Are you getting somewhere?/Or did you get lost in AMSTERDAM!!!!

Anyone recognize that song? It's Guster and has been stuck in my head all weekend...

FRIDAY: 4 countries in one day!

So Friday morning I woke up at 5:15 to get to Waterloo station by 7:15, but I didn't leave early enough. I got really flustered going to Waterloo Station and got on the wrong tube, but luckily I made it to the group on time! There were about 40 of us and several people I recognized from CAPA but didn't know personally.

We all got on a coach and drove to Dover, where we got on a board ferry to Calais, France. The ferry was really cool... it was such a big boat that we actually drove our bus onto the bottom deck (along with a lot of other cars). A group from the tour wandered up to the 9th floor (yes it had 9 floors!) of the ferry and found a deck. I don't think we were actually supposed to be up there, as the deck was roped off, but oh well. From there, we could see the white cliffs of Dover, which are huge and beautiful! It was at this point that I first tried to use my camera, but alas, it didn't work. It kept telling to turn it back on and off again, but I couldn't. Unfortunately this meant that I got absolutely zero photos from the entire trip... so this post is going to be really long, so I can remember everything.

Anyway, on the ferry I exchanged about 30 pounds for Euros (though in the end I spent about twice that) and watched the water from a window seat inside. Once we got to Calais, we went through no customs or border patrol whatsoever, which I was a little surprised by. From Calais we drove the coach to Amsterdam, stopping by a roadside chocolate shop on the way, where I bought some amazing Belgian orange slices dipped in dark chocolate.

Finally, around 7 p.m., we got to the hotel in Amsterdam and I met my roommate, Alyssa. After putting down our bags and settling into our rooms, we left for a quick tour of the area of Amsterdam around Central Station (the closest tube station to our hotel). It was around 8:30 p.m. when the tour was over, and I was starving, so Alyssa, her friend Elizabeth, and Lena, a girl I know from CAPA, wandered around looking for a restaurant. While we were wandering, we accidentally found ourselves in the red light district! It was pretty crazy to see all the prostitutes in windows literally surrounded by red lights. Luckily we didn't get offered drugs before we got out of there (I read in a guidebook that happens a lot, and the drugs are often rat poison or something ineffective). Anyway, we ended up at this great Asian fusion restaurant. I got a sampling of different kinds of sushi for about 6 Euro, which I thought was pretty good, and a Heineken... it IS Amsterdam after all! After dinner, we took the tube back to the hotel, since it had been an extremelyyyy long day.

SATURDAY: Edam, Volendam, Museums, Etc...

On Saturday morning, all of us got back on the coach and drove to Edam, which took about 30 minutes. Both Edam and Volendam are small towns also in the Netherlands, and our tour guide said he wanted to take us there to give us a feel of life outside the big city. Edam is known for its cheese, so I wandered into several little shops and tried free samples (but was too cheap to actually buy any...) Both towns are cute because they have canals, brick roads instead of paved, and tiny streets with different-colored houses. Also, Edam has the largest 3-room church in Europe. For some reason it has a Jewish star on the front even though it's I believe Catholic... On the way back from Volendam, we went into an amazing cheese shop and factory. A lady dressed in traditional clothing (clogs, hat, etc.) gave us a rundown on how the cheese is made. Then, we got to sample at least 15 different kinds of cheese, including the factory's herb-filled specialty.

After leaving Volendam, our coach driver dropped us off in downtown Amsterdam. I met a girl named Sarah and we went site-seeing together. The main thing I wanted to see was the Anne Frank museum, which is built around the annex where the Franks and others hid during the Holocaust. It was incredible to see original telegrams, shopping lists, and even Anne's famous red diary. We also walked around in the actual rooms where they stayed. The pictures of movie stars and advertisements that Anne pasted in the walls of her room are still there, which was really cool.

After the Anne Frank museum, we went to the Van Gogh museum, which was on the other side of town. We got there at 5:00 and only had an hour until closing, but we were still able to see all the Van Gogh paintings, including "Skull with burning cigarette," "Wheatfield with crows," "The potato-eaters," and "Blossoming almond tree." We also saw one in the "Sunflowers" series.

Then Sarah and I headed into Leidseplein, which we soon discovered is not actually pronounced "Led Zeppelin..." oops. We didn't really stay in the main square but did wander around the area and went to the Bulldog, a fun chain bar & coffee shop. Around 7:30 p.m., we found a really cute Italian restaurant where I ordered some delicious pesto pasta for dinner (amazingly only 5 Euros! haha sorry I like sharing my great deals). I also got a martini, which was random as I've never had one and am still not really sure what it is. It tasted okay. Sarah got a huge banana split and a local beer, also huge. After that we sort of wandered down random streets and met some crazy people. Around midnight we started looking for a ride home, and were lucky enough to find a tram to Central Station! They're supposed to stop running at midnight so we were cutting it close.

I'm glad I went to Amsterdam and I had a ton of fun, but I probably won't go back anytime soon. One of the things I like most about the city are all the canals, gorgeous swans, and boats. It was also weird but cool to see stores that actually sell marijuana seeds. However, there are two things I dislike about Amsterdam: one, it's dirty, and two, it's creepy. There are some creepy men in London, but the men in Amsterdam are just plain nasty, and I was not a fan of that. The good news is that coming back from Amsterdam, I felt like I was coming home to London, in a sense.

SUNDAY: Bruges!!!

We left Amsterdam for Bruges at 8:30, which was pretty brutal, but I did sleep on the bus. It took about 3 hours to drive to Bruges, which I was super excited about because I love the movie "In Bruges." We spent about 2 hours in the city. The way our coach driver explained what it's like was by saying that nearly all the buildings were built around the 13th century, so it feels like walking into a time warp. The only tourist attraction we saw was a Madonna and Child sculputre by Michelangelo, which was located in a big church in town. It was cool to see, especially considering like 95% of Michelangelo's work is located in Italy. I wanted to go up to the tower in the main square, but it cost 8 Euros, so I passed and looked at it from the outside. I did, however, buy a Belgian waffle, a local beer, and some more chocolate! The chocolate is going to be a gift, but the waffle & beer were absolutely delicious.

We spent the rest of today in a coach, and I got back home around 10! And now I really do have to go to bed because I have to get up early for work tomorrow...

Cheers! (I would write my sign-off in Dutch, but it is seriously the most confusing language ever. It sounds like German only not, and about half the words in every sentence are the same as the English words. So weird.)

Rebecca