walking into the open doors to get onto the metro, so we did the same without buying a ticket (oops). When we got to the central station, we realized that there were actually security guards at this one and the doors weren’t open. We were initially like “Oh no!” but then we saw a door open in the very corner so we went through that one. It was such an easy walk to the hostel from the central station! We were walking down the street and were already getting whiffs of marijuana. And it wasn’t even 8am! I loved our hostel so much; the atmosphere of the place was so chill. When we checked in, they told us that we could go into our rooms at 10:30am and that we could “smoke anything legal in Amsterdam” in the smoke room but not anywhere else in the hostel. There was also free breakfast downstairs that we could have; I love the word free!
The first place we wanted to go was to the I Amsterdam sign. Of course we walked everywhere; it was so pretty. The canals are breathtaking and the architecture there is different from anything I’ve seen so far. I loved that the main transportation is bicycles and that they always have the right of way. We didn’t rent a bike though, it was way too rainy for us!
We finally ended up at the sign and there were so many people there!
We went to a Dutch pancake restaurant for lunch and sat upstairs; the steps were small and steep and we were talking about how I almost fell. It was funny because one of the workers overheard us and said something along the lines of “try working here and having to go up them all the time! It’s alright though, just get high before you go up them and you’ll be fine! It helps me when I’m working!” I loved how he was just so open about it and it was completely normal. It was really rainy, so we went back to the hostel and rested for about an hour. We didn’t want to feel completely lazy, so we went outside on an adventure. One thing to keep in mind, Caf�’s are where you get coffee and pastries, Coffee shops is where you buy marijuana.
I wanted to at least go into a coffee shop while we were there because it’s a part of Amsterdam’s culture. Wow is that a different way of life! When you walk in, they card you immediately because you have to be 18 to even be in there. In the one we went into, there was a separate place to smoke; they aren’t all like that, some of them you can smoke wherever. There was munchy food and drinks being sold and a menu of marijuana. The list was about 25 names long and in parenthesis next to the name was the type of high you’d get from that specific type. It was so bizarre to see but actually really interesting to think about. Mainly because Amsterdam has it right; they regulate the legalization of Marijuana by making it illegal to purchase under the age of 18 and making it illegal to smoke outside in public. Since this is the case, there aren’t any marijuana drug lords and there aren’t any concerns that you’ll be buying something that is either laced or isn’t worth what you paid. Everyone in Amsterdam is so chill and friendly!
The friends I went with wanted to go to a museum and I wasn’t feeling it, so I stayed behind to wander around alone. I went in and out of all the souvenir shops comparing prices and items they had and just walked around the area close to our hostel. I was in such shock because in the shops, there were more accessories for drugs and less for actual souvenirs; they literally had signs in the glass displays that said “cocaine accessories”. That was a bit excessive to me. I wanted to take a picture of them, but I was afraid the store owners wouldn’t like that. Later that evening, we went to go get some food quick. We didn’t really want anything big because we were paying 15 euros for a pub crawl. For the first hour of the pub crawl, we met in a bar and it was an hour of all you can drink shots. The shots were awful; it was vodka splashed with some cranberry juice for coloring. The worst part was that they didn’t supply anything to chase it with. It was actually a lot of fun and it was one of the first times I’ve really gone out since I’ve been here. We went to 5 other bars and a club. I met so many people; one of the guys was from Scotland and I talked to him for a while about traveling, I met a guy from Ireland that told me he was going to show me all around Dublin, I met a guy from London that I said reminded me of Russell Brand, and I met a girl that was on our pub crawl that is living in London in Shortidge. We talked for a while and she was telling me all about her love for traveling and everywhere she’s been and how much she loves living in London. All in all, it was a good night.
The next morning, they asked us to be checked out by 10:30am. We had our free breakfast and then went off on our merry way. We didn’t realize it, but it was incredibly windy and rainy outside. There was a caf� where we all sat for a while because it was too windy to walk around with our umbrellas. The rest of the day, we walked in and out of the souvenir shops and caf�s. Later in the afternoon, we decided to walk towards the Red Light District.
We were walking through it, and all I can say is that it is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. I later learned that it is a legitamte job and they have a union, pensions, and benefits! It started to get incredibly windy again, so we went into the museum we were clostest to, which happened to be named “The Erotic museum”. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. I really didn’t enjoy the erotic art, but it was not raining in there so I was happier than I was outside.
We eventually made it back to the hostel to get our bags and then headed to the metro station. I left the hostel and then realized (when we were almost at the metro station) that I left my passport and tickets at the desk of the hostel in the safe. I was so lucky I remembered them before we got to the coach station! We actually paid for the metro this time and took the train to the Amstel Station. We were told that our bus was going to be boarding at 10pm so around 9:50, we went outside in the rain. About 10:15 this bus pulls into the station, almost tips over going around a turn, and then pulls in the spot we were standing next to. There was a girl in front of me that asked the bus driver where the bus was going the bus driver freaked out and asked why we were standing in the rain because he didn’t even have his paperwork yet. He was so rude and I wasn’t looking forward to him. When he came back, he told us that we have to put our luggage on first and then we could board. He closed all the doors and then made us give him out suitcases in order of size called by him. Of course my bag was a backpack, so he freaked when I asked if I could put my bag in the little corner. He ended up taking it and shoving this huge suitcase on top of it. When we got on, he told us that he’s very mean if we get on his bad side and if we don’t keep the coach clean to remember that “he’s the one controlling the gas”. I happened to be putting my coat in the overhead compartment when he asked me to sit down. I said that I was just putting my coat up and he goes “I know, I’m watching you; I like watching you”. I was terrified! Fortunately, I slept most of the way and didn’t have a creepy man sitting with me. I woke up and realized we were in London. As we were pulling into the station, we were redirected to a different spot and we were told that we had to go through more security but they didn’t tell us why. We ended up having to get our passports checked again and our luggage was scanned through 3 different scanners. There were also bomb dogs there that had to sniff every single suitcase. We had to stand outside in the freezing cold for about an hour and it wasn’t enjoyable in the least. It wasn’t the most pleasant ending to our weekend, but I was happy to be back home. Even though our weekend wasn’t filled with adventure and seeing lots of sights, it was the perfect trip to end February with because it was so relaxing and not demanding at all.
Tuesday, I left for class a few hours later than usual because my tutorial was cancelled. As usual, I took the tube to get there. I got 2 stops away from my stop and then we weren’t moving from the platform. I started to get antsy after we were sitting there for 5 minutes when someone came over the loud speaker. I thought they were going to say they were trying to space out the trains (they do that a lot; usually around 10am). Instead, the woman said that there was “a person on the track” at Arnos Grove and all trains were instructed to stay put until further notice. When they say that, it means that someone threw themselves in front of the train to commit suicide. From what I’ve heard, it’s not that uncommon here. It’s really sad to think about, but when you’re on a 45 minute commute to school, the last thing you want is for someone to mess that up. Oddly enough, people’s reactions to this were basically that whoever did this to kill themselves should be a little less selfish and think about all of the commutes they’re messing up. I feel like you can’t help but think that in the moment. I sat there for about 10 more minutes and then decided to just try and find a bus to class. I ended up being about 25 minutes late, but the professor totally understood.
This past Wednesday, my Historic London lecture was at the Imperial War Museum. I didn’t think I’d like it but I ended up loving it so much that I want to go back. As I sat down that night to do my first bit of homework since I’ve been here, the fire alarm went off! I thought it was just being tested, but it didn’t stop. It’s such a loud and horrible noise so I followed everyone outside. Apparently, there actually was a small fire in one of the kitchens. It was pretty comical because the fire department came and we were watching the fire fighters standing at the elevator doors for a few minutes waiting for one to get them. Is it just me, or is it Fire 101 that says you have to take the stairs? It was a very funny thing to watch.
It’s hard for me to believe that it’s already March; I feel like my time here is dwindling down and I really don’t want it to. I’ve learned so many things about myself since being here and there’s no way I’ll be returning home the same person that left.
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
